Welcome
The Society was formed in 1985 to save from demolition London's first public library in Great Smith Street (above right). Since then we have kept a watchful eye on developments in this area, which includes the World Heritage Site encompassing the Abbey and Houses of Parliament. We respond on behalf of residents and businesses to local planning applications. Our 350+ members enjoy local visits & talks of historic and other interest, social events and an archive of books, prints, plans and ephemera.
Visits & Special 35th Anniversary Celebrations 2020
We are not running our visits and events programme for the foreseeable future and dates have been moved to 2021 and our Archives are closed. In the interim we continue our local history research and respond to all planning applications. We are putting on new virtual visits too using Zoom.
Look out for our 36th Anniversary Party next year rather than the 35th we had planned!
Follow us on Twitter @ThorneyIslandSo and Instagram #thethorneyislandsociety
Stay well
Sue Ball
Chair
Caring for the Poor and Vulnerable on Thorney Island, Guided Walk
We were very much looking forward to Michael Marriott's walk though Thorney Island in July but it has now been postponed until Saturday 3rd July 2021. Bookings can be made through Eventbrite. See link and programme below.
Stephen Myers
Collecting fine bookbindings Zoom Talk - June 2020
Our first Zoom event was hosted by member, Anthony Davis who gave us an excellent talk on collecting fine books and bindings. He shared some of his most treasured books, including his first purchase as a schoolboy, a Prayer Book, printed in 1630. Amongst his other gems, what is believed to be King Charles II's own copy of the story of his royal escape from the parliamentary army and Elizabeth Cromwell's book of the life of Archbishop Usher, likely to have belonged to her husband Oliver Cromwell, judging by its modest binding.
Other books included the Chapel Royal's very large hand written musical manuscript of anthems (1685) likely to have been handled by John Blow and Henry Purcell whilst they worked at the Chapel Royal. Its poor condition being an indication of its hard working past. Anthony led us through the London streets of 1667 to Pall Mall where William Nott's bookshop was world renowned for its fine bindings. He described the craft of hand bookbinding and the tools still used today, heated for embossing gold leaf and sometimes silver onto the finest goatskin.
Anthony is a retired lawyer. He is a Council member of the Bibliographical Society and writes and talks about fine bindings and book collecting. He has served as a trustee of the Society of Antiquaries and he is also a qualified tour guide specialising in book related walks in central London and led a walk for our Society last year. His talk in conjunction with our visit to Shepherds Bindery in Rochester Row has been rescheduled for 15th June 2021. Many thanks to Anthony for this special talk and tour.
Collecting fine bookbindings Talk - June 2020
Bearskins, Bayonets and Bravery - New Guards Museum podcast
Victoria Tower Gardens - London Parks & Gardens Trust Fundraising for Judicial Review
The campaign to save Victoria Tower Gardens continues. One of our partners, the London Parks and Gardens Trust (LPGT), are taking the Government to court through a Judicial Review. This is to establish whether it is legal for the Housing Minister to decide on a planning application which was made by his own Ministry (MHCLG).
The head of that Ministry, Robert Jenrick, has made statements saying that the Government are 'implacably' committed to building the National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria Tower Gardens. LPGT think that the decision is bound to be biased unless there is institutional separation between the applicant and the decision maker. Needless to say this court action will be expensive - LPGT are raising funds through https://www.
Victoria Tower Gardens - London Parks & Gardens Trust Fundraising for Judicial Review
Save Victoria Tower Gardens - Planning Inquiry Postponed
UPDATE! APRIL 2020
The Planning Inspector has decided to postpone the UK Holocaust Memorial Planning Inquiry until further notice (most likely Autumn 2020). The Inspector thought it was difficult to envisage how this inquiry could be effectively handled digitally, without the risk of prejudicing anyone's chance to fully engage. The Inspector does not think it is appropriate for this appeal to be part of the initial trials of electronic inquiries as urged by The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
A case of this importance requires a reliable process, close scrutiny and full public access. In the meantime the SVTG campaign continues to prepare the necessary Witness Statements and Proof of Evidence.
Save Victoria Tower Gardens - Planning Inquiry Postponed
Two Africans with strong links to Thorney Island escaped slavery to become role models in London over 250 years ago
At a time when Black Lives Matter is sweeping the world, it is instructive to look back over 250 years at two black men who really mattered in a way that is so relevant today. Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780) and Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) - both sometime parishioners of St Margaret’s Church next to Westminster Abbey on Thorney Island, emerged from a background of slavery to achieve big literary success while also being active in the anti-slavery movement, though Sancho's involvement was quieter than Equiano's. At a time of widespread illiteracy in England, they educated themselves to produce beautifully written best selling books which were subscribed to by a roll-call of the aristocracy, including the Royal family and in Sancho’s case the Prime Minister (Lord North) too. For working class white people to have achieved such success would have been remarkable at the time. For it to happen to two men who had emerged from slavery is astonishing. At the time they were hailed as examples of what black people could do if given the chance - A lesson that still hasn’t been learned today.
