Latest news with #KingGeorgeV
The Sun
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Abandoned 1930s hospital featured in popular films and TV shows to be transformed into 140 flats
AN ABANDONED 90-year-old hospital, you may recognise from film and TV is set to be repurposed as 140 flats. The Grade II-listed art deco building, built in 1933, has been lying empty since 2006, when it was last used as a medical facility. 2 2 Ravenscourt Park Hospital in Hammersmith, West London is set to get a new lease of life thanks to property developers TT Group. As well as the flats, parts of the hospital will also be transformed into a 65-bed care home, and community spaces. Opened by King George V, the red-brick facility was originally called the Royal Masonic Hospital and picked up a prestigious architecture prize for being the "best building of the year" thanks to its curved balconies and impressive sculptures. The 260-bed facility was Europe's largest independent acute hospital, but was closed for 8 years in 1994, until it opened as an NHS hospital in 2002. Due to its stunning architecture, the hospital has featured in a variety of films and TV shows, including Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989 and 1991), The Queen (2006) and the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black (2024). As well as being used as an on-screen hospital, it has also been used as a bank, a luxury hotel and corporate boardrooms and has doubled for locations in New York and Ireland. In May, the hospital won location of the year at the Global Production Awards 2025 in Cannes. TT Group, which acquired the 3.87-acre site in 2022, will transform former wards, treatment blocks and administrative buildings into flats ranging in size from small studios to family apartments. The apartment blocks will also have communal workspaces, private gardens and lounge areas. The hospital grounds will also have landscaped gardens that will be opened to the public for the first time. Many of the stunning architectural features of the hospital will remain, including welded steel semi-circular sun balconies and two Greek statues found by the main entrance. An addition to the hospital, built in the 1970s, is set to be transformed into a modern purpose built care home. Dates for construction and completion are yet to be announced. Duncan Brisbane, Development Director at TT Group, said: 'The former Ravenscourt Park Hospital's revival is long overdue, with planning approval ensuring this important building can finally be brought back into long-term use. "Alongside a best-in-class project team, we now look forward to bringing the proposals to life, building on our track record for delivering much-needed housing on some of London's highest-quality brownfield sites.' Trevor Morriss, Principal at SPPARC, said: 'As one of Britain's very first examples of the international modernist movement, this landmark of inter-war design is deserving of a new use that honours both its historic and architectural significance. "With every aspect of the masterplan designed to respect and pay tribute to the original Art Deco design, the planning consent will ensure that the former hospital can once again return to meaningful use that puts an end to nearly 20 years of vacancy.'
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
JOHN MACLEOD: King must put throne first and reject the return of Harry and Meghan
The first rule of monarchy is not glitter, ceremonial nor influence. It is survival. At the height of the Great War, with thrones tottering on all sides, King George V, our first great constitutional monarch, moved decisively to secure his own. At his command, all his British relatives repudiated German honours, titles and surnames. His own ruling house, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, became Windsor. He recast the honours system creating the Order of the British Empire for all, regardless of class, who had rendered noted public service. And on 18 September 1917, at Ibrox Stadium – no less - George personally presented the very first British Empire Medal. To Lizzie Robinson, 21, swamped in khaki overalls. A Cardonald munitions worker, toiling seven days a week, she had not missed a shift in two years. On another front, George V was truly ruthless. After the fall of Tsar Nicholas II – his first cousin – the Lloyd George government was poised to offer him and his family asylum in Britain. Setting any private sentiment aside, George lobbied fiercely to block it, knowing that the presence of this toppled despot would infuriate millions in Britain. In fairness, the logistics of rescuing the Romanovs would have been extremely difficult: they were duly murdered by the Bolsheviks in July 1918. George's two elder sons were long close. The Duchess of York, as she then was, simply adored the charismatic Prince of Wales. But, as the country reeled from the shock of the Abdication, in December 1936, Elizabeth and the diffident, anxious Bertie genuinely feared for their tenuous throne. George VI, too, dug deep. Within weeks he had ordered no calls from his exiled brother were to be