It’s the Major General’s inspection in Hyde Park today. The Major General is James Bowder, a Grenadier. Yesterday they were rehearsing. But I must digress.
Yesterday Bertie and I made a reconnaissance in force, a favourite expression of my grandfather when we were going to try a new lough to fish for pike, to Knightsbridge station. Finally lifts are working from the Piccadilly line to street level. It is never straightforward installing lifts in ancient stations and the Knightsbridge story is an interesting one.
“The station was opened on 15 December 1906 by the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (GNP&BR, now the Piccadilly Line). When opened, the platforms were accessed in the standard manner by four lifts and an emergency staircase connecting to parallel passageways and bridges to midway along the platforms.
In the early 1930s, the availability of government grants to stimulate the depressed economy enabled the Underground Group to carry out a major modernisation programme, during which many central London stations were brought up to date with escalators to replace the original lifts. Knightsbridge was one of the Piccadilly Line stations to benefit from the installation of escalators.
It is the only tube station on the London Underground network to have six consecutive consonants in its name.” (London.Fandom.com)
Now it has been “brought up to date” again with two new lifts, elegant tiling and an old exit re-opened in Hooper’s Court, an 18th century passage between Brompton Road and Basil Street. I only realised yesterday that the Basil Street Hotel is no more. It closed in 2005 and the street has been redeveloped into offices.
The Major General’s Inspection is the annual test of the regiment’s ability to conduct state ceremonial duties for the year. During the parade more than 160 men and horses including the Household Cavalry Band with their magnificent Drum Horses, trot and canter across the grass of Hyde Park in a display of military mounted precision.