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CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL APTG 30TH PARTY - DEVELOPMENT THIS AUTUMN LAST CHANCE TO BOOK! Two of the topics on the upcoming CPD programme Hitchock (left) & The Ripper’s victims (right) Haberdasher’s Hall

APTG’s thirtieth anniversary party takes The CPD team has done us proud yet again, as have our very own BBTGs place on Thursday 17 October at the who have offered a multitude of ideas. We have a great programme lined Haberdasher’s Hall. The final deadline for up for this autumn with a variety of subjects that should appeal to most, booking tickets is Friday 4 October. For those interested in upgrading their site experiences we have talks on Proceedings start at 6pm with a drinks the Victorians at the V&A and a refresher in the Sainsbury Wing at the reception. We will then enjoy a sit-down three (they do keep swapping round those paintings!). You can course dinner when we will be entertained by also add to your Tower knowledge with a ghostly walk outside the Tower guest speaker Colonel Richard Harrold OBE of led by our favourite Raven Master, Chris Skaife. CVO, a retired Tower Governor and Keeper For those interested in delving into the world of our non-native language of Her Majesties Jewel House. speakers, the French connection (but spoken in English) will be To purchase your ticket to the party, simply represented by two fascinating insights into paintings at the National make a bank transfer of the total amount due Gallery and the , and there will be an entertaining talk (£50 per ticket) to the HSBC Social Account. about the lives of Russian oligarchs and Russian connections in London. Please ensure you put as the reference your 'Surname' and '30th' so that we are clear of If you fancy something a little less 'worthy' join us on an intriguing walk the purpose for the payment. We will then and tube adventure looking at the history of one of our most famous film contact you to confirm your tickets are celebrities, Alfred Hitchcock, just a short hop east of the centre. booked. If you have not had confirmation We have a controversial session booked with Alice Procter, the art historian within a week please do get in touch. and enthusiast, to discuss the subjects of curation, stolen art and repatriation - that should be an interesting Q&A! (See below also.) And we are very pleased to welcome Hallie Rubenhold to talk about her book The Five about the lives of Jack the Ripper's victims. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS APTG’S Annual General Meeting will be on Look out for the inserts with the full programme, the go-live date, and Tuesday 10 December at the Unite Office. instructions concerning our new booking system which should be even It is an all-day meeting starting at 11:00 am. easier to use. The Institute of Tourist Guiding AGM will be held in Bristol on Thursday 14 November. Sue Hadley, CPD Chair (With thanks to Alex Hetherington, Sue Bingham & Paula Cooze.) Also in this issue: NEXT MEMBERS OPEN MEETING CHAIR’S LETTER - PAGE 2 The next Members Open Meeting will be held on Tuesday 8 October at 6:30 pm in the Unite Office. WEARING THE BADGE - PAGE 3 The meeting will begin with a talk by Alice Procter THE EAST BANK - PAGES 4/5 (pictured right) of Uncomfortable Art Tours on the GUIDING NEWS - PAGE 6 dubious acquisition of some of our major art works. TALK OF THE TOWN - PAGE 8

ASSOCIATION OFASSOCIATION PROFESSIONAL OF PROFESSIONALTOURIST GUIDES TOURIST GUIDES www.guidelondon.org.ukwww.guidelondon.org.uk September 2019 October 2019 Union news LETTER FROM THE CHAIR Like many of us I am a member of several guiding organisations - APTG (of course) and the Guild, the ITG and most recently the City Guide Lecturers Association. I have also been thinking about what each organisation offers for my membership fee in the run up to our AGM and the preceding Strategy Day. We are planning ahead what we want to develop and put forward for 2020. We need to offer value for money - for information, updates and work. We want to offer stimulating and useful CPDs, a regular magazine and an up to date website. Both the APTG and the Guild earn their keep as they provide work opportunities: after all it only takes one job to pay for the whole year’s subscription. We need to be open to questions and our regular Members Open Meetings with speakers have proved popular with APTG members. Recent talks by the Ravenmaster and the Jewel House Curator have attracted record attendances. Our website is under new management and visitor traffic is increasing each and every month. We are developing web pages in languages other than English - our first ones in French will be shown at our AGM. We recognise that over half of our membership guide in languages other than English. We recognise this and are changing the way we do things to reflect our membership. The ITG are currently communicating to every major tourist site in the UK and encouraging them to use the ITG ID Badge as an additional way of confirming that guides are professional and accredited. The primary relationship sites have is with their site liaison guide - whether APTG, Guild or both. This relationship is the strongest one and allows sites and guiding membership associations to quickly share information and resolve issues. The ITG communication builds on this relationship. However it should not mean that access to tourist sites is limited only to ITG members carrying their ITG card. Many APTG (and Guild) members have been blue badge guides for thirty plus years and have chosen not to join the ITG for a number of reasons. We must be careful not to push them out of the profession and from the opportunity of earning their living. The ITG card is welcomed as a way of deterring unqualified guides, free tours and operators falsely advertising that their tours are led by BBTGs. We should be careful not to harm the employment opportunities for badge holders in the process. Finally I am pleased to report APTG colleagues that our office stalwart Anna is recovering well from her operation earlier this year and is now resting at home. Sara Colclough has stepped into the breach and is doing an outstanding job covering the office and the myriad of enquiries that arrive each day. If you want to send a get well card to Anna please send it to the office and we will forward the mail sack on to her. Kind regards, Nick Hancock

