To the Palace

Notwithstanding the drought and the reservations expressed at reference 1, we paid a visit to Hampton Court Palace towards the end of last month.

On leaving the house, our ivy was in full flower. Also doing a fine job of holding our fence up, now starting to show its thirty five years of age.

The former 'Marquis of Granby' on the Isles of Scilly roundabout was looking more like Fort Knox than ever, with an outer perimeter of concrete blocks and an inner perimeter of a razor wire (or some such) topped panel fence. 

No sign of action on the planning map offered by Elmbridge, but I did learn that the pub, beneath the orange spot, was right next door to a golf club, which I had not known about. Perhaps the golf club owned the land that the pub stood on and were in dispute about its fiture?

So off to Gemini, to learn that it is a common or garden dispute between Greene King and Elmbridge about the classification of the property. It seems that it is presently classified as a public house, which gives it considerable protection against redevelopment, and that Greene King want to get it changed to a restaurant, which lives in a more relaxed classification, something called Class E. The golf course was something of a red-herring.

It all seems rather a nonsense to me. The place, located where it is, is never going to be a neighbourhood pub, so why not open it up to other options? All about on a par with the long-stalled development next to Hampton Court Station, a site which, as Gemini reminds me, was also once occupied by a public house.

I wonder if this is the same protection which is blocking the redevelopment of the ancient but failed public house outside Epsom Hospital?

While the people doing up Hampton Court Station don't seem to be doing much better, it seeming to have been wrapped in scaffolding for months now. The chap in the ticket office showed zero interest in the matter: he was far too busy communing with his mobile phone to commune - or even to communicate - with a punter. Especially an old one.

The river did not seem particularly low, despite being below the first lock, maybe half a mile upstream of the bridge. But there did seem to be something going on downstream, as there was a quite a queue of cabin cruisers lined up behind some racing eights.

A quiet corner of the bridge. A corner where I thought we might have have taken the sun in the past, perhaps rather earlier in the day. But consulting the map today, this seems a bit unlikely as we would have been facing more north than east. Maybe a picnic on a hot day, when one was glad of a bit of shade?

Over the river to notice this plate, fixed to the wall next to the main gate into the Palace. Erected by a lodge which is alive and well at reference 2 - but not so grand as to have its own hall, in the way of lodges out in the country, places like Portland, as previously noticed.

But it does claim Sullivan, of Gilbert & Sullivan as a past brother:

'The celebrated composer of the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas was initiated into Lodge of Harmony No. 255 on 11 April 1865. It was through his Masonic connections at this lodge that Sullivan was introduced to W.S. Gilbert, laying the foundation for one of the most celebrated partnerships in the history of British music'.

But I failed to find anything at all about Masons at reference 3, last noticed at reference 4, getting on for ten years ago now. The beginnings of the partnership, at a time when rather coarse musical fare was in the ascendent in London, are described in some detail, but maybe the secrets of the Lodge were just that back in the 1920s, when the book was written.

And so into the Palace, where I was able to inspect what drought had made of the wild flower meadow which has been occupying the grass on the right hand side as you go in, grass which is messed up each winter by planting an ice rink on top of it.

I thought that the yellow flowers were probably California poppies. a fine clump of which is to be found much nearer home, although I cannot presently say exactly where. Odd that I had the name, while I cannot find any notice in these pages; I must have looked it up at some point, probably by asking Google Images. But, for now, see reference 4.

One of the fine bedding plants on display.

The telephone did rather well on this one. Google Images says Chinese hibiscus (Hibiscus × rosa-sinensis), and given that he has both the showy flower and some distinctive leaves to go on - these last coming out quite clearly under zoom - I do not challenge the identification. But see reference 6.

Followed by this rather showy blue flower, which I took to be a convolvulus of some kind. Google Images agrees with me this afternoon, opting for a variety of Morning Glory, specifically that at reference 7. From where I associate to the film noticed at reference 8.

At some point, to the Tilt Yard cafeteria, where I took quite a decent bacon bap. Not quite the bap that one might still be able to get in Belfast or Glasgow, but a good deal better than some of those on sale around here, down south.

Taken outside, where we were able to take in the jackdaws and the various visitors. Which last came in a good variety of shapes, sizes and attire. We also had a lady doing her first shift in the cafeteria: not for the Palace, not for Compass (whom I believe have got the catering), but rather for some outfit called 'Opportunity for work' or some such. Perhaps her first venture into paid work for some time. A cheerful lady, but who had not adjusted to the regime; she needed to keep busy.

