London – Page 3 – Cottage Capers

On this day in history….16th October 1834

On this day in history : 16th October 1834 – The Medieval buildings of the Palace of Westminster are largely destroyed by fire….

The original construction dated back to the early 11th Century and had been built as a royal palace ~ additions were made over time and it had become the home of the British Parliament….

Up until 1826, as part of the accounting system of the Exchequer, small wooden tally sticks had been used ~ these carved, notched pieces were usually made from willow…. Now obsolete the tally sticks needed disposing of; two Irish labourers, Joshua Cross and Patrick Furlong, were given the task….

Tally sticks, as used by the Treasury – Image courtesy : Winchester City Council Museums CC BY-SA 2.0

Work commenced at dawn ~ the pair began to burn the piles of sticks in two furnaces situated beneath the House of Lords…. Although the two claimed they had taken care, a witness said he had seen them piling the wood in…. Heat from the furnaces melted the copper lining of the flues, which in turn started a chimney fire…. With the furnace doors open oxygen was drawn in, making the fire burn more fiercely….

Just after 4pm Cross and Furlong had finished the job; they threw on the last sticks, closed the furnace doors and retired to the pub…. About an hour later sparks from the chimney fire set surrounding woodwork alight…. The first flames were spotted at around 6pm ~ panicked staff tried to put the fire out but failed to alert others in the buildings or call for help…. At 6.30pm a huge fire ball swept through the buildings and the whole interior became an inferno…. The burning roof lit up the sky and could even be seen by the Royal Family 20 miles away at Windsor Castle….

Two hand-pump fire engines arrived but were of little use; at 6.45pm 100 soldiers from the Grenadier Guards joined them…. Shortly after 12 more engines arrived at the scene accompanied by 64 firemen…. Hoses were run down to the River Thames ~ but the tide was low ~ it was too late to save the Palace…. Miraculously, despite the ferocity of the fire, there were no deaths ~ although 9 people needed hospital treatment….

After the fire – Unknown artist – Public domain

King William IV offered Buckingham Palace as a replacement building for Parliament ~ but MPs declined ~ saying it was too ‘dingy’!!! So the roof was replaced on the Lesser Hall, the Chamber painted and the buildings restored ready for the State Opening in February 1835….

A competition was opened in to which 97 competitors entered to design a new building ~ which was to incorporate the surviving Westminster Hall, the Undercroft Chapel and the cloisters of St. Stephen’s…. The winning design was by architect Charles Barry ~ with his new Gothic-Revival palace…. In 1840 the first stone was laid by Barry’s wife….in 1847 the Lord’s Chamber was completed; Big Ben was installed in the Clock Tower in 1839….and in 1870 the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster was completed….

Image courtesy : Berit from Redhill, Surrey CC BY-SA 2.0

British History, Uncategorized

On this day in history….15th September 1960

On this day in history : 15th September 1960 – Traffic wardens take to the streets of London for the very first time….

Forty wardens, dressed in their official looking uniforms and with the power to issue fines of £2 to illegally parked motorists, set off to hunt for those flouting the law….

The very first ticket was issued to a Dr. Thomas Creighton, who happened to be attending an emergency call at a West End hotel for a heart attack victim…. Public outcry meant the doctor was spared the fine – but on this first day over-zealous wardens gave tickets to ambulances, hearses and apparently even rabbit hutches!

Nowadays, in the Borough of Westminster, where those very first forty wardens pounded the streets, two hundred attendants now patrol….

British History, Uncategorized

On this day in history….12th September 1878

On this day in history : 12th September 1878 – Cleopatra’s Needle is erected in the City of Westminster, London…. It had originally been presented to the UK by the ruler of Egypt and Sudan in 1819….