GUIDE LONDON REPORT YOUR BRANCH COUNCIL There were 23,618 visitors in August, the eleventh consecutive month with Nick Hancock (Chair) over 20,000. To date we have had a 24% increase over last year. Ruth Polling (Secretary) Leads Alfie Talman (Treasurer) 367 leads came in August, 246 via GuideMatch forms: nine from foreign Sue Hadley (CPD) language pages, 52 via main landing page, 185 from individual tour pages. Alex Hetherington (Marketing/FEG) All 45 individual tour pages have generated at least four leads each. Edwin Lerner (Guidelines) Spam Anne Marie Walker (Membership) This continues to be a problem and we had over 1,200 spam queries via Danny Parlour (Site Liaison Co-ordinator) the Rock n Roll page before we closed the loophole. We take this issue Liz Rubenstein (Debt Recovery) very seriously and have made progress but there is clearly still more to do. Steve Szymanski (Vice Chair) Website Content Charlotte Thurlow (Social Events) One new blog post: Te n Facts About Highcle re Castle by Edwin Lerner Katie Wignall (Social Events) Major London Events Isabel Wrench (Languages) In an effort to attract more visitors we have kicked off this project and are awaiting design pages. We hope to launch it by the end of the year. Sue Hadley is in GuideMatch Leads charge of our ever Guides have complained that, despite updating their diaries, they are not popular CPD getting leads. We have made a tweak so that, when the system finds programme. guides who match search criteria, priority is given to those who have received least leads. We will monitor this to see what effect it has had. See her report Ursula Petula Barzey on page one.

