A Moment in London’s History – The opening of Tower Bridge…
September 23, 2019
This year marks 125 years since the opening of Tower Bridge.
The bridge, which took eight years to build and was designed by City of London architect Sir Horace Jones in collaboration with engineer Sir John Wolfe Barry, was officially opened on 30th June, 1894, by the Prince and Princess of Wales (the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra).
Others among the tens of thousands who turned out to mark the historic event were the Duke of York (later King George V), Lord Mayor of London Sir George Robert Tyler and members of the Bridge House Estates Committee.
A procession of carriages carrying members of the royal family had set out from Marlborough House that morning, stopping at Mansion House on its way to the bridge.
Once there, it drove back and forth across before official proceedings took place in which the Prince of Wales pulled a lever to set in motion the steam-driven machinery which raised the two enormous bascules and allowed a huge flotilla of craft of all shapes and sizes to pass under it.
The event was also marked with a gun salute fired from the Tower of London.
Plaques commemorating the opening can be found at either end of the bridge. The event was also captured in a famous painting by artist William Lionel Wyllie who had attended with his wife. The painting is now held at the Guildhall Art Gallery.
Tower Bridge has been running a series of special events to mark the anniversary this year. For more, see www.towerbridge.org.uk.
Tower Bridge today. PICTURE: Charles Postiaux/Unsplash
10 historic London hotels…1. The Ritz Hotel…
December 19, 2018
This Piccadilly institution was constructed from 1904 to 1906 and takes its name from Swiss hotelier César Ritz.
It was constructed on the site of a former coaching inn for the Blackpool Building and Vendor Company – it was the first steel-framed building in London – and designed by Mewés and Davis, the architects of the Paris Ritz. And even though Ritz himself was apparently actually retired at the time, it was built according to his specifications.
The exterior facade features Norwegian granite and Portland stone and boasts an arcade on Piccadilly which deliberately evokes the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. The interior, the work of Waring and Gillow, is designed in the style of Louis XVI and was designed to be opulent with all rooms featuring a working fireplace.
Public spaces include the Palm Court – famous for its traditional afternoon teas – and a Michelin-starred restaurant with floor to ceiling windows overlooking Green Park. Other features include the Rivoli Bar, designed in 2001 by Tessa Kennedy to resemble the bar in the Orient Express, and the basement Ritz Club, a private casino.
The now Grade II*-listed hotel was officially opened by Ritz himself on 24th May, 1906, and was soon adopted by the rich and famous – the patronage of the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VIII) after the death of King Edward VII was one key reason for its success.
Actor Charlie Chaplin, who apparently had to have 40 police hold back the crowd to enter the hotel, is also a name famously associated with it as is that of Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova who performed here.
The Aga Khan and Paul Getty both had suites, and playwright Noel Coward and Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, regularly dined here while Tallulah Bankhead famously sipped champagne from a slipper in the bar. The Marie Antoinette Suite was also famously the location of a conference between Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower and Charles de Gaulle during World War II.
The hotel also featured in 1999 film Notting Hill, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, and in the more recent TV drama Downton Abbey.
The five star hotel underwent a major 10 year refurbishment after it was acquired by the Barclay brothers in 1995. The complex these days includes the adjoining 18th century property William Kent House (designed, of course, by William Kent).
In 2001, the hotel was awarded the first Royal Warrant for Banqueting and Catering Services. Other boasts these days include being the only UK hotel to have a certified tea sommelier (among teas served is the hotel’s own Ritz Royal Blend).
For more, see www.theritzlondon.com.
A Moment in London’s History – Birth of a future queen…
April 4, 2016
Queen Elizabeth II, the oldest British monarch, celebrates her 90th birthday later this month and, although we’ve run a piece on the Queen’s birth before, we thought it only fitting to take a second look at what proved to be a momentous birth.
The then Princess Elizabeth (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary) was born at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair – the London home of her maternal grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore (they also owned Glamis Castle in Scotland) – at 2.40am on 21st April, 1926.
She was apparently delivered by Caesarian section and the Home Secretary, Sir William Joynson-Hicks, was in attendance to ensure everything was above board (the custom, which has since been dropped, was apparently adopted after what was known as the ‘Warming Pan Scandal’ when, following the birth of Prince James Francis Edward, son of King James II and Queen Mary of Modena, in June, 1688, rumours spread that the baby had been stillborn and replaced by an imposter brought into the chamber inside a warming pan).
The first child of the Prince Albert, the Duke of York (Bertie) and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth), she was third in line to the throne at her birth but thanks to the abdication of King Edward VIII, became her father’s heir.
The event apparently drew a crowd to the property (although none could yet suspect how important this princess was to become) and among the well-wishers who visited the newborn that afternoon were her paternal grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, who had apparently been woken at 4am to be informed of the birth of their second grandchild.
