Sandringham House

Sandringham House is a country house in the parish of Sandringham, Norfolk, England. It is the private home of Elizabeth II, whose father, George VI, and grandfather, George V, both died there. The house stands in a estate in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The house is listed as Grade II* and the landscaped gardens, park and woodlands are on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
The site has been occupied since Elizabethan times, when a large manor house was constructed. This was replaced in 1771 by a Georgian mansion for the owners, the Hoste Henleys. In 1836 Sandringham was bought by John Motteux, a London merchant, who already owned property in Norfolk and Surrey. Motteux had no direct heir, and on his death in 1843, his entire estate was left to Charles Spencer Cowper, the son of Motteux's close friend Emily Temple, Viscountess Palmerston. Cowper sold the Norfolk and the Surrey estates and embarked on rebuilding at Sandringham. He led an extravagant life, and by the early 1860s, the estate was mortgaged and he and his wife spent most of their time on the Continent.
In 1862, William Cowper, later created Lord Mount Temple, sold Sandringham and just under 8,000 acres of land to Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, as a country home for him and his future wife, Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The price paid was £220,000, which came from the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall which had accrued to the Prince while he was under-age. Between 1870 and 1900, the house was almost completely rebuilt in a style described by Pevsner as "frenetic Jacobean". Albert Edward also developed the estate, creating one of the finest shoots in England. Following his death in 1910, the estate passed to Edward's son and heir, George V, who described the house as "dear old Sandringham, the place I love better than anywhere else in the world". It was the setting for the first Christmas broadcast in 1932. George died at the house on 20 January 1936. The estate passed to his son Edward VIII and, at his abdication, as the private property of the monarch, it was purchased by Edward's brother, George VI. George was as devoted to the house as his father, writing to his mother Queen Mary, "I have always been so happy here and I love the place". He died at Sandringham on 6 February 1952.
On the King's death, Sandringham passed to his daughter Elizabeth II. The Queen spends about two months each winter on the Sandringham Estate, including the anniversary of her father's death and of her own accession in early February. In 1957 she broadcast her first televised Christmas message from Sandringham. In the 1960s, plans were drawn up to demolish the house and replace it with a modern building, but these were not carried out. In 1977, for her Silver Jubilee, the Queen opened the house and grounds to the public for the first time. Unlike the royal palaces, such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, Sandringham and Balmoral Castle are the Queen's private homes.
History.
Early history.
Sandringham is recorded in the Domesday Book as "sant-Dersingham" and the land was awarded to a Norman knight, Robert Fitz-Corbun after the Conquest. The local antiquarian Claude Messent, in his study "The Architecture on the Royal Estate of Sandringham", records the discovery of evidence of the pavements of a Roman villa. In the 15th century it was held by Anthony Woodville, Lord Scales, brother-in-law to Edward IV. In the Elizabethan era a manor was built on the site of the present house, which, by the 18th century, came into the possession of the Hoste Henley family, descendants of Dutch refugees. In 1771 Cornish Henley cleared the site to build a Georgian mansion, Sandringham Hall. In 1834, Henry Hoste Henley died without issue, and the estate was bought at auction by John Motteux, a London merchant. Motteux was also without heirs and bequeathed Sandringham, together with another Norfolk estate and a property in Surrey, to the third son of his close friend, Emily Lamb, the wife of Lord Palmerston. At the time of his inheritance in 1843, Charles Spencer Cowper was a bachelor diplomat, resident in Paris. On succeeding to Motteux's estates, he sold the other properties and based himself at Sandringham. He undertook extensions to the hall, employing Samuel Sanders Teulon to add an elaborate porch and conservatory. Cowper's style of living was extravagant—he and his wife spent much of their time on the Continent—and within 10 years the estate was mortgaged for £89,000. The death of their only child, Mary Harriette, from cholera in 1854 led the couple to spend even more time abroad, mainly in Paris, and by the early 1860s Cowper was keen to sell the estate.
Edward VII.
In 1861 Queen Victoria's eldest son and heir, Albert Edward, was approaching his twenty-first birthday. Edward's dissipated lifestyle had been disappointing to his parents, and his father, Prince Albert, thought that marriage and the purchase of a suitable establishment were necessary to ground the Prince in country life and pursuits and lessen the influence of the "Marlborough House set" with which he was involved. Albert had his staff investigate 18 possible country estates that might be suitable, including Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire and Houghton Hall in Norfolk. The need to act quickly was reinforced by the Nellie Clifden affair, when Edward's fellow officers smuggled the actress into his quarters. The possibility of a scandal was deeply concerning to his parents. Sandringham Hall was on the list of the estates considered, and a personal recommendation to the Prince Consort from the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, stepfather to the owner, swayed Prince Albert. Negotiations were only slightly delayed by Albert's death in December 1861—his widow declared, "His wishes – his plans – about everything are to be my law". Edward visited in February 1862, and a sale was agreed for the house and just under 8,000 acres of land, which was finalised that October. Queen Victoria only twice visited the house she had paid for. Over the course of the next forty years, and with considerable expenditure, Edward was to create a house and country estate that his friend Charles Carington called "the most comfortable in England".
The price paid for Sandringham, £220,000, has been described as "exorbitant". This is questioned by Helen Walch, author of the estate's recent (2012) history, who shows the detailed analysis undertaken by the Prince Consort's advisers and suggests that the cost was reasonable. The house was soon found to be too small to accommodate the Prince of Wales's establishment following his marriage in March 1863 and the many guests he was required, and desired, to entertain. In 1865, two years after moving in, the Prince commissioned A. J. Humbert to raze the original hall and create a much larger building. Humbert was an architect favoured by the royal family—"for no good reason", according to the architectural historian Mark Girouard—and had previously undertaken work for Queen Victoria at Osborne House and at Frogmore House. The new red-brick house was complete by late 1870; the only element of the original house of the Henley Hostes and the Cowpers that was retained was the elaborate conservatory designed by Teulon in the 1830s. Edward had this room converted into a billiard room. A plaque in the entrance hall records that "This house was built by Albert Edward Prince of Wales and Alexandra his wife in the year of our Lord 1870". The building was entered through a large porte-cochère straight into the main living room (the saloon), an arrangement that was subsequently found to be inconvenient. The house provided living and sleeping accommodation over three storeys, with attics and a basement. The Norfolk countryside surrounding the house appealed to Alexandra, as it reminded her of her native Denmark.
Within a decade, the house was again found to be too small, and in 1883 a new extension, the Bachelors' Wing, was constructed to the designs of a Norfolk architect, Colonel R. W. Edis. Edis also built a new billiard room and converted the old conservatory into a bowling alley. The Prince of Wales had been impressed by one he had seen at Trentham Hall, and the alley at Sandringham was modelled on an example from Rumpelheim, Germany. In 1891, during preparations for the Prince of Wales's fiftieth birthday, a serious fire broke out when maids lit all the fires in the second-floor bedrooms to warm them in advance of the Prince's arrival. Edis was recalled to undertake rebuilding and further construction. As he had with the Bachelors' Wing, Edis tried to harmonise these additions with Humbert's house by following the original Jacobethan style, and by using matching brickwork and Ketton stone.
The house was up to date in its facilities, the modern kitchens and lighting running on gas from the estate's own plant and water being supplied from the Appleton Water Tower, constructed at the highest point on the estate. The tower was designed in an Italianate style by Robert Rawlinson, and Alexandra laid the foundation stone in 1877. The Prince's efforts as a country gentleman were approved by the press of the day; a contemporary newspaper expressed a wish to ""Sandringhamize" Marlborough House—as a landlord, agriculturist and country gentleman, the Prince sets an example which might be followed with advantage".
The royal couple's developments at Sandringham were not confined to the house; over the course of their occupation, the wider estate was also transformed. Ornamental and kitchen gardens were established, employing over 100 gardeners at their peak. Many estate buildings were constructed, including cottages for staff, kennels, a school, a rectory and a staff clubhouse, the Babingley. Edward also made Sandringham one of the best sporting estates in England to provide a setting for the elaborate weekend shooting parties that became Sandringham's defining rationale. To increase the amount of daylight available during the shooting season, which ran from October to February, the Prince introduced the tradition of Sandringham Time, whereby all the clocks on the estate were set half an hour ahead of GMT. This tradition was maintained until 1936. Edward's entertaining was legendary, and the scale of the slaughter of game birds, predominantly pheasants and partridges, was colossal. The meticulously maintained game books recorded annual bags of between 6,000 and 8,000 birds in the 1870s, rising to bags of over 20,000 a year by 1900. The game larder, constructed for the storage of the carcasses, was inspired by that at Holkham Hall and was the largest in Europe.
Guests for Sandringham house parties generally arrived at Wolferton railway station, 2.5 miles from the house, travelling in royal trains that ran from St Pancras Station to King's Lynn and then on to Wolferton. The station served the house from 1862 until its closure in 1969. Thereafter, the Queen and others staying at the house have generally travelled by car from King's Lynn. Edward VII established the Sandringham stud in 1897, achieving considerable success with the racehorses Persimmon and Diamond Jubilee. Neither his son nor his grandsons evinced as much interest in horses, although the stud was maintained; but his great-granddaughter, Elizabeth II, has sought to match Edward's equestrian achievements and has bred several winners at the Sandringham Stud.
On 14 January 1892, Edward's eldest son and heir, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, died of pneumonia at the house. He is commemorated in the clock tower, which bears an inscription in Latin that translates as "the hours perish and will be charged to our account".
