Ignatius Sancho, Short Talk by Victor Keegan - February 2020
This was the 2nd of our 35th anniversary series of short talks and we were treated to Victor Keegan's personal research into the unique and intriguing C18th Thorney Island resident, Ignatius Sancho.
Reading like a guest list to a royal garden party, Victor highlighted the numerous aristocrats of the day who subscribed to a book of Sancho's letters published after his death by Joseph Jekyll. The book became a bestseller which was quite extraordinary at the time for the memoirs of a black man born on a slave ship whose mother died of disease and his father from suicide. At 2 years old he was given to 3 sisters in Greenwich whose treatment and regard for him is not very complimentary and it was they who named him Sancho.
It was not until he met the Duke of Montague who took him under his wing, he learned to read and write and he flourished as a thinker of the day. He worked for the Montague family for many years until after the Duke's death and with money from the family, he moved to Charles Street, now King Charles Street (between the Treasury and the Foreign Office) and opened a small grocery shop. Married at St Margaret's Westminster, he lived with his wife and 6 children, not all of whom survived. They would have walked over Westminster Bridge, the only bridge in the area and strolled through St James's Park.
He had many important acquaintances and was a prolific letter writer to politicians, newspapers and reknowned thinkers and authors of the day. He urged them to talk and write about the abhorrant slave trade. He also wrote poems, plays and music. It was clear that this extraordinary man had a unique life in London at a dangerous time, at the height of the trade, when he could have been press-ganged, kidnapped or deported at any time. Clearly highly regarded, his portrait was painted by Thomas Gainsborough in 1768 and he is buried in what is now Christchurch Gardens and has no known decendents.
Ignatius Sancho, Short Talk by Victor Keegan - February 2020
Christchurch Gardens Reconstruction Short Talk - January 2020
Christmas Party 2019
Our Christmas Party at the Rochester by Blue Orchid Hotels was loud and fun with the South Westminster Community Choir and accompanying brass section. Many thanks to all for a great evening.
Richmond House, Whitehall - The Northern Parliamentary Estate
The Government has just applied for planning permission to radically alter their Northern Estate. They have been working towards the Restoration and Renewal project in the Palace of Westminster and the full decant of all the people who work there into the various buildings in the ‘northern estate’ – the block that contains Portcullis House at the south end and Richmond House at the north. It has been decided that the two parliament chambers will move, the House of Lords into the Queen Elizabeth ll Conference Centre, and the House of Commons into a temporary replica chamber. It is claimed that the only possible site can be achieved by demolishing the interior and rear façade of Richmond house.
SAVE Britain’s Heritage is leading a campaign to save the whole of Richmond House from demolition – see https://www.savebritainsheritage.org/campaigns/item/550/Richmond-House-a-building-worth-fighting-for
We will also object strongly to the demolition of the interior of Richmond House. Facadism might be acceptable in certain circumstances, but for the sake of a temporary building it should not be countenanced. We will also object to the alterations to the buildings facing Whitehall and encourage a more sympathetic treatment of the various gateways to the Estate than currently exists.
The Planning application can now be viewed at: https://tinyurl.com/wqryu5t
It would be good if as many people as possible make their views known as a Comment through this web page.
20mph Throughout Westminster ? YES !
Duck Island Volunteer Project
ONGOING ! This exciting collaboration with St James's Park is calling for volunteers from TTIS to help restore and revitalise Duck Island. If you are interested in helping clear brambles and paths, raking and tidying the meadow area and lake edges, making log and deadwood piles, sorting and documenting artefacts in the barn or helping in the cottage garden, please get in touch to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or post us a note to TTIS, 10 Old Pye Street, SW1P 2DG.
This is a really fun project and we are working one Wednesday a month, from 10am to 2pm. Next dates: 18th Dec '19, 15th Jan '20, 19th Feb, 18th March, 15th April and 20th May 2020.
Go directly to The Royal Parks volunteering website to register CLICK HERE Then book yourself in on the specific dates under "TRP Conservation Volunteers"
The Society's 33rd AGM, 12th November 2019
The newly elected Executive Committee can be viewed on the "US" page along with our Annual Report and Financial Statements. The Minutes will follow soon. It was noted that the Society is in URGENT need of a Membership Secretary. If you are interested in helping, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
After the business of the meeting, we were treated to a marvellous talk by Professor Warwick Rodwell, consultant archaeologist to Westminster Abbey, on the fruits of recent excavations and finds. Amongst these was a Roman sarcophagus of Valerius Amandinus which instead of being evidence of Roman occupation on Thorney island, was almost certainly an existing tomb moved from Roman Londinium. The occupant of which was moved out to provide a resting place for an important Anglo-saxon person in Westminster (possibly Abbot Aelfwig c.1020) - the lid being re-carved with a crucifix.
Professor Rodwell described that the Pyx Chamber in the East Cloister Undercroft was used to measure the purity of gold and silver (now done at the Goldsmith’s Hall) and is the earliest room in London dating back to Edward the Confessor who died in 1066. The Pyx Chapel altar somehow survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries probably because of its association with gold and silver.
We heard that the small door near the Chapter House, marked 'The oldest door in the country', had been dated by Professor Rodwell and a colleague back to Edward the Confessor. This was done partly by dendrology to age the wood panels and a study of historic ironwork. By examining bolt and tack holes, the original style could be concluded to have had further ironwork and the whole door covered with hide and probably painted red ochre. A fine door indeed.
