HMS Belfast, the Royal Navy's heaviest ever cruiser, was one of the two ships forming the final sub-class of British Town-class cruisers, the other being HMS Edinburgh. Belfast is now a museum ship in London.
The Town class cruisers were constrained to less than 10,000 tons by the Washington Naval Treaty. Originally intended to have quadruple 6 inch gun mountings, problems with building them caused the design to be reverted to using improved versions of the triple mountings fitted to the earlier ships of the class. The improved mountings neverthess were lighter than the original ones, and the weight saved was used to improve the ship's armour and anti-aircraft defences.
Belfast was launched on St Patrick's Day in 1938 at Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast by the wife of the then prime minister, Neville Chamberlain. At that time, the budgeted overall cost of the ship was £2,141,514, of which £75,000 was for the guns and £66,500 for aircraft. She was commissioned in August 1939 under the command of Captain G A Scott DSO and assigned to the 18th Cruiser Squadron.
When the Second World War started, the 18th Cruiser Squadron was used as part of the British efforts to impose a naval blockade on Germany. Working as part of the squadron, Belfast intercepted the German liner Cap Norte on October 9, 1939 as the liner was trying to return to Germany disguised as a neutral ship. On November 21, 1939 the ship was seriously damaged by a magnetic mine as she left the Firth of Forth, injuring 21 crew. The damage broke the keel and wrecked the hull and machinery to such an extent that it took nearly three years to repair her, the work being carried out at Devonport. She returned to service in the Home Fleet in November 1942 under the command of Captain Frederick Parham. Improvements had been made to the ship during her repairs, notably bulged amidships to improve her stability and fitting the latest radar and fire control; and increasing her displacement from 11,175 tons to 11,553 tons, making her Britain's heaviest cruiser.
She was made flagship of the Tenth Cruiser Squadron, under Rear-Admiral Robert Burnett when she provided cover for Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union. On December 26, 1943, in what developed into the Battle of North Cape, the cruiser squadron encountered the German Gneisenau class battlecruiser Scharnhorst, and with the battleship HMS Duke of York subsequently sunk her.
The ship was part of the escort force in Operation Tungsten in March 1944, a large carrier-launched airstrike against the Tirpitz, at that stage the last surviving German heavy warship, which was moored at Altenfjord in northern Norway. Although the attack failed to destroy Tirpitz, the ship was hit by 15 bombs and severely damaged.
Belfast took part in the bombardment of enemy positions at the beginning of the landing phase of the D-Day landings, Operation Neptune, in June 1944 as flagship of bombardment Force E. This was part of the Eastern Eastern Naval Task Force, with responsibility for supporting the British and Canadian assaults on Gold and Juno beaches and, at 5.30 am on 6 June 1944, was one of the first ships to fire on German positions.
For the next five weeks the ship was almost continuously in action, firing thousands of rounds from her 6 inch and 4 inch batteries in support of troops until the battlefront moved so far inland as to be outside of the range of her guns. Her final shoot in the European war was on July 8, during Operation Charnwood, the battle to capture Caen, when she engaged German positions in company with the battleship HMS Rodney and the monitor HMS Roberts.
Two days later she returned to Devonport for a short refit for service in the Far East, and joined Operation Zipper which was intended to expel the Japanese from Malaya but turned into a relief operation following the Japanese surrender.
She also served in the Korean War, in which her guns were used for naval bombardment in support of the United Nations forces. In July 1952 she was hit by a Communist battery, killing one and wounding four others. Between 1959-62 the ship operated in the Far East on exercises and "showing the flag". In December 1961 she provided the British guard of honour at Dar-es-Salaam during the Tanganyika independence ceremony. The ship left Singapore on March 26, 1962 for the UK where she made a final visit to Belfast and after an exercise in Mediterranean was paid off. Following a campaign led by Rear Admiral Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles DSO OBE CM, a former captain of the ship, she was brought to London to become a museum ship and was first opened to the public on Trafalgar Day, October 21, 1971.
Tags: HMS Belfast Royal Navy cruiser town-class WWII World II World War 2 Korean War river thames river thames thames river southwark bankside UK United Kingdom Britain Great Britain Londonist Europe London England
City Hall the headquarters of the Greater London Authority and the Mayor of London. It stands on the south bank of the River Thames, in the More London development by Tower Bridge. Designed by Norman Foster it opened in July 2002.
The building has an unusual bulbous shape, intended to reduce the building's surface area and thus improve energy efficiency. It has been compared variously to Darth Vader's helmet, a misshapen egg, a woodlouse or a motorcycle helmet. London Mayor Ken Livingstone referred to it as a "glass testicle". Its designers reportedly saw the building as a giant sphere hanging over the Thames, but opted for a more conventionally rooted building instead. The building has no front or back on conventional terms but derives its shape from a modified sphere.
City Hall was constructed on a site formerly occupied by wharves serving the Pool of London. The building does not belong to the GLA but is leased under a 25-year rent. It forms part of a larger development called More London, including offices and shops. Next to City Hall is a sunken amphitheatre called The Scoop, which is used in the summer months for open-air performances. A 500 metre (1,640 foot) helical walkway ascends the full height of the building. At the top of the ten-story building is an exhibition and meeting space called "London's Living Room," with an open viewing deck which is occasionally open to the public. The walkway provides views of the interior of the building, and is intended to symbolise transparency. In 2006 it was announced that Solar photovoltaic cells would be fitted to the building by the London Climate Change Agency.