George V.
In his will Edward VII left his widow £200,000 and a lifetime interest in the Sandringham estate. Queen Alexandra's continued occupancy of the "big house" compelled George V, his wife, Queen Mary, and their expanding family to remain at York Cottage in the grounds, in rather "cramped" conditions. Suggestions from courtiers that Queen Alexandra might move out were firmly rebuffed by the King; "It is my mother's house, my father built it for her". The King also lacked the sociability of his father, and the shortage of space at York Cottage enabled him to limit the entertaining he undertook, with the small rooms reportedly reminding him of the onboard cabins of his naval career.
The new King's primary interests, aside from his constitutional duties, were shooting and stamp collecting. He was considered one of the best shots in England, and his collections of shotguns and stamps were among the finest in the world. Deeply conservative by nature, George sought to maintain the traditions of Sandringham estate life established by his father, and life at York Cottage provided respite from the constitutional and political struggles that overshadowed the early years of George's reign. Even greater upheaval was occasioned by the outbreak of the First World War, a dynastic struggle that involved many of his relatives, including the German Kaiser and the Russian Emperor, both of whom had previously been guests at Sandringham. The estate and village of Sandringham suffered a major loss when all but two members of the King's Own Sandringham Company, a territorial unit of the Fifth Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, were killed at Suvla Bay during the Gallipoli Campaign. The story of the battalion was the subject of a BBC drama, "All the King's Men". A memorial to the dead was raised on the estate; the names of those killed in the Second World War were added subsequently.
Following Queen Alexandra's death at Sandringham on 20 November 1925, the King and his family moved to the main house. In 1932, George V gave the first of the royal Christmas messages from a studio erected at Sandringham. The speech, written by Rudyard Kipling, began, "I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all". George V died in his bedroom at Sandringham at 11.55 p.m. on 20 January 1936, his death hastened by injections of morphine and cocaine, to maintain the King's dignity and to enable the announcement of his death to be made in the following day's "Times". The King's body was moved to St Mary Magdalene's Church, a scene described by the late King's assistant private secretary, "Tommy" Lascelles. "Next evening we took him over to the little church at the end of the garden. We saw the lych-gate brilliantly lit [and] the guardsmen slung the coffin on their shoulders and laid it before the altar. After a brief service, we left it, to be watched over by the men of the Sandringham Estate." Two days later, George's body was transported by train from Wolferton to London, and to its lying in state at Westminster Hall.
Edward VIII.
On the night of his father's death, Edward VIII summarily ordered that the clocks at Sandringham be returned to Greenwich Mean Time, ending the tradition of Sandringham time begun by his grandfather over 50 years earlier. Edward had rarely enjoyed his visits to Sandringham, either in his father's time or that of his grandfather. He described a typical dinner at the house in a letter to his then mistress Freda Dudley Ward, dated 26 December 1919; "it's too dull and boring for words. Christ how any human beings can ever have got themselves into this pompous secluded and monotonous groove I just can't imagine". In another letter, evenings at the "big house"—Edward stayed at York Cottage with his father—were recorded as "sordidly dull and boring". His antipathy to the house was unlikely to have been lessened by his late father's will, which was read to the family in the saloon at the house. His brothers were each left £750,000 while Edward was bequeathed no monetary assets beyond the revenues from the Duchy of Cornwall. A codicil also prevented him from selling the late King's personal possessions; Lascelles described the inheritance as "the Kingship without the cash".
Edward's concerns regarding his income led him immediately to focus on the expense associated with running his late father's private homes. Sandringham he described as a "voracious white elephant", and he asked his brother, the Duke of York to undertake a review of the management of the estate, which had been costing his father £50,000 annually in subsidies at the time of his death. The review recommended significant retrenchments, and its partial implementation caused considerable resentment among the dismissed staff. Edward spent a single night of his reign at the house, bringing Wallis Simpson for a shooting party in October 1936. The party was interrupted by a request to meet with prime minister Stanley Baldwin, and having arrived on a Sunday, the King returned to Fort Belvedere the next day. He never returned to Sandringham; and, his attention diverted by the impending crisis arising from his attachment to Simpson, within two months of his only visit to the house as King, he had abdicated. On his abdication, as Sandringham and Balmoral Castle were the private property of the monarch, it was necessary for King George VI to purchase both properties. The price paid, £300,000, was a cause of friction between the new King and his brother.
George VI.
George VI had been born at Sandringham on 14 December 1895. A keen follower of country pursuits, he was as devoted to the estate as his father, writing to his mother, Queen Mary, "I have always been so happy here". The deep retrenchment he had proposed when commissioned by his brother to review the estate was not enacted, but economies were still made. His mother was at church at Sandringham on Sunday 3 September 1939, when the outbreak of the Second World War was declared. The house was shut up during the war, but occasional visits were made to the estate, with the family staying at outlying cottages. After the war the King made improvements to the gardens surrounding the house but, as traditionalist as his father, he made few other changes. December 1945 saw the first celebration of Christmas at the house since 1938. Lady Airlie recorded her impressions at dinner: "I sat next to the King. His face was tired and strained and he ate practically nothing. Looking at him I felt the cold fear of the probability of another short reign".
George was a heavy smoker throughout his life and had an operation to remove part of his lung in September 1951. He was never fully well again and died at Sandringham during the early morning of 6 February 1952. He had gone out after hares on 5 February, "shooting conspicuously well", and had planned the next day's shoot before retiring at 10.30 p.m. He was discovered at 7.30 a.m. in his bedroom by his valet, having died of a coronary thrombosis at the age of 56. His body was placed in the Church of St Mary Magdalene, before being taken to Wolferton Station and transported by train to London, to lie in state at Westminster Hall.
Elizabeth II.
Since King George VI's death, Queen Elizabeth II's custom has been to spend the anniversary of that and of her own accession privately with her family at Sandringham House, and, more recently, to use it as her official base from Christmas until February. In celebrating Christmas at Sandringham, the Queen follows the tradition of her last three predecessors, whereas her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, held her celebrations at Windsor Castle. The taxation arrangements of the monarch meant that no inheritance tax was paid on the Sandringham or Balmoral estates when they passed to the Queen, at a time when it was having a deleterious effect on other country estates. On her accession, the Queen asked her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, to take on the responsibility for the management of the estate. The Duke worked to move towards self-sufficiency, generating additional income streams, taking more of the land in hand, and amalgamating many of the smaller tenant farms.
In January 1957 the Queen received the resignation of the Prime Minister Anthony Eden at the house. Eden's wife, Clarissa, recorded the event in her diary, "8 January – Anthony has to go through a Cabinet and listening to Harold prosing for half an hour. Then by train to Sandringham. Many photographers. We arrive into the hall where everyone is looking at the television." At the end of that year, the Queen made her first televised Christmas broadcast from Sandringham. In the 1960s, plans were initiated to demolish the house and replace it with a modern residence by David Roberts, an architect who worked mainly at the University of Cambridge. The plans were not taken forward, but modernisation of the interior of the house and the removal of a range of ancillary buildings were carried out by Hugh Casson, who also decorated the Royal Yacht, "Britannia". In 1977, for her silver jubilee, the Queen opened the house to the public.
Sandringham continues to operate as a sporting estate. Pheasants and partridge are no longer reared for this purpose, and Sandringham is now one of the few wild shoots in England. Along with her equestrian interest in the Sandringham Stud, where she has bred several winning horses, the Queen has developed a successful gun dog breeding programme at Sandringham. Following the tradition of a kennels at Sandringham established by her great grandfather, when Queen Alexandra kept over 100 dogs on the estate, the Queen prefers black labrador retrievers, over the yellow type favoured by her father, and the terriers bred by her earlier predecessors. Following his retirement from official duties in August 2017, the Duke of Edinburgh spent time at Wood Farm, a large farmhouse on the Sandringham Estate used by the Duke and the Queen when not hosting guests at the main house. Sandringham is one of the two homes owned by the Queen in her private capacity, rather than as head of state, the other being Balmoral Castle.
Architecture and description.
The house is mainly constructed of red brick with limestone dressings; Norfolk Carrstone is also prevalent, particularly in Edis's additions. The tiled roof contains nine separate clusters of chimneystacks. The style is Jacobethan, with inspiration drawn principally from nearby Blickling Hall. Construction was undertaken by Goggs Brothers of Swaffham. The principal rooms of the house are the saloon, the drawing room, the dining room and the ballroom, together with rooms devoted to sports, such as the gun room, or leisure, such as the bowling alley, now a library, and the billiard room. The walls of the corridors connecting the principal rooms display a collection of Oriental and Indian arms and armour, gathered by Edward VII on his tour of the East in 1875–1876. Decoration of the house and the provision of furniture and fittings was undertaken by Holland and Sons in the 1870 rebuilding.
Saloon.
The largest room in the house, the saloon is used as the main reception room. The arrangement of entry under the porte-cochère direct into the saloon proved problematic, with no ante-room in which guests could remove their hats and coats. Jenkins describes the decorative style, here and elsewhere in the house, as "Osbert Lancaster's Curzon Street Baroque". The room contains portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by their favourite artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter. The saloon functioned as a venue for dances, until the construction of the new ballroom by Edis, and has a minstrels' gallery to accommodate musicians. The room contains a weighing machine; Edward VII was in the habit of requiring his guests to be weighed on their arrival, and again on their departure, to establish that his lavish hospitality had caused them to put on weight.
