RUSI, The Royal United Services Institute, Whitehall

RUSI is the world's oldest independent think tank on international defence and security.

Our visit planned for June has been postponed until 2021 (and possible further due to building works) when we hope you will join us in the RUSI Library.

RUSI, The Royal United Services Institute

 

London History Day, 31st May 2020 - 10 Old Pye Street

On London History Day, it is worth being reminded that our Archive at 10 Old Pye Street, on the corner of St Ann’s Lane, has had its own brushes with history. These days the streets are a quiet backwater of Westminster enlivened by the St Andrew’s Club a few yards away across the lane, which has a good claim to be the oldest youth club in the world. It has been in operation since 1866 and is still going strong.
 
 
Almost a couple of centuries before that, Sir Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695) one of the greatest musicians Britain has ever produced, is believed to have lived there In a house on the same site. The poet Robert Herrick also lived in St Ann’s Lane.  
 
Our small archive is in the corner of a Peabody building and used to be a sweet shop.  We have met people from St Andrew’s who were at school nearby and can remember buying sweets there. Recently we came across an old photo with the proprietor Hassan Hafez standing in front of Mini Grosvenor Store as it was then called. If anyone knows anything more about Hassan we would be very pleased to hear from them.
 
 
Well before Mr Hafez, the same site was the scene of a spectacular experiment in improving the lot of working people. On this corner there was a six storey building called the Westminster Workingmen’s Club and Reading Rooms. It was established with accommodation for up to 60 families who were too poor to be able to afford rents in the Peabody buildings which required men to be in employment earning 18 to 20 shillings a week before they were admitted. It replaced an earlier much smaller experiment in nearby Duck Lane (now St Matthew Street) set up by philanthropists led by Miss Adeline Cooper, which was the first attempt to have a working men’s club open every evening for non-alcoholic drinks, newspapers and general socialising. 
 
 
The building also included a cooperative shop and with the same shape of entrance as we have today. The working men’s club was part of the “Westminster Improvements” designed to clear what had been an extremely squalid area. Partly because of its proximity to Westminster Abbey – whose sanctuary (guaranteeing freedom from arrest) attracted generations of criminals – St Ann’s Lane sank from being a fairly prestigious address to harbouring scenes of unprecedented moral and social degradation dominated by thieves and prostitutes which was a no-go area even for the police. 
 
John Hollingshead’s 1862 book Ragged London gave details:  “Enter a narrow street called St Ann’s Lane, glance at the fearful side place called St Ann’s Court and wonder if ever such filth and squalor can be exceeded. The court had every feature of a sewer in the long puddle of filth sucked into a hollow centre......  As I turned around to leave the place, I caught a glimpse of several rough long-haired heads peeping round the edges of the entrance”. 
 
This was the epicentre of the roads around St Ann’s Lane that Dickens had earlier called “The Devil’s Acre” in the first edition of Household Words. He described it as “the dingiest collection of shabby buildings ever squeezed together in a rank corner as a club for Tom cats”.  Cardinal Manning, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, described the area as a “slum’, believed to be the first time that word had been used in print.
 
J E Smith, vestry clerk of St Margaret and St John the Evangelist, wrote “Parochial Memorials” added some on-the spot knowledge: “During the cholera epidermic of 1848, a medical gentleman was called to visit a sufferer in one of the streets on which the church now abuts. While stooping over the poor creature to administer medicine, with which he was provided in readiness, his coat pockets were emptied of the contents by the dying woman’s husband!”  
 
He added that when the first services in the new St Matthew’s were taking place, local inhabitants “mustarded in force“ to interrupt the worship by beating empty barrels, breaking windows and other disorderly conduct.
 
Nowadays all this seems like a distant dream. However, the layout of the roads hasn’t changed and it doesn’t require much imagination to conjure up the squalor of the 19th century. 
 
 
 
 

55 Broadway - Planning application

 

Read our response to May 2020 Planning Application   CLICK HERE 


The iconic 55 Broadway is being redeveloped as a hotel.  As the tallest office building in the capital in 1929, it was dubbed ‘London’s first skyscraper’ at just over 53 metres and won the RIBA London Architecture Medal upon its completion.
 
View the display boards from the pre-planning public exhibiton and consultation:     http://www.55-broadway.com/#secondSection 
 
 

Urban Tree Festival 2020 - Online

The talks and discussions that took place during the Festival week are available on their Youtube channel:  CLICK HERE

A great event finishing with "Write About Trees" and Victor Keegan's superb poem on the Ginkgo Biloba:  CLICK HERE

 


Gingko in St James's Park

 

A couple of our favourites :

Greg Packman, who has guided walks through St James's and The Green Parks for us, talking 'Ancient Trees in London'. 

