Author Topic: Kitchen Building  (Read 22112 times)

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Offline Joanna

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Kitchen Building
« on: November 05, 2012, 05:14:42 PM »
Plans and photos of the Kitchen Building:
http://www.tsarselo.ru/photos/20/1342

Two plans of underground tunnel by Danini - if you look at link to cellars in my previous post on interior photos, note the photo of entrance to tunnel which they are going to open up:
http://www.tsarselo.ru/images/photos/8b323122080262b690708e8ee05f187d.jpg
http://www.tsarselo.ru/images/photos/bd0c7d294246c6486df66ef19d72e359.jpg

Sideview of kitchen building from the pond - you can walk the path so near to the buidling and around it to the rear of the palace -
http://www.tsarselo.ru/images/photos/f698fa3249bc023068935fcf1243f257.jpg

Joanna




Offline blessOTMA

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2012, 02:55:42 PM »
Wonderful! Thank you. I've seen a similar photo like this from 1917 with P.Gillard and a guard,

http://www.tsarselo.ru/photos/20/photo19419.html

but didn't realize it was the  kitchen building that had been  turned into a guard  house

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Offline Joanna

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2012, 11:39:53 AM »
The kitchen was the entrance used by the provisional gurads for entry to the AP from March to August 1917 - all other entrances within the palace were closed off. The photo is amazing showing a glimpse of interior courtyard. It is easy to understand dynamics now of deliveries to the kitchen - huge doors opened directly on Dvorotsovaya - hides daily needs of palace life from impeding exterior of dignity of AP. I haven't figured out though where deliveries were made at the Catherine Palace for ceremonial dinners or daily meals for suites - were they from the Lyceum entrance gates? Does anyone know?

Joanna

Offline EmmyLee

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2012, 02:51:53 PM »
The kitchen was the entrance used by the provisional gurads for entry to the AP from March to August 1917 - all other entrances within the palace were closed off.

That's interesting. So they just walked through the tunnel into the AP's basement and then up the stairs?

Offline blessOTMA

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #4 on: November 11, 2012, 01:01:52 AM »
It makes sense to have this fort like entrance while closing off the others...no rush of cars  can get though etc.

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Offline Joanna

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2012, 12:21:35 PM »
The ‘control centre’ during March/August 1917 was in AP basement. The Commandant was based in the Lyceum building - I think it was former apartment of Benckendorff on ground floor. All entries - servants/visitors - were through this entrance - whether in nice weather they walked across or through tunnel I am not sure - but all doors to AP were locked. When the family went out, they left through rear garden - I think doors from Marble Hall balcony but not sure.

I am curious if servants/maids - not just kitchen staff - used this entrance in years prior 1917. Anyone know? Or was their entrance through front B or C?

Joanna
« Last Edit: November 11, 2012, 12:25:51 PM by Joanna »

Brassov

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2012, 01:45:22 PM »
The drawing of the tunnel seems to show sides which were adjustable. It looks, if I am correct, as if the sides of the tunnel had some sort of mechanism to adjust the width. Why are the sides of the tunnel squared off with these panels ? Has anyone else noticed ?

Offline Joanna

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #7 on: November 14, 2012, 11:13:28 AM »
Interesting observation Brassov. Not being an architect, I had thought the right side was conveyor belt to transport the food containers to the palace - more for use for large dinners, etc. I couldn't figure out use for the left side though. It would be great if someone can understand the drawing.

http://www.tsarselo.ru/images/photos/bd0c7d294246c6486df66ef19d72e359.jpg

Joanna

« Last Edit: November 14, 2012, 11:17:25 AM by Joanna »

Brassov

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2013, 12:33:42 PM »
I am revisiting all these sites today, so my apologies. Was this always a kitchen building / was it designed by Quarenghi as a kithchen ?  I remember reading somewhere that Alexandra hated the smell of cooking, and because the kitchen was previously in the basement, all the smells used to permeate the rooms above. This was the reason why the kitchens were moved, and the tunnel constructed in 1897. If so, the building could not have been a kitchen. I cannot imagine servants running in the snow in sub-zero temperatures, across the garden from this building, to the palace, before the tunnel was built !  Was it just a building that happened to conveniently be there at the time, and used for some other purpose ? Architecturally it was obviously designed to blend in with the palace.   
Apologies if this has been discussed before.

