2014: The Year of the Bus

That familiar urban creature, the humble bus, is the object of the London Transport Museum’s celebration in 2014.  Their website is here.

 I doubt any visitors to London leave the metropolis without riding the bus, especially one of those open tops that stop at all the familiar sites as they wend their way through the heavy traffic.
The poster below was chosen to represent this stellar event.  We have yet to decipher all the images.  How about you?  Nevertheless it is colorful and expressive.

A fascinating aspect of the Year of the Bus is the 100th anniversary of the use of London Buses at the front in World War I.  Read more here.  Introduced in 1910, this first mass-produced bus was in widespread use in London by the outbreak of the war, and a perfect vehicle for transporting troops.

Read the article about the restoration in the Daily Express here.

London Transport Museum photo

The Transport Museum has an excellent collection of old posters — and here is one of the favorites — all the London toffs mixing with the hoi polloi as they travel the tube.

The Wellington Tour: Exciting Changes!

Not so long ago, Victoria and I believed that we had the itinerary for The Wellington Tour finalized and that it was done and dusted, but instead we’re finding that it’s a fluid, ever evolving thing. One could even say that it’s got a life of its own. I recently received an email from the curator at the Tower informing Victoria and me that they were going to be mounting an exhibition this summer on the Duke of Wellington’s influence upon and changes to the Tower made whilst he was both Constable of the Tower and Prime Minister.

While we don’t have complete details regarding the Exhibition as yet, Victoria and I deemed it important that we take it in during The Wellington Tour in September. Accordingly, we have changed the itinerary by substituting the Tower of London for St. Paul’s Cathedral on Saturday, September 6th. Until further details arrive, you can read on to learn more about Wellington’s influence on the Tower of London.

Above – Items belonging to the Duke of Wellington shown previously at the Tower. Read more here.

From the Tower of London website:

The Duke of Wellington was Constable of the Tower from 1826 to 1852. Under his invigorating leadership the increasingly smelly and sluggish moat was drained and converted into a dry ditch.




The Grand Storehouse was destroyed by fire in 1841. The Duke arranged to clear the rubble and started work on a huge new barracks, to accommodate a thousand men. On 14 June 1845 the Duke laid the foundation stone on the barracks named after his greatest victory – Waterloo.

London 1840s was the scene of rallies and disturbances by Chartists demanding electoral reform. The Tower exerted its traditional role of state power over the people, probably for the last time. More defences were constructed, including a huge brick and stone bastion that finally succumbed to a Second World War bomb, but the Chartist attack never materialised. 

It was also at the beginning of this century that many of the Tower’s historic institutions departed. The Royal Mint was the first to move out of the castle in 1812, followed by the Menagerie in the 1830s, which grew to become London Zoo. The Office of Ordnance was next to leave in 1855 and finally, the Record Office relocated in 1858. An increasing interest in the history and archaeology of the Tower led to a process of ‘re-medievalisation’ in an attempt to remove the unsightly offices, storerooms, taverns, and barracks and restore the fortress to its original medieval appearance.



Visitor numbers increased dramatically in the 19th century. now it was not just privileged sightseers (who were paying for a guided tour as early as the 1590s), but ordinary people who enjoyed a day out at the Tower. In 1838 three of the old animal cages from the Menagerie were used to make a ticket office at the eastern entrance where visitors could buy refreshments and a guidebook. By the end of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1901, over half a million people were visiting the Tower each year.

You can find more details about The Duke of Wellington Tour here.
Read on for an account of the ceremony swearing in the Duke of Wellington as constable of the Tower from The Life and Campaigns of Arthur, Duke of Wellington by George Newenham Wright (1841)  by clicking here.
And you can see almost daily pictures of the Tower ravens posted by Ravenmaster on Twitter by clicking here. Black and white photo above (Beefeaters at Tower gate) also supplied by same.

Video Wednesday – Dancing

Midnight Revels – New Year’s Eve 1949, Albert Hall

Cleaning Ladies’ 13th Annual Ball 1960, Walworth Road, London

Aristocrats at a “Gay Nineties” party, London 1933

and on a more contemporary note

The Big Dance Royal Flashmob at Buckingham Palace

Goofy guys doing the Hobo Dance in front of Horse Guards

and in marked contrast, here’s Tom Hiddleston dancing.

and Tom Hiddleston dancing again.

Happy Wednesday!

