Re: Baker St. memorial.
E27002
> "Charlie Hulme" <i...@davenportstation.org.uk> wrote in message
>
> news:gHWIm.27078$6O1....@newsfe08.ams2...
>
>
>
>
>
> > DB. wrote:
> >> A letter appears in The Telegraph today saying:
>
> >> SIR - In Baker Street underground station, a fine marble war memorial
> >> is
> >> passed by thousands every day. It is now dirty and decrepit.
>
> >> Perhaps someone here can link us to a photograph?
>
> >http://www.flickr.com/photos/mynameismisty/3364028830/
>
> > It's the Metropolitan Railway's memorial, designed by Charles W Clark,
> > unveiled on 11 November 1920. The collection box for veterans adjacent
> > is made from a 12" shell.
>
> >http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/conMemorial.3090
>
> > Charlie
>
> Thanks, Charlie. I couldn't have hoped for a better (or quicker) reply.
>
Beautiful inscription:
'The men from the service of The Metropolitan Railway Company whose
names are inscribed below were among those who, at the call of King
and Country left all that was dear to them endured hardness faced
danger, and finally passed out of sight of men by the path of duty and
self-sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in
freedom ... let those that come after see to it that their names are
not forgotten' ... the memorial was 'erected by the directors,
officers and staff of the railway'
It is shameful that this memorial has been allowed to deteriorate.
E27002
> > A letter appears in The Telegraph today saying:
>
> > SIR - In Baker Street underground station, a fine marble war memorial is
> > passed by thousands every day. It is now dirty and decrepit.
>
> > was unaffordable at £10,000. I told him I would polish the big brass
> > shield, whose engraving is scarcely legible for filth. He said he would
> > do it himself, in a week or so. Lest he forget, before Remembrance
> > Sunday, I shall be there with my Brasso.
>
> > Penrose Halson
>
> The Great Central war memorial appears to be well looked after by the
> members of the Great Central Society
> <http://johnlawontherails.fotopic.net/p58236561.html>
Indeed it is. Although I believe it has moved from its original site
at Sheffield. Saddly the GCR's other memorial 6165 "Valour" is no
longer with us.
Mai...@aol.com
>
> - Show quoted text -
The encoraging news is that someone wrote a letter to the "Telegraph
about this during the week, and said that the T.F.L. staff member he
spoke to said he would be personally polishing the plaque before
Sunday. The letter-writer also added that he'd be turning up with his
tin of Brasso, just in case the staff member forgot to do it!
M.M.
D7666
> > > > SIR - In Baker Street underground station, a fine marble war memorial is
> > > > passed by thousands every day. It is now dirty and decrepit.
> > > > A friendly Transport for London official told me that the cost of repair
> > > > was unaffordable at 10,000. I told him I would polish the big brass
> > > > shield, whose engraving is scarcely legible for filth. He said he would
> > > > do it himself, in a week or so. Lest he forget, before Remembrance
> > > > Sunday, I shall be there with my Brasso.
> The encoraging news is that someone wrote a letter to the "Telegraph
> about this during the week, and said that the T.F.L. staff member he
> spoke to said he would be personally polishing the plaque before
> Sunday. The letter-writer also added that he'd be turning up with his
> tin of Brasso, just in case the staff member forgot to do it!
What is the point of restating everthing that was in the OP msg in
this thread ?
--
Nick
Paul Terry
>What is the point of restating everthing that was in the OP msg in
>this thread ?
Probably because the original message was not posted in two of the news
groups that replies have now been cross-posted to.
(Cross-posting often causes this sort of problem, especially when the
original message was not cross-posted)
--
Paul Terry
Robert Coe
The best such inscription I ever saw is in the lobby of a building at Yale
University, where I went to college: "To the men of Yale who gave their lives
in the Civil War, the University has dedicated this memorial, that their high
devotion may live in all her sons and that the bonds which now unite the Land
may endure." Brief but well stated.