2 letters from members

WEARING THE BLUE BADGE/PHOTOCARD

There were several responses from members to Mary wherever I went I was treated with respect by , Sewell’s article in the September issue. We print them churches, historic houses et al. By not wearing the badge or below. The Institute of Tourist Guiding was given the card one is reducing oneself to the same status as those we opportunity to respond to these comments. They replied are complaining about and demeaning ourselves. Do we that concerns should be raised by Institute members at really want to be lumped together with the untrained and free the Open Forum, which follows their AGM. This issue is tour guides? I don’t think so. We have not spent three or not a London regional issue but a national one. The ITG more years - and at great expense - to be classed with them AGM will be on Thursday 14 November 2019 in Bristol as we go around the UK and EU. (itg.org.uk/news-and-events/events/institute-agm-2019/). A little story: some years ago I was taking a group to Edinburgh for the Tattoo and had left my badge in the hotel. I have been very puzzled for some time by the suggestion As we arrived I was asked a question by one of my group that we should not wear our blue badge or photocard outside which I couldn’t answer and went to ask a Scottish guide who our area of qualification. It seems to me a very sad situation if promptly blanked me and refused to give me any info. The we now had to hide our blue badge instead of wearing it with following week I was doing the same tour, this time wearing pride as I have done for many decades all over the British the badge and asked another Scotland guide the same Isles. As Mary Sewell rightly points out, we obtained our question as before. This time I was not only given the info badge not just for a particular area but for knowledge on all required but invited to have a drink whilst more was subjects relating to Britain. We strive to update our explained. knowledge continuously to be able to wear the We should be proud to wear the badge wherever we badge with confidence. Therefore we should go as it shows experience & professionalism. The welcome and respect any wearer of the blue ITG should be castigated for even thinking of this badge and not see them as competition. Of ridiculous idea. course, we also have to abide by restrictions not to Leon Preston guide in the few places where we are specifically excluded. But that should not mean that we have to hide our own badge. ‘CLAPHAM’ CORRECTION It is so important to wear our blue badge or There are a few errors in the piece on Oscar Wilde photocard wherever we are to identify us and the standard of (September issue). Clapham Junction station is in Battersea professionalism within the tourist industry. As Mary also in the London Borough of Wandsworth The idea for the points out, we have to demonstrate by wearing the blue plaque came from Wandsworth LBGTQ during a screening of badge our training and qualification to other tour managers Rupert Everett’s The Happy Prince which depicts the who do not have them. homophobic abuse at the station. The plaque was unveiled Sonja Park by the Mayor of Wandsworth. Most of the village/neighbourhood/district of Clapham is in I would fully support Mary Sewell’s comments. I am of the the London Borough of Lambeth, though the borough opinion that we never really work just as a tour manager. boundary does cut across , and part of With our training we can explain the Anglican religion, how Clapham is in Wandsworth. Wandsworth Prison is in our churches work, explain architecture, interpret our mindset Wandsworth. There is no borough of Clapham or Mayor of to our German clients. We also act as interpreters at the Clapham. ‘Clapham’ hasn’t apologised to Oscar Wilde. I think various sites where they need the information. Often there as guides we should try to get these things right! are no materials in German as well as no audio guides at Liz du Parcq certain busy times at the sites. Added to this, we often act as SatNavs to our foreign drivers (I would never dare ask for the foreign coach fee – that would TOURIST GUIDES OR TOUR GUIDES? preclude me from being booked). I am puzzled why our chairman in his letter from the Chair Our Blue Badge training really enhances our delivery to our (September issue) designates APTG members as tour clients in many parts of the country. guides rather than using the correct designation. Professional London Blue Badge guides are tourist guides and referring to Sonya Grist us as tour guides belittles our qualifications. I would refer him to the website of the World Federation of Tourist Guides You asked for comments re the wearing of the badge and ID Associations, of which APTG I believe is a member, and the card out of area. I for one am completely against this. The definition EN13809 2003/ENISO 18513 2003 adopted by badge, whatever area it was issued for, is the only way that WFTGA at its 10th International Conference held in the UK in the wearer can be recognized as a genuine guide. Whilst I 2003. was working as a tour manager I always wore the badge and Dafydd Wyn Phillips MITG

ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL TOURIST GUIDES 3 www.guidelondon.org.uk October 2019 guiding news

THE EAST BANK Pamela McCutcheon looks at new developments in the Olympic Park

Anyone walking into Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from Stratford Westfield Centre will notice a lot of construction work along the Stratford Waterfront to the right of the main walkway into the Park. This was the site of the temporary during the Games in 2012. We were told by the then Olympic Park Legacy Company, now the London Legacy Development Corporation, that this area would be home to a new creative district. Names such as ‘Olympicopolis’ were mentioned, drawing parallels with South and the legacy of the Great Exhibition in 1851. It is great to see these plans being fulfilled. This ambitious project has a new name, the East Bank, complementing other major cultural and education centres in London, such as the South Bank. Over the coming years, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will welcome new sites for Sadler’s Wells, BBC Music and the V&A (in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution), as well as University College London and University of the Arts London's College of Fashion. Loughborough London, UCL School of Architecture & Engineering, Wayne McGregor Dance Studios, BT Sports, Lorca Cyber Security are just some of the institutions already based in the Park at Here East (the former International Broadcast Centre). Creativity and innovation are not new to this part of London and East Bank is set to prioritise culture, education, collaboration and innovation. One The proposed new BBC centre in East Park Sadler’s Wells East will open a 550-seat theatre in 2022 and (Photo from Olympic Park website establish a new centre for choreographic practice and a hip hop academy. Some of today’s most exciting dance is Locating on East Bank will provide opportunities for being created specifically for mid-size spaces so the new collaboration and to build a different community focused on theatre will offer a platform for mid-scale companies to tour fashion but with lots of influences from their new neighbours in London and for UK audiences to experience the most and from the local area. Digital developers will be able to innovative choreography made today. As well as a fully work alongside designers; psychologists will collaborate equipped auditorium, the new venue will include six studios with image creators and marketing theorists will join forces and support facilities for artist development and training. with curators. It will be the first time that a range of The public areas of the new theatre will welcome people disciplines will be connecting together under one roof. throughout the day The V&A East project will create two ambitious and A year-round programme of dance will be on offer featuring complementary sites, a brand-new museum at East Bank local artists and international companies plus special family on Stratford Waterfront and a new collection and research events at Christmas and Easter. Sadler’s Wells are centre at Here East. Due to open in 2023, the V&A will host expanding their learning and engagement programmes for a unique partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, the schools and communities in the east London boroughs. largest museum and research complex in the world. In 2022 London College of Fashion will be opening its doors At Here East, visitors will be invited on behind-the-scenes in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The move will finally visits revealing how and why objects are collected, how they bring their 6,500 students plus staff together onto one are cared for, conserved, researched and displayed. The campus. Their new building is being designed by architects centre will be a purpose-built home for 250,000 objects and Allies and Morrison to become a 21st century workshop, its an additional 917 archives spanning the breadth of the design inspired by the 19th century mill buildings common collections. With a design led by New York-based practice to many industrial cities. It will be day-lit and naturally Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the collection and research centre ventilated, with factory-like steel-framed windows, internal will bring treasures out of storage and into public view for atria for flexible learning, and lots of green spaces. the first time in generations.

