If you want a real treat, do try to visit to the Guildhall Art Galley where, until 12th November, you can immerse yourself in a world of exquisite craftsmanship and historical significance at the Treasures of Gold and Silver Wire exhibition. This dazzling display of over 200 items – from centuries-old robes to contemporary jewellery – forms the finest collection of gold and silver wire objects to ever be brought together in an exhibition. The entrance fee is £10 and you can book online for a timed ticket.
The highlight for me was the Bacton Altar Cloth (1590-1610), the only surviving dress worn by Queen Elizabeth the First …
I spent a long time gazing at its exquisite workmanship and trying to spot little details such as the depiction of animals stitched into the fabric (there seem to be quite a few caterpillars) …
The Queen is seen wearing a similar dress in her Rainbow Portrait 1600-1602 …
Here are just a few of the other delights on show. The exhibition signage is excellent and very detailed so I won’t attempt to replicate it here.
Queen Mary’s 1911 coronation dress …
The Queen’s 1977 Silver Jubilee Cope …
Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation Glove and its informative label …
Royal Regalia …
‘The Most Noble Order of the Garter Mantle with Badge, Cordons and Hood’ …
A seventeenth century burse, or bag, for carrying the Great Seal of England …
Crowns of the Master and Wardens of the Girdlers Company (15th and 20th century) …
The arts are represented.
A costume worn by Darcey Bussell in 2004 …
The cloak and crown worn by Helen Mirren as Cleopatra in 1982 …
Charles Dickens’s Court Suit and his dress sword, 1870 …
The Military …
There are unusual and unexpected items too.
The Fishmongers’ Pall 1512-1530 – used for covering the coffin of distinguished Liverymen …
Some detail …
A piece of Oliver Cromwell’s dressing gown …
And finally, the David Shilling Commemorative Hat …
It’s definitely one of the most interesting exhibitions I’ve seen in years and my pictures can’t really do it justice (and they only represent a small number of the 200-plus items on display).
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Although I love my City expeditions, every now and again it’s nice to explore further afield and, for some reason, with me this usually means heading east. On this occasion I took the DLR to Limehouse and walked south.
On the way I passed Limehouse Basin, a navigable link between the Thames and two of London’s canals. First dug in 1820 as the eastern terminus of the new Regent’s Canal, it was gradually enlarged in the Victorian era and incorporated a lock big enough to admit 2,000 ton ships. The basin in 1827 …
Here coal was unloaded from ships to barges and until 1853 it was done entirely by human muscle power. Working in total silence, a nine-man gang was expected to unload 49 tons of a coal a day but, according to Henry Mayhew, they often achieved double that amount. During each period each rope man climbed a total distance of nearly 1 1⁄2 vertical miles — and sometimes more. This system was known as ‘whipping’ …
Congestion in the 1820s …
Congestion in the 2020s …
Instead of slaving shifting coal, people here are more likely to be slaving at nearby Canary Wharf.
Nice to see a bit of greenery …
Some horticultural humour …
Onward to Narrow Street, so known because once upon a time it was … er … very narrow.
Time to stop for a bit of refreshment …
The pub is partly owned by Sir Ian McKellen and has a really atmospheric ‘old boozer’ interior …
The terrace outside overlooks the Thames and from it you can see this mysterious life-sized figure …
It’s a sculpture by Anthony Gormley and is one of a series entitled Another Time. The artist describes the series as follows: Another Time asks where the human being sits within the scheme of things. Each work is necessarily isolated, and is an attempt to bear witness to what it is like to be alive and alone in space and time.
The seagulls have shown it little respect but he can be thankful that this one, perched just across the road, isn’t capable of flying …
You can see The Grapes in the background …
The sculpture was commissioned by the London Docklands Development Corporation in 1994 and stands in Ropemaker Fields, the park taking its name from the fact that rope was once manufactured in this district. The work by the artist Jane Ackroyd is mixed media in that the bronze figure of the gull is actually standing on a coil of rope.
The man from further east along the river …
Images from Dunbar Wharf …
The poor Gherkin can now only be clearly seen from the east …
Dunbar Wharf was named after the Dunbar family who had a very successful business at Limekiln Dock. The family wealth was initially from a Limehouse brewery established by Duncan Dunbar. It was his son, also called Duncan, who used the money he inherited from his father to build the shipping business that was based at Dunbar Wharf. The company’s ships carried passengers and goods across the world as well as convicts to Australia. The wharf, probably in the 1950s, showing lighters with cargo moored alongside …
Limekiln Dock …
This dock is a very old feature in the area. In the following Rocque map extract from 1746, the dock is to the right …
Rocque shows that on the southern side of the dock entrance was Lime Kiln Yard. This was the location of the lime kilns that as well as giving their name to the dock, were also the origin of the name Limehouse.
And finally, at the South Eastern tip of Millwall, near Canary Wharf, lie the remains of a great ship’s launch ramp …
SS Great Eastern was an iron sail-powered, paddle wheel and screw-propelled steamship designed by Iaambard Kingdom Brunel and built by John Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall Iron Works on the Thames. She was the largest ship ever built at the time and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers from England to Australia without refuelling.
