{"id":813,"date":"2021-01-21T11:10:42","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T11:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/?p=813"},"modified":"2021-01-21T15:27:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T15:27:20","slug":"cut-your-coat-according-to-your-cloth-the-story-of-the-bentham-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/?p=813","title":{"rendered":"Cut your coat according to your cloth: the story of the Bentham Room"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0Velis id quod possis<\/strong><\/div>\n

Non facere ipse queo Tetrasticha; disticha possum,<\/p>\n

Accipe quod possum, quod nequeo, sileat.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Bentham, May 1759<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cut your coat according to your cloth<\/strong><\/p>\n

A quatrain isn\u2019t something I can do;<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s a couplet: Take what\u2019s offered you.<\/p>\n

Translation by Nicholas Stone, 2015<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last school year Jeremy Bentham (OW 1755-1760) was celebrated as our new airy space off School was christened in his honour as the Bentham Room.<\/p>\n

Whilst the room is our latest addition, it has been created from the shell of the school\u2019s 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century gymnasium, constructed in 1861 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the famed architect of St. Pancras and the Albert Memorial.\u00a0 The site was given to the school by the Abbey for a covered play area, as the pupils were running amok in the cloisters on rainy days.\u00a0 It consisted of a small patch of land at the foot of the former monastic dormitory, parts of which date back to the 10th<\/sup>\u00a0century.\u00a0 The area had originally been the monks\u2019 graveyard so it was not possible to create deep foundations for the new building.\u00a0 The awkward shape of the space necessitated the gym\u2019s curved north wall which allows room for a flying buttress of the Abbey\u2019s Chapter House.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jill Atherton\u2019s drawing of the wall of the dormitory, visible from The Bentham Room<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

150 years later the gym was no longer required for its original purpose after the school purchased a 999-year lease for the Royal Horticultural Society\u2019s Lawrence Hall.\u00a0 This became the school\u2019s sports centre, and whilst the square-footage of the gym was still very much needed, particularly during exam season, the building was clearly ripe for renovation.\u00a0 Ptolemy Dean\u2019s creative design inserted a mezzanine floor that allows the room to\u00a0be accessed from School via the Markham Room, whilst a secret exit to behind the stage makes it an ideal green room for performances.\u00a0 The former entrance, through the Dark Cloister, is still used to a storage area beneath, although the old staircase hidden underneath a trap-door in the Markham room has been lost.<\/p>\n

The refurbishment needed to take place quickly as the space is now essential for the summer examination season.\u00a0 This prevented any serious structural alterations and the existing roof was renewed rather than replaced, with lead-flashing crafted on site. \u00a0New windows were inserted giving views of the Houses of Parliament and the soaring spires of the Chapter House.\u00a0 Earlier apertures, now filled in with stone, are visible on the west wall, adjoining School and the Abbey Library.\u00a0 These are remnants from when the building was the monk\u2019s dormitory and private cells were haphazardly built out from the communal \u2018dorter\u2019. Scott\u2019s magnificent oak beams can now be viewed more closely crossing the room, adorned with hooks which originally supported ropes, hanging bars and other gymnastic equipment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lead flashing crafted for the roof of the Bentham Room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately, the school does not have a portrait of Jeremy Bentham in its collection to adorn the room.\u00a0 We therefore decided to display pictures that mark another time of renewal in the school\u2019s history \u2013 the post-war period.\u00a0 School was amongst the school buildings seriously damaged by war time bombings and the last to be rebuilt; it was not formally reopened until the visit by Her Majesty the Queen to mark the school\u2019s 400th<\/sup> anniversary in 1960.\u00a0 The incendiary bomb that hit in May 1941 completed destroyed the wonderful oak hammer-beam roof that had spanned the hall, along with the ornate Tudor ceiling and original star-chamber door once visible in the Markham Room.\u00a0 The phoenix which is now visible on the fly-tower of School commemorates the transformed buildings rising from the ashes of this destruction.<\/p>\n

