Where, O where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place?

[Finzi4ever]

Having had no joy when I asked this under another thread, I ask it here.
The generic Choral Evensong photo on the BBC Radio 3 CE page: where is it? It has the scale of a large Oxbridge chapel, but it isn't one of the usual suspects in either city, nor one of the major cathedrals, but I'm waiting to be shot down on this. The hairstyles have a slightly dated look about them, the cassocks crimson with a hint of a tab at one chorister's neck and possibly short-sleeved surpices. The back row heavies more resemble scholars than lay clerks. Any takers? Someone may even recognise a face...

[ardcarp]

Well, I've looked at it and I haven't a clue! I can't even tell if the prominent face is boy/girl/young adult, though someone in the back row does indeed look choral scholar-ish. Below the (presumably) East window there is a reredos which might be identifiable.

I suppose one could always email the BBC as a last resort!

[Wolsey]

My guess is that it's the chapel of a school that supports a robed choir. The front row looks like trebles in Years 8-9, while the back row looks like boys in Year 11 upwards; the lights on the north (LH) side do not look like the sort of fittings to be found in a cathedral quire; the singers are in stalls that have no dedicated music desks and are holding their copies; the somewhat plain fenestration on the south side goes right up to the east end. Can anyone do more 'Sherlock Holmes' work on this?

[Simon]

Alas, Finz! I fear it may be hid from the eyes of all living...

[Serial_Apologist]

Er... not Southwell Minster, then?

[Simon]

Er... not Southwell Minster, then?

I don't think so. The main stalls have music desks. Not anywhere I've ever got into there, anyway, though there is a large building on the south side without public access. Maybe better ask Chris S?

[BasilHarwood]

100% not Southwell. I have often wondered where the photo is of, though...

[chrisjstanley]

I enjoyed Wolsey's forensic analysis of this, and his observations on the south side fenestration may be the clue as said fenestration does not fit in well with the gothic east end stained glass. Was another building once attached here? bomb damage from the war perhaps? I wish it was lighter and I could get some idea of the building stones used.

Mow we are all used to CSI can't we just cut and paste the east end stained glass and do a search and match on the internet?

bws
Chris S

[ardcarp]

I've just emailed the CE team to ask about the mystery location. I wonder if they'll reply and if they do whether there will be 'confidentiality issues' !!!

[bach736]

Did the same on Tuesday but nothing yet except the auto reply saying how many they receive and how they read them all eventually! I'm not holding my breath.
Might phone the CE office later, though.

[Finzi4ever]

I'm rather pleased I started this thread now am relieved that it's not just me being stoopid yet am also intrigued if we'll ever find out. I doubt it really should cause 'confidentiality issues' as no people identified and I think it's quite an old pic ('neither is it found in the land of the living'?), prob just a Googled image.

I'm looking forward to being able to whistle:
"s/he knoweth the place thereof. For s/he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven.
Then did s/he see it, and declare it." (Shurely enuff Boyce, Ed.)

[eighthobstruction]

Wasn't there a sub-plot in BladeRunner very similar to this, where the photo was in fact a false memory placed into the mind of the AI Replicant to signfy a semiotic subliminal thingy bob....is there a nest of spiders anywhere in the photo....

[chrisjstanley]

Back to Boyce. Another musician with Kensington links. His house stood somewhere close to where the Royal College of Art is now on Kensington Gore. Always liked "wisdom", if only for the gold, silver, coral, pearls, rubies and other stuff from Job:28.

bws
Chris S

[Finzi4ever]

There are some other pretty good verse anthems by WB too: I have surely built Thee an house; By the Waters of Babylon; Turn The unto me.
Charles Burney said of Boyce, "There was no professor whom I was ever acquainted with that I loved, honoured, and respected more".

[ardcarp]

Still no reply to me either. I'm away for the weekend, but shall not be waiting with bated kneecaps on Monday morning.