Drawing room.
The drawing room is described by Jenkins as "the nearest Sandringham gets to pomp". On one of her two visits to the house, Victoria recorded in her journal that, after dinner, the party adjourned to "the very long and handsome drawing room with painted ceiling and two fireplaces". The room contains portraits of Queen Alexandra and her daughters, Princess Louise, Princess Victoria, and Princess Maud of Wales, by Edward Hughes. White marble statues complete what has been described as a "tour de force of fashionable late-Victorian decoration".
Ballroom.
The ballroom was added by Edis in 1884, to overcome the inconvenience of having only the saloon as the major room for entertaining. As this was also the main family living room, it had previously been necessary to remove the furniture when the saloon was required for dances and large entertainments. Alexandra recorded her delight at the result, "Our new ballroom is beautiful I think & a great success & avoids pulling the hall to pieces each time there is a ball or anything". At the time of Queen Victoria's visit in 1889, the room was used for a theatrical performance given by Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry. The present Queen uses the room for entertainments and as a cinema.
Dining room.
The walls of the dining room are decorated with Spanish tapestries including some by Goya which were a gift from Alfonso XII of Spain. The walls are panelled in oak, painted light green for Queen Mary who had been inspired by a visit to a Scottish castle. Jill Franklin's study of the planning of Victorian country houses includes a photograph of the dining room at Sandringham with the table laid for dinner for twenty-four, a "very usual" number to seat for dinner in a major country house of the time.
Appreciation.
Sandringham House has not been admired by critics. Its chief fault is the lack of harmony between Humbert's original building and Edis's extensions, "a contrast between the northern and southern halves of the house (that) has been much criticised ever since". The architectural historian John Martin Robinson wrote in 1982, "Sandringham, the latest in date of the houses of the British monarchy, is the least distinguished architecturally". In his biography of Queen Mary, James Pope-Hennessy compared the house unfavourably to "a golf-hotel at St Andrews or a station-hotel at Strathpeffer". Simon Jenkins considered Sandringham "unattractive", with a "grim, institutional appearance". Pevsner described the architectural style as "frenetic"; Girouard expressed himself perplexed as to the preference shown by the royal family for A. J. Humbert, a patronage the writer Adrian Tinniswood described as "the Victorian Royal Family's knack for choosing second-rate architects". An article on the house in the June 1902 edition of "Country Life" opined, "of mere splendour there is not much, but of substantial comfort a good deal". The writer Clive Aslet suggests that the sporting opportunities offered by the estate were the main attraction for its royal owners, rather than "the house itself, which even after rebuilding was never beguiling".
The fittings and furnishings were also criticised; the biographer of George V, Kenneth Rose, wrote that, "except for some tapestries given by Alfonso XII, Sandringham had not a single good picture, piece of furniture or other work of art". Neither Edward VII nor his heir were noted for their artistic appreciation; writing of the redevelopments at Buckingham Palace undertaken by George V, and previously by Edward VII, the architectural historian John Martin Robinson wrote that, "the King had no more aesthetic sensibility than his father and expressed impatience with his wife's keen interest in furniture and decoration". In the series of articles on the house and estate published in 1902 by "Country Life" to celebrate Edward VII's accession, the author noted the royal family's "set policy of preferring those pictures that have "associations" to those which have merely artistic merit". Exceptions came to include works from the collection of mainly 20th-century English art assembled by the Queen Mother, including pieces by Edward Seago and John Piper, who produced a view of Sandringham.
 John Piper's sombre palette did not always find favour with Queen Elizabeth or her husband, George VI remarking, "You seem to have very bad luck with your weather, Mr Piper". The house also has an extensive holding of works by Fabergé, the world's largest, assembled by Queen Alexandra and later members of the family, which includes representations of farm animals from the Sandringham estate commissioned by Edward VII as presents for his wife.
Although not highly regarded as architecture, Sandringham is a rare extant example of a full-scale Victorian country house, described in the magazine "Country Life" as "lived in and beautifully maintained, complete with its original contents, gardens and dependent estate buildings". The house, the landscaped gardens, park and woodlands are listed Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens, Grade II* being the second-highest listing, reserved for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest".
Gardens.
The gardens and country park comprise of the estate with the gardens extending to . They were predominantly laid out from the 1860s, with later alterations and simplifications. Edward VII sought advice from William Broderick Thomas and Ferdinand de Rothschild, a friend and adviser to the King throughout his life. The original lake was filled and replaced with the elaborate parterres fashionable at the time. These have since been removed. Two new lakes were dug further from the house, and bordered by rockeries constructed of Pulhamite stone. A summerhouse, called "The Nest", stands above the Upper Lake, a gift in 1913 to Queen Alexandra from the comptroller of her household, General Sir Dighton Probyn. The gardens to the north of the house, which are overlooked by the suite of rooms used by George VI, were remodelled and simplified by Geoffrey Jellicoe for the King and his wife after the Second World War. A statue of Father Time, dating from the 18th century, was purchased by the Queen Mother and installed in 1951. Further areas of the gardens were remodelled by Sir Eric Savill in the 1960s for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The extensive kitchen gardens, which in Edward VII's time included carriage drives to allow guests to view the "highly ornamental" arrangements, were also laid to lawn during the present Queen's reign, having proved uneconomic to maintain.
Wider estate.
The 20,000 acre (8,100 ha) Sandringham estate has some of the finest shoots in England, and is used for royal shooting parties. Covering seven villages, the estate's other main activities, aside from tourism, are arable crops and forestry. The grounds provided room for Queen Alexandra's menagerie of horses, dogs, cats, and other animals. In 1886 a racing pigeon loft was constructed for birds given to the Duke of York by King Leopold II of Belgium and one or more lofts for pigeons have been maintained ever since. The Norwich Gates, designed by Thomas Jeckyll and made by the local firm of Barnard, Bishop and Barnard, were a wedding present for Edward and Alexandra from "the gentry of Norfolk".
In 2007 Sandringham House and its grounds were designated a protected site under Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. This makes it a criminal offence to trespass in the house or its grounds. The Sandringham estate has a museum in the former coach house with displays of royal life and estate history. The museum also houses an extensive collection of royal motor vehicles including a 1900 Daimler owned by Edward VII and a 1939 Merryweather & Sons fire engine, made for the Sandringham fire brigade which was founded in 1865 and operated independently on the estate until 1968. The coach house stables and garaging were designed by A. J .Humbert at the same time as his construction of the main house. The estate contains several houses with close links to the royal family.
Anmer Hall.
Anmer Hall is a Georgian house on the grounds, purchased by the Prince of Wales in 1896. Formerly occupied by the Duke of Kent, it is now the country home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Appleton House.
When Prince Carl of Denmark (later King Haakon VII of Norway) and Princess Maud were married in July 1896, Appleton House was a wedding gift to them from the bride's parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales. Queen Maud became fond of Appleton, "our little house is a perfect paradise", and their son, Prince Alexander (the future King Olav V of Norway), was born at the house in 1903. After Queen Maud died in 1938, King Haakon returned the property. The last inhabitants were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth who stayed there during a visit to Norfolk during World War II, when Sandringham was closed. Lascelles considered it "an ugly villa, but not uncomfortable". The house was demolished in 1984.
Park House.
Constructed by Edward VII, Park House has been owned by the royal family for many years. The birthplace of Diana, Princess of Wales, when the house was let to her father, it is now a hotel managed by the Leonard Cheshire charity.
Wood Farm.
Wood Farm has been part of the Sandringham Estate since the time of Edward VII. In the early 20th century, it was home to Prince John, the youngest of George V and Queen Mary's six children. Born in 1905, the Prince was epileptic, and spent much of his life in relative seclusion at Sandringham. He died at Wood Farm, his home for the last two years of his life, on 18 January 1919. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, lived at Wood Farm following his retirement from royal duties.
York Cottage.
York Cottage, originally known as Bachelors' Cottage, was built by Edward, Prince of Wales, soon after he acquired Sandringham to provide further accommodation for guests. It was home to George V from 1893 until his mother's death enabled him to move into the main house in 1925. Edward VIII, by then Duke of Windsor, told his father's biographer Harold Nicolson, "Until you have seen York Cottage you will never understand my father". The cottage was no more highly regarded architecturally than the main house; James Pope-Hennessy, the official biographer of Queen Mary, called it, "tremendously vulgar and emphatically, almost defiantly hideous". Nicolson described it as a "glum little villa (with) rooms indistinguishable from those of any Surbiton or Upper Norwood home". He was particularly dismissive of the royal bathing arrangements: "Oh my God! what a place. The King's and Queen's baths had lids that shut down so that when not in use they could be used as tables". "It is almost incredible that the heir to so vast a heritage lived in this horrible little house." Nicolson's strictures did not appear in his official biography of the King. York Cottage is currently the estate office for the Sandringham Estate.
Public access.
The country park and the visitors' centre are open throughout the year. The house, gardens and museum open annually from the end of March until the end of October, except for 23–25 July.


