Bee Keeping Workshop

On Sunday June 12, our volunteer beekeepers Cerys, Sarah, Matthew and Jacky held a workshop at the Education Centre to discuss the ins and outs of beekeeping at the Palace.

They talked about the history of bees at Fulham Palace and why they've been reintroduced.  They explained what goes on in the hive, what goes into looking after them and how honey gets from the hive to the jar.

The guests were then invited to watch the bees in action in the observation hive and to have a taste of the honey from last year's crop.

If you missed the workshop an 8oz jar of Fulham Palace honey is available to buy from the Museum Shop.  Please click here for the Shop’s opening times.

If you would like to get involved with bee keeping at the Palace please do get in contact with Jacky and the other apiary volunteers on volunteer@fulhampalace.org

Mrs Creighton: “a woman of strong personality”

Mrs Creighton

Fulham Palace Curator Miranda Poliakoff gave an illustrated talk about Mrs Louise Creighton, wife of Bishop Mandell Creighton (Bishop of London, 1897-1901) on Monday, 16 May 2016, in the Jessie Mylne Education Centre.  I was joined by about 20 others – all women, which was appropriate.  Miranda explored the life of Mrs Creighton at Fulham Palace, and elsewhere, eighty years after her death.  I now realise that she was a remarkable woman, in her own right.

A local history interest article in this month’s issue of the Fulham Residents’ Journal had described the editor’s interview with Miranda, and invited readers to “find out more about this admirable woman” at the talk.  Also, as a Volunteer Guide at Fulham Palace with an interest in architecture, I had come to admire the Chapel designed by William Butterfield in 1866-67 for Bishop Tait in the Tudor revival style.  Butterfield’s original Victorian-gothic interior had used “a full orchestra of coloured bricks, marbles and encaustic tiles”.  But Mrs Creighton on arriving at Fulham in early 1897 declared “nothing can make that Chapel beautiful”.

inside the Chapel

Very quickly, Bishop and Mrs Creighton (they were very much a team) displayed their different taste and camouflaged the Chapel’s east wall and the original 'reredos', a mosaic depicting the Adoration of the Magi, with a curtain.  In front, they placed the present altarpiece of the Crucifixion, which they had bought in Oberammergau, Germany.

The original mosaic, now uncovered and placed on the west wall – at the opposite end of the Chapel, was designed by Butterfield (his first use of the medium) and made by Salviati of Venice.  Incidentally, Salviati glass mosaics also adorn the Albert Memorial any many other Victorian monuments.  I had not forgiven Mrs Creighton for her artistic ‘camouflaging’, and also for being a fervent temperance campaigner around Fulham!

Education Centre

However, Miranda’s talk made my views more nuanced.  Louise von Glehn, the 10th of 12 children, was born in 1850 and grew up in Sydenham.  Her frugal father – in trade – was an immigrant from the Baltic.  Louise lacked formal schooling, but she started a self-help essay group, and in her late teens took an early University of London course for women.  Invited to visit Oxford in 1871, the story goes that she daringly wore a bright yellow scarf, which Mandell Creighton spotted.  They were engaged within three weeks.

Rev. Creighton was a notable scholar – an ecclesiastical editor and historian, but his wife was not to be outdone.  Each of them published over 20 books. After Rev. Creighton was appointed to a living in Northumberland, his wife initially found life in the remote vicarage difficult.  But in time, she showed her frugal, practical and energetic side and came to relish gardening, and long walks.  The couple had seven children.

Mandell Creighton became Bishop of Peterborough before taking on the role of Bishop of London.  The family moved into Fulham Palace in deep snow.  Mrs Creighton managed to run the Bishop’s household, bring up the children, and re-launch the Women’s Diocesan Association in 1897.

Her husband died suddenly in 1901, aged only 57, but by 1904 Mrs Creighton had published her two-volume Life and Letters of Bishop Mandell Creighton, Sometime Bishop of London, a copy of which is in the Fulham Palace Library.  Despite her loss, Mrs Creighton remained a champion for women workers, and women’s education.  Although she had been against women’s suffrage (as the Bishop of London’s wife, she had to be cautious, as Miranda explained) in 1906 she changed her mind and publically supported votes for women.

Finally, Maya Donelan MBE of both the Fulham and Victorian Societies, who was in Miranda’s audience, told us about Bishop Creighton House on Lillie Road, which was founded by Mrs Creighton in memory of her late husband, and is still a Community Centre today. I had enjoyed an informative and interesting talk: thank you.

Jane Bowden-Dan

18 May 2016

Talk - A Peep Behind the Scenes: Servant Life at Fulham Palace

Households such as Fulham Palace could not run without a large staff of servants. Yet often little is known about these hard-working people. Join Curator Miranda Poliakoff as she gives an insight into their lives on Monday 30th November 2pm. 

We know from the 1911 census that there were 20 resident servants at the Bishop’s two homes; Fulham Palace and 32 St James’s Square, ranging in age from the 67 year old caretaker Joseph Seneschal to William Black, the 15 year old Hall Boy.  At the time of the census the Bishop was “in town” at St James’s Square, so 10 of the servants including  2 footmen, 2 kitchenmaids and 3 housemaids were there as well.  As the Bishop was a bachelor, there were fewer servants required than if a family was in residence as there was no need of a ladies maid, nurse or governess.

Monday 30 November, 2pm

This talk has a special price of £5 for volunteers, you can get your tickets by clicking here. 

Free Lecture by Lucy Hart

Head Gardener Lucy Hart will be giving a lecture as part of The Upper Room Winter Lectures 2015 series on Wednesday, 25 February.  

During her illustrated talk, titled 'The Gardens at Fulham Palace, past, present and future', Lucy will explore not only the past achievements and the present developments of the garden, but also what the future plans are for the continued restoration of the 13 acre estate.

The lecture takes place in St Savoir's Church, Cobbold Road, W12 9NL, starting at 8pm, with refreshments available from 7.40pm. This is a free event, and the charity welcomes donations.

If you would like to attend, please contact Alyson Sich on 020 8740 5688 or uradmin@theupperroom.org.uk to reserve a seat.

The Upper Room is a front line charity, based in Shepherd’s Bush, West London.  It began as a simple soup kitchen in 1990 and it still attends to the immediate survival needs of its beneficiaries but it uses the provision of food as the first point of contact with the excluded and then gives them access to two internal employability projects (UR4Jobs & UR4Driving) and a broad range of onward referrals to other specialist organisations.

For more information on The Upper Room, click here.