500 Years of Trinity House

Yesterday's picture was of the coat of arms of Trinity House or more formally:

The Master Wardens and Assistants of the Guild Fraternity or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity and of St. Clement in the Parish of Deptford Strond in the County of Kent

Trinity House is the body responsible in the UK for lighthouses and navigation aids, buoys, channels markers and pilots.

It was formed 500 years ago by Henry VIII and as a celebration of that birthday they held an open day when you could wander around their splendid headquarters in London:

It looks wonderful, the sort of place you could imagine Samuel Pepys (who's many roles included being Master there) striding magisterially but actually its all been reconstructed.

Alas during World War 2 it was gutted after an incendiary bomb fell on the building, but fortunately there had been a comprehensive photo shoot done for Country Life so they were able to do a wonderful restoration job.

Rather less lucky was what happened to the paintings not as big as the ones here. The non-huge paintings were transfered to the Tower of London for safe keeping. However it was found they were suffering from water damage so it was arranged for them to be collected and sent out of London.

Alas the delivery pick up was from Trinity House and in the handful of days they were back in that building it was bombed.

Ah well, it does have a rather spectacular view:

Tomorrow: some of the goodies to be found inside!