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Re: Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 11:55 am
by jbryce1437
ivorthediver wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2019 7:26 pm My comments do not do it justice Jim , we were fortunate enough to be able to view it up close and personal when we visited and were allowed to view it from just a few feet beneath it.... from the scaffolding erected to carry out the cleaning and restoration work :)

The colours and depiction of each scene is breathtaking , and to try and absorb it all is mind blowing as no sooner did you view one section the size of your living room ceiling than you moved on to another which was better than the last and the scene depicted being explained by the guide and the conjecture as to what was in the mind of the artist as he painted it was like a condensed viewing of twenty years of a "Soap" in as many minutes , and I recall most of the party rocking with laughter as the guide explained the storey line .

We considered ourselves extremely fortunate to have been given the opportunity to view it up close and personal ........simply wonderful

Whilst viewing it we remarked on "our resident Artist " on our naval Forum and his seemingly endless skills and what he would make of it in all its naval splendour...and we looked in the bottom left hand corner but couldn't find his monogram any where ;)

Certainly worthy of its fame "World Wide" in my opinion
Sounds like a great experience Ivor, I doubt it Jim the brush would have taken twenty years to complete it, judging by his rate of production☺

Jim

Re: Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 1:45 pm
by ivorthediver
Yes indeed a perfect end to a perfect week at Greenwich , I have had to wait all these years to go there but Karen and I thought it was long overdue so made up for it by spending some time there while we are alive [your a long time dead ].


Like a few other "Sites" yet to be visited as of yet , but hoping to rectify that in the coming months , what with HMS Belfast Victory Celebrations , St Pauls , Tower of London ,the recent Royal Albert Hall - Mountbatten Concert , the Trooping of the Colours in Horseguards Parade in early June , we are tempted to ask for Staff discount at " Premier Inns "
Seems ironic that a lad born in Hammersmith 73 years ago has to wait this long to visit these attractions which are just down the road from where we lived , but Karen being a Shoreham Girl hadn't been there either ......such is life eh ;)

Re: Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 6:49 pm
by oldsalt
I was at Greenwich Naval College in Nov. 1963 doing the "Knife fork & spoon course" having just been promoted. It was an awesome experience eating breakfast overlooked by 365 & a half bare breasts. We were told an amusing anecdote about Thornhill the artist. On the end wall by a pillar on the right hand side Thornhill painted himself with an out stretched hand, some say he is saying "look at my work" others that he is saying "How about paying me". He is believed to have waited 15 yrs for payment.

Re: Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 1:30 pm
by ivorthediver
Yes I to heard that tale Keith , and from what I have heard whilst going around with the guide before the scaffolding was struck it was true poor sod . :(

Re: Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 2:30 pm
by oldsalt
In 1963 at the College we were told that the pillars next to the Chapel altar were made from an artificial stone mixture, the secret of this mix, now being lost.

Re: Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2020 2:28 pm
by timlewin
Foundation stone of the Royal Hospital for Seamen laid at Greenwich

EVERY DAY IS AN ANNIVERSARY SOMEWHERE!


Tue 30 Jun 20


On 30 June 1696, John Evelyn recorded in his diary: ‘I went with a select Committee of the Commissioners for Greenwich Hospital, and with Sir Christopher Wren, where with him I laid the first stone of the intended foundation, precisely at 5 o’clock in the evening, after we had din’d together. Mr Flamstead, the King’s astronomical Professor, observing the punctual time by instruments.’

Thus began a grand, patriotic architectural project intended to house the veterans of the Royal Navy and create a magnificent royal building by the Thames on the approach to London. It had been a project close to Queen Mary’s heart before her death from smallpox at the end of 1694. Her grief-stricken husband, William III, swiftly issued a Charter in the names of both William and Mary, backdated to 25 October, ‘to erect and found an Hospital .. for the reliefe and support of Seamen serving on board the Shipps or Vessells belonging to the Navy Royall.. who by reason of Age, Wounds or other disabilities shall be uncapable of further Service at Sea and be unable to maintain themselves’. A Commission was appointed, with Evelyn as treasurer and Wren as architect, to carry the project forward.