I failed to find an agency which looked right, and he turned up various possibilities, including the Compass initiative called 'Mission to a Million' with 'Opportunity for All'. This seemed rather promising and is to be found at reference 9 and is the source of the snap above.

Gemini brought a very sympathetic tone to the whole business - particularly with regard to the challenges faced by an older newbie - and I was impressed both by him and by Compass. I shall now view these last in a rather more positive light than just some big catering operation. 

Outside to head north to our picnic bench in the north wall, blocked by some groundsmen's equipment on our last visit. There seemed to be a correlation between mistletoe infection and leaf loss: maybe under normal circumstances, mistletoe and its hosts get on well enough, but when there is a shortage of water, it is the host that suffers first, perhaps the result of the mistletoe being in the middle of branches, much nearer the source of water than most of the leaves.

The view from our bench. We might not have been in the sun, but it was plenty warm enough to be comfortable in the shade. And the damage to the trees was not so in-your-face from this angle.

Canal, with its various beds of reeds and rushes, to the left.

A bramble shoot which had escaped from the margins of the canal, exhibiting the groups of five leaves proper to a first year shoot. And just starting to take root. Gemini explains that, unlike the human vascular system in which the pipes have valves and one-way traffic, the pipes in plants are more opportunistic, with water and food moving in whichever direction suits the circumstances. So while, flow in most shoots is simplex, in the length of shoot seen here, between two root systems, the flow is half duplex. To use terms I vaguely remember from the days of teleprinters and teletypes, before PCs were invented.

In the short length of open canal by our picnic bench we saw one large fish, although it was a mystery how it might have got there, through the dense stands of reeds. The flash of one blue bird, possibly a kingfisher, and a heron.

In another length of open canal, a patch of water lilies, with just a few flowers left.

On this occasion, we took in several sunny benches, but passed on the privy garden and the sunken gardens beyond, opting for Fountain Court and exit instead.

A handsome planting in the Court, to which this snap does scant justice.

Handsome stonework too. How much of what one sees is plaster rather than stone?

We thought about a choc ice on a stick on exit, but passed in this occasion, although we did make up the following week - to the extent of taking one each. As will be explained in due course.

A second heron perched at the foot of one of the bridge piers, but no fish that we could see, despite the shallow water being quite clear when in the sun.

From this snap, you could really think that you were in 'Three Men in a Boat' land, as previously noticed. Unless you knew the spot, you would not know that the palace is more or less immediately off-snap to the left.

On the way home, we went past, yet again, the derelict Wetherspoons at Tolworth. Gemini agrees that this building is in much the same bind as the one noticed above - and has been in for something over ten years now.

I asked him about how they do things in other places and his story is that it just moves the problem around. You might not have derelict buildings boarded up for years while the lawyers make a jolly good thing out it, but you do have other problems. So in the US, for example, where zoning rules, you have huge housing developments with no facilities within walking distance. Something I found out for myself in California, when I could still walk a good distance when it was hot and dry! Gemini closes with the observation:

'... Britain’s system essentially tries to combine continental community preservation with an adversarial Anglo-American property market. The well-intentioned goal is giving local democracy a voice over corporate developers. The side effect, unfortunately, is a landscape littered with razor wire, plywood boards, and overgrown car parks at major suburban junctions'.

It does not look as if any of us, among the developed countries of the west that is, have come up with a very good solution to this one. Maybe if I was younger and still in service, I would wangle myself a fact finding mission around the world to study the pros and cons of all the different systems. The Indians, for example, must have quite a lot of old buildings, some of which must have outlived their original purpose.

PS 1: I learn that my copy of reference 3 was busy in the 1950s, probably just after the library bought it. There must have still been plenty of enthusiasts about at that time. And I just about remember about the penny a day business mentioned top right.

PS 2: the thermometer in our hall downstairs is now reading 63°F - down from the eighty and more it was registering during August. Time to turn out my supply of woollens. Time to test the central heating.

PS 3: in the course of posting this, there have been three or four system errors. Transient errors with no loss of data and very little loss of time, but unusual. Google software has been pretty solid in my experience, albeit rather narrow experience. In any event, Gemini has done well today.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/10/tweet.html.

Reference 2: https://lodgeofharmony255.org.uk/.

Reference 3: Sir Arthur Sullivan: his life, letters and diaries - Herbert Sullivan and Norman Flower - 1927.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/09/sullivan.html.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschscholzia_californica.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus_%C3%97_rosa-sinensis.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea_tricolor.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/06/class-1-protein.html.

Reference 9: https://www.compass-group.co.uk/our-impact/our-social-promise/.