Welcome

The Society formed in 1985, saving from demolition, London's first public library in Great Smith Street
(above right).

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 & Events 2018

Our events and visits are open to all unless specified and we hope non-members will enjoy our programme and consider joining the Society.

To book events and read further details, 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.

ONGOING !  The Duck Island/Thorney Island Society Project, St James's ParK      This exciting new collaboration with the park is calling for volunteers from TTIS to help restore and revitalise Duck Island. If you are interested in helping clear brambles and paths, raking and tidying the meadow area and lake edges, making log and deadwood piles, sorting and documenting artefacts in the barn or helping in the cottage garden, please get in touch to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or post us a note to TTIS, 10 Old Pye Street, SW1P 2DG

Thursday 31st May, 11am

Tour of The Institution of Civil Engineers, 1 Great George Street, SW1P 3AA  £15pp.  Number One, Great George Street is a Grade II listed Georgian building in the heart of the Thorney Island.  It has been home to the Institution of Civil Engineers since 1913.  Following the tour of this grand building there will be an opportunity to view the exhibition 'Invisible Superheroes' to explore projects that have already changed the world and will do so again.  ICE have kindly let us use their cafe for lunch afterwards where hot meals, sandwiches, soups and salads are available to purchase. 

(Glass lantern slide from the ICE Archives illustrating the principle of the cantilever, as used in the design for the Forth Railway Bridge)

Wednesday 6th June, 2pm

Thorney Island Sources Tour at Westminster City Archvies, 10 St Ann's Street, SW1P 2DE  £15pp. Westminster archivist Alison Kenney will show us her specially chosen items in the Search Room, the Conservation Studio and the Strong Rooms.  Alison will also discuss the social history of the area from the 18th to 20th centuries. This definitive tour should not to be missed by any Thorney Island enthusiast.

Saturday 23rd June, 6.30pm (5.30pm Drinks at the Archives) - Members Only

The Purcell Club Musical Tour of Westminster Abbey, 20 Dean's Yard, SW1P 3PA  £45pp. Former Abbey choristers will sing and narrate their way around the Abbey and through history. This is a unique opportunity to be in the Abbey at night and this ‘four yearly’ exclusive tour is for Members and one guest only. Our Chair invites you to drinks before in the Archives at 10 Old Pye Street at 5.30pm. Tickets will be posted to you 2-3 weeks before the event.

Tuesday 26th June, 6.30pm

The Society's Summer Party, Grange Rochester Hotel, 69 Vincent Square, SW1P 2PA (entrance in Vane Street)  £14pp.  With the generous support of Grange Hotels

Friday 6th July, 2pm

Tour of Westminster School, 18 Dean's Yard, SW1P 3PF  £15pp. Westminster is an ancient boarding and day school, the only long-established school to remain on its original site in the centre of London. Its origins can be traced to a charity school established by the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey.  Situated in Little Dean’s Yard the school inhabits a varied collection of buildings, many of which were formerly part of the monastery.  Meet outside the School Offices at 18 Dean's Yard or inside if raining.

Thursday 2nd August, 10.30am

Tour of The Church House, Dean's Yard, SW1P 3PF  £15pp.  A rare look inside this historic building.  The tour will be hosted by the Chief Executive Chris Palmer and will include a history of the site, the first building and its significance and the architecture and use of the current building.  We will be shown the principle rooms placing them in their historical context of Parliament during WW2, the War Crimes Tribunal, the United Nations and Government occupation and national inquiries. 

September (date to be confirmed)

Tour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries (Triforium), Westminster Abbey, SW1P 3PA   Due to open to the public on the 11th June, we will be given a private tour of this exciting much anticipated new exhibition space and museum in the early Autumn. The date and ticket price will be announced in the Summer.

Tuesday 13th November, 6.30pm

The Society's 32nd AGM & Talk, Grange Rochester Hotel, 69 Vincent Square, SW1P 2PA (entrance in Vane Street) With the generous support of Grange Hotels

Tuesday 11th December, 6.30pm

The Society's Christmas Party, Grange Rochester Hotel, 69 Vincent Square, SW1P 2PA (entrance in Vane Street) £14pp.  With the generous support of Grange Hotels.



