LondonLife – Inside the capsule…
Where’s London’s oldest…international airport?
As is often the case with finding London’s oldest, this isn’t necessarily an easy question to answer.
Hounslow Heath Aerodrome in London’s west was the city’s first civil airfield. First used in 1910 and subsequently by the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, it properly entered service as a civil airfield in August, 1919, when on 25th of that month it became the origin point for the first international flight in the world – from Hounslow to Paris-Le Bourget. That flight, by a de Havilland DH.4A aircraft, was the first in what provider Air Transport and Travel Ltd offered as a daily service.
But despite that historic early role, the Hounslow Heath Aerodrome, which only had rudimentary facilities, had a relatively short-lived life as a civil airport. Croydon in London’s south, home to the RAF Station Croydon and the Waddon Aerodrome, was seen as a more suitable location for the city’s airport.
So, on 29th March, 1920, Croydon Airport opened. While it initially had temporary facilities on Plough Lane (planes apparently had to taxi across the lane to take off and after landing), a permanent terminal – the world’s first – opened near the Purley Way bypass in 1928, making it the city’s first purpose-built international airport (and the biggest and most advanced in the world at the time).
Croydon Airport is also famous for having the first air traffic control system in the world and also boasted the world’s first airport hotel which opened in 1928 (known then as Gate Lodge and today – it’s still in business – as the Croydon Aerodrome Hotel).
The airport was home to Britain’s first national carrier, Imperial Airways, which was founded when four airlines merged in 1924.
During World War II, the airport’s name changed to RAF Croydon – it served fighters taking part in the Battle of Britain – and in 1943 RAF Transport Command was founded at the site and used to ferry soldiers to and from Europe.
After the war, Croydon returned to its role as civilian passenger airport but lack of room for expansion saw Heathrow, founded in 1946 as London Airport and renamed in 1966, take over the role.
This Week in London – V&A East Museum opens; ‘Cool Britannia’ at the Barbican; and, Netherlandish drawings…
• The new V&A East Museum has opened to the public. Located in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the new museum’s first exhibition The Music is Black: A British Story, reveals how Black British music has shaped British culture over the last 125 years. Highlights include Stormzy’s iconic 2019 Banksy-designed Glastonbury vest, Joan Armatrading’s childhood guitar, fashion worn by Seal, Sade and Skin, plus Fabio & Grooverider’s DJ equipment and Grooverider’s first turntable, newly acquired photographs by Eddie Otchere, Jennie Baptiste and Laura ‘Hyperfrank’ Brosnan, and a specially commissioned painting by Sir Frank Bowling. The museum also features two free permanent ‘Why We Make galleries’ which feature more than 500 objects from the V&A’s collection including new artworks by artists including Turner Prize-nominated Rene Matić, Carrie Mae Weems and Tania Bruguera and new acquisitions by designer Yinka Ilori, fashion designer Molly Goddard, photographer Jamie Hawkesworth and ceramicist Bisila Noha, as well as a range of objects from Renaissance portraits and historic scent cases to photographs by Maud Sulter and Shadi Ghadirian, Keith Khan’s carnival costumes, ballet costumes by Leigh Bowery, and fashion by Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. For more, see vam.ac.uk/east.
• A new exhibition marking 30 years of ‘Cool Britannia’ has opened at the Barbican Music Library. 1996: 30 Years On features original costumes worn by the Spice Girls, previously unseen Oasis memorabilia, photography by Jill Furmanovsky and Derek Ridgers, and personal items from record producers and DJs Paul Oakenfold, Dave Pearce and Judge Jules. The exhibition, curated by the former editor of The Sun Dominic Mohan, also features a selection of pencil sketches of bands by Mike Smith who, in his role as a music executive, signed many of the most prominent acts of the era including Blur, Elastica, and Supergrass. The free exhibition runs until 19th September. For more, see www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/events/1996-30-years-on.
• Some 110 works by artists such as Rogier van der Weyden, Lucas van Leyden, Pieter Bruegel the elder and Hendrick Goltzius feature in a new exhibition at the British Museum. Early Netherlandish drawings, which draws on the museum’s collection of pre-1600s Netherlandish drawings, also includes lesser-known masters, anonymous sheets and workshop copies to provide a rich and comprehensive account of drawing across the region. The display follows a chronological narrative and examines the function of drawings in the workshop and their role in the design and production of paintings, tapestries, painted glass, sculpture and prints while thematic displays highlight new subjects that were introduced during this period, including landscapes, proverbs and a local iteration of the antique style, spurred by contact with Italy. The free exhibition can be seen in Room 90 until 20th September. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/early-netherlandish-drawings.