A painting by John Croft (OW 1936-1939), recently acquired with the assistance of the artist, was selected to hang in the Bentham Room.\u00a0 Croft worked as a code-breaker during the war at Bletchley Park and Orford House.\u00a0 He returned in 1947 to depict the shell of the bombed College Dormitory building, prior to its refurbishment.\u00a0 He continued to paint alongside pursuing a career in the civil service and following his retirement is able to focus exclusively on his art.\u00a0 A number of portraits of pupils painted in the 1950s also hang in the room.\u00a0 Amongst them is a picture of Tom Meade (OW 1949-1953) who was one of the Scholars invited to the Coronation of Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey in 1953<\/a>.\u00a0 The banquet following the ceremony took place up School, surrounded by its crumbling walls, hastily masked by tapestries, and under the cover of a temporary corrugated iron roof.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The remains of the Markham Room following bombing in WW2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bentham came to Westminster long before the gym was constructed, but he would have known School well as the site of his daily lessons.\u00a0 He was admitted at the young age of seven, but clearly excelled academically beyond all expectations.\u00a0 Bentham was elected as a King\u2019s Scholar in 1759, but chose to remain a Town Boy for his short remaining time at the school.\u00a0 At the age of twelve he left for Queen\u2019s College Oxford, taking his degree three years later.\u00a0 His writings contain the earliest recorded mention of the Pancake Greaze and whilst he was dismissive of the school, describing it as \u2018a wretched place for instruction\u2019, his education clearly had a considerable impact upon him.\u00a0 There is still much to be discovered of his work and University College, London (UCL) is conducting a project \u2018Transcribe Bentham\u2019<\/a> which enables volunteers to transcribe his digitised manuscripts.\u00a0 By crowd-sourcing in this way an endeavour that would have taken decades to complete will be finished in a few years.<\/p>\n

At Westminster we do have some relics of Bentham\u2019s time at the school, though nothing quite as striking as the \u2018auto-icon\u2019, his preserved corpse which is on display at UCL in a glass box<\/a>. In our collection are two commonplace books in which he copied essays and poetry written whilst a pupil at the school.\u00a0 Nicholas Stone (OW 2011-2016) has translated the poems from their original Latin and Greek and published several in The Camden<\/em> in 2016.\u00a0 The thesis Velis id quod possis<\/em> could be literally translated as \u2018Want what you can have\u2019 and is drawn from Terence\u2019s Andria<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0Lines from these classical works were used to inspire pupils to generate their own verses in Latin or Greek from Elizabeth I\u2019s reign onwards.\u00a0 Necessity is, of course, the mother of invention, and the Bentham Room, an innovative solution to a difficult space, perfectly encapsulates Bentham\u2019s couplet.<\/p>\n

