CADW.
Beaumaris is one of the great castles of North Wales built by the English monarch Edward I, to stamp his authority on the Welsh. In the 13th century, its concentric walls within walls design was the state of the art in military technology. It is said to be the most technically perfect of all Welsh castles. It was the last of the great castles to be undertaken by the King’s designer Master St George, and remains in a relatively good state of preservation.
Beaumaris Castle is situated near the coast, and at sea level. It looks unexpectedly squat, partly because of its low siting, but mainly because the towers were never completed to the originally planned height (the King ran out of money). It is surrounded by a moat, an outer defensive wall, and an outer bailey, before one reaches the main walls and towers. Inside, the inner bailey looks big enough for a football pitch. The inner walls are honeycombed with defensive passages, and the inner and outer walls have walkways on top, some still accessible. You can spend a couple of hours exploring it all.
Well worth a visit if you like castles. Pay car parking is available nearby.
Also in Beaumaris town, the old gaol is worth a visit, as is the old courthouse. Together they vividly recall the harshness of Victorian justice. In the jail, inmates were properly fed and given medical attention as required, (which was much better than most of them got outside) but to prevent them liking jail too much, the regime was very harsh. Sentencing was also very harsh, especially for property crimes.
National Trust.
The house, rather vaguely signposted, lies near Upton Road in the Bexleyheath area of SE London, near the A207 and Bexleyheath railway station. B11 and other buses run nearby. The building is smaller than I imagined before seeing it – not a mansion but a substantial suburban gentleman’s residence. It’s of interest essentially as the only house built for William Morris, the famous Arts & Crafts movement designer. The architect was Morris’ friend Philip Webb. Few of the original moveable contents remain, but the architecture, windows and some items of decoration are much as built. There is a pleasant and quite large garden, laid out in several sections – itself an innovation at the time. Surprisingly, Morris only lived in the house from 1860-1865, but later owners were sympathetic to his creation. Morris tried to found an artistic community at Red House, but sold it when this failed.
It doesn’t take long to go around the house and gardens – I arrived after 3pm and had seen everything by about 4pm. Fewer than half the rooms are open to the public. On arrival you should note that visitor reception is away from the house, in the old stables hidden behind trees to your left.
Curious facts: Morris disliked industrial production and wanted to re-instate the craft traditions of an earlier era, but his creations, popular with some of the middle classes, were too expensive to be bought by the craft workers he admired. Morris himself was quite well-off – his house cost £4000, which was twice what my parents’ house cost a century later. The house, which originally had murals and wall-hangings and no wallpaper, is now partially papered with Morris & Co designs. When I visited, there was an exhibition about Morris & Co designs in a room downstairs.
And don’t put your stuff on the table in the dining room – the NT don’t like anyone to touch it. This table, designed by Philip Webb, was bought recently for £130,000 !
Nearest railway station is Bexleyheath (3/4 mile) . There is no car park at the house. Recommended parking is at Danson Park leisure facilities – which is no closer than the railway station. Buses run along the A207 nearby. On foot from A207, walk down Upton Rd, which is almost opposite the road from the station.
Done here and looking for something else to do? Danson Park and its historic house (0.8 mile)look really interesting. Webb dresserGarden sideFront
The Crossness Pumping Station was built by Sir Joseph Bazalgette as part of Victorian London’s urgently needed main sewerage system. It pumps sewage from a low intercepting sewer up to the level of the tidal Thames. The Beam Engine House is a Grade 1 Listed Industrial Building constructed in the Romanesque style and features some of the most spectacular ornamental Victorian cast ironwork to be found today. It also contains the four original pumping engines (although the cylinders were upgraded in 1901), which are possibly the largest remaining rotative beam engines in the world, with 52 ton flywheels and 47 ton beams.
The journey there underlinined the advisability of getting up early if one wants to visit Cross Ness. It was a chapter of delays. I left the house at 7.30 AM, but the first train had a fault so got the next half an hour later, which was late at Euston because of speed restrictions. Got to Abbey Wood station at 10.40am, but found a long queue waiting for the courtesy minibus and could not get on one till over half an hour later. At the site there was a long queue to get into the buildings, then another queue to pick up a hard hat and enter the Pump Engine House, so didn’t get in there till 12.30.
The interior is impressive, with four huge engines in place and accessible from three levels. The octagon of painted ironwork only encloses a small part of the floor area, by the way. One engine is completely restored and running on steam, another in bits and the other two untouched. Some ironwork is re-painted in bright colours, while some sections have been left dull and rusty. The beam floor runs the whole length and width of the building and allows access to all the engine beams and the top of the Octagon. There are views out over the site and the Thames. There isn’t so much to see in the basements asides from some very rusty pipes and some shiny parts of the restored engine, Prince Consort. To one side is the Triple Expansion Engine House, which now is mostly empty. From the Beam Engine floor level and old entrance, it looks like an alarmingly big and deep hole with some rusting pipes and machinery in the bottom. Apparently two old diesel pumps are down there.
