The Brixton barrows project is underway – a workshop has been set up in a railway arch on Brixton Station Road and local carpenter Mari Rejinders has started work on the first in line… We visited with Stuart Horwood, CEO of Brixton Market Traders’ Federation CIC, and Mark Atkinson, responsible for Portobello and Golborne Road markets, plus HOLT supporters. The project will run until September 2016 – drop by arch number 553 if you are in the area.
Spring-Summer Patrons’ visits with HOLT’s President Martin Drury to the Charterhouse, Farringdon; the mausoleum to the Conde de Bayona, a 19th century Spanish sherry tycoon, in St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green; and 19 Princelet Street, Spitalfields – still with its looms and bobbins of long-gone silk-weavers in the attic, and a 19th century synagogue built over the garden.
The Canary Wharf Group generously hosts a lunch for the Heritage of London Trust every year… This year we were delighted to invite as our guest speaker Sadiq Khan MP, the London Mayoral candidate. London’s top developers joined us for a fascinating discussion.
Our dinner at Spencer House helped raise money to restore Brixton’s traditional market barrows. Watch this space for more news on the barrows project in 2016.
The Trust held a private dinner in November at spectacular Spencer House. We had wonderful speeches from our Patron HRH The Duke of Gloucester and our guest speaker Michael Heseltine – and a fabulous auction by Henry Wyndham, Chairman of Sotheby’s. Guests took home bundles of fruit and vegetables from one of Brixton’s market barrows as they left. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters we raised £41,000 towards our projects in 2016.
Graham Fisher, Chief Executive of Toynbee Hall, and Dudley Fishburn, Chairman of the Heritage of London Trust, on a visit to Toynbee Hall as restoration work begins on the building.
Secret passageways of Hampstead – a fascinating walk with author Philip Davies, past the 18th century parish lock-up.
A fantastic visit to Apsley House, Piccadilly, with Josephine Oxley, Keeper of the Wellington Collection. Our first event of the new season!
St Andrew’s church in Holborn, one of Wren’s City churches, lost its 18th century weathervanes when a bomb hit its tower in 1941. The Heritage of London Trust has supported the restoration of the weathervanes and flagpole. These are now up and glittering in the sunshine.
The Trust’s Director, Nicola Stacey, at the top of the tower with the team at St Andrew Holborn Church Foundation.
In Hillingdon, one of the Trust’s projects, Eastcote House Gardens’ 18th century dovecote has just reopened to the public with new nesting boxes, whitewashed walls, new slats in the louvre and a restored door. The cat flap was a new discovery, previously boarded over. And a dove has taken up residence.
A dovecote has been on this site since the end of the 16th century. Display panels inside explain the history of dove-keeping.