Mendoza Mansion

The Mendoza mansion is a building located between Santa María Avenue and Arzobispo Malvar Street, at the western end of the old town of Pontevedra (Galicia, Spain). It is currently the headquarters of the Rias Bajas Tourist Office.
History.
The medieval castle of the Churruchaos (or Archbishops of Santiago de Compostela) and the Archbishop's Towers, whose interpretation centre (CITA) is located nearby, once stood on the site of the manor. In 1877, Soledad Méndez Núñez, sister of the famous sailor Casto Méndez Núñez, bought the land and commissioned the architect Alejandro Rodríguez Sesmero to build the mansion. He is also the author of the imposing 19th century buildings of the Provincial Council of Pontevedra and the City Hall of Pontevedra. This architect was responsible for planning the noble buildings of Pontevedra, once the medieval city wall had been demolished.
This mansion was the first building in the city to have a running water supply. The architect Sesmero was responsible for planning the running water supply for Pontevedra and its squares. Several 19th century fountains were installed here, one of which is very close to the mansion. Its first inhabitants were its owner, Soledad Méndez Núñez, her sister, Maria del Carmen Clara Méndez Núñez, her husband, José Babiano Rodríguez, and the couple's daughter, who was to become the remarkable painter Carmen Babiano Méndez-Núñez. The house was eventually passed on to Maria and Concepcion Mendoza Babiano, daughters of Carmen Babiano Mendez-Nunez, who were involved in the city's culture and were the last to occupy the small palace in 1971. During their stay, the palace became a meeting place for the important personalities of the time.
The building suffered a certain amount of neglect until the 1980s, when in 1981 it became one of the main filming locations for the television series "Los gozos y las sombras" of the Radiotelevisión Española. It was the home of Doña Mariana (Amparo Rivelles). The Mendoza's hotel is easily recognisable in the series as Doña Mariana's house, although only on the outside, since the interior scenes were shot in another small palace in Madrid, near Alcalá Street.
It was then bought in the 1990s by a banking entity, Caja Madrid, until the Provincial Council of Pontevedra bought it to make it the headquarters of Tourism Rias Baixas, inaugurated for this function on 28 July 2004.
In 2015, an artist from Lugo transformed the trunk and branches of the old dead yew tree in the gardens of the Palacete de las Mendoza into a living sculpture by placing a few berries weighing 40 kilos and 1.10 metres high as artistic elements on the woody skeleton of the yew tree, with which the artist wanted the old tree to bear fruit like never before.
Description.
The building belongs to the eclectic style that prevailed at the end of the 19th century, with elements and concepts inspired by French architecture. It consists of a semi-basement, a ground floor and a first floor. On the ground floor there is a main door and four windows in the walls and on the upper floor there are five balcony doors. The upper part of the openings is decorated with ornamental motifs. The top of the openings is topped with a circular cornice.
On the façade, the windows are surrounded by neoclassical borders, with Lintels ending in triangular Pediments on the second floor and a circular arch on the first. The Caja Madrid savings bank, which owned the building for some years, renovated the interior and the rooms on the ground floor, the music room, the dining room, the tea room and the imperial wooden staircase, making everything disappear to create the central courtyard. The building is secluded and surrounded by gardens that enhance its architecture.


Liria Palace

The Liria Palace (Spanish: "Palacio de Liria") is a neoclassical palace in Madrid, Spain. It is the Madrid residence of the Dukes of Alba.
History.
Built around 1770 to a design by the architect Ventura Rodríguez, it was commissioned by James Fitz-James Stuart, 3rd Duke of Berwick, who was also the 3rd Duke of Liria (hence the name of the palace). In the early 19th century it passed to the inheritance of the House of Alba. On 19 March 1833, a fire broke out at Liria Palace, destroying part of its archive. Eugénie de Montijo, last empress consort of the French, died here in exile in 1920.
All but the facades were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. It was subsequently rebuilt by Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Alba and his daughter Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba who was head of the House of Alba from 1955 to 2014. The British architect Edwin Lutyens had been commissioned by the 17th Duke to provide designs for the interior, and the reconstruction, although it took place after the architect´s death, made use of them.
Although the 18th Duchess of Alba's official residence was the Liria Palace, in later life she preferred the Palacio de las Dueñas in Seville, where she died. Her son and heir Carlos Fitz-James Stuart, 14th Duke of Huéscar resides at the Liria Palace.
Art collection.
The building is protected under Spanish heritage law as a listed monument, and some of the moveable art works it contains are also protected as Properties of Cultural Interest.
The palace contains a remarkable private collection of European art. The collection includes:
Exhibitions.
To see the art collection in "situ", it was previously necessary to make an application, a process which involved being placed on a waiting list. 2019 saw the introduction of a speedier, on-line booking process for visits to the palace.
Works on loan.
Some works were put on exhibition at the Cibeles Palace in Madrid in 2012.
From September 2015 to January 2016 there was an exhibition of works belonging to the House of Alba, including items from the Liria Palace, in the Meadows Museum, Dallas. Another exhibition, titled "Treasures from the House of Alba: 500 Years of Art and Collecting" and containing over 130 items, was held at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, TN from February 5 to May 1, 2016.
Archive.
The library of the Palace contains an extensive archive with royal, nobiliary and colonial documents. Around 4,000 of these documents were lost during the fires that affected the Palace in 1833 and in 1936. Among the documents housed at the Palace are more than 9,000 books (including one first-edition copy of "Don Quixote") and manuscripts (including the "Alba Bible", Papal bulls from the Vatican, the last will of King Philip II of Spain and letters by Christopher Columbus, Titian and Rousseau).
External links.
https://www.palaciodeliria.com/


St Nicolas Church, Pevensey

St Nicolas' Church is the Anglican parish church of the village of Pevensey in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The church is a Grade I Listed building.
History.
St. Nicolas Church is the parish church of Pevensey, with its daughter church, St. Wilfrid's, serving Pevensey Bay. It is named after Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of seafarers. The Church’s origins can be traced to the Roman occupation of Britain and is built on the original site of a Saxon or Priory church dating from the 5th century, which at the time would have overlooked the sea, now some 1/2 mile distant. The Church we see today was built in its present form in the medieval period, between 1205 and 1216.
The completed St Nicolas Church remains a splendid example of ‘Early English’, or ‘Early English Gothic’, architecture. England's Gothic architectural tradition originated in France in the mid 12th century and spread rapidly to England. It is the plainest and closest to French building styles of the period. It is typified by the simplicity of its vaults and tracery, the use of lancet windows and smaller amounts of sculptural decoration than either Romanesque or later varieties of Gothic church building.
St. Nicolas’ size and relative grandeur reflect the importance of Pevensey as a major seaport at the time of its construction. Evidence suggests that it may have been intended to have been even larger by extending it to the west, but this was never carried out.
Architecture.
St Nicolas is fortunate to have several notable original architectural features. There are fine examples of medieval windows. The three Lancet window openings above the High Altar are perfect examples of their period c.1200. Also, in the south aisle there are twin windows of Early English style, set in deep mouldings. Both these windows had stained glass installed during the late 19th-century restoration in the reign of Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901).
The Chancel is ‘off-set’ at an angle from the Nave by 34/60ths of one degree. This feature is often seen in medieval churches, and is said to symbolize the angle of Christ’s head upon the cross, but also to give an illusion of increased building length. The stone Chancel arches have acutely pointed capitals of stiff foliage. These are a distinctive feature of the ‘Early English’ church building style.
The Chancel was built and roofed in the reign of King John in c.1205. It has a high, cradle roof construction which is impressive for its simplicity of hand sawn and hand jointed Sussex oak workmanship, and of great beauty. It was quite likely made by local shipbuilders. It shows uniform, shaped frames built and erected along a keel to form the internal framework and then over turned to form the arched roof. It is mostly original and has survived practically unchanged.
The Nave was built c.1210 in the reign of King Henry lll. One of the most conspicuous features in the Nave are the double-chamfered arches. Three on the north and five on the south side. These are supported on columns which are alternately clustered, with quatrefoil designs, and octagonal. The Clerestory windows are between the arches and not in the traditional place, which is to be above them. Cut into the pillars of the Nave are two niches which held small sacred figures. The figures are likely to have been destroyed during the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century.
The oak ‘waggon’ roof of the Nave (being a Cradle-roof constructed of a closely spaced series of double arch-braced trusses, suggesting the shape of a covered wagon), was a necessary part of the 19th-century restoration but the main beams and king posts are probably original and still sound. For a considerable time previously, the Nave had a false ceiling, above which air circulation was so poor that much of the roof timber had rotted and decayed.
The Norman font is made from stone from Caen, William the Conqueror’s home town, in Normandy. It has an intricate, locally carved Victorian wooden lantern hood, circa 1890. There is also a Muniment Chest (1664), and a replica Offertory Box with a long handle (the original is in safe keeping to avoid theft), used in the days of box pews which may have been owned by wealthy families, or possessed by parish landowners.
On the floor in the South Aisle is an ancient and heavy stone grave cover, thought to be 13th century, with the outline of a darker cross. It is one of two found in the Chancel during the 19th-century restoration. It is likely to have covered the grave of an early incumbent.
The Church porch on the north side, shelters the main door which is double and studded with brass furniture. In the stone surrounds on the east side of the door are three etched Votive or Crusaders’ Crosses, from probably the 13th century. This was at a time when many pilgrims and crusaders would have set off for the European continent and far off destinations from Pevensey, and who duly marked their safe return in this way.
Memorials.
In the north aisle is a memorial to John Wheatley (1616), a wealthy local parishioner who contributed £40, (approx. GB£6,000/US$10,000 in 2011), towards the cost of fitting out and preparing a ship in Pevensey to fight the Spanish Armada (1588).
There are war memorials to the fallen in two World Wars close to ‘The Boniface Window’. The Boniface family name, with its French roots going back to before the Crusades (1095–1291), became a well known and long established local family. The window was designed by Christopher Webb, a renowned church window artist whose work can also be seen in St. Alban’s Cathedral. Christopher Webb’s father, Sir Aston Webb’s portfolio of work included the design of Admiralty Arch in London and the façade of Buckingham Palace.
Restoration.
The earliest restoration works undertaken at the Church are first recorded being made in 1587, 377 years after the building’s construction when the Church is recorded as "very mutche in decaye for lacke of timber and glasse and other reparations."
In Georgian times, from 1714 to 1830, the church was turned into a ’Preaching Box’. The great vaulted Sanctuary ceiling of wood was covered over with plaster and the Sanctuary and Chancel were separated from the Nave by a brick wall. The Sanctuary and Chancel were used as a space for general storage, which included crops from the surrounding countryside, and the products of smuggling as well as being a stable for cattle and sheep which grazed the church yard.
From the late 19th century onwards, several ‘restoration projects’ were undertaken, most notably by George Gilbert Scott, Jr., an eminent ecclesiastical architect of London from 1875, whose father George Gilbert Scott was a pioneering English Gothic revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals. Scott Jr. oversaw extensive restorations at St. Nicolas, and the building of the vestry on foundations of a former chantry, and the Chancel floor was raised in steps towards the High Altar.
In 1876 the Sanctuary and Chancel and Nave were reopened to form the Church as we see it today. There is an inscription in the porch which records: "The Incorporated Society for Buildings and Churches granted £230 AD 1876 towards reseating and restoring this church. All the seats are for the free use of parishioners according to law."
The original Church tower having been taken down to the level of the first storey in about 1800, was later raised by the addition of two new storeys and a new shingled broached spire as part of the late 19th Century restoration. This faithfully reflects the original flint boulder and greensand blocks of the original, and was restored in places as part of the 2006 restoration project. The vestry was added in 1887 as part of the extensive restorations being made at that time.
In 1908 a 2-sided tower clock was installed, by Smiths of Derby who continue to maintain it. Six church bells were also rehung at this time. Three of the six bells date from the 17th century. The earliest of these was originally cast in 1633, the second in 1676. All are rung every week by our bell ringers. The bell chamber within the tower is accessed by a cast iron Victorian spiral staircase
Uses.
St Nicolas' Church was designated a Grade I Listed building on 30 August 1966.
Parish Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths date from 1569, the early originals being with the East Sussex County Archives in the County town of Lewes. A full survey and record of the gravestones and memorials in St. Nicolas Church and graveyard was made in 1995.
A by-product of the Church’s design and construction are its acoustics. In recent years internationally known professional, London based musicians from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Royal Academy of Music and BBC Concert Orchestra, to mention a few, have played concerts in the Church because they appreciate the exceptional clarity of the acoustics.
It is the oldest building in Pevensey still used for its original purpose. It is used throughout the year for Christian worship using the Book of Common Prayer forms of service, published in 1662, and used ever since. Because of its attractive location, history and splendour, St. Nicolas is a popular venue for weddings, baptisms and funerals.