put through. Forbade any of the family from attending the Duke of Windsor's wedding. Flatly – and, probably, unlawfully – he denied the sometime Wallis Simpson the rank and dignity of Her Royal Highness. Come the fall of France, the Windsors were extricated from the Continent only with the greatest difficulty – and packed off to Government House in the Bahamas: they could do little mischief there. Eight decades later, and none of her offspring was dearer to the late Queen than Andrew. They often rode together, sipped tea together; her face lit up when he entered the room. But when the Duke of York enmired himself in disgrace, Elizabeth II did not hesitate. Andrew was stripped of his duties, of his patronages, of his honours. Plans for a sparkling 60th-birthday celebration were canned. The Duke was even cut from the published photographs of his daughter's wedding. And, months later, stripped of royal rank itself. She adored him still – but Elizabeth let the Queen rule her in this, not the woman. In recent weeks there has been a curious groundswell of opinion, in many quarters, that the King must now make peace with his own second son and that the Prince and Princess of Wales should be big enough to lump it. By curious coincidence, snaps of initial peace-talks appeared on the same day that William, Kate and their delightful elder children appeared so enchantingly at Wimbledon. Soon after, and by no less curious coincidence, the Duke of Sussex reprised – and not for the first time – his late mother's landmine walk in Angola, on the same day as the Queen Consort's birthday. Let me be honest. I often wish, rather desperately, that Harry and Meghan would finally catch a break. Hit some winning streak that would keep them in style and comfort and, above all, keep them quiet. But I can think of no more crazed or appalling idea than that they should be welcomed home to this country, to the bosom of the Royal Family, to the renewed expense of the privy and indeed the public purse and – the very idea is fantastic and absurd – to renewed royal duties. Our King is a singularly gracious, cultured, thoughtful man. In public life long before the most senior Members of Parliament. As we saw in Rome, Germany and elsewhere, he is a far more confident and accomplished speaker than his mother. His heartache amidst ongoing estrangement from his younger son – though it is not of Charles's doing – is incalculable. Yet such a restoration of Sussex fortune – which, one suspects, in their current extremity really boils down to money – is unthinkable. The damage they have wrought since Megxit is vast and irretrievable. Before all the world, they besmirched their kin, the Crown and indeed this country with baseless charges of the rankest racism – this from a man who once mocked an Army comrade and was even snapped, smugly, in Nazi uniform. This falsehood grievously damaged the Commonwealth, especially in the Caribbean. They slammed this land, the Palace and their family, courtesy of Oprah Winfrey, as Prince Philip lay dying. They have time and again been caught out in falsehood. They made the Queen's final years a misery. They have smeared the Prince and Princess of Wales in the cruellest and most personal terms, wallow in ceaseless self-pity and seem incapable of keeping a trust or telling the truth. And for none of this has there been a word of regret, contrition, or apology. That the Spotify deal has gone, that the Netflix package founders by the bows, that their docuseries (save for the first, the cruellest and most dishonest) have had but derisory ratings and that the sideline in jams, pink plonk and edible flowers is a Stateside joke scarcely surprises. They have no talent; no appetite for the hard yards of dedicated work. She can afford the finest clothes but, inexplicably, does not wear them well. And none of this, on cool reflection, surprises: in eighteen months, Meghan proved incapable of even the less than exacting duties of a royal Duchess. That is before we start on all the broken confidences, the ruthlessly discarded friends – from Piers Morgan to Jessica Mulroney – the traumatised former staff and, surely, the nadir: that twerking video. This apparently went down a storm in trailer-trash America but, this side of the pond, and as was once said of another, we saw only a woman unfit to be a royal Princess in this or any age. She is what she always was – a cool, beaming adventuress, her hand always in creepy Mission Control grip of his, as if they were welded by SuperGlue. The greater shame, and certainly the duller brain, are his. They are now figures of conspicuous failure – the thing most feared in Hollywood circles, as if it were contagious – and, worse, figures of ridicule. To tap in 'harry meghan' on YouTube is to unleash a tsunami of mockery, derision and scorn and steepled-fingers analyses. And for this ignominy the Duke and Duchess of Sussex threw away the greatest platform for public service that there is. There can be no return to that role, or to this land. And, as his forebears grasped before, Charles III must let the King rule him in this – and not the man.
