Home

Our visit to Parliament's hidden medieval places, 28th July 2016

One of the joys of Thorney Island membership is visiting places normally inaccessible. Especially on Thorney Island ! We were all amazed when shown the main medieval remains within Parliament that somehow escaped the great fire of 1834. Most of us thought we were familiar with the Great Hall which was spared destruction by a sudden change of wind, only to be told by Dr Mark Collins, the Estates Archivist & Historian, that the inner wall was an addition and that to see parts of the six-foot thick original wall we had to look opposite the gift shop where there is a long arched wall built of stone from Reigate in Surrey and Caen in Normandy complete with the signature marks of some of the masons. Richard II was responsible for the rebuilding of Westminster Hall complete with the dazzling hammer beam roof made from English oak brought by river. In one of the ironies of history, Richard was deposed before reconstruction of the building was completed after a trial - in his own Westminster Hall.

Another magnificent survivor of the fire was the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft (completed by Edward III in 1298) which is normally closed to the public. Called an undercroft because it is situated underneath the rebuilt St Stephen's Chapel through which visitors walk to the central lobby of the Commons but it is not really one because it is at ground level and has windows on both sides. It is a mesmerising example of Victorianised Gothic and will look even better when a proposed revamp is implemented.

We were then treated to something hardly any of us even knew existed: a cloister around which the monks used to walk and pray whose vaulted ceilings are now occupied by staff of the Labour Party and Government whips. In the quadrangle of the cloister, shut off from everything around you, it is difficult to believe you are right in the centre of London. We thanked Dr Collins and his colleague, Tessa Blundy, deputy head of Architecture and Heritage, for this rare opportunity to visit three of only four major remains of the medieval palace. The fourth, the Jewel Tower, on the other side of the road near the Abbey, was outside the range of the fire. Which is just as well because the Domesday Book was one of the treasures housed there.

Thorney Tales (9) - Governor of Duck Island

One of the less well-known occupants of Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey - his monument is behind Shakespeare's memorial - is a Frenchman, Charles de Saint-Évremon (1613-1703) who has recently come back into the news as a result of the success of Britain's sparkling wine revival. Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, Seigneur de Saint-Evremond, as he styled himself, fled from France in disgrace in the early 1660s after incurring the wrath of Cardinal Mazarin. He was warmly received by Charles II who made him Governor of Duck Island in the middle of the lake in St James's Park complete with a £300 a year pension. Charles was attracted to this soldier hedonist with literary leanings not least because he introduced the Court to the delights of Champagne to which Charles became very partial.

Thorney Tales (8) Westminster Opera House

What the Opera House would have looked like

When excavations were taking place during the 1870s to construct a new edifice on the site of what today is the Norman Shaw complex near Westminster station, the builders came across the bed of a creek that surrounded Thorney Island. The edifice was no ordinary building. It was planned by James Mapleson, an impressario, to be the grandest opera house in Europe. It was not only planned but it was largely completed until Mapleson ran out of money. The building then fell into disuse and was eventually demolished.

But not completely. The foundations were kept - and are still there today. When Scotland Yard took over in 1890 some of the rooms originally built for opera stars were converted into cells for prisoners. One of the subterranean passages built as part of the opera house was connected to a platform on the District Line at Westminster Station. Another passage was reported to go to Parliament to give peers and MPs easy access to the opera. The building was put to good use by the metropolitan police. But is is sad to think that Thorney Island missed out on an opera house of its own.

What is Thorney Island ?

As all members of the society know, it is an island formed when the Tyburn river - now lost among the submerged sewers - met with the Thames forming a delta on which Westminster Abbey and Parliament now reside. It is a seriously historic island.

Or is it ? A new edition of the celebrated book "The Lost Rivers of London", points out that no reliable maps existed before the seventeenth century and adds: " the island theory still has much to prove". The mainstream (so to speak) view is that when the Tyburn reached what is now Buckingham Palace from its source on the slopes of Hampstead, it bifurcated. One section flowed down to the Thames west of Vauxhall Bridge via Tachbrook Street while the other section flowed from the area of today's Palace along Petty France to the end of Tothill Street where it formed a new delta with one leg reaching the Thames after crossing Whitehall below Downing Street while the other leg meandered around the west of the Abbey wall to empty itself in the Thames at the end of Great College Street where the Abbey Mill was situated and after which Millbank is named.

Historical Publications £22.50

Millbank Tower grows taller

New Scotland Yard, 10 Broadway

UPDATE - 10th DECEMBER 2015 (See our response on the Planning page)

The developers have had further discussion with the planners and they have submitted a revised planning application. The main changes are:

1) A change to the facade treatment of the two towers at the back of the site, matching better the surrounding buildings, especially St Ermin's Hotel - in our view an improvement

2) A reduction in vehicular entrances across the pavements in Broadway and Dacre Street and more retail units at street level as a result - a definite improvement

3) A change in the treatment of the lower four floors (retail and offices), asked for by the planners - this has allowed for more pavement space on Victoria Street, but in our view leaves a less attractive facade at street level.

Apart from a reduction in height by one floor on one of the rear towers there is no change to the heights of the buildings.

Thorney Tales (7) - Storey's Gate

The brick-and-stone building at the corner of Birdcage Walk and Horse Guards Road is often passed by without being much noticed. This may be because in recent years it has been the police station for St James's Park and the few members of the public who have been inside may have had good reason not to want to brag about it. But now that the police are vacating it, because of the government's public spending cuts, we will be seeing more of it, probably as a snack bar or something similar. This seems appropriate because there was once a coffee house at Storey's Gate before it was demolished in the early 20th century to make way for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The Garden Bridge Controversy

UPDATE - February 2016

We have followed with interest the unfolding story of the Garden Bridge. The proposed location for the bridge, between Temple and the Southbank, is some way outside our geographical area of interest, and consequently the Society is not taking a position on the issue. However, we are aware that many of our members feel strongly on this subject, and also that this high-profile project bears many of the hallmarks of a planning system which is too often susceptible to vested interests.

Objection to proposed cycle stands in Queen Anne's Gate

We have written a formal objection to the siting of cycle stands in front of some of the best preserved and attractive early eighteenth centry houses in London.

Please see our letter in full on our Planning page. FM Conway Ltd is the service provider carrying out the consultation on behalf of Westminster City Council.

Thorney Tales (6) - St Margaret's Church, the amazing history of a window

Window

Courtesy of The British Museum

The beautiful stained glass window which dominates the east side of St Margaret's Church can best be described as ill-timed. It was created in Holland around 1526 to celebrate the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon. But by the time it had been finished Henry had become besotted with Anne Boleyn. Henry is depicted in saintly contemplation in the panel at the bottom left of the window while on the right hand side of the window Catherine, against an almost identical background, is also deep in prayer. Both appear to be looking at the Crucifixion which occupies the whole of the central panel of the window.

Page 7 of 9