City Hall is not in the City of London, whose headquarters is in the Guildhall north of the Thames. The predecessors of the Greater London Authority, namely the Greater London Council and the London County Council, had their headquarters at County Hall, upstream on the South Bank. Although County Hall's old council chamber is still intact, the building is unavailable for use by the GLA due to the building's conversion into, amongst other things, a luxury hotel, amusement arcade and aquarium.
Architect Sir Norman Foster's distinctive style can be seen in his other works such as 30 Mary Axe, and The Hearst Tower.
Tags: City hall Norman Foster Greater London Authority Mayor of London UK United Kingdom Britain Great Britain Londonist Europe river thames thames river bankside southwark London london city hall sir norman foster England
Butler's Wharf is the name of a development of flats on Shad Thames, on the south bank of the river Thames just east of Tower Bridge. The term is also used as an alternative name for the Shad Thames area.
Butler's Wharf was built in the 19th century as a shipping wharf and warehouse complex, accommodating goods unloaded from ships using the port of London. It contained what was reputedly the largest tea warehouse in the world. During the 20th century, Butler's Wharf and other warehouses in the area fell into disuse.
From 1975-78 the artists' space at 2B Butler's Wharf was a key venue for early UK video art and performance art.
Since the 1980s Butler's Wharf has been transformed from a run-down derelict site into luxury flats with restaurants and shops on the ground floor. Terence Conran owns several of the restaurants, which include Butler's Wharf Chop House, Pont de la Tour and Cantina del Ponte. At the right end of the wharf (in the picture) stands Anchor Brewery.
Tags: Butler's Wharf Southwark Shad Thames wharf bermondsey UK United Kingdom Britain Great Britain Londonist Europe London England
In December 1787 the Aberdonian John Courage purchase a small brewhouse on this site. Little more than a year later the first entry in the brewing records that John Courage had brewed 51 barrels of beer at the Anchor Brewhouse, Horselydown.
The seperate elements, Boilerhouse, Brewhouse and Malt Mill, each expressing different functions in the process of beer making, are united to form the Anchor Brewhouse's characterful and picturesque composition.
The building is an expression of historical continuity, for brewing on the river has always been an important fe3atures of London's Thames-side. Brewing in Southwark is mentioned by Chaucer, and in Horselydown by Shakespeare.
The original part of this building dates from 1871 and was largely rebuilt in 1894-1895. Reconstructed, restored and refurbished in 1985-1989. It is now a Grade II listed bilding situated in the Tower Bridge Conservation Area in Butler's Wharf
The Anchor Tap pub that was the brewery tap is still open nearby. The pub is run by Samuel Smith.
Tags: Anchor Brewhouse brewhouse john courage bermondsey shad thames horselydown lane Horselydown Grade II Grade II Listed Tower Bride Conservation Area English Heritage UK United Kingdom Britain Great Britain Londonist Europe Butler's Wharf wharf thad shames London England
Tower Bridge, the iconic bascule bridge over the River Thames, gets its name from the nearby Tower of London. Today it is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the Corporation of London.
In the second half of the 19th century, increased commercial development in the East End necessitated a new river crossing downstream of London Bridge. A traditional fixed bridge couldn't be without cuting off access to the port facilities in the Pool of London. A tunnel beneath the Thames, the Tower Subway, was opened in 1870, but only accommodated pedestrian traffic. In 1876, A Special Bridge or Subway Committee was formed to oversee public design competition that attracted over 50 submissions, including one from civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. It was not until 1884 that a design submitted by Horace Jones, the City Architect, was approved.
Jones' design was for a bascule bridge, 800 feet (244 m) in length, with two towers each 213 feet (65 m) high, built on piers. The central span of 200 feet (61 m) between the towers is split into two equal bascules or leaves, which can be raised to an angle of 83 degrees to allow river traffic to pass. Although each bascule weighs over 1,000 tons, they are counterbalanced to allow raising in one minute. The original hydraulic raising mechanism was powered by pressurized water stored in six accumulators. Water was pumped into the accumulators by steam engines. Today the original hydraulic machinery still opens the bridge, but it has been converted to oil and electric motors have replaced the steam engines.
Construction of the bridge started in 1886 and took 8 years, employing 5 major contractors and 432 construction workers. Two massive piers, containing over 70,000 tons of concrete, were sunk into the river bed to support construction. Over 11,000 tons of steel provided the framework for the towers and walkways. This was then clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone, both to protect the underlying steelwork and to give the bridge a pleasing appearance. Jones died in 1887, and his chief engineer, Sir John Wolfe-Barry, took over the project. Wolfe-Berry replaced Jones' original mediaeval style facade with the distinctive landmark, ornate Victorian gothic style.
The bridge was opened on June 30, 1894 by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, effectively replacing the Tower Subway, 400 m to the west, the world's first underground tube railway. It closed a few years later.
The high-level walkways between the towers became a haunt for prostitutes and pick-pockets, and were closed in 1910. They were reopened as part of the Tower Bridge Experience, an exhibition mostly housed in the bridge's twin towers. The Experience also affords access to the original steam engines, housed in a building close on the south end.
Although river traffic is now a fraction of what it used to be, it still takes priority over road traffic. This nearly caused a diplomatic incident in 1996, when the motorcade of United States President Bill Clinton got stuck on Tower Bridge while the bascules were unexpectedly opened.
Tags: Tower bridge Victorian gothic bridge bascule bascule bridge UK United Kingdom Britain Great Britain Londonist Europe London England