Richard, Thank you for the link to Sir Martin's excellent essay, which I greatly enjoyed. I can provide a couple of happy updates to Sir Martin's piece (which was written in 1985). 1. The historic Magazine Building (the low building near the Serpentine at Hyde Park which served as a gunpowder store from 1805) is now open to the public, having been successfully refurbished by the Royal Parks and Serpentine Gallery. It contains the Serpentine Sackler Gallery and a restaurant. I live a short walk from the building and it has become a popular destination for residents. 2. Sir Martin Gilbert wrote: "I hope you will find time to go and see some of the charming houses in which he spent his youth. The people who live in these houses, the first of which is 48 Charles Street, the second being 29 St. James's Place, are puzzled that they cannot get blue plaques appended to the walls. Unfortunately the blue plaque policy is to select a few and abandon many." I am pleased to report that a plaque was recently affixed to 29 St. James's Place. I first noticed it about 2 months ago. I have taken photographs and I shall be writing a blog post about it in due course (this tiny street has an illustrious history -- other plaques on the street commemorate Chopin and Sir Francis Chichester, to name but two). The plaque is green (City of Westminster) rather than blue (English Heritage). As an aside: Sir Martin refers to the very famous clubland story about Lord Birkenhead's mistaken belief that the National Liberal Club was merely a public convenience. There are at least three versions of this story (and some claim the club to be the Reform). However I believe Sir Martin's version to be the most plausible. The only notable omission from this essay that springs to mind is the Carlton Club (the Tory party club in St. James's of which WSC was a long-standing member -- all Conservative party leaders have been members. As she was a woman, Mrs. Thatcher received honorary membership in 1975). RHM Date: Thu, 8 May 2014 05:51:13 -0700 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [ChurchillChat] Re: Churchill related sites to visit in London
See Martin Gilbert, "Churchill's London, Spinning Top of Memories: Of Ungrand Places and Moments in Time," http://bit.ly/1j0pIjJ None of these are in the "top ten." All of them are fascinating, particularly the long, low building near the Serpentine at Hyde Park. Few know what role it played in the Churchill saga. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
