Visit to The Church House - August 2018
We were privileged to be taken on the first ever official tour of The Church House, Westminster, the headquarters of the Anglican church - temporal and spiritual, which sits proudly between Dean’s Yard and Great Smith Street.
We soon learned of a special link between us as when Church House acquired buildings on the Abbey side of Great Smith Street to build their new HQ, they demolished the public library and moved it to the other side of the road. This is the 1893 public library that was saved by a campaign group in 1985 which then became The Thorney Island Society.
Our host, Chris Palmer, chief executive of The Church House, gave us a fascinating tour of the building, starting on the outside, where Tufton Street meets Great College Street, he pointed out the equisite flintwork of the building. Amongst the flints were notched stones from a pile of 14th century stones found in the Abbey ditch when the nearby gatehouse was excavated. Some stones also contained traces of fossils and builders’s personal trade marks. I was lucky enough to also view in the basement almost immediately beneath the wall, remains of a pillar in situ believed to be part of the ancient gatehouse leading onto Thorney Island and dating back to the 14th century. At first glance you would miss the intriguing images within the flint, a dove to represent the name of the builders and a partridge for a dignitary of that name, a cottage loaf, an eye, a wheel, an 'N' and there must be more !
Our visit took in the beautiful oak and marble (sourced from all over the UK) chapel to the large circular hall which has held over 600 people and survived a bomb during the Second World War so well that Churchill took it over as an alternative site for the House of Commons. It was here that the first meeting of the United Nations took place after the war, the preliminary meetings prior to the Nuremburg War Trials and where numerous inquiries have been held including the Brixton Riots, the Kings Cross Fire and leaks of information from the Bank of England. It now uses some of the most modern hi-tec audio-visual equipment for global and local conferences amit beautiful plaster icons on the walls representing Anglican communities around the world.
We are very grateful to Chris Palmer for this memorable visit.
"The Devil's Acre before Peabody" Talk - August 2018
London historian Victor Keegan told the extraordinary story of how Old Pye Street, Westminster and its surrounds (seen here in Gustave Doré’s etching) - were so depraved that Dickens dubbed them The Devil’s Acre. Following his own recent research, Victor compared old etchings and drawings to some of the buildings and streets we know so well. A fascinating snapshot of extreme poverty and the change that George Peabody and others contributed to the area.
Visits to Westminster School - July 2018
Purcell Musical Tour of Westminster Abbey - June 2018
With thanks to the Purcell Club singers, prodominantly members of the Westminster Abbey Old Chorister's Association, for a wonderful evening of music and history. We have already put our name down on the waiting list to go again in 4 years time !
Proposals for Christchurch Gardens, Victoria Street - June 2018
If you missed the public exhibition of the plans, you may view the exhibition boards and make comment CLICK HERE
Reception to mark the opening of The Queen's Jubilee Galleries, Westminster Abbey - June 2018
‘It’s not every day you get to add a new tower to Westminster Abbey.' So said the Dean as he urged guests to climb up to the new triforium galleries, seven stories above the nave at a reception to mark their completion. The lift shaft is clad with 17 different stones with each band representing the type of stone used in the Abbey over the years. From pinkish Purbeck Marble in 1000 to Clipsham in 1900. A geological tour de force.
What is extraordinary and wonderful about the galleries is the view of the glorious vaulted ceiling and down onto the nave 16 metres below with light streaming through the west door providing a glimpse of the busy world outside.
In the ‘Abbey Attic’ visitors step over and under ancient diagonal oak beams and rafters, thrilling in itself. The sight-lines across and through the galleries are positively an invitation to explore the views out to Parliament Square and the Palace of Westminster. In the galleries themselves over 300 objects from the Abbey’s collection are presented in four sections: Building Westminster Abbey, Worship and Daily Life, Westminster Abbey and the Monarchy, The Abbey and National Memory.
