[RWCentenary] Old Bond Street Carillon Recital

[RW Centenary News]

The Ringing World Centenary

The Old Bond Street Carillon

The celebrations for the Ringing World Centenary will include a 
recital on the Atkinson Carillon in Old Bond Street at 12 noon on 
Saturday, 26th March, given by Trevor Workman, carillonneur at 
Bournville, Birmingham.

  This instrument is one of only 15 carillons in the British Isles, 
and the only one in London. It is housed in a small spirelet on the 
roof of No.24 Old Bond Street, which stands on the corner of Old Bond 
Street and Burlington Gardens. The building was designed by Vincent 
Harris (1876-1971), who designed a number of significant buildings in 
the first half of the twentieth century, including the Ministry of 
Defence Main Building on Whitehall. 24 Old Bond Street was built as 
the premises of J.&E. Atkinson Ltd in 1926. The building was later 
taken over by J. Fox & Co. and later still became the property of the 
National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society Ltd, who currently 
let space in the building to various businesses. Most of the ground 
floor shop space is now occupied by Salvatore Ferragamo.

The carillon was built by Gillett and Johnston in 1927 and is a 
chromatic two octave instrument of 23 bells (in carillons the two 
lowest semitones are often omitted) with a bass bell of 12-0-16 in 
G#. It is played from a clavier (a keyboard consisting of batons 
played with the fists and foot pedals) in the loft of the building, 
at the base of the spirelet. The spirelet is small, and the bell 
frame takes up the entire space, meaning that access for maintenance 
work is difficult. The constraints of space also mean that part of 
the linkage between the clavier and the bells runs horizontally, and 
this makes the action significantly heavier than it would otherwise 
be. As a consequence, the carillon is more difficult to play 
sensitively. Nevertheless, the bells are of very fine tone, and are a 
pleasure to listen to in the street, where they can be heard very clearly.

The carillon is currently played regularly by Christina Anderson and 
Jonathan Galloway, usually on Friday evenings and Saturday 
afternoons. There was formerly also an electropneumatic playing 
system, which enabled it to be played both manually from a small 
ivory keyboard, and automatically by pinned barrels, for use when no 
carillonneur was available. This system is, however, no longer used, 
having been disconnected some years ago.

Ringers will be familiar with the ringing bell work of Gillett and 
Johnston, and the recital on the 26th will provide an opportunity to 
hear a good example of their carillon work, which was also such an 
important part of their output. Trevor Workman is a world-class 
carilloneur who has been playing the four-octave carillon at 
Bournville since 1965 and has given recitals on many other carillons 
both in Britain and abroad. This included giving the opening recital 
on the new carillon at York Minster in 2008. Trevor's recital will 
include music of a variety of styles and periods, and will therefore 
demonstrate to excellent effect the musical capabilities of the 
Atkinson Carillon.


Jonathan Galloway
secretary at carillons.org 
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