... for your actions. That's what older people always tell younger people.

 

Everything that IS today is the direct result of actions taken immediately before the subject transaction. Every action taken will be the trigger for the next action, or reaction, perhaps. Once you are able to feel that, it will seem everything in all the universe is at this instant exactly where it is supposed to be.

 

So, what is my point. Let's start with a simple concept "Look both ways before crossing the street." Now, add to that all the advice you've been given for the entirity of your life.

 

There's another factor, too, and that's what I'll call the miracel factor. I'm into this because right now I'm living a miracle and I seem to have miracles occur frequently in my life. I'll tell you about one of them.

 

The foundation for this miracle rests on the foundation of several basic facts.

 

One is, I am a loyal fan of the writing of James Michener. I think I've read every book he's written, even "Iberia" which is actually a detailed travel guide for Spain.

 

Just before the subject miracle, I became excited about Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code" and from there to the Knights Templar, hence to Spain. Along my journey I had lost my copy of "Iberia" so I ordered one on the internet. It arrived in my life at a time when I was working daily on my computer and had a website and a Flickr account.

 

Meanwhile, at this time we were living in Blanco County Texas and we met and became friends with Jackie and Greg who also lived there. Greg was a retired Lt. Colonel in the Air Force. His last assignment before retirement was Training Commander of Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX. Two of my three sons and I are graduates of Lackland AFB basic training.

 

After retirement, Greg received offers of civilian employment and accepted one from a major aircraft manufacturer in the USA, as their representative to Spain.

 

Back to Michener, I received my new (used) copy of "Iberia" and immediately became obsessed with the black and white photographs, sprinkled generously throughout the book. I noted that Robert Vavra was the photographer who traveled with Michener during the writing of several books. I thought it would be a benefit to my Flickr friends to know about James Michener and Robert Vavra.

 

On the internet, I found an Email address for Vavra and my request to scan and post his photographs was answered by his secretary in California. She told me Mr. Vavra was on location in Spain at this time and was living there about six months out of each year. She said she would inform him of my request as soon as he returned home.

 

I seriously doubted she would remember to do that and so dropped the project altogether.

 

About a year later and still in constant Email contact with Jackie and Greg, I got an Email from Jackie who said, "Bill, I met the most interesting man on my flight back to Spain this week, his name is Robert Vavra."

 

I Emailed Jackie and told her of my experience with Vavra's secretary and she said they were having dinner with him that week and she would pass on my request.

 

She and Greg had dinner with Robert Vavra, she told him about my request and he simply asked if she knew me well. When Jackie said I was a friend, Robert Vavra said for me to go ahead, because any friend of Jackie and Greg had to be a responsible person.

 

I did the series over a period of months; it was spectacular and the project ran its course, after I had purchased several of Robert Vavra's subsequent books. Jackie and Greg sent me an autographed copy of Robert's last book, "Michener's the Name." This was a history of his years of working with James Michener and then being with him right up until his death.

 

I call that whole story a miracle, while doubters simply call it a coincidence.

 

But, I wonder if maybe a strong desire, a prayer, meditation or an intense emotion doesn't have the power to communicate itself to another person or perhaps to a group pool of other persons who are on a consciousness level with us. We know so much about the physical nature of life and so little about the spiritual or about consciousness.

 

That's just one of many miracles in my life and I will continue to call them exactly that. So again, as an older person to all you younger people, "BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS."

 

P.S. I wonder how many people saw my set of Robert Vavra's "Iberia" photographs and were fascinated and maybe took some action that triggered other actions. This is not a dream, this is our reality.

GOVERNOR TOMBLIN DELIVERS STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

 

Address highlights top priorities and key pieces of legislation

 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (January 13, 2016) - Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin today delivered the 2016 State of the State Address in the House Chamber at the State Capitol Complex.

  

Gov. Tomblin's remarks included an overview of new programs and initiatives related to his top priorities as governor, as well as a number of new pieces of legislation he plans to introduce during the 2016 Legislative Session.

  

Since becoming governor in November 2010, Gov. Tomblin has focused on issues such as workforce development, combatting substance abuse, responsible fiscal policies and job creation. Following are highlights from the State of the State speech and other legislative initiatives of Gov. Tomblin.

 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

 

Gov. Tomblin has worked to create a positive business climate now and for decades to come, and he remains committed to working with business and industry leaders from a variety of industries to create new investments and bring jobs to West Virginia. Companies from across the nation and around the world are noticing the changes the state has made, and nationally and internationally recognized companies - including Macy's Amazon, Quad Graphics, Hino Motors, Diamond Electric, Toyota and Procter and Gamble - have chosen to locate, expand and invest in West Virginia.

  

Tonight, Gov. Tomblin added another company to the list of those that have committed to West Virginia. During the address, Gov. Tomblin announced polymer additive manufacturer Addivant has decided to stay and expand operations in Morgantown, saving nearly 100 jobs and adding at least $12 million in new investments and additional opportunities for employment.

  

While these large investments are a vital part of West Virginia's long-term success, Gov. Tomblin is also committed to ensuring small business owners have a chance to excel and grow. Tonight, Gov. Tomblin introduced the Self-Employment Assistance Act, designed to make it easier for unemployed West Virginians to get the help they need to open a business. The act allows entrepreneurs to continue receiving unemployment benefits while establishing their new business. This helps owners reinvest in their new venture and employees, while also providing a steady source of financial support for their families.

 

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

 

In working to bring new investments and create jobs, Gov. Tomblin has also made it a top priority to ensure these jobs are filled by skilled and well-trained West Virginians. With the help of his Workforce Planning Council, Gov. Tomblin has established new workforce development programs and strengthened existing initiatives to meet the needs of business and industry operating here. The state has received more than $40 million in federal grant funding to support Workforce West Virginia operations across the state, helping coal miners, their families, and those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits find careers in growing industries.

  

Through a collaborative partnership among business, industry, education and labor leaders, Gov. Tomblin has established a new Regional Job Matching Database, an online source for both educational program listings and employment opportunities available close to people's homes. This database will help match students with training programs in critical needs areas and connect them with employers seeking those same skills.

  

In addition, Gov. Tomblin also plans to introduce legislation that will expand the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources' (WVDHHR) Temporary Assistance to Need Families (TANF) pilot program. Through a partnership with the WVDHHR and Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, the pilot program was designed to help West Virginians already receiving TANF benefits enroll in college courses, get access to financial aid and work with advisors to begin a new career path to support themselves and their families. With this program expansion, more West Virginians will receive the help and support they need to become productive, successful members of their local communities.

 

STRENGTHENING SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA

 

Gov. Tomblin has dedicated much of his public service to supporting West Virginia's coal miners and their families. In recent years, both the state and nation have experienced unprecedented downturns in this industry, adversely affecting local operations and devastating the lives of many hardworking West Virginians.

 

Tonight, Gov. Tomblin highlighted ongoing efforts to support and strengthen all those affected by the downturn in the coal industry. The state has submitted an application to the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), seeking more than $140 million in funding from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. This competition has the potential to help Boone, Lincoln, Logan, Mingo, McDowell and Wyoming counties adjust, adapt and advance their communities. If successful, funding will be allocated to help repair and rebuild aging infrastructure, promote land use planning and hazard reduction efforts and stimulate housing and economic development in the region.

  

Gov. Tomblin tonight also announced plans to develop of the largest industrial site in West Virginia history - the former Hobet surface mine in Boone and Lincoln counties. At 12,000 acres, this property is large enough to fit every major economic development project in recent history - with thousands of acres left over. The state is working in partnership with local landowners, Marshall University, West Virginia University and the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund to find ways to re-develop this site and diversify southern West Virginia's economy.

 

ENERGY

 

In working to ensure West Virginia's energy sector is strong and diverse, Gov. Tomblin has also worked hard to support development of West Virginia's abundant Marcellus, Utica and Rogersville shale formations. Tonight, Gov. Tomblin stressed the need to create the processing and pipeline infrastructure necessary to ensure this industry's continued growth now and for years to come, highlighting major investment projects such as the Columbia Gas Mountaineer Xpress pipeline.

  

Gov. Tomblin also announced that while the Department of Environmental Protection continues to work on a feasibility study related to the state's Clean Power Plan Submission, it's likely that plan will include items such as reforestation and replacement of boilers to improve the efficiency of existing coal-fired power plans.

 

TACKLING SUBSTANCE ABUSE

 

Gov. Tomblin has made combatting the state's substance abuse epidemic a top priority of his administration. As communities and families across West Virginia continue to battle substance abuse from a number of fronts, Gov. Tomblin has invested a significant amount of time and funding to strengthen community-based treatment options and programs to give those struggling hope and get them on the road to recovery.

  

Tonight, Gov. Tomblin introduced legislation to support ongoing substance abuse efforts. He announced new licensing requirements for Suboxone and Methadone clinics, requiring medication-assisted treatment facilities to provide comprehensive therapies in coordination with medication to help to treat the root causes behind addictions, rather than simply supplying a short-term fix.

  

In addition, Gov. Tomblin introduced legislation to expand the Opioid Antagonist Act of 2015, making opioid antagonists, such as Narcan, available to any West Virginian without a prescription. This new legislation requires pharmacists to train those who receive this drug on how to administer opioid antagonists and helps the state track those receiving Narcan to help better focus state resources in areas hardest hit by opioid overdoses.

 

JUVENILE JUSTICE

 

Gov. Tomblin's juvenile justice reforms have also made a significant impact on our state's youth, as he has worked to improve outcomes for those currently in the juvenile justice system and provide early-intervention care to at-risk students to keep them in the classroom and out of the courtroom. During his address, Gov. Tomblin touted the success of 2015's Juvenile Justice Reform, specifically highlighting positive results of the truancy diversion program.

  

He also announced the Division of Juvenile Services has reduced the number of kids being sent to out-of-home placements by more than one-third and reduced the number of detention beds by more than 40 percent. So far the state has saved $6 million, and the Division of Juvenile Services is confident West Virginia can double that savings in coming years.

 

EDUCATION

 

Ensuring students remain in the classroom for 180 days of learning is just one of Gov. Tomblin's education priorities, as he is equally committed to ensuring West Virginia's education system stands ready to provide students with the thorough and efficient education they deserve. In addition, they should receive new learning opportunities that supply the skills and hands-on experience they need achieve long-term success in West Virginia.

  

To improve upon West Virginia's educational offerings, Gov. Tomblin has created the Innovation in Education Grant Program, which will not only supply students with special skills and hands-on training, but will also give them the opportunity to compete among their peers on a national and world-wide scale. This new program is designed to reward teachers and schools in West Virginia for innovation and creativity in the classroom. The reallocation of $2.8 million in existing West Virginia Department of Education money will support new classroom offerings that are designed to help students develop and gain these skills in high-demand fields, such as science, technology, engineering, math and entrepreneurship.

 

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

 

Throughout his administration, Gov. Tomblin has made sure to enact and uphold fiscally responsible policies. He understands the state is experiencing significant budget challenges, but remains committed to making difficult choices now that will help ensure West Virginia has a bright future now and for years to come.

 

Gov. Tomblin tonight introduced legislation to pay off West Virginia's old workers' compensation debt more than a decade ahead of schedule. This also will remove additional severance taxes on coal and natural gas industries earlier than anticipated, providing much-needed relief for energy businesses struggling with low prices.

  

In helping to ensure West Virginia's tax base is both stable and diverse, Gov. Tomblin tonight also proposed raising the state's tobacco tax by 45 cents to a total of $1 a pack. This increase will not only help discourage West Virginians from smoking or using tobacco products, it will also provide $71.5 million annually to support health-related costs. $43 million of this revenue will help fund PEIA, ensuring public employees do not see the dramatic benefit reductions initially proposed.

  

Gov. Tomblin also proposed legislation to eliminate a sale tax exemption that will bring our state's telecommunications tax in line with 41 other states across the country. This legislation will place the same 6 percent sales tax on cell phone and phone line usage and generate $60 million annually.

  

With these proposed changes, the 2017 budget Gov. Tomblin presented uses no money from the state's Rainy Day Fund and in fact predicts surpluses beginning in 2019.

  

Gov. Tomblin will also introduce the following pieces of legislation:

  

Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA) Reporting Update

 

Updates current West Virginia code to reflect 2014 federal law for compliance and continuation of federal funding from the U.S. Department of Labor.

 

Authorizes information sharing by Workforce West Virginia with the state agencies responsible for vocational rehabilitation, employment and training to better align the workforce system with education and economic development in an effort to create a collective response to economic and labor market challenges on the national, state and local levels.

 

West Virginia Workforce Development Board Updates

 

Updates the composition of the West Virginia Workforce Investment Council and changes its name to the West Virginia Workforce Development Board to comply with WIOA.

 

Borrowing from Rainy Day for Unemployment Compensation Fund

 

Authorizes borrowing in amount up to $25 million to provide additional funds for unemployment compensation.

 

Controlled Substances Monitoring Program (CSMP) Update Bill:

 

Requires practitioners (doctors, pharmacists and others) to register for the CSMP to obtain or renew a license.

 

Creates an administrative fine of $1,000 for failure to register for the CSMP, as well as an administrative fine of $500 for failure to access the CSMP as required.

 

Certificate of Need Exemption for Out-Patient Behavioral Health Community-Based Services

 

Exempts community-based behavioral health care facilities, programs or services from the certificate of need process contained in W.Va. Code 16-2D-1 et seq.

 

811 - One Call System

 

Makes underground pipelines of 4" in diameter and greater subject to "call before you dig" reporting if not otherwise required by state or federal law. Applies to gas, oil or any hazardous substance pipelines.

 

Membership in 811 requires an entity to provide mapping data indicating where their underground pipelines are located and to respond within the specified time periods when notified by the 811 administrator and be able to mark its underground pipes.

 

15 Minutes Rule

 

Requires that drilling, production and pipeline activities are subject to the state's 15-minute emergency notification law (WV Code 15-5B-3a (b)(1)).

 

Provisions apply to emergency events that involve a death or serious injuries, unplanned ignitions, fires or explosions and similar serious emergency events (confirmed emergencies) at drilling, production and pipeline sites.

 

Notification must be provided within 15 minutes to the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and include preliminary information regarding the nature and extent of the emergency event, any existence or non-existence of threats to public health, substances involved or released and designated principal contact information.

 

Transportation Network Company Bill (TNC) - Uber/Lyft

 

Authorizes TNCs to operate in West Virginia by obtaining a permit from DMV.

 

Requires automobile insurance and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.

 

Requires a zero tolerance for drug and alcohol policy.

 

Requires TNCs to have a nondiscrimination policy and comply with nondiscrimination laws.

 

Office of Coalfield Community Development Bill

 

Continues the Office of Coalfield Community Development in Commerce (previously in Division of Energy)

 

Air Ambulance Bill

 

Provides air transportation or related emergency or treatment services providers operating in West Virginia from collecting more for service from PEIA covered persons than the currently allowable Medicare reimbursement rate.

 

Repeal Behavioral Health Severance & Privilege Tax

 

Eliminates the behavioral health severance and privilege tax and limits the sales tax exemption on durable medical goods to those purchased for home use only.

 

The change is believed to be revenue neutral and will help ensure continued federal matching funds for Medicaid and Medicare.

 

Reduce Required Annual Severance Tax Deposit to Infrastructure Bond Fund

 

Reduces the amount of severance tax proceeds deposited into the West Virginia Infrastructure General Obligation Debt Service Fund for payment of debt service on such bonds from $22.5 million annually to an amount equal to annual debt service, not to exceed $22.25 million annually.

 

Personal Income Tax update

 

Updates the Personal Income Tax code to be in compliance with federal tax laws

 

CNIT Update & Revised Filing Date

 

Updates the Corporate Net Income Tax code to be in compliance with federal tax laws.

 

Intermodal

 

Terminates funding of the Special Railroad and Intermodal Enhancement Fund beginning January 1, 2016. The source of funding is corporate net income taxes.

 

Racetrack and Historic Hotel Modernization Funds Cessation

 

Ends the Licensed Racetrack Modernization Fund and Historic Hotel Modernization Fund and moves all funds currently in such funds to the General Revenue Fund.

 

Cessation of Deposit into Road Fund from Sales Tax for FY2016

 

Eliminates for fiscal year 2016 the deposit of sales tax proceeds into the State Road Fund from sales of construction and maintenance materials acquired by a second party for use in the construction or maintenance of a highway project.

 

Such sales tax proceeds will be deposited into the General Revenue Fund in lieu of the State Road Fund.

 

State Aid Formula Changes

 

Eliminates the Growth County School Facilities Act, which allowed growth county boards of education to designate general fund revenues from new construction (increasing property taxes) for placement in a growth county school facilities act fund.

 

Adjusts the formulas for the foundation allowance for both professional educators and service personnel.

 

Adjusts and eliminates certain adjustments to the foundation allowance for transportation costs (increasing bus life from 12 to 15 years and mileage from 180,000 to 225,000 miles).

 

Adjusts the calculation for the foundation allowance to improve instructional programs.

 

Eliminates certain restrictions in the computation of the local share applicable to growth county schools.

 

Infrastructure Fund Excess Lottery Deposit Reduction

 

Decreases the annual deposit of Excess Lottery revenues to the Infrastructure Fund from $40 million to $30 million for fiscal year 2017.

 

Increases the percentage of funds that may be disbursed from the Infrastructure Fund in the form of grants from 20% to 50% for fiscal year 2017.

 

SBA Deposit Reduction

 

Decreases for fiscal year 2017 the annual deposit of sales tax proceeds into the School Building Authority's School Major Improvement Fund from $5 million to $4 million (was reduced for FY16 to $3 million).

 

Decreases for fiscal year 2017 the School Building Authority's School Construction Fund from $27,216,996 to $24,216,996 (was reduced for FY16 to $21,216,996).

  

Photos available for media use. All photos should be attributed “Photo courtesy of Office of the Governor.”

Tombstone of Frederick "Big Daddy" Gardiner and his wife.He was the first chairman of the Metropolitan Toronto council. Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, Canada. Spring evening, 2020. Pentax K1 II.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Gardiner

 

Frederick Goldwin "Fred" Gardiner, QC (January 21, 1895 – August 22, 1983) was a Canadian politician, lawyer and businessman. He was the first chairman of Metropolitan Toronto council, the governing body for the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, from 1953 to 1961. As Metro Chairman, Gardiner, nicknamed "Big Daddy", was a staunch advocate of growth and expansion and was responsible for many capital works projects, including the Gardiner Expressway (named for him) and the Don Valley Parkway.

 

Gardiner, after graduating first in his law class, became a well-known criminal lawyer. He invested in various businesses, including consumer credit, sawmills, manufacturing and mining. At one time he was the largest share-holder in the Toronto-Dominion Bank.

 

Gardiner was a prominent member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in both federal and provincial politics, organizing conventions and developing policy in the 1930s and 1940s. He was instrumental in the updating of the Conservative Party as it was then known to the Progressive Conservative Party to acknowledge its change in policy to incorporate progressive values. He was a close adviser to Ontario PC premiers George Drew and Leslie Frost.

 

Early life

 

Fred Gardiner was born on January 21, 1895 in Toronto, one of three children born to David and Victoria Gardiner, the others being Myrtle and Samuel. David Gardiner was born in October 1854 in county Monaghan, Ireland, one of ten children. David emigrated to Toronto in 1874, first working as a labourer, then as a carpenter, eventually working as an attendant at the Toronto Asylum for the Insane, and a longer-term position as a guard at the Central Prison on Strachan Avenue. While working at the Asylum, he met Victoria Robertson from Port Hope, Ontario. The two married in April 1888. Son Samuel was born in 1893, Fred in 1895 and daughter Myrtle in 1899. The family lived on Arthur Street (today's Dundas Street West), near Euclid Street in the west-end of Toronto, before settling at 199½ Euclid in 1911.

 

As a child, Fred, known as Ted, assisted his father, who was a landlord for several properties in the Arthur-Euclid area. Fred also delivered telegrams by bicycle on holidays and weekends. Fred attended Grace Street School, (where he had to repeat fourth grade) until 1909 when he started to attend Parkdale Collegiate Institute on Jameson Avenue. It was in the third year at Parkdale that Gardiner started to develop his competitiveness, a trait he would use for material gain and political ends later in life.

 

In 1911, Gardiner first became involved in politics. His father, a member of the Loyal Orange Lodge, was also a member of the Conservative Party. Fred first helped out on a campaign for the board of education. In December 1911, he worked on the campaign for E. W. J. Owens in the provincial election.

 

In 1913, Gardiner entered the University of Toronto, in general arts, transferring in the second year to honours political science. Gardiner paid for his tuition out of his own savings. Gardiner joined the varsity rugby team in 1914, a year that the team won the national championship. Gardiner had to drop out of the varsity team when he did not have enough money for the fees and his father refused to pay. Gardiner worked hard at his studies and he won the political economy department's Alexander Mackenzie Medal in 1916.

 

After his third year, Gardiner enlisted in the militia in the spring of 1916. He signed on with the Depot Regiment of the Canadian Mounted Rifles. The Regiment was disbanded in 1917, but Gardiner was transferred to an infantry battalion in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He took an officer's course at Reading University and was assigned as an officer with the Royal Flying Corps, serving as a flight instructor. Gardiner only saw action after September 1918, piloting a Handley-Page night bomber on several missions.

 

While serving in the army, Gardiner developed a lifelong interest in gambling, becoming proficient at cards and dice; he played poker on the return voyage after the war, doubling his $1,500 stake. He also developed a taste for Scotch whisky.

 

Because of his service in the war, Gardiner was given an honours degree by the University, and he did not have to finish his fourth year of studies. Gardiner enrolled at Osgoode Hall in law, where returning soldiers could skip the first year, and take the second year in one summer semester. Gardiner was not impeded by the accelerated schedule, and he placed first in the class of 1920. He received the Chancellor Van Koughnet scholarship, a $400 cash prize and the Law Society's gold medal. Gardiner treasured the gold medal, and kept it on his desk for the length of his career.

 

Gardiner used most of his $400 prize to buy an engagement ring for Audrey Seaman, a railway clerk and daughter of the proprietor of a prosperous flooring company. Gardiner had known her since 1913. They married in October 1921. They had two children, William Warren and Anne. Anne would later marry a law partner of Gardiner's, J. B. Conlin.

 

Early career

 

Gardiner started his law career with Crooks, Roebuck and Parkinson. Gardiner turned down a partnership with the firm because Arthur Roebuck (a future attorney-general of Ontario) was too liberal, even though Roebuck took it as a personal slight. Gardiner left the practice in 1921 and joined Commercial Credit Company of Canada, as a legal associate. In 1923, Gardiner returned to law practice partnering with Harry Parkinson. The firm added H. Fred Parkinson and Donald H. Rowan to become the firm of Parkinson, Gardiner and Willis. Gardiner took criminal cases, litigation and continued to handle legal work with Commercial Credit. Gardiner attained the title of King's Counsel in 1938.

 

By 1945, Gardiner was considered one of the top half-dozen trial lawyers in the province and he commanded high fees. Gardiner was perceived as a stubborn and sometimes acid-tongued negotiator, and not a man to be crossed lightly as an opponent. Gardiner worked hard at research and marshalled detailed evidence with self-assurance.

 

Gardiner started investing in 1925, starting with $10,000, invested in industrial and mining stocks. He sold out in 1929 in time to avoid the crash, holding on only to shares of Noranda Mines. After the crash, he invested all of his capital in the Bank of Toronto, which became through merger today's Toronto-Dominion Bank. Gardiner also accepted stocks as payment for his legal fees and he amassed investments in a diverse number of companies. He was involved in real estate, metal stamping, manufacturing, forest products, aluminum products and car rentals. He partnered with Sam Steinberg in Drayton Motors, a large used car dealership. He also partnered with Steinberg in Sage Enterprises, managing hotels.

 

Gardiner began chartering aircraft for weekends of fishing. He continued to gamble, losing $6,000 in one night in the late 1930s. Gardiner's drinking increased until 1940, when Audrey convinced him to give it up. He did not drink again until 1949, and when he started, he drank more moderately. Gardiner also lessened his gambling and took up golf. He also developed an interest in growing red roses, for which he won horticultural prizes. He also assembled a collection of landscape and portrait paintings, and collected modern and antique silver artifacts.

 

Entry into politics

 

It was after the provincial election of 1934, when the Conservatives were defeated, that Gardiner started to become more involved in politics in the Conservative party, and politics in Forest Hill, then a small and affluent suburb of Toronto. He joined the Conservative Businessman's Association in 1934. He first ran for deputy reeve of Forest Hill Village council in 1935. In his first campaign he spent $800, when candidates normally spent $200. He went door-to-door canvassing and received the endorsement of past reeve Andrew Hazlett. A Jewish car dealer named Ben Sadowski, whom Gardiner had befriended at Parkdale and intervened in a fight, canvassed for Gardiner among Jewish families of the area. Gardiner won the post by 1,211 to his challenger's 919 votes.[16] Gardiner would go on to serve as reeve of the Village of Forest Hill for twelve years. In 1946, his final year as reeve, Gardiner was also Warden of the County of York, a title similar in some respects to his later chairmanship of Metropolitan Toronto.

 

In 1936, Gardiner started getting more involved in Conservative politics. He backed W. Earl Rowe for Conservative leader of Ontario. Rowe would lose the 1937 election to Mitchell Hepburn, and eventually give up the post in 1938. Gardiner's outward role in the election was to give speeches. One of Gardiner's first speeches was a rally for Leslie Frost, older brother of Cecil Frost, who organized the 1937 campaign. Cecil Frost and Gardiner would become the president and first vice-president, respectively, of the party in 1938. Gardiner, who had decided not to run for provincial politics in 1938, also chose not to run for federal politics in the 1939 federal election, although the South York nomination was his, if he wanted it. Gardiner chose not to run, because thought the Conservatives would remain in opposition and Gardiner would "sit in the back row of the Commons and wait for the boss to tell me when to make a speech."

 

Gardiner's largest role in the Conservative Party would be in reforming the party's policies to be more progressive. Gardiner was instrumental in the 1942 Port Hope policy conference, chairing the discussions of the labour committee. Gardiner came out in favour of legal safeguards for collective bargaining and uniform and general standards in wages and working conditions, including support for a 'closed shop' in collective agreements. The Port Hope policies were adopted at the Winnipeg national leadership convention in Winnipeg in December 1942, giving the party a systematically drafted platform. Gardiner again chaired the labour committee and acted in favour of reformed social security, as lieutenant of the resolution and policy committee. At the convention, the party would choose John Bracken as leader, and change its name to the Progressive Conservative Party.

 

Gardiner would continue his work inside the PC party for the rest of the 1940s, chairing the resolution and policy committee himself at the 1948 federal leadership convention. Gardiner turned down several chances to run provincially and federally. Gardiner chose instead to concentrate on his own career in business. "There is nothing you can do in politics that makes the cash register ring." Gardiner was even considered to run for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party (and therefore provincial premier) in 1948, but chose to support Leslie Frost instead. Gardiner would become one of Frost's closest political confidantes and advisers.

 

Metropolitan Toronto

 

By the 1940s, urban development had expanded beyond the borders of the City of Toronto. Planning studies anticipated that the townships and villages surrounding Toronto would be the scene of any future growth. However, spending to build any capital projects was limited by the lack of capital borrowing ability of the suburbs. The trunk sewers and sewage treatment plant for the Don Mills development was financed by its developer, E. P. Taylor, when North York Township could not.[20] Planning boards, including the Toronto and Suburban Planning Board of which Gardiner was chairman, proposed several projects, one being the Spadina Road Extension, which were rejected by the local governments.

 

The Ontario government, in concert with the City of Toronto, and Gardiner's Planning Board, proposed an amalgamated city to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) to overcome the roadblocks in building capital projects and facilitate growth. The OMB deliberated over the plan from 1951 until 1953, when it proposed a two-tier federal government named 'Metropolitan Toronto'. The Frost government approved the idea and passed it in April 1953, naming Gardiner the first chairman of the Metropolitan Council, made up equally of city and suburban representatives. Gardiner was also the chief administrative officer of the Metro Toronto organization. The two-tier plan was not new, it had been first proposed in 1934.

 

The Metro Toronto federation was charged with the responsibility of providing the thirteen municipalities with those services which were metropolitan in nature, while those services which were local in nature were to be left to the thirteen local municipalities. Metro was responsible for administration of justice, arterial roads, metropolitan parks, metropolitan planning, public education, public transportation, sewage treatment and water facilities and some housing activities and some social services. Metro Toronto, which now had the credit of all of the municipalities could finance capital projects with bonds.

 

Gardiner was chairman from 1953 until the end of 1961, and he deeply immersed himself in the job. He would be driven from home at 9:00 a.m. and return home some twelve hours later. Gardiner worked on weekends and late at night. During his nine years as chairman, he only took two summer vacations and four mid-winter holidays. On weekends, he would tour Metro Toronto public works projects, rapid transit facilities, urban renewal sites and tracts of suburban housing. The grueling routine took a toll on his health. Gardiner was hospitalized in March 1958 with arthritis and intestinal inflammation. Gardiner gave up his law practice, giving his cases to others and he parted company with long-time partners Harry Parkinson and Harry Willis.

 

During Gardiner's tenure, Metro Toronto grew to 1.6 million people and Metro government was busy. To provide the population with water, Metro built water filtration and sewage treatment plants and laid hundreds of miles of subterranean pipes. Metro invested $60 million, which doubled the supply of water to the entire region. A Metro Parks Department was created. Amongst the 3,500 acres (14 km2) of natural parkland developed by Metro was the 600-acre (2.4 km2) Toronto Islands Park. Two major highways, the Lakeshore Expressway, renamed the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway were started. The Bloor-Danforth and University subway lines were started. Metro built homes for the aged, and some for families with children. Metro formed the Metropolitan Toronto School Board and invested $230 million in new schools. The capital works program cost about $1 billion, at the rate of about $100 million a year, over the ten years.

 

As Metro Chairman, Gardiner dominated the Metro Council. He was only allowed to vote to break tie votes, but Gardiner made his voting preference known before votes. Over Gardiner's tenure, over 11,539 votes, Council voted over 80% in agreement with Gardiner's position. Gardiner only voted eight times.

