Approximately 15,000 to 20,000 people marched through
South London today in protest against proposed closures to Lewisham hospital.
Protesters included nurses that appeared in the opening ceremony of last year’s
Olympic Games when Danny Boyle showed how proud this country is of the NHS
The A&E, maternity and other services are
planned to close due to the debts incurred by other hospitals, not Lewisham. The closures will
therefore put more pressure on nearby hospitals that are already in financial
difficulty.
The Royal Albert Hall complete with red London buses and
flag waving visitors.
At the suggestion of Prince Albert proceeds from the
Great Exhibition of 1851 were used to purchase land in south Kensington. The
intention was to create museums, libraries and a hall. In 1863 money to build
the hall was raised by selling 999 year leaseholds on seats costing £100 each.
This proved very popular and 1,300 were sold.
The building was designed by Captain Francis Fowke and
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Darracott. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone on
20 May 1867 and surprised everyone present when she decided to call it the
Royal Albert Hall.
The hall holds 8,000 seats and had the reputation as the
only auditorium were a musician could hear his music twice as the acoustics
were so bad. This was finally resolved in 1968 when large saucers were hung
from the ceiling. Many famous composers have performed in the Albert hall, such
as Richard Wagner (1877) and since 1941 have held the annual Sir Henry Wood
Promenade Concerts.
Since the early ninth century fish has been sold from
this site as Billingsgate Quay was used by fisherman to land and sell their catch in the
nearby streets. For almost 1,000 years
the fish market remained at Billingsgate. In 1327 Edward III granted a charter
prohibiting any rival markets setting up within 6.6 miles of Billingsgte, this
being the distance a trader could be expected to travel, set up, sell and
return home in one day.
In 1699 an Act of Parliament was passed allowing a 'free and open market' and all types of fish to be sold in Billinsgate except eels. This was restricted only to
Dutch fisherman in recognition of their help in feeding Londoners during the
Great Fire of 1666.
The current building was reconstructed by City Architect Horace
Jones, who also created the design for Tower Bridge, and built by John Mowlem.
It was opened by the Corporation of London in 1877 and is now a listed building.
The market finally moved to a larger site at Poplar in
1982 and the site was developed as a trading hall for the banking sector. There
were fears that the building would collapse once the refrigerated arcades of
brick and cast iron, permanently frozen for hundreds of years, were de-frosted.
Fortunately the building survived unlike the fortunes of the developers as the
building has remained empty and never used as a financial trading hall due to
one economic crisis or another.