An 1840 portrait of Muhammad Ali Pasha, leader of Egypt and Sudan – by Auguste Couder – Public domain

The red granite obelisk, which is over 2,000 years old, had been given to Britain to commemorate the victories of Lord Nelson (Battle of the Nile, 1798) and Sir Ralph Abercrombie (Battle of Alexandra, 1801) – but it had taken until 1877 to arrange for its transportation to Britain…. Standing at 69 feet high and weighing 224 tons this was no easy task; a special floating ‘pontoon’ had to be designed so it could be towed to London….

Encasing Cleopatra’s Needle for shipment to London – Flickr’s The Commons

London’s Needle being erected – Public domain

Cleopatra’s Needle is one of three similarly named obelisks; its counterparts can be found in Paris and New York…. London’s Needle is flanked by two bronze reproduction sphinxes, designed by English architect George John Villiamy…. Concealed in the pedestal, on which the obelisk stands, is a time capsule….contained within are items such as:- a portrait of Queen Victoria, a map of London, copies of newspapers, a set of British coins, a box of cigars, children’s toys, a box of hairpins and a dozen photographs of the most attractive women of the day….

British History, Uncategorized

On this day in history….2nd September 1666

On this day in history : 2nd September 1666 – The Great Fire of London starts in a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane…. The fire blazes for four days and destroys over 13,000 buildings….

The fire started in the bakery of Thomas Farriner, shortly after midnight and rapidly spread across the old medieval city – the flames fanned by a strong easterly wind…. Fires were commonplace at the time and were usually quickly put out – but it had been a very hot summer and there had been no rain for weeks and the old timber and thatched roofs of the buildings were very dry and provided a ready fuel….

The main fire fighting technique of the time was to demolish buildings to create firebreaks…. However, hesitation by the Lord Mayor of the time, Thomas Bloodworth, who said -“Pish! A woman might piss it out!”- meant by the time demolition commenced it was too late to be effective….

Ludgate and old St Paul’s – Unknown artist – Public domain

As a last resort gunpowder was used to blow up houses in the path of the fire to create a larger firebreak – which in turn started rumours circulating that the French were invading! By the time the fire had finally been put out only a fifth of the old city was left standing…. 13,200 houses had been destroyed, 87 churches, St. Paul’s Cathedral and most of the city authorities buildings…. Out of 80,000 inhabitants living in the city at the time it is estimated around 70,000 were made homeless…. Surprisingly the death toll, although officially unknown, is not thought to have been particularly high – only six deaths were recorded at the time…. However, it could be argued this figure is irrelevant and the true number may well have been much higher than believed, as deaths of the poor were not usually reported…. Such was the intensity of the heat many of the remains would have been cremated beyond recognition of even being human….

British History, Uncategorized

On this day in history….12th August 1949

On this day in history : 12th August 1949 – A flock of starlings take roost on the minute hand on one of the clock faces of Big Ben, slowing it down by four and a half minutes….

Photo credit : Pierre Selim CC BY-SA 3.0

Listeners to the BBC’s 9 O’Clock News were surprised to hear the bullet-in start without the customary chimes of Big Ben…. Later in the broadcast the BBC announced that “swarms of starlings are sitting on the hands holding them back”….

That evening the flock had decided the clock hand would make a good perch for the night and their combined weight had slowed the clock down so it was unable to chime at the correct time…. However, by midnight everything was ‘back to normal’….

There was a time when the Capital was home to many flocks of starlings – who gave an impressive show with their murmurations…. To see starlings take to the sky in this way is one of nature’s most spectacular wonders…. The numbers were at their largest in the winter months when the birds joined forces to keep warm at night….

Sadly the starlings left London and in fact numbers across the whole of the UK are down by 70%…. Once such a common bird they are now on the critical red list…. Loss of permanent pasture, an increase in the use of chemicals, a shortage of food and nesting sites are all contributing factors…. The expansion of London itself pushes the birds further and further afield….

Incidentally, Big Ben was to run slow once again on New Year’s Eve 1962…. Snow jammed the north face clock and ice coated the minute hand….causing New Year to be rung in 10 minutes late…. To think Big Ben survived the Blitz – yet can be hampered by a bit of snow or a flock of birds….