Her launch was planned for 3 November 1857 but ship’s massive size posed major logistical issues and, according to one source, the ship’s 19,000 tons made it the single heaviest object ever moved by humans! Since no dock was big enough, Brunel’s solution was to launch the ship sideways using cables and chains. Nothing had been attempted on this scale before, but Brunel was confident that his calculations were correct to allow the launch to go ahead.
This is the famous photograph by Robert Howlett of Brunel in front of the ship’s launching chains …
The ship under construction …
Because Brunel knew the launch would be fraught with difficulty he was keen to keep the whole thing low-key, however the ship company sold thousands of tickets for the launch and every available vantage point was taken on land as well as on the river.
The launch, however, failed, and the ship was stranded on its launch rails – in addition, two men were killed and several others injured, leading some to declare Great Eastern an unlucky ship. Over the next few days various investigations were carried out to determine why the ship did not move, and in the end it was decided that the steam winches were simply not up to the job of pulling the vessel into the Thames. In fact, it took another three attempts and three months to finally get the ship into the water on 31 January the following year.
Throughout the construction of the ship, Brunel kept letter-books, six large volumes into which every piece of correspondence sent or received regarding the Great Eastern was copied. These volumes are an amazing resource, effectively detailing the entire progress of the project and illuminating many of Brunel’s thought processes and his relationships with colleagues and suppliers. See this link to the University of Bristol Library.
Tragically, Brunel suffered a stroke just before Great Eastern‘s maiden voyage in 1859, in which she was damaged by an explosion. He died 10 days later, aged 53, leaving an extraordinary pioneering legacy behind him.
The ship berthed in New York in 1860 …
Read all about this great ship and its rather sad end here.
Beached, prior to being broken up …
Once again I am extremely grateful to the London Inheritance blogger for much of the historical information contained in this week’s blog.
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Have you ever paused outside Liverpool Street Station and looked across the road to admire this magnificent building …
Its Grade II listing describes it as a ‘lavish pastiche of Tudor gothic style in red brick and Portland stone’ and ‘lavish’ seems a very appropriate word. Built in 1888, it is a typical expression of Victorian civic pride with its original purpose still clearly visible 135 years later …
Sadly, however, beyond the arches there no longer resides the great engines and brave crews who used to keep Londoners safe but a retail outlet for Tesco.
Fire services in London emerged principally from the need for insurance providers to limit their losses through damage to property in the period after the Great Fire of 1666. Initially, each insurer maintained a separate brigade that only served subscribers until the foundation of an integrated service in 1833, funded by City businesses. A terrible fire in Tooley Street prompted a radical review of firefighting in London – read all about it in my earlier blog.
The first publicly-funded authority charged with saving lives and protecting buildings from fire was founded in 1866: the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB), initially part of the Metropolitan Board of Works whose initials are still displayed on the building …
The earliest stations were generally plain brick and few pre-1880 examples survive. In the 1880s, under the MFB architect Robert Pearsall, fire stations acquired a true architectural identity, most notably in the rich Gothic style typical of Victorian municipal buildings such as Bishopsgate.
Let’s take a closer look.
The spandrels above the arches include the coat of arms of East Anglia (3 crowns) and Essex (3 swords) …
There’s also Kent (white horse) and Norwich (Castle) …
Plus the City of London (St George’s cross with sword of St Paul) and the Houses of Parliament (portcullis) …
From a distance you can admire the Victorian watch tower – literally for keeping a look out for fires from the top of the building …
Can you see the discreet Livery Company coat of arms?
Here it is in close-up …
The arms belong to the Goldsmith’s Company who probably own the freehold to the building.
I’ve been searching the archives for images of the Station in its heyday and here’s what I found.
The Station in 1907 (Image copyright London Metropolitan Archives / City of London Corporation)..
This 1904 picture isn’t of the Bishopsgate Station but it does show an interesting combination of horse-drawn and mechanical engines …
London’s oldest fire station was based in Clerkenwell but was closed down in 2014. Read all about it here in The Gentle Author’s blog.
This might be a good time to remember the bravery of individual firefighters and a Clerkenwell station ‘escape attendant’ called George Lee is commemorated on the Watts Memorial in Postman’s Park where brave police officers are also remembered.
At the inquest into George’s death the chief officer giving evidence declared that ‘after a very long experience he believed this was the greatest act of bravery ever shown by any fireman in the world’. There is a really comprehensive description of the event and George’s extraordinary courage here on the London Walking Tourswebsite. Incidentally, I’m grateful to Katie Wignall of the Look Up London website for inspiring today’s blog – the picture of the watchtower and the coat of arms are from her blog.
Finally, as regular readers will know, I do tend to pay particular attention to bollards and have devoted a blog to them entitled Bollardology. I couldn’t resist, therefore, taking a picture of these rather colourful examples at Citypoint …
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