Pall Mall - a photo on Flickriver

Pall Mall

            I posted this photograph several years ago, the photograph was quite indistinct, recently I have acquired a Magic Lantern Slide of the photograph and the new scan has revealed some things which I missed on first posting. The view is looking northeast from a window on the north side of St. James’s Palace, it shows Pall Mall and the entrance to Marlborough Gate, later Marlborough Road. Troopers from the 2nd Life Guards and their mounted band stand outside the Palace in Cleveland Row and crowds line Pall Mall with spectators crowding every balcony and window. It is Saturday 7th March 1863 between 3pm and 4.15pm and the crowd is waiting for the Royal procession which is taking Prince Albert Edward and his fiancée Princess Alexandra of Denmark to Paddington Station and then Windsor where they are to be married three days later in St. George’s Chapel. Earlier that day the Princess had arrived at Gravesend from Denmark in the Royal yacht “Victoria and Albert”, she was met by the Prince and they travelled by train to Bricklayers Arms station in Bermondsey. The station was the London passenger terminus of the South East Railway company, it later became a goods station when London Bridge Station was used by the railway company. They then processed through south London and the City to Paddington. They passed Marlborough House at about 4.15pm, Marlborough House had been given to the Prince by Queen Victoria and was to be the couple’s home for many years. There are a number of Metropolitan police officers in the photograph, some are wearing the reinforced top hat which had been the original headgear of the Met since 1829, others are wearing the Prussian style Coxcomb and curly brim helmet. The helmet had been introduced in 1862 and it was planned to equip all divisions over a two-year period, central divisions were the first to receive them, the outer divisions later on. The mixture of headgear shows that there are officers from outer divisions on aid to King Street police station lining the north pavement and there are two in the roadway, the officers wearing the helmets are local. The new helmet did not last long, in 1870 it was replaced by the six-panel cork helmet which lasted well into the 20th century and was further improved until replaced by the plastic buckets of the 1980s. None of the houses on the north side of Pall Mall survive today. The most interesting is the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery which is on the far right with a sculptured panel over the front door. It was built in 1786 by Charles Dance for the famous engraver and publisher John Boydell, his idea was to encourage a school of British history painting and produce an illustrated works of Shakespeare using the paintings of contemporary British artists. The most successful part of his project was the gallery which exhibited the paintings. He published the illustrated works in the 1790s, but they were not a success, critics thought that the illustrations were poor and the whole thing rushed. In 1804 a lottery was held for the lease of the gallery which was won by a jeweller whose shop was in Leicester Square. Boydell died shortly after the lottery, in 1905 one of the LCC’s new Paddle Steamers was named after him. After the collapse of the LCC’s riverboat service, the steamer was sold to the Royal Servian Privilege Steamship Company and ended her days on the River Danube in Belgrade. In 1805 the lease was purchased by The British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, it was also known as The British Institution, Pall Mall Picture Galleries, and The British Gallery. Its subscribers were mainly members of the Aristocracy and no artists could be members unlike the Royal Academy. The Institution flourished during the early part of the 19th Century concentrating on exhibitions of History paintings by British Artists, it also provided scholarships for aspiring artists. The entrance fee to exhibitions remained at one shilling throughout its existence which ended in 1867 when the lease expired, the building was demolished in 1868-69 and the bas relief sculpture above the front door was saved. The sculpture is called “Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry” and is by Thomas Banks and was taken to New Place Garden in Stratford-Upon-Avon where it can still be seen. See below.
Best viewed with the zoom feature.

Taken in: UK / Commonwealth of Nations (show map)

Taken on: March 7, 1863

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Pall Mall

Magic Lantern Slide

Marlborough Gate

Marlborough Road

Paddington Station

Windsor

St. George's Chapel

Gravesend

2nd Life Guards

Mounted Band

Troopers

Prince Albert Edward

Princess Alexandra

Denmark

Victoria and Albert

Bricklayers Arms Station

Bermondsey

London Bridge Station

South East Railway

Marlborough House

Queen Victoria

Metropolitan Police

King Street Police Station

Reinforced Top Hat

Coxcomb and Curly Brim Helmet

Prussian

Six Panel Cork Helmet

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

Charles Dance

Thomas Banks

Engraver

Publisher

Lottery

Leicester Square

London County Council

Company

Belgrade

River Danube

The Royal Servian Privilege Steamship Company

The British Institution

Pall Mall Picture Galleries

The British Gallery

The British Institution for promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom

Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry

Bas Relief Sculpture

Avon

London

1786

1805

1829

1863

1905

1862

1867

1868

1869

New Place Garden

Stratford Upon Avon « less

Groups appears in: • London buildings • City of Westminster more » • Lost London • Architectural Salvage • United Kingdom Social History to 1989 • History Directory • VINTAGE ENGLAND - EPHEMERA • British Royal Families • Alpha Delta Plus, Cannon Row Police Station, (Scotland Yard) • PICS & FACTS • Old London • VICTORIAN & EDWARDIAN CANNON ROW ('AD') • CANNON ROW THEN & NOW • The British Police Service • Pictorial History Of London's Metropolitan Police (1829) • The Good Old (UK) Days. « less

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