TEA & SWEET COOKIES AT HYDE PARK IN THE AFTERNOON

Today, The Winsors and The Grandma have been visiting Hyde Park, in Westminster. The park is in front of the hotel and they have been studying some English grammar with the Order of Adjectives, Saxon Genitive and Prepositions of Time before walking across it and taking some tea with some delicious sweet round Arabian cookies made by Osama Winsor.

Hyde Park is the historic urban park in Westminster. It is located in front of their hotel and they have decided to walk slowly and see all the details that this place offers carefully. It has been an interesting morning. They have been studying some English Grammar with the Adverbs of Manner and Saxon Genitive, and talking about how much information can give our surname about our past and our origins. Finally, they have been preparing some necessary things to spend this afternoon together sailing across the Thamesis river. They want to have fun.

More information: Saxon Genitive

More information: The Order of The Adjectives

Download Adjectives

More information: Prepositions of Time

Play Battleship

Hyde Park is a 140 ha, historic Grade I-listed urban park in Westminster, Greater London. A Royal Park, it is the largest of the parks and green spaces that form a chain from Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Park, past Buckingham Palace to St James's Park. Hyde Park is divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water lakes.

The park was established by Henry VIII in 1536 when he took the land from Westminster Abbey and used it as a hunting ground. 

It opened to the public in 1637 and quickly became popular, particularly for May Day parades. Major improvements occurred in the early 18th century under the direction of Queen Caroline. The park also became a place for duels during this time, often involving members of the nobility.

In the 19th century, The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in the park, for which The Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton, was erected.

Free speech and demonstrations have been a key feature of Hyde Park since the 19th century. Speakers' Corner has been established as a point of free speech and debate since 1872, while the Chartists, the Reform League, the suffragettes, and the Stop the War Coalition have all held protests there.

In the late 20th century, the park was known for holding large-scale free rock music concerts, featuring artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Queen. Major events in the park have continued into the 21st century, such as Live 8 in 2005, and the annual Hyde Park Winter Wonderland from 2007.

The park's name comes from the Manor of Hyde, which was the northeast sub-division of the manor of Eia (the other two sub-divisions were Ebury and Neyte) and appears as such in the Domesday Book.

The name is believed to be of Saxon origin, and means a unit of land, the hide, that was appropriate for the support of a single family and dependents. Through the Middle Ages, it was property of Westminster Abbey, and the woods in the manor were used both for firewood and shelter for game.

The Wellington Arch was extensively restored by English Heritage between 1999 and 2001. It is now open to the public, who can see a view of the parks from its platforms above the porticoes.

More information: Royal Parks

The surname Foster is a variation of the name Forster, meaning one who works in the forest. It may also derive from the French forcetier, meaning maker of scissors.

The Foster surname is predominantly English, where it has been recorded in use from the 1100s onwards. Foster derives as an occupational surname from a number of sources. Firstly it comes from a forester, the name for a forest warden or gamekeeper. Secondly the surname Foster is believed to derive from the Old English Forseter (shearer), given to those who shear sheep and their descendants. Most rarely, Foster has been hypothesised to relate to a 'fosterer', someone who feeds and looks after children in place of their parents.

More information: Forebears

 It came to me that Hyde Park

has never belonged to London
–that it has always been, in spirit, 

a stretch of countryside;
and that it links the Londons 

of all periods together most magically
–by remaining forever unchanged at the heart 

of a ever-changing town.

Dodie Smith

THE CRYSTAL PALACE IS DESTROYED BY FIRE IN LONDON

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Crystal Palace, the cast iron and plate glass structure, built in Hyde Park, London that was destroyed by fire on a day like today in 1936.

The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its 92,000 m2 exhibition space to display examples of technology developed in the Industrial Revolution. Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 564 m long, with an interior height of 39 m, and was three times the size of St Paul's Cathedral.

The 293,000 panes of glass were manufactured by the Chance Brothers. The 990,000-square-foot building with its 128-foot-high ceiling was completed in thirty-nine weeks. The Crystal Palace boasted the greatest area of glass ever seen in a building. It astonished visitors with its clear walls and ceilings that did not require interior lights.

It has been suggested that the name of the building resulted from a piece penned by the playwright Douglas Jerrold, who in July 1850 wrote in the satirical magazine Punch about the forthcoming Great Exhibition, referring to a palace of very crystal.

After the exhibition, the Palace was relocated to an open area of South London known as Penge Place which had been excised from Penge Common. It was rebuilt at the top of Penge Peak next to Sydenham Hill, an affluent suburb of large villas. It stood there from June 1854 until its destruction by fire in November 1936.

The nearby residential area was renamed Crystal Palace after the landmark. This included the Crystal Palace Park that surrounds the site, home of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, which was previously a football stadium that hosted the FA Cup Final between 1895 and 1914. Crystal Palace F.C. were founded at the site and played at the Cup Final venue in their early years. The park still contains Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins's Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which date back to 1854.

On the evening of 30 November 1936, Sir Henry Buckland was walking his dog near the Palace with his daughter Crystal, named after the building, when they noticed a red glow within it. When Buckland went inside, he found two of his employees fighting a small office fire that had started after an explosion in the women's cloakroom. Realising that it was a serious fire, they called the Penge fire brigade. Although 89 fire engines and over 400 firemen arrived, they were unable to extinguish it.

Within hours, the Palace was destroyed: the glow was visible across eight counties. The fire spread quickly in the high winds that night, in part because of the dry old timber flooring, and the huge quantity of flammable materials in the building. Buckland said, In a few hours we have seen the end of the Crystal Palace. Yet it will live in the memories not only of Englishmen, but the whole world. One-hundred thousand people came to Sydenham Hill to watch the blaze, among them Winston Churchill, who said, This is the end of an age. Just as in 1866, when the north transept burnt down, the building was not adequately insured to cover the cost of rebuilding (at least £2 million).

