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. 

Benjamin Franklin House Volunteers Visit Fulham Palace

We would like to share some details about last months reciprocal with Benjamin Franklin House volunteers, this is one of the best ways to understand and learn about other museums and their history.

Don't forget our next reciprocal visit is to the London Transport Museum on Friday 13th of November, where we will be receiving a tour of the depot from one of their knowledgeable volunteer tour guides . Join here.

In the last week of September, volunteers from the Benjamin Franklin House came to visit the Palace and enjoy a guided tour from Theresa, one of our experienced volunteer tour guides.

The group had a great time and particularly enjoyed the garden landscape and the Palace history and architecture.

This visit was reciprocal, so Fulham Palace volunteers were able to visit Benjamin Franklin House at the beginning of October. You can see some pictures of the visits in our Image Gallery. Our volunteers explored the life and house of Benjamin Franklin in London and learnt facts and details about him through an excellent live interpretation. If you attend the visit and would like to share your experience or any photos please do get in touch. 

The Summer Falls in the Walled Garden

Although I have had a garden for years, I have not grown very much food, other than a few lettuces. So when I got to the garden in mid-summer and Chris, the senior gardener explained that we would be picking vegetables to sell on the barrow, I was happy to be helping and learning new things.

Although it would seem a simple task to pick and harvest vegetables; from potatoes to runner beans, I soon realised that my lack of knowledge might be a hindrance. For instance, how do you know whether an interesting looking vegetable (Cavolo Nero in this case) needs to be cut down to ground level, dug up or just have its leaves cut back on a “cut and come again” basis?

Fortunately, Chris was on hand to help and showed enormous patience in explaining some of the basic tasks. All the Saturday volunteers worked together; discussing which vegetables were ready for harvesting and then picking, weighing and displaying the results on the Barrow. Working as part of a team with everyone helping each other, is one of the great things about volunteering at Fulham Palace. Members of the public were delighted with the fabulous food on offer, quickly snapping up nearly everything we could put out and occasionally we had special requests which we then went off to harvest.

My favourite task was digging up the potatoes. There is something uniquely satisfying about gently easing a fork into the soft mound that has been built at the base of the plants, wiggling it a little, and then teasing out beautiful, perfect potatoes.

As the autumn has now well and truly set in, the beds are being cleared of the last remaining herbaceous plants and vegetables, ready for mulching before winter. We also have the exciting prospect of putting up the wires and hooks on the now repaired walled garden walls, ready for them to take the new fruit trees which we will soon be planting. It’s really quite amazing to be part of an historic event - there were originally fruit trees around the walled garden and we will have the privilege of reinstating them.

It used to be that I didn’t like autumn very much; what with the nights drawing in and temperature beginning to cool, but now I see the season in a different light; with beautiful autumnal colours emerging, as the chlorophyll seeps away from the leaves, revealing their amazing tints. The air did not feel cool as we prepared the soil for a winter sleep and then all the wonderful planting ahead of us in the spring.

Paul Russell 
Volunteer Gardener

From Bishop's Home to People's Palace' - Share Your Palace Memories

The exhibition 'Fulham Palace: From Bishop's Home to People's Palace' launched last week with a talk by our curator Miranda Poliakoff.    

Bishop Robert Stockford

There’s much to discover at the exhibition but it is still only a taster of the huge number of tales, images and artefacts Miranda has gathered. The point of the exhibition is to encourage local people to contribute their memories and photos of the palace’s history and space has been left especially for this. The exhibition will change as time progresses and more peoples’ memories and photos are added. Miranda will also be recording some oral histories.

Miranda took us on a whistle stop tour through the last forty years of Fulham Palace’s history following the departure of the bishops. When the Bishop of London gave up his residency at the palace it became national news. In the past war environment, it was deemed too extravagant a residence as well as inconvenient for the Bishop’s regular visits to the House of Lords, St Paul’s and Westminster. In the years that followed the palace’s future was often in doubt and it fell into disrepair. Many ideas were floated over the years from turning it into offices to using twenty five bedrooms as piano rooms.

The bishop's former lounge which today is the cafe.

It wasn’t until 1987 that Fulham Palace was first opened to the public. Since then the palace has hosted everything from barn dances, to art groups and wedding receptions with no dancing allowed. As part of Operation Bumblebee the police hosted an exhibit of stolen goods. In the early 1990s it was also the backdrop for the film Princess Caraboo with gallows erected over the top of the fountain.

The exhibition already seems to be doing its job as the talk attendees discussed their memories of the palace from a St George’s day scout parade in the 1960s to a bishop’s garden party. Please do come along to the exhibition to learn more and share your memories with us.  You can also comment below or start your own and join in with discussion on the forum.

