Welcome

The Society was formed in 1985 to save from demolition London's first public library in Great Smith Street (above right).  Since then we have kept a watchful eye on developments in this area, which includes the World Heritage Site encompassing the Abbey and Houses of Parliament. We respond on behalf of residents and businesses to local planning applications. Our 250+ members enjoy local visits & talks & more recently virtual on-line talks, of historic and other interest, social events and an archive of books, prints, plans and ephemera.

Jan Pancheri's 2022 Calendar with discount and donation to TTIS

Earlier in the year, the head gardener at Westminster Abbey, Jan Pancheri, gave us a great Zoom talk on the gardens (recording available on our YouTube channel).  Jan has also been busy with her other talent of lino-cut prints and has created charming cards and calendar for 2022 which are on sale here:  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/janpanprint?coupon=TTISJP

Jan is very kindly giving Thorney Island Society Members and others through our website, 10% off anything on her site with the code TTISJP and she will also donate 10% to the Society after costs.  The discount will be automatically applied using the above link.

News ! Victoria Tower Gardens

22nd NOVEMBER 2021

GRANTED LEAVE TO APPEAL!  Read more CLICK HERE

29th OCTOBER 2021

The London Gardens Trust (LGT) have at last heard that their appeal against the decision to grant planning permission for the Holocaust Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens (VTG) is to be heard in the High Court.  The judge has ruled that there is a case to answer on two of the six grounds: one is to do with the meaning of 'substantial harm', which  LGT say will be caused to the grade 2* Buxton Memorial as well as the Grade 2 gardens themselves. The second is the fact that no alternative sites were seriously considered and weighed up against VTG.

Events 2021-2022

Sadly we postponed our Christmas Party on 6th December due to ongoing uncertainty regarding the impact of large indoor gatherings in the current Covid situation.  We hope to hold a replacement event as soon as we can in 2022.

Please see below our 2022 Programme of Events.  Full details and descriptions can be found on our Events/Visits tab at the top of this page.

Plus! Our 2021 Talks can now be viewed on our YouTube channel. 

Please book via 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 (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by cheque and post to 10 Old Pye Street, London SW1P 2DG) 

Autumn/Winter 2021 Newsletter

The Stag Brewery, Palace Street - Collection of Photographs held at the Westminster Archives

(Of course, we know that the Stag Brewery was not in Pimlico, but in Victoria !)  Fascinating photographs and talk.  Click image below:

Thorney Tales (21) - Aphra Behn, playwright, poet, feminist, spy - Ahead of her times (1640-1689)

There are no women poets or playwrights buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey but in the nearby East Cloister lies Aphra Behn. She was a star of Restoration drama, writing 18 successful plays which was more than any male dramatist at the time with the possible exception of John Dryden. She was held in esteem by her peers but not long after sank almost without trace for centuries. This was partly because Restoration drama fell out of fashion but mainly because she wrote in a bawdy fashion which was tolerated in the permissive reign of Charles II but later not thought a fit occupation for a woman. 

In recent years she has made a comeback into fashion partly due to Virginia Woolf’s famous exhortation on her tomb, that “all women together ought to let flowers fall”. Which is what happened in the Summer of 2021, when pupils from Urswick School in Hackney laid  flowers on her grave with personal messages after they had given a - socially distanced - performance of some of Aphra’s work in the hallowed atmosphere of Poets’ Corner. I (Victor Keegan) was delighted to be part of the audience along with others from London Historians. 

She was from a humble background but became an icon and role model way ahead of her time. She is still a fascinating talking point among feminists because while she dealt with gender mixing themes and was a proud libertine at a time when it was fashionable, she was also a Tory and a fierce royalist, which don't always go together. She didn't seem to believe in a God yet she dedicated part of a play to the staunchly Catholic James II before he did a moonlight flit out of the country.

In her time Aphra was a poet, novelist, spy and translator. She was probably the first woman to earn her living from writing even though she was always short of money. Nell Gwynn appeared in one of her plays as did Anne Bracegirdle, the esteemed actress, (in The Widow Ranter in 1689). Anne is buried next to Aphra in the East Cloister, close to Poets’ Corner but not quite in it. 

 

 

 

 

The Victoria Tower Gardens & The National Holocaust Memorial & Learning Centre

29th July 2021 - DECISION !  Government marks its own homework ....

Please CLICK HERE to read today's Press Release

The definitive book on the history of VTG ......

You can purchase Dorian Gerhold's book via the PayPal “Buy Now” button below, for £12 + £3 p&p per copy. You can use a PayPal account if you have one, or you can pay by debit or credit card without needing a PayPal account.

Alternatively, please send a cheque for £12 + £3 p&p per copy (made payable to “The Thorney Island Society”) to TTIS, 10 Old Pye Street, London SW1P 2DG with your name and address.