University Archive

To celebrate National Sporting Heritage Day, September 30th, here are some images from our extensive sporting archives.

   

1890’s: Woolwich Polytechnic Lady Gymnasts, 1899

1900’s: Woolwich Polytechnic Cricket Tour to Oxford, 1908

1900’s: Avery Hill College Hockey Team, 1908

1920’s: Woolwich Polytechnic Ladies Challenge Shield, 1902 – 1927

 

1930’s: The opening of the new Sports Pavilion at Well Hall, Eltham, 1930

 

I was going to post some images of the Avery Hill Dining and Drawing Rooms for this, but as the main theme of the series seems to be ‘selling-up’ I thought I’d post images of the Avery Hill Sale Catalogue. Its a wonderful insight into the luxury of an 1890s mansion.

  If you want to see inside contact us at Archives@gre.ac.uk

 

 

Possibly the first Library in the 1892 redevelopment of the original Woolwich Polytechnic 1890 building.

The ‘new’ Library in the 1915 Market Street Building (not to scale!)

Our earliest image of a member of Library staff, possibly in the Market Street building, but undated.

Students in the 1939 Wellington Street building. The new building was bombed in 1940, so the Library did not move in until after the war.

The Building was renovated in 1964. Including the Library.

The exterior of the Wellington Street Library.

Some sections of the Library later moved to Riverside House in Woolwich.

In the early 1990s, the whole Library was moved to Riverside House after renovation.

To mark Her Majesty the Queen achieving the record of longest serving British Monarch here are some photographs of Her relatives from the University Archives:

HM Queen Mary, the Queen’s grandmother, visiting Rachel McMillan Nursery. Born HSH Princess Victoria Mary von Teck at Kensington Palace 26th May 1867 she was lined up by Queen Victoria as a future Royal Bride. In 1891 she became engaged to Prince Albert Victor, eldest son of Edward Prince of Wales. When Albert die in a flu epidemic in 1892, his brother Prince George, Duke of York proposed to her and they married in July 1893. She subsequently held the titles HRH Duchess of York; HRH Duchess  of Cornwall; HRH Princess of Wales; HM The Queen; HIH Empress of India; and after George died HM Queen Mary (as Queen Mother).

HM King George V, the Queen’s grandfather with Queen Mary, visiting the Bergman-Osterberg Institute at Dartford. Possibly shocked by the amount of leg being shown by the staff and girls.

HRH Princess Margaret, the Queen’s sister, at the re-opening of Avery Hill College in 1947.

Starting a new theme this academic year here’s the first contribution from a beach in Naxos.

Theseus “From there the thread led into a passage all in darkness, where I could only feel my way along the walls. My face tickled with cobwebs, and a rat ran over my foot. I thought of snakes and trod delicately. The passage sloped upwards, and the air felt warmer. At the end was another lamp, and a great room full of archives: shelves of scrolls rustling with mice; mouldy rolls of ancient leather; bundles of palm leaves inked with faded signs; chests and baskets full of clay tokens and tablets. The dust made me sneeze and the mice went scampering.

Mary Renault (1958) The King Must Die. London: Virago p. 287

You may have seen our tweet about what archivists do all day: http://peelarchivesblog.com/2015/07/16/what-do-archivists-do-all-day/

Well here’s what we did on Friday:

We have an undated portrait of Mrs North, the onetime Chatelaine of Avery Hill, by P. Tennyson Cole.

We know that it must be pre 1891 because it appears hanging in her Boudoir in a photograph of that date.While putting a table into an under stairs cupboard on Friday I spotted the corner of an old picture frame. Here its is after cleaning.We think it is the frame in the picture as there were remnants of red velvet on the border. Then we found the label on the back.The date 1886/7 seems to have been added later. We know that Tennyson Cole painted Emma North in 1886, but in our other portrait of Mrs North dated 1880, the sitter appears to be more than 10 years younger than in the later painting. What do we do next?

The archives team had no difficulty in selecting our favourite image for the ICA International Archives Day:

Avery Hill students going on teaching practice in the ‘Black Maria’.

For more archival images from around the world go to:

http://www.internationalarchivesday.org/wordpress/?page_id=25

Philippa Fawcett, top maths student, physicist, educationalist, suffragist, and acting Principal of Avery Hill College, along with her mother Millicent fought to given women the vote and to allow them to graduate. Use your vote and your degree to continue their work.

 

To celebrate the Merry Month of May here are some May Queens from the Avery Hill College archives. The festival was ‘revived’ by John Ruskin at Whitelands College in 1881, and taken up by other women’s colleges as a non-religious festival.

Not a tale from our archives, but one from the WVS who fed the 82 thousand queuing to pay their respects (recipes included if you need to cater for similarly large parties).

The tale about the twins who were not twins is also interesting and useful fore anyone who likes setting puzzling riddles.

And was there really a volunteer called Miss Hope Less? I’m pleased to say none of our volunteers would fit that description!

http://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/about-us/our-history/wrvs-archive-and-heritage-collection/heritage-bulletin-blog