This kicks off our new monthly theme 'From Bishop's home to People's palace'.

Rachel Goth

Volunteer Communication Assistant

The Volunteers of Fulham Palace

Jane Swithinbank - Volunteer Garden Tour Guide

As a Garden Tour Guide, Jane knows every single corner of the Palace's lands and can also give you historical details about trees, plants and Bishops. Keep an eye at Fulham Palace 'What's on' page for upcoming tour dates.

When did you first come to Fulham Palace?

I have found an entry in my diary dated 28th May 1977 where I say that my husband and I 'walked in Bishops Park and the ground of the Palace which are lovely!' That was the very next day after we decided to move to Fulham. Since then I have spent many happy hours with friends there. 

What is your role and what does that involve?

I am Garden Guide which involves taking people around the grounds and telling them about the noteworthy trees and the Bishops who had a great influence on the evolution and changes to the gardens over the centuries.

How often do you volunteer?

It varies according to what Tours are booked and who is available for them and the Turn Up Garden Walks. We also do Open Squares Weekend. It probably works out at about once a month.

What is your favourite thing about Fulham Palace?

This is a extremely difficult question to answer. Like many people I am very fond of the walled garden and the old wisteria but I do have some favourite trees like the Black Walnut, Himalayan Birch for its beautiful and very useful bark and the Paperback Maple which adds a special glow outside the Chapel even in the dark days of winter. 

What do you enjoy most about volunteering?

I enjoy the interaction with the people on the walks and passing on some knowledge I have gained and, I hope, still gaining and seeing their enjoyment of the unique Fulham Palace. It is also fun to meet the other volunteers and staff who make it what it is today and I particulary admire all the 'green-fingered' ones!

Would you like to share anything else about your experience?

Just what a joy and privilege it is to be part of it all. 

Online survey - your help needed!

Please tell us what you like best about Fulham Palace - Your help is needed to inform our Heritage Lottery Fund project. Online survey

As you will all be aware, we have secured a Round One pass from the Heritage Lottery Fund in support of a £3.8m restoration and renewal project  'Discovering the Bishops of London's Palace at Fulham'. This project, for which we are asking £2m from HLF, will enable us to continue the restoration of Fulham Palace, specifically the Tudor Courtyard; create a new orientation gallery and exhibition space telling the story of the history of the Palace; provide new interpretation in the house and gardens and expand our public programmes and activities. 

In order to detail our plans we need to know more about the people who visit including what they value most about the site. We are therefore conducting visitor surveys over the next few months to find out how often people visit; where they come from; what they value most about Fulham Palace; which areas they like best and what they might like to see improved. To start this off, some people from our development team will be on site on Wednesday 28 October for the afternoon surveying visitors - so do look out for them. We will also be sending out the survey to our mailing lists, Friends and Patrons. 

We are keen to have your views on Fulham Palace and would be grateful if you could also fill in the survey on line here.

Hard copies of the survey will also be available at the Palace Reception and Bothies if you prefer to fill it in directly when you are next on site. 

We are also looking for  volunteers to help collect surveys from visitors, ideally we would like to get a sample of visitors survey on different days and at different times thought out November. We are looking for people who would be happy to do this for around 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

If you are interested please contact  Fran Riando, our Volunteer Development Officer francesca.riando@fulhampalace.org.

Many thanks in advance for your help and support. The more we know about what you like and value about Fulham Palace, the better the future plans for improvement will be - so please have your say.

Apple Day Celebration

Live music, cake, cider and lots of apples, what else do you need to enjoy a Sunday? Apple Day Celebration was as successful as we expected. Guests, volunteers and staff enjoyed the activities and the sunny Walled Garden was full of stalls with lots of unique products.

A wide selection of apples from Fulham Palace garden were displayed and ready to be taken home. Some of these apples became cider a few months ago and delicious dry and sweet cider bottles were available to try and buy. A display full of bees producing honey catched the attention of more than one kid trying to find the queen. And of course, tasty Fulham Palace honey, jam and chutney jars flied very quickly off the shelves. Everybody enjoy an amazing bodging demonstration and you had the option to purchase hand-made spoons and tools.

The music from the band Threepenny bit accompanied us through the afternoon making the environment even more festive. Little ones and also grown-ups could enjoyed fascinating storytelling sessions. 

The baking competition made the afternoon even sweeter and the apple cakes were absolutely delicious. Congratulations to all the bakers!

The event was supported by Whole Foods they brought some healthy and organic products and snacks to sell on their stall.

Thank you very much to all the volunteers and staff who helped making Apple Day such a success.

Marlen Armendariz

Volunteer Communication Assistant