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Friday 5 November 2021

I have been to ... the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre

The Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre is located very close to Kidbrooke mainline railway station in South East London in the middle of what was a former RAF station. The base was set up in 1917 by the Royal Flying Corps to act as a storage depot, and by 1918 it had several large warehouses that stretched over 1,000 yards alongside the railway line. It was so large that it even had its own 2-foot gauge railway network.

Between the wars the station was known as No.1 Stores Depot from March 1920 until February 1937, when it became No.1 Equipment Depot. It was renamed No.1 Maintenance Unit in April 1938 and was closed as an independent station in February 1947. During the Second World War it was further expanded to include a large barrage balloon depot, No.1 Balloon Centre, 901 Barrage Balloon Squadron, and No.2 Installation Unit, which constructed and repaired the Chain Home radar station masts.

Between 1949 and 1953 the base was the home of the Russian language school of the Joint Services School for Linguists. From the beginning of 1954 until January 1963 Kidbrooke was the location of the RAF Movements School, where personnel from all three armed services and the Civil Service were trained all aspects of cargo movements and mobility. It was also the home of No.4 Motor Transport Squadron until 1967, when the work done by the squadron was civilianised. The civilian transport unit moved to the nearby Woolwich Arsenal site in 1968/1969, at which point the base was finally closed.

Most of the site was then redeveloped into the Ferrier housing estate (which has now been rebuilt, redeveloped, and renamed Kidbrooke Village) and its associated primary and secondary schools, and only a few single-storey, brick-built storage sheds were left undemolished ... and these have now been renovated and incorporated into the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre.

The Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre lies in a bend of the A2 between a housing development and one of the main railway lines from Charing Cross into Kent. It can be reached by road and by a pathway from the local railway station. The main building was built in 2017, and it is now open to the public for pre-booked tours on a regular basis. It was on one of these tours that Sue and I went on Thursday.


On our arrival we were greeted by members of staff from the Learning Department of the Royal Museums Greenwich, who introduced themselves and gave us a quick briefing about what we were going to see. We then set off on our tour.

Our first stop was in one of the large storage buildings which houses part of the model ship collection.

As can be gathered by the following photographs, the models are being stored in special storage crates and are not kept in glass cases for public display, hence the slightly blurred images due to the material used.

From there we moved on into one of the areas where wide variety of artefacts are stored.

These included a Roman amphora that was recovered from the site of a shipwreck in the Thames Estuary that contained a large number of olive stones, all that remained of its original cargo of Spanish olives.

We then returned to the main building, where we were allowed access to part of the storage facility used for paintings.

Our next stop was in an area where some of the museum's collection of celestial and terrestrial globes are stored ...

... before we moved on to the room where part of the ceramic collection (and other artefacts, including every copy of the Lloyds Register) is kept.

The museum has the world's largest collection of commemorative Nelsonian ceramics, part of which is kept in this area.

We finished our tour of the storage part of the centre with a trip to the uniform store ... where we saw a tiny doll of a WREN in World War I uniform.

The tour then moved on to the rooms where conservation work takes place. In the first room one of the staff was preparing a sledge used by the Shackleton Expedition for display in the main museum, ...

... whilst at the other end of the room members of the horology conservation team we hard at work on some wall clocks from the Royal Observatory.

In the room where the museum's storage boxes and display stands are made ...

... one end is used by the paper conservators. Whilst we were there, they were hard at work restoring a watercolour of the Royal Observatory. This required the original backing to be removed piece by tiny piece before the painting can be washed in a special vacuum washer to clean it and to restore some moisture to the paper.

We finished our tour in the room where fabric items are restored and conserved.

It was interesting to see that one item undergoing work in that area was a dress that was originally owned by Caroline Herschel, the younger sister of astronomer William Herschel. (He was George III's Court Astronomer and the discoverer of Uranus.). She was an astronomer in her own right and was the first woman to publish scientific findings in the 'Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society', to be awarded the Royal Astronomical Society's Gold Medal, and to be made an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society.


Our tour was scheduled to last two hours but overran by fifteen minutes because it was so interesting.

I cannot recommend a tour of the Prince Philip Maritime Centre too highly. The staff were extremely helpful, very knowledgeable, and gave freely of their time to explain what we were seeing and what they were doing. For anyone who likes watching TV programmes like 'The Repair Shop', this was an opportunity to see experts at work on historical artefacts.

For further details about the tours and other events that take place at the centre, visit their website.

18 comments:

  1. Sounds fascinating, thanks for sharing it with us.

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    Replies
    1. Tradgardmastare,

      It was a pleasure both to go there and to share what we saw whilst we were there.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. Hi BOB,
    Thank you for showing us the Maritime Centre- very interesting. It would be very interesting to view all the model ships there- I just admire the craftsmanship and the skill that went into the making of these miniatures. Best Wishes. KEV.

