The Rouen clock: Medieval inspiration for London Court, Perth.
clock, France, the Great Clock, Le Gros Horloge, H. Hope-Jones, London Court, newspaper, Normandy, Perth, replica, Rouen, WA, The West Australian, Western Australia
<p>These photographs compare the clock face at the Hay Street end of London Court in Perth with Le Gros Horloge, or the Great Clock, at Rouen in Normandy, France, on which it is based. An article in The West Australian newspaper in 1937, and repeated on the official London Court website, claims that the London Court clock face designed by H. Hope-Jones is a ‘replica’ of the one at Rouen. Yet a comparison of the photographs shows that this is not the case. Although the layout is the same the materials are different and the central sun on the Rouen clock is much larger. Le Gros Horloge also only has a single hand, to indicate the hour, whereas the London Court clock has the conventional modern two hands.</p>
<p>The Rouen clock mechanism was installed in the early fifteenth century, whilst the clock face was added a century later. The clock includes figures associated with the day of the week appearing at noon on the appropriate day and, above the clock, a globe depicting the phase of the moon.</p>
For London Court see <a href="http://www.londoncourt.com.au/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800080;">www.londoncourt.com.au</span></a>. For the newspaper article ‘Two New Clocks’ see <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41438038" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41438038</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">.</span></span>
McLeod, Shane
29 November 2011
No Copyright
2 x Digital Photographs; JPEGs
Two New Clocks: Novelties for London Court
arcade, Big Ben, Big Clock, clock, dragon, Fremantle, H. Hope Jones, Hay Street, horse, knights, La Grosse Horage, lance, London Court, mechanisation, Monk of Glastonbury, Moreton Bay, Peter Lightfoot, retail arcade, Rouen, shopping, St George, St George’s Terrace, sword, Synchronome Company Ltd, synchronome invention, “Tournament of Tilting Knightsâ€, WA, Wells Cathedral, Western Australia
In this article from The West Australian in 1937, the arrival of two clocks destined for London Court in Perth, Western Australia is announced. They were delivered to Fremantle by Mr H. Hope-Jones, managing director and founder of the Synchronome Company in London, during his world tour of observatory clocks. The article goes on to summarise Hope-Jones’ description of the clocks: the clock at the St George’s Terrace entrance would have a dial copied from the famous medieval (fourteenth century) Big Clock at Rouen and the clock at the Hay Street entrance would be a replica of Big Ben in London. Above the clock at the St George’s end, Hope-Jones explained, would be the figures of St George and the dragon on a revolving horizontal wheel. The wheel would revolve once at every quarter past the hour, twice at every half hour, three times at every three-quarters past the hour and at the chiming of the full hour St George’s sword would touch a hidden trigger switch and the dragon’s head would fall off. Above the Hay Street clock would be four jousting knights, who would occasionally dismount each other with a blow from their lance. This, Hope-Jones said, was a copy of the fourteenth-century Wells Cathedral Clock reputed to have been made by Peter Lightfoot, the Monk of Glastonbury.
Anon.
National Library of Australia
The West Australian
9 October 1937, p. 27.
The West Australian
Digitised Newspaper Article
"Saint Joan"
Albert Chevalier, Atholl Fleming (1984-1972), Battle, Bishop of Beauvais, Bluebeard, British stage, Bruce Winston, canonisation, Captain La Hire, cast, characters, Charles VII, Charles de Ponthieu (1403-1461), Christopher Casson (1912-1996), Dauphin, Donald Eccles (1908-1986), drama, Dunois, Earl of Warwick, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Hilda Davies, His Majesty’s Theatre, Hundred Years’ War (1336-1453), Inquisitor, Jeanne d’Arc, Joan of Arc (1412-1431), Ladvenu, Leonard Bennett, Lewis Casson (1875-1969), maid of Orléans, medieval France, Michael Martin-Harvey (1897-1975), New Theatre, Page, Perth, play, Poulengey, Rheims Cathedral, Robert de Baudricourt, Rouen, Saint Joan, “Saint Joanâ€, St. Joan, St Joan, saint, saints, stage, Sybil Thorndike (1882-1976), T. Tracy, theatre, theatrical production, trial, warrior, Zillah Carter (1864-1941)
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">This article from the Sunday Times provides a positive review of George Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan”, which premiered in Australia at His Majesty’s Theatre in 1932. “Saint Joan” is a play based on the life (Scenes 1-5), trial (scene 6) and canonisation (Epilogue) of Joan of Arc. The play’s depiction of medieval France is praised by the reviewer as vivid and realistic. For a copy of Shaw’s “Saint Joan”, see <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200811h.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200811h.html</span></a>. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">About Joan of Arc:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /> Joan of Arc was born in 1412 in the French village of Domrémy. From the age of about 12, Joan had visions of saints and heard heavenly voices that increasingly urged her to fight for France during the Hundred Years’ War. She travelled to the court of Charles De Ponthieu, the Orléanist claimant to the throne, where she was provided with a suit of armour and her distinctive banner depicting a golden fleur-de-lys. She secured a decisive military victory to rescue the city of Orléans from the Earl of Salisbury’s English army in 1429, and was present at the coronation of Charles VII. However, in May the following year Joan was captured by Burgundian forces at Compiègne, and was handed over to the English. She was tried at Rouen on charges of witchcraft and heresy, and was condemned to death. On 30 May 1431, she was executed. Two and a half decades later, the case was appealed and her conviction was overturned. She was beatified in 1909 and canonised as a saint in 1920.</span></p>
Anon.
<span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; color: #000000; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">National Library of Australia, </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58662791" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58662791</span></a></span></span></span>
The Sunday Times
8 May 1932
National Library of Australia
Digitised Newspaper Article
English