Kisin House

The Kisin House () is an edifice in the Leninsky District of Rostov-on-Don, Russia. The house is located at 72 Moskovskaya street (). The building is also considered to be an object of cultural heritage.
History.
Wealthy Rostov merchants Venyamin Kisin and Isaak Froymovich agreed to build a new trading and revenue house. It was designed by famous architect Nikolay Doroshenko in the 1890s. The building was reconstructed according to a project of city architect Nikolay Dubrakh between 1902 and 1910. Before the revolution of 1917, dress shops occupied the ground floor. Dwellings were on the upper floors; the flats were rented local intellectuals, doctors, lawyers and engineers. Doctor Fabian Natanovich Gurari was one of the most famous tenants of the house. He came to prominence for his use, then unique, of X-rays to treat skin diseases.
After the revolution of 1917, Anastas Mikoyan food market and the local address bureau were located at the ground floor; later, the address bureau occupied the whole floor. This organization was mentioned in satirical novel "The Twelve Chairs". The larger dwellings were subdivided with additional walls, increasing the number of rooms and residents. Street children slept at the house in the 1920s.
Originally, the building was U-shaped; one side overlooked Gazetny Lane. This part of the building was lost to bombing in World War II. The Kisin House is dilapidated currently. There are plans for the rehousing of residents and the construction of a museum.
Description.
The Kisin House was designed in the Beaux-Arts style. A symmetrical facade crowned with an arched attic is decorated in the Modern style with elements of сlassicism and irrationalism. The side projections are decorated with exedra. Windows on the second floor are crowned with triangular cornice. Overdoors are set over central windows. The cornice is crowned with parapets established between decorative pedestals. The building has four balconies with balustrades.


Fort Clinch State Park

The Fort Clinch State Park is a Florida State Park, located on a peninsula near the northernmost point of Amelia Island, along the Amelia River. Its include the 19th-century Fort Clinch, sand dunes, plains, maritime hammock and estuarine tidal marsh. The park and fort lie to the northeast of Fernandina Beach at the entrance to the Cumberland Sound.
Fort Clinch.
Fort Clinch is a 19th-century brick fortress begun in 1847 after the end of the Second Seminole War. It was named in honor of General Duncan Lamont Clinch, important figure in the First and Second Seminole Wars. No battles were fought at Fort Clinch. Confederate troops occupied the incomplete fort in 1861 when Union forces were withdrawn from Florida. In 1862 Confederate forces were withdrawn from the fort because their manpower was needed elsewhere and Union forces regained control of the area without any shots being fired. Union forces restarted construction of the fort and continued through the end of the war. The fort would become a base of operations for Union forces in the area for the remainder .
In 1935, the State of Florida bought 256 acres (1.0km2) that included the then-abandoned fort and the surrounding area. Fort Clinch State Park including the fort, opened to the public in 1938.
Recreational activities.
In addition to exploring Fort Clinch, activities include pier fishing, sunbathing, hiking, surfcasting, camping, birding, and shelling. Visitors can also enjoy picnicking, swimming, bicycling, beachcombing, and wildlife viewing. Park personnel reenact military life at the fort. Among the wildlife of the park are the rare purple sandpiper, alligators, white-tailed deer, and other birds. Visitors can also see dolphins and manatees.
Amenities include a visitor information center, 1/2 mile pier with cold showers as well as restroom/changing rooms, several miles of beach, of paved road, and a six-mile (10 km) hiking trail. The park has two campgrounds, one on the Amelia River, the other on the Atlantic Beach. The Amelia River campground has two hot-water restroom/shower facilities for 41 campsites in an oak hammock. The Atlantic Beach campground has one hot-water restroom/shower facility for 21 sites with a ramped boardwalk. The park also offers primitive camping and youth camping.
The park is a gateway site for the Great Florida Birding Trail.
Military re-enactments.
On the first weekend of each month, costumed interpreters perform living history re-enactments of a Civil War soldiers life in 1864 at Fort Clinch. Activities include military drills, and working in the fort's laundry, infirmary, kitchen, barracks, quartermaster, United States Sanitary Commission and carpenter shop.
The fort holds other encampments during the year.
Hours.
The park is open from 8:00 am until sundown year round.


Jenny Lake Boat Concession Facilities

The Jenny Lake Boat Concession Facilities, also known as Reimer's Cabin and the Wort Boathouse, are a group of buildings on Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. They include a dock, a boathouse, two employee cabins and Reimer's Cabin. The boathouse was built by concessioner Charles Wort, who held the original U.S. Forest Service use permit from the time before the establishment of Grand Teton National Park, when the lands and lake were under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service. Robert Reimer took over the concession by 1935 and built a personal residence in 1937. The log cabin is an example of the National Park Service Rustic style.
The Jenny Lake developed area includes the Jenny Lake Ranger Station Historic District and Jenny Lake CCC Camp NP-4. Reimer's Cabin was built in 1937 for Robert "Dick" Reimer, who took over the boat concession in 1935. Plans for the cabin were approved by the National Park Service landscape Division, which also supervised construction.
The Jenny Lake boat concession facilities were placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 24, 1998.


Church of St John the Baptist, Upper Eldon

The Church of St John the Baptist, Upper Eldon, is a redundant Anglican church in the parish of King's Somborne, Hampshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church stands in the grounds of Eldon House, to the east of the A3057 road, some south of Stockbridge.
History.
The church was built in the later part of the 12th century. By the 18th century its condition was dilapidated and the east wall was rebuilt in 1729. Its fabric subsequently deteriorated again, and in 1864 it was being used as a cowshed. Its condition continued to be bad, and in 1973 it had the appearance of a farm building, and a report stated "Its sole occupant is a beautiful white owl". The church was declared redundant on 21 December 1971, and it was vested in the Redundant Churches Fund (the forerunners of the Churches Conservation Trust) on 31 May 1973. In 1975 the church was repaired, including re-tiling the roof and re-plastering the interior. Further repairs were undertaken in 1984. The church is open daily for visitors.
Architecture.
St John's is constructed in flint rubble, partly rendered, with stone dressings. The rebuilt east wall is in brick, and the roofs are tiled. Its plan consists of a single rectangular cell long by long. The north wall contains two original single-light windows about wide and tall. At the east end of the north wall is part of another window that was cut in half when the east wall was rebuilt. The west wall contains one similar window, as does the south wall which also contains another window cut in half. The east wall contains another similar window, a wider 19th-century copy of the original windows. At each corner of the church is a buttress. Around the rest of the church, other than along the east end, is a moulded string course at the level of the window sills. In the south wall is a doorway with a pointed arch that was rebuilt in the 20th century. Around the church are nine consecration cross stones. Each of these consists of a circle in which there are five holes which formerly held metal crosses.


