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Local Tree Walk with Paul Akers, WCC Arboriculturalist - September 2017

A fascinating tour around the local streets with Paul, sharing his vast experience and knowledge. Trees and shrubs from the Mediterranean, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, China, Japan & Iran are to be found in our streets. Carefully chosen for their trunks, flowers, colour of foliage, height, shape, roots and always a tolerance to pollution and pavements !

Who would have thought there were Olive trees in Abbey Orchard Street, a Tulip tree (first introduced in the UK in 1650) in Wilcox Place, a Myrtle and a Loquat in Howick Place and a Japanese Pagoda and a Strawberry Tree in Thirleby Road ?

Many thanks to Paul for introducing us to them and general fascinating discussion on these lovely trees and plants that he and his team look after.

Thorney Tales (13) - Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth Woodville is one of the most fascinating, if transient, inhabitants of Thorney Island. She was a queen in her own right (wife of Edward IV), mother of another king (Edward the V, albeit uncrowned) and her daughter married yet another king (Henry VII) which resulted in her being declared Dowager Queen. But it is for her stay on Thorney Island – where she twice took sanctuary to avoid prison during the Wars of the Roses – that she is chiefly remembered. After her husband Edward IV was forced to flee the country she escaped from the Tower of London at night and claimed sanctuary in the Abbey on October 1st, 1470.

She occupied rooms in the Dean's quarters known as Cheyneygates, which still exists (see photo) despite being bombed during the Second World War. The future King Edward V was born in the Sanctuary. He later became notorious as one of the Princes in the Tower who were - probably - murdered on the orders of Richard III who was desperate to eliminate rival claimants to his throne.

Elizabeth was duped into letting her son leave the sanctuary during her second stay there in order to join his brother in the Tower of London, as dramatically told by Shakespeare in Richard III, on the spurious grounds that he would be looked after and that sanctuaries were for criminals not innocent chilldren.

As the Duke of Buckingham put it to Cardinal Bourchier,

"This prince hath neither claim'd it (sanctuary) nor deserv’d it,

And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it.

Then taking him from thence that is not there,

You break no privilege nor charter there.

Oft have I heard of sanctuary men,

But sanctuary children never till now."

This gives only a fleeting glimpse of an extraordinary life. Elizabeth retired to the Royal apartments in Bermondsey Abbey in 1490 where she died two years later apparently destitute. She is buried beside her husband, Edward IV in St George's Chapel at Windsor.

Lambeth Bridge Roundabout

August 2017 We object to plans to remove the roundabout and replace it with traffic lights. Read OUR RESPONSE HERE

Proposed

Existing

Suffragist Millicent Fawcett - First women honoured in Parliament Square ?

July 2017: Following an announcement in April 2017 (Read BBC article here), a planning application has now been made. Millicent Fawcett may have pipped Lady Thatcher to the post ! See our Planning page for link to WCC to make a comment.

Our response to the planning application: "Although we have no objection to the subject matter of this statue, which is not controversial, we have strong reservations about the current rapid increase in the number of monuments in an area that has been declared a Monument Saturation Zone. This Westminster City Council policy should be adhered to, both now and in the future."

Visit to HM Treasury building - July 2017

Many thanks to Dan & Rebecca for their tour and commentary as we wandered the corridors and courtyards of the Treasury building.

Work started at 100 Parliament Street in 1899 to John Bryden's design. Stately, spacious and light with sweeping stairs and statues. But it was not until 1907 that the land was purchased for the 2nd half of the building, demolishing narrow streets, houses and churches. Sir Henry Tanner, a Government Architect, incorporated & finished the new building quickly and cheaply by 1917, ditching some of Bryden's original ideas including 580 fireplaces. So a building of two halves.

Moving swiftly forward, it received a much needed revamp in the early 2000's, sympathetically given by (Sir Norman) Foster & Partners via a PFI initiative, including the addition of a new mansard roof and opening up inner courtyards with gardens, ponds and benches. Today it is an exciting, efficient workplace with every desk having natural light and lots of it ! Although much is open plan now, one cannot avoid the corridors, one is even Listed as a 'heritage corridor'.

Some ordinary meeting rooms, off our first corridor, were used by Sir Winston & Lady Clementine Churchill as their private living and bedrooms during WW2, not wanting to sleep in the Cabinet War Rooms underneath and underground. See photo below. The building has 3 levels of basements and there is a constant flow of water through a channel in the sub-basement. Our river Tyburn perhaps ? Now up to the 'heritage corridor', past the Chancellor's enormous, carved office door ! Each current chancellor may choose what artwork they would like from the Government's extensive collection (on view near Tottenham Court Road - a Pippa visit a few year's ago !). Mr Hammond is said to prefer large, classical pictures but some of Gordon Brown's more smaller, modern pieces are still to be seen. Now into the very grand Old Chancellor's Room (see photo below) and then the Churchill Room where the creation of the NHS and the Independence of the Bank of England, amongst other monumental plans, were worked on and signed. Glimpsing, through the net curtains, the narrow balcony where Churchill delivered his VE day speech, which at the time was the Ministry of Health's boardroom. Then out into 'the Drum', the huge round central courtyard, with tremendous echoes, used for filming The Fast & The Furious and for speeches by George Osborne and the Pope ! Not missing a view, through tall iron gates, past the FCO, straight to No.10 Downing Street. During the war, the Drum had been covered in anti-torpedo netting. Very successfully, as a torpedo sat on it from 1914 to 1950 when it was eventually removed.