 

Gardiner ruled Council meetings strictly. He controlled procedural questions strictly, challenging dissident members to appeal his decisions, something no-one was able to do throughout his term. Members were scolded for talking inaudibly. Meetings went through agenda items quickly. Often, he would not pause to ask for dissenting votes. Leslie Frost commended his performance in 1956 by that stating that the success of Metro to date "has been very largely dependent upon your own personality." Nathan Phillips described his style: "When he really wanted something, he just came and beat it out of you." Philip Givens, who was on several occasions brought to tears, described Gardiner's temper as "He scared the hell out of you. If he cut you up, he did it thoroughly. He eviscerated you, he left your entrails all over the floor."

 

While Gardiner was only allowed to vote in Metro Council to break ties, he was a voting member of all four policy committees. The committees would do the early work of working through proposals preparing them for Council. Gardiner prided himself on his work ethic, the same style he had used since his days at high school. "I was not going to change my way of proceeding. It was more necessary than ever. My diagnosis was that if I was going to get anywhere I had to know more about any given subject than any individual councillor, and more about metropolitan business as than all the members of council combined." Gardiner would wait to speak on important resolutions after others had spoken. When a close vote was anticipated, Gardiner went around the council table, rebutting objections one by one.

 

Gardiner was also known for controlling consideration of issues until the political time was right. The Bloor-Danforth subway was proposed by the City in 1956, but Gardiner stalled it until 1958 by starting three successive studies. When it reached Council, Gardiner gave it his full support, and he used tactics to build Council support through the use of preliminary and tentative council commitments. "Once you get those bulldozers in the ground, it is pretty hard to get them out."

 

One area of capital projects that especially was keen to Gardiner's interest was Metro's expressway program. Gardiner won executive approval for the drawing up of plans for the lakeshore expressway in July 1953. While the route through the central section was controversial, especially around Fort York, which he proposed moving, Gardiner was successful in convincing Council to approve the less-controversial east and west sections first. With the ends built, the central section was inevitable.

 

Gardiner used similar methods to push the Don Valley Parkway project along. Engineers were interested in studying alternate routes, which Gardiner was able to prevent because "councillors could not afford to stop, look and listen. Either the project was started forthwith, or the whole east end of the city will be on our shoulders like three tons of bricks." Metro executive committee approved the preliminary plans one month later. When the plans were in draft, he secured section-by-section approval. The Parkway project went from proposal to approved policy in about two years, from January 1955 until February 1957.

 

While the routes of the lakeshore expressway and the Don Valley Parkway were mostly uncontentious, the other parts of the expressway program went through developed areas and sure to be controversial. In 1954, Gardiner deferred the extension of the lakeshore expressway to the east, and the cross-town expressway was deferred in 1955. The Spadina expressway was similarly shelved in 1956. While all of the expressways were part of the official transportation plan in 1959, only the Spadina expressway was approved by the time Gardiner left office in 1961. The Spadina was formally approved at the final meeting Gardiner chaired, and the Cross-town deferred again.

 

However, Gardiner also saw the value of public transit. At the 1956 inaugural meeting of Metro Council, Gardiner stated that "it is a snare and a delusion to spend millions on expressways in the belief that they alone will solve traffic problems." He also stated that "the irresistible fact is, you simply cannot provide sufficient highways and parking space to accommodate every person who desires to drive his car downtown." He also estimated that $1 in expenditure on transit was worth $5 spent on arterial highways and parking spaces.

 

Metro Toronto greatly expanded the ability to finance capital works projects and Gardiner followed three principles in the allocation of money. Gardiner chose under his chairmanship to negotiate the amount of money to go to local municipalities, but did not interfere in the actual ways the local municipalities spent the money. He also pursued a policy of balance between the city and the suburbs. He pushed for the Bloor-Danforth subway, located mostly in the City, but he also pushed for a uniform water rate, a policy that favoured the suburbs. His third principle was to limit demand. While in 1953, he claimed that "there was nothing we could not afford", in 1954, he cautioned against the belief that "Metro has more money in the aggregate than we all had individually." Later in his term, Gardiner named $100 million as the upper limit of annual capital borrowing. He held onto the total figure "it was a nice round number" until 1961, when he agreed to a five per-cent increase.

 

Later life

 

Gardiner left City Hall in the second week of January 1962. Gardiner returned to his law practice, but he did not take on many law cases. He also became a director of the Toronto Dominion Bank; his 100,000 shares made him the largest shareholder in the bank. He also became a director of eleven other corporations. He became involved in several land quarry businesses. He retained one public office: he became Commissioner of Toronto Hydro in 1965 and retired in 1979. He was also a member of the board of governors of York University, to which he donated $50,000. He served as vice-president of the Canadian National Exhibition

 

Gardiner had retired from the Metro Chairmanship due to his ill health, particularly arthritis. He underwent surgery for his conditions in 1962. In 1967, he suffered as stroke, which caused slurring of his speech and problems with memory retention. He received an artificial hip in 1971, however the operation was not a success. Gardiner had to use a wheelchair for mobility. After that, Gardiner became less involved in business and had no directorships by 1975. He retired as partner from his law practice, although he kept an honorary title and small office.

 

After 18 months of illness related to a stroke and arthritis, Gardiner died on August 22, 1983. Gardiner was praised by past and present political colleagues. Phil Givens considered Gardiner the "catalyst for it all, the transition that transformed Metro into one of the great cities of the world." Allan Lamport praised him for his ability to put in long hours on the job. Paul Godfrey considered Gardiner his idol, admiring his ability to "solve political problems and bring people together". Bill Davis praised Gardiner for his "remarkable contributions and selfless service." Art Eggleton said that "a towering giant" was lost from the political scene. Gardiner is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario.

 

The opening day of the fifty-ninth year of The Empire Club of Canada was designated "Frederick G. Gardiner Day" in honour of a life member of the club, who announced his retirement as Chairman of the Municipality of Metro Toronto.

 

Gardiner's services to the community, in the field of politics and in other areas of civic welfare, were recognized by the University of Toronto when he was granted the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa.

 

Famous quotes

 

Gardiner was well-practiced as a speech-maker for the Conservatives, in his summations as a lawyer, and in Metro Toronto business. He often expressed his beliefs in turns of phrases:

 

"I don't care if I win or lose. But I'll win"

"The only symphony I understand is the one played on a cash register"

"You'll never leave footprints in the sands of time if you sit in your cabana on the beach"

"Nobody has ever borrowed their way to prosperity"

"A mathematical phenomenon exists in our suburbs - multiplication by sub-division"

"Toronto has shrunk at the core and burst at the seams"

"It's not too much of a tempest and not much of a teapot"

"Smile and the world smiles with you; tax and you tax alone"

"An ability to shoot golf in the low 60s is an indication of at least a partially misspent life"

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Responsible drinking means recycling afterwards. This tequila bottle was spotted on 13th Street NW, Washington, DC.

William Butterfield was responsible for greatly extending the School's existing buildings (largely the work of Henry Hakewell in the 1820s) in his hallmark style, striped brick with stone accents, in the later half of the nineteenth century, his most important contribution being the stunning chapel with it's soaring octagonal steeple. To the left of the chapel is Charles Nicholson's Memorial Chapel of 1922.

Fujifilm GA645, Fuji Pro 400h, f/4.0 1/15

Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom's most notable religious buildings and a burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of English and British monarchs have occurred in Westminster Abbey. Sixteen royal weddings have occurred at the abbey since 1100.

 

Although the origins of the church are obscure, there was certainly an abbey operating on the site by the mid-10th century, housing Benedictine monks. The church got its first grand building in the 1060s under the auspices of the English king Edward the Confessor, who is buried inside. Construction of the present church began in 1245 on the orders of Henry III. The monastery was dissolved in 1559 and the church was made a royal peculiar—a Church of England church responsible directly to the sovereign—by Elizabeth I. In 1987, the abbey, together with the Palace of Westminster and St. Margaret's Church, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its outstanding universal value.

 

The Gothic architecture of the church is chiefly inspired by French and English styles from the 13th century, although some sections of the church show earlier Romanesque styles or later Baroque and modern styles. The Henry VII Chapel at the east end of the church is a typical example of Perpendicular Gothic architecture, and was called by the antiquarian John Leland the orbis miraculum (the wonder of the world).

 

The abbey is the burial site of more than 3,300 people, many of prominence in British history: monarchs, prime ministers, poets laureate, actors, scientists, military leaders, and the Unknown Warrior.[18] The fame of the figures buried there has led to the abbey being called a "National Valhalla".

 

Although historians agree that there was a monastery dedicated to St. Peter on the site prior to the 11th century, its exact origin is somewhat obscure. One legend claims that it was founded by the Saxon King of Essex Sæberht, and another that its founder was the fictional 2nd-century British king Lucius. One tradition claims that a young fisherman on the River Thames had a vision of Saint Peter near the site. This seems to have been quoted as the origin of the salmon that Thames fishermen offered to the abbey, a custom still observed annually by the Fishmongers' Company. The recorded origins of the abbey date to the 960s or early 970s, when Saint Dunstan and King Edgar installed a community of Benedictine monks on the site. At that time, the location was an island in the middle of the River Thames called Thorn Ey. The buildings from this time would have been wooden, and have not survived.

 

Between 1042 and 1052, Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St. Peter's Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. It was built in the Romanesque style and was the first church in England built on a cruciform floorplan. The master stonemason for the project was Leofsi Duddason, with Godwin and Wendelburh Gretsyd (meaning "fat purse") as patrons, and Teinfrith as "churchwright", probably meaning someone who worked on the carpentry and roof. Increased endowments supported a community that increased from a dozen monks during Dunstan's time, up to as many as eighty monks. The building was completed around 1060 and was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before Edward's death on 5 January 1066. A week later, he was buried in the church; nine years later, his wife Edith was buried alongside him. His successor, Harold Godwinson, was probably crowned here, although the first documented coronation is that of William the Conqueror later that year.

 

The only extant depiction of Edward's abbey is in the Bayeux Tapestry. The foundations still survive under the present church, and above ground, some of the lower parts of the monastic dormitory survive in the undercroft, including a door said to come from the previous Saxon abbey. It was a little smaller than the current church, with a central tower.

 

In 1103, thirty-seven years after his death, Edward's tomb was re-opened by Abbot Gilbert Crispin and Henry I, who discovered that his body was still in perfect condition. This was considered proof of his saintliness, and he was canonised in 1161. Two years later he was moved to a new shrine, during which time his ring was removed and placed in the abbey's collection.

 

The abbot and monks, being adjacent to the Palace of Westminster (the seat of government from the late 13th century), became a powerful force in the centuries after the Norman Conquest, with the Abbot of Westminster taking a seat in the House of Lords. The abbot remained Lord of the manor of Westminster as a town of two to three thousand people grew around the abbey: as a consumer and employer on a grand scale, the abbey helped fuel the town's economy, and relations with the town remained unusually cordial, but no enfranchising charter was issued during the Middle Ages.

 

Westminster Abbey became the coronation site of Norman kings, but none were buried there until Henry III began to rebuild it in the Gothic style as a shrine to venerate King Edward the Confessor, as a competitor to match the great French churches such as Rheims Cathedral and Sainte-Chapelle, and as a burial place for himself and his family. Edward's shrine subsequently played a great part in his canonisation.[8] Construction began on 6 July 1245 under Henry's master mason, Henry of Reynes. The first building stage included the entire eastern end, the transepts, and the easternmost bay of the nave. The Lady Chapel, built from around 1220 at the extreme eastern end, was incorporated into the chevet of the new building, but has since been replaced by the Henry VII Chapel. Around 1253, Henry of Reynes was replaced by John of Gloucester, who was replaced by Robert of Beverley around 1260. During the summer, there were up to 400 workers on the site at a time, including stonecutters, marblers, stone-layers, carpenters, painters and their assistants, marble polishers, smiths, glaziers, plumbers, and general labourers. From 1257, Henry III held assemblies of local representatives in Westminster Abbey's chapter house, which were a precursor to the House of Commons. Henry III also commissioned the Cosmati pavement in front of the High Altar. Further building work carried the nave an additional five bays, bringing it to one bay west of the choir. Here, construction stopped in about 1269. By 1261 alone Henry had spent £29,345 19s 8d on the abbey, and the final sum may have been in the region of £50,000. A consecration ceremony was held on 13 October 1269, during which the remains of Edward the Confessor were moved to their present location at the shrine behind the main altar, but after Henry's death and burial in the abbey in 1272, construction did not resume and Edward the Confessor's old Romanesque nave remained attached to the new building for over a century.

 

In 1296, Edward I captured the Scottish coronation stone, the Stone of Scone, and had a Coronation Chair made to hold it, which he entrusted to the abbot at Westminster Abbey. In 1303, the small crypt underneath the chapter house was broken into and a great deal of the king's treasure stolen. It was thought that the thieves must have been helped by the abbey monks, fifty of whom were subsequently imprisoned in the Tower of London.

 

From 1376, Abbot Nicholas Litlyngton and Richard II donated large sums to finish the church, and the remainder of the old nave was pulled down and rebuilding recommenced, with his mason, Henry Yevele, closely following the original (and by then outdated) design. During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, Richard prayed at Edward the Confessor's shrine for "divine aid when human counsel was altogether wanting" before meeting the rebels at Smithfield. To this day, the abbey holds his full-length portrait, the earliest of an English king, on display near the west door. However, building work was not to be fully completed for many years. Henry V, disappointed with the abbey's unfinished state, gave extra funds towards the rebuilding, and in his will left instructions for a chantry chapel to be built over his tomb, which can be viewed from ground level today. Building work finally reached the end of the nave, finishing with the west window, in 1495.

 

Under Henry VII, the 13th-century Lady Chapel was demolished and rebuilt in a Perpendicular style, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1503 (known as the "Henry VII Chapel" or the "Lady Chapel"). The chapel was finished c.1519. Henry's original reason for building such a grand chapel was to have a place suitable for the burial of another saint alongside the Confessor, as he planned on having Henry VI canonised. The Pope asked Henry VII for a large sum of money to achieve sainthood for his predecessor, which he was not willing to hand over, and so instead Henry VII is buried in the centre of the chapel with his wife, Elizabeth of York.

 

A view of the abbey dated 1532 shows a lantern tower above the crossing, but it is not shown in any later depiction. It is unlikely that the loss of this feature was caused by any catastrophic event, but structural failure seems more likely. However, other sources maintain that a lantern tower was never built. The current squat pyramid dates from the 18th century; the painted wooden ceiling below it was installed during repairs to wartime bomb damage.

 

In the early 16th century, a project began under Abbot John Islip to add two towers to the western end of the church. These were partially built up to the roof level of the church when building work stopped because of the uncertainty caused by the English Reformation.

 

In the 1530s, Henry VIII broke away from the authority of the Catholic Church in Rome and seized control of England's monasteries, including Westminster Abbey, beginning the English Reformation and seizing control of monasteries across the country. In 1535, when the king's officers assessed the abbey's funds, their annual income was £3,000. Henry's agents removed many relics, saints' images, and treasures from the abbey: the golden feretory that housed the coffin of Edward the Confessor was melted down, and the monks even hid his bones to save them from destruction. Henry VIII assumed direct control of the abbey in 1539 and granted it the status of a cathedral by charter in 1540, simultaneously issuing letters patent establishing the Diocese of Westminster. By granting the abbey cathedral status, Henry VIII gained an excuse to spare it from the destruction or dissolution which he inflicted on most English abbeys during this period. The abbot, William Benson, instead became dean of the cathedral, while the prior and five of the monks were among the twelve newly created canons.

 

The Westminster diocese was dissolved in 1550, but the abbey was recognised (in 1552, retroactively to 1550) as a second cathedral of the Diocese of London until 1556. The already-old expression "robbing Peter to pay Paul" may have been given a new lease of life when money meant for the abbey, which is dedicated to Saint Peter, was diverted to the treasury of St. Paul's Cathedral.

 

The abbey saw the return of Benedictine monks under the Catholic Mary I, but they were again ejected under Elizabeth I in 1559. In 1560, Elizabeth re-established Westminster as a "royal peculiar" – a church of the Church of England responsible directly to the sovereign, rather than to a diocesan bishop – and made it the Collegiate Church of St. Peter (that is, a non-cathedral church with an attached chapter of canons, headed by a dean). From this date onwards, although the building is still called an abbey, it is, strictly speaking, simply a church. Elizabeth also re-founded Westminster School, providing for 40 students known as the King's (or Queen's) Scholars and their schoolmasters. The King's Scholars have the duty of shouting Vivat Rex or Vivat Regina ("Long live the King/Queen") during the coronation of a new monarch. To this day, the Dean of Westminster Abbey remains the chair of the school governors.

 

In the early 17th century, the abbey hosted two of the six companies of churchmen, led by Lancelot Andrewes, Dean of Westminster, who translated the King James Version of the Bible.

 

In 1642, the English Civil War broke out between Charles I and his own Parliament. The Dean and Chapter fled the abbey at the outbreak of war, and were replaced by priests loyal to Parliament. The abbey itself suffered damage during the war, when altars, stained glass, the organ and the crown jewels were damaged or destroyed. Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell was given an elaborate funeral there in 1658, only for a body thought to be Cromwell's to be disinterred in January 1661 and posthumously hanged from a gibbet at Tyburn. In 1669, the abbey was visited by the diarist Samuel Pepys, who saw the body of the 15th-century queen Catherine de Valois. She had been buried in the 13th-century Lady Chapel in 1437, but was exhumed during building work for the Henry VII Chapel and not reburied in the intervening 150 years. Pepys leaned into the coffin and kissed her on the mouth, writing "This was my birthday, thirty-six years old and I did first kiss a queen." She has since been re-interred close to her husband, Henry V. In 1685, during preparations for the coronation of James II, a workman accidentally put a scaffolding pole through the coffin of Edward the Confessor. A chorister, Charles Taylour, pulled a cross on a chain out of the coffin and gave it to the king, who then gave it to the Pope. Its whereabouts today are unknown.

 

At the end of the 17th century, the architect Sir Christopher Wren was appointed the abbey's first Surveyor of the Fabric, and began a project to restore the exterior of the church, which was continued by his successor, William Dickinson. After over two hundred years, the abbey's two western towers were finally built between 1722 and 1745 by Nicholas Hawksmoor and John James, constructed from Portland stone to an early example of a Gothic Revival design. Purbeck marble was used for the walls and the floors, although the various tombstones are made of different types of marble.

 

During an earthquake in 1750, the top of one of the piers on the north side fell, with the iron and lead that had fastened it. Several houses fell in, and many chimneys were damaged. Another shock had been felt during the preceding month.

 

On 11 November 1760, the funeral of George II was held at the abbey and the king was interred next to his late wife, Caroline of Ansbach. He left instructions for the sides of his and his wife's coffins to be removed so that their remains could mingle. He was the last monarch to be buried in the abbey. Similarly, during this period the tomb of Richard II had developed a hole through which visitors could put their hand. Several of his bones went missing, including a jawbone, which was taken by a boy from Westminster School and kept in the family until 1906, when it was returned to the abbey.

 

In the 1830s, the previous screen dividing the nave from the choir, which had been designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, was replaced by one designed by Edward Blore. The screen contains the monuments for the scientist Isaac Newton and the military general James Stanhope.

 

Further rebuilding and restoration occurred in the 19th century under the architect George Gilbert Scott, who rebuilt the façade of the north transept, changing the rose window and porches on that side, and designed a new altar and reredos for the crossing. A narthex (a portico or entrance hall) for the west front was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the mid-20th century but was not built.

 

The abbey saw "Prayers For Prisoners" suffragette protests in 1913 and 1914. Protesters attended services and interrupted proceedings by chanting "God Save Mrs. Pankhurst" and praying for suffragette prisoners. In one protest, a woman chained herself to her chair during a sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury. On 11 June 1914, a bomb planted by suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union exploded inside the abbey. The abbey was busy with visitors, with around 80–100 people in the building at the time of the explosion. Some were as close as 20 yards (18 m) from the bomb and the explosion caused a panic for the exits, but no serious injuries were reported. The bomb blew off a corner of the Coronation Chair. It also caused the Stone of Scone to break in half, although this was not discovered until 1950, when four Scottish nationalists broke into the church to steal the stone and return it to Scotland. The bomb had been packed with nuts and bolts to act as shrapnel. The event was part of a campaign of bombing and arson attacks carried out by suffragettes nationwide between 1912 and 1914. Churches were a particular target, as it was believed that the Church of England was complicit in reinforcing opposition to women's suffrage – 32 churches were attacked nationwide between 1913 and 1914. Coincidentally, at the time of the explosion, the House of Commons only 100 yards (90 m) away was debating how to deal with the violent tactics of the suffragettes. Many in the Commons heard the explosion and rushed to the scene. Two days after the Westminster Abbey bombing, a second suffragette bomb was discovered before it could explode in St. Paul's Cathedral.

 

Westminster suffered minor damage during the Blitz on 15 November 1940. On 10/11 May 1941, the Westminster Abbey precincts and roof were hit by incendiary bombs. Although the Auxiliary Fire Service and the abbey's own fire-watchers were able to stop the fire spreading to the whole of the church, the deanery and three residences of abbey clergy and staff were badly damaged, and the lantern tower above the crossing collapsed, leaving the abbey open to the sky. The cost of the damage was estimated at £135,000. Some damage can still be seen in the RAF Chapel, where a small hole in the wall was created by a bomb that fell outside the chapel.

 

Because of its outstanding universal value, the abbey was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, together with the nearby Palace of Westminster and St. Margaret's Church.

 

In 1997, the abbey, which was then receiving approximately 1.75 million visitors each year, began charging admission fees to visitors at the door (although a fee for entering the eastern half of the church had existed prior to 1600).

 

In June 2009 the first major building work in 250 years was proposed. A corona – a crown-like architectural feature – was suggested to be built around the lantern over the central crossing, replacing an existing pyramidal structure dating from the 1950s. This was part of a wider £23m development of the abbey completed in 2013. On 4 August 2010, the Dean and Chapter announced that, "after a considerable amount of preliminary and exploratory work", efforts toward the construction of a corona would not be continued.

 

The Cosmati pavement was re-dedicated by the Dean at a service on 21 May 2010 after undergoing a major cleaning and conservation programme. On 17 September 2010, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to set foot in the abbey, and on 29 April 2011, the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place at the abbey.

 

In 2018, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries were created in the medieval triforium. This is a display area for the abbey's treasures in the galleries high up around the sanctuary. A new Gothic access tower with lift was designed by the abbey architect and Surveyor of the Fabric, Ptolemy Dean.

 

In 2020, a 13th-century sacristy was uncovered in the grounds of the abbey as part of an archaeological excavation. The sacristy was used by the monks of the abbey to store objects used in the Mass, such as vestments and chalices. Also on the site were hundreds of burials, mostly of abbey monks.

 

Architecture

The building is chiefly built in a Geometric Gothic style, using Reigate stone for facings. The church has an eleven-bay nave with aisles, transepts, and a chancel with ambulatory and radiating chapels. The building is supported with two tiers of flying buttresses. The western end of the nave and the west front were designed by Henry Yevele in a Perpendicular Gothic style. The Henry VII Chapel was built in a late Perpendicular style in Huddlestone stone, probably by Robert and William Vertue. The west towers were designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and blend the Gothic style of the abbey with the Baroque style fashionable during his lifetime.

 

The modern Westminster Abbey is largely based on French Gothic styles, especially those found at Reims Cathedral, rather than the contemporaneous English Gothic styles. For example, the English Gothic style favours large and elaborate towers, while Westminster Abbey did not have any towers until the 18th century. It is also more similar to French churches than English ones in terms of its ratio of height to width: Westminster Abbey has the highest nave of any Gothic church in England, and the nave is much narrower than any medieval English church of a similar height. Instead of a short, square, eastern end (as was the English fashion), Westminster Abbey has a long, rounded apse, and it also has chapels radiating from the ambulatory, which is typical of a French Gothic style. However, there are also distinctively English elements, such as the use of materials of contrasting colours, as with the Purbeck marble and white stone in the crossing.

 

The northern entrance has three porches, with the central one featuring an elaborately-carved tympanum, leading it to acquire the nickname "Solomon's porch" as a reference to the legendary temple in Jerusalem.

 

The abbey retains its 13th- and 14th-century cloisters, which would have been one of the busiest parts of the church when it was part of a monastery. The west cloister was used for the teaching of novice monks, the north for private study. The south cloister led to the refectory, and the east to the chapter house and dormitory. In the southwest corner of the cloisters is a cellarium formerly used by the monks to store food and wine; in modern times, it is the abbey café. The north cloister and northern end of the east cloister, closest to the church, are the oldest; they date to c. 1250, whereas the rest are from 1352 to 1366.The abbey also contains a Little Cloister, on the site of the monks' infirmary. The Little Cloister dates from the end of the 17th century and contains a small garden with a fountain in the centre. A passageway from the Little Cloister leads to College Garden, which has been in continuous use for 900 years, beginning as the medicine garden for the monks of the abbey and now overlooked by canons' houses and the dormitory for Westminster School.

 

The newest part of the abbey is the Weston Tower, finished in 2018 and designed by Ptolemy Dean. It sits between the chapter house and the Henry VII Chapel, and contains a lift shaft and spiral staircase to allow public access to the triforium, which contains the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries. The tower has a star-shaped floorplan and leaded windows with an elaborate crown rooftop. The lift shaft inside is faced with 16 kinds of stone from the abbey's history, including Purbeck marble, Reigate stone, and Portland stone. The project took five years and cost £22.9 million. The galleries were designed by McInnes Usher McKnight.

 

Interior

The church's interior has Purbeck marble piers and shafting. The roof vaulting is quadripartite, with ridge ribs and bosses and, at 102 feet (31 m), it is one of Britain's highest church vaults. To accommodate as many guests as possible during coronations, the transepts were designed to be unusually long and the choir was placed east (rather than west) of the crossing; this is also seen in Rheims Cathedral. The 13th-century interior would have been painted in bright colours and gilded, although the piers would have been left unpainted.

 

Although the nave was built over the course of centuries from the east to the west end, generations of builders stuck to the original design and it has a unified style. Markers of the long gap in building between 1269 and 1376 are relatively minor, but can be seen at the fifth bay from the crossing. The spandrels above the arches are towards the earlier east end are decorated with diaper-work, and are plain towards the (later) west end. The lancet windows on the earlier side have a foiled circle, and have an unencircled quatrefoil on the later side; the shields on the aisle walls are carved on the earlier side, and painted on the later side. Above the crossing, in the centre of the church, is a roof lantern which was destroyed by a bomb in 1941 and restored by architect Stephen Dykes Bower in 1958. In the choir aisles, shields of donors to the 13th- and 14th-century rebuilding are carved and painted in the spandrels of the arcade. At the eastern end of the nave is a large screen separating the nave from the choir, made of 13th-century stone, reworked by Edward Blore in 1834, and with paintwork and gilding by Bower in the 1960s]

 

Behind the main altar is the shrine and tomb of Edward the Confessor. Saints' shrines were once common in English medieval churches, but most were destroyed during the English Reformation and Edward is the only major English saint whose body still occupies his shrine. Arranged around him in a horseshoe shape are a series of tombs of medieval kings and their queens: Henry III, Eleanor of Castile, Edward I, Philippa of Hainault, Edward III, Anne of Bohemia, and Richard II. Henry V is in the centre of the horseshoe, at the eastern end. Henry III's tomb was originally covered with pieces of coloured glass and stone, since picked off by generations of tourists. Above Henry V's tomb, at mezzanine level over the ambulatory, is a chantry chapel built by mason John Thirske and decorated with many sculpted figures (including Henry V riding a horse and being crowned in the abbey). At the western end, the shrine is separated from the main church by a stone reredos which makes it a semi-private space. The reredos depicts episodes from Edward's life, including his birth and the building of the abbey. The shrine is closed to the public, except for special events.

 

The abbey includes side chapels radiating from the ambulatory. Many were originally included in the 13th-century rebuilding as altars dedicated to individual saints, and many of the chapels still bear saints' names (such as St. Nicholas and St. Paul). Saints' cults were no longer orthodox after the English Reformation, and the chapels were repurposed as places for extra burials and monuments. In the north ambulatory are the Islip Chapel, the Nurses' Memorial Chapel (sometimes called the Nightingale Chapel), the Chapel of Our Lady of the Pew, the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, and St. Paul's Chapel. The Islip Chapel is named after Abbot John Islip, who commissioned it in the 16th century. The screen inside is decorated with a visual pun on his name: an eye and a boy falling from a tree (eye-slip). Additional chapels in the eastern aisle of the north transept are named after (from south to north) St. John the Evangelist, St. Michael, and St. Andrew. The chapels of St. Nicholas, St. Edmund, and St. Benedict are in the south ambulatory.

 

The footprint of the south transept is smaller than the northern one because the 13th-century builders butted against the pre-existing 11th-century cloisters. To make the transepts match, the south transept overhangs the western cloister; this permitted a room above the cloisters which was used to store the abbey muniments. In the south transept is the chapel of St. Faith, built c. 1250 as the vestry for the abbey's monks. On the east wall is a c. 1290 – c. 1310 painting of St. Faith holding the grid-iron on which she was roasted to death.

 

Chapter house and Pyx Chamber

The octagonal chapter house was used by the abbey monks for daily meetings, where they would hear a chapter of the Rule of St. Benedict and receive their instructions for the day from the abbot. The chapter house was built between 1250 and 1259 and is one of the largest in Britain, measuring nearly 60 feet (18 m) across. For 300 years after the English Reformation, it was used to store state records until they were moved to the Public Record Office in 1863. It was restored by George Gilbert Scott in the 19th century.

 

The entrance is approached from the east cloister via outer and inner vestibules, and the ceiling becomes higher as a visitor approaches the chapter house. It is an octagonal room with a central pillar, built with a small crypt below. Around the sides are benches for 80 monks, above which are large stained-glass windows depicting the coats of arms of several monarchs and the abbey's patrons and abbots. The exterior includes flying buttresses (added in the 14th century) and a leaded roof designed by Scott. The interior walls of the chapter house are decorated with 14th- and 15th-century paintings of the Apocalypse, the Last Judgement, and birds and animals. The chapter house also has an original, mid-13th-century tiled floor. A wooden door in the vestibule, made with a tree felled between 1032 and 1064, is one of Britain's oldest. It may have been the door to the 11th-century chapter house in Edward the Confessor's abbey, and was re-used as the door to the Pyx Chamber in the 13th century. It now leads to an office.

 

The adjoining Pyx Chamber was the undercroft of the monks' dormitory. Dating to the late 11th century, it was used as a monastic and royal treasury. The outer walls and circular piers also date to the 11th century; several capitals were enriched in the 12th century, and the stone altar was added in the 13th century. The term pyx refers to the boxwood chest in which coins were held and presented to a jury during the Trial of the Pyx, when newly-minted coins were presented to ensure they conformed to the required standards. The chapter house and Pyx Chamber are in the guardianship of English Heritage, but under the care and management of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.