There are swords and shields, corbel heads and graffiti, memorials and wall monuments. Funeral effigies of Kings and Queens, side by side which are quite unnerving. Queen Elizabeth I’s corset made of fustian, whalebone and leather gives a rather jarring jolt. Carved Caen stone sculpture, possibly of Abbot John Islip is a reminder of the street names of Thorney Island.... and back down to earth.
We are in the process of arranging a tour of the galleries for Members and guests in September.
The Queen's Jubilee Galleries, Westminster Abbey - June 2018
Thorney Island Sources Tour of Westminster Archives - June 2018
Gathering in what was the old wash-house, adjacent to what were the Great Smith Street public baths, we were introduced to the building. Opened in 1995 and housing Westminster's parish, council, church, school and business records, some dating back to the 1450's, they are still accepting items of importance. With the resurgence in interest, via the Find My Past website, visitors most popular searches are the records of Births, Marriages and Deaths, the Adoption Indexes, Electoral Registers and Censuses. Particular building searches are also popular although most of the original planning records did not survive the LCC clear-out, but Victorian surveyors added drainage details to plans and these can be viewed for thousands of properties. They have some 7,000 digitised images which can be accessed via their online catalogue WestCat and cabinets full of microfiche and an extensive library.
We first visited the busy Conservation Studio, where work was underway cleaning old maps delicately with special rubbers, carefully removing crumbling mounts and remounting on handmade Japaneese acid-free paper. The Studio and volunteers had just finished restoring what is the largest public collection of Victorian West End theatre programmes.
Then we were treated to a special selection of Thorney Island material in the Search Room. Maps, watercolours, etchings, books, photographs and plans. What a treat and we spent a good amount of time studying closely these fascinating items. We finished our tour in the Strong Rooms and were shown the oldest item in the Archives, a Henry III Charter of 1256, granting "...the Abbey of Westminster a weekly market every Monday in Tothill, and an annual fair for 3 days...".
Many thanks to the staff of the Archives for their time, enthusiasm, knowledge and this very special tour.
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Henry III 1256
Millbank Street before Victoria Tower Gardens c1863
Faithhorne Map 1658
Bomb damage to Old Pye Street and St Matthew's Street 1940
Grant of Arms to the City of Westminster 1601
View of Millbank and Vauxhall Bridge from the Horseferry on the Lambeth shore
Tour of Westminster Archives - June 2018
St James's Park Tree Walk - May 2018
Visit to the Institution of Civil Engineers - May 2018
We had an enjoyable visit to the handsome Institution of Civil Engineers at 1 Great George Street. This year they are celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of their founding, by eight civil (as opposed to military) engineers at Kendall’s coffee house in Fleet Street. As the Institution grew they moved premises several times. The last move, which was caused by the demolition of their building for the construction of the present Treasury Building, was across Great George Street, where the present stone-clad building was completed in 1913, incorporating the very fine wooden panelling from their old headquarters, only finished in 1986.
We were lucky to be able to see all the ground floor rooms, in which the earlier panelling was installed. These are often used for conferences, and are each called after a distinguished early engineer and feature many portraits of past presidents – there were many familiar names: Brunel, Stephenson and Telford among them. We then proceeded up the magnificent stairs to the first floor, where there is a lecture theatre and a very sumptuous reception room, previously used for engineering examinations and their annual ball, as well as the old library in which the Institution puts on exhibitions open to the public. We were also taken upstairs to their excellent modern library, which is much used by their 90,000 members.
On the way the portrait of a past president was pointed out: Mr Brodie, who was president from 1920 to 21 and solved the problem of disputes over whether football goals had been scored or not, by proposing the attachment of nets to the back of goals! A good example of the wide-ranging problem-solving that engineers are trained for.
The main entrance, staircase and exhibition room are open to the general public, Monday to Friday and are well worth a visit, especially to view their bi-centenial "Invisible Superheroes" exhibition.
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.