4 guiding news

At Stratford Waterfront, a five-storey museum designed by Dublin-based architects O’Donnell and Toumey will provide MODERN TOPS THE LIST a panoramic view of the design world, and offer Although there is obviously an element of contemporary and cross-cultural perspectives through its guesswork in calculating visitor numbers in places diverse programming. The pioneering partnership with the which do not charge admission, now Smithsonian Institution will deliver an innovative exhibition claims to be London’s most popular attraction with programme and a jointly-curated gallery at the Waterfront, just under six million visitors a year, closely bridging art, design, science and the humanities and followed by the and the National deploying the collections of two world-renowned cultural Gallery with the Natural History Museum not far institutions. The inaugural exhibition in 2023 will be a world- behind. The is the most visited first co-production by the V&A and the Smithsonian after historic site but is beaten by the . which the Smithsonian will present one in four exhibitions at the museum. London’s top ten: Tate Modern 5.86 million British Museum 5.83 million National Gallery 5.73 million Natural History Museum 5.22 million Victoria and Albert Museum 3.96 million London Eye 3.5 million (estimated) Science Museum 3.17 million 3.14 million Tower of London 2.85 million 2.55 million.

Major guiding sites outside London: An artist’s impression of the new UCL campus Stonehenge 1.55 million 1.4 million The state of the art BBC studios on East Bank will include The Roman Baths 1.3 million. recording facilities and will be the home of the world-

renowned BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and BBC London’s major churches: Singers, with a substantial presence from the BBC Concert Arcadi Monastery Saint Paul’s Cathedral 1.66 million Orchestra. It will host recording sessions and live 1.55 million. performances across all genres from global stars to

emerging talent. These facilities, alongside an extensive Other London Museums: programme of learning and outreach projects and 2.5 million (estimated) collaborations with partners in the cultural district, will National Portrait Gallery 1.6 million contribute to establishing east London as a world The Royal Academy 1.5 million destination for music. 1.4 million University College London will create a new campus, UCL 1.3 million East, providing mutli-disciplinary research, teaching and Serpentine Gallery 1.2 million innovation, in areas such as robotics, smart cities, culture 1.06 million and conservation for around 4,000 students and 260 academicScene staff.from ThisThe willCrown be their single biggest development Other popular attractions in the London area: since the university was founded nearly 200 years ago. Gardens 1.85 million UCL’s two buildings will include cutting-edge laboratories 1.5 million (estimated) and research space, stat-of-the-art teaching facilities, 1.13 million student accommodation and accessible public spaces. The The 1.07 million campus will break down conventional barriers across Hampton Court Palace 900,000 research, education, innovation and public engagement and The Globe and both 800,000 enable local collaborations with schools, charities and community organisations. Attractions elsewhere in England: Chester Zoo 1.9 million The East Bank development is due to be completed by 2023 Windermere Lake Cruises 1.6 million and is looking to make Stratford and east London a world- RHS Gardens, Wisley 1.1 million class centre of achievement in science, technology, The Eden Project, Cornwall 1 million creativity and innovation. The London Legacy Development The Bodleian Library, Oxford 900,000 Corporation estimate that the East Bank will bring an Blenheim Palace and Longleat both 900,000. additional 1.5 million visitors to the Park and surrounding area each year, create some 2,500 jobs and generate an estimated £1.5 billion for the local economy. Figure s are for 2018, mainly from visitbritain.org

ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL TOURIST GUIDES 5 www.guidelondon.org.uk October 2019 guiding news

A NEW DICKENS PORTRAIT APPEARS ... SAUSAGES AND STEINS IN DOCKLANDS After being lost for 133 A cashless Oktoberfest comes to Docklands this year between years a portrait of the 10 October and 16 November. The festivities, which begin thirty one year old daily at 5pm, will feature live music, dancers, games and circus Charles Dickens has acts as well as German beers and sausages. Dancing (but not been acquired by the on the tables) and dressing up are encouraged - with a prize Dickens Museum in for the best costume - and there will be pink and Halloween Doughty Street and will themed events. All customers must be over eighteen and cash go on display later this willl be banned (cards only). Further details and bookings at month. With help from doktoberfest.co.uk the Lottery Heritage Fund and private BRABAZON IN BRISTOL donors, the museum raised £180,000 to buy the portrait by While only one complete example of the huge Brabazon Margaret Gillies. It was discovered in a box of trinkets costing aircraft was ever built (and that has since been scrapped) £27 at an auction in South Africa. some Brabazon parts including a propeller and wheels are on Subway at Crystdal Palace Cattle trough, Spaniard’s Road display in an exhibition at AerospaceYork UniversityBristol. The Campus plane was ... AND ENTERS THE NPG named after John Moore-Brabazon, the first person to qualify A version of Hans Holbein’s portrait of as a pilot in the UK and a friend of C.S. Rolls (of Rolls Royce Jane Seymour is now on display in fame) who was killed in a flying accident in 1910, after which Room One at the National Portrait Moore-Brabazon's wife persuaded him to give up flying. The Gallery. (The original is in Vienna.) Bristol Aerospace Museum also has an ongoing exhibition There are very few portraits of her but celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the first Concorde flight. the wood of the one acquired by the Further details at: aerospacebristol.org/whats-on RS NPG came from a tree felled in the 1530s and the underdrawing and scale GROWTH of this work are the same as the The National Trust now has five and a half original, meaning it was almost million members and spent £148 million certainly painted in Holbein’s studio. last year on conservation projects, The portrait is unfinished, possibly consisting of £104 million on buildings because of the death of the sitter in 1540 - or the artist in 1543. and collections, £35.7 million on the coast and countryside and £8.2m on gardens. THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE 65,000 volunteers give five million hours Gillian Strudwick, keeper of the Great Vine at Hampton Court, of their time every year while twenty seven million visits are oversees her final grape harvest this year. One of only ten made to 780 miles of coastline, 248,000 hectares of land and keepers of the vine since it was planted in 1768, Mrs Strudwick more than 500 historic houses, gardens and parks the Trust is due to retire after forty years in charge of what was officially looks after. named as the largest vine in the world in 2005. It is thirteen feet (four metres) around the base and the longest rod is 120 SEALS ON THE THAMES feet (36.5 metres). The average crop of grapes, which are sold The renewed health of the is demonstrated by in the palace shops, is 600 pounds (272 kilos) but the largest the fact that the estuary is now home to over 3,500 harbour crop ever was 845 pounds (383 kilos) in 2001. The vine can and grey seals, as well as porpoises, dolphins and even A Munnings portrait grow at the rate of up to a centimetre a day. whales. The Zoological Society of London has been collecting sightings since 2004 and they have been seen as far as HOLIDAYS OF THE FUTURE upriver as Richmond. ZSL asks everyone who sees a marine One in two people will take a foreign holiday in 2050 mammal to report it at zsl.org. (compared to one in seven today) according to the book Tomorrow’s Tourism by Ian Yeoman This could lead to five AGINCOURT MUSEUM billion travellers a year. They may, however, have to pay fees Brigitte Macron, wife of the French President, has opened a and face limitations as cities like Barcelona and Venice take new Centre for Medieval History at Agincourt, site of the steps to limit tourists and Bhutan charges $200 a day to famous battle in 1415. Agincourt (Azincourt in France) has visitors in order to protect their local environment. Short city gone down in history as a great English victory against the breaks are likely to grow in popularity while, with more people odds, thanks to Shakespeare’s play He nry V and the film of it working remotely, the boundaries between work and travel made by Laurence Olivier in 1944. Modern historians have become blurred. Remote tourism could increase, as could questioned the idea that the French army outnumbered space tourism with Virgin Galactic aiming to offer suborbital Henry’s by five to one and that the English archers were drawn gravity free flights. The super rich may even head for the moon exclusively from the lower ranks of society. The museum’s with one millionaire reportedly already having paid $20 million director Christophe Gilliot, hopes that they can encourage a to walk on the moon’s surface. MS new era of Franco-British co-operation and understanding.