 

A large, octagonal room with stained-glass windows and a central pillar

Interior of the chapter house

A ceiling shaped like an eight-pointed star, supported by a central pillar

Umbrella vault ceiling of the chapter house

A wall covered in small paintings of Biblical scenes and animals

Medieval wall paintings inside the chapter house

An old wooden door

An 11th-century door in the undercroft of the chapter house, possibly Britain's oldest door

 

Henry VII Chapel

The Henry VII Lady Chapel, also known simply as the Henry VII Chapel, is a large lady chapel at the far eastern end of the abbey which was paid for by the will of King Henry VII. The chapel, built in late Perpendicular Gothic style, inspired English poet John Leland to call it the orbis miraculum (the wonder of the world). The tombs of several monarchs, including Edward V, Henry VII, Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I, James I, Charles II, George II and Mary, Queen of Scots, are in the chapel.

 

It is noted for its pendant- and fan vault-style ceiling, probably designed by William Vertue, which writer Washington Irving said was "achieved with the wonderful minuteness and airy security of a cobweb". The ceiling is not a true fan vault, but a groin vault disguised as a fan vault. The interior walls are densely decorated with carvings, including 95 statues of saints. Many statues of saints in England were destroyed in the 17th century, so these are rare survivors. Like much of the rest of the medieval building, they would originally have been painted and gilded. From outside, The chapel walls are supported from outside by flying buttresses, each in the form of a polygonal tower topped with a cupola. At the centre of the chapel is the tomb of Henry VII and his wife, Elizabeth of York, which was sculpted by Pietro Torrigiano (who fled to England from Italy after breaking Michaelangelo's nose in a fight).

 

The chapel has sub-chapels radiating from the main structure. One, to the north, contains the tombs of Mary I and Elizabeth I; both coffins are in Elizabeth's monument. Another, to the south, contains the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots. Both monuments were commissioned by James I, Elizabeth's successor to the English throne and Mary's son. At the far eastern end is the RAF Chapel, with a stained-glass window dedicated to those who died in the 1940 Battle of Britain. The RAF Chapel was the original burial site of Oliver Cromwell in 1658. Cromwell was disinterred in 1661, after the Stuart Restoration, when his body was ritually hanged on the gallows at Tyburn and then reburied.

 

The chapel has been the mother church of the Order of the Bath since 1725, and the banners of its members hang above the stalls. The stalls retain their medieval misericords: small ledges for monks to perch on during services, often decorated with varied and humorous carvings.

 

Monastic buildings

Many rooms used by the monks have been repurposed. The dormitory became a library and a school room, and the monks' offices have been converted into houses for the clergy. The abbot had his own lodgings, and ate separately from the rest of the monks. The lodgings, now used by the Dean of Westminster, are probably the oldest continuously-occupied residence in London. They include the Jericho Parlour (covered in wooden linenfold panelling), the Jerusalem Chamber (commissioned in 1369), and a grand dining hall with a minstrels' gallery which is now used by Westminster School. The prior also had his own household, separate from the monks, on the site of present-day Ashburnham House in Little Dean's Yard (now also part of Westminster School).

 

Artworks and treasures

The nave and transepts have sixteen crystal chandeliers made of hand-blown Waterford glass. Designed by A. B. Read and Stephen Dykes Bower, they were donated by the Guinness family in 1965 to commemorate the abbey's 900th anniversary. The choir stalls were designed by Edward Blore in 1848. Some stalls are assigned to high commissioners of countries in the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

Beyond the crossing to the west is the sacrarium, which contains the high altar. The abbey has the 13th-century Westminster Retable, thought to be the altarpiece from Henry III's 13th-century church and the earliest surviving English panel painting altatrpiece, in its collections. The present high altar and screen were designed by George Gilbert Scott between 1867 and 1873, with sculptures of Moses, St. Peter, St. Paul, and King David by H. H. Armistead, as well as a mosaic of the Last Supper by J. R. Clayton and Antonio Salviati.

 

The south transept contains wall paintings made c. 1300, which Richard Jenkyns calls "the grandest of their time remaining in England". Depicting Thomas the Apostle looking at Christ's wounds and St. Christopher carrying the Christ Child, the paintings were discovered in 1934 behind two monuments. Fourteenth-century paintings are on the backs of the sedilia (seats used by priests on either side of the high altar). On the south side are three figures: Edward the Confessor, the angel Gabriel, and the Virgin Mary. On the north side are two kings (possibly Henry III and Edward I) surrounding a religious figure, possibly St. Peter. They were walled off during the Commonwealth period by order of Parliament, and were later rediscovered

 

Over the Great West Door are ten statues of 20th-century Christian martyrs of various denominations; the statues were sculpted by the abbey's craftsmen in 1998. Those commemorated are Maximilian Kolbe, Manche Masemola, Janani Luwum, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, Martin Luther King Jr., Óscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Esther John, Lucian Tapiedi, and Wang Zhiming.

 

From the chapter house is a doorway leading to the abbey's library, which was built as a dormitory for the monks and has been used as a library since the 16th century. The collection has about 16,000 volumes. Next to the library is the Muniment Room, where the abbey's historic archives are kept.

 

A long corridor with rows of gilded wooden stalls either side, facing each other

The abbey choir, with stalls designed by Edward Blore

A wall with two paintings: one of two figures on a red background, and one of two figures on a green background

Medieval wall paintings in the south transept, depicting St. Thomas and St. Christopher

A man in medieval dress, wearing a crown and holding a sceptre

A painting of a king on the abbey sedilia, possibly Edward I

Statues of ten people in niches over a door

Statues of 20th-century martyrs above the west door

A golden altar and screen in the centre of a grey stone church

The high altar and altar screen, designed by George Gilbert Scott

Cosmati pavement

The Cosmati pavement: an elaborately-patterned floor with geometric designs with small red, brown, black and gold tiles

The Cosmati pavement

At the crossing in front of Edward the Confessor's shrine and the main altar is the Cosmati pavement, a 700-year-old tile floor made of almost 30,000 pieces of coloured glass and stone. Measuring almost 25 feet square, coronations take place here.

 

The floor is named after the Cosmati family in Rome, who were known for such work. It was commissioned by Richard Ware, who travelled to Rome in 1258, when he became abbot, and returned with stone and artists. The porphyry used was originally quarried as far away as Egypt, and was presumably brought to Italy during the Roman Empire. It was surrounded by a Latin inscription in brass letters (since lost) identifying the artist as Odericus, probably referring to designer Pietro di Oderisio or his son. The inscription also predicted the end of the world 19,863 years after its creation. Unlike traditional mosaic work, the pieces were not cut to a uniform size but made using a technique known as opus sectile ("cut work"). It is unique among Cosmati floors in Europe for the use of dark Purbeck-marble trays, forming bold borders, instead of the more typical white marble. The pavement influenced later floor treatments at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and Canterbury Cathedral.

 

Geometric designs, such as those in the pavement, were thought to help the abbey's monks with contemplation, and conveyed medieval Christian ideas on the nature of the universe that could not easily be put into words. Much of the design relies on the geometric doubling of the square, considered a trade secret by stonemasons. The four-sided squares, four-fold symmetry, and the four inner roundels of the design represent the four elements of classical philosophy, with the central roundel representing the unformed state of the universe at its creation. Each inner roundel is touched by two bands, which represent the shared qualities of each element; water and air were both considered "moist" in classical philosophy, and air and fire were both considered "hot".

 

Stained glass

A stained-glass window in bright primary colours depicting a path in the countryside with trees and plants on either side

The Queen's Window, designed by David Hockney

The abbey's 13th-century windows would have been filled with stained glass, but much of this was destroyed in the English Civil War and the Blitz and was replaced with clear, plain glass. Since the 19th century, new stained glass, designed by artists such as Ninian Comper (on the north side of the nave) and Hugh Easton and Alan Younger (in the Henry VII Chapel), has replaced clear glass.

 

The north rose window was designed by James Thornhill and made by Joshua Price in 1722; it shows Christ, the apostles (without Judas Iscariot), the Four Evangelists, and, in the centre, the Bible. The window was restored by J. L. Pearson in the 19th century, during which the feet of the figures were cut off. Thornhill also designed the great west window, which shows the Biblical figures of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel underneath.

 

In the Henry VII Chapel, the west window was designed by John Lawson and unveiled in 1995. It depicts coats of arms and cyphers of Westminster Abbey's benefactors, particularly John Templeton (whose coat of arms is prominent in the lower panel). In the centre are the arms of Elizabeth II. The central east window, designed by Alan Younger and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was unveiled in 2000. It depicts Comet Hale–Bopp, which was passing over the artist's house at the time, as the star of Bethlehem. The donors of the window, Lord and Lady Harris of Peckham, are shown kneeling at the bottom.

 

In 2018, artist David Hockney unveiled a new stained-glass window for the north transept to celebrate the reign of Elizabeth II. It shows a country scene inspired by his native Yorkshire, with hawthorn blossoms and blue skies. Hockney used an iPad to design the window, replicating the backlight that comes through stained glass.

 

Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries

The Westminster Abbey Museum was located in the 11th-century vaulted undercroft beneath the former monks' dormitory. This is one of the oldest areas of the abbey, dating almost to the foundation of the church by Edward the Confessor in 1065. This space had been used as a museum since 1908, but was closed to the public when it was replaced as a museum in June 2018 by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries (high in the abbey's triforium and accessed through the Weston Tower, which encloses a lift and stairs).

 

The exhibits include a set of life-size effigies of English and British monarchs and their consorts, originally made to lie on the coffin in the funeral procession or to be displayed over the tomb. The effigies date from the 14th to the 18th centuries, and some include original clothes.

 

On display in the galleries is The Coronation Theatre, Westminster Abbey: A Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, a portrait by Ralph Heimans of the queen standing on the Cosmati pavement where she was crowned in 1953. Other exhibits include a model of an unbuilt tower designed by Christopher Wren; a paper model of the abbey as it was for Queen Victoria's 1837 coronation; and the wedding licence of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, who were married in the abbey in 2011.

 

Burials and memorials

Over 3,300 people are buried or commemorated in the abbey. For much of its history, most of the people buried there (other than monarchs) were people with a connection to the church – either ordinary locals or the monks of the abbey, who were generally buried without surviving markers. Since the 18th century, it has been an honour for any British person to be buried or commemorated in the abbey – a practice boosted by the lavish funeral and monument of Isaac Newton, who died in 1727. By 1900, so many prominent figures were buried in the abbey that the writer William Morris called it a "National Valhalla".

 

Politicians buried in the abbey include Pitt the Elder, Charles James Fox, Pitt the Younger, William Gladstone, and Clement Attlee. A cluster of scientists surrounds the tomb of Isaac Newton, including Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking. Actors include David Garrick, Henry Irving, and Laurence Olivier. Musicians tend to be buried in the north aisle of the nave, and include Muzio Clementi, Henry Purcell, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. George Frideric Handel is buried in Poets' Corner.

 

An estimated 18 English, Scottish and British monarchs are buried in the abbey, including Edward the Confessor, Henry III, Edward I, Edward III, Richard II, Henry V, Edward V, Henry VII, Edward VI, Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, James I, Charles II, Mary II, William III, Queen Anne, and George II. Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots were the last monarchs to be buried with full tomb effigies; monarchs buried after them are commemorated in the abbey with simple inscriptions. George II was the last monarch to be buried in the abbey, in 1760, and George III's brother, Henry Frederick, was the last member of the royal family to be buried in the abbey, in 1790. Most monarchs after George II have been buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, or at the Frogmore Royal Burial Ground, east of Windsor Castle.

 

Poets' Corner

The south transept of the church is known as Poets' Corner because of its high number of burials of, and memorials to, poets and writers. The first was Geoffrey Chaucer (buried around 1400), who was employed as Clerk of the King's Works and had apartments in the abbey. A second poet, Edmund Spenser (who was local to the abbey), was buried nearby in 1599. The idea of a Poets' Corner did not crystallise until the 18th century, when memorials were established to writers buried elsewhere, such as William Shakespeare and John Milton. Since then, writers buried in Poets' Corner have included John Dryden, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Charles Dickens, and Rudyard Kipling. Not all writers buried in the abbey are in the south transept; Ben Jonson is buried standing upright in the north aisle of the nave, and Aphra Behn in the cloisters.

 

The Unknown Warrior

On the floor, just inside the Great West Door in the centre of the nave, is the grave of the Unknown Warrior: an unidentified soldier killed on a European battlefield during the First World War. Although many countries have a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (or Warrior), the one in Westminster Abbey was the first; it came about as a response to the unprecedented death toll of the war. The idea came from army chaplain David Railton, who suggested it in 1920. The funeral was held on 11 November 1920, the second anniversary of the end of the war. The Unknown Warrior lay in state for a week afterwards, and an estimated 1.25 million people viewed his gravesite in that time. This grave is the only floor stone in the abbey on which it is forbidden to walk, and every visit by a foreign head of state begins with a visit to it.

 

Royal occasions

The abbey has strong connections with the royal family. It has been patronised by monarchs, been the location for coronations, royal weddings and funerals, and several monarchs have attended services there. One monarch was born and one died at Westminster Abbey. In 1413, Henry IV collapsed while praying at the shrine of Edward the Confessor. He was moved into the Jerusalem Chamber, and died shortly afterwards. Edward V was born in the abbot's house in 1470.

 

Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee celebrations in Westminster Abbey in 1887; the queen is enthroned on the centre-left.

The first jubilee celebration held at the abbey was for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. Rather than wearing the full regalia that she had worn at her coronation, she wore her black mourning clothes topped with the insignia of the Order of the Garter and a miniature crown. She sat in the Coronation Chair—which received a coat of dark varnish for the occasion, which was painstakingly removed afterwards—making her the only monarch to sit in the chair twice. Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, marked their silver, gold, and diamond wedding anniversaries with services at the abbey and regularly attended annual observances there for Commonwealth Day.

 

The monarch participates in the Office of the Royal Maundy on Maundy Thursday each year, during which selected elderly people (as many people of each sex as the monarch has years of their life) receive alms of coins. The service has been held at churches around the country since 1952, returning to the abbey every 10 years.

 

Coronations

Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, 40 English and British monarchs have been crowned in Westminster Abbey (not counting Edward V, Lady Jane Grey, and Edward VIII, who were never crowned). In 1216, Henry III could not be crowned in the abbey because London was occupied by hostile forces at the time. Henry was crowned in Gloucester Cathedral, and had a second coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1220. When he had the abbey rebuilt, it was designed with long transepts to accommodate many guests at future coronations. Much of the order of service derives from the Liber Regalis, an illuminated manuscript made in 1377 for the coronation of Richard II and held in the abbey's collections. On 6 May 2023, the coronation of Charles III took place at the abbey. The area used in the church is the crossing, known in the abbey as "the theatre" because of its suitability for grand events. The space in the crossing is clear rather than filled with immovable pews (like many similar churches), allowing for temporary seating in the transepts.

 

The Coronation Chair (the throne on which English and British sovereigns are seated when they are crowned) is in the abbey's St. George's Chapel near the west door, and has been used at coronations since the 14th century. From 1301 to 1996 (except for a short time in 1950, when the stone was stolen by Scottish nationalists), the chair housed the Stone of Scone upon which the kings of Scots were crowned. Although it has been kept in Scotland at Edinburgh Castle since 1996, the stone is returned to the Coronation Chair in the abbey as needed for coronations. The chair was accessible to the public during the 18th and 19th centuries; people could sit in it, and some carved initials into the woodwork.

 

Before the 17th century, a king would hold a separate coronation for his new queen if he married after his coronation. The last of these to take place in the abbey was the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533, after her marriage to Henry VIII. Fifteen coronations of queens consort have been held in the abbey. A coronation for Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's third wife, was planned but she died before it took place; no coronations were planned for Henry's subsequent wives. Mary I's husband, Philip of Spain, was not given a separate coronation due to converns that he would attempt to rule alone after Mary's death. Since then, there have been few opportunities for a second coronation; monarchs have generally come to the throne already married.

 

Henry II held a coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey in 1170 for his son, known as Henry the Young King, while Henry II was still alive in an attempt to secure the succession. However, the Young King died before his father and never took the throne.

 

Weddings

At least 16 royal weddings have taken place at the abbey. Royal weddings at the abbey were relatively rare before the 20th century, with royals often married in a Chapel Royal or at Windsor Castle; this changed with the 1922 wedding of Princess Mary at the abbey. In 1923, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon became the first royal bride to leave her bouquet on the grave of the Unknown Warrior, a practice continued by many royal brides since.

 

Princess Elizabeth and Phillip Mountbatten process down the aisle of the abbey, followed by bridesmaids.

The 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Phillip Mountbatten in the abbey

 

Royal weddings have included:

Year Groom Bride

1100 Henry I of England Matilda of Scotland

1243 Richard, Earl of Cornwall Sanchia of Provence

1269 Edmund, Earl of Leicester and Lancaster Aveline de Forz

1382 Richard II of England Anne of Bohemia

1486 Henry VII of England Elizabeth of York

1919 Captain The Hon. Alexander Ramsay Princess Patricia of Connaught

1922 Henry Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles The Princess Mary

1923 Prince Albert, Duke of York Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

1934 Prince George, Duke of Kent Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark

1947 Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten The Princess Elizabeth

1960 Antony Armstrong-JonesThe Princess Margaret

1963 The Hon. Angus Ogilvy Princess Alexandra of Kent

1973 Captain Mark Phillips The Princess Anne

1986 The Prince Andrew Sarah Ferguson

2011 Prince William of Wales Catherine Middleton

 

Funerals

Many royal funerals took place at the abbey between that of Edward the Confessor in 1066 and that of Prince Henry, the last royal buried in the church, in 1790. There were no royal funerals at the abbey from then until that of Queen Alexandra in 1925; the queen was buried in Windsor Castle. Other queen consorts, such as Mary of Teck in 1953 and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 2002, have also had funerals at the abbey before being buried elsewhere.

 

On 6 September 1997, the ceremonial funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales was held at the abbey. Before the funeral, the railings of the abbey were swamped with flowers and tributes. The event was more widely seen than any previous occasion in the abbey's history, with 2 billion television viewers worldwide. Diana was buried privately on a private island at Althorp, her family estate.

 

On 19 September 2022, the state funeral of Elizabeth II took place at the abbey before her burial at St George's Chapel, Windsor. It was the first funeral of a monarch at Westminster Abbey for more than 260 years.

 

People

Westminster Abbey is a collegiate church governed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster as established by a royal charter from Elizabeth I dated 21 May 1560, which created it as the Collegiate Church of St. Peter Westminster (a royal peculiar. In 2019, David Hoyle was appointed Dean of Westminster. The chapter consists of four canons and a senior administrative officer, known as the Receiver General. One of the canons is also rector of the adjoining St Margaret's Church, Westminster, and is often the chaplain of the Speaker of the House of Commons. In addition to the dean and canons, there are minor canons.

 

King's almsmen

Six King's (or Queen's) almsmen and women are supported by the abbey. They are appointed by royal warrant on the recommendation of the dean and the Home Secretary, attend Matins and Evensong on Sundays, and perform requested duties for a small stipend. On duty, they wear a distinctive red gown with a crowned rose badge on the left shoulder.[200]

 

The almshouse was founded near the abbey by Henry VII in 1502, and the twelve almsmen and three almswomen were originally minor court officials who were retired due to age or disability. They were required to be over the age of 50, single, with a good reputation, literate, able to look after themselves, and with an income of under £4 per year. The building survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but was demolished for road-widening in 1779. From the late 18th to the late 20th century, almsmen were usually old soldiers and sailors; today, they are primarily retired abbey employees.

 

Schools

Westminster School is in the abbey. Instruction has taken place since the fourteenth century with the monks of the abbey; the school regards its founder as Elizabeth I, who dissolved the monastery for the last time and provided for the establishment of the school, the dean, canons, assistant clergy, and lay officers. The schoolboys were rambunctious; Westminster boys have defaced the Coronation Chair, disrupted services, and once interrupted the consecration of four bishops with a bare-knuckle fight in the cloisters. One schoolboy carved on the Coronation Chair that he had slept in it overnight, making him probably its longest inhabitant. Westminster School became independent of the abbey Dean and Chapter in 1868, although the institutions remain closely connected. Westminster Abbey Choir School, also on the abbey grounds, educates the choirboys who sing for abbey services.

 

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry whose spiritual home is the abbey's Henry VII Chapel. The order was founded by George I in 1725, fell out of fashion after 1812, and was revived by George V in 1913. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which included bathing as a symbol of purification. Members are given stalls with their banner, crest, and a stall plate at installation ceremonies in the abbey every four years. Since there are more members than stalls, some members wait many years for their installation. The Order of the Bath is the fourth-oldest British orders of chivalry, after the Orders of the Garter, the Thistle, and St. Patrick (the latter is presently dormant).

 

Music

The choir master walking down the aisle of the abbey, with choirboys in red and white robes standing in stalls down its length

 

Westminster Abbey choristers

Andrew Nethsingha has been the abbey's organist and master of the choristers since 2023. Peter Holder is the sub-organist, Matthew Jorysz the assistant organist, and Dewi Rees is the organ scholar.

 

Choir

Since its foundation in the fourteenth century, the primary role of the Westminster Abbey choir has been to sing for daily services; the choir also plays a central role in many state occasions, including royal weddings and funerals, coronations, and memorial services. In 2012, the choir accepted an invitation from Pope Benedict XVI to sing with the Sistine Chapel Choir at a Papal Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. The all-male choir consists of twelve professional adult singers and thirty boy choristers from eight to 13 years old who attend the Westminster Abbey Choir School.

 

Organ

The first record of an organ at Westminster Abbey was the mention of a gift of three marks from Henry III in 1240 for the repair of one (or more) organs. Unum parem organorum ("a pair of organs") was recorded in the Lady Chapel in 1304. An inventory compiled for the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540 lists a pair of organs in the choir and one in the Islip Chapel. During the Commonwealth, a Royalist source said that soldiers who were billeted in the abbey "brake downe the Organ, and pawned the pipes at severall Ale-houses for pots of Ale"; an organ was played at the Restoration in 1660, however, suggesting that it had not been completely destroyed. In 1720, an organ gifted by George II and built by Christopher Shrider was installed over the choir screen; organs had previously been hidden on the north side of the choir. The organ was rebuilt by William Hill & Son in 1848.

 

A new organ was built by Harrison & Harrison in 1937, with four manuals and 84 speaking stops, and was played publicly for the first time at the coronation of George VI and Elizabeth that year. Some pipework from the previous Hill organ of 1848 was re-voiced and incorporated into the new instrument. The two organ cases, designed and built in the late 19th century by J. L. Pearson, were reinstated and coloured in 1959.

 

In 1982 and 1987, Harrison & Harrison enlarged the organ at the direction of Simon Preston to include an additional lower choir organ and a bombarde organ. The full instrument has five manuals and 109 speaking stops. Its console was refurbished by Harrison & Harrison in 2006, and space was prepared for two additional 16-foot stops on the lower choir organ and the bombarde organ. The abbey has three other organs: the two-manual Queen's Organ in the Lady Chapel, a smaller continuo organ, and a practice organ.

 

Bells

There have been bells at the abbey since at least the time of Henry III, and the current bells were installed in the north-west tower in 1971. The ring is made up of ten bells, hung for change ringing, which were cast in 1971 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and tuned to the musical notes F#, E, D, C#, B, A, G, F#, E and D. The tenor bell in D (588.5 Hz) has a weight of 30 cwt, 1 qtr, 15 lb (3,403 lb, or 1,544 kg). Two additional service bells were cast by Robert Mot in 1585 and 1598, and a sanctus bell was cast in 1738 by Richard Phelps and Thomas Lester. Two bells are unused; one was cast c. 1320, and the second was cast in 1742 by Thomas Lester. The Westminster Abbey Company of Ringers ring peals on special occasions, such as the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

 

In popular culture

Three monuments of varying sizes and shapes, cordoned off by a red rope

Fibreboard prop copies of marble Westminster Abbey monuments made for the filming of The Da Vinci Code, on display in Lincoln Cathedral

Westminster Abbey is mentioned in the play Henry VIII by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, when a gentleman describes Anne Boleyn's coronation. The abbey was mentioned in a 1598 sonnet by Thomas Bastard which begins, "When I behold, with deep astonishment / To famous Westminster how there restort / Living in brass or stony monument / The princes and the worthies of all sort". Poetry about the abbey has also been written by Francis Beaumont and John Betjeman. The building has appeared in paintings by artists such as Canaletto, Wenceslaus Hollar, William Bruce Ellis Ranken, and J. M. W. Turner.

 

Playwright Alan Bennett produced The Abbey, a 1995 documentary recounting his experiences of the building. Key scenes in the book and film The Da Vinci Code take place in Westminster Abbey. The abbey refused to allow filming in 2005 (calling the book "theologically unsound"), and the film uses Lincoln Cathedral as a stand-in. The abbey issued a fact sheet to their staff which answered questions and debunked several claims made in the book. In 2022, it was announced that the abbey had given rare permission to film inside the church for the untitled eighth Mission: Impossible film.

Responsible for signalling both Merseyrail services from Brunswick and Northern and EMR trains from Hunts Cross West Junction through to Hough Green, all on Track Circuit Block. Opened in December 1982, the box took over from the old Hunts Cross West Junction box.

 

I hadn't been back to this location since my days as a BR Ops Supervisor around 1996.

Taken approx. 1915-18 by a German photographer.

 

The German Philipp Holzmann company was responsible for the construction on the Taurus-section, part of the Berlin-Baghdad railroad project, some 70 kilometres north of Adana. The most difficult phase of the project was crossing the Belemedik plateau in the Taurus Mountains. To accommodate all necessary personnel, approx. in 1907 a shanty town was built by the Germans (Holzmann company) at Karapınar railway stop (later called Belemedik) in Pozantı district.

 

Between 1907 and 1914 estimated 3,500 Germans, Austrians and Swiss railway company employees where living here in total. They were engineers, technicians and railway workers, often with their families. For the Turks in the vicinity, the shanty town was considered the “German city”. It was designed to meet all the needs of the company’s employees. A hospital was built to the state of the art of those days (employing German doctors and nurses), a German church, a mosque, a German school for the children of the employees, a cinema, waterpipe/drainage system, big stone houses, etc. and even a brothel (about 1 km outside of the city). Belemedik was also one of the first cities in the Ottoman Empire that enjoyed 24h electricity thanks to a power station,

 

Starting as a village, Belemedik gained the appearance of a regular provincial town. Next to the multi-national European employees and engineers, a number of Turkish people were attracted to settle here as well as traders and workers. Holzmann had also employed many Greeks and Armenians workers and officials. During the war, the Ottoman government provided Turkish prisoners and Turks unfit for the war including Armenian and Greek labour battalions. Hence, there was also a detachment of Turkish soldiers in the small city. In Spring 1916, approx. 30,000 men were working for the railway company between Pozanti until Ras El Ain. Only 400 French, British and Australians (POWs captured in Gallipoli) were working along the railway until June 1916. It is estimated that out of these 30,000 some 5,500 men were working in the Amanus section and about the same number in the Taurus railway section. The works did not only meant working on the railway and tunnels but also road-construction thru the mountains, both in Taurus and Amanus, and in the area between both mountain ranges (Adana and Incirlik), hence the huge number of workers with their families.

In June 1916, many Armenians working for the railway company were brought to the Syrian desert and partly substituted in July 1916 by British, Australian, New Zealander, Indian and Nepali POWs. Later, Russians and Italian POWs were added. I have placed at the end of this caption more information regarding the POWs.

 

The railway station Karapınar was opened in 1912. Even by then, the site was called Belemedik. According to one source the name Belemedik is the corrupt form of the Turkish word Bilemedik meaning ‘We couldn't guess’. During the railway construction, each tunnel was bored by two teams working at the opposite sides of the tunnel. The teams were required to meet at the mid point. When for any reason, one team failed to accomplish the task, the excuse was the word bilemedik and in German pronunciation it became belemedik. Belemedik was the end of the railway until the completition of the Giaudere (Varda)-viaduct at Hacıkırı in September 1918, the connection to Adana (Durak) was openend in early October 1918 finishing the railway works just before the end of the war. The section is using 37 tunnels with a cumulative length 14.4 km).

 

Work on the railway was long and hard. In the eight years of construction in the area 41 German citizens people lost their lives (accidents, slides and diseases). In 2005, the German Honorary Consul Dr. Teyfik Kısacık bought land and with the help of German company Praktiker (Metro AG) as well as locals opened in September 30, 2005 a new 'German cemetery'. However, the Germans (and other Christian employees of the railway company) were buried in the ‘Christian cemetery’ along with Christian POWs. There existed no ‘German cemetery’. It is not clear if the ‘modern’ cemetery is located on the same ground as the old one. It is also doubtful, if there are any tombs/graves at all in this ground. It is possible that this is merely a memorial ground. The memorial plate which was erected was brought from Hacıkırı (those dead were brought to the German central cemetery in Tarabya, Istanbul) and has nothing to do with the Germans in Belemedik.

 

The Belemedik station was closed at the end of the First World War. After WW I, Belemedik was occupied by the French army, with its headquarters in Pozantı. The French occupying force used Belemedik as a site for a military hospital in which the commander's wife Mme. Mesnil was working as a nurse. Turkish Nationalists (also called Kemalist) captured Belemedik on 10 April 1920. On 28 May the rest of the French troops also surrendered during the battle of Karboğazı. During the rest of the independence war, the hospital in Belemedik was used by the Turkish Nationalists. In the turmoil which followed, the area was widely abandoned and almost forgotten. Until Atatürk was able to establish the modern Turkey, it was said that bandits were living in the remains of the houses and later locals from the region used Belemedik houses as source for cheap construction material. As result, almost nothing of the “German town” has remained (btw., Holzmann went bankrupt in 2002). Still existing are the fundaments of the generator, the chimney of the German hospital and a few stone houses which were storage houses of the railway company in different conditions (either ruins or to house animals). Today, there is merely a small hamlet left with friendly and helpful inhabitants.

