The 1805 Dispatches #22.02 April 2022 2 of 6 The 1805 Club is proud to have been a financial supporter of the renovation of the Nelson Room in the Old Royal Naval College (ORNC), Greenwich: a project successfully conducted by the Greenwich Foundation, with the Gosling Foundation as the major financial supporter. Discreetly located next to the Upper Hall (the raised section at the end of the magnificent Painted Hall), the Nelson Room is a small space of elegant design by Nicholas Hawksmoor, working within the overall plans by Sir Christopher Wren. Originally it was intended as a firebreak between the Painted Hall and the accommodation spaces of the former Hospital for retired seamen. Since then, and while under the Royal Navy’s ownership, it has been through other uses, during which much of the original fabric was covered up, drilled through, or otherwise put to functional Service purposes. Nevertheless, this has always been the place where Nelson’s heavy coffin was kept from Christmas Eve 1805, until it was moved into the adjacent Upper Hall for its public lying-in-state over 5-7 January 1806. The coffin’s weight was because it was not just one object, but several. Nelson’s body (after its famous transition from Gibraltar in a barrel of spirits of wine, and after its autopsy) was clothed and then placed in a pine coffin made from the mainmast of L’Orient (the French flagship at the Battle of the Nile), which was itself placed in a lead coffin, which was placed inside a coffin of elm. Pending the lying-in-state, the weighty ensemble lay in this room on a large table. The table still exists but is not on display in the conserved room: ironically, it is too big, because the Nelson Room remains an essential thoroughfare between the Painted Hall and other rooms. The Nelson Room was given its name in 1846, following the remarkably late decision to erect the central London memorial we know as Nelson’s Column. From 1873 to 1998, as the Royal Naval College, the whole complex of buildings functioned as the Navy’s university, and the Nelson Room became a kitchen, tiled from floor to ceiling, with the Painted Hall as “the most beautiful dining room in daily use in the whole of Europe”. In readiness for 2005, the “Great Bicentenary”, the tiling was removed, and the walls were replastered and painted to then current tastes. Its present appearance reflects more recent scientific and historical research. The restored room retains its original dimensions but has been repurposed to inform visitors about its unique history and the context of the times. The colours today are those of the original room. The restored marble floor uses stone quarried from the same place in Sweden as the original. Visitors may sit (on benches commemorating the Gosling Foundation, or on the circular bench that echoes the ‘lantern’ above) and follow the story in constantly changing wall displays. We in The 1805 Club were alerted to this Greenwich Foundation project in 2019. It was a comfortable fit with our aims and objectives, and we contributed £2,000 towards the expenses of the conservation. On 17 March 2022, the Club’s present Secretary Stephen Howarth and Council member Genevieve St George attended a sponsors’ preview of the completed Nelson Room, hosted by Matthew Mees (CEO of the Greenwich Foundation), with inspiring talks from Martin Ashley (Surveyor of the Fabric) and Claire Kirk (Head of Learning, Interpretation and Collections). It was a great pleasure to know that The 1805 Club was a contributor to this historic commemoration – and even more so because, in the immediately adjacent Upper Hall, are the Club’s two splendid floor plaques commemorating the lying-instate first of Nelson and then of Collingwood. These were the last additions to the Upper Hall ever to have been permitted, and today they are routinely the endpoint of guided tours to the Painted Hall. Members of The 1805 Club are now invited to a special private afternoon at the ORNC, on Wednesday 18th May 2022, to include guided tours of the Nelson Room (with an introduction from Martin Ashley), the Painted Hall, the Chapel, and the grounds. Details will be emailed to all Club members. THE NELSON ROOM RENOVATION Images courtesy Stephen Howarth and Chloé Nelkin Consulting, the latter having organised the reopening of The Nelson Room. See page 6 for more pix.
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