The South Tower and much of the lower level of the Palace had been used for tests by television pioneer John Logie Baird for his mechanical television experiments, and much of his work was destroyed in the fire. Baird is reported to have suspected the fire was a deliberate act of sabotage against his work on developing television, but the true cause remains unknown.

The last singer to perform there before the fire was the Australian ballad contralto Essie Ackland.

All that was left standing after the fire were the two water towers and a section of the north end of the main nave which was too badly damaged to be saved. The south tower to the right of the Crystal Palace entrance was taken down shortly after the fire, as the damage sustained had undermined its integrity and presented a major risk to houses nearby. Thos. W. Ward Ltd., Sheffield, dismantled the Crystal Palace.

The north tower was demolished with explosives in 1941. No reason was given for its removal -it was rumoured that it was to remove a landmark for German aircraft in the Second World War. In fact Luftwaffe bombers actually navigated their way to central London by tracking the Thames. The Crystal Palace grounds were used as a manufacturing base for aircraft radar screens and other hi-tech equipment of the time. This remained a secret until well after the war.

After the destruction of the Palace, the High Level Branch station fell into disuse and was finally shut in 1954. After the war the site was used for a number of purposes. Between 1927 and 1972, the Crystal Palace motor racing circuit was located in the park, supported by the Greater London Council, but the noise was unpopular with nearby residents, and racing hours were regulated under a high court judgment.

The Crystal Palace transmitting station was built on the former aquarium site in the mid-1950s and still serves as one of London's main television transmission masts.

In northern corner of the park is the Crystal Palace Bowl, a natural amphitheatre where large-scale open-air summer concerts have been held since the 1960s. These have ranged from classical and orchestral music, to rock, pop, blues and reggae. Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Elton John, Eric Clapton, and The Beach Boys played the Bowl during its heyday. The stage was rebuilt in 1997 with an award-winning permanent structure designed by Ian Ritchie. The Bowl has been inactive as a music venue for several years, and the stage has fallen into a state of disrepair, but as of March 2020 London Borough of Bromley Council are working with a local action group to find creative and community-minded business proposals to reactivate the cherished concert platform.

In 2020, the base and foundation of the south tower were given historic status. They are located near the Crystal Palace Museum on Anerley Hill, which is dedicated to the history of the building.

More information: National Archives

It is not the beauty of a building you should look at;
its the construction of the foundation
that will stand the test of time.

 

David Allan Coe

WAITING FOR A SUNNY DAY QUIETLY IN HYDE PARK, LDN

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have spent their time waiting for a sunny day quietly in Hyde Park, the historic urban park in Westminster. 

It is located in front of their hotel and they have decided to walk slowly and see all the details that this place offers carefully.

It has been an interesting morning. They have been studying some English Grammar with the Adverbs of Manner and Saxon Genitive, and talking about how much information can give our surname about our past and our origins. Finally, they have been preparing some necessary things to spend this afternoon together sailing across the Thamesis river. They want to have fun.

More information: Adverbs of Manner

More information: Saxon Genitive

More information: Battleship

Hyde Park is a 140 ha, historic Grade I-listed urban park in Westminster, Greater London. A Royal Park, it is the largest of the parks and green spaces that form a chain from Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Park, past Buckingham Palace to St James's Park. Hyde Park is divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water lakes.

The park was established by Henry VIII in 1536 when he took the land from Westminster Abbey and used it as a hunting ground. 

It opened to the public in 1637 and quickly became popular, particularly for May Day parades. Major improvements occurred in the early 18th century under the direction of Queen Caroline. The park also became a place for duels during this time, often involving members of the nobility.

In the 19th century, The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in the park, for which The Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton, was erected.

Free speech and demonstrations have been a key feature of Hyde Park since the 19th century. Speakers' Corner has been established as a point of free speech and debate since 1872, while the Chartists, the Reform League, the suffragettes, and the Stop the War Coalition have all held protests there.

In the late 20th century, the park was known for holding large-scale free rock music concerts, featuring artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Queen. Major events in the park have continued into the 21st century, such as Live 8 in 2005, and the annual Hyde Park Winter Wonderland from 2007.

The park's name comes from the Manor of Hyde, which was the northeast sub-division of the manor of Eia (the other two sub-divisions were Ebury and Neyte) and appears as such in the Domesday Book.

The name is believed to be of Saxon origin, and means a unit of land, the hide, that was appropriate for the support of a single family and dependents. Through the Middle Ages, it was property of Westminster Abbey, and the woods in the manor were used both for firewood and shelter for game.

The Wellington Arch was extensively restored by English Heritage between 1999 and 2001. It is now open to the public, who can see a view of the parks from its platforms above the porticoes.

More information: Royal Parks

The surname Foster is a variation of the name Forster, meaning one who works in the forest. It may also derive from the French forcetier, meaning maker of scissors.

The Foster surname is predominantly English, where it has been recorded in use from the 1100s onwards. Foster derives as an occupational surname from a number of sources. Firstly it comes from a forester, the name for a forest warden or gamekeeper. Secondly the surname Foster is believed to derive from the Old English Forseter (shearer), given to those who shear sheep and their descendants. Most rarely, Foster has been hypothesised to relate to a 'fosterer', someone who feeds and looks after children in place of their parents.

More information: Forebears

 It came to me that Hyde Park

has never belonged to London
–that it has always been, in spirit, 

a stretch of countryside;
and that it links the Londons 

of all periods together most magically
–by remaining forever unchanged at the heart 

of a ever-changing town.

Dodie Smith