 

Allied POWs

From 1916 on, an unknown number of Allied POWs were based here to support the on-going construction works. The POWs were under the administration of the Turkish army but the army was neither prepared nor able to accommodate and feed the foreign POWs once the huge numbers of British and Indian POWs from Kut arrived at Amanus mountains. In fact, the Turkish army had massive problems to feed and equip their own men. The army was more than willing to provide these POWs as workforce to the railway company which from then on had the responsibility of providing food and shelter to these POWs. However, the company was neither prepared for the thousands of additional men (plus Armenian refugees). This was a great challenge for the railway company to establish stocks necessary and it took approx. a half year until the situation became stable.

 

POWs were accommodated by the railway company in wooden shanty houses or tents. Stone houses were not common in that region in those days and those existing belonged to the railway company or villagers. The wooden shanty houses have vanished, nothing can be found today. The stone ruins you can see today belonged to the railway and were administration or storage buildings. POWs were not living in these. www.awm.gov.au/collection/H19397/

 

The great mass of British and Indian POWs had arrived in Amanus and Taurus in June 1916 after a long march thru the desert from Kut. Due to their bad physical condition, many of British were brought soon into the interior of Asia Minor without having forced to work on the railway project at all. For those British POWs from Kut who seemed in better conditions, the railway company wanted them to work and these were forced to work. The result of the work of these men was disappointing for the company and it asked the Turkish army to take them back. In September 1916, approx. 1000 POWs were moved from Amanus area to the interior. The army was marching these men all the way to Adana and from here over the Taurus mountains to Pozanti. Approx. 260 men suffered massively during the march and were brought to Tarsus and Adana hospitals. Half of them died in consequence. Those who had made it to Pozanti where brought to the new established POW-camps in the interior. Those of the men who recovered were brought to work in Taurus mountains.

In contrast to the British, most Indian and Nepali POWs had better overcome the hardship and soon, most of them had to work (mostly Ras El Ain, 4200 men and Amanus, 2700 men). It can be estimated that in November 1916 some 350 British and 800 Indian POWs were working in the Taurus section. Next to them were approx. 500 Russians.

The first figures of British and Indian (including Nepali) POWs were provided by Turkish authorities in January 1917 (probably showing the figures of December 1916). They justify the estimation of white British/Australian/NZ-POWs in the Taurus section: 283 British and 728 Indian POWs. By December 1916, 32 British, Australian and NZ POWs had died (283 + 32 = 315; of these 32, 14 had died in Hacikiri, 7 in Pozanti and 1 in Budjak.), plus some men which were moved to the interior, we can estimate some 330-350 British working in the Taurus section and probably some 800 Indians and Nepalis.

Soon after the winter 1916/1917, the number of POWs was reduced and many British POWs were moved into the interior while Indians had to work in Ras El Ain.

 

The number of French, Italian and Russian POWs who died in Belemedik is unknown. However, 17 white British/Australian/NZ-soldiers died in Belemedik and were buried along with Russians, French, Italians, Germans and Austrians in the local Christian cemetery. www.awm.gov.au/collection/P01645.002

Very few of them died due to accidents but mostly due to diseases like Malaria and Typhus. With the arrival of the men from Kut, supply became inadequate and POWs along with Turkish soldiers were suffering. According to the Swiss engineer Morf (head of the Amanus section), the Malaria epidemic in summer was unexceptionally hard as Indian POWs had brought Malaria Tropica to the Amanus and Taurus sections. According to him, Malaria Tropica was previously unknown in the Taurus mountains.

Especially in the Amanus section, many of the sick and exhausted British POWs who had arrived from Kut soon succumbed their sufferings. Out of the 558 British POWs who had died in the Amanus area, 327 men died from June to August 1916 respective 462 men from June to December 1916 which includes the dead due to Malaria and other epidemics of Summer/Autumn 1916. The new arrivals from Kut were soon moved into the interior, also because there were no facilities to take care of these sick men. By December 1916, only 62 white British POWs had remained in the Amanus section while 2628 Indians and Nepalis were working here. Estimated 150-200 British had to work in total in Amanus section. The Indians were working better in the heat than their British comrades. Especially in Ras El Ain, over 4,000 Indians had to work with almost no white British POW.

As a summary evaluating the contribution of the POWs to the construction of the Baghdad railway, the British POWs had a maximum of 500-600 men at its peak working all along from Taurus to Ras El Ain. Working meant tunnel works, laying tracks but often loading and de-loading wagons. Others had to join road-construction teams. By the end of 1916, less than 500 British POWs were working and their forced contribution was accordingly small. Simply by their huge numbers, the Indians had a much bigger effect on the works. However, combining all Allied POWs in Taurus, estimated 1,700 men, and in Amanus approx. 4,500 men, their forced labour helped to speed up the finishing of the project. Their total number was nevertheless small in comparison to the thousands of Turks, Greeks and for a limited time also Armenians (Turkish authorities estimated that the railway company gave shelter, food and compensation to some 15,000 Armenians. Grigoris Balakian praised the company for this in his diaries) who were working here for many years.

Those tombs/remains of POWs were transferred to Baghdad North cemetery. Indian and Nepali soldiers were not registered in the same way as white British soldiers, often dead Indians were burnt to ashes according to their religion and have never been found. It is therefore not clear, how many Indian and Nepali had died and where.

 

Early life

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was born in Tungipara, a village in Gopalganj District in the province of Bengal, to Sheikh Lutfar Rahman, a serestadar, or officer responsible for record-keeping at the Gopalganj civil court. He was the third child in a family of four daughters and two sons. Mujib was educated at the Gopalganj Public School and later transferred to the Gopalganj Missionary School, from where he completed his matriculation. However, Mujib was withdrawn from school in 1934 to undergo eye surgery, and returned to school only after four years, owing to the severity of the surgery and slow recovery. At the age of eighteen, Mujib married Begum Fazilatnnesa. She gave birth to their two daughters — Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana — and three sons — Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russel. Mujib became politically active when he joined the All India Muslim Students Federation in 1940. He enrolled at the Islamia College (now Maulana Azad College), a well-respected college affiliated to the University of Calcutta in Kolkata to study law and entered student politics there. He joined the Bengal Muslim League in 1943 and grew close to the faction led by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a leading Bengali Muslim leader. During this period, Mujib worked actively for the League's cause of a separate Muslim state of Pakistan and in 1946 he was elected general secretary of the Islamia College Students Union. After obtaining his degree in 1947, Mujib was one of the Muslim politicians working under Suhrawardy during the communal violence that broke out in Calcutta, in 1946, just before the partition of India. On his return to East Bengal, he enrolled in the University of Dhaka to study law and founded the East Pakistan Muslim Students' League and became one of the most prominent student political leaders in the province. During these years, Mujib developed an affinity for socialism as the ideal solution to mass poverty, unemployment and poor living conditions. On January 26, 1949 the government announced that Urdu would officially be the state language of Pakistan. Though still in jail, Mujib encouraged fellow activist groups to launch strikes and protests and undertook a hunger strike for 13 days. Following the declaration of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the province chief minister Khwaja Nazimuddin in 1948 that the people of East Pakistan, mainly Bengalis, would have to adopt Urdu as the state language, agitation broke out amongst the population. Mujib led the Muslim Students League in organising strikes and protests, and was arrested along with his colleagues by police on March 11. The outcry of students and political activists led to the immediate release of Mujib and the others. Mujib was expelled from the university and arrested again in 1949 for attempting to organize the menial and clerical staff in an agitation over workers' rights. Year

Date

Personal/Political Events

1920

Mar 17

Born at Tungipara village in Faridpur district (presently Gopalgonj)

1938

Imprisoned for his nationalist speech in a political gathering

1940

During a visit by the state minister Fazlul Huq and minister of food Suhrawardi to the Gopalgonj School, Sheikh Mujib, with few other students, blocked their way in demand of government initiative for the improvement of condition of the school. The leaders accepted his demands.

1946

Elected the General Secretary of the central students' union of Calcutta Islamia College

1947 Formed the East Pakistan Muslim Students' League

1947 Nov First use of the name "Bangladesh' in the conference of Students' League in Narayanganj.

1949 June 23 Elected as the founder joint secretary of Awami Muslim League from prison. Released in July and was immediately imprisoned for hunger strike

1952 Hunger strike at Dhaka Central Jail in support of the heroes of Bangla language movement.

1953 The responsibility of the General Secretary of Awami League was accorded to him 1954 A new ministry was formed on 12 May 1954 by the Chief Minister Fazlul Haque and Sheikh Mujib was inducted as the youngest member of the cabinet.

1954 May 30

The central government dissolved Fazlul Haque's cabinet, imposed direct rule and arrested their arch enemy, Sheikh Mujib. He was released on December 18.

1955 Sept

Turned "Muslim Awami League" into a non-communal political party by reoving the word "Muslim" from its official name.

1956 June 2

Governor's rule was lifted and election of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was held in the same month. Sheikh Mujib was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly.

1956 Sept

Minister for trade, industry and anti-corruption in the ministry formed by Ataur Rahman Khan

1957 May

Resigned from the ministry in order to commit himself to organizational work for the party.

1958 October

Arrested by the military dictator General Ayub Khan on 12 false charges.

1966 Feb5, 6

In the national conference for the opposition political parties in Lahore, Sheikh Mujib first pronounced the historic six point demands. Arrested again

1968 January

While serving long term jail sentences, the Pakistani military dictator brought charges of high treason against Sheikh Mujib. They accused Sheikh Mujib of conspiring with senior army and civil officials to overthrow the government. The trial started under a special tribunal and the case became famous as Agartala Conspiracy Case.

1969 Feb 22

The protest against the so-called Agartala conspiracy case slowly gained momentum and the huge mass upsurge of February brought the downfall of Gen Ayub Khan and withdrawal of Agartala Conspiracy Case as well as the release of Sheikh Mujib and other co-accused.

1969 Feb 23

The people gave an unprecedented reception to Sheikh Mujib and he was accorded the title "Bangabandhu"- friend of Banga (Bengal).

1969 Dec 5

In the death anniversary of Suhrawardi, Sheikh Mujib announced that the name of the independent East Pakistan would be Bangladesh.

1970 Dec 7

In the general election of Pakistan, Awami Leage won 167 seats out of 169 in East Pakistan.

1971 Jan 3

Awami League inaugurated the oath of the elected members of parliament in the Race Course ground. The six points were declared a must for the people of East Pakistan

1971 Mar 3

In protest to Gen Yahyah Khan's deliberate refusal to hand over political power, Sheikh Mujib declared the cancellation of the session of the National Council. Under the leadership of Sheikh Mujib, all Bangalees vehemently opposed Yahya's dictatorial intervention into national politics.

1971 March 7

The historical speech upholding the promise for the liberation of the Bangalees........this is our fight for liberation, this is our fight for independence.............Joy Bangla

1971 March 25

Pakistan army unleashed its barbaric attack on the unprepared Bangalees in the dead of the night. Official declaration of independence via wireless from his residence, 32 Dhanmondi Road, just before he was captured by the Pakistani occupation forces

1971 April 17

Formation of the Mujibnagar (provisional) government in Meherpur and Sheikh Mujib was elected the president. Syed Nazrul Islam the acting president and Tajuddin Ahmed the prime minister.

1972 Jan 8

Release from Pakistan Military custody.

1972 Jan 10

Return to independent Bangladesh.

1972 Jan 12

Commencement of parliamentary democracy. Elected as the Prime Minister. Promise to presented the nation with a modern constitution in ten months.

1973 Mar 7

General Election. Formed the government again.

1973 May 23

Accorded the Julie Curie medal for peace

1974 Sept 28

Address in the general assembly of the UN in Bangla

1975 Jan 25

Formation of BKSAL (Bangladesh Krisak Sramik Awami League) for economic independence.

1975 Aug 15

Assassinated by a band of artillery forces led by Col Faruk and Col Rashid. Many suspect CIA especially Kissinger's involvement in the assassination of Mujib as Mujib, like Alende of Chili, defied US foreign policy formulated by Kissinger.. In the same afternoon Mujib's body was taken straight to Tungipara, escorted by the military, his place of birth and was given a hasty burial.

Early political career Sheikh Mujib, 1950

Mujib launched his political career, leaving the Muslim League to join Suhrawardy and Maulana Bhashani in the formation of the Awami Muslim League, the predecessor of the Awami League. He was elected joint secretary of its East Pakistan unit in 1949. While Suhrawardy worked to build a larger coalition of East Pakistani and socialist parties, Mujib focused on expanding the grassroots organisation. In 1951, Mujib began organising protests and rallies in response to the killings by police of students who had been protesting against the declaration of Urdu as the sole national language. This period of turmoil, later to be known as the Bengali Language Movement, saw Mujib and many other Bengali politicians arrested. In 1953, he was made the party's general secretary, and elected to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly on a United Front coalition ticket in 1954. Serving briefly as the minister for agriculture, Mujib was briefly arrested for organizing a protest of the central government's decision to dismiss the United Front ministry. He was elected to the second Constituent Assembly of Pakistan and served from 1955 to 1958. During a speech in the assembly on the proposed plan to dissolve the provinces in favour of an amalgamated West Pakistan and East Pakistan with a powerful central government, Mujib demanded that the Bengali people's ethnic identity be respected and that a popular verdict should decide the question: "Sir [President of the Constituent Assembly], you will see that they want to place the word "East Pakistan" instead of "East Bengal." We had demanded so many times that you should use Bengal instead of Pakistan. The word "Bengal" has a history, has a tradition of its own. You can change it only after the people have been consulted. So far as the question of one unit is concerned it can come in the constitution. Why do you want it to be taken up just now? What about the state language, Bengali? We will be prepared to consider one-unit with all these things. So I appeal to my friends on that side to allow the people to give their verdict in any way, in the form of referendum or in the form of plebiscite." In 1956, Mujib entered a second coalition government as minister of industries, commerce, labour, anti-corruption and village aid, but resigned in 1957 to work full-time for the party organization. When General Ayub Khan suspended the constitution and imposed martial law in 1958, Mujib was arrested for organising resistance and imprisoned till 1961. After his release from prison, Mujib started organising an underground political body called the Swadhin Bangal Biplobi Parishad (Free Bangla Revolutionary Council), comprising student leaders in order to oppose the regime of Ayub Khan and to work for increased political power for Bengalis and the independence of East Pakistan. He was briefly arrested again in 1962 for organising protests.

Leader of East Pakistan

Following Suhrawardy's death in 1963, Mujib came to head the Awami League, which became one of the largest political parties in Pakistan. The party had dropped the word "Muslim" from its name in a shift towards secularism and a broader appeal to non-Muslim communities. Mujib was one of the key leaders to rally opposition to President Ayub Khan's Basic Democracies plan, the imposition of martial law and the one-unit scheme, which centralized power and merged the provinces. Working with other political parties, he supported opposition candidate Fatima Jinnah against Ayub Khan in the 1964 election. Mujib was arrested two weeks before the election, charged with sedition and jailed for a year. In these years, there was rising discontent in East Pakistan over the atrocities committed by the military against Bengalis and the neglect of the issues and needs of East Pakistan by the ruling regime. Despite forming a majority of the population, the Bengalis were poorly represented in Pakistan's civil services, police and military. There were also conflicts between the allocation of revenues and taxation. Unrest over continuing denial of democracy spread across Pakistan and Mujib intensified his opposition to the disbandment of provinces. In 1966, Mujib proclaimed a 6-point plan titled Our Charter of Survival at a national conference of opposition political parties at Lahore, in which he demanded self-government and considerable political, economic and defence autonomy for East Pakistan in a Pakistani federation with a weak central government. According to his plan: 1. The constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense on the Lahore Resolution and the parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise. 2. The federal government should deal with only two subjects: defence and foreign affairs, and all other residuary subjects shall be vested in the federating states. 3. Two separate, but freely convertible currencies for two wings should be introduced; or if this is not feasible, there should be one currency for the whole country, but effective constitutional provisions should be introduced to stop the flight of capital from East to West Pakistan. Furthermore, a separate banking reserve should be established and separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East Pakistan. 4. The power of taxation and revenue collection shall be vested in the federating units and the federal centre will have no such power. The federation will be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures. 5. There should be two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings; the foreign exchange requirements of the federal government should be met by the two wings equally or in a ratio to be fixed; indigenous products should move free of duty between the two wings, and the constitution should empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries. 6. East Pakistan should have a separate militia or paramilitary forces. Mujib's points catalysed public support across East Pakistan, launching what some historians have termed the 6 point movement — recognized as the definitive gambit for autonomy and rights of Bengalis in Pakistan. Mujib obtained the broad support of Bengalis, including the Hindu and other religious communities in East Pakistan. However, his demands were considered radical in West Pakistan and interpreted as thinly-veiled separatism. The proposals alienated West Pakistani people and politicians, as well as non-Bengalis and Muslim fundamentalists in East Pakistan. Mujib was arrested by the army and after two years in jail, an official sedition trial in a military court opened. Widely known as the Agartala Conspiracy Case, Mujib and 34 Bengali military officers were accused by the government of colluding with Indian government agents in a scheme to divide Pakistan and threaten its unity, order and national security. The plot was alleged to have been planned in the city of Agartala, in the Indian state of Tripura. The outcry and unrest over Mujib's arrest and the charge of sedition against him destabilised East Pakistan amidst large protests and strikes. Various Bengali political and student groups added demands to address the issues of students, workers and the poor, forming a larger "11-point plan." The government caved to the mounting pressure, dropped the charged and unconditionally released Mujib. He returned to East Pakistan as a public hero. Joining an all-parties conference convened by Ayub Khan in 1969, Mujib demanded the acceptance of his six points and the demands of other political parties and walked out following its rejection. On December 5, 1969 Mujib made a declaration at a public meeting held to observe the death anniversary of Suhrawardy that henceforth East Pakistan would be called "Bangladesh": "There was a time when all efforts were made to erase the word "Bangla" from this land and its map. The existence of the word "Bangla" was found nowhere except in the term Bay of Bengal. I on behalf of Pakistan announce today that this land will be called "Bangladesh" instead of East Pakistan." Mujib's declaration heightened tensions across the country. The West Pakistani politicians and the military began to see him as a separatist leader. His assertion of Bengali cultural and ethnic identity also re-defined the debate over regional autonomy. Many scholars and observers believed the Bengali agitation emphasized the rejection of the Two-Nation Theory — the case upon which Pakistan had been created — by asserting the ethno-cultural identity of Bengalis as a nation. Mujib was able to galvanise support throughout East Pakistan, which was home to a majority of the national population, thus making him one of the most powerful political figures in the Indian subcontinent. It was following his 6-point plan that Mujib was increasingly referred to by his supporters as "Bangabandhu" (literally meaning "Friend of Bengal" in Bengali).

1970 elections and independence

A major coastal cyclone struck East Pakistan in 1970, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced. The subsequent period exposed extreme outrage and unrest over the perceived weak and ineffective response of the central government. Public opinion and political parties in East Pakistan blamed the governing authorities as intentionally negligent. The West Pakistani politicians attacked the Awami League for allegedly using the crisis for political gain. The dissatisfaction led to divisions within the civil services, police and military of Pakistan. In the elections held in December 1970, the Awami League under Mujib's leadership won a massive majority in the provincial legislature, and all but 2 of East Pakistan's quota of seats in the new National Assembly, thus forming a clear majority. The election result revealed a polarisation between the two wings of Pakistan, with the largest and most successful party in the West being the Pakistan Peoples Party of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was completely opposed to Mujib's demand for greater autonomy. Bhutto threatened to boycott the assembly and oppose the government if Mujib was invited by Yahya Khan (then president of Pakistan) to form the next government, demanding his party's inclusion. There was also widespread opposition in the Pakistani military and the Islamic political parties to Mujib becoming Pakistan's prime minister. And even though neither Mujib nor the League had explicitly advocated political independence for East Pakistan, smaller nationalist groups were demanding independence for Bangladesh. Following political deadlock, Yahya Khan delayed the convening of the assembly — a move seen by Bengalis as a plan to deny Mujib's party, which formed a majority, from taking charge. It was on March 7, 1971 that Mujib called for independence and asked the people to launch a major campaign of civil disobedience and organised armed resistance at a mass gathering of people held at the Race Course Ground in Dhaka. "The struggle now is the struggle for our emancipation; the struggle now is the struggle for our independence. Joy Bangla!..Since we have given blood, we will give more blood. God-willing, the people of this country will be liberated...Turn every house into a fort. Face (the enemy) with whatever you have." Following a last ditch attempt to foster agreement, Yahya Khan declared martial law, banned the Awami League and ordered the army to arrest Mujib and other Bengali leaders and activists. The army launched Operation Searchlight to curb the political and civil unrest, fighting the nationalist militias that were believed to have received training in India. Speaking on radio even as the army began its crackdown, Mujib declared Bangladesh's independence at midnight on March 26, 1971: "This may be my last message; from today Bangladesh is independent. I call upon the people of Bangladesh wherever you might be and with whatever you have, to resist the army of occupation to the last. Your fight must go on until the last soldier of the Pakistan occupation army is expelled from the soil of Bangladesh. Final victory is ours." Mujib was arrested and moved to West Pakistan and kept under heavy guard in a jail near Faisalabad (then Lyallpur). Many other League politicians avoided arrest by fleeing to India and other countries. Pakistani general Rahimuddin Khan was appointed to preside over Mujib's criminal court case. The actual sentence and court proceedings have never been made public. The Pakistani army's campaign to restore order soon degenerated into a rampage of terror and bloodshed. With militias known as Razakars, the army targeted Bengali intellectuals, politicians and union leaders, as well as ordinary civilians. It targeted Bengali and non-Bengali Hindus across the region, and throughout the year large numbers of Hindus fled across the border to the neighbouring Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. The East Bengali army and police regiments soon revolted and League leaders formed a government in exile in Kolkata under Tajuddin Ahmad, a politician close to Mujib. A major insurgency led by the Mukti Bahini (Freedom Fighters) arose across East Pakistan. Despite international pressure, the Pakistani government refused to release Mujib and negotiate with him. Most of the Mujib family was kept under house arrest during this period. His son Sheikh Kamal was a key officer in the Mukti Bahini, which was a part of the struggle between the state forces and the nationalist militia during the war that came to be known as the Bangladesh Liberation War. Following Indian intervention in December 1971, the Pakistani army surrendered to the joint force of Bengali Mukti Bahini and Indian Army, and the League leadership created a government in Dhaka. Mujib was released by the Pakistani authorities on January 8, 1972 following the official ending of hostilities. He flew to New Delhi via London and after meeting Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, he publicly expressed his thanks to "the best friends of my people, the people of India." He returned to Bangladesh on January 10, 1972. With Gandhi, he addressed a crowd of approximately half a million people gathered in Dhaka.

Governing Bangladesh

Mujibur Rahman briefly assumed the provisional presidency and later took office as the prime minister, heading all organs of government and decision-making. In doing so, he dismissed Tajuddin Ahmad following a controversial intra-party power struggle that had occurred during Mujib's incarceration. The politicians elected in 1970 formed the provisional parliament of the new state. The Mukti Bahini and other militias amalgamated to form a new Bangladeshi army to which Indian forces transferred control on March 17. Mujib described the fallout of the war as the "biggest human disaster in the world," claiming the deaths of as many as 3 million people and the rape of more than 200,000 women. The government faced serious challenges, which including the rehabilitation of millions of people displaced in 1971, organising the supply of food, health aids and other necessities. The effects of the 1970 cyclone had not worn off, and the state's economy had immensely deteriorated by the conflict. There was also violence against non-Bengalis and groups who were believed to have assisted the Pakistani forces. By the end of the year, thousands of Bengalis arrived from Pakistan, and thousands of non-Bengalis migrated to Pakistan; and yet many thousands remained in refugee camps. After Bangladesh achieved recognition from major countries, Mujib helped Bangladesh enter into the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement. He travelled to the United States, the United Kingdom and other European nations to obtain humanitarian and developmental assistance for the nation. He signed a treaty of friendship with India, which pledged extensive economic and humanitarian assistance and began training Bangladesh's security forces and government personnel. Mujib forged a close friendship with Indira Gandhi, strongly praising India's decision to intercede, and professed admiration and friendship for India. The two governments remained in close cooperation during Mujib's lifetime. He charged the provisional parliament to write a new constitution, and proclaimed the four fundamental principles of "nationalism, secularism, democracy and socialism," which would come to be known as "Mujibism." Mujib nationalised hundreds of industries and companies as well as abandoned land and capital and initiated land reform aimed at helping millions of poor farmers. Major efforts were launched to rehabilitate an estimated 10 million refugees. The economy began recovering and a famine was prevented. A constitution was proclaimed in 1973 and elections were held, which resulted in Mujib and his party gaining power with an absolute majority. He further outlined state programmes to expand primary education, sanitation, food, healthcare, water and electric supply across the country. A five-year plan released in 1973 focused state investments into agriculture, rural infrastructure and cottage industries. Although the state was committed to secularism, Mujib soon began moving closer to political Islam through state policies as well as personal conduct. He revived the Islamic Academy (which had been banned in 1972 for suspected collusion with Pakistani forces) and banned the production and sale of alcohol and banned the practice of gambling, which had been one of the major demands of Islamic groups. Mujib sought Bangladesh's membership in the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Islamic Development Bank and made a significant trip to Lahore in 1974 to attend the OIC summit, which helped repair relations with Pakistan to an extent. In his public appearances and speeches, Mujib made increased usage of Islamic greetings, slogans and references to Islamic ideologies. In his final years, Mujib largely abandoned his trademark "Joy Bangla" salutation for "Khuda Hafez" preferred by religious Muslims.

 

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Garden Village, Burnaby, British Columbia

 

Click on the image to enlarge to see the detail in each month's photo.

 

Illustrations by Wilf VanDyk, Owen Sound, Ontario.

Printed in Canada.

Printed on environmentally responsible paper

A senior citizen assisted by her family, arriving at a polling booth in Sadashivanagar, Bengaluru to cast her valuable vote during 18th Lok Sabha Election 24.

QEHP:

Architect

Faircloth, FH

Construction period

1902â1909, Childers Pharmaceutical Museum & Tourist Information Centre (1902 - 1909)

`The former Gaydon's Pharmacy is one of a row of shops erected in 1902 to the design of Bundaberg architect FW Faircloth, following a fire that destroyed most of the south side of Churchill Street, the main street of Childers. Faircloth was responsible for much of the new building following the fire, the effects of which transformed the appearance of Childers. Extended to two storeys in 1909, the pharmacy housed several important services to the town and, retaining extremely intact contents, has become a pharmaceutical museum in recent years.

 

Childers is located in what was once the heart of the Isis Scrub. Following logging of the dense Scrub in the 1870s, Childers was promoted in the 1880s by Maryborough interests as an agricultural district. The land in the immediate vicinity of the present town of Childers was surveyed in 1882 into 50 acre farm blocks. There was no official town survey; Childers developed following private subdivision at the railhead of the 1887 extension line from Isis Junction. This was opened on 31 October 1887, and was intended principally to facilitate the transport of timber from the scrub.

 

The coming of the railway not only promoted the development of the town of Childers; it also proved the catalyst for the establishment of a sugar industry in the district in the late 1880s. At the opening of the railway to Childers, Robert Cran, owner of Maryborough's Yengarie mill, announced that he would erect a double crushing juice mill at Doolbi, to supply his mill at Yengarie. This was completed in 1890, with the juice being brought in railway tankers from the Isis. Further expansion of the sugar industry in the Isis was closely related to the activities of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, which erected a central crushing mill in the district 1893-94, and began crushing in 1895. By 1895, at least three other mills had been established in the Isis, with another two under construction, and Childers had emerged as the flourishing centre of a substantial sugar-growing district.

 

Thomas Gaydon arrived in Childers in 1894, four years after completing his pharmaceutical apprenticeship in Brisbane, and established 'The Isis Pharmacy' as one of the first shops in the main street. He and William Hood needed to clear the block with axes and mattocks. Hood set up as a tobacconist and stationer. In September 1899, resub 18 of sub 3 of portion 840 was transferred to Thomas Gaydon and William Hood as joint tenants. This was probably the land on which their adjoining timber shops were built.

 

1902 was a very dry year and Childers had no fire brigade. In 23 March, a catastrophic fire swept through the south side of the main street in town, where virtually all the buildings were timber and closely built. Those stores destroyed were: S Oakley, bootmaker; FD Cooper, commission agent; R Graham, fruiterer; ME Gosley, tailor; Foley, hairdresser; M Redmond, Palace Hotel; WB Jones, auctioneer; W Couzens, fruiterer; H Newman, general storekeeper; WJ Overell and Son, general merchants; P Christensen, cabinet maker; W Hood, stationer; T Gaydon, chemist; W Lloyd, hairdresser; Mrs Dunne, fruiterer; Federal Jewellery Company; Dunn Bros, saddlers; H Wegner, bootmaker. The Bundaberg architect F H Faircloth was engaged to redesign new premises and called tenders for the erection of eight brick shops, including Gaydons, in June 1902.

 

Frederic Herbert (Herb) Faircloth was born in Maryborough in 1870 and was a pupil of German-trained Bundaberg architect Anton Hettrich. Faircloth set up his own practice in Bundaberg in 1893 and was very successful, eventually being responsible for the design of almost every major building in Bundaberg. He was also to have a major effect on the appearance and character of Childers.

 

The new shops were masonry rather than timber, a choice no doubt influenced by the fire, and were elegant single story buildings with large glass shop fronts. Striped curved awnings across the footpath were supported by decorative posts with cast iron infill. Each shop had a separate roof , some lit by lanterns and the individual tenancies were also marked by the visual separation of the facades by the use of classic revival pediments, urns, and balustrades. Gaydon's building with its broken semi-circular pediment matched the adjoining Hood's shop.

 

Around 1909 an upper floor was added. This addition included the adjoining shop, so that a new and larger decorative pediment was created. A photograph dating from around 1913 shows that other tenants, including a bootmaker and the New Zealand Insurance Company, also used Gaydon's building. The upper floor was lit by a lantern and a pair of large compound windows and so had excellent light for its use a dental surgery by Thomas Gaydon, who in addition to his work as a pharmacist, also practised as a dentist, photographer and anaesthetist to the local hospital. He was a public spirited man and also served as president of the Chamber of Commerce, School of Arts, hospital and School committees at various times. He was the second chairman of the Isis Shire Council in 1919 and served in this role again between 1924 and 1930.