The precise observation of the time for the laying of the foundation stone, perhaps chosen as an auspicious moment for the new project to begin, suggests that astronomy and astrology were still intermingled in the late 1600s. ‘Mr Flamstead’ was John Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal based at the Royal Observatory on the top of the hill in Greenwich Park. His attitude to astrology was often hostile, but in 1678 he wrote to a friend, ‘You know I put no Confidence in Astrology, yet dare I not wholly deny the influences of the stars since they are too sensibly imprest on’.

John Evelyn was treasurer to the project and his task was not an easy one: getting hold of money and balancing the books was a constant prom. By November 1696 there was already a cashflow crisis: £2000 promised by the King had not arrived and workmen needed paying. When Evelyn stood down as treasurer in 1703 at the age of 83, the Royal Hospital was half built: he recorded that more than £85,000 had been spent and estimated that the Queen Anne and Queen Mary buildings would cost a further £128,000.

Evelyn was not paid for all the time and effort he contributed to the development of the Royal Hospital. Neither was Christopher Wren, who offered his services free of charge as an act of charity. Wren was committed to the scope and ambition of the scheme: he ensured that the foundations of all four blocks of the new Royal Hospital were laid by 1701. He was afraid that the Hospital would be reduced in scale if the money ran out and he wanted to make sure it would be completed in all its grandeur.

The foundation stone laid on 30 June 1696 was the start of a new range just to the west of the 1660s building originally intended as a new palace for Charles II: together these buildings would form King Charles Court. Some of the bricks used for the new building were supplied by a Mr Foe, later known as Daniel Defoe, journalist and author of Robinson Crusoe (1719). In 1696 Defoe owned a brick factory in Tilbury, Essex and was chasing government orders.

The first Greenwich Pensioners came to live at the Royal Hospital in 1705, but the buildings weren’t completed until 1751, long after both Evelyn and Wren had died. Wren’s brick King Charles Court range, for which the foundation stone had been laid in June 1696, was said to be in poor condition by 1811. It was demolished and replaced by a stone building designed by the Surveyor to the Hospital, John Yenn. By 1816 the overall residential capacity of the Royal Hospital had reached its peak of 2710, enabling it to welcome the generation of Greenwich Pensioners who had seen service in the great sea battles against Napoleonic France. The Pensioner population of the Hospital remained at this level until the 1840s, when demand for an institutionalised haven declined and many preferred to receive a cash pension and take their chances out in the community.

Re: Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 3:05 pm
by Pelican
Colonial legacy of Admiral Lord Nelson and the Royal Navy's links to slavery 'to be re-evaluated' by Greenwich Maritime Museum who plan to change their historical displays following the Black Lives Matter movement

The National Maritime Museum will change its Lord Horatio Nelson displays
All of the museum's displays will be reviewed to reveal British links to slavery
The statues of Sir William Sidney Smith and James de Saumarez will be changed
Continues at:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... useum.html

[Just how far is all this going to go or be allowed to go?]

Re: Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 7:19 pm
by ivorthediver
Convenience of memory David , very quick to winge, not so quick to appreciate what was done for them over the centuries , and being the soft touch the Brits are ripe to be raped by the dim witted and feeble minded who chose to ignore these facts if chance of more handouts :roll:

Re: Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 11:32 pm
by Pelican
ivorthediver wrote: Sun Oct 11, 2020 7:19 pm Convenience of memory David , very quick to winge, not so quick to appreciate what was done for them over the centuries , and being the soft touch the Brits are ripe to be raped by the dim witted and feeble minded who chose to ignore these facts if chance of more handouts :roll:
Tonight's Enslaved on BBC2 also refers, note Mylor where the old Ganges was and the Ashanti people are included.
I will be interested to see if ZANZIBAR is mentioned in the other 2 episodes it being a centre of the slave trade to the Pesian Gulf and other points west.
Are they only focusing on Europeans or other civilisations and religions?

Re: Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 7:11 pm
by ivorthediver
:idea: While they are debating this terrible use of Tribes / Slavery names of British ships , ask the question "How many of those who died on those vessels were not white crew members :?: