LondonLife – Garden view…
A Moment in London’s History – John Logie Baird demonstrates television…
It was 100 years ago last month that on a wet Tuesday evening in Soho, Scottish engineer and inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated an experimental prototype that provided live moving pictures – the precursor to what we now know as television.
The successful, albeit rather low key, demonstration took place before some 40 members of the Royal Institution, all reportedly attired in evening dress, in an upper room which served as his laboratory at 22 Frith Street on 26th January, 1926.
According to a report in The Times on 28th January, the “transmitting machine” consisted of a “large wooden revolving disc containing lenses, behind which was a revolving shutter and a light sensitive cell”.
The first image to be transmitted was that of the head of a ventriloquist’s dummy but the image of a human face was transmitted later, “first on a receiver in the same room as the transmitter and then on a portable receiver in another room”.
“The image as transmitted was faint and often blurred, but substantiated a claim that through the ‘Televisor’, as Mr Baird has named his apparatus, it is possible to transmit and reproduce instantly the details of movement, and such things as the play of expression on the face,” The Times reported.
Present at the demonstration was William Edward Taynton, a 20-year-old office boy whose face Baird had transmitted in an experiment at the property the previous October.
Baird continued to refine his invention in the following months with the picture becoming clearer and was recognised in the years following for being the first to show television in colour,
In 1928 he completed a demonstration in which live images sent by radio from London were received in New York and the same year he demonstrated colour television. In 1929, the first television programmes were officially transmitted by the BBC using Baird’s system.
An English Heritage Blue Plaque todays marks the property where the demonstration took place (there’s also one at Baird’s former home at 3 Crescent Wood Road in Sydenham, where he lived from 1933 until 1945).
This Week in London – ‘Samurai’ at the British Museum; V&A East’s first exhibition; and, Jane Austen and the Royal Navy…
• The evolution of the samurai over the past 1,000 years is the subject of a new exhibition at The British Museum. Samurai brings together around 280 objects and digital media as it explores the role of samurai as warrior as well as the later roles they fulfilled, during a prolonged peace after 1615, as government officials, scholars and patrons of the arts with women making up half of the samurai class. On display will be a suit of samurai armour, complete with helmet and golden standard, which was recently acquired by the museum as well as a vermillion red woman’s firefighting jacket, a rare portrait of Itō Mancio, a 13-year-old samurai who led an embassy to the Vatican in 1582, by Domenico Tintoretto (pictured), and a portrait of Henry, Count of Bourbon, which portrays him as a samurai warrior and which was commissioned by him while visiting Japan in 1889. The exhibition, which opens on 3rd February, runs until 4th May in The Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/samurai.
• Tickets are now on sale for the V&E East Museum’s first exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story. The multi-sensory exhibition features more than 200 objects ranging from musical instruments to soundtracks,
artworks, fashion, and personal belongings of world-famed artists including Winifred Atwell’s piano, the Nintendo Jme used for early music experiments, fashion worn by Little Simz, Seal, Dame Shirley Bassey and Skin and newly acquired photographs of Kemistry and Storm, Mis-Teeq, and Skepta. The exhibition opens on 18th April. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/the-music-is-black-a-british-story
• On Now: Jane Austen and the Royal Navy. This display at the National Maritime Museum marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and features manuscripts relating to her youngest brothers Francis and Charles Austen, both of whom had naval careers, and explores Jane’s connections to the Royal Navy and the influence her brothers had in her works. Francis – known as Frank (born in 1774) – entered the Royal Navy at the age of 12 and rose through the ranks to eventually captain the HMS Canopus during the Napoleonic Wars while Charles (born in 1779) also entered the Navy at age 12, was on board the Endymion when it captured the French ship Le Scipio, was captain of the Phoenix when it was wrecked at sea and ended his career as commander-in-chief of the East Indies and China Station. The display in the Caird Library can be seen until March. Admission is free. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum.
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10 London bishop’s palaces, past and present – 5. Durham House…
Now long gone, this central London property was once the residence of the, you guessed it, bishops of Durham.
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LondonLife – City of London stairway…
10 London bishop’s palaces, past and present – 4. Bromley Palace…
This building, which dates from 1775, is the former palace of the Bishops of Rochester and the latest incarnation of the palace which the bishops used for centuries.
The land, which came to be known as the Manor of Bromley, was initially granted to the bishops of Rochester by Saxon kings of Kent over a couple of centuries. Following the Norman Conquest, an attempt by Odo, the Earl of Kent, to claim it failed thanks to the efforts of Bishop Gundulf (1075-1108) and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc.
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LondonLife – Folgate Street…
Where’s London’s oldest…carpet?
Said to be the oldest dated carpet in the world, it can be found in the Victoria & Albert Museum.
The Ardabil Carpet was made in the town of Ardabil in what is now north-west Iran, in 1539-40. The dating can be so exact thanks to a poetic inscription along one edge which, as well as referencing a date in the Muslim calendar, also reveals it to be the work of a court craftsman, Maqsud Kashani.
The carpet, which is one of an identical pair (the other is at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)), is believed to have been commissioned by the court of the Safavid Dynasty (1501-1722) – the ruler at the time was Shah Tahmasp I – for a renovation of the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili.
The entire carpet, which may have been made in Tabriz and is said to be the finest carpet that could have been created at the time, is covered by a single integrated design with a large yellow medallion at the centre which is surrounded by a series of oval shapes with a lamp hanging at each end.
The wool pile is very dense with about 5,300 knots per ten centimetres square allowing a great deal of detail. According to the V&A, up to 10 weavers may have been working on it at the same time.
The carpet was seen by British visitors at the Shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din in 1843 but following an earthquake about 30 years later, it was sold to a Manchester carpet firm. They sold it to the V&A for £2,000 in March, 1893, following a recommendation from William Morris that they do so.
It now sits under a special case at the centre of the Jameel Gallery and is only lit for 10 minutes every half hour to help preserve its colours.
WHERE: The Jameel Gallery at the V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road (nearest Tube station is South Kensington); WHEN: 10am to 5:45pm daily (late opening Friday – but check website for possible gallery closures); COST: Free; WEBSITE: www.vam.ac.uk/
Lost London – Church of St Peter le Poer…
This parish church once stood on the west side of Broad Street in the City of London and dated back to the Norman era.
The church, which originally dated from before 1181 (when it was first mentioned) and was also referred to as St Peter le Poor, may have been so-named because of the poor parish in which it was located or for its connections to the monastery of St Augustine at Austin Friars, whose monks took vows of poverty.
Whatever the reason for its name (and it has been suggested the ‘le Poer’ wasn’t added to it until the 16th century), the church was rebuilt in 1540 and then enlarged in 1615 with a new steeple and west gallery added in the following decade or so.
The church survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 but just over a 100 years later has fallen into such a state of disrepair that parishioners obtained an Act of Parliament to demolish and rebuild it.
The new church, which was designed by Jesse Gibson and moved back off Broad Street further into the churchyard, was consecrated on 19th November, 1792. Its design featured a circular nave topped by a lantern (the curved design was not visible from the street) and placed the altar directly opposite the doorway on the north-west side of the church.
The church had acquired a new organ in 1884 but the declining population in the surrounding area led to its been deemed surplus to requirements. It was demolished in 1907 and the parish united with that of St Michael Cornhill.
Proceeds of the sale were used to build a new church, St Peter Le Poer in Friern Barnet. The new church, which was consecrated on 28th June, 1910, by the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram, also received the demolished church’s font, pulpit and panelling.
This Week in London – Hawai’i’s history and culture; Green Plaque commemorates FA; and, Turner and Constable at the Tate…
• The history and artistry of Hawaii along with its relationship with Britain is the subject of a new exhibition at the British Museum. Hawaii: a kingdom crossing oceans commemorates 200 years since a series of events including the visit of Hawaiian King Liholiho (Kamehameha II) and Queen Kamāmalu to London with a royal delegation to seek alliance and protection from the Crown. Building from the visit of the Hawaiian party to the British Museum, the exhibition features around 150 objects and artworks, many of which have never seen seen before, with highlights including an ‘ahu ‘ula (feathered cloak) which was sent in 1810 by the first king of united Hawai’i, Kamehameha I, to King George III, a nine foot ki’i image of the god Kū, and the Anglo-Franco proclamation of 1843, on loan from The National Archives, which highlights the UK and France’s formal recognition of Hawai’i’s independence and emphasises diplomatic bonds between these nations. Opening today, the exhibition can be seen until 25th May in The Joseph Hotung Exhibition Gallery (Room 35). Admission charge applies. For more, see britishmuseum.org/hawaii.
• The former headquarters of the Football Association (FA) has been commemorated with a City of Westminster Green Plaque at 22 Lancaster Gate, an address synonymous with the FA from the early 20th century until the 1990s. In a statement, the City of Westminster said the plaque, which was unveiled late last year, “celebrates the cultural and historical significance of the FA’s presence in the area and its role in English football history”.
• On Now: Turner & Constable. An exhibition at the Tate Britain focuses on two of Britain’s greatest painters, JMW Turner and John Constable, who were also great rivals. The display, which marks 250 years since their births – Turner in 1775 and Constable in 1776, features more than 170 paintings and works on paper as it explores their intertwined lives and legacies. Highlights include Turner’s momentous The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons (1835), not seen in Britain for more than 100 years, and Constable’s The White Horse (1819). Admission charge applies. Runs until 12th April. For more, see www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/turner-and-constable/exhibition-guide.
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Three places to remember Agatha Christie…
Before we get back to our current Wednesday series on bishop’s palaces, we pause to remember the death of celebrated crime writer Agatha Christie, 50 years ago this week (she died on 12th January, 1976).
• First up, we head to 58 Sheffield Terrace in Holland Park where Christie lived with her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, between 1934 and 1941 (one of several homes she lived in in the area), and where she wrote books including Murder on the Orient Express (1934) and Death on the Nile (1937). The house is marked with an English Heritage Blue Plaque.
• Then it’s over to University College Hospital in Bloomsbury where Christie worked during World War II as a volunteer dispenser (and where she added to her expertise on poisons). Christie had in 1917 sat three exams to become a qualified pharmaceutical assistant at the Apothecaries Hall in London.
• Finally, we head to the West End and St Martin’s Theatre where Christie’s play, The Mousetrap, continues to be performed nightly, notching up more than 30,000 performances. Outside is the Agatha Christie Memorial (pictured) depicting a book with a bust of Christie set into the centre.
We’ll be taking a more detailed look at Agatha Christie’s London in a series soon…
LondonLife – Souvenir shopping…
Welcome to a new year of Exploring London…
We’re back this week after a Christmas-New Year break!
This year, as well as running our regular programme of content, we’ll be introducing some new features on Exploring London (and reviving some old ones that had fallen by the wayside).
Stay tuned for updates and if you can, please consider supporting our work with a £3 a month subscription which gives you access to all our content and helps ensure we can continue producing it.
12 most popular posts of 2025…3 to 1…
The final three in our most read posts countdown (and apologies for being a day late!)….
2. London Explained – Lord Mayor or Mayor?
1. London Explained – Red phone boxes…
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to all of Exploring London’s readers! Wishing you a great start to 2026.
12 most popular posts of 2025…6 to 4…
12 most popular posts of 2025…9 to 7…
12 most popular posts of 2025…
This year we’ve expanded our annual list of our most read posts (this time for those published in 2025) to include 12 – that’s three a day with the final three to be released on New Year’s Day!
So without further ado…
12. 10 historic London docks…10. East India Docks…
11. 10 London mysteries – 8. The Ceremony of the Rendering of the Quit Rents…
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas…
Don’t forget to keep an eye out for our most read posts countdown of 2025 between Christmas and New Year!
LondonLife – Streets aglow for Christmas…
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