For more information about the school\u2019s old gym read Tom Edlin\u2019s article \u2018150 Years of the Gym: 1861\u20132012\u2019 in The Elizabethan, <\/em>2012.\u00a0 A chapter on Jeremy Bentham by A.C. Grayling can be found in Loyal Dissent: Brief Lives from Westminster School\u00a0<\/em>edited by Head Master Patrick Derham.\u00a0 A longer article containing Nicholas Stone\u2019s transcriptions and translations of \u2018Jeremy Bentham\u2019s Westminster poems\u2019 can be found in 2016 issue of\u00a0The Camden<\/em>.\u00a0 UCL\u2019s \u2018Transcribe Bentham\u2019 project continues with almost 18,000 manuscript pages transcribed or partially transcribed.\u00a0 To read more about the initiative or take part visit: http:\/\/blogs.ucl.ac.uk\/transcribe-bentham\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bentham\u2019s couplet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Velis id quod possis Non facere ipse queo Tetrasticha; disticha possum, Accipe quod possum, quod nequeo, sileat. Jeremy Bentham, May 1759   Cut your coat according to your cloth A quatrain isn\u2019t something I can do; But here\u2019s a couplet: Take what\u2019s offered you. Translation by Nicholas Stone, 2015   Last school year Jeremy Bentham (OW 1755-1760) was celebrated as our new airy space off School was christened in his honour as the Bentham Room. Whilst the room is our latest addition, it has been created from the shell of the school\u2019s 19th\u00a0century gymnasium, constructed in 1861 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the famed architect of St. Pancras and the Albert Memorial.\u00a0 The site was given to the school by the Abbey for a covered play area, as the pupils were running amok in the cloisters on rainy days.\u00a0 It consisted of a small patch of land at the foot of the former monastic dormitory, parts of which date back to the 10th\u00a0century.\u00a0 The area had originally been the monks\u2019 graveyard so it was not possible to create deep foundations for the new building.\u00a0 The awkward shape of the space necessitated the gym\u2019s curved north wall which allows room for a flying buttress of the Abbey\u2019s Chapter House. 150 years later the gym was no longer required for its original purpose after the school purchased a 999-year lease for the Royal Horticultural Society\u2019s Lawrence Hall.\u00a0 This became the school\u2019s sports centre, and whilst the square-footage of the gym was still very much needed, particularly during exam season, the building was clearly ripe for renovation.\u00a0 Ptolemy Dean\u2019s creative design inserted a mezzanine floor that allows the room to\u00a0be accessed from School via the Markham Room, whilst a secret exit to behind the stage makes it an ideal green room for performances.\u00a0 The former entrance, through the Dark Cloister, is still used to a storage area beneath, although the old staircase hidden underneath a trap-door in the Markham room has been lost. The refurbishment needed to take place quickly as the space is now essential for the summer examination season.\u00a0 This prevented any serious structural alterations and the existing roof was renewed rather than replaced, with lead-flashing crafted on site. \u00a0New windows were inserted giving views of the Houses of Parliament and the soaring spires of the Chapter House.\u00a0 Earlier apertures, now filled in with stone, are visible on the west wall, adjoining School and the Abbey Library.\u00a0 These are remnants from when the building was the monk\u2019s dormitory and private cells were haphazardly built out from the communal \u2018dorter\u2019. Scott\u2019s magnificent oak beams can now be viewed more closely crossing the room, adorned with hooks which originally supported ropes, hanging bars and other gymnastic equipment. Unfortunately, the school does not have a portrait of Jeremy Bentham in its collection to adorn the room.\u00a0 We therefore decided to display pictures that mark another time of renewal in the school\u2019s history \u2013 the post-war period.\u00a0 School was amongst the school buildings seriously damaged by war time bombings and the last to be rebuilt; it was not formally reopened until the visit by Her Majesty the Queen to mark the school\u2019s 400th anniversary in 1960.\u00a0 The incendiary bomb that hit in May 1941 completed destroyed the wonderful oak hammer-beam roof that had spanned the hall, along with the ornate Tudor ceiling and original star-chamber door once visible in the Markham Room.\u00a0 The phoenix which is now visible on the fly-tower of School commemorates the transformed buildings rising from the ashes of this destruction. A painting by John Croft (OW 1936-1939), recently acquired with the assistance of the artist, was selected to hang in the Bentham Room.\u00a0 Croft worked as a code-breaker during the war at Bletchley Park and Orford House.\u00a0 He returned in 1947 to depict the shell of the bombed College Dormitory building, prior to its refurbishment.\u00a0 He continued to paint alongside pursuing a career in the civil service and following his retirement is able to focus exclusively on his art.\u00a0 A number of portraits of pupils painted in the 1950s also hang in the room.\u00a0 Amongst them is a picture of Tom Meade (OW 1949-1953) who was one of the Scholars invited to the Coronation of Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey in 1953.\u00a0 The banquet following the ceremony took place up School, surrounded by its crumbling walls, hastily masked by tapestries, and under the cover of a temporary corrugated iron roof. Bentham came to Westminster long before the gym was constructed, but he would have known School well as the site of his daily lessons.\u00a0 He was admitted at the young age of seven, but clearly excelled academically beyond all expectations.\u00a0 Bentham was elected as a King\u2019s Scholar in 1759, but chose to remain a Town Boy for his short remaining time at the school.\u00a0 At the age of twelve he left for Queen\u2019s College Oxford, taking his degree three years later.\u00a0 His writings contain the earliest recorded mention of the Pancake Greaze and whilst he was dismissive of the school, describing it as \u2018a wretched place for instruction\u2019, his education clearly had a considerable impact upon him.\u00a0 There is still much to be discovered of his work and University College, London (UCL) is conducting a project \u2018Transcribe Bentham\u2019 which enables volunteers to transcribe his digitised manuscripts.\u00a0 By crowd-sourcing in this way an endeavour that would have taken decades to complete will be finished in a few years. At Westminster we do have some relics of Bentham\u2019s time at the school, though nothing quite as striking as the \u2018auto-icon\u2019, his preserved corpse which is on display at UCL in a glass box. In our collection are two commonplace books in which he copied essays and poetry written whilst a pupil at the school.\u00a0 Nicholas Stone (OW 2011-2016) has translated the poems from their original Latin and Greek and published several in The Camden in 2016.\u00a0 The thesis Velis id quod possis could be literally translated as \u2018Want what you can have\u2019 and is drawn from Terence\u2019s Andria.\u00a0 \u00a0Lines from these classical works were used to inspire pupils to generate their own verses in Latin or Greek from Elizabeth I\u2019s reign onwards.\u00a0 Necessity is, of course, the mother of invention, and the Bentham Room, an innovative solution to a difficult space, perfectly encapsulates Bentham\u2019s couplet. For more information about the school\u2019s old gym read Tom Edlin\u2019s article \u2018150 Years of the Gym: 1861\u20132012\u2019 in The Elizabethan, 2012.\u00a0 A chapter on Jeremy Bentham by A.C. Grayling can be found in Loyal Dissent: Brief Lives from Westminster School\u00a0edited by Head Master Patrick Derham.\u00a0 A longer article containing Nicholas Stone\u2019s transcriptions and translations of \u2018Jeremy Bentham\u2019s Westminster poems\u2019 can be found in 2016 issue of\u00a0The Camden.\u00a0 UCL\u2019s \u2018Transcribe Bentham\u2019 project continues with almost 18,000 manuscript pages transcribed or partially transcribed.\u00a0 To read more about the initiative or take part visit: http:\/\/blogs.ucl.ac.uk\/transcribe-bentham\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[138,136,140,134,139,135,137],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=813"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}