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Torquil Norman
Sir Torquil Patrick Alexander Norman (11 April 1933 – 19 March 2025) was a British businessman, aircraft enthusiast and arts philanthropist. After taking a stake in Berwick's Toy Company, he turned it into one of the largest toy firms in the United Kingdom before he resigned from the company in 1979 due to a dispute with the board. In 1980, he founded Bluebird Toys, which made the Big Yellow Teapot House, the Big Red Fun Bus and the Polly Pocket line of dolls. Norman founded the Global Vehicle Trust, which established OX Delivers to operate trucks that affordably transport goods out of rural areas in developing countries. Norman flew multiple trans-Atlantic flights in classic aeroplanes. Early life and education Norman was born on 11 April 1933. He was the youngest of three sons born to Air Commodore Sir Nigel Norman, 2nd Baronet, and Patricia Moyra Annesley, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel James Howard Adolphus Annesley. His father, the only child of journalist and politi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it merged with the boroughs of Westminster and Paddington to form the new City of Westminster in 1965. Marylebone station lies two miles north-west of Charing Cross. The area is also served by numerous tube stations: Baker Street, Bond Street, Edgware Road (Bakerloo line), Edgware Road (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines), Great Portland Street, Marble Arch, Marylebone, Oxford Circus, and Regent's Park. History Marylebone was an Ancient Parish formed to serve the manors (landholdings) of Lileston (in the west, which gives its name to modern Lisson Grove) and Tyburn in the east. The parish is likely to have been in place since at least the twelfth century and will have used the boundaries of the pre- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambridge University Boat Club
The Cambridge University Boat Club (CUBC) is the rowing club of the University of Cambridge, England. The club was founded in 1828 and has been located at the Goldie Boathouse on the River Cam, Cambridge since 1882. Nowadays, training primarily takes place on the River Great Ouse at Ely. The prime constitutional aim of CUBC is to beat Oxford University Boat Club in the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race and Lightweight Boat Races. CUBC's Openweight Men's squad currently lead Oxford in the series by 87 races to 81, with 1 dead heat in The Boat Race 1877, while the Openweight Women's squad lead Oxford by 48 races to 30. The Lightweight Men's squad lead Oxford by 31 races to 19, and the Lightweight Women's squad lead Oxford by 24 races to 17. History The inaugural meeting of Cambridge University Boat Club took place at Gonville and Caius College on 9 December 1828. Following this meeting, it was agreed that a challenge be sent to the University of Oxford to organise a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821), are published by Times Media, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' were founded independently and have had common ownership only since 1966. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. ''The Times'' was the first newspaper to bear that name, inspiring numerous other papers around the world. In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as or , although the newspaper is of national scope and distribution. ''The Times'' had an average daily circulation of 365,880 in March 2020; in the same period, ''The Sunday Times'' had an average weekly circulation of 647,622. The two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camden New Journal
The ''Camden New Journal'' is a British independent newspaper published in the London Borough of Camden. It was launched by editor Eric Gordon in 1982 following a two-year strike at its predecessor, the ''Camden Journal''. The newspaper was supported by campaigning journalist Paul Foot and former Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson. It carries significant influence locally, due to its high news content, investigations and large circulation. It is frequently critical of local and national government, which has led to attacks by national government ministers, as well as local councillors, unusually for a local paper. On being awarded its second ''Press Gazette'' Free Newspaper of the Year award in 2005, the judges praised how the paper kept its " huge local council on its toes with exclusive after exclusive". History The ''Camden New Journal'' has its origins in 1872, when the ''Holloway Press'' began. In 1875, the newspaper was renamed the ''North Metropolitan and Hollowa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chalk Farm
Chalk Farm is a small urban district of north west London, lying immediately north of Camden Town, in the London Borough of Camden. History Manor of Rugmere Chalk Farm was originally known as the Manor of Rugmere, an estate that was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The manor was one of five which made up the large Civil Parish#Ancient Parishes, Ancient Parish of St Pancras, London, St Pancras. Rugmere is thought to mean ''the Woodcock, Woodcock's Pool''. Henry VIII of England, Henry VIII bought part of the manor, detaching it to form the north-eastern part of what would become Regent's Park, the remainder subsequently become more commonly known as Chalk Farm. Both the detached area and the remainder remained part of the parish of St Pancras, London, St Pancras. In 1786 the estate was sold to Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton, it was described as ''commonly known as Chalk Farm''. The term ''Rugmere (or Rug Moor)'' appeared to have endured for some time as a fiel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arts Centre
An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues for musical performance, workshop areas, educational facilities, technical equipment, etc. In the United States, "art centers" are generally either establishments geared toward exposing, generating, and making accessible art making to arts-interested individuals, or buildings that rent primarily to artists, galleries, or companies involved in art making. In Britain, the Bluecoat Society of Arts was founded in Liverpool in 1927 following the efforts of a group of artists and art lovers who had occupied Bluecoat Chambers since 1907. Most British art centres began after World War II and gradually changed from mainly middle-class places to 1960s and 1970s trendy, alternative centres and eventually in the 1980s to serving the ''whole'' commun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roundhouse (venue)
