Textile and Industrial Heritage - Lunardi's Balloon

Vincenzi Lunardi (secretary to the Italian ambassador in London) was Britain’s first aeronaut and made a balloon ascent on 4 December 1786 from the area of the White Cloth Hall and descended forty minutes later at Thorpe Arch. Lunardi’s first flight was from London to Standon in Hertfordshire on 12 September 1784, using a hydrogen filled ballooon.

Browsing through Amabel Yorke's diaries of the period I found these entries:

September 16th 1784
"A Mr Lunardi went up in an air-balloon from London on Wednesday; we just saw the Balloon as a speck from hence. We hear that he descended near Ware in about three hours. Mr Cambridge was also here, and he told us that his son George had follow'd Mr Lunardi's Air Balloon last Wednesday and came up just as he was descending in a field near Ware and disengaging his tackle. The accounts in the papers of the cold he felt are exaggerated; the Thermometer was three degrees below the Freezing Point & it is true that a few icicles hung to his sleeve. The dog he carried came down safe, & he descended almost to the ground near Enfield to give out his cat who was ill, then rose again by flinging out a sand-bag carried for Ballast."

September 25th 1784
"Air balloons are all the talk now and another is to go up with two gentleman from Ld Foley's Garden near Portland Place."

October 1st, 1784
"NB a Balloon intended to go up by Fire/ in Montgolfier's Manner/ from Ld Foley's garden under the care of Mr Sheldon a surgeon has been after some disappointment at last totally consumed in attempting to fill it."

October 8th 1784
"Blanchard said he used oars to guide his balloon. Lunardi had also Oars & Wings but they were of no use to him, or at most a very little descending."

An insight into the world before aircraft.

Hand stitched by Joan Holah in 30 hours.

Civic Pride Panel

The Civic Pride panel was begun in 1993 and unveiled 26th February 1999. It represents the Lord Mayor's parade, centred around the Civic Hall and Mandela Gardens.

The fourth panel to be made, it was designed at the time when more and more people were aware of the project, and volunteered not only to sponsor pieces but also to embroider them. The crowd scene allowed for this and included are many people and flags sewn in a variety of techniques.

The volunteers also came with differing sewing experience, so it was the beginning of a series of skill-sharing and workshop sessions. One of the first and simplest was the balloon workshop. Interspersed in the crowd these give colour to the scene and were useful in filling in awkward gaps when the individual pieces were stitched to the background.

Originally the project was based in Kate's kitchen but as it progressed and acquired a larger workspace she booked a wide variety of professional embroiderers to teach at workshops, including goldwork, machine embroidery, rag rugging, needleweaving, computerized machine embroidery and raised work. This also allowed the volunteers to meet regularly and many lasting friendships were made. Some of them still meet once a month at the Tiled Hall. If you would like more details of this and were one of the stitchers please email via 'about me'