Alas, that inscription has also been allowed to deteriorate. It's inlaid (in a
contrasting color) in a marble floor with high pedestrian traffic and has
become quite worn. When I was there fifty years ago, it was prominent; now
some of it is hard to read. It was followed by a verse from a poem lamenting
the Civil War, and that has been all but obliterated.
Bob
Ob tr cont: One wing of that building is a huge rectangular marble dining hall
with a row of doors on each of its long sides. It looks like nothing so much
as an early-20th-century railroad station, with the doors being the gates to
the tracks.
Basil Jet
>
> Ob tr cont: One wing of that building is a huge rectangular marble
> dining hall with a row of doors on each of its long sides. It looks
> like nothing so much as an early-20th-century railroad station, with
> the doors being the gates to the tracks.
This reminds me of Barnet's "Spice Carriage" restaurant, which makes good
use of a ridiculously narrow site by decorating it like a carriage from the
Orient Express.
http://toptable.typepad.com/.a/6a0115703d2554970b011572460084970b-pi
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=51.653402,-0.201015&spn=0,359.98071&z=16&layer=c&cbll=51.653348,-0.200871&panoid=DT0sDWsiFEN0rWC4wNDJ1w&cbp=12,350.78,,0,11.08
--
We are the Strasbourg. Referendum is futile.
John B
<jo...@journeyflow.spamspam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Robert Coe wrote:
>
> > Ob tr cont: One wing of that building is a huge rectangular marble
> > dining hall with a row of doors on each of its long sides. It looks
> > like nothing so much as an early-20th-century railroad station, with
> > the doors being the gates to the tracks.
>
> This reminds me of Barnet's "Spice Carriage" restaurant, which makes good
> use of a ridiculously narrow site by decorating it like a carriage from the
> Orient Express.
Ha, that's absolutely excellent stuff. I knew I was missing
*something* by seldom venturing into the outer suburbs...
--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org
Basil Jet
I don't know how well the picture captures it, but the experience of
stepping out of the high street into a railway carriage is genuinely
startling.
Chris Tolley
> that inscription has also been allowed to deteriorate. It's inlaid (in
> a contrasting color) in a marble floor with high pedestrian traffic
> and has become quite worn. When I was there fifty years ago, it was
> prominent; now some of it is hard to read. It was followed by a verse
> from a poem lamenting the Civil War, and that has been all but
> obliterated.
Some folk might view that as a healthy way to install a memorial of that
nature. It is after all, only truly a \memorial\ only for as long as
there are still people around who can put faces to the names, and that
is becoming a dwindlingly small number in the case of WW2, is more or
less zero for WW1, and has been zero for the US Civil War for pretty
well a century. Once everyone with the memory stirred by the memorial
has gone, it is just a list of names.
The problem with attempting to keep alive the memories of conflicts for
much longer than the lifetimes of those who actually endured them is
that after a while the wrong messages can be sent, and names such as
Bannockburn, the Boyne and so on end up as rallying calls for a whole
new generation of people with too little perspective and too much hot
blood.
--
http://gallery120232.fotopic.net/p9633069.html
(50 018 under the imposing cliffs at Dawlish, Sep 1984)
Robert Coe
(ukonline really)> wrote:
: Robert Coe wrote:
:
: > that inscription has also been allowed to deteriorate. It's inlaid (in
: > a contrasting color) in a marble floor with high pedestrian traffic
: > and has become quite worn. When I was there fifty years ago, it was
: > prominent; now some of it is hard to read. It was followed by a verse
: > from a poem lamenting the Civil War, and that has been all but
: > obliterated.
:
: Some folk might view that as a healthy way to install a memorial of that
: nature. It is after all, only truly a \memorial\ only for as long as
: there are still people around who can put faces to the names, and that
: is becoming a dwindlingly small number in the case of WW2, is more or
: less zero for WW1, and has been zero for the US Civil War for pretty
: well a century. Once everyone with the memory stirred by the memorial
: has gone, it is just a list of names.
