2008 Gallery

Barra severn class lifeboat Edna Windsor and coastguard helicopter

Royal Mail Rescue at Sea stamp launch at Barra. Coastguard helicopter is lowering a winchman onto the severn class lifeboat Edna Windsor 17-12 ON 1230.

30% of the profit from this product will be paid in support of the RNLI. Payments are made to RNLI (Sales) Ltd (which pays all its taxable profits to the RNLI, a charity registered in England and Wales (209603), Scotland (SC037736), the Republic of Ireland ), the Bailiwick of Jersey (14), the Isle of Man and the Bailiwick of Guernsey and Alderney, of West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 1HZ

© Nigel Millard

Holland House library after an air raid BB83_04456

HOLLAND HOUSE, Kensington, London. An interior view of the bombed library at Holland House with readers apparently choosing books regardless of the damage. Photographed in 1940. The House was heavily bombed during World War II and remained derelict until 1952 when parts of the remains were preserved.
Holland House, originally known as Cope Castle, was a great house in Kensington in London, situated in what is now Holland Park. Created in 1605 in the Elizabethan or Jacobean style for the diplomat Sir Walter Cope, the building later passed to the powerful Rich family, then the Fox family, under whose ownership it became a noted gathering-place for Whigs in the 19th century. The house was largely destroyed by German firebombing during the Blitz in 1940; today only the east wing and some ruins of the ground floor still remain.
In 1940, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth attended the last great ball held at the house. A few weeks later, on 7 September, the German bombing raids on London that would come to be known as the Blitz began. During the night of 27 September, Holland House was hit by twenty-two incendiary bombs during a ten-hour raid. The house was largely destroyed, with only the east wing, and, miraculously, almost all of the library remaining undamaged. Surviving volumes included the sixteenth-century Boxer Codex.
Holland House was granted Grade I listed building status in 1949, under the auspices of the Town and Country Planning Act 1947; the Act sought to identify and preserve buildings of special historic importance, prompted by the damage caused by wartime bombing. The building remained a burned-out ruin until 1952, when its owner, Giles Fox-Strangways, 6th Earl of Ilchester, sold it to the London County Council (LCC). The remains of the building passed from the LCC to its successor, the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1965, and upon the dissolution of the GLC in 1986 to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Today, the remains of Holland House form a backdrop for the open air Holland Park Theatre, home of Opera Holland Park. The YHA (England and Wales) "London Holland Park" youth hostel is now located in the house. The Orangery is now an exhibition and function space, with the adjoining former Summer Ballroom now a restaurant, The Belvedere. The former ice house is now a gallery space

© Historic England Archive

Advanced MRI brain scan

Advanced MRI brain scan. This 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of a normal human brain has been produced by the 3T MRI scanner at Neurospin, one of the most advanced MRI research centres in the world. The front of the brain is at left. The coloured lines indicate the many neural pathways that exist in the brain. Neurospin has 3T and 7T scanners. The T designations refer to the magnetic field strengths of 3 Tesla and 7 Tesla. These are extremely strong magnetic fields, and hence this technique is known as ultra high-field magnetic resonance imaging. The high magnetic field strength allows detailed examination of the brain and brain disorders. Neurospin was founded in 2006, and is located near Paris, France

© Philippe Psaila/Science Photo Library