We didn't meet Gladstone, the Treasury cat, but his reputation was hailed of catching 14 mice since he had been in residence, bought in to cheer everyone up after the referendum in June 2016. Thank you again to the organisers for their time and enthusiasm. Congratulations too on the 100th birthday of the building.

The Society's Archives

We are continuing our sort out of material not relevant to the Thorney Island area. If you would like to help in the project, please get in touch.

Visit to St Margaret's Church - July 2017

Thirty Thorney Island members were delighted to be shown around St Margaret's Church, Westminster, by Blue Badge guide Ian Godfrey. St Margaret's church is full of history and interesting people, the only downside being that it is almost touching Westminster Abbey and is largely ignored by tourists. On the day of our visit on July 11 there were huge queues for the Abbey yet no one but ourselves in the church.

More's the pity because, as Ian pointed out, as the church is a treasure trove of memories.

William Caxton, the pioneer of printing in Britain, who worked a stone's throw from the church has a dedicated stained glass window, or rather the remnant of one, and is buried there as is Sir Walter Raleigh who was executed around the corner in Old Palace Yard yet promptly given a prime burial place under the altar.

Many interesting people are commemorated in the church including Olaudah Equiano, a freed black slave, who became a celebrity in London and a leading light in the anti-slavery campaign. Members were pleasantly surprised at the number of Americans who had helped finance stained glass windows and other memorials including Cubby Broccoli of James Bond fame and Frank Sinatra.

The church was built in the perpendicular style and dedicated in 1523 though virtually nothing of the original stone work remains. One of the reasons for its proximity to the Abbey is that the Benedictine monks did not want parishoners interrupting their prayers and other activities inside the monastery as they had traditionally done.

The oldest part is probably the huge stained glass window commemorating the marriage of Henry VIII's elder brother Arthur to Catherine of Aragon which was added later. St Margaret's - named after Margaret of Antioch - also has a large crypt which, we were told, is full of dust with a skull or two and, sadly, not open to the public. Our heartfelt thanks to Ian for a very entertaining visit.

Parks: Our Shared Heritage Exhibition - July/August 2017

Temple of Peace, The Green Park 1748. Courtesy of The Hearsum Collection

Marble Arch in front of the Queens Palace c. 1835. Courtesy of The Hearsum Collection

Consultation by WCC on Future Growth/Building Height

May 2017

Click here for details of the Consultation.

Although the 8 week Consultation period is officially over, you may share the views expressed in this open letter to WCC. If you would like to add your name, complete a short form at the end and click the SUBMIT button.

AN OPEN LETTER TO COUNCILLOR DANIEL ASTAIRE & WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL

Thorney Tales (12) The Jerusalem Chamber

Westminster Abbey and its monastic surrounds have seen more great scenes of history than practically anywhere else but seldom more poignantly than the last visit of Henry IV. In 1413 Henry was on his way to the Holy Land in order to do penance for his misdeeds when he took ill, probably as a result of a stroke, while praying at the shrine of Saint Edward the Confessor in the Abbey.

He was carried unconscious to the Jerusalem Chamber in the Abbot's house and was seated by the fire. Much of the original stonework is still there as is the ceiling above and the walls behind the Victorian panelling. When he recovered his consciousness he asked where he was and was told the "Jerusalem Chamber". He realised then that he was about to end his life because of a prophecy mentioned in the Holinshed Chronicles that he would die in Jerusalem.

Shakespeare took the story further. In Henry IV Part 1, he allows Prince Henry, the future Henry V, to slip into the chamber and, believing his father to be dead, to try on the crown only for Henry lV to wake up in anger. Father and son, however, were soon reconciled and Henry IV realised that dying in this room fulfilled his destiny:

"It hath been prophesied to me many years,
I should not die but in Jerusalem,
Which vainly I suppos’d the Holy Land.
But bear me to that chamber, there I’ll lie,
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die."

The Jerusalem Chamber was also the place where the committee overlooking the writing of the beautifully written King James Bible met and where many celebrated people such as Isaac Newton were laid to rest before being buried in the Abbey. Today it is one of the private rooms of the Deanery - but it can be glimpsed from outside as it is the room above the Abbey bookshop adjacent to the main entrance. It is not open to the public except on certain open days but sometimes events and lectures are held there which are free to attend.

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