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LondonLife – Location of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars house pinpointed…
It’s exact location has long been a mystery but now new research has pinpointed the exact location of William Shakespeare’s Blackfriars house.
The discovery, the results of which were released last week, was made by Shakespeare expert Professor Lucy Munro, of King’s College London.
Professor Munro has been able to shed new light on the location using two documents from The London Archives and one from The National Archives.
One of the documents found in The London Archives – a plan of the Blackfriars precinct drawn up in 1668 – shows exactly where the property, which Shakespeare bought on 10th March, 1613, at the age of 48, was located.
It puts it at what is now the eastern end of Ireland Yard and the bottom of Burgon Street and also covered the land now occupied by sections of 19th century buildings at 5 Burgon Street and 5 St Andrew’s Hill.
Interestingly, the property 5 St Andrew’s Hill bears a City of London blue plaque, placed there in 2013, which suggests the house was located “near this site”. The find shows it was not just near, but actually on, part of the site.
The find also confirmed that the site of the house was partly located on land which had been previously occupied by the “great gate” that led into Blackfriars monastery – long known by historians.
It is possible that Shakespeare wrote the play The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he co-authored with John Fletcher later in 1613, while living in the property.
The property, which was located near a tavern at the Sign of the Cock (the Cockpit pub is now located on the site), was left to Shakespeare’s eldest daughter Susanna and then his grand-daughter Elizabeth Hall Nash Barnard who sold it in 1665, just a year before it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
Professor Munro’s research has been published in The Times Literary Supplement.
We’ve corrected the name of the Shakespeare play.
10 London sites relating to Winnie-the-Pooh – 4. AA Milne’s House in Chelsea…
This house in Chelsea was where AA Milne was living during the years he wrote Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926.
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LondonLife – Queen’s head, Sloane Square…
Promotion for the upcoming Chelsea In Bloom to be held from 18th to 24th May.
This Week in London – Queen Elizabeth II’s fashion archive on show; London Transport Museum Depot’s open days; and, wartime London in art…
• A christening robe, first worn by Queen Victoria’s eldest child, Princess Victoria, at her christening in 1841, and subsequently by 61 other royal babies including Queen Elizabeth II, is one of the stars of a new exhibition opening at The King’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace tomorrow. Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style features around 200 items from Queen Elizabeth II’s fashion archive – the largest exhibition of her clothing ever staged. Other highlights include a Norman Hartnell apple-green gown worn by the Queen a state banquet given for President Eisenhower at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, in 1957; a crinoline-skirted blue gown and matching bolero jacket worn by the late Queen for her sister Princess Margaret’s wedding in 1960; and, perhaps more surprisingly, a clear plastic raincoat made by Hardy Amies in the 1960s. The latter is just one example of late Queen’s private, off-duty wardrobe which is also included in the show. Other examples include a Harris tweed jacket and Balmoral Tartan skirt, designed by Norman Hartnell and worn in the 1950 and a green coat made by Angela Kelly. The exhibition runs until 18th October. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.rct.uk.
• Celebrate 120 years of the Bakerloo and Piccadilly Lines and 70 years of the Routemaster bus at a London Transport Museum Depot open day. The first to be held this year, the four open days at the Acton Town facility, will allow visitors to discover the more than 320,000 objects not on display at the museum’s Covent Garden site including the chance to climb aboard historic train stock dating from 1927 and 1938, get a close-up look at the pioneering RM1 and RM2 buses, and explore everything from rare signalling equipment to models, maps, station architecture and posters. A programme of talks is also taking place across the weekend along with activities for kids, heritage demonstrations, displays and stalls. The days run from today – 9th April – through to Sunday (12th April). Admission charges apply. For more, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/depot-open-days/icons-london.
• On Now: Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art. This free exhibition at IWM London tells the story of London during World War II and features more than 45 paintings and drawings as well as photographs, films, objects and oral histories. Works include some by well-known artists such as Eliot Hodgkin, Graham
Sutherland, Henry Carr, Evelyn Dunbar, Duncan Grant and Edward Ardizzone as well as lesser known figures, many of whom were employed by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee. The works are presented under four themes -Travel, Thames, Street and Shelter – and highlights include Frances MacDonald’s Sketch for ‘London Docks’ (1944), John Edgar Platt’s Wartime traffic on the River Thames (1942) and fireman artist Leonard Rosoman’s The Houses of Parliament on Fire, May 1941 (1941) – which captures the last night of the Blitz. Other works in the display are Duncan Grant’s painting of that iconic symbol of wartime resistance, St Paul’s Cathedral, Henry Carr’s St Clement Dane’s Church on Fire after being Bombed (1941), Evelyn Gibbs’ WVS Clothing Exchange (1943) and Evelyn Dunbar’s Convalescent Nurses Making Camouflage Nets (1941). The display can be seen until 1st November. For more, see www.iwm.org.uk/events/beauty-and-destruction-wartime-london-in-art.
