Bletchley Park - Part 1

I have always been fascinated by Bletchley Park. My grandmother was in the WRENs during WW2 working in some capacity with code-breaking and ciphers. She didn't work at Bletchley, but one of her school friends did, and she has often talked about life during the War, which sparked my interest in Bletchley. So last week, when it was half term (one of the perks of working in a school), my father and I decided to go and visit it.

I got a bit happy-snappy so I think I am going to have to split this into two posts. The first will be about Bletchley House. 

This is Bletchley House. I was suprised how small it was, since so many people worked there. Its more like a 19th century upper middle class country house, than a grand mansion on a large estate. 

After the war the house was largely left to fall into disrepair, but thanks to the Bletchley Park Trust (formed in the 1990s) the house is now nearly completely restored. I have to say beautifully restored. Unfortunately, to raise funds to renovated the rest of the Bletchley site, the Trust rent out the rooms for corporate events, so their is ugly modern furniture in every room. However, we were still able to wonder around and see quite a few of the ground floor rooms. 

In the hall facing the front door. I am not sure when the house was built (there didn't seem to be any info about it), but in the 1880s it was bought by a wealthy London financier and his wife, Sir Herbert and Lady Leon, who added a wing to the house in the early 1900s. The house has been restored to how it would have looked during the Leon's time, hence all the Edwardian paneling. 

A corridor which seemed to double as a coat/boot room.

You can see the evidence of it being used for corporate events.

The library. I loved this room. If you ignore the ugly furniture, you can imagine what it might have been like during the Edwardian era. During the war the room was divided into 3 offices. It is a decent size, but not big enough to be split into 3 rooms. They must have been 3 tiny offices!!

The bookshelves are all original, and beautiful.

Once again ignore the ugly table.

Amazing original fireplace

The hall (looking away from the front door)

Sadly the first floor was off limits. :( Apparently the rooms on all the floors, apart from the ground floor, are rented out as office space to businesses.

I can't precisely remember what the original function of this room was, though I have a feeling it was the Drawing Room.

The Ballroom, which was used as a cinema during the War.

Detail of the ceiling

Another room off the main hall, well its more like a covered courtyard then a room

I thought that mainly because of the ceiling

 Looking towards the hall.

The dining room, which had some lovely old photos of the house and the people who worked their.

 Some of the servants at the beginning of 20th century

Carpenters and maids c.1900

Next post: the rest of the Bletchley Estate.

Amazing Libraries

I love historic buildings, especially libraries. So you can imagine how excited I was to see, whilst perusing the Two Nerdy History Girl's weekly Sunday breakfast links, a blog who's author has complied photos of some of the most amazing libraries around the world. 

Not all are historical but even the modern ones are amazing in a wacky/crazy way. Here is the blog enjoy. :)

Tea at the Savoy

Last Thursday, as a treat for graduating from uni, I went with my parents to have afternoon tea at the Savoy Hotel. The hotel has only recently opened after a multi-million pound refurbishment, so I was very eager to see what it looked like. The Savoy is essentially an Edwardian hotel although it was heavily remodeled in the 1930s, and was famous for its beautiful art deco interiors. When the new owners bought the hotel a few years ago and announced that they were going to refurbish it there was quite a bit of excitement, until they started ripping out its art deco features. There was a bit of an uproar, as the Savoy is seen as very much of a London icon. I, for one, was angry that the history of the hotel was essentially being destroyed (especially as I had never seen inside the building :) ). I truly thought that the new hotel would look awful.

I was pleasantly surprised though. Not only are the new interiors beautiful and really tastefully done (apart from a rather disgusting animal print sofa), some of the new decoration is even better than the previous one.

This is definitely the case in the Thames Parlour, where the tea was held. It used to be very dark, but now it is beautifully light and the perfect place to spend the afternoon drinking copious amounts of tea and eating cake. :)

The beautiful glass dome in the ceiling of the parlour

The pagoda - odd structure to have in the centre of a room - it was where the pianist played (30s music :) )

Our table

I really like the design of the hotel's china. Tis so pretty. :)

Beautiful!!! :)

Now on to the food - which was delicious, but of course I ate way too much and felt sick afterwards!! :)

Scones and sandwiches which they constantly replenished (really dangerous!!! lol ) (oh and my darling Mama :) )

Second course - pastries. Yes they are all mine!!! :)

Third and final course - We had a choice of 3 cakes carrot, banana, and fruit. You could have a slice of each. I had one of banana and one of fruit. By this time I was close to bursting, but it was so yummy I couldn't stop! :)

Afterwards we went to the Savoy Museum (one room in the hotel). It isn't big but it has some lovely items and photos that are from the hotel's past.

A beautiful fan depicting life at the Savoy in the '30s.

Some of the hotel's original china

A beautiful fan case...

...and the fan that goes inside it.

The only bad thing I would have to say about the tea was that my seat had a few stains and crumbs on it before I sat down (picky I know, but you would think a 5 star hotel would be a stickler about cleanliness!). Anyway all in all it was a fabulous afternoon :) .

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the scones were the most delicious scones I have ever tasted, and so light. :)