Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich

When I last visited the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich, it wasn’t “Old” – but it wasn't so long ago that it was the Royal Hospital for Seamen. A family wedding last month in the Chapel of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (left) was good reason to return and provided an opportunity to see both the Chapel and the Painted Hall again. The tiled floor of the Chapel represents ships’ cables (below) and the painting behind the altar is Benjamin West’s Shipwreck of St Paul, c1785 .

The Chapel was rebuilt after a fire in 1779 in an austere neoclassical style whereas the baroque Painted Hall from 80 years earlier remains much as Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor intended. The impressive painted interior (1708-1727) is by Sir James Thornhill and assistants and embodies British maritime supremacy in the form of the Royal Navy ensuring the triumph of peace and liberty over the forces of tyranny (below).

The problem with eating in the Painted Hall is that, however good the catering, it’s impossible for the food to match the splendour of the surroundings. The group of buildings at Greenwich, now being better looked after by the Foundation than for years, is probably, in its setting, the finest in London. Admission to the Chapel and Painted Hall is free and there is much else to see nearby – the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site ought to be a must for visitors to London.

A VCtender farewell

The latest Ian Fleming pastiche, Solo by William Boyd, was published on 26 September. It’s 1969 and James Bond, just after his 45th birthday, sets off to adventures in Africa in a BOAC VC10. (BOAC, the British Overseas Airways Corporation, would become part of British Airways in 1974). Just under a week earlier, on 20 September, the RAF had conducted its final operations with VC10 tankers (above), almost 50 years after the aircraft entered commercial service with BOAC in 1964 and 51 years after the first flight in 1962. The last VC10 landing was on 25 September, the day on which copies of Solo were despatched around the world via British Airways.

 

Only 54 VC10 airframes were built, but the history of the type is complicated with at least 11 variants. The aircraft was originally the Vickers VC10, being manufactured by that company at Brooklands, Surrey and is also referred to as the British Aircraft Corporation VC10, Vickers having been merged into BAC. The VC10 was the fastest subsonic commercial airliner, probably had one of the noisiest footprints, and its four rear-mounted Rolls Royce Conway engines were not particularly fuel-efficient, even for its time. It had been designed to operate in and out of small, “hot and high” airfields of the sort Bond was setting off for, and which featured in the flight plans of BOAC’s predecessor, Imperial Airways. However, the VC10 was popular with passengers, offering legroom in standard class superior to current business class and the cabin (above left) was fairly quiet (the noise being left behind), qualities which BOAC made use of in the marketing slogan VCtenderness. I flew long-haul in BOAC VC10s (below) on four occasions in the 1960s and they were the best commercial flights I’ve experienced.

 

Static civilian VC10s can be seen in the UK in Surrey at Brooklands and in Cambridgeshire at Duxford, and military tankers will be on display in Surrey at Dunsfold and in Cornwall (SW England) at Newquay.