 

Following the death of Thomas Gaydon in 1935, the property was transferred to his two sons, T. Geoffrey Gaydon (a dentist) and S. Noel Gaydon (a chemist) who both practised from the premises. In 1938 Mervyn G Hooper joined the staff as a chemist and went into partnership with Noel Gaydon in 1956. When Noel Gaydon died in 1966, Hooper continued the business and the property was transferred to his wife in 1973. In 1982 Mervyn Hooper died and the then pharmacy was operated as a gift shop (with all pharmaceutical material retained) by his widow Isbell (known as Isa) Hooper. In 1987 the shop ceased trading and was acquired by the present owner.

 

The Shire leased the building, after purchasing the contents, catalogued items and carried out conservation work. In 1989 Gaydons Pharmacy opened as a pharmaceutical museum with an art gallery on the upper floor. The work undertaken by the Isis Shire Council to prepare the building for use as a museum, tourist office, and gallery received a National Trust of Queensland John Herbert Award for Conservation Action in 1989.'

Responsible work of bounty hunters

With the rain falling harder, it was a bit of a route march to Holborn and my next church, the stunning St Sepulchre, which was also open.

 

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St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, also known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Holborn), is an Anglican church in the City of London. It is located on Holborn Viaduct, almost opposite the Old Bailey. In medieval times it stood just outside ("without") the now-demolished old city wall, near the Newgate. It has been a living of St John's College, Oxford, since 1622.

 

The original Saxon church on the site was dedicated to St Edmund the King and Martyr. During the Crusades in the 12th century the church was renamed St Edmund and the Holy Sepulchre, in reference to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The name eventually became contracted to St Sepulchre.

 

The church is today the largest parish church in the City. It was completely rebuilt in the 15th century but was gutted by the Great Fire of London in 1666,[1] which left only the outer walls, the tower and the porch standing[2] -. Modified in the 18th century, the church underwent extensive restoration in 1878. It narrowly avoided destruction in the Second World War, although the 18th-century watch-house in its churchyard (erected to deter grave-robbers) was completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt.

 

The interior of the church is a wide, roomy space with a coffered ceiling[3] installed in 1834. The Vicars' old residence has recently been renovated into a modern living quarter.

 

During the reign of Mary I in 1555, St Sepulchre's vicar, John Rogers, was burned as a heretic.

 

St Sepulchre is named in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons as the "bells of Old Bailey". Traditionally, the great bell would be rung to mark the execution of a prisoner at the nearby gallows at Newgate. The clerk of St Sepulchre's was also responsible for ringing a handbell outside the condemned man's cell in Newgate Prison to inform him of his impending execution. This handbell, known as the Execution Bell, now resides in a glass case to the south of the nave.

 

The church has been the official musicians' church for many years and is associated with many famous musicians. Its north aisle (formerly a chapel dedicated to Stephen Harding) is dedicated as the Musicians' Chapel, with four windows commemorating John Ireland, the singer Dame Nellie Melba, Walter Carroll and the conductor Sir Henry Wood respectively.[4] Wood, who "at the age of fourteen, learned to play the organ" at this church [1] and later became its organist, also has his ashes buried in this church.

 

The south aisle of the church holds the regimental chapel of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), and its gardens are a memorial garden to that regiment.[5] The west end of the north aisle has various memorials connected with the City of London Rifles (the 6th Battalion London Regiment). The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Sepulchre-without-Newgate

 

The Early History of St. Sepulchre's—Its Destruction in 1666—The Exterior and Interior—The Early Popularity of the Church—Interments here—Roger Ascham, the Author of the "Schoolmaster"—Captain John Smith, and his Romantic Adventures—Saved by an Indian Girl— St. Sepulchre's Churchyard—Accommodation for a Murderess—The Martyr Rogers—An Odd Circumstance—Good Company for the Dead—A Leap from the Tower—A Warning Bell and a Last Admonition—Nosegays for the Condemned—The Route to the Gallows-tree— The Deeds of the Charitable—The "Saracen's Head"—Description by Dickens—Giltspur Street—Giltspur Street Compter—A Disreputable Condition—Pie Corner—Hosier Lane—A Spurious Relic—The Conduit on Snow Hill—A Ladies' Charity School—Turnagain Lane—Poor Betty!—A Schoolmistress Censured—Skinner Street—Unpropitious Fortune—William Godwin—An Original Married Life.

 

Many interesting associations—Principally, however, connected with the annals of crime and the execution of the laws of England—belong to the Church of St. Sepulchre, or St. 'Pulchre. This sacred edifice—anciently known as St. Sepulchre's in the Bailey, or by Chamberlain Gate (now Newgate)—stands at the eastern end of the slight acclivity of Snow Hill, and between Smithfield and the Old Bailey. The genuine materials for its early history are scanty enough. It was probably founded about the commencement of the twelfth century, but of the exact date and circumstances of its origin there is no record whatever. Its name is derived from the Holy Sepulchre of our Saviour at Jerusalem, to the memory of which it was first dedicated.

 

The earliest authentic notice of the church, according to Maitland, is of the year 1178, at which date it was given by Roger, Bishop of Sarum, to the Prior and Canons of St. Bartholomew. These held the right of advowson until the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII., and from that time until 1610 it remained in the hands of the Crown. James I., however, then granted "the rectory and its appurtenances, with the advowson of the vicarage," to Francis Phillips and others. The next stage in its history is that the rectory was purchased by the parishioners, to be held in fee-farm of the Crown, and the advowson was obtained by the President and Fellows of St. John the Baptist College, at Oxford.

 

The church was rebuilt about the middle of the fifteenth century, when one of the Popham family, who had been Chancellor of Normandy and Treasurer of the King's Household, with distinguished liberality erected a handsome chapel on the south side of the choir, and the very beautiful porch still remaining at the south-west corner of the building. "His image," Stow says, "fair graven in stone, was fixed over the said porch."

 

The dreadful fire of 1666 almost destroyed St. Sepulchre's, but the parishioners set energetically to work, and it was "rebuilt and beautified both within and without." The general reparation was under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, and nothing but the walls of the old building, and these not entirely, were suffered to remain. The work was done rapidly, and the whole was completed within four years.

 

"The tower," says Mr. Godwin, "retained its original aspect, and the body of the church, after its restoration, presented a series of windows between buttresses, with pointed heads filled with tracery, crowned by a string-course and battlements. In this form it remained till the year 1790, when it appears the whole fabric was found to be in a state of great decay, and it was resolved to repair it throughout. Accordingly the walls of the church were cased with Portland stone, and all the windows were taken out and replaced by others with plain semi-circular heads, as now seen—certainly agreeing but badly with the tower and porch of the building, but according with the then prevailing spirit of economy. The battlements, too, were taken down, and a plain stone parapet was substituted, so that at this time (with the exception of the roof, which was wagon-headed, and presented on the outside an unsightly swell, visible above the parapet) the church assumed its present appearance." The ungainly roof was removed, and an entirely new one erected, about 1836.

 

At each corner of the tower—"one of the most ancient," says the author of "Londinium Redivivum," "in the outline of the circuit of London" —there are spires, and on the spires there are weathercocks. These have been made use of by Howell to point a moral: "Unreasonable people," says he, "are as hard to reconcile as the vanes of St. Sepulchre's tower, which never look all four upon one point of the heavens." Nothing can be said with certainty as to the date of the tower, but it is not without the bounds of probability that it formed part of the original building. The belfry is reached by a small winding staircase in the south-west angle, and a similar staircase in an opposite angle leads to the summit. The spires at the corners, and some of the tower windows, have very recently undergone several alterations, which have added much to the picturesqueness and beauty of the church.

 

The chief entrance to St. Sepulchre's is by a porch of singular beauty, projecting from the south side of the tower, at the western end of the church. The groining of the ceiling of this porch, it has been pointed out, takes an almost unique form; the ribs are carved in bold relief, and the bosses at the intersections represent angels' heads, shields, roses, &c., in great variety.

 

Coming now to the interior of the church, we find it divided into three aisles, by two ranges of Tuscan columns. The aisles are of unequal widths, that in the centre being the widest, that to the south the narrowest. Semi-circular arches connect the columns on either side, springing directly from their capitals, without the interposition of an entablature, and support a large dental cornice, extending round the church. The ceiling of the middle aisle is divided into seven compartments, by horizontal bands, the middle compartment being formed into a small dome.

 

The aisles have groined ceilings, ornamented at the angles with doves, &c., and beneath every division of the groining are small windows, to admit light to the galleries. Over each of the aisles there is a gallery, very clumsily introduced, which dates from the time when the church was built by Wren, and extends the whole length, excepting at the chancel. The front of the gallery, which is of oak, is described by Mr. Godwin as carved into scrolls, branches, &c., in the centre panel, on either side, with the initials "C. R.," enriched with carvings of laurel, which have, however, he says, "but little merit."

 

At the east end of the church there are three semicircular-headed windows. Beneath the centre one is a large Corinthian altar-piece of oak, displaying columns, entablatures, &c., elaborately carved and gilded.

 

The length of the church, exclusive of the ambulatory, is said to be 126 feet, the breadth 68 feet, and the height of the tower 140 feet.

 

A singularly ugly sounding-board, extending over the preacher, used to stand at the back of the pulpit, at the east end of the church. It was in the shape of a large parabolic reflector, about twelve feet in diameter, and was composed of ribs of mahogany.

 

At the west end of the church there is a large organ, said to be the oldest and one of the finest in London. It was built in 1677, and has been greatly enlarged. Its reed-stops (hautboy, clarinet, &c.) are supposed to be unrivalled. In Newcourt's time the church was taken notice of as "remarkable for possessing an exceedingly fine organ, and the playing is thought so beautiful, that large congregations are attracted, though some of the parishioners object to the mode of performing divine service."

 

On the north side of the church, Mr. Godwin mentions, is a large apartment known as "St. Stephen's Chapel." This building evidently formed a somewhat important part of the old church, and was probably appropriated to the votaries of the saint whose name it bears.

 

Between the exterior and the interior of the church there is little harmony. "For example," says Mr. Godwin, "the columns which form the south aisle face, in some instances, the centre of the large windows which occur in the external wall of the church, and in others the centre of the piers, indifferently." This discordance may likely enough have arisen from the fact that when the church was rebuilt, or rather restored, after the Great Fire, the works were done without much attention from Sir Christopher Wren.

 

St. Sepulchre's appears to have enjoyed considerable popularity from the earliest period of its history, if one is to judge from the various sums left by well-disposed persons for the support of certain fraternities founded in the church—namely, those of St. Katherine, St. Michael, St. Anne, and Our Lady—and by others, for the maintenance of chantry priests to celebrate masses at stated intervals for the good of their souls. One of the fraternities just named—that of St. Katherine— originated, according to Stow, in the devotion of some poor persons in the parish, and was in honour of the conception of the Virgin Mary. They met in the church on the day of the Conception, and there had the mass of the day, and offered to the same, and provided a certain chaplain daily to celebrate divine service, and to set up wax lights before the image belonging to the fraternity, on all festival days.

 

The most famous of all who have been interred in St. Sepulchre's is Roger Ascham, the author of the "Schoolmaster," and the instructor of Queen Elizabeth in Greek and Latin. This learned old worthy was born in 1515, near Northallerton, in Yorkshire. He was educated at Cambridge University, and in time rose to be the university orator, being notably zealous in promoting what was then a novelty in England—the study of the Greek language. To divert himself after the fatigue of severe study, he used to devote himself to archery. This drew down upon him the censure of the all-work-and-no-play school; and in defence of himself, Ascham, in 1545, published "Toxophilus," a treatise on his favourite sport. This book is even yet well worthy of perusal, for its enthusiasm, and for its curious descriptions of the personal appearance and manners of the principal persons whom the author had seen and conversed with. Henry VIII. rewarded him with a pension of £10 per annum, a considerable sum in those days. In 1548, Ascham, on the death of William Grindall, who had been his pupil, was appointed instructor in the learned languages to Lady Elizabeth, afterwards the good Queen Bess. At the end of two years he had some dispute with, or took a disgust at, Lady Elizabeth's attendants, resigned his situation, and returned to his college. Soon after this he was employed as secretary to the English ambassador at the court of Charles V. of Germany, and remained abroad till the death of Edward VI. During his absence he had been appointed Latin secretary to King Edward. Strangely enough, though Queen Mary and her ministers were Papists, and Ascham a Protestant, he was retained in his office of Latin secretary, his pension was increased to £20, and he was allowed to retain his fellowship and his situation as university orator. In 1554 he married a lady of good family, by whom he had a considerable fortune, and of whom, in writing to a friend, he gives, as might perhaps be expected, an excellent character. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, in 1558, she not only required his services as Latin secretary, but as her instructor in Greek, and he resided at Court during the remainder of his life. He died in consequence of his endeavours to complete a Latin poem which he intended to present to the queen on the New Year's Day of 1569. He breathed his last two days before 1568 ran out, and was interred, according to his own directions, in the most private manner, in St. Sepulchre's Church, his funeral sermon being preached by Dr. Andrew Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's. He was universally lamented; and even the queen herself not only showed great concern, but was pleased to say that she would rather have lost ten thousand pounds than her tutor Ascham, which, from that somewhat closehanded sovereign, was truly an expression of high regard.

 

Ascham, like most men, had his little weaknesses. He had too great a propensity to dice and cock-fighting. Bishop Nicholson would try to convince us that this is an unfounded calumny, but, as it is mentioned by Camden, and other contemporary writers, it seems impossible to deny it. He died, from all accounts, in indifferent circumstances. "Whether," says Dr. Johnson, referring to this, "Ascham was poor by his own fault, or the fault of others, cannot now be decided; but it is certain that many have been rich with less merit. His philological learning would have gained him honour in any country; and among us it may justly call for that reverence which all nations owe to those who first rouse them from ignorance, and kindle among them the light of literature." His most valuable work, "The Schoolmaster," was published by his widow. The nature of this celebrated performance may be gathered from the title: "The Schoolmaster; or a plain and perfite way of teaching children to understand, write, and speak the Latin tongue. … And commodious also for all such as have forgot the Latin tongue, and would by themselves, without a schoolmaster, in short time, and with small pains, recover a sufficient habilitie to understand, write, and speak Latin: by Roger Ascham, ann. 1570. At London, printed by John Daye, dwelling over Aldersgate," a printer, by the way, already mentioned by us a few chapters back (see page 208), as having printed several noted works of the sixteenth century.

 

Dr. Johnson remarks that the instruction recommended in "The Schoolmaster" is perhaps the best ever given for the study of languages.

 

Here also lies buried Captain John Smith, a conspicuous soldier of fortune, whose romantic adventures and daring exploits have rarely been surpassed. He died on the 21st of June, 1631. This valiant captain was born at Willoughby, in the county of Lincoln, and helped by his doings to enliven the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. He had a share in the wars of Hungary in 1602, and in three single combats overcame three Turks, and cut off their heads. For this, and other equally brave deeds, Sigismund, Duke of Transylvania, gave him his picture set in gold, with a pension of three hundred ducats; and allowed him to bear three Turks' heads proper as his shield of arms. He afterwards went to America, where he had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the Indians. He escaped from them, however, at last, and resumed his brilliant career by hazarding his life in naval engagements with pirates and Spanish men-of-war. The most important act of his life was the share he had in civilising the natives of New England, and reducing that province to obedience to Great Britain. In connection with his tomb in St. Sepulchre's, he is mentioned by Stow, in his "Survey," as "some time Governor of Virginia and Admiral of New England."

 

Certainly the most interesting events of his chequered career were his capture by the Indians, and the saving of his life by the Indian girl Pocahontas, a story of adventure that charms as often as it is told. Bancroft, the historian of the United States, relates how, during the early settlement of Virginia, Smith left the infant colony on an exploring expedition, and not only ascended the river Chickahominy, but struck into the interior. His companions disobeyed his instructions, and being surprised by the Indians, were put to death. Smith preserved his own life by calmness and self-possession. Displaying a pocket-compass, he amused the savages by an explanation of its power, and increased their admiration of his superior genius by imparting to them some vague conceptions of the form of the earth, and the nature of the planetary system. To the Indians, who retained him as their prisoner, his captivity was a more strange event than anything of which the traditions of their tribes preserved the memory. He was allowed to send a letter to the fort at Jamestown, and the savage wonder was increased, for he seemed by some magic to endow the paper with the gift of intelligence. It was evident that their captive was a being of a high order, and then the question arose, Was his nature beneficent, or was he to be dreaded as a dangerous enemy? Their minds were bewildered, and the decision of his fate was referred to the chief Powhatan, and before Powhatan Smith was brought. "The fears of the feeble aborigines," says Bancroft, "were about to prevail, and his immediate death, already repeatedly threatened and repeatedly delayed, would have been inevitable, but for the timely intercession of Pocahontas, a girl twelve years old, the daughter of Powhatan, whose confiding fondness Smith had easily won, and who firmly clung to his neck, as his head was bowed down to receive the stroke of the tomahawks. His fearlessness, and her entreaties, persuaded the council to spare the agreeable stranger, who could make hatchets for her father, and rattles and strings of beads for herself, the favourite child. The barbarians, whose decision had long been held in suspense by the mysterious awe which Smith had inspired, now resolved to receive him as a friend, and to make him a partner of their councils. They tempted him to join their bands, and lend assistance in an attack upon the white men at Jamestown; and when his decision of character succeeded in changing the current of their thoughts, they dismissed him with mutual promises of friendship and benevolence. Thus the captivity of Smith did itself become a benefit to the colony; for he had not only observed with care the country between the James and the Potomac, and had gained some knowledge of the language and manners of the natives, but he now established a peaceful intercourse between the English and the tribes of Powhatan."

 

On the monument erected to Smith in St. Sepulchre's Church, the following quaint lines were formerly inscribed:—

 

"Here lies one conquered that hath conquered kings,

Subdued large territories, and done things

Which to the world impossible would seem,

But that the truth is held in more esteem.

Shall I report his former service done,

In honour of his God, and Christendom?

How that he did divide, from pagans three,

Their heads and lives, types of his chivalry?—

For which great service, in that climate done,

Brave Sigismundus, King of Hungarion,

Did give him, as a coat of arms, to wear

These conquered heads, got by his sword and spear.

Or shall I tell of his adventures since

Done in Virginia, that large continent?

How that he subdued kings unto his yoke,

And made those heathens flee, as wind doth smoke;

And made their land, being so large a station,

An habitation for our Christian nation,

Where God is glorified, their wants supplied;

Which else for necessaries, must have died.

But what avails his conquests, now he lies

Interred in earth, a prey to worms and flies?

Oh! may his soul in sweet Elysium sleep,

Until the Keeper, that all souls doth keep,

Return to judgment; and that after thence

With angels he may have his recompense."

 

Sir Robert Peake, the engraver, also found a last resting-place here. He is known as the master of William Faithorne—the famous English engraver of the seventeenth century—and governor of Basing House for the king during the Civil War under Charles I. He died in 1667. Here also was interred the body of Dr. Bell, grandfather of the originator of a well-known system of education.

 

"The churchyard of St. Sepulchre's," we learn from Maitland, "at one time extended so far into the street on the south side of the church, as to render the passage-way dangerously narrow. In 1760 the churchyard was, in consequence, levelled, and thrown open to the public. But this led to much inconvenience, and it was re-enclosed in 1802."

 

Sarah Malcolm, the murderess, was buried in the churchyard of St. Sepulchre's in 1733. This coldhearted and keen-eyed monster in human form has had her story told by us already. The parishioners seem, on this occasion, to have had no such scruples as had been exhibited by their predecessors a hundred and fifty years previous at the burial of Awfield, a traitor. We shall see presently that in those more remote days they were desirous of having at least respectable company for their deceased relatives and friends in the churchyard.

 

"For a long period," says Mr. Godwin (1838), "the church was surrounded by low mean buildings, by which its general appearance was hidden; but these having been cleared away, and the neighbourhood made considerably more open, St. Sepulchre's now forms a somewhat pleasing object, notwithstanding that the tower and a part of the porch are so entirely dissimilar in style to the remainder of the building." And since Godwin's writing the surroundings of the church have been so improved that perhaps few buildings in the metropolis stand more prominently before the public eye.

 

In the glorious roll of martyrs who have suffered at the stake for their religious principles, a vicar of St. Sepulchre's, the Reverend John Rogers, occupies a conspicuous place. He was the first who was burned in the reign of the Bloody Mary. This eminent person had at one time been chaplain to the English merchants at Antwerp, and while residing in that city had aided Tindal and Coverdale in their great work of translating the Bible. He married a German lady of good position, by whom he had a large family, and was enabled, by means of her relations, to reside in peace and safety in Germany. It appeared to be his duty, however, to return to England, and there publicly profess and advocate his religious convictions, even at the risk of death. He crossed the sea; he took his place in the pulpit at St. Paul's Cross; he preached a fearless and animated sermon, reminding his astonished audience of the pure and wholesome doctrine which had been promulgated from that pulpit in the days of the good King Edward, and solemnly warning them against the pestilent idolatry and superstition of these new times. It was his last sermon. He was apprehended, tried, condemned, and burned at Smithfield. We described, when speaking of Smithfield, the manner in which he met his fate.

 

Connected with the martyrdom of Rogers an odd circumstance is quoted in the "Churches of London." It is stated that when the bishops had resolved to put to death Joan Bocher, a friend came to Rogers and earnestly entreated his influence that the poor woman's life might be spared, and other means taken to prevent the spread of her heterodox doctrines. Rogers, however, contended that she should be executed; and his friend then begged him to choose some other kind of death, which should be more agreeable to the gentleness and mercy prescribed in the gospel. "No," replied Rogers, "burning alive is not a cruel death, but easy enough." His friend hearing these words, expressive of so little regard for the sufferings of a fellow-creature, answered him with great vehemence, at the same time striking Rogers' hand, "Well, it may perhaps so happen that you yourself shall have your hands full of this mild burning." There is no record of Rogers among the papers belonging to St. Sepulchre's, but this may easily be accounted for by the fact that at the Great Fire of 1666 nearly all the registers and archives were destroyed.

 

A noteworthy incident in the history of St. Sepulchre's was connected with the execution, in 1585, of Awfield, for "sparcinge abrood certen lewed, sedicious, and traytorous bookes." "When he was executed," says Fleetwood, the Recorder, in a letter to Lord Burleigh, July 7th of that year, "his body was brought unto St. Pulcher's to be buryed, but the parishioners would not suffer a traytor's corpse to be laid in the earth where their parents, wives, children, kindred, masters, and old neighbours did rest; and so his carcass was returned to the burial-ground near Tyburn, and there I leave it."

 

Another event in the history of the church is a tale of suicide. On the 10th of April, 1600, a man named William Dorrington threw himself from the roof of the tower, leaving there a prayer for forgiveness.

 

We come now to speak of the connection of St. Sepulchre's with the neighbouring prison of Newgate. Being the nearest church to the prison, that connection naturally was intimate. Its clock served to give the time to the hangman when there was an execution in the Old Bailey, and many a poor wretch's last moments must it have regulated.

 

On the right-hand side of the altar a board with a list of charitable donations and gifts used to contain the following item:—"1605. Mr. Robert Dowe gave, for ringing the greatest bell in this church on the day the condemned prisoners are executed, and for other services, for ever, concerning such condemned prisoners, for which services the sexton is paid £16s. 8d.—£50.

 

It was formerly the practice for the clerk or bellman of St. Sepulchre's to go under Newgate, on the night preceding the execution of a criminal, ring his bell, and repeat the following wholesome advice:—

 

"All you that in the condemned hold do lie,

Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die;

Watch all, and pray, the hour is drawing near

That you before the Almighty must appear;

Examine well yourselves, in time repent,

That you may not to eternal flames be sent.

And when St. Sepulchre's bell to-morrow tolls,

The Lord above have mercy on your souls.

Past twelve o'clock!"

 

This practice is explained by a passage in Munday's edition of Stow, in which it is told that a Mr. John Dowe, citizen and merchant taylor of London, gave £50 to the parish church of St. Sepulchre's, under the following conditions:—After the several sessions of London, on the night before the execution of such as were condemned to death, the clerk of the church was to go in the night-time, and also early in the morning, to the window of the prison in which they were lying. He was there to ring "certain tolls with a hand-bell" appointed for the purpose, and was afterwards, in a most Christian manner, to put them in mind of their present condition and approaching end, and to exhort them to be prepared, as they ought to be, to die. When they were in the cart, and brought before the walls of the church, the clerk was to stand there ready with the same bell, and, after certain tolls, rehearse a prayer, desiring all the people there present to pray for the unfortunate criminals. The beadle, also, of Merchant Taylors' Hall was allowed an "honest stipend" to see that this ceremony was regularly performed.

 

The affecting admonition—"affectingly good," Pennant calls it—addressed to the prisoners in Newgate, on the night before execution, ran as follows:—

 

"You prisoners that are within,

Who, for wickedness and sin,

 

after many mercies shown you, are now appointed to die to-morrow in the forenoon; give ear and understand that, to-morrow morning, the greatest bell of St. Sepulchre's shall toll for you, in form and manner of a passing-bell, as used to be tolled for those that are at the point of death; to the end that all godly people, hearing that bell, and knowing it is for your going to your deaths, may be stirred up heartily to pray to God to bestow his grace and mercy upon you, whilst you live. I beseech you, for Jesus Christ's sake, to keep this night in watching and prayer, to the salvation of your own souls while there is yet time and place for mercy; as knowing to-morrow you must appear before the judgment-seat of your Creator, there to give an account of all things done in this life, and to suffer eternal torments for your sins committed against Him, unless, upon your hearty and unfeigned repentance, you find mercy through the merits, death, and passion of your only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God, to make intercession for as many of you as penitently return to Him."

 

And the following was the admonition to condemned criminals, as they were passing by St. Sepulchre's Church wall to execution:—" All good people, pray heartily unto God for these poor sinners, who are now going to their death, for whom this great bell doth toll.

 

"You that are condemned to die, repent with lamentable tears; ask mercy of the Lord, for the salvation of your own souls, through the [merits, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God, to make intercession for as many of you as penitently return unto Him.

 

"Lord have mercy upon you;

Christ have mercy upon you.

Lord have mercy upon you;

Christ have mercy upon you."

 

The charitable Mr. Dowe, who took such interest in the last moments of the occupants of the condemned cell, was buried in the church of St. Botolph, Aldgate.

 

Another curious custom observed at St. Sepulchre's was the presentation of a nosegay to every criminal on his way to execution at Tyburn. No doubt the practice had its origin in some kindly feeling for the poor unfortunates who were so soon to bid farewell to all the beauties of earth. One of the last who received a nosegay from the steps of St. Sepulchre's was "Sixteen-string Jack," alias John Rann, who was hanged, in 1774, for robbing the Rev. Dr. Bell of his watch and eighteen pence in money, in Gunnersbury Lane, on the road to Brentford. Sixteen-string Jack wore the flowers in his button-hole as he rode dolefully to the gallows. This was witnessed by John Thomas Smith, who thus describes the scene in his admirable anecdotebook, "Nollekens and his Times:"—" I remember well, when I was in my eighth year, Mr. Nollekens calling at my father's house, in Great Portland Street, and taking us to Oxford Street, to see the notorious Jack Rann, commonly called Sixteenstring Jack, go to Tyburn to be hanged. … The criminal was dressed in a pea-green coat, with an immense nosegay in the button-hole, which had been presented to him at St. Sepulchre's steps; and his nankeen small-clothes, we were told, were tied at each knee with sixteen strings. After he had passed, and Mr. Nollekens was leading me home by the hand, I recollect his stooping down to me and observing, in a low tone of voice, 'Tom, now, my little man, if my father-in-law, Mr. Justice Welch, had been high constable, we could have walked by the side of the cart all the way to Tyburn.'"

 

When criminals were conveyed from Newgate to Tyburn, the cart passed up Giltspur Street, and through Smithfield, to Cow Lane. Skinner Street had not then been built, and the Crooked Lane which turned down by St. Sepulchre's, as well as Ozier Lane, did not afford sufficient width to admit of the cavalcade passing by either of them, with convenience, to Holborn Hill, or "the Heavy Hill," as it used to be called. The procession seems at no time to have had much of the solemn element about it. "The heroes of the day were often," says a popular writer, "on good terms with the mob, and jokes were exchanged between the men who were going to be hanged and the men who deserved to be."

 

"On St. Paul's Day," says Mr. Timbs (1868), "service is performed in St. Sepulchre's, in accordance with the will of Mr. Paul Jervis, who, in 1717, devised certain land in trust that a sermon should be preached in the church upon every Paul's Day upon the excellence of the liturgy o the Church of England; the preacher to receive 40s. for such sermon. Various sums are also bequeathed to the curate, the clerk, the treasurer, and masters of the parochial schools. To the poor of the parish he bequeathed 20s. a-piece to ten of the poorest householders within that part of the parish of St. Sepulchre commonly called Smithfield quarter, £4 to the treasurer of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and 6s. 8d. yearly to the clerk, who shall attend to receive the same. The residue of the yearly rents and profits is to be distributed unto and amongst such poor people of the parish of St. Sepulchre's, London, who shall attend the service and sermon. At the close of the service the vestry-clerk reads aloud an extract from the will, and then proceeds to the distribution of the money. In the evening the vicar, churchwardens, and common councilmen of the precinct dine together."

 

In 1749, a Mr. Drinkwater made a praiseworthy bequest. He left the parish of St. Sepulchre £500 to be lent in sums of £25 to industrious young tradesmen. No interest was to be charged, and the money was to be lent for four years.

 

Next to St. Sepulchre's, on Snow Hill, used to stand the famous old inn of the "Saracen's Head." It was only swept away within the last few years by the ruthless army of City improvers: a view of it in course of demolition was given on page 439. It was one of the oldest of the London inns which bore the "Saracen's Head" for a sign. One of Dick Tarlton's jests makes mention of the "Saracen's Head" without Newgate, and Stow, describing this neighbourhood, speaks particularly of "a fair large inn for receipt of travellers" that "hath to sign the 'Saracen's Head.'" The courtyard had, to the last, many of the characteristics of an old English inn; there were galleries all round leading to the bedrooms, and a spacious gateway through which the dusty mail-coaches used to rumble, the tired passengers creeping forth "thanking their stars in having escaped the highwaymen and the holes and sloughs of the road." Into that courtyard how many have come on their first arrival in London with hearts beating high with hope, some of whom have risen to be aldermen and sit in state as lord mayor, whilst others have gone the way of the idle apprentice and come to a sad end at Tyburn! It was at this inn that Nicholas Nickleby and his uncle waited upon the Yorkshire schoolmaster Squeers, of Dotheboys Hall. Mr. Dickens describes the tavern as it existed in the last days of mail-coaching, when it was a most important place for arrivals and departures in London:—

 

"Next to the jail, and by consequence near to Smithfield also, and the Compter and the bustle and noise of the City, and just on that particular part of Snow Hill where omnibus horses going eastwards seriously think of falling down on purpose, and where horses in hackney cabriolets going westwards not unfrequently fall by accident, is the coach-yard of the 'Saracen's Head' inn, its portals guarded by two Saracen's heads and shoulders, which it was once the pride and glory of the choice spirits of this metropolis to pull down at night, but which have for some time remained in undisturbed tranquillity, possibly because this species of humour is now confined to St. James's parish, where doorknockers are preferred as being more portable, and bell-wires esteemed as convenient tooth-picks. Whether this be the reason or not, there they are, frowning upon you from each side of the gateway; and the inn itself, garnished with another Saracen's head, frowns upon you from the top of the yard; while from the door of the hind-boot of all the red coaches that are standing therein, there glares a small Saracen's head with a twin expression to the large Saracen's head below, so that the general appearance of the pile is of the Saracenic order."

