The "Royal Clock" is located on the upper level of the southern half of the

Queen Victoria Building The Queen Victoria Building (abbreviated as the QVB) is a heritage-listed late-19th-century building located at 429–481 George Street, Sydney, George Street in the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. D ...

in Sydney, Australia. It was designed by Neil Glasser and made by

Thwaites & Reed Thwaites & Reed has been in continuous manufacture since its foundation and claims to be the oldest clock manufacturing company in the world. Geoffrey Buggins MBE, the last of the original family clockmakers, saw drawings of Thwaites clocks dati ...

of Hastings in England, and when activated, displays scenes of English royalty. The plaque on the side of the clock reads "By appointment to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Turret Clockmakers Thwaites & Reed Ltd Hastings England".

Performance

The clock activates on the hour from 9 am until 9 pm. Each performance begins with the music of the trumpet voluntary as miniature trumpeters emerge from the tops of each of the clock's four outer turrets. The trumpeters withdraw at the end of the voluntary. The six scenes are viewed (one at a time) through windows on both sides of the clock that face the railed walkways. Each scene briefly illuminates to display a

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes dioramas are enclosed in a glass showcase at a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies like mili ...

of English royal history, before dimming and rotating to the left in preparation for the next scene. Most of the scenes include mechanical animation. One of these for example, depicts the execution of King Charles I.

Music

The Royal Clock's performance is accompanied by music written by Jeremiah Clarke called '' The Prince of Denmark's March'' (commonly known as the ''Trumpet Voluntary'').

Scenes

The six scenes (in chronological order) depict: *

Cnut the Great Cnut ( ; ; – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rul ...

commanding the tide to halt. *King Harold dying on the field at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. *

John, King of England John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...

signing

Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter"), sometimes spelled Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardin ...

in 1215. Also present in the scene is Stephen Cardinal Langton. *

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

and his six wives. *Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

knighting Sir Francis Drake aboard the

Golden Hind ''Golden Hind'' was a galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580. She was originally known as ''Pelican,'' but Drake renamed her mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Ha ...

in 1588 (an apocryphal scene as the ceremony was performed by the ambassador from France—in the Queen's presence). *The

execution of King Charles I Charles I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was executed on Tuesday, 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall, London. The execution was the culmination of political and military conflicts between the royalists and the ...

in 1649. *Atop the clock there are Four Heralds who appear to announce the start of the performance *Each of the mechanised 3D scenes in the clock was created Marcus Replicas, Leicestershire, a firm which specialised in making lifelike figures and three dimensional scenes from history. Dennis Morton (co-owner of and chief designer for the firm) created the design for each scene, after which both he and Elizabet
Sharp
(an artist and sculptor who specialised in equestrian subjects), spent over three years creating the figures which would bring them to life. Each figure was sculpted in clay, before being cast in resin and then hand painted in acrylics and metallic paints by Marcus Replicas' own team of painters. Once complete, the figures were assembled into their respective historical tableaux and Elizabeth painted a background scene for each one, intended to evoke a sense of the relevant period. Each completed scene was then sent to Thwaites and Reed to be mechanised and assembled into the clock itself.

References

External links

* *http://www.stantongraphics.co.uk/ – site showcasing the art of Elizabeth Sharp {{coord, -33.872041, 151.206713, type:landmark_region:AU, display=title Clocks in Australia Individual clocks Dioramas Buildings and structures in Sydney Tourist attractions in Sydney Cultural depictions of Harold Godwinson Cultural depictions of John, King of England Cultural depictions of Henry VIII Cultural depictions of the wives of Henry VIII Cultural depictions of Elizabeth I Cultural depictions of Francis Drake Charles I of England in art

Performance

Music

Scenes

See also

References

External links