Maybe, but virtually every American but the most recent immigrzants had at
least one ancestor killed in the Civil War. (The grandchildren of those
immigrants probably will too; the "melting pot" is still very much in
operation.) And interest in Civil War history hasn't waned much over the
years.
: The problem with attempting to keep alive the memories of conflicts for
: much longer than the lifetimes of those who actually endured them is
: that after a while the wrong messages can be sent, and names such as
: Bannockburn, the Boyne and so on end up as rallying calls for a whole
: new generation of people with too little perspective and too much hot
: blood.
Yes, as has been repeatedly pointed out, those who refuse to learn from
history are doomed to repeat it. And alas, you don't even have to wait for the
participants to die off. How, for example, is it possible that we Americans
forgot the lessons of Vietnam so quickly?
Bob
damdu...@yahoo.co.uk
<cj.t...@bogus.co.uk (ukonline really)> wrote:
>Robert Coe wrote:
>
>> that inscription has also been allowed to deteriorate. It's inlaid (in
>> a contrasting color) in a marble floor with high pedestrian traffic
>> and has become quite worn
>
>Some folk might view that as a healthy way to install a memorial of that
>nature. It is after all, only truly a \memorial\ only for as long as
>there are still people around who can put faces to the names, and that
>is becoming a dwindlingly small number in the case of WW2, is more or
>less zero for WW1, and has been zero for the US Civil War for pretty
>well a century.
Not really a Century for the US Civil war, the last Union Veteran died
about 1956 ,last Confederate 1958. Presumably as is the way of
these things there were a fair no that survived to the 1930's and some
long lived ones who made it a further 20 years. Either way there must
be a reasonable no of people around 80 ish who as a child would have
had a Grandad who served in that conflict. By some convoluted method
involving remarriage the last widows pension was paid until 2004.
I agree with your point though.
G.Harman
Arthur Figgis
> On Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:19:37 +0000, Chris Tolley <cj.t...@bogus.co.uk
> (ukonline really)> wrote:
> : Robert Coe wrote:
> :
> : > that inscription has also been allowed to deteriorate. It's inlaid (in
> : > a contrasting color) in a marble floor with high pedestrian traffic
> : > and has become quite worn. When I was there fifty years ago, it was
> : > prominent; now some of it is hard to read. It was followed by a verse
> : > from a poem lamenting the Civil War, and that has been all but
> : > obliterated.
> :
> : Some folk might view that as a healthy way to install a memorial of that
> : nature. It is after all, only truly a \memorial\ only for as long as
> : there are still people around who can put faces to the names, and that
> : is becoming a dwindlingly small number in the case of WW2, is more or
> : less zero for WW1, and has been zero for the US Civil War for pretty
> : well a century. Once everyone with the memory stirred by the memorial
> : has gone, it is just a list of names.
>
> Maybe, but virtually every American but the most recent immigrzants had at
> least one ancestor killed in the Civil War.
I once knew one who said her ancestor had been killed in the War of
Northern Aggression, and spent an evening and a few bottles of beer
explaining why we shouldn't call it a civil war. :-)
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK
Free Lunch
<afi...@example.com.invalid> wrote in misc.transport.urban-transit:
Indeed, it was a war of regional secession, though those are all called
civil wars.
Free Lunch
wrote in misc.transport.urban-transit:
at least if the region loses the war.
Chris Tolley
> Not really a Century for the US Civil war, the last Union Veteran died
> about 1956 ,last Confederate 1958. Presumably as is the way of
> these things there were a fair no that survived to the 1930's and some
> long lived ones who made it a further 20 years. Either way there must
> be a reasonable no of people around 80 ish who as a child would have
> had a Grandad who served in that conflict. By some convoluted method
> involving remarriage the last widows pension was paid until 2004.
My "pretty well a century" was a finger-in-the-air job. I'm genuinely
surprised that the veterans lasted that long.
--
http://gallery120232.fotopic.net/p13857145.html
("Europe's Heaviest Train" plaque on 59 005 at Merehead, 26 Jun 1994)