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    Replies
    1. Kev Robertson (Kev),

      It was a fascinating place. I could have spent all day watching the conservators at work.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. Sounds very interesting Bob and they obviously have an awful lot of stuff there, which I'm sure you could spend days just searching through. Nice that you could take a few photos as well:)

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    Replies
    1. Steve J.,

      We only saw part of one storage block … and there are five more that we didn’t look at! I understand that they have the largest collection of maritime paintings in the world as well as even more ship models in storage at Chatham Dockyard.

      Once they saw my blog and realised how many people read it regularly, they were far more accommodating with regard to my taking photos and making them available online.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
    2. That's really cool of them to let you take pix after they checked your blog. After your previous post I was expecting to only read about your visit. The Citadel in Québec City had a similar rule on photography within the museum. I guess that's a benefit of celebrity? Thanks for sharing!

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    3. Mr. Pavone,

      I think that they realised that I could help to extend their exposure.

      I did not know that they did not allow photography inside the museum in the Citadel in Quebec City. They certainly didn’t object when I was there some years ago … and I took loads!

      All the best,

      Bob

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  4. You make it sound very enticing.

    My recent museum visits have been rather disappointing with both the IWM and the NMM (Greenwich version) feeling very dumbed down. As for ship models, the best display in the country used to be those on the upper floors of the Science museum, which I think have all gone into storage. Bovington though is still great, as is Portsmouth (or anyway will be once they put the full masts back on HMS Victory).

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    Replies
    1. Mike Hall,

      As a young child I pretty well lived in the IWM, but nowadays it has been so dumbed down that I no longer want to visit it. The NMM in Greenwich is now being ‘marketed’ as being part of Royal Museums Greenwich, and seems intent on going down the same path as the IWM. I well remember the Armada exhibition some years ago, which I later discovered had been organised by the Fine Art Department. That explained why there was very little historical explanation of the events leading up to the Armada, but lots of paintings from the period.

      I have not been to Portsmouth for a long time, but hope to pay the area a visit once the worst of the pandemic is over.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  5. Hi Bob, I was born in Plumstead and my family were all from the Woolwich / Charlton area. My Grandfather served with 901 (County of London) (Balloon) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force (to give it it's full title) from day one in 1939. Initially they were in bell tents on Plumstead Marshes (were Thamesmead is now I believe). He had many visits to Kidbrooke. He was 51 when the war broke out and had served with The Royal Garrison Artillery (Woolwich) in WW1. What that generation went through I cannot imagine. Anyway, looks a very interesting place, must try to visit one day. Regards. Paul Leeson.

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    Replies
    1. PDL (Paul Leeson),

      My wife is Woolwich born and bred (she was born in the British Home for Mothers and Babies), and educated at King’s Warren School on. Plumstead Common. I was born in Lambeth, less than a mile from the Imperial War Museum. We now live near the top of Shooters Hill, overlooking the old Royal Military Academy.

      I suspect that 901 Squadron RAuxAF operated the barrage balloon that was situated at the top of Shooters Hill. It’s location was the subject of an episode of TIME TEAM.

      You are right about our parent’s and grandparent’s generations; they certainly had a lot to deal with during their lives, and I suspect that they coped better with adversity than we can today.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  6. Bob,
    Our parents and grandparents were certainly made of sterner stuff than many of today's youngsters.

    My wife's latest rental property was recently inspected by Neath council officials in furtherance of her application for an HMO licence to let it to more than three Swansea University students.

    For reasons beyond my comprehension, the cupboard under the stairs (where a vacuum cleaner was being stored) was considered so 'dangerous' that it should be kept locked at all times to prevent the students from accessing it. If today's undergraduates can't cope with a cupboard under the stairs, they would surely not have survived outdoor privies, coal-holes and the total absence of central heating...

    Best wishes,
    Arthur

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    Replies
    1. Arthur1815 (Arthur),

      I feel a Victor Meldrew response coming on; I don’t believe it! What on Earth do they think the students are going to do? Get stuck in there? Gawd ‘elp us!

      I must admit that I had students who just would not believe that I had used an unlit, unheated, outside toilet when I was a child, or that my parent’s home had no central heating until I was in my twenties. I wonder how they would cope with having to change a colostomy bag several times a day. It doesn’t come as a surprise that when I ended up with one, I was offered psychological counselling because so many people find it difficult to cope with the task because they were squeamish about handling their own body waste.

      What a generation of wimps some young people are!

      All the best,

      Bob

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    2. I wonder if the council wanted the cupboard under the stairs was locked to keep students out because they were concerned the students would try to sleep there. Since Harry Potter, being popular with college age people, lived under the stairs they might try to live out their pre-Hogwarts dreams of being a wizard? It seems silly but university students do some silly things.

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    3. Mr. Pavone,

      I doubt that anyone outside that department of the council could explain this very odd decision … which is typical of the arbitrary judgements that are sometimes made by local government officials. My local council has a ‘paper free’ policy … which means that they will only accept messages by phone or email. They refuse to deal with letters sent to them. The result is chaotic at times.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  7. Seems like you were able to take pictures after all!

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    Replies
    1. Chris,

      They relented once they had seen my blog and realised that I had a reasonably substantial following.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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