Offline Inok Nikolai

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2014, 04:32:48 PM »
The ‘control centre’ during March/August 1917 was in AP basement. The Commandant was based in the Lyceum building - I think it was former apartment of Benckendorff on ground floor. All entries - servants/visitors - were through this entrance - whether in nice weather they walked across or through tunnel I am not sure - but all doors to AP were locked. When the family went out, they left through rear garden - I think doors from Marble Hall balcony but not sure.

I am curious if servants/maids - not just kitchen staff - used this entrance in years prior 1917. Anyone know? Or was their entrance through front B or C?

Joanna

Senior Nurse Valentina Ivanovna Chebotareva was not aware of the existence of that tunnel. That is why, in her diary entry, she was puzzled when Madame Geringer mentioned having entered the Alexander Palace via the tunnel in order to retrieve the hungry cats after the Imperial Family's departure for Tobolsk.
инок Николай

Offline Maria the Beautiful

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2014, 09:33:49 PM »
Interesting observation Brassov. Not being an architect, I had thought the right side was conveyor belt to transport the food containers to the palace - more for use for large dinners, etc. I couldn't figure out use for the left side though. It would be great if someone can understand the drawing.

http://www.tsarselo.ru/images/photos/bd0c7d294246c6486df66ef19d72e359.jpg

Joanna


I  know it's been over a year since Joanna posted this but I've just re-read this thread.  After looking at the drawings of the tunnel, I agree with Joanna that there was some sort of conveyor on one side to transport meals, supplies, etc., but my thoughts on why the tunnel was squared off with panels or straight walls is that it was probably a simple way to insulate the tunnel somewhat  from moisture.   I wonder what the ceiling was covered with.   The drawing shows some type of paneling, but hard to tell from an draftsman's rendering.

Offline Sanochka

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #11 on: August 05, 2015, 02:42:24 PM »
Interesting observation Brassov. Not being an architect, I had thought the right side was conveyor belt to transport the food containers to the palace - more for use for large dinners, etc. I couldn't figure out use for the left side though. It would be great if someone can understand the drawing.

http://www.tsarselo.ru/images/photos/bd0c7d294246c6486df66ef19d72e359.jpg

Joanna



Perhaps the tunnel at left was used for transporting empty dishes, etc, *from* the palace back to the kitchen.

Offline Kevint1us

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #12 on: August 22, 2015, 11:08:57 PM »
In looking at the section of the tunnel I am wondering if instead of a conveyor, which would have been very complicated, it is actually showing specially designed carts on wheels that ran on small rails?

Offline Joanna

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #13 on: June 24, 2016, 09:17:24 AM »
We have the plans of the kitchen building yet little is known of the working conditions within.

In December 1907, a Tsarskoe Palace Administration doctor diagnosed one of the janitors who lived in  the building with the plague.   Count Fredericks took personal control of this disaster. The kitchen was disinfected, the janitor’s things burned. He did survive. [RSHA F. 487]

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Offline Kevint1us

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Re: Kitchen Building
« Reply #14 on: October 21, 2018, 03:31:16 PM »
I am a retired archiect and have studied the rather simple section of the tunnel. It seems to me that there was a central walkway and two delivery compartments, one on each side. The right hand compartment seems to show clearly a tall rolling service "cart" with perhaps two levels, riding on tracks. This is not shown on the left side but the fact that there are structural metal wall supports shown on th left side may simply mean this was to illustrate that the concrete tunnel was reinforced with steel or iron. Probably both sides had a cart system. A round vent, pipe, or conduit seems to be resting on top of the cart compartments. The tunnel, given its length, must have been supplied with ventilation, electrical lighting, etc. and probably a telephone line to connect the two buildings. it is probable these conduits were for that purpose. Probably the carts were powered in some manner by electricity. Highly improbable that they were pushed or pulled by servants. It can be also surmised that there wee drains along the way in case of spillage from the carts or ground water entering the tunnel. There appear to be rather thin side panels on both sides of the tunnel walkway separating the railed carts from the walking area. These were probably designed to slide or swing open to allow access to the carts should there be a mechanical problem en route in the tunnel. Given there does not appear any way for carts to turned around at either end, I surmise carts simply went back and forth, wiith someone delegated at one end or the other or both, to telephone the opposite end and control direction.