I came out after an hour, having seen and tried to photograph everything, and to let someone else in. I had a coffee and roll in the unusually cheap cafe, before visiting the workshop building and the former valve house, and taking some more photos. The brick architecture of the whole complex is quite worth seeing, with its arches and milticoloured bricks.
There are/were a few steaming days in 2011 when the site was open to the public. I visited Cross Ness pumping station on Open House London day, 18 Sept 2011. The engine house is on the far side of the large Thames Water site, 2Km from Abbey Wood railway station. A courtesy minibus is laid on, or you can drive there. Adequate car parking is provided. Watch the website http://www.crossness.org.uk/
Done here and wondering what else you could do? There are some abbey ruins near the railway station, or you could take a B11 bus to the NT’s “Red House” in Bexleyheath.
View from Cross NessQueue to get inBoiler House entrance frontBoiler House - queue for hard hatsBoiler House roof girder detail
Crossness main floor - OctagonPrince Consort cylinder topsMain Floor - archesMain Floor - OctagonMain Floor - OctagonMain Floor - archesTriple Expansion Engine House Main Floor - Octagon seen from StaircaseBeam of Prince ConsortTop of Octagon from ConsortUpper OctagonBeam - Prince ConsortBeam - Prince ConsortBeam - Prince ConsortBeam Floor - Prince ConsortBeam Floor - Victoria bitsPrince Consort cylindersTriple Expansion HouseBasement A - Consort partsBasement A
National Trust.
While there has been a building, fortified or otherwise, on the site for many centuries, the place was modified beyond recognition in 1820-1840 by Thomas Hopper, to create a mock Norman castle. The client was Hopper’s client was George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, who had inherited the Penrhyn estate on the death of his second cousin, Richard Pennant, who had made his fortune from Jamaican sugar and local slate quarries. Cost wasn’t a problem, and it is estimated that the house cost the equivalent of £49,000,000 in today’s money. The house is one of the most admired of the Victorian ‘mock castles’ and contains some jaw-dropping Norman-style interiors. In addition, hanging on its walls is one of the finest art collections in North Wales, with works by artists such as Rembrandt, Canalletto, Richard Wilson and Palma Vecchio.
Outside, there are extensive grounds, and in the courtyard area are several exhibitions, including full-size (not model) narrow gauge and standard gauge mineral railway shunting engines and rolling stock. There is also an interesting exhibition of dolls.
The house does have a notable resemblance to a Norman castle. Inside it’s a riot of carved decoration, all carved to a high standard. (One guide said that after going round one might want to lie down and look at something plain 🙂 ) It still has the original furnishings, often positioned by the NT in their 19-century positions. The Great Hall is the major show-piece, followed by the Library, and the Grand Staircase and other state rooms. The downstairs salons contain a quantity of paintings so valuable that even a lottery winner couldn’t afford to buy them. There’s also an accomodation tower, where the family mostly lived, and a warren of service rooms.
The kitchen and other rooms on the lower ground floor are part of the Grounds admission. The collection of full-size railway engines is unexpected but worth a look if you are a train buff. Presumably the nucleus of the collection came from the family slate mines. I didn’t explore the grounds on foot, as driving from the entrance to the car park and then walking up to the house was enough for me.
This is one of those locations where the sat-nav can lead you astray. Driving from nearby Bangor, the post-code took me to some unmarked gates, possibly the back entrance to the estate, while the visitor entrance was a mile or two further east. Dolls on display
The Thames Barrier, with its striking stainless steel sails, was an iconic construction project, completed in 1984. It is the second largest movable barrier in the world, and protects central London against tidal flooding. It is raised increasingly often to protect London against high tides.
Besides looking at the barrier itself, visitors can pay a modest fee to go inside a small information centre (Thurs-Sun) which contains an interesting exhibition. When I visited, the viewpoint café above it was shut, but there was a temporary one across the car park. If you go, don’t miss the exhibition. When I lived in London the Barrier was under construction, but I never went to have a look.
Visitors can reach the site by walking to Unity Way from the A206 along a dismal industrial road, or through a small park. There is a pay and display car park on site.