The Roundhouse is a performing arts and concert venue at the Grade II* listed former Railway roundhouse, railway engine shed in Chalk Farm, London, England. The building was erected in 1846–1847 by the London & North Western Railway as a Railway roundhouse, roundhouse, a circular building containing a railway turntable, but was used for that purpose for only about a decade. After being used as a warehouse for a number of years, the building fell into disuse just before World War II. It was first made a listed building in 1954. It reopened after 25 years, in 1964, as a performing arts venue, when the playwright Arnold Wesker established the Centre 42 Theatre Company and adapted the building as a theatre. The large circular structure has hosted various promotions, such as the launch of the underground press, underground paper ''International Times'' in 1966, one of only two UK appearances by The Doors with Jim Morrison in 1968, and the Greasy Truckers Party in 1972. The Greate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Borough Of Camden
The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropolitan boroughs of Metropolitan Borough of Holborn, Holborn, Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras, St Pancras and Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead, Hampstead. To the south it shares with the City of Westminster parts of the West End of London, West End, where it also borders the City of London. The cultural and commercial land uses in the south contrast with the bustling mixed-use districts such as Camden Town and Kentish Town in the centre and leafy residential areas around Hampstead Heath in the north. Well known attractions include The British Museum, The British Library, the famous views from Parliament Hill, London, Parliament Hill, the London Zoo, the BT Tower, the converted The Roundhouse, Roundhouse entertainme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Museum
The Royal Air Force Museum is a museum dedicated to the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. The museum is a non-departmental public body and is a registered charity. It has two public sites, Royal Air Force Museum London and Royal Air Force Museum Midlands at RAF Cosford in Shropshire. History The idea of an RAF Museum was approved by the Air Council in 1931. However the Council only established the museum in 1964 after the idea was proposed by a historical committee chaired by Sir Dermot Boyle. The museum began collecting artifacts, which were initially stored at RAF Henlow. Land at the former Hendon Aerodrome in Colindale, London, was leased from the Ministry of Defence and the museum was opened there by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972 with 36 aircraft on display. The museum was part of the Ministry of Defence until it was split off and became a non-departmental public body in 1984. The Cosford Aerospace Museum formerly merged with the RAF Museum and became its secon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skydiving
Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes. For human skydiving, there is often a phase of free fall (the skydiving segment), where the parachute has not yet been deployed and the body gradually accelerates to terminal velocity. In cargo parachuting, the parachute descent may begin immediately, such as a parachute-airdrop in the Troposphere, lower atmosphere of Earth, or it may be significantly delayed. For example, in a planetary atmosphere, where an object is descending "under parachute" following atmospheric entry from outer space, space, may occur only after the hypersonic entry phase and initial deceleration that occurs due to aerodynamic drag, friction with the thin upper atmosphere. History The first parachute jump in history was made on 22 October 1797 by Frenchman André-Jacq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piper Comanche
The Piper PA-24 Comanche is an American single-engine, low-wing, all-metal monoplane of semimonocoque construction with tricycle Landing gear, retractable landing gear and four or six seats. The Comanche was designed and built by Piper Aircraft and first flew on May 24, 1956. Together with the PA-30 and PA-39 Piper Twin Comanche, Twin Comanches, it made up the core of Piper's lineup until 1972, when the production lines for both aircraft were destroyed in the Lock Haven, Pennsylvania#Floods, 1972 Lock Haven flood. Design and development Two prototypes were built in 1956, with the first being completed by June 20, 1956. The first production aircraft, powered by a Lycoming O-360, Lycoming O-360-A1A engine, first flew on October 21, 1957. In 1958, it was joined by a higher-powered PA-24-250 with a Lycoming O-540, Lycoming O-540-A1A5 engine; this model was originally to be known as the PA-26, but Piper decided to keep the PA-24 designation. In 1964, the PA-24-400 was introduced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawker Sea Fury
The Hawker Sea Fury is a British fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Hawker Aircraft. It was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy. Developed during the Second World War, the Sea Fury entered service two years after the war ended. It proved to be a popular aircraft with overseas militaries and was used during the Korean War in the early 1950s, and by the Cuban air force during the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion. The development of the Sea Fury began in 1943 in response to a wartime requirement of the Royal Air Force (RAF), with the aircraft first named Fury. As the Second World War drew to a close, the RAF cancelled its order for the aircraft. The Royal Navy saw the type as a suitable carrier aircraft to replace a range of obsolescent and stop-gap aircraft being operated by the Fleet Air Arm. Development of the Sea Fury proceeded, and the type entered operational service in 1947. The Sea Fury has many design similarities to Hawker's preceding Tem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