6 guiding news

A NEW GOVERNOR AT THE TOWER A NEW DISPLAY AT HAMPTON COURT We welcome Andrew Jackson The Bacton Altar Cloth will be on show at Apartment 14, CBE as the new Governor of the Clock Court from 12 October until 23 February next year. It Tower of London. Andrew joined comes from the Grade Two listed St Faith’s church in the in May Welsh Marches in Bacton, Herefordshire. The church is 2019 after more than thirty three mostly thirteenth century with later additions including a years in the army. He has worked tower of the late sixteenth century, a bequest from Blanche in the Ministry of Defence twice, Parry’s brother, Symond. The yew tree in the church yard and, following a year in could be 1350 years old, showing that this was a sacred site Afghanistan as Deputy for longer than the church has been here. Commander of Task Force Inside is a surprising monument to Blanche Parry, Chief Helmand in 2011/12, was awarded a Queen’s Gentlewoman of the Bedchamber and Keeper of the Commendation for Valuable Service. On promotion to Queen’s Jewels for . She served her with loyalty Brigadier he was the Director of Operations for the Army and discretion, never marrying and becoming a close Recruiting and Training Division before a short period on confidant until the queen died. Blanche wanted to be buried secondment to the Cabinet Office. His final role in the Army in Bacton and so this magnificent tomb was erected, but it is was as Chief Training and Force Development for empty. Blanche was buried in St Margaret’s Westminster. Headquarters, Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, a NATO HQ based in Gloucester. Andrew designed and managed a The empty tomb in Bacton shows the first known iconic programme to change the role of the HQ, including the representation of Elizabeth as “Gloriana”, the title from delivery of a series of major training events. He was Edmund Spenser’s allegorical poem The Fae rie Que e n. The appointed CBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours List. A Queen kneels as St Faith holding an orb with Blanche Parry history graduate from the University of York, Andrew has a on her right. One of the perks of being Chief Gentlewoman MA in Military Studies and is a Member of the Royal College of the Bedchamber was to be given Elizabeth’s discarded of Defence Studies. He remains Colonel in the Yorkshire clothing. The Bacton Altar Cloth was long thought to have Regiment and Chairman of the Regiment’s Trustees until connections with Elizabeth. This has been proven by 2021 and is a Trustee of the Army Sailing Association. NH curators at Hampton Court and it is now insured for over £1m. It had been on show at the church from 1909, although WOMEN PIONEERS TO APPEAR AT LSHTM in their possession for 400 years. The cloth has floral patterns and is made of the finest silver chamblet silk with embroidery in both gold and silver thread. Tudor law decreedGlenfinnan that only the Viaducthighest levels near of nobilityFort andWilliama royals could wear a dress containing gold and silver. Details include flora and fauna such as daffodils, roses, honeysuckle, oak-leaves, acorns, mistletoe, columbine, vines, dogs, squirrels, butterflies, stags, fish and frogs. There are even miniature rowing boats. After three years of conservation and research, the team at Hampton Court Florence Nightingale Marie Curie Alice Ball Palace, led by Eleri Lynn, discovered that expensive indigo and red dyes sourced from Mexico were used in the dress. The names of Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie and Alice Also on diisplay is the Ball will be added to the façade of the London School of Rainbow Portrait (c 1600- Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to mark its120th anniversary, 1602) attributed to Marcus the first women to be included amongst the previously all- Gheeraerts the Younger and male carvings. They were selected by university staff who commissioned by Robert were invited to nominate female pioneers of tropical Cecil for , medicine who were contemporaries of men already on the from where it is on loan. It ninety year old frieze. Their names will be displayed above shows Elizabeth wearing a those of Sir John Pringle, Thomas Sydenham and James gown similar to the altar Lind, Louis Pasteur and Edward Jenner. Ball was a chemist cloth. There will also be who developed an injection to treat leprosy while Curie was some rare domestic print the first female recipient of a Nobel prize and the only person books from the Tudor period to win two in different scientific fields. VH together with other period embroidery work. Amongst NESSIE IS AN EEL the women at the Tudor Research into the DNA found in the waters of Loch Ness has court embroidery acted as found no trace of a monster. Instead scientists believe (s)he team building and their work may be a giant eel, a species that travels to Scotland from would often include secret symbolism and codes from the the Bahamas 3,000 miles (5,000 kms) away. Elizabethan period. JH

ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL TOURIST GUIDES 7 www.guidelondon.org October 2019 TALK OF THE TOWN Augusta Harris looks at the origin of place names

The oldest place names come from the landscape Places named after trades As the last ice sheet retreated 10,000 years ago humans began What do Croydon and to repopulate the British Isles and to label things they saw. Places Saffron Walden have in named after local geographical features are the oldest type of common? It is all to do names in both the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon languages. crocuses. Croydon comes Rivers: Some names are uninterpretable – Severn, Test, Itchen from the Latin word crocus, and Trent. Some are built into place names like Exmouth (mouth borrowed into Old English of the River Ex) and with a slightly different Hills may contain the suffix ‘don’ an old word for ‘hill’ (Wimbledon, pronunciation, and don Huntingdon). Pen means ‘head’ in Welsh and is used to name (valley). It looks like Romans hilly places. came over with the crocus, Valleys: dale, dean, dene, combe, coombe, slad or slade all which is not native to the UK, relate to valleys (eg. Rottingdean). A ‘bottom’ (eg. Ramsbottom) and planted it in this valley. almost always means valley. During the Crusades Brits Fords: Places with shallow river crossings: eg Stamford. travelled to the Middle East Rocks: What does the Cloud in Temple Cloud mean? Not what where they picked crocus you might expect. In Old English it means a towering rock or a plants with the Arabic name saffron, hence Saffron Walden where precipice, only recently meaning the fluffy white things in the sky. they were planted. Islands often end in y, ey or ea like Lundy (puffin island), Mersea Billericay is in Essex (there were others in Kent, Wiltshire and in Essex (mere island), or Isle of Sheppey in Kent (sheep island). Somerset). The word means tanning house. Surprisingly, it comes Berry or bury was used to describe the site of a hill fort, places from an Indian word meaning the fruit of a particular tree, which often being named after things added by our ancestors. was dried and brought to England as a source of black dye Ton: a name ending in ton refers to a farmstead or village. Wich, wych or wick: This relates to some sort of specialised farm Places where it was hard to make a living and turns up in places like Droitwich, Nantwich, and also the There is actually a village in Durham named Pity Me and the in London. English name Starve-acre is a place where it was hard to prosper. Ham has two origins, from the old English word for a big farm, or the word for a smaller feature like pasture on the edge of a river, Not all Latin place names are because of the Romans particularly on a meander. Places named by the Romans include Catterick in North By is a Viking ton, the Norse word for a farmstead or small village, Yorkshire, which evolved out of the Roman settlement frequently used in Norfolk, Lincolnshire and up into Yorkshire (eg. Cataractonium. We were all taught at school about Cesters and Whitby) where the Vikings landed. Casters: Leicester, Bicester, Lancaster, and Cirencester. Toft is the Viking word for a smallholding (Lowestoft). It came into However, William, Duke of Normandy’s administration surveyed English as a legal term: you held toft and croft if you had a portion the country for tax purposes and wrote down place names in of land where you built a house. Medieval Latin. Weston-Super-Mare provides an example of this: Thwaite is a Viking word for a settlement in a clearing in a forest. the Latin word mare is used instead of sea. Places named after people 3 Savile Row Our names are more German than French Personal names are part of the typology of place naming, most Germanic and Saxon settlers had more of an influence on our added by English speakers and built into words that represent place names than the French. But you do see the impact of the settlement or landscape features.Birmingham, Brighton and Normans in other ways. Sometimes they could not get their Bedminster all combine English words like ham and ton with the heads, or tongues, around local pronunciation. Nottingham was names of individuals. Brighton is the settlement of someone originally Snottingham; because the French do not have words whose name amounted to the word bright, plus the word helmet. that start with Sn, the S disappeared. What a shame: Snottingham There are enough Kingstons and Bishopstones to make us think does have a certain ring to it! it was important people who had places named after them.

Thanks to Sue Hadley, Nick Hancock, Augusta Harris, Victoria Herriot, Jo Hoad, Pamela McCutcheon, Mary Sewell, Richard Smart and all other contributors

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