St James's Park Tree Walk - May 2018

Walking through Saint James’s Park will never be quite the same again after an illuminating session with Royal Parks Arboriculturist Greg Packman who extolled the secrets of many trees we have been walking past for years without really noticing. 

He started off with a Judas tree near the war memorial in front of Horse Guards Parade. It is a lovely looking tree with beautiful crimson flowers and we were amazed to learn that botanically it is part of the Pea family and in Asia is pollinated by bats.

Next, a bit further down in front of Duck Island was the sprawling Medlar which arrived with the Romans. It looks as though it is hundreds of years old but turns out to be as young as 60 years. It looks as though it is on its last legs but there is a younger one nearby if anything happens to it.

Among other specimens which stood out were a Caucasian Wing Nut tree. Its leaves make you think it is an Ash but actually it’s a member of the Walnut family. We were intrigued by the Weeping Beech on the southern side of the bridge by the lake which is only weeping because of a past mutation or graft. If you planted seeds from it they would grow up straight but any cuttings would produce a similar Weeping Beech.
 
We were delighted that a maximum of 21 people attended and we are very grateful to Greg who has kindly offered to do further walks for us in future. One option would be The Green Park which he says is much more interesting than it seems at first sight. We will look forward to that and, hopefully, many other walks in future.
 
In the shade of a Weeping Beech

Unveiling of Millicent Fawcett Statue in Parliament Square - April 2018

The statue to suffragist Millicent Fawcett has been unveiled in Parliament Square. The first statue of a women (by a women, Gillian Wearing) in the Square.  A joyous and musical ceremony with female choir, poet, dancers & singers from the new musical Sylvia and speeches by the Prime Minister, the Mayor of London and the campaigner and organiser Caroline Criado Perez, who also successfully campaigned to put Jane Austen on the £10 note. 

 

 

 

Visit to Watts & Co, Ecclesiastical Furnishers & Outfitters - April 2018

With the sound of sharp scissors in the background, Richard Hawker, Creative Consultant, described enthusiastically the history of one of the most remarkable survivals of the Gothic Revival of the C19th. Established in 1874 by three leading late-Victorian church architects, George Frederick Bodley, Thomas Garner and George Gilbert Scott, the Younger, all friends and in competition with William Morris at the time.  

Their first workshop in Baker Street was run by none other than Ms. Charmaine Windows ! They kicked off with a prestigious private client list but launched on to the national stage for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee at St Paul’s Cathedral. So it was not the furnishings that first took off, it was the vestments and especially the copes. In 1911 they moved from Baker Street to Dacre Street and established their embroidery school. At this time they produced the exquisite ‘Lady of the Rosebush’ for exhibition, which we were shown.

 


 

In 1939, their safe storage unit took a direct hit and much was tragically destroyed, but after the war, the business was handed down through the Scott family and reinvented itself.  Family member, Graham Hoare was tempted to sell the business to Liberty but his wife took an interest and ran it very successfully. She moved the business from Dacre Street to Tufton Street, to the Edwin Lutyens building it now occupies. Elizabeth Hoare had a passion for embroidery and put out a call for 18th and 19th century work to preserve it and create a collection at the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. She sent samples of wallpaper and fabric to Augustus Pugin for the new Palace of Westminster and whilst recovering the alter kneelers in Westminster Abbey, discovered when stripped down, they had been made in wartime from Tate & Lyle sugar crates, which they dutifully re-upholstered. On to the 1980’s, when David Gadesley, took over with a sure eye for good design and expanded the collection testing the new technology of digital machine embroidery. Today Watts makes copes for all Royal Weddings and have numerous customers in palaces, parliaments, private houses, cathedrals and churches around the world, including St Thomas’s, 5th Avenue, New York.  With such knowledge, they advise set and costume designers for film and TV.

A wonderful visit and many thanks to Richard for sharing his enthusiasm and showing us some of the most beautiful patterns and intricate, delicate embroidery.

 

Broadway & Carteret Street

The proposal being considered by the council for the site on the corner of Broadway and Carteret Street. We are objecting to the extremely 'heavy' and oppressive window surrounds in the mansard roof overlooking Broadway.  See the Planning page for our full response.

