Grand Storehouse
The Grand Storehouse or Grand Armory was a building in the fortifications of the Tower of London that was erected by the Board of Ordnance between 1688 and 1691 . Next to the White Tower, it was the largest building ever in the Tower. It served the Board of Ordnance as a storage room, workshop and laboratory. The Grand Storehouse was the starting point for what would later become the Royal Armories Museum . The warehouse was completely destroyed by fire in 1841. A few years later, the Waterloo Barracks , which today house the Crown Jewels, were built in its place.
construction
A new warehouse building was proposed in 1687 by George Legge , then Master General of the Board of Ordnance. The warehouses that stood north of the White Tower at that time were in a poor state of construction, endangered the workers and soldiers there and were no longer adequate storage facilities for the weapons and treasures there. In order to erect the building, various houses and warehouses had to be removed at this point.
Thomas and John Fitch demolished the old buildings. The management of the new building since April 9, 1688 was carried out by Robert Baker. Construction began during the reign of James II , and the building was finally completed under Maria II in times of religious unrest. While the building was planned and commissioned by the Catholic monarchs, the Protestant rebels under William of Orange ultimately took possession of it.
Architecture and use
The Grand Storehouse was brick built, 245 feet (about 80 meters) long and 60 feet (about 20 meters) wide, and had two stories and an attic under a steep lead-roofed roof. Baker used Portland Stone for some facades .
A central part of the building was a tower with a double staircase, the narrower part allowing direct access to the attic, while the representative staircase part, the grand staircase, was intended exclusively for use by the monarch and high dignitaries. The public and staff used a smaller staircase to the west of the building. Five Doric columns adorned the entrance of the Grand Storehouse. The gable was elaborately worked by John Young, in it successes and achievements of the British kings were represented. Part of it survived to this day and is now exhibited on the outer wall of the New Armories .
Ground floor and grand staircase
The ground floor, previously used as an armory, was later used to display larger war equipment from the royal artillery. This collection included 43 cannons from different countries and times. A special visitor attraction was the Train of Artillery - an artfully arranged exhibition of various guns from different times.
In addition to the weapons, the Grand Storehouse also housed a few other exhibits and sights. For example, there was the steering wheel of HMS Victory , Lord Nelson’s flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar. Other battle souvenirs included kettledrums from the battle of Höchstädt or cannons from the battle of Waterloo .
Small armory
The showroom and exhibition room was the Small Armory on the first floor, of which no pictures or drawings have survived. However, there are extensive written reports from contemporaries.
The Small Armory served as a storage room for weapons and equipment for tens of thousands of soldiers, so artfully constructed that the weapons were ready to hand within a very short time. Nevertheless, there was still enough space in the room to lead visitors and guests through. Guests entered the Small Armory through the stairwell on the west side of the building. When they reached the first floor, visitors were able to see the equipment of tens of thousands of soldiers over 80 meters of the building.
The weapons presented included, for example, eight columns formed from five-meter-long pikes. On top of these sat muskets as capitals , which were attached in Corinthian order . In the gaps there were circles and semicircles made of bayonets and pistols, which were aimed in the center of the circle at a target made of standing bayonets. Other arrangements recreated scallops . The arrangement "waves of the sea" was modeled from bayonets and espignoles made of shiny brass, again with capitals made from pistols. There was an imitation of the rising sun with rays emanating from pistols, as well as a ceremonial gate with an arch made of halberd carbines and swords. The “backbone of a whale” was again made of carabiners. According to contemporaries, the "head of Medusa", at that time colloquially known as the "Witch of Endor", was particularly impressive. This picture was set up in the middle of three ellipses of pistols, which were aimed at a centrally placed wooden Medusa head .
At the eastern end of the Small Armory was an organ , the large organ pipes and espignoles made of shiny brass. The smaller organ pipes were modeled on pistols. To the left and right of the organ snakes and dragons were recreated from other weapons. In the corners of the room, under semicircles of pistols, armor stood Heinrich V and Heinrich VI. were attributed.
In the middle of the hall stood four pillars seven meters high. For this, the carpenter Haywood had carved a panel of elm wood adorned with leaves, twigs and berries, which served as a hanger for a total of 900 pistols. The columns were completed by Corinthian capitals and seven carved dragon heads. Above the pillars was a depiction of a meteoroid trail designed by Haywood . The entire set-up was built around 16 large boxes, each containing 1,200 muskets .
The Small Armory was designed by John Harris from Eton. The trained gunsmith had already made decorations from old weapons in other castles of the monarchy, such as Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle , before designing the tower.
According to the historian Frederic William Maitland , the English King William and his wife Mary inaugurated the Grand Storehouse with a large banquet in the Small Armory. They were entertained by the workers and craftsmen who had built the house. They wore white gloves, white aprons and the symbols of the Masonic lodges. Apart from Maitland's account, no other historical sources can be found for this banquet. Also on the ground floor were workshops in which the craftsmen of the Board of Ordnance assembled muskets from individual parts .
The tower fire of 1841
The Grand Storehouse was destroyed by the great tower fire of 1841. The fire broke out shortly after nine in the evening in Bowyer Tower, just north of the Grand Storehouse. By the time the fire departments of London could advance to the Tower of London, the fire had already spread to the warehouse. When the Grand Storehouse collapsed in parts at one o'clock in the morning, the fire threatened to spread to the White Tower. Lead pipes melted there, and the wooden window frames caught fire. The now numerous firefighters and the several hundred man strong crew of the tower succeeded in time to prevent the flames from spreading.
The fire then threatened to spread to the Jewel House , which was located at the Martin Tower in the north-west of the fortress until 1841 . The officer in charge of the British Crown Jewels decided to bring them to safety. So that night the guard and various other officers loaded with crowns, sceptres, jewels and other treasures ran across the fortress grounds. Overall, the fire raged the entire Sunday. The Jewel House was saved, as was the Office of Ordnance , which at the time contained 200 barrels of gunpowder. In the end, however, the Grand Storehouse was completely destroyed. Also lost were the Bowyer Tower, in which the fire broke out, and the Butler's Tower, which, like the Bowyer Tower, was located north of the store house in the inner wall. Next to the Grand Storehouse, two smaller warehouses burned down, in which mainly equipment of the Royal Navy had been located. After the fire, the Board of Ordnance sold the remains of the buildings and their contents. Small arms, which were fused and fused in various forms, were particularly popular.
After the fire, the constable of the Tower at the time, the Duke of Wellington, had the northern facilities rebuilt. The Bowyer Tower was rebuilt under the same name, the new Butler's Tower was then called Brick Tower because of its brick building material . Instead of the presentation-oriented Grand Storehouse, Wellington wanted to strengthen the tower's defensive capabilities and instead of the Grand Storehouse had barracks built for around 1,000 soldiers, the Waterloo Barracks . Today they are the showrooms of the British Crown Jewels .
Remarks
- ^ Hodgson: A Short History of the Tower of London, including a Particular Detail of its Interesting Curiosities; with a Brief Account of many of the most celebrated Kings of England, Noblemen, and others, whose Figures in Armor, and sitting on Horseback, are exhibited in the Horse Armory. J. Macrone: The London and Westminster review, Volume 31, 1838, pp. 28ff.
- ↑ Tower of London in: The Penny cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Vol. 25, 1843 pp. 97-101
literature
- Edward Impey, Geoffrey Parnell: The Tower of London . The official illustrated history, Merrell, London 2000, ISBN 1-85894-106-7 .
- Fire in the Tower of London. In: The Gentleman's Magazine Vol.XVI., 1841.
- Encyclopedia Britannica: London , 4th edition London 1810.