 

To explain the use of the Saracen's head as an inn sign various reasons have been given. "When our countrymen," says Selden, "came home from fighting with the Saracens and were beaten by them, they pictured them with huge, big, terrible faces (as you still see the 'Saracen's Head' is), when in truth they were like other men. But this they did to save their own credit." Or the sign may have been adopted by those who had visited the Holy Land either as pilgrims or to fight the Saracens. Others, again, hold that it was first set up in compliment to the mother of Thomas à Becket, who was the daughter of a Saracen. However this may be, it is certain that the use of the sign in former days was very general.

 

Running past the east end of St. Sepulchre's, from Newgate into West Smithfield, is Giltspur Street, anciently called Knightriders Street. This interesting thoroughfare derives its name from the knights with their gilt spurs having been accustomed to ride this way to the jousts and tournaments which in days of old were held in Smithfield.

 

In this street was Giltspur Street Compter, a debtors' prison and house of correction appertaining to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex. It stood over against St. Sepulchre's Church, and was removed hither from the east side of Wood Street, Cheapside, in 1791. At the time of its removal it was used as a place of imprisonment for debtors, but the yearly increasing demands upon the contracted space caused that department to be given up, and City debtors were sent to Whitecross Street. The architect was Dance, to whom we are also indebted for the grim pile of Newgate. The Compter was a dirty and appropriately convictlooking edifice. It was pulled down in 1855. Mr. Hepworth Dixon gave an interesting account of this City House of Correction, not long before its demolition, in his "London Prisons" (1850). "Entering," he says, "at the door facing St. Sepulchre's, the visitor suddenly finds himself in a low dark passage, leading into the offices of the gaol, and branching off into other passages, darker, closer, more replete with noxious smells, than even those of Newgate. This is the fitting prelude to what follows. The prison, it must be noticed, is divided into two principal divisions, the House of Correction and the Compter. The front in Giltspur Street, and the side nearest to Newgate Street, is called the Compter. In its wards are placed detenues of various kinds—remands, committals from the police-courts, and generally persons waiting for trial, and consequently still unconvicted. The other department, the House of Correction, occupies the back portion of the premises, abutting on Christ's Hospital. Curious it is to consider how thin a wall divides these widely-separate worlds! And sorrowful it is to think what a difference of destiny awaits the children—destiny inexorable, though often unearned in either case—who, on the one side of it or the other, receive an eleemosynary education! The collegian and the criminal! Who shall say how much mere accident— circumstances over which the child has little power —determines to a life of usefulness or mischief? From the yards of Giltspur Street prison almost the only objects visible, outside of the gaol itself, are the towers of Christ's Hospital; the only sounds audible, the shouts of the scholars at their play. The balls of the hospital boys often fall within the yards of the prison. Whether these sights and sounds ever cause the criminal to pause and reflect upon the courses of his life, we will not say, but the stranger visiting the place will be very apt to think for him. …

 

"In the department of the prison called the House of Correction, minor offenders within the City of London are imprisoned. No transports are sent hither, nor is any person whose sentence is above three years in length." This able writer then goes on to tell of the many crying evils connected with the institution—the want of air, the over-crowded state of the rooms, the absence of proper cellular accommodation, and the vicious intercourse carried on amongst the prisoners. The entire gaol, when he wrote, only contained thirty-six separate sleeping-rooms. Now by the highest prison calculation—and this, be it noted, proceeds on the assumption that three persons can sleep in small, miserable, unventilated cells, which are built for only one, and are too confined for that, being only about one-half the size of the model cell for one at Pentonville—it was only capable of accommodating 203 prisoners, yet by the returns issued at Michaelmas, 1850, it contained 246!

 

A large section of the prison used to be devoted to female delinquents, but lately it was almost entirely given up to male offenders.

 

"The House of Correction, and the Compter portion of the establishment," says Mr. Dixon, "are kept quite distinct, but it would be difficult to award the palm of empire in their respective facilities for demoralisation. We think the Compter rather the worse of the two. You are shown into a room, about the size of an apartment in an ordinary dwelling-house, which will be found crowded with from thirty to forty persons, young and old, and in their ordinary costume; the low thief in his filth and rags, and the member of the swell-mob with his bright buttons, flash finery, and false jewels. Here you notice the boy who has just been guilty of his first offence, and committed for trial, learning with a greedy mind a thousand criminal arts, and listening with the precocious instinct of guilty passions to stories and conversations the most depraved and disgusting. You regard him with a mixture of pity and loathing, for he knows that the eyes of his peers are upon him, and he stares at you with a familiar impudence, and exhibits a devil-may-care countenance, such as is only to be met with in the juvenile offender. Here, too, may be seen the young clerk, taken up on suspicion—perhaps innocent—who avoids you with a shy look of pain and uneasiness: what a hell must this prison be to him! How frightful it is to think of a person really untainted with crime, compelled to herd for ten or twenty days with these abandoned wretches!

 

"On the other, the House of Correction side of the gaol, similar rooms will be found, full of prisoners communicating with each other, laughing and shouting without hindrance. All this is so little in accordance with existing notions of prison discipline, that one is continually fancying these disgraceful scenes cannot be in the capital of England, and in the year of grace 1850. Very few of the prisoners attend school or receive any instruction; neither is any kind of employment afforded them, except oakum-picking, and the still more disgusting labour of the treadmill. When at work, an officer is in attendance to prevent disorderly conduct; but his presence is of no avail as a protection to the less depraved. Conversation still goes on; and every facility is afforded for making acquaintances, and for mutual contamination."

 

After having long been branded by intelligent inspectors as a disgrace to the metropolis, Giltspur Street Compter was condemned, closed in 1854, and subsequently taken down.

 

Nearly opposite what used to be the site of the Compter, and adjoining Cock Lane, is the spot called Pie Corner, near which terminated the Great Fire of 1666. The fire commenced at Pudding Lane, it will be remembered, so it was singularly appropriate that it should terminate at Pie Corner. Under the date of 4th September, 1666, Pepys, in his "Diary," records that "W. Hewer this day went to see how his mother did, and comes home late, telling us how he hath been forced to remove her to Islington, her house in Pye Corner being burned; so that the fire is got so far that way." The figure of a fat naked boy stands over a public house at the corner of the lane; it used to have the following warning inscription attached:— "This boy is in memory put up of the late fire of London, occasioned by the sin of gluttony, 1666." According to Stow, Pie Corner derived its name from the sign of a well-frequented hostelry, which anciently stood on the spot. Strype makes honourable mention of Pie Corner, as "noted chiefly for cooks' shops and pigs dressed there during Bartholomew Fair." Our old writers have many references—and not all, by the way, in the best taste—to its cookstalls and dressed pork. Shadwell, for instance, in the Woman Captain (1680) speaks of "meat dressed at Pie Corner by greasy scullions;" and Ben Jonson writes in the Alchemist (1612)—

 

"I shall put you in mind, sir, at Pie Corner,

Taking your meal of steam in from cooks' stalls."

 

And in "The Great Boobee" ("Roxburgh Ballads"):

 

"Next day I through Pie Corner passed;

The roast meat on the stall

Invited me to take a taste;

My money was but small."

 

But Pie Corner seems to have been noted for more than eatables. A ballad from Tom D'Urfey's "Pills to Purge Melancholy," describing Bartholomew Fair, eleven years before the Fire of London, says:—

 

"At Pie-Corner end, mark well my good friend,

'Tis a very fine dirty place;

Where there's more arrows and bows. …

Than was handled at Chivy Chase."

 

We have already given a view of Pie Corner in our chapter on Smithfield, page 361.

 

Hosier Lane, running from Cow Lane to Smithfield, and almost parallel to Cock Lane, is described by "R. B.," in Strype, as a place not over-well built or inhabited. The houses were all old timber erections. Some of these—those standing at the south corner of the lane—were in the beginning of this century depicted by Mr. J. T. Smith, in his "Ancient Topography of London." He describes them as probably of the reign of James I. The rooms were small, with low, unornamented ceilings; the timber, oak, profusely used; the gables were plain, and the walls lath and plaster. They were taken down in 1809.

 

In the corner house, in Mr. Smith's time, there was a barber whose name was Catchpole; at least, so it was written over the door. He was rather an odd fellow, and possessed, according to his own account, a famous relic of antiquity. He would gravely show his customers a short-bladed instrument, as the identical dagger with which Walworth killed Wat Tyler.

 

Hosier Lane, like Pie Corner, used to be a great resort during the time of Bartholomew Fair, "all the houses," it is said in Strype, "generally being made public for tippling."

 

We return now from our excursion to the north of St. Sepulchre's, and continue our rambles to the west, and before speaking of what is, let us refer to what has been.

 

Turnagain Lane is not far from this. "Near unto this Seacoal Lane," remarks Stow, "in the turning towards Holborn Conduit, is Turnagain Lane, or rather, as in a record of the 5th of Edward III., Windagain Lane, for that it goeth down west to Fleet Dyke, from whence men must turn again the same way they came, but there it stopped." There used to be a proverb, "He must take him a house in Turnagain Lane."

 

A conduit formerly stood on Snow Hill, a little below the church. It is described as a building with four equal sides, ornamented with four columns and pediment, surmounted by a pyramid, on which stood a lamb—a rebus on the name of Lamb, from whose conduit in Red Lion Street the water came. There had been a conduit there, however, before Lamb's day, which was towards the close of the sixteenth century.

 

At No. 37, King Street, Snow Hill, there used to be a ladies' charity school, which was established in 1702, and remained in the parish 145 years. Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale were subscribers to this school, and Johnson drew from it his story of Betty Broom, in "The Idler." The world of domestic service, in Betty's days, seems to have been pretty much as now. Betty was a poor girl, bred in the country at a charity-school, maintained by the contributions of wealthy neighbours. The patronesses visited the school from time to time, to see how the pupils got on, and everything went well, till "at last, the chief of the subscribers having passed a winter in London, came down full of an opinion new and strange to the whole country. She held it little less than criminal to teach poor girls to read and write. They who are born to poverty, she said, are born to ignorance, and will work the harder the less they know. She told her friends that London was in confusion by the insolence of servants; that scarcely a girl could be got for all-work, since education had made such numbers of fine ladies, that nobody would now accept a lower title than that of a waiting-maid, or something that might qualify her to wear laced shoes and long ruffles, and to sit at work in the parlour window. But she was resolved, for her part, to spoil no more girls. Those who were to live by their hands should neither read nor write out of her pocket. The world was bad enough already, and she would have no part in making it worse.

 

"She was for a long time warmly opposed; but she persevered in her notions, and withdrew her subscription. Few listen, without a desire of conviction, to those who advise them to spare their money. Her example and her arguments gained ground daily; and in less than a year the whole parish was convinced that the nation would be ruined if the children of the poor were taught to read and write." So the school was dissolved, and Betty with the rest was turned adrift into the wide and cold world; and her adventures there any one may read in "The Idler" for himself.

 

There is an entry in the school minutes of 1763, to the effect that the ladies of the committee censured the schoolmistress for listening to the story of the Cock Lane ghost, and "desired her to keep her belief in the article to herself."

 

Skinner Street—now one of the names of the past—which ran by the south side of St. Sepulchre's, and formed the connecting link between Newgate Street and Holborn, received its name from Alderman Skinner, through whose exertions, about 1802, it was principally built. The following account of Skinner Street is from the picturesque pen of Mr. William Harvey ("Aleph"), whose long familiarity with the places he describes renders doubly valuable his many contributions to the history of London scenes and people:—"As a building speculation," he says, writing in 1863, "it was a failure. When the buildings were ready for occupation, tall and substantial as they really were, the high rents frightened intending shopkeepers. Tenants were not to be had; and in order to get over the money difficulty, a lottery, sanctioned by Parliament, was commenced. Lotteries were then common tricks of finance, and nobody wondered at the new venture; but even the most desperate fortune-hunters were slow to invest their capital, and the tickets hung sadly on hand. The day for the drawing was postponed several times, and when it came, there was little or no excitement on the subject, and whoever rejoiced in becoming a house-owner on such easy terms, the original projectors and builders were understood to have suffered considerably. The winners found the property in a very unfinished condition. Few of the dwellings were habitable, and as funds were often wanting, a majority of the houses remained empty, and the shops unopened. After two or three years things began to improve; the vast many-storeyed house which then covered the site of Commercial Place was converted into a warehousing depôt; a capital house opposite the 'Saracen's Head' was taken by a hosier of the name of Theobald, who, opening his shop with the determination of selling the best hosiery, and nothing else, was able to convince the citizens that his hose was first-rate, and, desiring only a living profit, succeeded, after thirty years of unwearied industry, in accumulating a large fortune. Theobald was possessed of literary tastes, and at the sale of Sir Walter Scott's manuscripts was a liberal purchaser. He also collected a library of exceedingly choice books, and when aristocratic customers purchased stockings of him, was soon able to interest them in matters of far higher interest…

 

"The most remarkable shop—but it was on the left-hand side, at a corner house—was that established for the sale of children's books. It boasted an immense extent of window-front, extending from the entrance into Snow Hill, and towards Fleet Market. Many a time have I lingered with loving eyes over those fascinating story-books, so rich in gaily-coloured prints; such careful editions of the marvellous old histories, 'Puss in Boots,' 'Cock Robin,' 'Cinderella,' and the like. Fortunately the front was kept low, so as exactly to suit the capacity of a childish admirer. . . . . But Skinner Street did not prosper much, and never could compete with even the dullest portions of Holborn. I have spoken of some reputable shops; but you know the proverb, 'One swallow will not make a summer,' and it was a declining neighbourhood almost before it could be called new. In 1810 the commercial depôt, which had been erected at a cost of £25,000, and was the chief prize in the lottery, was destroyed by fire, never to be rebuilt—a heavy blow and discouragement to Skinner Street, from which it never rallied. Perhaps the periodical hanging-days exercised an unfavourable influence, collecting, as they frequently did, all the thieves and vagabonds of London. I never sympathised with Pepys or Charles Fox in their passion for public executions, and made it a point to avoid those ghastly sights; but early of a Monday morning, when I had just reached the end of Giltspur Street, a miserable wretch had just been turned off from the platform of the debtors' door, and I was made the unwilling witness of his last struggles. That scene haunted me for months, and I often used to ask myself, 'Who that could help it would live in Skinner Street?' The next unpropitious event in these parts was the unexpected closing of the child's library. What could it mean? Such a well-to-do establishment shut up? Yes, the whole army of shutters looked blankly on the inquirer, and forbade even a single glance at 'Sinbad' or 'Robinson Crusoe.' It would soon be re-opened, we naturally thought; but the shutters never came down again. The whole house was deserted; not even a messenger in bankruptcy, or an ancient Charley, was found to regard the playful double knocks of the neighbouring juveniles. Gradually the glass of all the windows got broken in, a heavy cloud of black dust, solidifying into inches thick, gathered on sills and doors and brickwork, till the whole frontage grew as gloomy as Giant Despair's Castle. Not long after, the adjoining houses shared the same fate, and they remained from year to year without the slightest sign of life—absolute scarecrows, darkening with their uncomfortable shadows the busy streets. Within half a mile, in Stamford Street, Blackfriars, there are (1863) seven houses in a similar predicament— window-glass demolished, doors cracked from top to bottom, spiders' webs hanging from every projecting sill or parapet. What can it mean? The loss in the article of rents alone must be over £1,000 annually. If the real owners are at feud with imaginary owners, surely the property might be rendered valuable, and the proceeds invested. Even the lawyers can derive no profit from such hopeless abandonment. I am told the whole mischief arose out of a Chancery suit. Can it be the famous 'Jarndyce v. Jarndyce' case? And have all the heirs starved each other out? If so, what hinders our lady the Queen from taking possession? Any change would be an improvement, for these dead houses make the streets they cumber as dispiriting and comfortless as graveyards. Busy fancy will sometimes people them, and fill the dreary rooms with strange guests. Do the victims of guilt congregate in these dark dens? Do wretches 'unfriended by the world or the world's law,' seek refuge in these deserted nooks, mourning in the silence of despair over their former lives, and anticipating the future in unappeasable agony? Such things have been—the silence and desolation of these doomed dwellings make them the more suitable for such tenants."

 

A street is nothing without a mystery, so a mystery let these old tumble-down houses remain, whilst we go on to tell that, in front of No. 58, the sailor Cashman was hung in 1817, as we have already mentioned, for plundering a gunsmith's shop there. William Godwin, the author of "Caleb Williams," kept a bookseller's shop for several years in Skinner Street, at No. 41, and published school-books in the name of Edward Baldwin. On the wall there was a stone carving of Æsop reciting one of his fables to children.

 

The most noteworthy event of the life of Godwin was his marriage with the celebrated Mary Wollstonecraft, authoress of a "Vindication of the Rights of Women," whose congenial mind, in politics and morals, he ardently admired. Godwin's account of the way in which they got on together is worth reading:—"Ours," he writes, "was not an idle happiness, a paradise of selfish and transitory pleasures. It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to mention, that influenced by ideas I had long entertained, I engaged an apartment about twenty doors from our house, in the Polygon, Somers Town, which I designed for the purpose of my study and literary occupations. Trifles, however, will be interesting to some readers, when they relate to the last period of the life of such a person as Mary. I will add, therefore, that we were both of us of opinion, that it was possible for two persons to be too uniformly in each other's society. Influenced by that opinion, it was my practice to repair to the apartment I have mentioned as soon as I rose, and frequently not to make my appearance in the Polygon till the hour of dinner. We agreed in condemning the notion, prevalent in many situations in life, that a man and his wife cannot visit in mixed society but in company with each other, and we rather sought occasions of deviating from than of complying with this rule. By this means, though, for the most part, we spent the latter half of each day in one another's society, yet we were in no danger of satiety. We seemed to combine, in a considerable degree, the novelty and lively sensation of a visit with the more delicious and heartfelt pleasure of a domestic life."

 

This philosophic union, to Godwin's inexpressible affliction, did not last more than eighteen months, at the end of which time Mrs. Godwin died, leaving an only daughter, who in the course of time became the second wife of the poet Shelley, and was the author of the wild and extraordinary tale of "Frankenstein."

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45116

www.clickconnectgo.com/kidzania-mumbai/

It is an awesome thought expressed by a famous author that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms, allow them to take the subway... let them be better people, let them believe more in themselves.

 

It simply means that you as responsible parents must let your kids experience the things from an early stage. With the same in mind, KidZania brings an amazing world for children between 4 to 16 years of age. They say that this place is dedicated to families; however, it proves to be an outstanding world for your child. Located in R City Mall, Mumbai, KidZania redefines creativity. The purpose is to give full freedom to children in the most intelligent way and let them learn various things on their own. It is nothing but a mini city for kids. They can perform plethora of activities based on education along with fun. In a way, children unknowingly learn so many things. KidZania is not only a place for fun but a way to teach children how to manage and cope up with the world they are being grown up in.

 

You just take your kid to KidZania and he will put his heart in performing the activities out there. As KidZania introduces an entirely new style, it looks like an airport terminal from outside that creates an urge in children to troop in and have fun. For ticket prices and visiting hours, you can go through mumbai.kidzania.com/en-us/plan_your_visit/basics.

 

They allow parents inside with the kids if the child is too little to go alone. There is Pepperfry Parents’ Lounge with PC’s, free of cost Internet browsing, and foot spa. Since the area is nice, you can sit, have coffee and enjoy reading as well.

 

Well, at the counter, you receive a paper made bracelet/band, a map, and a cheque. Deposit the cheque at the Yes Bank of KidZania. In return, they will give you the KidZania money (known as kidZos). Kids spend kidZos for performing activities in the city of KidZania. Kids can choose to open a savings account in the bank to save kidZos and get additional money as interest. Opening an account gets children a debit card that can be used anywhere in the city. Depending on the preference, kids can choose any activity. There is no compulsion to do activities in sequence. Some activities in the city earn you kidZos that can be used for doing activities that demand money. In order to earn kidZos, kids need to play various roles (briefed below). If kids want to avail of any service or purchase items from stores, they have to pay kidZos.

 

This city is made complete with streets, buildings, vehicles, and popular industries. ‘Establishments’ are where children play different roles as per their choices. Establishments include Air KidZania, beauty salon, pizza restaurant, newspaper bureau, party hub, university, barber shop, car wash, Big Bazaar Supermarket, Bollywood Academy, Cadbury Chocolate Factory, fashion studio, construction company, dabbawala, health care centre, electronics store, employment centre, Camlin Arts and Crafts Studio, Coca Cola Bottling Plant, hotel, hospital, driving school, jewellery shop, gas station, police department, football training centre, music school, photo studio, Shiamak Dance Studio, radio station, television studio, and much more. At every establishment are ‘Zupervisors’, the adult members who are responsible to guide kids and explain them the respective activities.

 

 

Here, kids can play various roles separately and earn money or if they wish to purchase items, they need to pay. In case, kids go short of money, they can earn more by playing a role and spend it in doing activities. Suppose, a kid wants to get pilot training, however, there is not enough money. He/she can become a doctor, treat patients, earn money and spend it for pilot training. Air KidZania allows kids to become a trainee for pilot course or they can also become flight attendant. At aviation, there is a story making game. If kids make a story, they earn 8 kidZos.

 

Kids can also buy a CD from RJ station, however, this time they must pay the real currency i.e. Rs. 150. At Big Bazaar, kids can become salesman to earn some extra kidZos. Likewise, they can play roles at different establishments.

 

In order to make it more amusing, they have set some certain rules like kids have to speak in a different language. For example, ‘Hi’ is ‘Kai’ while ‘Thank you’ sounds ‘Zank you’, etc. This is the reason that KidZania turns out to be the happiest place for kids. Moreover, they also give you an opportunity to become a citizen of KidZania city with the help of PaZZport Program. If your kid wants to have the citizenship, PaZZport Office is right there.

 

Helpful Tips:

 

It’s good to take children in groups to add more fun.

Stay with your kid while entering the city.

Try to make it on a weekday as KidZania is overcrowded on weekends.

 

mumbai.kidzania.com/en-us/plan_your_visit/ticket_prices

 

www.facebook.com/KidZaniaMumbai/

 

 

 

 

the car

is not

responsible

for this

beggars death

before she was

born to pay

for her accidental

birth her parents

had wishfully

mortgaged her

breath...

 

"When beggars die there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

 

a shibboleth

 

to meld s mind ...

a thoughtless text

 

#beggarpoet

#muslimbeggars

#firozeshakir

 

responsible work of bounty hunters

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Rochester is a town and historic city in the unitary authority of Medway in Kent, England. It is situated at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway about 30 miles (50 km) from London.

 

Rochester was for many years a favourite of Charles Dickens, who owned nearby Gads Hill Place, Higham,[1] basing many of his novels on the area. The Diocese of Rochester, the second oldest in England, is based at Rochester Cathedral and was responsible for the founding of a school, now The King's School in 604 AD,[2] which is recognised as being the second oldest continuously running school in the world. Rochester Castle, built by Bishop Gundulf of Rochester, has one of the best preserved keepsin either England or France, and during the First Barons' War (1215–1217) in King John's reign, baronial forces captured the castle from Archbishop Stephen Langton and held it against the king, who then besieged it.[3]

 

Neighbouring Chatham, Gillingham, Strood and a number of outlying villages, together with Rochester, nowadays make up the MedwayUnitary Authority area. It was, until 1998,[4]under the control of Kent County Council and is still part of the ceremonial county of Kent, under the latest Lieutenancies Act.[5]

 

Toponymy[edit]

The Romano-British name for Rochester was Durobrivae, later Durobrivis c. 730 and Dorobrevis in 844. The two commonly cited origins of this name are that it either came from "stronghold by the bridge(s)",[6] or is the latinisation of the British word Dourbruf meaning "swiftstream".[7]Durobrivis was pronounced 'Robrivis. Bede copied down this name, c. 730, mistaking its meaning as Hrofi's fortified camp (OE Hrofes cæster). From this we get c. 730 Hrofæscæstre, 811 Hrofescester, 1086 Rovescester, 1610 Rochester.[6] The Latinised adjective 'Roffensis' refers to Rochester.[7]

Neolithic remains have been found in the vicinity of Rochester; over time it has been variously occupied by Celts, Romans, Jutes and/or Saxons. During the Celtic period it was one of the two administrative centres of the Cantiaci tribe. During the Roman conquest of Britain a decisive battle was fought at the Medway somewhere near Rochester. The first bridge was subsequently constructed early in the Roman period. During the later Roman period the settlement was walled in stone. King Ethelbert of Kent(560–616) established a legal system which has been preserved in the 12th century Textus Roffensis. In AD 604 the bishopric and cathedral were founded. During this period, from the recall of the legions until the Norman conquest, Rochester was sacked at least twice and besieged on another occasion.

The medieval period saw the building of the current cathedral (1080–1130, 1227 and 1343), the building of two castles and the establishment of a significant town. Rochester Castle saw action in the sieges of 1215 and 1264. Its basic street plan was set out, constrained by the river, Watling Street, Rochester Priory and the castle.

Rochester has produced two martyrs: St John Fisher, executed by Henry VIII for refusing to sanction the divorce of Catherine of Aragon; and Bishop Nicholas Ridley, executed by Queen Mary for being an English Reformation protestant.

The city was raided by the Dutch as part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch, commanded by Admiral de Ruijter, broke through the chain at Upnor[8] and sailed to Rochester Bridge capturing part of the English fleet and burning it.[9]

  

The ancient City of Rochester merged with the Borough of Chatham and part of the Strood Rural District in 1974 to form the Borough of Medway. It was later renamed Rochester-upon-Medway, and its City status transferred to the entire borough. In 1998 another merger with the rest of the Medway Towns created the Medway Unitary Authority. The outgoing council neglected to appoint ceremonial "Charter Trustees" to continue to represent the historic Rochester area, causing Rochester to lose its City status – an error not even noticed by council officers for four years, until 2002.[10][11]

Military History

Rochester has for centuries been of great strategic importance through its position near the confluence of the Thames and the Medway. Rochester Castle was built to guard the river crossing, and the Royal Dockyard's establishment at Chatham witnessed the beginning of the Royal Navy's long period of supremacy. The town, as part of Medway, is surrounded by two circles of fortresses; the inner line built during the Napoleonic warsconsists of Fort Clarence, Fort Pitt, Fort Amherst and Fort Gillingham. The outer line of Palmerston Forts was built during the 1860s in light of the report by the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdomand consists of Fort Borstal, Fort Bridgewood, Fort Luton, and the Twydall Redoubts, with two additional forts on islands in the Medway, namely Fort Hoo and Fort Darnet.

During the First World War the Short Brothers' aircraft manufacturing company developed the first plane to launch a torpedo, the Short Admiralty Type 184, at its seaplane factory on the River Medway not far from Rochester Castle. In the intervening period between the 20th century World Wars the company established a world-wide reputation as a constructor of flying boats with aircraft such as the Singapore, Empire 'C'-Class and Sunderland. During the Second World War, Shorts also designed and manufactured the first four-engined bomber, the Stirling.

The UK's decline in naval power and shipbuilding competitiveness led to the government decommissioning the RN Shipyard at Chatham in 1984, which led to the subsequent demise of much local maritime industry. Rochester and its neighbouring communities were hit hard by this and have experienced a painful adjustment to a post-industrial economy, with much social deprivation and unemployment resulting. On the closure of Chatham Dockyard the area experienced an unprecedented surge in unemployment to 24%; this had dropped to 2.4% of the local population by 2014.[12]

Former City of Rochester[edit]

Rochester was recognised as a City from 1211 to 1998. The City of Rochester's ancient status was unique, as it had no formal council or Charter Trustees nor a Mayor, instead having the office of Admiral of the River Medway, whose incumbent acted as de facto civic leader.[13] On 1 April 1974, the City Council was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, and the territory was merged with the District of Medway, Borough of Chatham and most of Strood Rural District to form a new a local government district called the Borough of Medway, within the county of Kent. Medway Borough Council applied to inherit Rochester's city status, but this was refused; instead letters patent were granted constituting the area of the former Rochester local government district to be the City of Rochester, to "perpetuate the ancient name" and to recall "the long history and proud heritage of the said City".[14] The Home Officesaid that the city status may be extended to the entire borough if it had "Rochester" in its name, so in 1979, Medway Borough Council renamed the borough to Borough of Rochester-upon-Medway, and in 1982, Rochester's city status was transferred to the entire borough by letters patent, with the district being called the City of Rochester-upon-Medway.[13]

On 1 April 1998, the existing local government districts of Rochester-upon-Medway and Gillingham were abolished and became the new unitary authority of Medway. The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions informed the city council that since it was the local government district that officially held City status under the 1982 Letters Patent, the council would need to appoint charter trustees to preserve its city status, but the outgoing Labour-run council decided not to appoint charter trustees, so the city status was lost when Rochester-upon-Medway was abolished as a local government district.[15][16][17] The other local government districts with City status that were abolished around this time, Bath and Hereford, decided to appoint Charter Trustees to maintain the existence of their own cities and the mayoralties. The incoming Medway Council apparently only became aware of this when, in 2002, it was advised that Rochester was not on the Lord Chancellor's Office's list of cities.[18][19]

In 2010, Medway Council started to refer to the "City of Medway" in promotional material, but it was rebuked and instructed not to do so in future by the Advertising Standards Authority.[20]

Governance[edit]

Civic history and traditions[edit]

Rochester and its neighbours, Chatham and Gillingham, form a single large urban area known as the Medway Towns with a population of about 250,000. Since Norman times Rochester had always governed land on the other side of the Medway in Strood, which was known as Strood Intra; before 1835 it was about 100 yards (91 m) wide and stretched to Gun Lane. In the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act the boundaries were extended to include more of Strood and Frindsbury, and part of Chatham known as Chatham Intra. In 1974, Rochester City Council was abolished and superseded by Medway Borough Council, which also included the parishes of Cuxton, Halling and Cliffe, and the Hoo Peninsula. In 1979 the borough became Rochester-upon-Medway. The Admiral of the River Medway was ex-officio Mayor of Rochester and this dignity transferred to the Mayor of Medway when that unitary authority was created, along with the Admiralty Court for the River which constitutes a committee of the Council.[21]

  

Like many of the mediaeval towns of England, Rochester had civic Freemen whose historic duties and rights were abolished by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. However, the Guild of Free Fishers and Dredgers continues to the present day and retains rights, duties and responsibilities on the Medway, between Sheerness and Hawkwood Stone.[22] This ancient corporate body convenes at the Admiralty Court whose Jury of Freemen is responsible for the conservancy of the River as enshrined in current legislation. The City Freedom can be obtained by residents after serving a period of "servitude", i.e. apprenticeship (traditionally seven years), before admission as a Freeman. The annual ceremonial Beating of the Boundsby the River Medway takes place after the Admiralty Court, usually on the first Saturday of July.

