3-078-279 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Seamen's Hospital, Victoria and Albert Docks, opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales, 1890. '...the new building for a branch of the Seamen's Hospital at the Victoria and Albert Docks below Blackwall [on the River Thames in London]...Their Royal Highnesses went down the river on board the steamer H. M. Stanley from Westminster Bridge. At the entrance to the Albert Dock a battery of the 1st Essex Artillery Volunteers fired a salute. The steamer passed through the dock, passing the fleets of the Peninsular and Oriental Company and other lines, the crews of which manned the yards and gave three ringing cheers, the bands of various corps playing the National Anthem. On disembarking, their Royal Highnesses were received by the president, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the committee of the hospital, and the chairman and deputy chairman of the London and India Docks Joint Committee. After prayers by the Bishop of Colchester, the Prince and Princess were presented with an address, read by the president. On leaving the dais, which was filled with distinguished personages, the Prince and Princess of Wales went by railway in a saloon carriage to inspect the hospital, after which they returned to the shed, and declared the hospital opened'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.