AT the end of his reign, Henry VIII was planning to
demolish Whitehall Palace and create an entirely new and
triumphant building along the waterfront, it has emerged
for the first time.
Nobody had realised that the King was planning such an
extraordinary scheme - one that was never realised
because he died in 1547, shortly after building work had
begun.
The discovery was made by Simon Thurley, Director of
the Museum of London. The King's lavish spending on
Nonsuch and Hampton Court Palaces is well
documented, Dr Thurley explains, but "what no one knew
until now was that the last great work was Whitehall.
It would have been an absolutely massive building, a
gigantic feat of engineering - an imposing brick and stone
palace punctuated by a series of bay windows along its
entire length, some 512 ft. It was a massive reclamation
job covering around 4,000 square yards of Thames
foreshore."
The accounts describe the dismantling of the former river
wall: "Pulling downe of old stone walls at the said lodging."
The new palace, Dr Thurley says, would have set it apart
from every other building in London in terms of its size
and magnificence to be admired from the river - the Tudor
equivalent of "the M25, where everyone went up and
down".
A 1683 painting in the Royal Collection of the Lord
Mayor's procession on the Thames is set against the
Whitehall Palace. The left of the building, Dr Thurley has
now realised, illustrates the beginning of the new palace, a
tantalising hint at how the entire building would have
looked if Henry VIII (1491-1547) had lived to complete
it.
Whitehall Palace was the main residence of the British
monarchy from 1529 to 1698, when it was largely
destroyed by fire. It had been the London residence of the
Archbishops of York since 1245.
Cardinal Wolsey enlarged the mansion and lived there
until his fall, when Henry VIII acquired it. Today, the site -
between the Thames and the present-day St James's Park
- lies beneath the Ministry of Defence.
That no plans for its reconstruction have survived is not
unusual: we have none from Henry's reign. The clues to
the building lie in previously unpublished archaeological
evidence and the financial records held in the Public
Record Office.
In the last seven years of his reign Henry spent £28,676 -
many millions of pounds in today's money - on Whitehall
when the whole of Nonsuch had cost £24,000 and
Bridewell Palace only £22,000. Documents list £2,222
for timber, £3,101 for ironwork and £3,514 for labourers.
He hurled money in the early 1530s at Hampton Court.
"He spent colossal sums there and at Nonsuch. But he
had nothing in town that matched them.
Dr Thurley, author of an extensive study, Whitehall
Palace, published by Yale University Press, says: "He
was spending huge amounts on money, plundering
everywhere for building materials. He was knocking down
monasteries, dragging lead off churches.
"He was a huge cannibaliser of other London buildings.
What we've unravelled in putting this together was a
mega-building along the river which, sadly, he didn't live to
complete."
The King, he suggests, might have felt that the existing
Whitehall Palace was too "higgledy-piggledy" to do him
justice.
"He had the highest income of any monarch in Europe. He
was rolling in money. He'd broken with Rome. Here he
was building a monument in the centre of the capital city.
When you begin to think about it, it begins to make sense.
He had a country retreat at Nonsuch, but where was the
great metropolitan palace?"
"The French had the Louvre and the Spanish the Escorial.
Here at last is evidence that Henry intended to build
something to match his wealth and influence," says Dr
Thurley.
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Royal honour for Mandela(BBC News)
Nelson Mandela has been honoured at a
ceremony in the House of Lords.
The former South African President was made
an Honorary Queen's Counsel on Wednesday -
an award usually given to academic lawyers in
recognition of their work.
But the Queen gave her permission for Mr
Mandela to receive the honour as a special
tribute to his role as a reconciler in
post-apartheid South Africa.
He has already held a meeting with Prime
Minister Tony Blair to discuss the peace
process in the central African country of
Burundi.
A spokesman for the
Prime Minister said Mr
Mandela was closely
following moves
towards peace in
Burundi, which has
seen ethnic strife
between Tutsi and
Hutu residents.
At the Downing Street
talks Mr Blair
announced an extra
£100,000 in aid
towards conflict resolution in Burundi.
It is understood that the political violence over
land reform in Zimbabwe was not on the
agenda for the meeting.
He later met the Queen for tea at Buckingham
Palace.
Mr Mandela's visit to the UK comes on the day
that the trial of the Lockerbie bombing
suspects begins.
The African statesman brokered the deal which
saw Libya hand over the two accused men for
trial under Scottish law in the Netherlands.
Mr Mandela will pay a courtesy visit to the
Queen before returning to South Africa on
Thursday.
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Duke Receives Award For Windsor Castle Restoration(Yahoo: PA)
The Duke of Edinburgh has accepted a prestigious international award for his part in the restoration of
fire damage at Windsor Castle.
On the spot where the fire began on November 20, 1992, the Duke, who headed a rebuilding
committee, received the 1999 Europa Nostra Medal.
He recalled that the blaze, which severely damaged nine major rooms and more than 100 lesser
apartments, happened on his 45th wedding anniversary.
"I happened to be in Buenos Aires, chairing the World Wildlife Fund's annual conference," the Duke says.
"I was told, during a coffee break, that Windsor Castle was on fire - then I had to go back in and continue with the
conference."
With the Prince of Wales heading a design sub-committee, which decided to make improvements during the restoration work,
which took five years and cost £36.6 million.
Staff accommodation, which had been like a "medieval monastery", was transformed into "three or four-star hotel
accommodation", says the Duke.
Outdated catering facilities have also been upgraded for state banquets, he says - although there were "some occasional
hiccups" during the restoration.
The company installing intricate wooden columns in the octagonal Lantern Lobby suffered a fire in their workshops which
destroyed three of the columns.
Europa Nostra, a pan-European federation for preserving heritage, also made awards to four other UK projects, including a
diploma for the restoration of London's Albert Memorial.