Sancho had a wide range of influential friends including Charles Fox the radical Whig MP, David Garrick the celebrated actor and Laurence Sterne, author of one of the most influential novels of the time and Tristram Shandy whom he urged to join the battle against slavery. They, and many others, came to visit Sancho at his grocery shop in King Charles Street off Whitehall which he had purchased with the help of the enlightened Duke of Montagu’s family. He thus fulfilled the property qualification necessary for voting and became the first black person in England to vote. He also had his portrait painted by Gainsborough, wrote music (which can be savoured on YouTube), poetry and plays. Sancho was married at St Margaret’s where his children were baptised.
Paterson Joseph whose distinguished career includes roles from the National Theatre to the recent hit Noughts & Crosses, not to mention Scrooge in the Old Vic’s A Christmas Carol last year, also performs in a play he has written about the life of Sancho which was rapturously received at the Wilton Music Hall in 2018.
Equiano’s story “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”, is a riveting account of being kidnapped with his sister from his own home by African traders (in today’s Ghana) and sold to numerous white owners of slave ships, which he was forced to work on, including a voyage in search of the Northwest Passage. He finally purchased his freedom and settled in London to become a leading advocate of the anti-slavery movement. One of his biggest surprises on coming to London was to find this country didn’t trade in people (internally, that is), a practice he was so used to in Africa. He became a devout Christian and was baptised in St Margaret’s Church and later attended the Westminster Chapel (presumably Christchurch Chapel, an outpost of St Margaret’s off Victoria Street where Sancho is buried with his wife Ann, whose business acumen helped with the posthumous publication of his letters).
Equiano has a plaque on the wall inside St Margaret’s and a brief history of Sancho will be on the information boards when Westminster Council has finished the current redevelopment of Christchurch Gardens. However, efforts to persuade the Council to name the new short street (going through the massive complex of 20-storey residential and office blocks opposite Christchurch Gardens) Ignatius Sancho Place or just Sancho Place has so far proved fruitless. It is to be called Orchard Place which is bizarre as there is already an Abbey Orchard Street - a more relevant reference to the original monks’ orchard which was situated there - on the other side of Victoria Street. Sancho and Equiano would not have been surprised.
The Society held a talk on Ignatius Sancho in February in our Archives CLICK HERE to read further.
Two Africans who escaped slave backgrounds to become role models in England over 250 years ago
Visits & Events 2020-2021
Our visits and events are open to all unless specified and we hope non-members will enjoy our programme and consider joining the Society.
Read further details on our Events/Visits page and to book please go to our Eventbrite page CLICK HERE.
If you do not wish to book online, please contact us and we will be happy to make your booking (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by post to 10 Old Pye Street, London SW1P 2DG) A full description of visits is on our Events/Visits page.
2020
Summer Date to be confirmed The History of St James's Park through Trees - Greg Packman, former Royal Parks arboriculturist, talk via Zoom
Tues 10th November 2020, 6.30pm The Society’s 34th AGM and Talk, Blue Orchid Rochester Hotel, Vincent Square (Arrangements are being made to facilitate)
SADLY CANCELLED Mon 7th December 2020, 6.30pm T@35 Celebrations - Christmas Party, Carols & Raffle Draw, Blue Orchid Wellington Hotel, (entrance on Vincent Square) SW1P 2PA - £14pp
2021
Sat 3rd April 2021, 2pm Visit to St Stephen’s Church, Rochester Row, SW1P 1LE - £15 members/ £20 non members
Wed 5th May 2021 (tbc) 12.30pm Westminster/Kingsway College, Vincent Square, SW1P 2PD Lunch in The Vincent Rooms Restaurant and tour - £20 members/ £25 non members
Tues 1st June 2021, 3pm Visit to RUSI (Royal United Services Institute), 61 Whitehall, SW1A 2ET £15 members / £20 non members (This visit is likely to be POSTPONED TO 2022 due to building refurbishment)
Tues 15th June 2021 10.15am Tour of Shepherd’s Bindery and Talk on Antiquarian Books by Anthony Davis, 76 Rochester Row, SW1P 1JU - £15 MEMBERS ONLY
(No date yet) T@36 Celebrations – Anniversary Summer Party, Benugo, St James's Park
Sat 3rd July 2021, 2pm ‘Caring for the Poor & Vulnerable on Thorney Island’ - A local walk by Michael Marriott. Meet at Broad Sanctuary, SW1P 3EE - £15 members/ £20 non members
Tuesday 13th July 2021, 2pm (tbc) The IncrEDIBLE RHS Collections Tour, Lindley Library, 80 Vincent Square, SW1P 2PE - £15 members /£20 non members
Saturday 25th September 2021, 2pm T@35 ‘In Celebration of Thorney Island’ - A new local walk by Victor Keegan. Meet at our Archives, 10 Old Pye Street, SW1P 2DG –
£15 members/ £20 non members
POSTPONED FROM 2020. THE DATE HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED YET FOR THIS EVENT: 12noon The Guards Museum and Guards Band Recital in Guards Chapel. MEMBERS ONLY. Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, SW1E 6HQ - Free of Charge.
POSTPONED FROM 2020. THE DATE HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED YET FOR THIS EVENT: T@36 Celebrations - Cocktails and Canapés at The Cinnamon Club, Old Westminster Library, 30-32 Great Smith Street, SW1P 3BU