 

 

Spring 2018 Newsletter

 

Thorney Tales (15) Henry Purcell's Birthplace

 

 

It has been believed for some time that Henry Purcell, one of Britain’s greatest composers, was born in St Ann’s Lane, Westminster in 1658. The problem is that no-one seemed to know exactly where. This is of particular interest to us because the archive of the Thorney Island Society is on the corner of St Ann’s Lane and Old Pye Street and there are in existence several versions of a sketch which place Purcell’s birthplace on this corner.  Could it be on the site of our archive?

Alas no - but it looks as though the honour belongs to our esteemed neighbour, the St Andrew’s Club, which is literally a few yards away from us across the lane. 

The evidence for this is the earliest version of a drawing that has recently come to light (see above) thanks to help from the Tate Gallery. It shows fairly clearly a road sign saying “St Ann’s Lane” on the corner of Old Pye Street which only makes sense if it is where St Andrew’s is now because you would have to turn left from Old Pye Street to enter St Ann’s Lane. 

The sketch was done on April 15, 1845 by an artist called R W Withall and its reproduction in a book “The Great Musicians: Purcell” contains the following text: “Three ancient houses in Westminster; in the right hand one of which the great H Purcell was born, 1658 and passed his early life. They are now in the last state of ruin and have long been uninhabited. The houses adjoining that of Purcell are of modern date and project before the others, as well as encroach somewhat on Purcell’s doorway hiding one side of the doorframe. Of the old houses the windows and doorways were nearly all boarded up in the roughest manner, under which, however, the original panel doors are still to be partly found. The houses are of old red brick. The first door was the back way into the public house called the “Bell and Fish” kept by Mr Oldsworth who lost his license. The second door the entrance to the skittle ground. The third was Purcell’s house.”

Of course, the painting was done 150 years after the death of Purcell in 1695 so a lot must have been passed on by word of mouth. If anyone has fresh information or who knows anything about R W Withall, or indeed the Bell and Fish, please get in touch. The Society has been wanting to put a plaque up for some time but we have to be sure of our facts. 

 

 

 

Townsend House, Greycoat Place

6th February 2018   Ref:  18/00024/FULL  We are sad that this attractive brick-built building is to be demolished; it is surprising and unfortunate that none of the surrounding conservation areas cover this small area, which includes the nearby Grade 2 listed Greycoat Hospital School.

 

 Read our full response here and go to the Planning page for a link to WCC to view the planning application :

 

The Victoria Tower Gardens & The National Holocaust Memorial

 

5th November 2017      THE UPDATE ON THE  PETITION WEBSITE AGAINST THE USE OF VTG - CLICK HERE


24th October 2017   Read below of the Jury's decision, the winner and what happens now.

THE GUARDIAN, "Location next to parliament in London has triggered objections from residents and opposition from Imperial War Museum" - CLICK HERE


28th September 2017   Prince William visits the Imperial War Museum to discuss new Holocaust galleries.  Read Daily Mail article, CLICK HERE


21st September 2017  "What the jury heard" - The Architects' Journal 18/9/17  CLICK HERE


18th September 2017  Members of the Thorney Island Society joined a large group of residents who live near Victoria Tower Gardens to discuss the threat to this local park from the proposal to build the new Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre there (see earlier blog entries below). Nobody in the room objected in any way to the creation of a new Memorial, and there was tentative agreement that a modest Memorial in the park would be acceptable, but all were united in condemning the proposed site for the Learning Centre. There are many reasons for this, not just the loss of much of the park, but also the added security risk and the increase in vehicular and pedestrian traffic in an already congested area.

There are other site options which have been suggested, such as College Green, already a civic space, and St James's Park near the the Duke of York steps. In both places there are existing carparks which could be converted into the Learning Centre. But an easier option, designed and costed, has already been offered to the Foundation and rejected for not very good reasons - to build at the Imperial War Museum, where they are expanding and updating their Holocaust galleries. 
 
Although people are aware of a large number of influential people who are opposed to the scheme, they are reluctant (for understandable reasons) to oppose it in public. It was suggested that anyone with the right sort of connections should try to use their influence to encourage those people to speak out.
 
 
PARK THREATENED