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10 London sites relating to Winnie-the-Pooh – 3. Punch Magazine…
Winnie-the-Pooh author AA Milne worked at Punch magazine prior to writing his famous book and it was while doing so that he started a friendship that was to prove consequential.
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LondonLife – Passing parade…
Happy Easter!
Wishing all our readers a very happy and safe Easter break!
Three unusual London Easter traditions…
We pause our series on Winnie-the-Pooh to take a brief look at three uniquely London traditions which take place each Easter…
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LondonLife – Vauxhall view…
This Week in London – Sophia Duleep Singh at Kensington Palace; ‘Fairy Tales’ at the British Library; astronomers at the National Maritime Museum; and, the Science Museum celebrates ‘Star Trek’…
• A new exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of Punjabi princess and suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh opens at Kensington Palace today. The Last Princess of Punjab: The story of Sophia Duleep Singh and the women who shaped her explores the life of Sophia Duleep Singh and her intersections with six other women including her sisters Catherine and Bamba, her mother Bamba Muller, grandmother Jind Kaur and godmother Queen Victoria. On show is an ornately painted rocking horse from Princess Sophia’s childhood at Elveden Hall in Suffolk which was remodelled to resemble an Indian Mughal palace, an original copy of The Suffragette featuring an iconic image of Sophia selling copies of the magazine on the gate of Hampton Court Palace, a “No Vote, No Tax’ banner used in the early 1900s protest marches, and Princess Sophia’s handwritten letter to Winston Churchill reporting police brutality at the Black Friday suffragette march. And, for the first time since 1886, an iconic portrait of Jind Kaur will be reunited with real earrings she wore in the image. The exhibition runs until 8th November. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/whats-on/the-last-princesses-of-punjab/.
• A celebration of the fantastical creatures, heroes and villains that populate the world of fairy tales opens at the British Library tomorrow. Fairy Tales takes visitors on a journey through an mysterious forest and enchanted palace as they discover the origins and evolution of fairy tales. Items on show include a Mervyn Peake illustration made for an edition of Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm, early printed editions of the legend of Mulan, puppets of Kai and Gerda from the Little Angel Theatre’s production of The Snow Queen, a copy of Cinderella illustrated by Arthur Rackham, a beautiful manuscript illustration of a dragon from the Persian legend, the story of Darab, and the original manuscript of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. Admission charge applies. Runs until 23rd August. For more, see https://events.bl.uk/exhibitions/fairy-tales.
• A new temporary space-themed gallery opens at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich tomorrow. Astronomers Take Over is a hands-on space that provides the opportunity to meet astronomers from the Royal Observatory just up the hill, participate in science demonstrations and ask questions about space and astronomy. The gallery also includes a planetarium which features live astronomers shows ranging from ‘Animals in Space’ for young visitors to ‘The Night Sky’ – a classical guide to the cosmos, and ‘Solar System Sightseeing’, an introduction to Earth’s celestial neighbourhood. Science theatre shows will also be held at the museum from 3rd April. Admission charge applies. The gallery is open to 2028. For more, see https://rmg.co.uk/takeover.
• The Science Museum in South Kensington is marking the 60th anniversary of Star Trek with a new program of events. They include the chance to see all 13 Star Trek films on one of the biggest screens in Europe as well as a free trail featuring iconic objects from the franchise’s archives and an exclusive range of anniversary merchandise for purchase. For more, see sciencemuseum.org.uk/star-trek-60.
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10 London sites relating to Winnie-the-Pooh – 2. Westminster School…
There’s a couple of connections between the creation of Winnie-the-Pooh and this London institution.
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LondonLife – All in white…
London Pub Signs – The Artful Dodger…
It won’t come as a surprise, but this pub, located a short distance east of Tower Hill, is named for the character from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.
Located in Royal Mint Street, the pub was formerly known as the Crown and Seven Stars. It closed in 1981 and reopened under its current name in 1985.
