Originally Posted by 4(T)

No doubt this is on another thread somewhere, but why Woolwich and why not squeeze them in with the other horsey types in Regents Park barracks? Why go through the cost and balls-ache of bussing the Troop into London for displays instead of sitting them right on their usual exercise grounds and primary display area?

Going to be a bugger getting Dobbins on the tube!

Originally Posted by bigeye

These are all very good questions.
I think the answer is: MoD.

On a more pragmatic viewpoint with equally economic bearing Woolwich has more capacity & having spoke to one of their Tp Oc's last November it's all very much purpose built, I'm unaware of the alternative of squeezing them all into Regents Park Bks however I'm sure the recce (at the time) would have answered all the relevent questions.

I did a 2 week horsey coursey there in 1998/99...' Army Basic Equitation Course ' ...at that time, there had only been one female Galloping Gunner - and she was not well regarded having just taken the Army to an Industrial Tribunal claiming sexual harassment .....one of the Gallaghers (Liam?) had a flat quite close and was constantly bitching about being woken at 0600 by Reveille....

Since then I've noticed every other trooper seems to be female.

As to ' poor old dobbin ' dealing with a hill......a gun team is six > 17 hand Irish draft horses.....they ain't short of pull ! plus are all utterly mental anyway


.....up till yesterday King's Troop horses were routinely ridden from St John's Wood to Hyde Park and back every day on exercise ...I imagine they will do the same through darkest Woolwich, which will give both the early rising locals and the tourists something to point and gawp at....not least in Olympics year ....

It's the oldest indoor riding school in Britain apparentely....shame. ...scary fun.

So that's the barracks and The Rosseti gone, is the other pub, The Ordanance Arms(?) still there?

Originally Posted by Goatman

I did a 2 week horsey coursey there in 1998/99...' Army Basic Equitation Course ' ...at that time, there had only been one female Galloping Gunner - and she was not well regarded having just taken the Army to an Industrial Tribunal claiming sexual harassment .....one of the Gallaghers (Liam?) had a flat quite close and was constantly bitching about being woken at 0600 by Reveille....

Since then I've noticed every other trooper seems to be female.

As to ' poor old dobbin ' dealing with a hill......a gun team is six > 17 hand Irish draft horses.....they ain't short of pull ! plus are all utterly mental anyway


.....up till yesterday King's Troop horses were routinely ridden from St John's Wood to Hyde Park and back every day on exercise ...I imagine they will do the same through darkest Woolwich, which will give both the early rising locals and the tourists something to point and gawp at....not least in Olympics year ....

It's the oldest indoor riding school in Britain apparentely....shame. ...scary fun.

They (the developers) can't actually knock the indoor riding school down as apparently it's Grade II listed. I understand that the Officer's mess is also a listed building. That should make for an interesting layout when they come to design the luxury condos.

Originally Posted by bigeye

They (the developers) can't actually knock the indoor riding school down as apparently it's Grade II listed.

Bags of parking.

The govt should have compulsory-purchased the site. 200-odd years of tenants occupation would have been enough....

yeah...I can just imagine MoD claiming they had created a 'business tenancy'

(hmmm....I know The Firm is flat broke - but hey ? maybe HMG could use some of the £280M a year we currently press on an unwilling and deeply embarrassed India to make the purchase.....)

Very sad to see the Troop lose this historical barracks.
Having said that, when I visited there about 7 years ago the 2 man rooms were occupied by 4 people, most of the Troop were married to each other and the 'married quarters' looked dire.....perhaps a bit more space is long overdue?!
Love to know what the developer will do with that place.

In all seriousness, what to HMG imagine London is going to look like - especially from a cultural and tourists' point of view - if all of the iconic military heritage sites are converted into apartments for foreign billionaire criminals or Tesco estates? (Admiralty Arch, Chelsea/ St Johns Wood/ Duke of Yorks/ Caterham/ barracks, et al..)