Headquarters Administration Building (Big Basin Redwoods State Park)

The Headquarters Administration Building of Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Santa Cruz County, California, was a historic structure built in 1936 by crews of the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was built out of local materials (redwood logs and stone), and was one of the best-preserved examples of the CCC's work in the California state park system. The building continued to perform its original function, housing the park's administrative offices and serving as a contact point for park visitors, until it was destroyed by the wildfires sparked by the lightning storm of August 16, 2020. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.


Atmosphere (Kolkata)

Atmosphere is a luxury residential superstructure in Kolkata, India. Atmosphere consists of two tall towers and a 'Deya', the world's first residential floating sky sculpture.
The project was inspired by Singapore's Marina Bay Sands integrated resort.
"Deya".
Sitting 500 ft in the air, 'Deya' (which means cloud in Bengali) connects the two towers that make up Atmosphere. Deya houses club facilities for the residents of Atmosphere. Initially conceived as a cloud changing in porosity and form, Deya is not a physical extension of the tower as such, since the majority of the spaces within are open air. The skin is composed of expanded mesh panels wrapped around structural ribs. Special panels carrying shimmering mobile reflective disks are scattered across this mesh. The porosity of these materials enables Deya to appear different in form depending on how it is lit. The Deya will house the residents' community and recreational facilities, including a swimming pool, gymnasium, spas, running track, sporting facilities, virtual golf, cinema, meeting spaces and function facilities.
Other.
Atmosphere was selected by Nat Geo to feature in their Megastructures documentary series.


Odalar Mosque

The Odalar Mosque (, meaning "the mosque of the barracks" after the nearby accommodations of the married Jannisaries established in this quarter in the 18th century. Also: "Kemankeş Mustafa Paşa Câmîi") was an Ottoman mosque in Istanbul. The building was originally a Byzantine-era Eastern Orthodox church of unknown dedication. In 1475, after the Fall of Constantinople (1453), it became a Roman Catholic church, dedicated to Saint Mary of Constantinople, until finally it was converted into a mosque by the Ottomans in 1640. The mosque was destroyed by fire in 1919, and since then has fallen into ruin. As of 2011, only some walls remain, hidden among modern buildings.
Location.
The ruins of the building lie in Istanbul, in the district of Fatih, in the neighborhood of Salmatomruk, not far from Edirne Kapı (the ancient Gate of Charisius), more or less halfway between the Chora Church and the Fethiye Mosque. The few remains lie in a courtyard and can be accessed through modern blocks built on "Müftu Sokaĝi 20-22".
History.
Byzantine Age.
Between the ninth and the tenth century a church with an underlying basement and a crypt was erected on the top of the sixth hill of Constantinople, on a plateau which is limited by the open air cistern of Aetius (now a football field) and by the unidentified Byzantine edifice denominated in Ottoman times as "Boĝdan Saray". The dedication of this building is uncertain, but it was probably part of a complex which also included today's Kasım Ağa Mosque and the İpek Cistern, and was almost certainly the "katholikon" of a monastery.
The edifice has been identified for a long time as the Theotokos "en te Petra", but without conclusive evidence.
During the Byzantine period, several monasteries lay in the area; the Monastery of Manuel, that devoted to St. John in Petra, and the Kecharitomene nunnery ("full of grace" or "favoured (by God)"). The latter was founded at the beginning of the 12th century by Empress Eirene Doukaina, and is known above all because of its detailed and extant "typikon". The nearby church of the "Theotokos tes Kellararias", used by the nuns of the Kecharitomene as a burial place, and that of "Hagios Nikolaos", both mentioned in the "typikon" of the nunnery, are possible candidates for the identification. Moreover, the Odalar Mosque could also be identified with a nearby church dedicated to Saints Sergius and Bacchus, which lay "near the cistern of Aetios": not to be confounded with the homonymous church which lies near Hagia Sophia) because of the discovery in the vicinity of a monogrammed capital (unfortunately found not "in situ"). Between 1150 and 1175 a new church of the cross-in-square plan was built above the old one (possibly destroyed by fire or menaced by a landslide).
Ottoman Age.
The documented history of the edifice begins in 1475, shortly after the Fall of Constantinople, when Sultan Mehmed II conquered the Genoese colony of Caffa, in Crimea. About 40,000 Latin, Greek, Armenian and Jewish inhabitants who lived in Caffa ("Caffariotes" or, in Turkish, "Kefeli") were then deported to Istanbul and relocated to this quarter, which was named after them "Kefe Mahallesi". The Latins, mainly Genoese, were authorized to use in their quarter as churches the building and, together with the Armenians, another edifice known later as Kefeli Mosque, which was dedicated to Saint Nicholas.
The edifice, dedicated then to Saint Mary of Constantinople (), was officiated by the Dominicans, which before the Ottoman conquest had also a monastery in the city on the Black Sea. Here was brought from Caffa a large icon of the Hodegetria type, which now is kept in the Dominican monastery of SS. Peter and Paul in Galata. Due to all that, at the beginning of the sixteenth century the church of Saint Mary had turned into the center of this quarter predominantly inhabited by Italians, but the building fell soon in disrepair. Under Sultan Murad IV (r. 1623–1640) the decision was taken to exclude from the walled city the Christians who were not Ottoman subjects and to resettle them in Galata and Pera. As a consequence, and after riots between Christian and Muslims, the church was closed in 1636, and in 1640 it was transformed into a mosque by "Sadrazam" (Grand Vizier) Kemankeş Mustafa Pasha (d. 1644). As mentioned above, only the Hodegetria Icon could be moved with great difficulties to Galata.
After the relocation of the married Janissaries in the quarter in 1782, the mosque got the appellation of "Odalar" (In Turkish "Oda" means "room" but also "barrack of the Janissaries"). Previously these were lodged at the "Eski Odalar" ("Old Barracks") near Şehzade Mosque, which were destroyed in the fire of 1782. The building decayed steadily (by the mid-19th century the dome had collapsed), and it was heavily damaged by the fire of Salmatomruk on 2 July 1919. When the quarter was rebuilt with modern criteria the edifice was not restored, and fell into ruin.
Architecture.
As mentioned above, several constructive phases can be recognized in the building during the Byzantine period. The first church, erected in the middle Byzantine age, had an almost square plan (about 11.65 m x 10 m ) with three apses, and was oriented toward the East. In 1935, only the tripartite sanctuary and the "Bema" were still visible. The church was built on a basement composed of 24 vaulted rooms and a vaulted crypt with an apse, which is supposed to have been a chapel containing relics. These rooms had at first a profane usage, later they were used as burial place and finally as a cistern.
The second church, erected at the end of the twelfth century, used also 16 small rooms of the abandoned first church's basement as substructure. The masonry was made of stone and bricks, and was erected with the technique of the "recessed brick", typical of the Byzantine architecture of the middle period. In this technique, alternate courses of bricks are mounted behind the line of the wall, and are plunged in a mortar's bed. Due to that, the thickness of the mortar layers is about three times greater than that of the bricks layers. In this building, three or four rows of bricks alternate with single rows of stones, and the bricks are arranged to form several patterns.
The second church was of the cross-in-square type with an almost square "naos" about 10.5 m wide: it had four columns sustaining the dome through pendentives, three apses - the central one having a polygonal shape - and a narthex embracing the edifice on the west and north sides. The dome was about 4.4. m wide, lay on a drum and was adorned with frescoes. East of the "naos" lay a tripartite sanctuary composed of a "bema" flanked by a "prothesis" and a "diakonikon". The floor of the new church was 3.3 m above that of the first church. The edifice can be described as a middle-sized Byzantine church, similar to the nearby Church of Christ Pantepoptes.
From a relation of Pietro Demarchis, bishop of Santorini, who visited Istanbul in 1622, we know that at that time the columns of the church had been taken away by the Turks and substituted with wooden pillars, and that the dome was covered with frescoes. Moreover, part of the building was already menacing ruin. Just after the conversion to mosque, to the building were added a mihrab, a minbar and a minaret. After the fire of 1919, the building fell into ruin (the roof collapsed and the minaret crashed already in the 1820s), but luckily it was thoroughly studied and surveyed by the German Archaeologist Paul Schatzmann in 1934/1935.
According to the Greek scholar Alexandros G. Paspates, in the East part of the basement of the Mosque sprung a water source (, , ) dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, abandoned for a long time.
Paintings.
During the excavation of 1934/1935 up to four mortar layers covered with frescoes on blue background were uncovered. A fresco representing a Madonna on Throne with angels was found in the crypt. In the basement rooms were found fragments of paintings having as subject funerary themes. In the inferior church were discovered two deesis, a fresco representing the soldier Saint Mercurius - of unparalleled technique among the known Byzantine works of this age - and prophets. These paintings were executed either in the tenth or in the middle of the eleventh century, belonging so to the first church. The diakonikon of the second church was adorned with frescoes showing saints and episodes of the Life of the Virgin. The best preserved frescoes (among them Saint Mercurius) were detached, restored and are on display at the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul.