Whilst clearing out 'rubbish' swept under the floor of the Triforium in preparation for the Queen's Jubillee Galleries, finds included a C17th Jack of Hearts playing card, a screwed up Virginian tobacco wrapper branded the 'Nag's Head, King Street, Westminster' from 1685-90. Many other topics and finds were described, including Viking remains. Professor Rodwell also touched on the history of the Cornonation Chair and the Stone of Scone, which traditionally monarchs would sit directly upon before a wooden seat was added in the C18th and finally his own nine year research into the medieval mosaic pavements in the Abbey, the only ones of their kind outside Italy. His recent book on this project can be found here: https://amzn.to/2pdZpBs
We are most grateful to Professor Rodwell for a memorable and stimulating talk.
The Society's 33rd AGM, 12th November 2019
Autumn-Winter 2019 Newsletter
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Visit to the Palace of Westminster & Jewel Tower - October 2019
All Thorney Island visits are full of interest and our specially organised tour of The Palace of Westminster was as challenging as it was fascinating since it coincided with the first day of two weeks of protests by Extinction Rebellion. The streets and bridges around the Palace were occupied by protesters who laid down in the streets, made speeches, chanted and drummed. Loudly.
Our tour began in the grand medieval Westminster Hall and we looked up at the carved angels 'holding up the ceiling' and learned that their faces were modelled on the carpenters' own wives and sweethearts. So many important historic events had taken place in the Hall including the meeting of Parliament and Simon de Montfort who led the rebels who defeated King Charles I in 1265.
We learned that the Parliamentary Estate has one thousand rooms, and that the architect Charles Barry gave the trade mark of the portcullis to Parliament. Jostling with school groups we visited both the Commons and the Lords chambers, passing through the 'nay' lobby and saw where we can petition our MP in the Central Lobby. After the Second World War the Commons needed to be rebuilt and the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill insisted that not only should the bomb-damaged arch leading into the chamber be retained, but that the design of the chamber should be 'intimate and adversarial'. We wonder whether he would do the same thing now? The coat of arms designed by the children of the murdered MP Jo Cox, hangs alone on the wooden panelling behind the seat where Jo Cox sat as a back-bencher. A moment when we all reflected.
What would be the same for a Prime Minister was for all MPs - the Division Bell which rings across the parliamentary estate, giving 8 minutes to get to the Commons to vote. Said to be the time it takes for a PM 'to walk briskly' from Downing Street. Another quirky custom takes place to commemorate the Gunpowder Plot. In 1605 the plot was uncovered under the Princes Chamber and each year before the Opening of Parliament a search is made to make sure there is no repeat of the plot.
We heard so many details about the history of the buildings and finished by seeing the statue to which suffragettes chained themselves in pursuit of the vote and finally the inspiring art installation in recognition of the many organisations who fought for women's rights in the 20th century. The installation lights up with the ebb and flow of the Thames and makes up the symbol of the portcullis. A fitting end way to end an illuminating tour.
Then off across the road to The Jewel Tower, the only other medieval building of the Palace, built between 1365-6, under the direction of William of Sleaford and Henry de Yevele, to house the personal treasure of King Edward III. We admired the wooden and stone roof and walls of the ground floor room and up the tiny staircase to further rooms above. With thanks to all those who made these tours possible.
Thorney Tales (18) The Buxton Memorial Fountain
One of the gems of Victoria Tower Gardens (VTG) is the Buxton Memorial Fountain built in Gothic revival style to celebrate the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. It was constructed, and partly designed, by Charles Buxton the son of Thomas Buxton who was William Wilberforce’s designated successor to carry the anti-slavery movement to a successful conclusion. The Act, which came into force in 1834, made the ownership of slaves throughout the British colonies illegal.
The monument itself originated with the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Association, which wanted to build “a costly and handsome fountain in Palace Yard”. Buxton took the idea over and in 1865 it was first placed at the far end of Parliament Square where apparently it created a dramatic presence for anyone coming from St James’s Park towards Parliament.
When Parliament Square was reconstructed in 1949 as part of the plans for the Festival of Britain and designed in a classical mode, it was felt that a Gothic fountain would be out of place and also unfashionable as tastes had changed.
In 1949 Herbert Morrison, deputy Prime Minister, is believed to have been the first to suggest it could be located in VTG but it was kept in storage until 1957 when Parliament eventually decided to place it there.
Viscount Simon described the anti-slavery legislation as “one of the greatest Parliamentary events in our history”. Few would disagree with that even though Parliament had been complicit until the movement got underway. Some MPs, such as Sir James Penny of Liverpool (later unintentionally immortalised in the Beatles’s song Penny Lane) strongly resisted the movement. In 1792 Penny was given a silver bowl by the City of Liverpool for defending the slave trade before a Commons committee.
The memorial is octagonal in shape with eight bronze figures representing past rulers of England including Britons, Danes, Saxons and Normans and ending with Queen Victoria.
At the time it was thought fitting to be placed in VTG because of the deep connection to Parliament which, as one observer noted “cleansed the country of its terrible inheritance of the slave trade”. This is one of the reasons The Thorney Island Society has advocated that the proposed Holocaust Memorial be sited somewhere else nearby rather than in VTG because there is no direct link with Parliament as there is with the Buxton Memorial.
Thorney Tales (18) The Buxton Memorial Fountain