Thorney Tales (3) - The Jewel Tower

 
The Jewel Tower, built in 1365, is one of only three buildings of the medieval Palace of Westminster which have remained more or less intact. The other two are Westminster Hall and Inigo Jones' Banqueting House. Its full glory has only recently been revealed because from the 17th century until the 1960s the Jewel Tower - located at the back of Westminster Abbey opposite the House of Lords - had buildings around it on three sides blocking the view to the general public. There were fears in the 19th century that it was only a matter of time before it was demolished.

Thorney Tales (2) - The River Tyburn

 
Thorney Island was formed thousands of years ago by the interaction of the Thames with the Tyburn, one of London's forgotten rivers. The Tyburn still exists today springing, like the Westbourne and the Fleet, from the Hampstead Hills, and although it soon gets lost in Sir Joseph Bazalgette's amazing sewer system it is still possible to chart its subterranean meanderings. From Hampstead it flows down to Regent's Park, crossing the canal in a pipe. It is then carried in another pipe through Baker Street station and then southwards where it flows under Oxford Street through Green Park and under Buckingham Palace where it splits into two. One channel flows goes towards Tothill Street and the other passes very close to the present Victoria Palace theatre before passing under Kings' Scholars' Passage (its exact historic route) then under Vauxhall Bridge Road and along Tachbrook Street. It empties itself into the Thames a few hundred yards west of Vauxhall Bridge where the exit and the cottage of the sluice gate keeper can still be seen.

Visit to Bridgewater House

Walking through the front door of Bridgewater House overlooking The Green Park, you are almost blown over by what you see. Instead of a hallway to a private residence you are immediately propelled into the Great Saloon designed by Charles Barry as part of a reconstruction and looking like the forum of Barry's Reform Club only it is even bigger. Standing on the million pound carpet and looking skywards towards the glass roof your eye is caught by a ring of domes, half of which turn out to be mirror images.

At one end of the ground floor is a set of murals by Jakob Götzenberger depicting scenes from the masque Comus which was actually commisioned from John Milton (who lived for part of his life on the other side of St James' Park in Petty France) by a former owner of the house and depicts the Earl of Bridgewater talking to
Milton. Bridgewater was an ancestor of Lord Ellesmere who orchestrated the present reconstruction in the 1840s and to make sure posterity did not forget, he  left dozens of his initials at strategic points throughout the house. 

The famous gallery with works by Titian, da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt and others is no longer there having been converted into offices but we were able to get a glimpse of its former glory by seeing the pillars at either end, one section of which has been converted into a small chapel.

Thorney Tales (1) - Britain's Hidden Treasure Trove

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What was it about this tiny stretch of land called Thorney Island, measuring barely 560m by 330m - that has had such an effect on the English-speaking world? If it had merely given birth to Westminster Abbey, where so many kings and queens of England were crowned and buried in competitive splendour it would have earned its place in history. But it also became the seat of government, and for over 500 years a palace for kings and queens.

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