Brunswick

As advertised at reference 1, a week or so ago to Brunswick House of references 2, 3 and 4. A house now named for the Duke of Brunswick of reference 5, the Black Duke and the founder of the Black Brunswickers, one of whom features in the painting by Millais snapped above. He was tenant for a while of the northern half of the house, subsequently participating in the Waterloo campaign. He was killed at Quatre Bras.

For a while the house belonged to the local gas company, but then did a century or so with what is now Southwestern Railway who had a goods yard and a wharf nearby, ending up as an educational and  recreational facility for their railwaymen, before becoming derelict and then being taken up by the present owners.

House just to the north west of the orange spot in the snap above.

On the day in question there were some young children at the station, but my bit of the carriage was quiet enough.

Out at Waterloo, to find the Jubilee Gardens smart and busy. And it was good to be walking along this stretch of the embankment, a walk I once used to take more or less twice daily.

Paid my respects to the International Brigade.

And then to the starlings, not a bird we see much of at Epsom, at least not at close quarters.

I was rather taken with the COVID memorial wall, running along under St. Thomas' Hospital, complete with a volunteer maintenance team touching up the hearts and adding inscriptions for those who can't come to do it in person. A decent, collaborative memorial, neither loud nor intrusive. See reference 6.

There might have been access to the beach, but if there was, it was blocked off by work on the new sewer. A pity: a trolley on the beach might have been a first. Albeit possibly a touch foolhardy.

Took a consolatory refreshment at the 'Riverside', the big smart Youngs' establishment, on the river behind the new flats at St. George Wharf. No apostrophe 's' for some reason. Higher grade pub-grub menu available. A menu we have tried at least once, getting for ten years ago, and noticed at reference 7.

And so to the Brunswick, were I found an elaborate dining room which also functioned as a sale room for a large collection of candelabra hanging from the ceiling. They also had (for sale) one of those large covered trolleys, once used in places like the Savoy Grill, to serve the roast beef from. Not in action here, which was a pity, as I have only ever seen one in action on television.

Seems a bit big for solid silver, or even silver plate. My vote is for EPNS.

Then, given that big metal thing like this is going to lose heat pretty fast, there is the question of keeping the meat warm. Is there any insulation or central heating?

I took up station outside, from where I was able to admire the recycled oak doors. Not too careful a job, but quite fit for purpose here.

Rather a good wine, one of the cheaper ones on an expensive page of the extensive wine menu. Some of it very expensive, well out of my price range. There was also at least one that I recognised from the even longer list at Terroirs - although they did not go in for the seriously expensive stuff. And, as it happens, this one comes from the linked wine warehouse in Guildford. A 2021 De Moor Bourgogne Aligoté. Very good it was too. Orgo website at reference 8.

Started off with a potato cake, rather like a fish cake in format, fried, about four inches across and an inch thick. Served with an interesting bright green butter. The telephone couldn't manage cake, the delivery paper and the butter all at once, but it could manage the green butter. They did tell us what the green was, but memory fails.

The lamb was very good, served with a plentiful supply of bread, good of its kind, even if it was sour dough. But once again, the chef felt obliged to add yellow goo to the mix. Must be the ruling fashion in serving lamb school. Another time, as at the 'Mute Swan' of the day before, I would ask for no yellow goo and extra greens. Or hold the goo as Mildred Pierce was taught to say to the kitchen when she was learning to be a waitress.

Tempted by some Lincolnshire Poacher for dessert, cool and cut very thin, with the inedible rind left on. The idea was to serve it with honey which struck me as rather odd, so I asked them to hold the honey. But now I am not sure: maybe it would have worked. Too much seed on the crispbread too, but harder to hold that.

Outside worked well. Not too hot, not too crowded and plenty of shade.

Coming up to Lambeth Bridge on the way back to Waterloo. According to car check a 2021 Ferrari F8 Tributo S-A, top speed around 200mph. Has it ever been anywhere where it could do that? Maybe £250,000 for a new one.  Can shove a lot of stuff down the hatch for that.

Thames looking well in afternoon sunlight.

One of the many maternity hospitals which were once dotted about London. I associated to reading about the Vienna of the end of the 19th century, where, as a mother to be, you had a better chance out of hospital than in. As I recall, they had not then learned about elementary hygiene and many nursing mothers in hospitals succumbed to sepsis.

I once went to a meeting in Elizabeth House about schools statistics. At that time they could analyse the school population in considerable detail, including age and sex which was what interested me at the time. Maybe all that sort of thing has collapsed with the privatisation of our schools. From where I associated to one of my hobby horses: local education authorities were a useful tier of schools' management, pitched at about the right level, and I very much doubt that the new arrangements are either cheaper or better. But there are lots of teachers in fancy management roles with fancy salaries.

And so up to platform level and home to Epsom. A good day out.

PS: pursuing the history of Brunswick House in maps, I turned up the helpful reference 9. The oldest map to include Brunswick House dates from the beginning of the 18th century, with the Duke's half of the house shaded far left. And the big roads seem to more or less follow what we have now. Bearing in mind that north is right rather than up.

A map from 1818 at which time most of what is now Vauxhall looks like it was market gardens. Plus Millbank Penitentiary top left, looking from above very like one of the mental hospitals which were built fifty years later.

Lost track of where this one came from, but the railway has arrived so the second half of the nineteenth century. The Penitentiary closed in 1890. Brunswick House above and to the left of the orange spot.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/08/drains.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_House.

Reference 3: https://brunswickhouse.london/.

Reference 4: https://www.brunswickhouse.co/past.html.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William,_Duke_of_Brunswick-Wolfenb%C3%BCttel. 

Reference 6: https://www.nationalcovidmemorialwall.org/.

Reference 7: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/09/more-hepworth.html.

Reference 8: http://aetodemoor.fr/.

Reference 9: https://www.vauxhallandkennington.org.uk/maps.html.