Rochester first obtained City status in 1211, but this was lost due to an administrative oversight when Rochester was absorbed by the Medway Unitary Authority.[10] Subsequently, the Medway Unitary Authority has applied for City status for Medway as a whole, rather than merely for Rochester. Medway applied unsuccessfully for City status in 2000 and 2002 and again in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Year of 2012.[23] Any future bid to regain formal City status has been recommended to be made under the aegis of Rochester-upon-Medway.

Ecclesiastical parishes[edit]

  

There were three medieval parishes: St Nicholas', St Margaret's and St Clement's. St Clement's was in Horsewash Lane until the last vicar died in 1538 when it was joined with St Nicholas' parish; the church last remaining foundations were finally removed when the railway was being constructed in the 1850s. St Nicholas' Church was built in 1421 beside the cathedral to serve as a parish church for the citizens of Rochester. The ancient cathedral included the Benedictine monastic priory of St Andrew with greater status than the local parishes.[24] Rochester's pre-1537 diocese, under the jurisdiction of the Church of Rome, covered a vast area extending into East Anglia and included all of Essex.[25]

As a result of the restructuring of the Church during the Reformation the cathedral was reconsecrated as the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary without parochial responsibilities, being a diocesan church.[26] In the 19th century the parish of St Peter's was created to serve the burgeoning city with the new church being consecrated in 1859. Following demographic shifts, St Peter's and St Margaret's were recombined as a joint benefice in 1953 with the parish of St Nicholas with St Clement being absorbed in 1971.[27] The combined parish is now the "Parish of St Peter with St Margaret", centred at the new (1973) Parish Centre in The Delce (St Peter's) with St Margaret's remaining as a chapel-of-ease. Old St Peter's was demolished in 1974, while St Nicholas' Church has been converted into the diocesan offices but remains consecrated. Continued expansion south has led to the creation of an additional more recent parish of St Justus (1956) covering The Tideway estate and surrounding area.[28]

A church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin at Eastgate, which was of Anglo-Saxon foundation, is understood to have constituted a parish until the Middle Ages, but few records survive.[29]

Geography

Rochester lies within the area, known to geologists, as the London Basin. The low-lying Hoo peninsula to the north of the town consists of London Clay, and the alluvium brought down by the two rivers—the Thames and the Medway—whose confluence is in this area. The land rises from the river, and being on the dip slope of the North Downs, this consists of chalksurmounted by the Blackheath Beds of sand and gravel.

As a human settlement, Rochester became established as the lowest river crossing of the River Medway, well before the arrival of the Romans.

It is a focal point between two routes, being part of the main route connecting London with the Continent and the north-south routes following the course of the Medway connecting Maidstone and the Weald of Kent with the Thames and the North Sea. The Thames Marshes were an important source of salt. Rochester's roads follow north Kent's valleys and ridges of steep-sided chalk bournes. There are four ways out of town to the south: up Star Hill, via The Delce,[30] along the Maidstone Road or through Borstal. The town is inextricably linked with the neighbouring Medway Towns but separate from Maidstone by a protective ridge known as the Downs, a designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

At its most limited geographical size, Rochester is defined as the market town within the city walls, now associated with the historic medieval city. However, Rochester historically also included the ancient wards of Strood Intra on the river's west bank, and Chatham Intra as well as the three old parishes on the Medway's east bank.

The diocese of Rochester is another geographical entity which can be referred to as Rochester.

Climate[edit]

Rochester has an oceanic climate similar to much of southern England, being accorded Köppen Climate Classification-subtype of "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate).[31]

On 10 August 2003, neighbouring Gravesend recorded one of the highest temperatures since meteorogical records began in the United Kingdom, with a reading of 38.1 degrees Celsius (100.6 degrees Fahrenheit),[32]only beaten by Brogdale, near Faversham, 22 miles (35 km) to the ESE.[33] The weather station at Brogdale is run by a volunteer, only reporting its data once a month, whereas Gravesend, which has an official Met Office site at the PLA pilot station,[34] reports data hourly.

Being near the mouth of the Thames Estuary with the North Sea, Rochester is relatively close to continental Europe and enjoys a somewhat less temperate climate than other parts of Kent and most of East Anglia. It is therefore less cloudy, drier and less prone to Atlanticdepressions with their associated wind and rain than western regions of Britain, as well as being hotter in summer and colder in winter. Rochester city centre's micro-climate is more accurately reflected by these officially recorded figures than by readings taken at Rochester Airport.[35]

North and North West Kent continue to record higher temperatures in summer, sometimes being the hottest area of the country, eg. on the warmest day of 2011, when temperatures reached 33.1 degrees.[36]Additionally, it holds at least two records for the year 2010, of 30.9 degrees[37] and 31.7 degrees C.[38] Another record was set during England's Indian summer of 2011 with 29.9 degrees C., the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK for October.

North and North West Kent continue to record higher temperatures in summer, sometimes being the hottest area of the country, eg. on the warmest day of 2011, when temperatures reached 33.1 degrees.[36]Additionally, it holds at least two records for the year 2010, of 30.9 degrees[37] and 31.7 degrees C.[38] Another record was set during England's Indian summer of 2011 with 29.9 degrees C., the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK for October.

 

Building

Rochester comprises numerous important historic buildings, the most prominent of which are the Guildhall, the Corn Exchange, Restoration House, Eastgate House, as well as Rochester Castle and Rochester Cathedral. Many of the town centre's old buildings date from as early as the 14th century up to the 18th century. The chapel of St Bartholomew's Hospital dates from the ancient priory hospital's foundation in 1078.

Economy

  

Thomas Aveling started a small business in 1850 producing and repairing agricultural plant equipment. In 1861 this became the firm of Aveling and Porter, which was to become the largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery and steam rollers in the country.[39] Aveling was elected Admiral of the River Medway (i.e. Mayor of Rochester) for 1869-70.

Culture[edit]

Sweeps Festival[edit]

Since 1980 the city has seen the revival of the historic Rochester Jack-in-the-Green May Day dancing chimney sweeps tradition, which had died out in the early 1900s. Though not unique to Rochester (similar sweeps' gatherings were held across southern England, notably in Bristol, Deptford, Whitstable and Hastings), its revival was directly inspired by Dickens' description of the celebration in Sketches by Boz.

The festival has since grown from a small gathering of local Morris dancesides to one of the largest in the world.[40] The festival begins with the "Awakening of Jack-in-the-Green" ceremony,[41] and continues in Rochester High Street over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

There are numerous other festivals in Rochester apart from the Sweeps Festival. The association with Dickens is the theme for Rochester's two Dickens Festivals held annually in June and December.[42] The Medway Fuse Festival[43] usually arranges performances in Rochester and the latest festival to take shape is the Rochester Literature Festival, the brainchild of three local writers.[44]

Library[edit]

A new public library was built alongside the Adult Education Centre, Eastgate. This enabled the registry office to move from Maidstone Road, Chatham into the Corn Exchange on Rochester High Street (where the library was formerly housed). As mentioned in a report presented to Medway Council's Community Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 28 March 2006, the new library opened in late summer (2006).[45]

Theatre[edit]

There is a small amateur theatre called Medway Little Theatre on St Margaret's Banks next to Rochester High Street near the railway station.[46] The theatre was formed out of a creative alliance with the Medway Theatre Club, managed by Marion Martin, at St Luke's Methodist Church on City Way, Rochester[47] between 1985 and 1988, since when drama and theatre studies have become well established in Rochester owing to the dedication of the Medway Theatre Club.[48]

Media[edit]

Local newspapers for Rochester include the Medway Messenger, published by the KM Group, and free newspapers such as Medway Extra(KM Group) and Yourmedway (KOS Media).

The local commercial radio station for Rochester is KMFM Medway, owned by the KM Group. Medway is also served by community radio station Radio Sunlight. The area also receives broadcasts from county-wide stations BBC Radio Kent, Heart and Gold, as well as from various Essex and Greater London radio stations.[49]

Sport[edit]

Football is played with many teams competing in Saturday and Sunday leagues.[50] The local football club is Rochester United F.C. Rochester F.C. was its old football club but has been defunct for many decades. Rugby is also played; Medway R.F.C. play their matches at Priestfields and Old Williamsonians is associated with Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School.[51]

Cricket is played in the town, with teams entered in the Kent Cricket League. Holcombe Hockey Club is one of the largest in the country,[52]and is based at Holcombe Park. The men's and women's 1st XI are part of the England Hockey League.[53] Speedway was staged on a track adjacent to City Way that opened in 1932. Proposals for a revival in the early 1970s did not materialise and the Rochester Bombers became the Romford Bombers.[54]

Sailing and rowing are also popular on the River Medway with respective clubs being based in Rochester.[55][56]

Film[edit]

The 1959 James Bond Goldfinger describes Bond driving along the A2through the Medway Towns from Strood to Chatham. Of interest is the mention of "inevitable traffic jams" on the Strood side of Rochester Bridge, the novel being written some years prior to the construction of the M2 motorway Medway bypass.

Rochester is the setting of the controversial 1965 Peter Watkins television film The War Game, which depicts the town's destruction by a nuclear missile.[57] The opening sequence was shot in Chatham Town Hall, but the credits particularly thank the people of Dover, Gravesend and Tonbridge.

The 2011 adventure film Ironclad (dir. Jonathan English) is based upon the 1215 siege of Rochester Castle. There are however a few areaswhere the plot differs from accepted historical narrative.

Notable people[edit]

  

Charles Dickens

The historic city was for many years the favourite of Charles Dickens, who lived within the diocese at nearby Gads Hill Place, Higham, many of his novels being based on the area. Descriptions of the town appear in Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations and (lightly fictionalised as "Cloisterham") in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Elements of two houses in Rochester, Satis House and Restoration House, are used for Miss Havisham's house in Great Expectations, Satis House.[58]

Sybil Thorndike

The actress Dame Sybil Thorndike and her brother Russell were brought up in Minor Canon Row adjacent to the cathedral; the daughter of a canon of Rochester Cathedral, she was educated at Rochester Grammar School for Girls. A local doctors' practice,[59] local dental practice[60] and a hall at Rochester Grammar School are all named after her.[61]

Peter Buck

Sir Peter Buck was Admiral of the Medway in the 17th century; knightedin 1603 he and Bishop Barlow hosted King James, the Stuart royal familyand the King of Denmark in 1606. A civil servant to The Royal Dockyardand Lord High Admiral, Buck lived at Eastgate House, Rochester.

Denis Redman

Major-General Denis Redman, a World War II veteran, was born and raised in Rochester and later became a founder member of REME, head of his Corps and a Major-General in the British Army.

Kelly Brook

The model and actress Kelly Brook went to Delce Junior School in Rochester and later the Thomas Aveling School (formerly Warren Wood Girls School).

The singer and songwriter Tara McDonald now lives in Rochester.

The Prisoners, a rock band from 1980 to 1986, were formed in Rochester. They are part of what is known as the "Medway scene".

Kelly Tolhurst MP is the current parliamentary representative for the constituency.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_Kent

  

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Press "L".

 

Efke IR820c Aura - the best infrared film ever made. It's tears in my eyes when I scan my last rolls, I'd kill for someone to take over the recipe and start to produce it again.

 

Indonesia.

 

Pentax 67, 105mm f2.4, Efke IR820c Aura infrared film developed in Diafine, drumscanned (through proper photomultiplier tubes - PMTs, no CCD or CMOS)

 

The tone of the image is by scanning it as a colour image - so the scanner randomly "picks" colour for it, this one worked for me.

responsible job of bounty hunter

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Bald eagle mother sitting with her wings spread out so her eaglet could have some shade on a hot day.

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Responsible work of bounty hunters

B-Boy Gerson, community youth mentor responsible for training other break dancing kids at Hummingbird and leader of our AfroBreak Dance Group. Awarded B-Boy Revelation at a major event in São Paulo last week.

 

NB! Please see the previous images for more info.

 

It's been 117 years since Brazil abolished slavery. And although the Labor Ministry's mobile anti-slavery teams managed to free 6,465 Brazilians in President Lula's first 19 months in office, another 25,000 to 50,000 workers remain enslaved.

 

A proposed constitutional amendment pending in Brazil's Congress would permit authorities to seize land if slaves are found working on it. But the powerful Brazilian landowners who've defied existing laws and made enslaving workers a rural tradition won't easily be brought to heel.

 

The possibility of losing property is a heavy instrument to end the economic advantage of those who use slave labor.

But even if confiscation becomes legal, it will require lengthy, slow-moving court procedures. And if the past is any indication, landowners won't go down without a fight. They've used violence and threats of violence against labor inspectors, activists and even priests in their efforts to discourage the enforcement of anti-slavery law.

 

Lawmakers and big landowners who allegedly work slaves are sometimes one and the same.

 

There is still a lot of slavery today, not only in Brazil where there are still 2.4 million children working illegally, but also throughout the rest of the world. As long as people want to make money, some will want to steal. Slavery is the worst kind of stealing because they don't just steal your money, they steal your life, your soul, your freedom, ...everything!

 

St Mungo, also known by the less familiar name Kentigern, was a bishop and evangelist of Strathclyde. His early teacher, Serf, may have been responsible for giving Kentigern his popular monniker of Mungo, which means 'dear one'. An early story about Mungo is that he restored life to Serf's pet robin, hence he is often shown with a bird on his shoulder.

 

He arrived in Glasgow around 540 and was consecrated Bishop of Strathclyde by an Irish bishop. A strong anti-Christian movement forced him into exile in Wales, where he founded a monastery at what is now St Asaph’s. After 573 he spent eight years at Hoddam in Dumfriesshire before returning to Glasgow in 581. In 590, he went to Rome to visit Pope Pelagius II, who agreed to send his prefect Gregory and others to help evangelize Britain from the south as well as from the north. But Gregory was himself made pope when Pelagius II died, so instead Pope Gregory the Great sent St Augustine of Canterbury to Kent in 597.

 

St Mungo himself continued as a missionary bishop to evangelize the areas around Glasgow, and he died there on 13 January 603.

 

This stained glass detail of the saint is in the parish church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Demonstrators gathered outside the US Embassy in London to protest the decision to not prosecute the officer responsible for shooting dead Michael Brown.

 

Photos at Parliament Square and Oxford Street respectively.

(for further information please click on the link at the end of page!)

Palais Daun-Kinsky

If the Freyung once has been one of the most prestigious residential addresses in town, so for it was next to the Palais Harrach especially the Grand Palais Kinsky responsible. In its place in the middle ages were two parcels, each with a small building. The front part of the Freyung was since the 16th Century always in aristocratic in hands (Bernhard Menesis Freiherr von Schwarzeneck, Countess Furstenberg, Counts Lamberg). 1686 acquired Karl Ferdinand Count Waldstein the house of Count Lamberg. His son bought also the adjacent house in Rose Street (Rosengasse) and united both plots to one parcel. He had three granddaughters, who sold the site in 1709 to Wirich Philipp Laurenz Graf Daun. This came from an old Rhenish nobility. His ancestors were mostly working for the Elector of Trier as officers. In the battle of the Habsburgs against the Turks, Spanish and Frenchmen, he acquired great military merit. He brought it to the General Feldzeugmeister (quartermaster) and Viceroy of Naples. In 1713 he had the house at the Freyung demolished and by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt built in its place until 1716 a palace, him serving as Vienna's city residence. Down may have been Antonio Beduzzi requested the creation of reconstruction plans, but was eventually Hildebrandt entrusted with the work. In 1719, the palace was largely completed. Daun lived there but rarely because he stayed a lot in Italy and in Austria preferred his country castles Ladendorf, Kirchstetten and Pellendorf. In 1746 acquired Johann Joseph Count von Khevenhüller the Palais from Leopold Joseph von Daun, the son of the owner, who happened to be in financial difficulty. The Reichsgraf (count of empire) was appointed in 1763 by the Empress Maria Theresa for his services to the Lord Steward and Lord Chamberlain, and raised to the hereditary imperial princes (princes of the Holy Roman Empire).

Door knocker

He sold the palace in 1764 to the Imperial Councilor President Ferdinand Bonaventura Harrach Count II. This worked as a diplomat, especially in Holland and Italy. At times of Maria Theresa, the building was inhabited by her Swiss Guards until they 1784 moved to their new quarters in Hofstallgebäude (court stable building). Ferdinand Bonaventura's daughter Rosa brought the palace in 1790 into her marriage to Josef Graf Kinsky. Whose family belonged to the Bohemian nobility. Its members appear at the beginning of the 13th Century documented. Wilhelm Freiherr von Kinsky was a colonel and friend of Wallenstein. He was murdered with this 1634 in Eger. His confiscated estates were divided among the assassins. Only two masteries (Chlumez and Bohemian Kamnitz ) remained through the timely change of front of his nephew, Johann Octavian with the family. The Kinsky but succeeded soon to rise again. They occupied again high positions in the administration and the military. 1798 the had modernized their Viennese palace by the architect Ernst Koch inside. Thus, the original Baroque interior was lost. As in 1809 the Frenchmen had occupied Vienna, a french Marshal and General were billeted in the palace. Prince Ferdinand Kinsky was a great patron of Beethoven, which he paid an annual salary of 4,000 florins for life along with two other nobles. In 1856, the Palace was refurbished in the interior by the architect Friedrich Stache. In the 19th Century lived the Princes Kinsky mostly on their Bohemian goods or in Prague. The building was therefore temporarily rented to some posh tenants. So lived here temporarily Field Marshal Radetzky and Archduke Albrecht. 1904 redecorated the French interior designer Armand Decour the piano nobile.

Staircase - second floor

With the end of World War II began a tough time for the Kinsky family. Almost all goods and industrial holdings, with the exception of the hunting lodge Rosenhof at Freistadt lay in Bohemia. By 1929, 50 % of the extensive Bohemian possessions were expropriated. There were still about 12,000 acres, a sugar factory and breweries. 1919 had to be a part of Vienna's Palais force-let. During World War II it was requisitioned by the German army. For fear of air raids the in the palace remaining objects of art were transferred to some Bohemian castles. The Palais Kinsky was not destroyed, its art treasures but remained in Bohemia. After the Second World War, the remaining Czech possessions were lost by nationalization for the family. In the Viennese palace were temporarily housed the embassies of China and Argentina. In 1986 it was sold by Franz Ulrich Prince Kinsky. After several short-term owners, the palace was acquired by the Karl Wlaschek private foundation in 1997. It was generously restored from 1998 to 2000 and adapted for offices and shops. The Grand Ballroom is often used because of its excellent acoustics as a concert hall. Since 1992, acclaimed art auctions are held at the Palais.

The Palais Kinsky is probably next to the Belvedere the most prominent secular work of the great Baroque architect and one of the best preserved baroque palaces in Vienna. Despite multiple changes of ownership and of numerous rearrangements inside the main components such as Baroque facade, vestibule, staircase, hall and gallery remained largely unchanged. The building extends between Freyung and Rosengasse. The property is only 30 meters wide, but three times longer. It was therefore not an easy task to build on it a representative palace with a grand staircase. Hildebrandt but has brilliantly overcome by putting up four floors at 24 m height, and yet preserving the proportions. He grouped the construction with two long side wings and a cross section around two consecutive large courtyards. The pomp and living rooms of the palace are mounted around the first courtyard, while the second contained carriage houses and stables. Here have yet been preserved the marble wall panels with the animal waterings made ​​of cast iron and enamel from the late 19th century. Hildebrandt integrated various parts of the previous building into the new building. The seven-axle face side at the Freyung is divided several times. Stability is procured by the rusticated ground floor with its inserted diamond blocks. On it sit the two residential floors. They are embraced by Corinthian Riesenpilaster (giant pilasters). The mezzanine floor above it features in comparison with the underlying main floor tiny windows.

Hercules

The large windows on the main floor are particularly detailed designed. While the outer pairs of windows possess pagoda-like over roofings, those of the three windows of the central projection are round-arched. The trophies and weapons depicted in the lintel fields refer to the military profession of the owner. Vertically is the extensive looking facade accented by the slightly protruding, tri-part central risalite, the pilasters are decorated much richer than that of the side projections. In the Fantasiekapitelle (fantasy capital) of the pilasters are diamond lattices incorporated, an important component of the coat of arms of the Counts Down. The with figures and trophies decorated attica is over the central part formed as balustrade. The sculptures are believed to originate from Joseph Kracker, representing the gods Minerva, Juno, Hercules, Neptune, Diana and Constantia. Very elegant looks the plastically protruding portal. Its composition goes back to Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt. It is considered one of the most beautiful Baroque portals of Vienna. The draft was submitted in 1713 and carried out until 1715. The richly decorated wooden gate dates from the period around 1856, when it was renewed. It is outside flanked by two, obliquely placed Doric columns that match the rusticated ground floor. Sloped to the inside carry two, on pillar stumps standing atlases (also from Kracker) the entablature with the overlying structured segment gable. On it sit the stone figures of Prudence and Justice. The middle window in between is much richer decorated than the rest of the window openings on the first floor. Instead of the usual trapezoidal over roofings here it is crowned by a cartouche held by two putti. The originally thereon located coat of arms of the owner was replaced after the change of ownership by that of the Kinsky family with three boar's teeth. Above the shield hangs an chain with the Order of the Golden Fleece. Both the gusset of the archway as well as the overlying triglyph frieze are decorated with trophies.

Banquet Hall

If someone passes the portal, so one gets into one, by strong pillars divided three-aisled gatehouse. The massive spatial impression is something mitigated by the large sculptures in the niches. They were created by Joseph Kracker. Among the somewhat restrained stucco decorations you can see the coat of arms of the owner, with its characteristic diamond motif. At this gate hall adjoins the widely embedded and more than twice as high vestibule with its domed ceiling. This transverse oval space is divided by pilasters and Doric columns. The rich stucco decoration of the ceiling provided with lunettes could come from Alberto Camesina or from his workshop. The here used motifs are again relating to the career of the client as a commander. For instance, in the lunette caps are reliefs of Roman soldiers. On the left side of the vestibule leads an anteroom to the grand staircase. It is dominated by a vault carrying Hercules, a work by Lorenzo Mattielli. As the monogram of Charles VI proves, with it the Emperor was meant to be worshiped. In two oval niches stand above the two double doors of the Treppenvorhauses (stairway hall way) busts of Caesar and Emperor Titus Flavius ​​Vespasian. The elongated stairway occupies almost the entire length of the left wing of the first courtyard. In the stairwell are eleven statues of Roman deities in stucco niches. The relatively narrow, crossed grand stairway is considered one of the most beautiful of Vienna. It overall design might go back to Antonio Beduzzi. On the second floor stand on the from winded perforated volute forms constructed stone balustrade four groups of playing or scrapping putti. They serve in part as a lantern holders, partly just as a decoration. The statue cycle in the staircase is a work of Lorenzo Mattielli, but the cherubs are believed to stem from Joseph Kracker. This type of decoration already points to the coming Rococo. A fresco by Carlo Innocenzo Carlone adorns the ceiling. The simulated architecture painted Antonio Beduzzi. The large wall mirror of the staircase were added after 1907 .

Staircase/ceiling fresco

The somewhat playful balustrade leads to the reception rooms on the second floor. The large oval ballroom above the entrance hall is oriented towards the courtyard. Its allegorical ceiling painting stems from Carlo Innocenzo Carlone. The other frescoes are of him and Marcantonio Chiarini. The walls are covered with marble. The room was several times, most recently in 1904 changed structurally. In front of the banquet hall is the former dining room. It is now called Yellow Salon. In 1879/80 was installed in it a choir stalls from the Pressburg Cathedral by Georg Raphael Donner ( 1736) and partly completed. The also acquired confessionals were converted into boxes that are in the antechamber of the second floor today. In the chapel, designed by Hildebrandt, was until 1741 as altarpiece Francesco Solimena's "Holy Family with the Infant John the Baptist". 1778 the sacred space, however, was already desecrated. The altarpiece is already since the 18th Century in Wiener Neustadt Neuklosterkirche (church in Lower Austria). In the cross-section between the first and the second courtyard lay the paneled gallery whose spatial effect in 1856 by an attached conservatory was changed something. Its vaulted ceiling is decorated with frescoes by Carlo Innocenzo Carlone. Marcantonio Chiarini created 1716/18 the quadrature paintings. At it followed a larger hall in which Francesco Solimena's oil painting "Phaeton and Apollo" was located. It can be admired today in the National Gallery in Prague. The hall was later used as a library. Part of the state rooms 1714 was equipped with ceiling paintings by Peter Strudel. In the course of a radical redesign of the building's interior Ernest Koch has cut off all stucco ceilings of the staterooms 1798-1800 and also redesigned the walls. Since 1879 Carl Gangolf Kayser tried to restore the original spatial impression by the of Rudolf von Weyr created new Neo-Baroque stucco ceilings. Only in a few areas (vestibule, staircase, ballroom), the original substance remained. In the palace there are numerous Mamorkamine (marble fireplaces) and stoves from the 18th and 19th Century. The star parquet floors and many original door fittings date from the third quarter of the 19th Century. The facades of the first courtyard are structured by Tuscan pilasters. The arcades on the ground floor have already been closed in 1753. The with a mascaron decorated wall fountain is a work of Rudolf von Weyr. The second courtyard is kept simple. Remarkable at it rear end is the cenotaph for the current owner Karl Wlaschek.

Location/Address: 1010 Vienna, Freyung 4

Activities: The courtyards are freely accessible, the staircase usually also. A look at the state rooms is only possible if these are not just rented.

www.burgen-austria.com/archive.php?id=804

Original handdrawing in Krings Ernst Gallery, Köln.

Responsible work of bounty hunters

The man responsible for my interest in trains, when I was a toddler living in Jacksdale we would come here, in the countryside, to sit and watch the trains go by, steam hauled in those days; he always magically seemed to produce an orange from a pocket which we would sit and enjoy.

 

The bridge was always known locally as 'The Monkey Bridge', my Grandad, born in 1901, called it that when he was a kid, but he didn't know where the name had come from. More properly the location was 'Codnor Park South Sidings' and a part of the Shunter's cabin is just visible to the right with the fast lines beyond.

 

The bridge was demolished in 2007 and replaced with an unbelievable flat high sided monstrosity with the paint already flaking off.

   

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Specifications:

 

220bhp at 3,500 rpm, 7,982.81 cc, coupling rod driven single overhead camshaft inline six-cylinder engine with a 110 mm bore x 140 mm stroke, four-speed sliding pinion transmission with open propeller shaft, two SU carburetors, front and rear half elliptic leaf spring suspension, four-wheel drum brakes. Wheelbase: 156"

 

Walter Owen Bentley was educated at Clifton College in Bristol. He left in July 1905 at age sixteen to study engineering at King’s College in London. The course lacked a practical element and, finding theory boring, W.O. left and joined the Great Northern Railway as a premium apprentice.

 

W.O. spent six years at the Great Northern Railway Works at Doncaster, progressing through the various shops and finally ending up on the footplate of the company’s locomotives.

 

W.O’s next job was assistant to the works manager of the National Motor Cab Company where he was responsible for the maintenance of over five hundred London taxis.

 

Bentley’s first motorized transport was a Quadrant motorcycle. As time went on, he bought better motorbikes and began entering races and touring events. Bentley won a gold medal in the difficult London to Edinburgh trial and in 1909 competed in the Tourist Trophy but crashed his Speed King on the first lap.

 

W.O’s first car was a 9 hp Riley that he bought in 1910. About a year later he purchased a French Sizaire-Naudin. The path of his life could not have been predicted; this early in his life, his views on this form of transportation were not favorable. “The motor car seemed to me a disagreeable vehicle. Perhaps I should have realized the vast potentialities of internal combustion and recognized from my nursery days that it was to be the impelling force in my life. But the fact must be recorded that the motor car struck my young, literal mind as a slow, inefficient, draughty and antisocial means of transport. Motor cars splashed people with mud, frightened horses, irritated dogs and were a frightful nuisance to everybody.”

 

In March 1912, in partnership with his brother, Horace Milner Bentley, W.O. secured the British concession for three French motor manufacturers. Two, Buchet and La Licorne, were not considered very good and so the new company concentrated on the superior Doriet, Flandrin et Parent car. Bentley and Bentley had a showroom in Hanover Street and later in New Street Mews, off Upper Baker Street. Motor racing was a great way to promote and sell cars and W.O. began to develop the four cylinder 2,001 cc 12/15 hp D.F.P. for competition use. Humber, with a similar engine capacity, was dominating this class of racing – Bentley would soon change that.

 

W.O.’s first event was June 15, 1912 at Aston Clinton hill-climb where the D.F.P. easily won Class II. More modifications followed and considerable success was achieved at Brooklands, eventually averaging 81.98 mph over ten laps. After fitting alloy pistons, Bentley took the car to Paris and broke the flying half-mile record at 89.70 mph. In June 1914 Bentley finished an incredible sixth overall in the Isle of Man T.T. against out and out racing cars of much higher capacity. This competition experience led to the D.F.P. 12/40 hp, the first car in motoring history to be fitted with aluminium pistons as standard.

 

The First World War brought the brothers’ car sales operation to a halt. Having fitted alloy pistons to the D.F.P. car, W.O. Bentley felt that his knowledge of this technology could help the war effort. W.O. approached the Admiralty with the suggestion that this knowledge should be incorporated into aero engines used by the Royal Naval Air Service.

