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

As you would expect, The Thorney Island Society has re-scheduled all visits and events for the next three months and most likely until September or beyond.

We will run the postponed programme as soon as it is safe and practicable to do so.

In the meantime we shall send out more e-newsletters to our members with links to interesting articles. Please follow us on Twitter @ThorneyIslandSo and Instagram #thethorneyislandsociety and continue to look at the website for local history news and Thorney Tales.

When we are though all this we shall be having a 36th Anniversary Birthday Party rather than the 35th we planned!

Stay well
Sue Ball
Chair

 

 

Thorney Tales (19) Revd James Palmer and Palmer's Village

Workshop by Jens Jakobsen, Master Florist at the Blewcoat School - March 2020

A lucky group of members spent a few hours in the 300 year old schoolroom of the Blewcoat School and treated to a workshop by Jens Jakobsen.  Jens has created a beautiful garden around the building which has become a local treasure.  Sadly the occupier of the schoolroom, Ian Stuart wedding dresses, has left and a new tenant is being sought by The National Trust.  We do hope the new tenant can share the building and Jens can remain in the basement where he runs his acclaimed florestry business and operates a shop.  To read further about the workshop, see page 7 in our Spring/Summer 2020 Newsletter (to be published soon) and do pass by to admire his beautiful seasonal creations.

 

Workshop by Jens Jakobsen, Master Florist at the Blewcoat School - March 2020

 

House of Fraser building Victoria Street

Preliminary consultations have begun on the future of this building and the site, known as Southside.  CLICK HERE for details from the 1st public exhibition.  (Our comments will follow shortly)

 

House of Fraser building Victoria Street

 

Ignatius Sancho, Short Talk by Victor Keegan - February 2020

This was the 2nd of our 35th anniversary series of short talks and we were treated to Victor Keegan's personal research into the unique and intriguing C18th Thorney Island resident, Ignatius Sancho. 

Reading like a guest list to a royal garden party, Victor highlighted the numerous aristocrats of the day who subscribed to a book of Sancho's letters published after his death by Joseph Jekyll.  The book became a bestseller which was quite extraordinary at the time for the memoirs of a black man born on a slave ship whose mother died of disease and his father from suicide.  At 2 years old he was given to 3 sisters in Greenwich whose treatment and regard for him is not very complimentary and it was they who named him Sancho. 

It was not until he met the Duke of Montague who took him under his wing, he learned to read and write and he flourished as a thinker of the day.  He worked for the Montague family for many years until after the Duke's death and with money from the family, he moved to Charles Street, now King Charles Street (between the Treasury and the Foreign Office) and opened a small grocery shop.  Married at St Margaret's Westminster, he lived with his wife and 6 children, not all of whom survived.  They would have walked over Westminster Bridge, the only bridge in the area and strolled through St James's Park. 

He had many important acquaintances and was a prolific letter writer to politicians, newspapers and reknowned thinkers and authors of the day.  He urged them to talk and write about the abhorrant slave trade.  He also wrote poems, plays and music.  It was clear that this extraordinary man had a unique life in London at a dangerous time, at the height of the trade, when he could have been press-ganged, kidnapped or deported at any time.  Clearly highly regarded, his portrait was painted by Thomas Gainsborough in 1768 and he is buried in what is now Christchurch Gardens and has no known decendents.

Ignatius Sancho, Short Talk by Victor Keegan - February 2020 

 

 

The Victoria Tower Gardens & The National Holocaust Memorial & Learning Centre

UPDATE!  February 2020

On February 11th, WCC Planning Applications Sub-Committee unanimously supported the principle of building a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre but REFUSED the application to do so in Victoria Tower Gardens. 

The main issues of planning policy were loss of protected park space, risk to the mature trees and negative impacts on two conservation areas, the World Heritage Site and several listed buildings and monuments (including the Buxton Memorial and Spicer wall).  Here is the summary of the event and decision by WCC:  https://www.westminster.gov.uk/opinion-holocaust-memorial-planning-application

Environmental Statement, Our Response - December 2019

We have now submitted our response to the new Environmental Statement documents, submitted by MHCLG/UKHMF in October 2019 as part of the planning process.  To view our response, CLICK HERE

 

 
WE STRONGLY SUPPORT THE SAVE VICTORIA TOWER GARDENS CAMPAIGN. 

https://www.savevictoriatowergardens.co.uk/