BBC News
01-08-2025
- General
- BBC News
Access row leaves First Effingham Scouts worried for future
Scout leaders say they are worried about their group's future in a "long-standing" dispute regarding access to what they describe as their purpose-built Effingham Scouts have been based in a building on the King George V playing fields in Effingham since they are now concerned about proposed changes to a licence relating to the use of the building put forward by the Effingham Village Recreation Trust (EVRT), the charity which looks after the playing chair Paula Moss said an agreement needed to be found that was "fair and equitable to all parties" and that gave "fair and reasonable access to other members of the community" as well as the scouts. Both sides say they want to engage in mediation on the matter, which has seen the vehicle gate giving direct access to the headquarters locked and the scout group not given a key until they sign up to a protocol for the times when it is Butler, cub leader, said with vehicle access prevented, cubs and scouts had to be dropped off and cross a busy road to access the site, or face a walk across the playing said the group wanted to put in place an agreement that was fair for the scouts, reflected "the 65 years we have been on the site and the investment we have made in the headquarters to ensure that we can continue to run an exciting programme".The scout group said it was concerned about the length of the seven-year licence being proposed, and an "entirely different model for running the hall".They claim this would offer terms to the scouts which were "the same offered to any group who want to hire out facilities" and provided "absolutely no commitment or certainty for long term usage". 'Will have to consider our future' Liz Jones, chair of First Effingham Scouts, said: "Our fundamental concern at the moment is that EVRT are rewriting history and ignoring 65 years of our existence here at King George V playing fields."She said the scouts had been there since 1978, invested "many times over" and rebuilt the building in 1994."If we don't have a place to meet regularly, to store our equipment, then sadly I think First Effingham Scouts will have to consider its future," she added. Ms Moss argued that the terms being offered were "an improvement on what they've benefitted from so far"."If they want to continue then they can continue for as long as they want to but we do need to have an agreement that is fair and equitable to all parties and that gives fair and reasonable access to other members of the community," she a charitable trust, she claimed EVRT was required to make sure the facility was available to all members of the community."We can't give it to them exclusively and that just needs to be resolved," she added.
The Independent
30-06-2025
- The Independent
Royal Family have travelled by train for more than 180 years
The royal family have enjoyed rail travel since the day Queen Victoria made her first trip in a specially made carriage from Slough to London Paddington. The Great Western Railway company built the carriage in anticipation of Victoria's patronage and two years later she did, but only after being persuaded on board by Prince Albert, a veteran of rail travel fascinated by the new technology. She appeared a fan and wrote in her diary about the journey on June 13 1842: 'It took us exactly 30 minutes going to Paddington, & the motion was very slight, & much easier than the carriage, also no dust or great heat, in fact, it was delightful and so quick.' To mark the 175th anniversary of the trip, Queen Elizabeth II and the late Duke of Edinburgh recreated the journey in 2017. Victoria later commissioned a special pair of coaches built by the London & North Western Railway in 1869 and so began a succession of royal trains with her son King Edward VII, later ordering a royal train designed to be 'as much like the Royal Yacht as possible'. The royal family keep up with modern innovations and Victoria's grandson King George V installed one of the first baths on a train during the First World War as he toured the UK to boost morale. No special royal locomotive exists but the royal train is pulled by standard engines and throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries all major railway companies within the British Isles maintained dedicated royal carriages. To mark Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee in 1977 British Rail provided a new royal train that featured a Queen's saloon or carriage with a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom and a separate bedroom and bathroom for her dresser, while Philip's carriage was a similar design but included a kitchen. In the mid 1980s the fleet was updated and new carriages were added including one used by the King, then the prince of Wales, and now the train has nine carriages, seven royal and two support.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Yahoo
Royal Family have travelled by train for more than 180 years
The royal family have enjoyed rail travel since the day Queen Victoria made her first trip in a specially made carriage from Slough to London Paddington. The Great Western Railway company built the carriage in anticipation of Victoria's patronage and two years later she did, but only after being persuaded on board by Prince Albert, a veteran of rail travel fascinated by the new technology. She appeared a fan and wrote in her diary about the journey on June 13 1842: 'It took us exactly 30 minutes going to Paddington, & the motion was very slight, & much easier than the carriage, also no dust or great heat, in fact, it was delightful and so quick.' To mark the 175th anniversary of the trip, Queen Elizabeth II and the late Duke of Edinburgh recreated the journey in 2017. Victoria later commissioned a special pair of coaches built by the London & North Western Railway in 1869 and so began a succession of royal trains with her son King Edward VII, later ordering a royal train designed to be 'as much like the Royal Yacht as possible'. The royal family keep up with modern innovations and Victoria's grandson King George V installed one of the first baths on a train during the First World War as he toured the UK to boost morale. No special royal locomotive exists but the royal train is pulled by standard engines and throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries all major railway companies within the British Isles maintained dedicated royal carriages. To mark Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee in 1977 British Rail provided a new royal train that featured a Queen's saloon or carriage with a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom and a separate bedroom and bathroom for her dresser, while Philip's carriage was a similar design but included a kitchen. In the mid 1980s the fleet was updated and new carriages were added including one used by the King, then the prince of Wales, and now the train has nine carriages, seven royal and two support.