Old Holy Trinity Church, Wentworth

The Old Holy Trinity Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Wentworth, South Yorkshire, England. It is partly in ruins, and stands close to a newer church also dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The old church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.
History.
The tower dates from the 14th–15th century, while the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1684 for William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford. A new church, designed by J. L. Pearson was built nearby in 1872–76. The nave of the old church was dismantled in the later part of the 19th century. In 1925 the chancel and a chapel were restored for William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam. Further renovation was carried out in 1985. Holy Trinity was declared redundant on 12 February 1975, and was vested in the trust on 2 July 1976.
Architecture.
The tower is constructed in ashlar sandstone and the rest of the church in rubble sandstone. The roofs of the chancel and chapel are in stone slate. Its plan consists of a west tower, a partly ruined five-bay nave, and a chancel with a north chapel. The truncated tower has two stages. In the lower stage is a small west window, and in the upper stage are two-light bell openings. Only the south wall of the nave remains. This has a central protruding doorway flanked by Ionic pilasters, and round-arched windows without tracery or glass. The chancel has a central south door with a cartouche above it, on each side of which are two-light round-headed windows. Both the chapel and the chancel have three-light windows. On the north wall are a two-light and a three-light window, while on the west wall are two three-light windows. Inside the chancel is a chancel arch and a two-bay arcade. There are a number of memorials, the most important of which are to the Earls of Strafford and other members of the Wentworth family. Other fittings have been removed. In the west end of the chancel are steps leading down to the Fitzwilliam vault.


Old Church of St Mary the Virgin, Preston Candover

The Old Church of St Mary the Virgin is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Preston Candover, Hampshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Only the chancel of the church has survived. It is situated towards the south of the village, on the northwest side of the B3046 road.
History.
The church was founded in about 1190. It was damaged in a fire in 1681 and rebuilt. At this time it is thought that it consisted of a long single cell with transepts, and a western weatherboarded bellcote with a pyramidal roof. In 1831 the church was enlarged, providing 48 additional sittings. By 1885 the fabric of the church had deteriorated so much that, except for the chancel, it was demolished. A new church with the same dedication was built nearer the centre of the village. The building is open daily.
Architecture.
Exterior.
The chancel is constructed in flint with stone dressings and brick quoins. The roof is tiled. The west wall was added when the rest of the church was demolished and is in rubble. The building is almost square in plan. In the west wall is a round-headed doorway. The north wall contains a small lancet window dating from about 1190, and in the south wall is a two-light Perpendicular window and a blocked round-headed priest's door. The east window is round-headed with a single light. On the west gable is a wooden bellcote.
Interior.
The floor contains some medieval tiles, and inscribed slabs and brasses dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. On the north and south walls are four marble memorials dating between 1729 and 1798. On the west wall is a framed painting recording the 1831 expansion of the church and two boards bearing the Ten Commandments. On the east wall are wall paintings that probably date from the 18th century. Also in the church is a small piscina, and altar rails dating from the 17th century.


San Vittore alle Chiuse

San Vittore alle Chiuse is a Roman Catholic abbey and church in the "comune" of Genga, Marche, Italy. The edifice is known from the year 1011, and constitutes a notable example of Byzantine-influenced architecture in Italy.
Description.
The rear area is characterized by three high apses, the central only slightly larger. Only the northern one has maintained the original decoration with pilaster strips and small arches.
On the western side is the cylindrical tower which replaced the second square tower, crumbled in an unknown date. On the same side a forepart was added in the 13th-14th centuries with an ogival entrance.
The tambour, which protrudes from the centre of the construction, is in Armenian style.
The interior is on the Greek Cross plan inscribed within a square, with four huge columns, decorated with brick elements, supporting the dome.


Chalet of the Golden Fleece

The Chalet of the Golden Fleece is located in New Glarus, Wisconsin.
History.
The building was constructed for Edwin P. Barlow. Barlow had founded the annual festival commemorating Wilhelm Tell in New Glarus. The building serves as a museum of Swiss culture. It was added to the State and the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.


Ohave Shalom Synagogue (Woodbridge, New York)

Ohave Shalom Synagogue is located on Maurice Rose Street in Woodridge, New York, United States. It is a brick building erected in 1930 by a splinter group from what was then the village's only synagogue, later absorbed into Ohave Shalom itself.
Its interior is decorated with paintings on religious themes. It was not the only synagogue in Sullivan County ever built with such decoration, but it is the only one where the paintings survive, although they are not as extensive as they were when the synagogue was first built. They led to its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
Building.
The synagogue is a five-by-three-bay one-story building on a raised basement. It is faced in decorative golden brick with quoins, banding and window trim. The front facade has a projecting extrance portico with pedimented gable and raking cornice. In the tympanum is a small round stained glass window.
The main entrance runs the length of the front facade. It consists of slightly recessed triple pairs of wooden doors beneath a tripartite window. The enframements resemble stone and the smaller windows have keystone lintels. Between the doors and windows, six decorative plaques frame a central scroll motif. Above the windows are Stars of David.
All but one of the side bays has a stained-glass window. The front bay on either elevation has a window like the end bays on the facade. The rear elevation has nearly full-height projecting bays with gable roof, each containing a stained-glass window like the ones along the sides. There is also a small shed-roofed addition that serves as the Torah ark.
The first floor is divided into a small lobby and the sanctuary, laid out in Orthodox tradition, with a central hexagonal bimah surrounded on three sides by wooden pews. A gallery that extends over the western third provides seating for women.
Both the ark platform and bimah are made of wood with turned posts and rounded tops. The ark is flanked with columns and topped with Lions of Judah holding the Ten Commandments. Above it the stained glass window has large sunbursts and Stars of David. Three decorative chandeliers hang from the barrel-vaulted ceiling.
The paintings are not as extensive as they originally were, but cover several locations. Wall panels depict holy places in Jerusalem, a continuous frieze depicts the signs of the zodiac, the gallery is backed with a landscape mural, and the one surviving ceiling image is the center medallion, a radiating fan shape with gold border.
Aesthetics.
Ohave Shalom combines features of traditional Eastern European synagogues and contemporary urban synagogue design. The former is reflected in the tripartite facade, meant to suggest the small corner towers of those synagogues. The latter is recalled by the large form and Renaissance Revival design.
History.
Jews had begun arriving in the area of what was then known as Centerville around 1900. They overcame early prejudice sufficiently for some to have been among the village's founding officers when it incorporated. Centerville's first synagogue, Anshei Centerville, was established in 1903.
Centerville was renamed Woodridge in 1917 in the hopes of attracting more summer visitors. By the 1930s, the village was primarily Jewish, and the center of that community within Sullivan County. A dispute among the congregants of Anshei Centerville over who would be the ritual slaughterer of animals led the founders of Ohave Shalom — mostly urbane and affluent — to buy the land and build the present building. Six years later, Anshei Centerville merged with its offshoot. Its home, a short distance away, was used as a daily worship house and school.
In the 1950s a more decorative brick veneer was added over the original painted concrete-block exterior. The original interior painting was in some cases, like the ceiling and reconfigured ark, painted over. In 1976 the original Anshei Centerville building was demolished, and a congregant named Max Cohen donated a house across the street from the synagogue to serve the functions it had. It has since been expanded to serve as a chapel and "mikvah", and also stores some of the interior decor of Anshei Centerville. That building is not considered a contributing property to the NRHP listing since it is outside Ohave Shalom's period of significance.


Walnut Hall

Walnut Hall was a row of four Georgian-style terraced homes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Constructed in 1856, it was recognized by both the Government of Canada and the City of Toronto as being of historic significance, but portions of it collapsed and it had to be demolished in 2007 due to neglect. At the time of its demolition, it was Toronto's last remaining complete row of 19th century Georgian townhomes.
O'Donohoe Row.
John O'Donohoe, a local politician, auctioneer and land speculator, purchased a lot on Shuter Street in Toronto in 1853. A four-unit terrace, known as "O'Donohoe Row", was designed by architect John Tully and completed on the lot in 1856. At three and half storeys, the building featured buff brick with decorative brickwork and stone detailing, a symmetrical façade, a gabled roof and dormer windows.
At the time, Shuter Street was located in a prestigious residential neighbourhood. Given its location and the quality of its construction, O'Donohoe Row was intended to cater to the affluent middle class, and was representative of the Georgian-style brick row houses which flourished in Toronto in the 1850s.
The character of the neighbourhood changed, and the building was renamed "Walnut Hall Apartment House" in 1903. In 1949, the interior was converted to a rooming house, and a number of changes were made to the exterior, including the conversion of the southeast corner to a storefront.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police purchased the building in the 1970s, as part of a land assembly for a new Ontario Division headquarters building. In 1983, the Government of Canada designated it as a Recognized Federal Heritage Building. It was also during the 1980s that Walnut Hall was vacated, left unheated and boarded up. The building was sold to a private developer in 1996. Once it was privately owned, the City designated Walnut Hall under the "Ontario Heritage Act" in 1997.
Demolition.
Walnut Hall was the subject of a number of demolition proposals and redevelopment schemes from the 1970s onwards, ranging from a proposed parking lot to residential developments that would have incorporated the heritage building. None of the proposals was achieved, however, and Walnut Hall remained vacant and unheated. In 1999, the City of Toronto issued an order to the landowner to correct a number of growing structural deficiencies in the building.
In 2004, Walnut Hall appeared in the film Cinderella Man when the derelict building was used to portray a 1930s New York City-streetscape.
In March 2007, Trisan Realty Corp. purchased the property with the intention of restoring Walnut Hall. On May 19, 2007, however, police and fire officials were called to the site when pedestrians noticed bricks falling from the second and third storeys. By the end of the afternoon, parts of the rear walls had begun to cave in. That evening, a city building inspector recommended that Walnut Hall be demolished for safety reasons, and the demolition was undertaken that night.
In 2008, Heritage Canada included Walnut Hall in its annual list of "Worst Losses", referring to the building's neglect and demolition as "a case of architectural euthanasia". Michael McClelland, a heritage architect and a founding member of the Canadian Association of Professional Heritage Consultants, described the loss of Walnut Hall as being emblematic of a "broken" heritage preservation system in Toronto.