 

Lieutenant Bentley was sent to the experimental department at Rolls-Royce in Derby where his ideas were tried, even though the company had already used aluminium pistons in their Silver Ghosts in the Austrian Alpine Trial of 1913. Bentley also worked at Sunbeam and Gwynnes before he was given the opportunity to design his own aero engine.

 

Bentley went to Humber in Coventry where he met designer F.T. Burgess and later his old friend from his motorcycling days, now Admiralty Inspector S.C.H. Davis. Fredrick Tasker Burgess worked with W.O. to produce the Bentley Rotary aero engines the B.R. 1 and B.R. 2. Later he would work in design at Bentley Motors. W.O. said of him, “I soon recognised that we talked the same language, understood and appreciated the same things, and that he was a man in a thousand to have on design work.”

 

W.O. was to meet another person who would figure significantly in Bentley Motors, on an airfield in France during the war while under attack by the Red Barron. W.O.: “The adjoining canal seemed to be the only retreat left to me when a Fokker came over one day, and after a terrific hundred-yard sprint with the bullets dancing behind me, in I went with a splash and huddled under the overhanging bank. The plane’s next run across the airfield brought me company in the shape of Petty Officer (Nobby) Clarke, and side-by-side Bentley Motors’ future head racing mechanic and I huddled among the rushes, teeth chattering. The pilot who sent us there, and helped to seal a warm friendship, was Barron von Richtofen himself. I almost felt a pang of regret when Brown in a (Sopwith) Camel, powered by one of our B.R.1’s, caught him at last a year or two later.”

 

W.O. Bentley was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for his service in World War I and the Royal Commission on Awards paid him £8,000 for his work designing the B.R.1 and 2 engines. This money would provide W.O. with the means to set up Bentley Motors. W.O. wanted to build a car. “The creative instinct is strong in most engineers, and, just as I hadn’t been satisfied for long to work on someone else’s rotary engine, so I had to produce my own car.”

 

After the war, in a small office in Conduit Street, Bentley began to design a new engine. He recruited F.T. Burgess from Humber and Harry Varley from Vauxhall. By September 1919 the design was complete and all the parts manufactured. Nobby Clarke, chief mechanic of one of the R.N.A.S. squadrons that had used Bentley rotary engines, was hired to assemble the first car engine.

 

The 2,996 cc four-cylinder engine followed the current customary long stroke, high efficiency principals with maximum power developed at just 3,500 rpm. The engine was successfully run for the first time at New Street Mews at the beginning of October and a mock-up chassis was made ready for the Olympia Motor Show in London.

 

The car made an immediate impression, with a tall, imposing radiator and winged Bentley badge that had been designed by famous motoring artist, F. Gordon Crosby. The Autocar reported that, “The Bentley chassis stands alone in its class as a car designed to give that peculiar and almost perfect combination of tractability and great speed usually to be found on machines built for racing, and racing only.”

 

Of course Bentley would go on to achieve incredible success in motor racing for many years, winning the Twenty-Four Hours at Le Mans four times in a row during the twenties. Bentley’s drivers included Woolf Barnato, Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin, Jack Barclay, Glen Kidston and George Duller. The Bentley Boys, as they were known, would become part of the Bentley legend. W.O.’s policy was to “race on Sunday, sell on Monday.”

 

S.C.H. Davis gave a 3.0-liter Bentley with an open four-seater tourer body its first road test for The Autocar in January 1920. Bentley moved to a factory in Oxgate Lane in Cricklewood where the Bentley cars were assembled. The first customer 3.0-liter was delivered in August 1921. Bentley would go on to produce models of 4.5-liters and 6.5-liters and finally between 1930 and 1931 the mighty 8-Litre.

 

The 8-Litre was basically an enlarged version of the Speed Six. It had a new lower chassis frame, with out-set rear springs and an ‘F’ series gearbox differing from all previous Bentley designs with its casing split down the centre, as opposed to the square box with a lid on top which was used in all earlier cars. This layout allowed for larger bearings which provided extra strength and reduced engine noise.

 

The first 8-Litres appeared at the Olympia Motor Show in October 1930 and created a sensation. This magnificent machine would top 100 mph with limousine coachwork and eight people inside.

 

Bentley’s Sales Manager Arthur Hillstead in his book, Those Bentley Days, wrote. “Eight litres! Nearly three times the cubic capacity of the never-to-be-forgotten 3! And what a motor it was! Having a six-cylinder engine with a bore and stroke of 110 mm by 140 mm respectively, and a top-gear speed range (with a ratio of 3.5 to 1) of a minimum of 6 mph and a maximum of 104 mph – what more could man ask for? Yes, indeed; and add to that an acceleration capacity of 10 mph to 100 mph in 50 seconds with a fully equipped saloon body, and surely we had the answer to the sporting motorist’s prayer? The sporting motorist! Speed cum refinement in its highest form! A creation evolved from years of racing experience!”

 

The 8-Litre was clearly aimed to go head to head with the Rolls-Royce Phantom II, challenging to be the best car in the world, although Hillstead was impressed by the fact that the Bentley outperformed the supercharged Mercedes of that time, on both acceleration and maximum speed, “but it performed with a silence that was uncanny.” He said, “There was nothing like it in the world.”

 

The 8-Litre was clearly aimed to go head to head with the Rolls-Royce Phantom II, challenging to be the best car in the world, although Hillstead was impressed by the fact that the Bentley outperformed the supercharged Mercedes of that time, on both acceleration and maximum speed, “but it performed with a silence that was uncanny.” He said, “There was nothing like it in the world.”

 

It would have been interesting to see what developed in this rivalry but Bentley was in deep financial trouble. Bentley Motors effectively ended in 1931 when they notified London Life that they would be unable to make their June 30th mortgage payment. W.O. was confident that the company would continue under the proposed new ownership of Napiers of Acton, London. The receiver’s sale of Bentley’s assets was regarded to be a formality, but in the Royal Courts of Justice in London’s Strand a barrister representing the British Central Equitable Trust made a counter offer, much to everyone’s astonishment. Napier immediately offered more, but the judge informed the court that he was not an auctioneer and gave the two parties until 4.30 in the afternoon to come back with sealed bids. W.O. said, “I don’t know by how much precisely Napier were out-bidded, but the margin was very small, a matter of a few hundred pounds. All I knew that evening was that the deal would not be going through after all.”

 

Later W.O. commented on the bankruptcy. He said, “When people ask me (and they are too tactful to do so often) why Bentleys went bust, I usually give three reasons: the slump, the 4-Litre car, and the ‘blower’ 41/2s; in proportions of about 70, 20 and 10% respectively.”

 

Following the court case, it became apparent that the B.C.E.T. was representing Rolls-Royce. Having acquired all of Bentley’s assets, including the design of the 8-Litre, it is perhaps telling that the model was never again produced. Napier’s original bid had been for £103,675, their sealed bid £104,775. Rolls-Royce paid £125,256.

 

After the acquisition of Bentley by Rolls-Royce, Walter Owen Bentley was asked to call at Rolls-Royce’s London offices to see Sir Henry Royce. Royce, like Bentley, had started working life on the Great Northern Railway. Bentley said, “It might be called an exploratory interview, I suppose, and I have often wondered what was its purpose.”

 

Royce asked, “I believe you’re a commercial man, Mr. Bentley?”

 

Bentley replied, “Well, not really, primarily, I suppose I’m more a technical specialist.”

 

Royce, in some surprise, said, “You’re not an engineer, then, are you?”

 

“Yes, I suppose you could call me that.” Bentley replied. “I think you were a boy in the G.N. running sheds at Peterborough a bit before I was a premium apprentice at Doncaster.” This was accepted with a nod, W.O. recalled, and he was then offered a job, “on not ungenerous terms…”

 

The first Rolls-Royce built Bentley was the 31/2 Litre. W.O. was heavily involved in the testing of this car, which became known as ‘The Silent Sports Car’. W.O. loved it.

 

Bentley were Rolls-Royce’s greatest rivals, but there was great mutual respect between the two men and admiration for the cars that they produced. The Bentley 8-Litre was superior to the Phantom II in a number of respects. Royce considered buying one, but rejected the idea. He said, “We can see in which way it can be better than we are.”

 

Chassis no. YR5076

 

Only one hundred 8-Litre Bentleys were built. The car presented here, chassis number YR5076, has its original open tourer coachwork by R. Harrison and Son, who were established in 1883. This incredibly handsome car has velvet green paintwork with a green leather interior and is in beautiful condition.

 

The 8-Litre was the last car designed by W.O. Bentley and of the hundred examples built, seventy-eight are still in existence today. Only sixteen 8-Litres were built with open bodywork,

six drophead coupés and ten open tourers; only twelve of these open cars survive today with their original coachwork. YR5076 is one of these extremely rare cars.

 

This car was delivered to Mr. W.B. Henderson, of Somerset, England on January 3, 1931 and was subsequently owned by G.R. Wilson and Lt. Col. A.J.A. Beck before being shipped to the United States in 1953 by Leo Pavelle from New York. The car then became the property of Bill Klein, who then had the largest collection of Bentleys in the world. The car remained in America in the ownership of Jimmy Black from Tennessee, Johnnie Bassett, Ed Jurist, Wayne Brooks and then David Van Schaick, who showed the car at Pebble Beach in 1989. YR5076 returned to the U.K. in 1995 having been sold to Richard Procter, the odometer showing just 43,000 miles, which was believed to be correct. The Bentley was restored during this time and was repainted and retrimmed. It was then sold to William Connor II in Hong Kong.

 

This car, chassis number, YR5076 has always been maintained to a very high standard and represents an exceptional opportunity to own one of these elegant, rare, high-speed touring cars. It is ready to be enjoyed at important events around the world.

 

[Text from RM Auctions]

 

www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=218906

 

This Lego miniland-scale Bentley 8-Litre Open Tourer YR5076 (1931 - Harrsion), has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 89th Build Challenge, - "Over a Million, Under a Thousand", - a challenge to build vehicles valued over one million (US) dollars, or under one thousand (US) dollars.

 

This particular vehicle was auctioned by the RM Auction house on Saturday March 8, 2008, 2010, where it sold for $2,200,000.

 

responsible work of bounty hunters

Responsible work of bounty hunters

Town Creek volunteer riparian restoration area before being cut down summer of 2020. Notice one cannot see through the foliage to US 290, a block away. I took another photo of the same area today and will post it for comparisons. Compare to now:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/151313979@N08/51804434463/in/album-...

 

View across Town Creek to Johnny Jennings old home.

 

The story of Town Creek's magnificent Bald Cypress trees growing behind downtown is owed to this guy:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/151313979@N08/50087469426/in/album-...

 

Johnny Jennings was most responsible for protecting the young Cypress trees one now sees growing up and down Town Creek in downtown Johnson City. How did that happen? Through a very interesting story: Johnny grew up and lived in the house on Town Creek all his life. A Korean War veteran, Johnson City's first Fire Chief and married to a nurse, Pat, together they raised two children adopted in the 1960s, and many around here remember Johnny for his Peanut Brittle he made in a trailer outside his home. His peanut brittle was so popular, he supplied vendors in town who could not get their hands on enough of his candy. Hence, his assembly line techniques I was fortunate enough to document which you can see in the link above. Over the years, Johnny and I got together sitting on his porch as he smoked his cigarettes and talked. in the late 1990s Johnny joined Elaine and I and other local Johnson City legacy family members on the Johnson City Historical Review Board where we endeavored to preserve downtown Johnson City. One day while visiting Johnny, we noticed Cypress tree saplings growing on the banks of Town Creek. There were four or five growing on either side of the creek and Johnny was stunned. He told me he had lived here his whole life and had never seen any Cypress trees on his portion of the creek. We knew there was a large Cypress tree upstream - the granddaddy of Cypress in town located on the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, but none grew downstream on this portion of Town Creek. After all, Cypress trees have to grow near water and the section of Town creek, about a block long between US 290 and Pecan Street (now) belonged to the city who sometimes trenched the creek with tractors and laid sewage pipes in the creek bed. But here all of a sudden appeared the Cypress saplings and Johnny and I vowed to oversee their survival.

 

Soon after our discovery the unimaginable occurred: the saplings disappeared! Well, not quite disappeared, but were clipped off at the point where their foliage appeared leaving tall stumps. The trees looked as if they were cut by a knife and we concluded kids playing in the creek had destroyed the trees. We decided we'd join forces and keep a close eye on the creek in case neighborhood kids returned to cause more havoc. Sure enough, another sapling or two went down as well. Comparing notes with Johnny led us to conclude children weren't to blame, but someone was, or something.

 

About that time I was walking on my daily walk into the Settlement at LBJ NHP when a park employee stopped me and asked me a question that was beyond believable. The reason I couldn't believe what I was hearing was due to knowing what I knew about Town Creek. That it was an urban stream, except for downtown, was mostly dry, and it was rather beat up and abused from about Pecan through the city to the city wastewater plant. How was I to expect anything exotic was taking down our young Cypress saplings?

 

"Have you seen the beavers in the creek?" I was asked. "You have to be here early to see them, but you can." I was stunned. No, I had not seen the beavers in the creek. I didn't even know there were beavers in the Texas Hill Country, let alone the creek. I assumed they had long been trapped out like they were everywhere in the wild. I'd never heard of city beavers. That was a cool thought. City beavers. I can do this.

 

Catching Johnny on his porch later that day, I told him the news. His reaction was about like mine and we knew then that we faced a number of dilemmas: what are we going to do to protect the young Cypress saplings? What are we going to do about the beavers?

 

Checking with local biologists led me to conclude that beavers in the creek would be good for our riparian zone. These mammals build dams that impound water resulting in both habitat for fish and other life and, most importantly, hold water in the stream helping in conserve water for our aquifer. What I took away from my conversations was that we wanted both Cypress trees and beavers. So how do we accomplish that task? The answer was easy: talk to Johnny.

 

Sitting on his porch, Johnny and I came up with a plan. Remember now, this is the late 90's. Johnny pondered the problem a minute and after a couple of minutes of silence, said: "PVC". Of course! Plastic pipe would work. All we had to do was get big enough pipe that would cover the trees. To make removing the pipe later as the trees grew large enough to survive on their own. So that's what we did, and even in 2009 you can see the PVC still around the ten year old trees.

 

One additional step I suggested was to wrap chicken wire around the trees, similar to the way the trees on the Blanco River were treated at Blanco State Park. Buying a roll of chicken wire at the local hardware store was easy and I went about wrapping the other trees on Town Creek between Pecan and US 290 with a couple of feet of wire. At the time, the trees near the highway were head high and a few were a couple of inches in diameter. Even those were easy for the beavers to cut down, and they did! Placing the chicken wire and PVC piping around the trees ended the depredation. All told, we thought we had lost about five cypress trees; we actually lost none. It turns out that all the cypress trees cut down by beavers in the creek sprouted new growth the following year. In fact, we had lost none of the cypress trees chewed down by the beavers and underscored for us the teachings of the biologists who had told us the beavers and trees were part of the natural Hill Country environment. Thus it was that for the remainder of time after protecting the trees, no tree was again cut down by the beavers. Yet our technique used on the trees was noticeable for years afterwards, although I doubt anyone had any idea what was happening with those trees for we had told no one else in town.

 

Over the years following the beaver invasion, floods and downright persecution by humans resulted in the disappearance of the industrious mammals. But they left a huge mark on down town Town Creek. They had constructed two dams on the creek, one at the Settement entrance by the big cypress tree and the other behind the feed mill at a point where the creek bank narrowed due to its rock, gravel and mud bank. Both were enlargements of constrictions on the creek that existed before, but were enhanced with twigs, boughs, branches and mud to form the dams we see today. Those dams now hold back water that remains even during the worst of droughts since that time. Those ponds provide water and shelter for fish, turtles and the like that up to today have kept the creek alive - and the water table from disappearing. Will the fish survive this year's predicted drought? Time will tell.

 

Other surprising facts we learned about the beavers were that they did not build beaver lodges in the Hill Country, but burrows dug into mud banks were their homes. Each of the burrows entrances was above the water level of their pond, was inaccessible to all other non-swimming critters. Secondly, we learned beavers could take down very large trees; one in particular stood out. It was a Cottonwood - the offspring of the huge one by the Science Mill - about a foot or more in diameter. One day as I was walking the creek downstream from the National Park, I stumbled upon the Cottonwood, its lower trunk completely chewed through by the beavers, now resting against the bank of the creek where its limbs and leaves were within easy access for the beavers. Before the beavers had time to use the tree, they had disappeared and have not returned.

 

For a time, there were constant reminders of their presence: twigs, branches and small trees - including the horrendous Ligustrum - numbered among their victims floating on the surface of Town Creek. Long afterwards I found branches stripped of bark with teeth marks in the wood where beavers had lunched on the many woody morsels. I still have one foot and a half four inch branch with its two ends chewed into points like a leaded pencil. Numerous chew marks are on the other portion of the branch which was stripped of any bark. Beavers eat only the nutritious part of the wood; what's left is usually tucked into a dam or a lodge, if there is one. Here that doesn't apply. But boughs and branches are an integral component of our Beaver's dam and handiwork.

 

After Johnny and my (probably un-necessary) protective devices exceeded their usefulness, Johnny passed. At the time he was in his seventies and was taken to the Veterans Hospital where he died. That left the task up to me and other than making sure that the PVC and wire was taken off the trees once I thought the trees were old enough, all the trees were free of human interference (until now). This photo shows just how long our equipment was in play up and down the creek. Johnny and my efforts at protecting the creek was over, but of course, the effort continues today. The best tribute to Johnny would be a riparian zone on Town Creek stretching from Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park to the Pedernales River. Such a restoration would actually closely match the riparian habitat the first settlers found in the 19th century, complete with flowing springs and clear cool drinkable water, one of Johnson City's most important asset, just as today. A symbol of natural beauty that so many are privileged to live around in this portion of the Texas Hill Country. A couple of years ago, a city councilwoman who was born and raised here mused that she wished Town Creek was like it was when she was a kid and her siblings and neighborhood kids used to play and wade in the creek.

 

______________________________________________

 

Views of Town Creek's riparian zone north of US Highway 290 west of old Main Street, downtown Johnson City. The views are a couple of years apart and represent changes resulting from the clearing of vegetation on both sides of Town Creek, an area that was one of the focuses of local volunteers whose aim was to eliminate invasive trees and enhance the presence of native riparian plant species in addition to Cypress trees that were purchased and planted in the riparian zone. Local volunteers were following guidelines as enumerated by Steve Nelle in his decades long research and application of methods to restore native riparian zone habitat in the Texas Hill Country. For the complete set of his research and methods:

 

remarkableriparian.org/

 

My wife's Flickr page here:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/194436195@N02/

The three men responsible for the success of Explorer 1, America's first Earth satellite which was launched January 31, 1958, celebrate their success early the next morning. At left is Dr. William H. Pickering, then director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built and operated the satellite. Dr. James A. Van Allen, center, of the State University of Iowa, designed and built the instrument on Explorer that discovered the radiation belts which circle the Earth. At right is Dr. Wernher von Braun, leader of the Army's Redstone Arsenal team which built the first stage Redstone rocket that launched Explorer 1.

 

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

 

Credit: NASA

Image Number: P8485

Date: February 1, 1958

(for further information please click on the link at the end of page!)

Palais Daun-Kinsky

If the Freyung once has been one of the most prestigious residential addresses in town, so for it was next to the Palais Harrach especially the Grand Palais Kinsky responsible. In its place in the middle ages were two parcels, each with a small building. The front part of the Freyung was since the 16th Century always in aristocratic in hands (Bernhard Menesis Freiherr von Schwarzeneck, Countess Furstenberg, Counts Lamberg). 1686 acquired Karl Ferdinand Count Waldstein the house of Count Lamberg. His son bought also the adjacent house in Rose Street (Rosengasse) and united both plots to one parcel. He had three granddaughters, who sold the site in 1709 to Wirich Philipp Laurenz Graf Daun. This came from an old Rhenish nobility. His ancestors were mostly working for the Elector of Trier as officers. In the battle of the Habsburgs against the Turks, Spanish and Frenchmen, he acquired great military merit. He brought it to the General Feldzeugmeister (quartermaster) and Viceroy of Naples. In 1713 he had the house at the Freyung demolished and by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt built in its place until 1716 a palace, him serving as Vienna's city residence. Down may have been Antonio Beduzzi requested the creation of reconstruction plans, but was eventually Hildebrandt entrusted with the work. In 1719, the palace was largely completed. Daun lived there but rarely because he stayed a lot in Italy and in Austria preferred his country castles Ladendorf, Kirchstetten and Pellendorf. In 1746 acquired Johann Joseph Count von Khevenhüller the Palais from Leopold Joseph von Daun, the son of the owner, who happened to be in financial difficulty. The Reichsgraf (count of empire) was appointed in 1763 by the Empress Maria Theresa for his services to the Lord Steward and Lord Chamberlain, and raised to the hereditary imperial princes (princes of the Holy Roman Empire).

Door knocker

He sold the palace in 1764 to the Imperial Councilor President Ferdinand Bonaventura Harrach Count II. This worked as a diplomat, especially in Holland and Italy. At times of Maria Theresa, the building was inhabited by her Swiss Guards until they 1784 moved to their new quarters in Hofstallgebäude (court stable building). Ferdinand Bonaventura's daughter Rosa brought the palace in 1790 into her marriage to Josef Graf Kinsky. Whose family belonged to the Bohemian nobility. Its members appear at the beginning of the 13th Century documented. Wilhelm Freiherr von Kinsky was a colonel and friend of Wallenstein. He was murdered with this 1634 in Eger. His confiscated estates were divided among the assassins. Only two masteries (Chlumez and Bohemian Kamnitz ) remained through the timely change of front of his nephew, Johann Octavian with the family. The Kinsky but succeeded soon to rise again. They occupied again high positions in the administration and the military. 1798 the had modernized their Viennese palace by the architect Ernst Koch inside. Thus, the original Baroque interior was lost. As in 1809 the Frenchmen had occupied Vienna, a french Marshal and General were billeted in the palace. Prince Ferdinand Kinsky was a great patron of Beethoven, which he paid an annual salary of 4,000 florins for life along with two other nobles. In 1856, the Palace was refurbished in the interior by the architect Friedrich Stache. In the 19th Century lived the Princes Kinsky mostly on their Bohemian goods or in Prague. The building was therefore temporarily rented to some posh tenants. So lived here temporarily Field Marshal Radetzky and Archduke Albrecht. 1904 redecorated the French interior designer Armand Decour the piano nobile.

Staircase - second floor

With the end of World War II began a tough time for the Kinsky family. Almost all goods and industrial holdings, with the exception of the hunting lodge Rosenhof at Freistadt lay in Bohemia. By 1929, 50 % of the extensive Bohemian possessions were expropriated. There were still about 12,000 acres, a sugar factory and breweries. 1919 had to be a part of Vienna's Palais force-let. During World War II it was requisitioned by the German army. For fear of air raids the in the palace remaining objects of art were transferred to some Bohemian castles. The Palais Kinsky was not destroyed, its art treasures but remained in Bohemia. After the Second World War, the remaining Czech possessions were lost by nationalization for the family. In the Viennese palace were temporarily housed the embassies of China and Argentina. In 1986 it was sold by Franz Ulrich Prince Kinsky. After several short-term owners, the palace was acquired by the Karl Wlaschek private foundation in 1997. It was generously restored from 1998 to 2000 and adapted for offices and shops. The Grand Ballroom is often used because of its excellent acoustics as a concert hall. Since 1992, acclaimed art auctions are held at the Palais.

The Palais Kinsky is probably next to the Belvedere the most prominent secular work of the great Baroque architect and one of the best preserved baroque palaces in Vienna. Despite multiple changes of ownership and of numerous rearrangements inside the main components such as Baroque facade, vestibule, staircase, hall and gallery remained largely unchanged. The building extends between Freyung and Rosengasse. The property is only 30 meters wide, but three times longer. It was therefore not an easy task to build on it a representative palace with a grand staircase. Hildebrandt but has brilliantly overcome by putting up four floors at 24 m height, and yet preserving the proportions. He grouped the construction with two long side wings and a cross section around two consecutive large courtyards. The pomp and living rooms of the palace are mounted around the first courtyard, while the second contained carriage houses and stables. Here have yet been preserved the marble wall panels with the animal waterings made ​​of cast iron and enamel from the late 19th century. Hildebrandt integrated various parts of the previous building into the new building. The seven-axle face side at the Freyung is divided several times. Stability is procured by the rusticated ground floor with its inserted diamond blocks. On it sit the two residential floors. They are embraced by Corinthian Riesenpilaster (giant pilasters). The mezzanine floor above it features in comparison with the underlying main floor tiny windows.

Hercules

The large windows on the main floor are particularly detailed designed. While the outer pairs of windows possess pagoda-like over roofings, those of the three windows of the central projection are round-arched. The trophies and weapons depicted in the lintel fields refer to the military profession of the owner. Vertically is the extensive looking facade accented by the slightly protruding, tri-part central risalite, the pilasters are decorated much richer than that of the side projections. In the Fantasiekapitelle (fantasy capital) of the pilasters are diamond lattices incorporated, an important component of the coat of arms of the Counts Down. The with figures and trophies decorated attica is over the central part formed as balustrade. The sculptures are believed to originate from Joseph Kracker, representing the gods Minerva, Juno, Hercules, Neptune, Diana and Constantia. Very elegant looks the plastically protruding portal. Its composition goes back to Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt. It is considered one of the most beautiful Baroque portals of Vienna. The draft was submitted in 1713 and carried out until 1715. The richly decorated wooden gate dates from the period around 1856, when it was renewed. It is outside flanked by two, obliquely placed Doric columns that match the rusticated ground floor. Sloped to the inside carry two, on pillar stumps standing atlases (also from Kracker) the entablature with the overlying structured segment gable. On it sit the stone figures of Prudence and Justice. The middle window in between is much richer decorated than the rest of the window openings on the first floor. Instead of the usual trapezoidal over roofings here it is crowned by a cartouche held by two putti. The originally thereon located coat of arms of the owner was replaced after the change of ownership by that of the Kinsky family with three boar's teeth. Above the shield hangs an chain with the Order of the Golden Fleece. Both the gusset of the archway as well as the overlying triglyph frieze are decorated with trophies.

Banquet Hall

If someone passes the portal, so one gets into one, by strong pillars divided three-aisled gatehouse. The massive spatial impression is something mitigated by the large sculptures in the niches. They were created by Joseph Kracker. Among the somewhat restrained stucco decorations you can see the coat of arms of the owner, with its characteristic diamond motif. At this gate hall adjoins the widely embedded and more than twice as high vestibule with its domed ceiling. This transverse oval space is divided by pilasters and Doric columns. The rich stucco decoration of the ceiling provided with lunettes could come from Alberto Camesina or from his workshop. The here used motifs are again relating to the career of the client as a commander. For instance, in the lunette caps are reliefs of Roman soldiers. On the left side of the vestibule leads an anteroom to the grand staircase. It is dominated by a vault carrying Hercules, a work by Lorenzo Mattielli. As the monogram of Charles VI proves, with it the Emperor was meant to be worshiped. In two oval niches stand above the two double doors of the Treppenvorhauses (stairway hall way) busts of Caesar and Emperor Titus Flavius ​​Vespasian. The elongated stairway occupies almost the entire length of the left wing of the first courtyard. In the stairwell are eleven statues of Roman deities in stucco niches. The relatively narrow, crossed grand stairway is considered one of the most beautiful of Vienna. It overall design might go back to Antonio Beduzzi. On the second floor stand on the from winded perforated volute forms constructed stone balustrade four groups of playing or scrapping putti. They serve in part as a lantern holders, partly just as a decoration. The statue cycle in the staircase is a work of Lorenzo Mattielli, but the cherubs are believed to stem from Joseph Kracker. This type of decoration already points to the coming Rococo. A fresco by Carlo Innocenzo Carlone adorns the ceiling. The simulated architecture painted Antonio Beduzzi. The large wall mirror of the staircase were added after 1907 .

Staircase/ceiling fresco

The somewhat playful balustrade leads to the reception rooms on the second floor. The large oval ballroom above the entrance hall is oriented towards the courtyard. Its allegorical ceiling painting stems from Carlo Innocenzo Carlone. The other frescoes are of him and Marcantonio Chiarini. The walls are covered with marble. The room was several times, most recently in 1904 changed structurally. In front of the banquet hall is the former dining room. It is now called Yellow Salon. In 1879/80 was installed in it a choir stalls from the Pressburg Cathedral by Georg Raphael Donner ( 1736) and partly completed. The also acquired confessionals were converted into boxes that are in the antechamber of the second floor today. In the chapel, designed by Hildebrandt, was until 1741 as altarpiece Francesco Solimena's "Holy Family with the Infant John the Baptist". 1778 the sacred space, however, was already desecrated. The altarpiece is already since the 18th Century in Wiener Neustadt Neuklosterkirche (church in Lower Austria). In the cross-section between the first and the second courtyard lay the paneled gallery whose spatial effect in 1856 by an attached conservatory was changed something. Its vaulted ceiling is decorated with frescoes by Carlo Innocenzo Carlone. Marcantonio Chiarini created 1716/18 the quadrature paintings. At it followed a larger hall in which Francesco Solimena's oil painting "Phaeton and Apollo" was located. It can be admired today in the National Gallery in Prague. The hall was later used as a library. Part of the state rooms 1714 was equipped with ceiling paintings by Peter Strudel. In the course of a radical redesign of the building's interior Ernest Koch has cut off all stucco ceilings of the staterooms 1798-1800 and also redesigned the walls. Since 1879 Carl Gangolf Kayser tried to restore the original spatial impression by the of Rudolf von Weyr created new Neo-Baroque stucco ceilings. Only in a few areas (vestibule, staircase, ballroom), the original substance remained. In the palace there are numerous Mamorkamine (marble fireplaces) and stoves from the 18th and 19th Century. The star parquet floors and many original door fittings date from the third quarter of the 19th Century. The facades of the first courtyard are structured by Tuscan pilasters. The arcades on the ground floor have already been closed in 1753. The with a mascaron decorated wall fountain is a work of Rudolf von Weyr. The second courtyard is kept simple. Remarkable at it rear end is the cenotaph for the current owner Karl Wlaschek.

Location/Address: 1010 Vienna, Freyung 4

Activities: The courtyards are freely accessible, the staircase usually also. A look at the state rooms is only possible if these are not just rented.

www.burgen-austria.com/archive.php?id=804