Lunch with Author Loretta Chase

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of lunching with author Loretta Chase (above, right), who also blogs at Two Nerdy History Girls. We met up at a waterside restaurant in Ft. Myers Beach, Florida and spent three enjoyable hours eating, drinking and, of course, dishing about all manner of things, mostly historical. Victoria couldn’t joint us as she’s off to Washington, D.C. this week, so for her information, and yours, here are the highlights of what Loretta and I discussed:

The weather (and the masses of snow in the northeast), blogging, dolphins (which are awesome, in the truest sense of the word), Twitter, canal boats and how the canal system changed daily life in England forever, how to properly black a stove, gluten free diets, post horses and the ins and outs of coaching inns, coping with elderly parents, the Prince of Wales (past), House of Cards, how Henry Paget, later the Marquess of Angelsey, ran off with the Duke of Wellington’s sister-in-law, the Mary Delaney exhibition at Yale Center for British Art (past), Apsley House, Seven Dials, Sherlock (current), Shepard’s Market, The Wellington Tour, Regents Canal (in no way related to the conversation on canal boats above), bedbugs and iron bedsteads, Sir John Soane’s House, page proofs, ghosts, how pelicans resemble pterodactyls, post horses (again), Agatha Raisin, threshing wheat, A Couple In England, the costume library at Colonial Williamsburg, Highclere Castle, the Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion Exhibit in Rhode Island (past), The Duchess of Devonshire (current Dowager), husbands and golf.

Thanks for allowing me to be an honorary Nerdy History Girl for the day, Loretta!

The Wellington Tour: The Apsley House Remodel

As some of you may be aware, we will be visiting Apsley House during The Duke of Wellington Tour to England in September so I thought I’d pass along the news that Apsley House is currently closed for conservation cleaning (see below) as well as the remodel of the Entry Hall.

I recently learned about the project aimed at transforming the appearance of the Entrance Hall at Apsley House in order to return it to its original designs. Three key aspects to the work include removal of 20th century mosaic tiling, consolidation of the floor sub structure and the reinstatement of the Portland Stone floor and the historic decorative scheme, including specialist finishes. In addition, the reception desk and retail space will be moved to the Inner Hall, where previously there were several marble busts, as well as a table and chairs where visitors could look through books that told the story of the Dukes of Wellington.

The photo above shows the Entrance Hall before it was stripped out in early November 2013. The 20th century tile mosaic floor has now been replaced with Portland stone, in keeping with the original decor of the 1st Duke of Wellington. The photo above faces the entrance doors to Apsley House. Below is a view of the Hall looking towards the interior of the House. All photos in this post are the property of, and were graciously provided by, Apsley House.

Christopher Small, manager of Apsley House, was kind enough to answer a few questions I had about the remodel and here I pass along his answers to you:

Kristine: Just to be clear, the remodel is going on in what is now the Entrance Hall and not the Inner Hall/Waiting Hall, which was originally the entrance hall – correct?

Christopher: Yes, it is the present entrance hall, which was constructed in the time of the 1st Duke. The Inner Hall, where the ticket desk will now be located, was the original entrance hall in the 18th century Adam House.

Kristine: The 2nd Duke installed the mosaic floor around 1860, but  I’m under the impression that it was again altered afterwards. Is that correct?

Christopher: As we understand it the entrance hall mosaic was early 20th century and replaced the 2nd Duke’s Victorian mosaic. The inner hall’s mosaic is still intact from the 2nd Duke’s time.

Above photo: Entrance hall, looking into the Inner Hall

Kristine: Is the plan to return the space to Wyatt’s original designs?

Christopher: Although we do not know exactly what the Wyatt entrance hall looked like, this will be a very close approximation.

Kristine: And will this include wall and ceiling treatments, as well as pictures and other decorative items, or just the Portland Stone floor?

Christopher: The floor has been the main piece of work carried out in the restoration, but the walls of both the entrance and inner hall are being re-painted in more authentic style and the marble effect paintwork is being carried out on the columns only this time. In addition, the ceilings have been repainted in white. In terms of pictures on the wall, they will remain pretty much as they were.


Entrance Hall painted and marbling samples being worked out on the columns.

Kristine: How will these changes affect the visitor experience?

Christopher: The admissions desk and retail area will be in the Inner Hall now, as opposed to being in the entrance hall – so that visitors will get that wow factor as they walk into the restored hall.
Kristine: Are there plans for further renovations ahead of the anniversary of Waterloo in 2015?

Christopher: There are plans to carry out some restoration work next winter on the furniture into the Waterloo Gallery, and there may even be some new carpets made, as well.

Apsley House will re-open to the public in April. I’m looking forward to seeing the renovations for myself in September. Meanwhile, we can keep up with the progress of the remodel schem
e by visiting the Facebook page for Apsley House

Click Here For Full Details of the Duke of Wellington Tour

UPDATE – Below is a photo of the completed work on the Entry Hall