College buildings
The site was planned by Sir Christopher Wren in 1694 and executed by several famous architects of the day as the Hospital, a residence for seamen pensioners. The Hospital closed in 1869 and the Royal Naval College moved in, training naval officers till 1998. Today, some buildings are used by Trinity Laban college and the University of Greenwich.
The Chapel & Painted Hall are open to the public, free of charge.
Painted Hall: The Hall “probably the finest dining hall in the Western World” is decorated with huge paintings by James Thornhill. It was intended as a dining hall for the pensioners, but never used as such, for when finished it was considered too grand and too much of a tourist attraction. The body of Admiral Nelson lay in state here.
Not my taste, but it’s certainly worth visiting if you are in Greenwich.
Chapel: The Chapel was first completed in 1751, gutted by a disastrous fire in 1779 and reopened in 1789. Unlike many churches which are a mixture of styles through the ages, the Chapel is a complete and unaltered neoclassical period piece.
I thought the Chapel had a very attractive interior. Well worth a visit.
The ORNC is part of the Greenwich World Heritage site, along with the National Maritime Museum etc. There is a visitor centre near the Cutty Sark restoration site. The site can be reached by various means of transport, including the river. ArcadeThe Chapel
The Wellington Arch stands at Hyde Park Corner, close to Wellington’s Apsley House. On top of it is a great bronze statue, the largest in Britain, depicting the angel of peace descending on the chariot of war. Visitors can go inside the Arch, to view three floors of exhibitions and enjoy views from the balconies near the top.
A visit inside is interesting, and the exhibition explains that the Arch originally was elsewhere and also had a different statue on top.
One can buy a joint ticket for the Wellington Arch and Apsley House. To make a day of it, one can also view the various monumental sculptures nearby, and then walk through the park to the Marble Arch, checking some more old and modern sculpture installations on the way.
You can travel here by tube or bus.
Formally, the Queen’s House and the Royal Greenwich Observatory are part of the National Maritime Museum. The whole are set in Greenwich Park, in the Greenwich World Heritage area.
Maritime Galleries: It’s difficult to explain what the NMM contains without simply referring you to the website, but besides artefacts ranging from buttons to 10-ton anchors there are themed galleries devoted to such topics as trade or exploration, slavery, warships, etc. There is an increasing amount of interactive stuff, including the facility to collect images on a smartcard and look them up later. For the serious researcher, the Museum has a library and archives. The fusty rows of ship models that I recollect from 2002 have largely been banished.
There is a great deal inside for the interested visitor to see.
Queen’s House: The building itself is of some architectural importance as England’s first Classical building, finished in 1638. It was designed by Inigo Jones. A notable feature is the 40ft x 40ft cubical Great Hall on the northern side. The house was originally built in two halves bridging over a main road, but the middle sections have been partially filled in. It houses the NMM’s painting collection, which has a wider scope than one might expect. Various galleries cover national art, the Royal Hospital School, historic Greenwich, the Tudors, and Dutch marine artists.
The Queens House is well worth a visit if you are interested in art.
Royal Observatory – see separate entry.
Most parts of the complex are free admission, but there is a significant charge for admission to the Observatory, to the annoyance of many visitors who just want to be photographed standing on the Greenwich Meridian.
English Heritage.
Minster Lovell Hall is, or was, a 15th century riverside manor house. The ruins of a fine hall and corner tower can be seen, also a complete dovecote.
The ruins are quite interesting and worth a look if you are passing that way. The setting is pleasant and peaceful.
I found that finding the Hall was more troublesome than it should have been, because of vague or absent signage. First find the village, then find the church. Park up and look behind the church. The signs directing you to the dovecote are also rather vague, but if you look for a circular building with a pointy roof, you should be able to spot it in the middle distance. RuinsRuins behind churchDovecote
English Heritage.
Kenwood was remodelled by Robert Adam between 1764 and 1779 into a majestic villa for the judge, Lord Mansfield. In 1927 Lord Iveagh bequested Kenwood to the nation, along with a collection of pictures. The Iveagh Bequest includes important paintings by many great artists, including Rembrandt, Vermeer, Turner, Reynolds and Gainsborough. Upstairs is the Suffolk Collection of portraits, notable for the costumes depicted. The Kenwood interiors are also worthy of note.
I didn’t have a lot of time to enjoy Kenwood before it shut but I did manage to look at the pictures, which include some famous and impressive works. Surrounding the house is some pleasant leafy parkland.
Admission to Kenwood is free to all.
Bus 210 stops near Kenwood.
If you are planning a 3-in-1 day visiting Fenton House, 2 Willow Road, and Kenwood, don’t try walking across the Heath – it takes too long for the purpose and it is too difficult to find one’s way. A taxi might be quickest. Or use Bus 210.