The property was to be Princess Elizabeth’s home for the first few months of her life (named after her mother, paternal great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra, and paternal grandmother, Queen Mary, she was christened in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace five weeks after her birth).
The home of her birth and a neighbouring townhouse have both since been demolished and replaced by an office building. A plaque commemorating it as the Queen’s birthplace was installed in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Year of 1977 and another to mark the Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
The Queen’s birthday will be officially commemorated in June.
PICTURE: Via London Remembers
In this, the final in our series looking at the Queen’s relationship to London we take a look at some of the key monuments to her family in the city.
• King George V (1865-1936). Queen Elizabeth II’s paternal grandfather, King George V, can be seen in a statue in Old Palace Yard, overlooked by Westminster Abbey (pictured here complete with pigeon). The work of Sir William Reid Dick, it was erected in 1947 and depicts the king wearing the robes of the Order of the Garter.
• Queen Mary (1867-1953). Paternal grandmother to the current Queen, Queen Mary the consort of King George V is commemorated with a small profile relief in The Mall, close to the corner of Marlborough Road. Also the work of Sir William Reid Dick, it was unveiled in 1967.
• King Edward VIII (1894-1972). The older brother of King George VI who infamously abdicated his crown thanks to his love for American divorcee Wallis Simpson, it’s perhaps not surprising that there are no public statues to King Edward VIII in London (at least, none we’re aware of – if you know differently, please let us know).
• King George VI (1895-1952). The father of Queen Elizabeth II is commemorated in a statue in Carlton Gardens, just off The Mall. Erected in 1956, it was the work of William McMillan and as with that of King George V, depicts the king wearing Garter robes. It was moved in 2008 from nearby to its current site to form part of the joint memorial to the Queen’s parents.
• Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (1900-2002). The long-lived Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who died in 2002 at the age of 101, is commemorated in the other half of the joint monument which stands just off The Mall. Unveiled in 2009, the statue of the Queen is the work of sculptor Philip Jackson and shows the Queen in her younger days wearing the robes of the Order of the Garter.
Next week we start a new Wednesday series looking at the history of some of London’s Olympic sites…
Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee with 10 royal London locations – 2. The Queen’s childhood homes
April 25, 2012
Having spent the first few months of her life at 17 Bruton Street, the future Queen Elizabeth II moved into her parents’ new property at 145 Piccadilly.
The property, located close to Hyde Park Corner, was previously the townhouse of the Marquesses of Northampton (interestingly, it was while living here that her father the Duke of York first started visiting the Harley Street-based Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, as depicted in The King’s Speech). The 25 bedroom house was later destroyed by a bomb during the war, long after the Yorks had moved out.
As well as the house at 145 Piccadilly, the young Princess Elizabeth (and from 1930 her younger sister and only sibling Princess Margaret) also lived at White Lodge in the centre of Richmond Park in the city’s south-west. The Lodge, a Georgian property built as a hunting lodge for King George II, now houses part of the Royal Ballet School.
She also considerable time outside the city, staying in places including Scotland with her grandparents at either Balmoral Castle (owned by the Royal Family) or at Glamis Castle (owned by the parents of her mother, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore) as well as, from the age of six, at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, the country home of the Yorks. The princess apparently had her own small house, known as Y Bwthyn Bach (the Little Cottage), in the grounds – a gift from the people of Wales in 1932.
Following the death of King George V and subsequent abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936, new King George VI and his family moved from 145 Piccadilly to Buckingham Palace. Following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the princesses lived in Balmoral, Scotland, and Sandringham but spent most of the war at Windsor Castle.
Princess Elizabeth, meanwhile, had met Prince Philip of Greece during the 1930s and in 1947, he asked for permission to marry her.
Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee with 10 royal London locations – 1. The Queen’s birthplace
April 18, 2012
This week we start a new series in honour of this year being the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. We’ll be looking at locations across the city which have played an important role in the story of the Queen. First up, it’s the Queen’s birthplace – a now non existent townhouse in Mayfair.
The property at 17 Bruton Street, which is marked by a small plaque installed in 1977 – the Queen’s Silver Jubilee (it’s in the middle of the image to the right), was actually the home of the Queen Mother’s parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. It and the neighbouring townhouse at 18 Bruton Street have both been demolished and replaced with a rather bland office building.
Born here at 2.40am on 21st April, 1926, the Queen, named Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, was the first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth). At her birth, Queen Elizabeth II was only third in line to the throne after her uncle, the Prince of Wales (later, briefly, King Edward VIII), and her father.
The Queen’s grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, both visited the newborn child at the property (along with an apparently large crowd outside). Elizabeth was christened five weeks later at the Chapel Royal in Buckingham Palace. She spent the first few months of her life living in a room at 17 Bruton Street which had been previously used by her mother before her marriage.
Recent books on the Queen include Andrew Marr’s The Diamond Queen: Elizabeth II and Her People
• Correction: Bruton Street was mistakenly copied here as Brunton Street. It has been corrected. Apologies for the error!
