If you have ever been on a boat or ship around the coast of England or Wales, or perhaps taken the ferry to France, then you have reason to be grateful to the ancient institution I visited last week in the City of London.
The lighthouse People
Established by Henry VIII in 1514, the “Guild Fraternity or Brotherhood of the Most Glorious and Undivided Trinity and of Saint Clement in the Parish of Deptford Strond in the County of Kent” or, to give it its usual shorter title, “Trinity House”.
It is still performing the roles that Henry and in particular his daughter, Elizabeth I, gave it – to “make, erect, and set up such, and so many beacons, marks, and signs for the sea.. whereby the dangers may be avoided and escaped, and ships the better come into their ports without peril”.
Today it remains the General Lighthouse Authority for England and Wales, protecting mariners for over 500 years and currently operating over 60 lighthouses, 7 light vessels and 11,000 other aids to navigation.
Their headquarters are in the City of London (although all the real work is now done in their main base in Harwich) and it is a fascinating and beautiful building.
So how did it start?
River traffic had increased significantly during the reign of Henry VIII, not least because of his enthusiasm for increasing the size of the Navy.
A guild of mariners in Deptford became worried about the chaos on the river caused by untrained pilots. They petitioned the king for the exclusive right to train and provide pilots and the king agreed, giving them this right but requiring also that they also took on a second responsibility: “to relieve decayed seamen and their relatives”, something that it still does to this day through the provisions of alms houses and charitable giving.
Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth I, broadened its responsibilities to beacons and navigation marks around the Thames that was eventually extended to the entire coastline.
Its headquarter was originally in Deptford, but later moved to the City of London, on a site next to the Custom House by the river, in 1660.
It proved an unfortunate decision because 6 years later, it burned down in the Great Fire of London, was rebuilt, and burned once more in 1715.
It moved to its current address in the 1790s, and the main part of the building was designed by architect Samuel Wyatt in the classical style then prevalent.
The building was badly damaged by bombing in WW2 but fortunately, there had been a major article about it in ‘Country Life’ in 1919, allowing it to be wonderfully restored, thanks to the photographs that had appeared in the magazine.
It is fascinating place, even for those without a nautical background.
Nautical Memorabilia
For example, immediately as you set foot in the entrance hall, you can’t avoid noticing this interesting object:
Our excellent guide informed us it is a binnacle, the housing for that most important instrument on a ship, the compass. While the construction is wooden, we can tell this came from a steel ship because of the two curious spherical objects on either side. Their role is to correct the effect of the steel on the correct working of the compass, something unnecessary in wooden ships. Designed by the great Victorian scientist Lord Kelvin, they inevitably became known as Kelvin Balls.
Also in the entrance hall is this wonderful model ship:
It is the spectacular design for a ship built during the reign of James I and was called the Prince Henry, James’s older son and heir to the throne who would in fact die young causing his younger brother to become Charles I.
Models like this were constructed by the shipbuilder to show the client what the final ship would look like but also to show of their craftsmanship.
The original model was built by Phineas Pett of a dominant shipbuilding family from Kent. Pett’s Wood is named after them.
The one on display is a reconstruction from the 1950s to replace the original, which was destroyed in the Blitz.
Talented Artists
It is a grand building with a commensurately grand staircase to the first floor, which they call the quarterdeck. As you climb the stairs, your eyes are drawn upward to the wonderful ceiling. However, as you get closer, you realize that it is a painting, a trompe-l’oeil so well executed that it is not apparent from the photo I took.
The quarterdeck is the main entertaining floor, and on the landing, we can see the management of Trinity House represented in two contrasting paintings.
The first is from the 1790s and shows the “brethren” of Trinity House approving Wyatt’s plans for the building.
If you look carefully, you might notice that the legs of the Brethren in the picture above are rather too muscular for the more delicate bodies on top.
This is because the painter, Gainsborough Dupont, could not get much time from the sitters to be painted, so he prioritized painting the portraits and busts and resorted to using workmen from the nearby shipyards as ‘leg models’!
The second is much more recent, from 2011, and shows Princess Anne as the first female Master.
It is located in the main room on this floor, the magnificent Court Room. It has the feel of a country house drawing room, and it’s hard to believe you are still in the middle of the City of London.
This has been the heart of Trinity House for over 200 years. Its windows look over Trinity Gardens to the Tower of London, and you stand on a custom-made carpet, the second largest custom-made carpet in the British Isles.
It is so precious that if you want to entertain in this room, there is only one rule – no red wine.
Trinity House is one of the wonders of the City of London and well worth a visit.
You need to book in advance though. Click here for more information.
Mark