 

Hannah Sylvester talking about the Hawthorn: How to forage, pick and dry the leaves and berries to make tinctures and teas, hawthorn brandy and hawthorn vodka tincture !  Also the plant's medicinal properties, uses in heart conditions and its value for the 'emotional heart' because it is cooling and calming. 

 

 

 

Live Video of Feeding St James's Park Pelicans

Watch Hugh Smith, Park's Wildlife Officer, feeding the pelicans which happens daily at 2.30pm.  Today, 7th May, we had the pleasure of watching the fun live filmed by Mark Wasilewski, Park Manager.  Follow the link to watch the video:

https://www.facebook.com/TheRoyalParksLondon/videos/246109969937935/

 

 

 

Westminster Kingsway College

Today, 6th May, we had planned to visit and enjoy lunch at the catering college in Vincent Square to support students on the Professional Chefs Diploma.  We look forward to visiting you next year instead.

 

 Westminster Kingsway College

 

St Stephen's Church, Rochester Row

We had been looking forward to member John Turpin's talk and visit to St Stephen's on 4th April, but it's back in the diary for 2021 !

 

St Stephen's Church, Rochester Row

 

 

Spring-Summer 2020 Newsletter

 

Spring-Summer 2020 Newsletter

Thorney Tales (19) Revd James Palmer and Palmer's Village

 
If you chanced to visit James Palmer at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street in the early 17th century you may have found him asleep in the steeple. This was not because he was eccentric but because as vicars go he was very frugal - and Thorney Island was the beneficiary of this.
 
The Revd James Palmer was born in 1585 and baptised in St Margaret’s Church where he is also buried. At the north end of the church there is a rather blackened memorial to him as a priest and philanthropist, praising him as “a most pious & charitable man”.  His priesthood was mainly spent at St Bride’s but he gave regular sermons on Thorney Island including to both houses of Parliament. 
His philanthropy is still remembered today by Palmer Street which runs from Victoria Street by the side of the Albert pub to Caxton Street - close to the almshouses he established for 12 elderly men and women and the school for 20 pupils (boys). They occupied the land between today’s Palmer Street and Christchurch Gardens (currently in the course of reconstruction). The school, known as the Blackcoat school - not to be confused with the Bluecoat, Greencoat or Browncoat schools - was one of the founding parents of today's Westminster City School. (For more on the history of local schools, please see articles in our Newsletters Autumn/Winter 2018 and Spring/Summer 2019)
 
To ensure the survival of his endowment, the Revd Palmer established an extraordinary venture called Palmer’s Village nearby (roughly between Victoria Street and Howick Place - see map) which has been described as a recreation of Merrie England complete with pub, village green, blacksmith and even a maypole. It was all the more remarkable for being encroached on one side by the squalid deprivation of what came to be known as the Devil’s Acre (between Christchurch Gardens and the Abbey) and on the other by the swamps of Tothill Fields. Palmer’s Village lasted until Victoria Street blasted its way through in the mid 19th century. 
 
James Palmer’s almshouses eventually merged with others including one set up by Emery Hill (who also has a thoroughfare named after him, Emery Hill Street). Both charities were incorporated in Westminster Almshouses which can be seen on the corner of Rochester Row and Emery Hill Street. Looking some way up the wall, you will see memorials to them both.  A fitting reminder of how the philanthropy of a bygone age is still producing benefits today.
 
  
 
 
 

Workshop by Jens Jakobsen, Master Florist at the Blewcoat School - March 2020

A lucky group of members spent a few hours in the 300 year old schoolroom of the Blewcoat School and treated to a workshop by Jens Jakobsen.  Jens has created a beautiful garden around the building which has become a local treasure.  Sadly the occupier of the schoolroom, Ian Stuart wedding dresses, has left and a new tenant is being sought by The National Trust.  We do hope the new tenant can share the building and Jens can remain in the basement where he runs his acclaimed florestry business and operates a shop.  To read further about the workshop, see page 7 in our Spring/Summer 2020 Newsletter (to be published soon) and do pass by to admire his beautiful seasonal creations.

 

Workshop by Jens Jakobsen, Master Florist at the Blewcoat School - March 2020

 

  1. Ignatius Sancho, Short Talk by Victor Keegan - February 2020
  2. Christchurch Gardens Reconstruction Short Talk - January 2020
  3. Christmas Party 2019
  4. Richmond House, Whitehall - The Northern Parliamentary Estate