I was at the LSE’s Literary Festival at the weekend, of which more in a day or two, but I couldn’t resist posting a couple of photos that resulted from from some exploratory work after I left the event.

At a talk on the history of the Bloomsbury Area, Professor Rosemary Ashton mentioned that she is currently studying the archives within the British Museum and delighted to tell us of two “secret rooms” hidden behind fake doors within the museum, where she spends time in her labours of research.

Now that was just too much to leave unexplored!

Hence a detour to the museum was mandatory following the lectures, and with a couple of clues from the Professor, the following two doors were identified, one in the Enlightenment Gallery and the other in Gallery 2.

Not totally invisible, but the fake books do mean that it not the sort of thing that the casual observer would notice.

Being a moderately signed up geek, I am quite keen on Dr Who. Unlike some people I know (glares!), for me, it is just a bit of light entertainment, not The Meaning of Life™ as some seem to treat it.

Also, slightly heretical, but I prefer the pre-2005 episodes as they had a lot less special effects and generally more interesting plots!

However, I was still rather excited to see that Bonhams are going to sell off some of the BBC’s Dr Who memorabilia – which usually means public viewing days to have a look at the goodies. As usual, I can’t afford to buy anything, but I can go for a look.

Although public viewing days for auctions are normally free, this time they are being charged for – I guess Bonhams guessed it would be rather popular and spotted the opportunity to cash in on it – damn!

Entrance to the view and to the sale will be by catalogue only. Catalogues cost £15 and each catalogue admits two people. Children go free if accompanied by an adult, and a minimum of £5 from each catalogue sale will be donated to ‘Children in Need’.

Still, you do get the catalogue to keep, and sales catalogues do tend to be rather good quality – expect a lot of glossy photos and history about each prop.

PS: Yes, they are selling a DALEK – if you have a spare £5-£7,000 lying around.

The viewing days are:

Sun 21 February 11am – 3pm
Mon 22 February 9am – 4.30pm
Tue 23 February 9am – 4.30pm
Wed 24 February 9am – 12noon

More details on the Bonham’s website – the auction house is on Montpelier Street, just across from Harrods.

I think I might try to go on the Monday – as I suspect the place will be PACKED on the Sunday with lots of adult sized children ohhing and ahhing over the props.

Interesting news in the land of steam trains, as a joint project by First Great Western and Vintage Rail aims to recreate the non-stop Bristolian Express service this April. The Railway Herald reports that the details are still sketchy, as quite obviously for a non-stop service, you can’t stop the train for more water and the details for that situation are still being worked out.

However, possibly after the Herald went to press, Vintage Rail updated their website with the full details for the recreation – which will take place on Saturday, 17th April – and will run from, and back to London Paddington.

Even better – they managed to get the 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe “Castle class” train to run the route, which is exciting for steam fans as it was a mainstay of the original Bristolian express service. Built in 1936, the train was mothballed in 1963 and only recently restored to mainline service just over a year ago.

Whilst current regulations do not allow an attempt at beating the 98mph recorded speed that 5043 achieved during its June 3rd 1958 Bristolian run, provision of a specially adapted vehicle will ensure that water stops will not be required en route and in so doing deliver a pair of steam hauled runs along the length of Brunel’s railway between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, the likes of which has not been seen for almost 50 years.

History:

The service was inaugurated in 1935 by the Great Western Railway (GWR), and was one of the three top GWR named expresses. The formation of the train was of seven coaches totalling 220 tons. Initially, a ‘King’ class locomotive was employed on the ‘Bristolian’, but within a short time, the ‘Castle’ class were found to be more suitable. The service was suspended at the beginning of the Second World War and was finally restored in 1954, again with the use of ‘Kings’ later to be replaced by the ‘Castles’.

By this time, the ‘Castle’ class had been modified with regard to their steaming capabilities, and maximum speeds of 100 mph were not unknown. At the end of steam, several trains were known to complete the journey in under 94 minutes at an average speed of 75.2 mph.

Sat at my desk, working away and as I look up I see a stunning sight. A sight that had me literally throwing off my reading glasses and running across the room with camera to catch it before it vanished.

Amazingly, it actually lasted a good couple of minutes and got stronger in intensity as time went on.

I’ll let the photos tell the rest – you may make your own inferences about the City, Banks and Pots of Gold.

Click on photos for larger versions

Notice the double reversed rainbow here – known as Alexander’s Band

Incredibly, about an hour later a second rainbow appeared – this time with both an Alexander Band and a strong reflection in the River Thames

Another of the pre-booked tours for Open House Weekend were the guided tours of the Naval Club in the rarefied airs of Mayfair.

The building itself is a notable example of early 18th century grand houses, and indeed, one of the first occupants of the house was the Earl of Chatham, brother of then Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger. However, the building spent the bulk of its private life as the home of the Raphael family before being requisitioned during World War 2.

The building was taken over by the Auxiliary Territorial Service, as the women’s arm of the British Army was then known, and after the war was brought by the current occupiers – the Naval Club.

After having my ID checked at the entrance and a short wait in the reception, we were given a double-act of a tour with one chap chatting about the building and its history and a lady talking about the fine paintings that adorn the walls.

Although the building is owned by the Club, there is a separate heritage association that looks after the fabric of the structure, and they were hosting the tours.

So, up the fine staircase to admire a picture of Prince Charles standing along side the Thames with the ship he commanded at the time, the coastal minehunter HMS Bronington in the background. The painting was notable, as the only the top half of the portrait is actually of Prince Charles. He was too busy to pose for the painting, so the bottom half is a painting of his bodyguard. Apparently, when the painting was unveiled, Lord Mountbatten was heard to mutter that it was a good likeness – of Bronington.

Gossip over, into what is now the restaurant but was originally the private dining room for the family. Here are paintings, there are original fitments, here is some history – and off up another flight of stairs to see more.

Unusually for a building of the time, although there was a grand staircase up to the first floor with a separate staircase for the servants, from the first floor upwards, both staff and family used the same staircase. Not out of a consideration for egalitarianism, but more likely due to the building being too narrow for both staircases to be fitted in.

A nice semi-private room presented itself – and turned out to originally have been the bedroom of the last Mr Raphael. Interestingly, the last surviving daughter of the original family celebrated her 100th birthday in that room only a few years ago, and apparently spent most of the party telling people where everything used to be laid out when she lived there.

A painting in that room had a nice tale to it as well, being of a grand party in the Painted Hall just down the road from me in Greenwich. On one of the first ever tours of the building, one of the visitors said her father had been at the party, wandered over to the painted, and was able to identify him in the crowd, sitting fortuitously close to the painter.

More rooms to see, more art to see and then down to the ground floor again.

We were now shown something significantly more sombre – a book listing the names of all the people who died during WW2 as part of the Naval Volunteer Reserves (RNVR).

Of the 6,200 names, 1,200 are from Canada, 350 from South Africa, 300 from New Zealand and 100 from Australia. In total, 14 countries of the then Empire are represented in the Roll, which is the only single record of all RNVR casualties in existence.

The whole building is in fact, now a dedicated War Memorial in recognition of the people who died in the war.

The tour finished off in the ground floor bar, which is finely decorated with wood panelling and an ornate ceiling – where we were invited to finish off the visit with a beer.

It’s not often you get to drink a pint inside a war memorial.