{"id":3850,"date":"2022-09-09T15:41:55","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T15:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/recordsandarchives.westminster.ac.uk\/?page_id=3850"},"modified":"2022-09-16T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T12:32:00","slug":"royalconnections-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/royalconnections-2\/","title":{"rendered":"King George V and King George VI"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Between 1910-1912, the Polytechnic building at 309 Regent Street underwent large-scale redevelopment.\u00a0 HM King George V was asked to reopen the building.\u00a0 He visited on 11th March 1912 with HM Queen Mary and HRH The Prince of Wales (later HM King Edward VIII).\u00a0 \u00a0They also consented to be the Polytechnic’s patrons.\u00a0 The Prince of Wales returned 7 years later to watch the 1919 Public Schools Boxing Championship held at the Poly.<\/p>

During HM King George VI’s reign, his mother, Queen Mary, remained our patron. Nevertheless, The King retained connections to the Polytechnic and as the monarch, played a key role in the psyche of the institution.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\"RSP_6_2_2-1\"
In 1912, King George V agreed to reopen 309 Regent Street. Between 1910-1912 the building was almost entirely reconstructed to accommodate the growing needs of the Poly. A new fa\u00e7ade was built and the existing 4 floors increased to 9 floors. Only the cinema, gymnasium and swimming pool were retained.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"King
King George V, Queen Mary and the Prince of Wales can be seen on the stairs of the new entrance hall at 309 Regent Street. Above their heads is a memorial to King Edward VII who died during the rebuild. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"IMG_1361\"
The memorial to King Edward VII is still visible in the Regent Street building today.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Fyvie
Fyvie Hall was added to the Regent Street building in 1912. \n Inside the wooden panelling is a compartment which holds an autochrome of the Duke of Connaught (1850-1942), son of Queen Victoria, and Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England. An autochrome is an early type of colour photograph, patented by the Lumi\u00e8re brothers. The image is created directly onto glass (with no negative) and must be viewed with a light source behind. A space for a candle is also built into the panelling. The autochrome was shown to King George V and Queen Mary, on their visit to the Polytechnic on 11 March 1912.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"RSP_6_2_1-7\"
This letter was sent to the Poly by the King's Private Secretary. The King and Queen specifically requested that the Poly did not stand on ceremony but went about its daily business during their visit in 1912.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"WOR_1_48_6\"
This photo, taken in December 1918, includes Prince Albert (later King George VI) fifth from the left, among a group of RAF officers during World War One. The photograph is part of a collection of records of Major Thomas Worswick, OBE (third from the right) who became Director of Education at the Regent Street Polytechnic, 1922-1932. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"1921
King George V started the Polytechnic Marathon at Windsor Castle in 1914. The Polytechnic Magazine reported that the King took a keen interest in the race and asked to be given progress reports every 5 miles. This began a long history of members of the Royal Family starting the race. The King is pictured here in 1921 meeting competitors.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"1932
The race began in the grounds of Windsor Castle. This photo shows competitors at the 1932 Marathon.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"E109
In 1929, the Great Portland Extension Building (now known as Little Titchfield Street) was opened. The building provided space for women\u2019s social spaces and a gymnasium as well as classrooms for Hairdressing, Tailoring, Carriage Building, Architecture, Matriculation, Commerce and Speech Training. The new building also housed state of the art facilities for the Domestic Science department and gave opportunities to use new labour-saving devices like electric irons and vacuum cleaners.\nQueen Mary opened the building on 10th October 1929.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"E110
At the opening of the Extension Building, Queen Mary (seen here with Sir Kynaston Studd, President of the Polytechnic, and his wife, Princess Alexandra Lieven) unveiled a portrait of Alice Hogg (1846-1918). Wife of the Polytechnic's founder Quintin Hogg, Alice had always been involved in the institution managing the women's activities of the Poly.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"1935
In 1935, to celebrate King George V's Silver Jubilee, the Polytechnic and Regent Street were decorated with flags and bunting.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"1937
On the occasion of King George VI's coronation in 1937, the Regent Street Polytechnic held a Coronation F\u00eate at the Chiswick sports ground. They also held a Grand Coronation Concert and Carnival Dance at Little Titchfield Street which was attended by over 1,000 members. The Dance included a fancy dress parade and other activities took place throughout the building, such as television and cinematograph shows.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"1936
While King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were not patrons of the Poly, they were involved with the Polytechnic marathon. As his father had done, King George VI met competitors at the start of the 1936 (pictured) and 1946 Polytechnic Marathon. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"PHA_8_1_8-1
Queen Elizabeth (later The Queen Mother) fired the starting pistol and met competitors at the 1948 Polytechnic Marathon. Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, Princess Alexandra of Kent and Prince Philip all went on to start the race in subsequent years.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"George
The cover of the Polytechnic Magazine announcing the death of King George VI.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBack to menu<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between 1910-1912, the Polytechnic building at 309 Regent Street underwent large-scale redevelopment.\u00a0 HM King George V was asked to reopen the building.\u00a0 He visited on 11th March 1912 with HM Queen Mary and HRH The Prince of Wales (later HM…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3850","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3850"}],"version-history":[{"count":102,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4637,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3850\/revisions\/4637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}