Saint Lucian Redoubt


Baumanskaya (Moscow Metro)

Baumanskaya () is a station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line of the Moscow Metro, named after the revolutionary Nikolai Bauman. It was designed by Boris Iofan and Yury Zenkevich and opened in 1944. The Art Deco design features white marble pylons with rounded corners, projecting, fluted piers faced with red ceramic tile, and decorative ventilation grilles. In the bays between each set of piers are bronze sculptures by V.A. Andreev depicting Russian soldiers and workers of the home front during World War II. At the end of the platform is a mosaic portrait of Vladimir Lenin. This station is very busy, as one of the biggest Moscow institutes (Moscow State Technical University) is located not far away.
The station was closed in 2015 for repairs, maintenance and escalator shaft replacement. The escalators at Baumanskaya were the oldest on the network, having operated non-stop since 1944. They were the last H-series escalators in operation on the whole network.
Passenger traffic.
Baumanskaya is the second busiest station in Moscow Metro.
The facts:
Inscription.
A cryptic inscription is on the wall of station. It is situated near the first car stop towards the Shchyolkovskaya station just under the last ventilation lattice. The inscription is deeply carved in marble on about above the floor, is about in length and in height. It consists of two dates, divided by hyphen:
19 14/XI 46 - 19 15/XII 54
These dates translate to 14 November 1946 - 15 December 1954. The way of writing is very similar to the way dates are written on gravestones. The origin of that artifact is unknown.


J. Schmuck Block

The J. Schmuck Block is a historic three-story commercial and residential building in Beatrice, Nebraska, United States. It was built in 1887 for John Schmuck, a German immigrant and cobbler, who used the basement as a tavern and rented the first floor to dry goods stores and the second floor to tenants. The "Beatrice Morning Sun" had its offices here for more than four decades. The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since July 2, 2008.
History.
The three-story structure in Beatrice, Nebraska, was built in 1887 with bricks, a limestone foundation, and an asphalt-and-slate roof, for John Schmuck, an immigrant from Germany, and his wife Anna. Schmuck was born in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1834. He was trained as a cobbler like his father, and he emigrated to the United States in 1854. He lived in New York, Illinois, and Tennessee before moving to Beatrice around 1873, where he became a professional cobbler. He purchased the plot of land in 1883 and only built the structure four years later, once he was retired.
Schmuck lived on the third floor until 1916 (although he died in an insane asylum in Hastings in August of that year at the age of 84), and his widow Anna until 1917. The Schmucks rented the first and second floors of the building to businesses and tenants. Dry goods stores on the first floor included Jones and Smith Dry Goods Store and the C. E. Smith and Son Dry Goods Store. In 1905, one of the tenants, R. A. Swift, who had served in the American Civil War, was found dead in his room on the second floor. In 1908, Judge Walden rented an office in the building. The basement was used as a tavern, with a side entrance.
From 1918 to 1963, the building belonged to E. M. Marvin, who used it as the offices of his local newspaper, the "Beatrice Morning Sun". Marvin, who was both the publisher and editor, moved the printing presses to the basement, and the rest of the building was used by his journalistic staff. When the building was acquired by a lawyer in the 1960s, the couple removed the stained glass on the second floor and took it to another house they owned. The building was purchased and restored by another couple in 2006.
Architectural significance.
The building was designed in the eclectic High Victorian Gothic architectural style, with a Second Empire roof, Gothic Revival windows, and Queen Anne wall trims. Jill E. Dolberg of the Nebraska State Historical Society said, "In many ways, this commercial building is unique for Nebraska commercial architecture. Most commercial architecture of this era in Nebraska is far more austere, perhaps displaying some decorative brickwork or round arches. An effusive facade such as this one is a rarity indeed."
The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since July 2, 2008.


Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion

Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion is a landmark public pavilion in the Sunnyside lakefront area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built in 1922, its original function was to provide changing facilities for swimming in Lake Ontario, however lake conditions were often too cold and an adjoining public swimming pool was built in 1925. The Pavilion was renovated in 1980 to provide updated changing facilities and a café along the beach and a garden.
History.
By the 1920s, swimming at the foot of Roncesvalles Avenue had been popular for over thirty years, as there was a swimming area near a pumping station. This changed in 1913 when the pumping station was demolished to make way for the bridge connecting Lakeshore Road and the King/Queen/Roncesvalles intersection. A staircase was built for pedestrians to walk down to the shoreline. A slide was installed for bathers to slide down into the water. By 1920, this area was filled in and the beach was moved farther to the south. For the year 1921, the beach was recorded as having over 302,525 visitors.
On June 28, 1922, Toronto Mayor Charles A. Maguire opened the Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion to help bathers change for the swim in the lake. The building, constructed of concrete, cost $300,000. Each wing held an outdoor changing area, lockers and showers, the women's side on the east, and men's side on the west. It offered over 7,700 lockers for patrons, a roof garden for 400. Admission fees were 25¢ for adults and 15¢ for children, and bathing suits and towels could be rented. In the center was a staircase leading to an upper terrace which overlooked the change areas leading to a rear terrace which ran the full length of the building and overlooked the beach.
The building was designed by Alfred Chapman who had designed the Princes' Gates and the Ontario Government Building at Exhibition Place for the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). The bathing pavilion design was based on the bathing pavilion at Lynn Beach in Massachusetts.
The Pavilion was the site of the first 'Miss Toronto' beauty pageant in 1926.
The 'Tank'.
On July 29, 1925, due to coldness of the lake during the preceding two summers, the Sunnyside Pool, nicknamed the 'Tank', was opened beside the Bathing Pavilion to the east. It measured by and could accommodate 2,000 swimmers. At the time of construction, the pool was considered the largest outdoor swimming pool in the world. Admission fees were 35¢ for adults, 10¢ for children.
The 'Tank' was especially popular with children as special streetcar runs were made to take children to the Pool directly from around the City. When built, the pool had a diving tower and bleachers on the east end. The tower was replaced with a simple diving board before 1980, and the diving board itself was eventually removed. The bleachers have been replaced by an equipment building.
Renovated facility.
The Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion was renovated in 1980. The outdoor lockers and changing areas were demolished and new changing rooms were built. The pool was rededicated as the 'Gus Ryder Pool', named after Marilyn Bell's coach, the founder and coach of the Lakeshore Swim Club of New Toronto.
East wing.
The east wing of the pavilion, which formerly held the outdoor women's changing area became a new enclosed changing facility with new men's and women's changing areas. The former entrance from the archway area was closed and a new entrance was cut in the north wall to enter the changing area.
West wing.
The west wing, which formerly held the men's changing area, now houses a cafe with patio on the boardwalk and a tea garden. An opening was made in the western wall opening onto the adjacent parklands.
Central section and upstairs.
The central section and upstairs terrace is used as a public space for functions, such as wedding receptions, catered by the cafe below.
Pool.
The pool was closed for renovations for most of the summer of 2010. Intended to reopen in July, the pool reopened for a short period at the end of August, using a temporary water heater. A June storm destroyed some pool equipment, including custom pool heaters for the pool.
Boardwalk frontage.
The south side of the facility is home to the cafe, and fronts onto the boardwalk and the beach. The cafe is open from spring to fall.
Activities.
Sunnyside Pool is open for swimming during the summer, starting in June and ending in September. In 2012, the pool is open from 10 AM until 8 PM, with a break from 3:45 PM until 5 PM. During heat alerts, the pool stays open until 11:45 PM. The pool has regular swimming instruction leading to "Bronze Medallion" certification. Swimming at the pool is free, however there is a charge for instruction programs. To the east of the pool is an outdoor wading pool and a children's playground. South of the pavilion, the beach is available for beach volleyball. The lake is fit for swimming most of the summer, except for days after rainstorms when bacteria counts are high.
On Canada Day, the pavilion and park is often the site of picnics or music festivals. In 2011, a small music festival, the "Canada Day Picnic" played live and recorded "house" music from 1 PM until 11 PM on July 1. In other years, the music has been country and other forms.
In September, the upper terrace is used for the annual Sunnyside Beach Juried Art Show & Sale. The show takes place over a weekend and includes live music. Admission is free.


Ahavas Sholem Synagogue

The Ahavas Sholem Synagogue, once known colloquially as The White Street Shul and now as the Thomas Hill Chapel, is a historic religious building at 30 White Street in New Haven, Connecticut. Built in 1928 for an Orthodox congregation founded in 1912, it is a distinctive example of a neighborhood synagogue with elaborate Classical Revival styling, for which it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. The building is now home to Thomas Chapel, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ.
Description and history.
The former Ahavas Sholem Synagogue stands on the west side of White Street, a short residential street in New Haven's The Hill neighborhood, southwest of downtown. It is a two-story masonry structure, built out of gold-colored brick with limestone trim. It has a particularly handsome Classical Revival facade, with limestone on the first level, which is continued on the second level around that floor's arched windows. A panel above the main entrance identifies the congregation and the year of the building's construction in the Hebrew calendar. Some of its original windows are incised with the Star of David, which is repeated in a rounded pediment at the roof level.
An Orthodox congregation was organized in this neighborhood in 1912. According to Orthodox practice, it was necessary to walk to Sabbath services, resulting in the founding of relatively small congregations such as this one. The building was erected in 1928, and was used by the congregation until most of its members moved away in the 1960s. The building is now occupied by a Christian congregation, the Thomas Hill Chapel Church of Christ.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.