While the history of the Crown and Stars apparently goes back some years earlier, the current four storey building, which is Grade II-listed, dates from a rebuild in the 1820s. But the facade, which features a crown and seven stars on the uppermost level, was partially rebuilt in the 1880s.
It’s not quite clear why the pub is so re-named – there doesn’t appear to be any particular connection of the character – known as the Artful Dodger but whose ‘real’ name in the novel is Jack Dawkins – with the location except that it’s in the East End where large sections of the book are set.
The pub is located at number 47. For more, see https://camra.org.uk/pubs/artful-dodger-london-155070.
This Week in London – Sculpture at the V&A East; ‘Londoners on Trial’; and, Elsa Schiaparelli…
• An 18 foot tall sculpture of a young person, holding a mobile phone and looking towards a horizon “full of possibilities”, has appeared outside the V& East Museum ahead of its public opening next month. A Place Beyond, the work of artist Thomas J Price, has been created from an amalgamation of images, 3D scans and observations and has been constructed in bronze using digital technologies and ancient techniques. Also announced this month have been the artists involved with New Work, the V&A’s new six-monthly rotating creative commissions programme. The artists – who include Turner Prize-nominated artist Rene Matić, Lawrence Lek, Laura Wilson, Tania Bruguera, Es Devlin, Shahed Saleem, Justinien Tribillon and Carrie Mae Weems – have been invited to reflect on east London’s layered histories and creative futures under the theme of Making East London. The works will be displayed across V&A East’s two sites – V&A East Museum and Storehouse – from the museum’s public opening on 18th April. For more, see vam.ac.uk.
• On Now: Londoners on Trial: Crime, Courts and the Public 1244-1924. This free exhibition at The London Archives explores the history of law and order in the city and draws on documents from famous cases involving the likes of 17th century pickpocket Moll Cutpurse, highwayman Dick Turpin, Jack Sheppard, Oscar Wilde, and suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst. runs until 25th February next year. For more, head to www.thelondonarchives.org/visit-us/exhibitions/londoners-on-trial.
• The work and impact of Elsa Schiaparelli, one of the 20th century’s most innovative fashion designers is the subject of a new exhibition at the V&A. Opening on Saturday in the Sainsbury Gallery, Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art follows the fashion house’s evolution from its origins through to its present day incarnation under creative director Daniel Roseberry. It features more than 200 objects including garments, accessories, jewellery, paintings, photographs, sculpture, furniture, perfumes and archive materials. Highlights include the V&A’s Skeleton dress and the Tear dress as well as a hat shaped to look like an upside-down shoe – all of which were conceived in collaboration with Salvador Dalí. There will also be artworks by Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Man Ray on display. Runs until 1st November. Admission charge applies. For more, see vam.ac.uk.
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10 London sites relating to Winnie-the-Pooh – 1. Site of Henley House School…
Think of locations related to Winnie-the-Pooh and chances are you’ll think of idyllic rural scenes like the Hundred Acre Wood (based on Ashdown Wood in East Sussex – more on that in a later post). But, as we’ll find, there are numerous locations in London which tell the some of the story of the world famous books and their creator, AA Milne.
To mark the 100th anniversary of publication of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926, we’re taking a look at some of them…
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LondonLife – Greenwich overwatch…
Famous Londoners – Jim Jarvis…
An orphan who lived on London’s streets in the 1860s, Jim Jarvis is famous for having inspired Dr Thomas Barnardo to establish his first home for boys.
Barnardo had moved to London from Dublin in Ireland to train as a doctor and, after a cholera epidemic swept through the East End, leaving many children orphans, in 1867 he established the Hope Place Ragged School in Stepney where children could get a basic education for free.
Jim Jarvis, who was 10-years-old at the time (although Barnardo later said he looked older but had the body of a boy of seven or eight), was one of the children who attended the school.
Barnardo’s account is that one night, after he was about to close the school, the boy had begged to be allowed to stay and, when pressed, had told his story.
Jarvis explained that had been living in a workhouse with his mother (he apparently never knew his father) but after she died, he ran away. Living on the streets of Stepney, he was initially helped by a woman who sold whelks and shrimp. He subsequently did some odd jobs for coal lighter but was treated very cruelly – this included the lighterman, ‘Swearin’ Dick’ setting his dog on him when he was drunk.
Jarvis was able to escape and lived on the streets for a time, including being briefly detained in a workhouse. Eventually he attended Barnardo’s newly opened ragged school and asked for help.
Jarvis explained that there were many other boys in a similar position to his own. Barnardo asked him to show him where some of these boys were staying, so Jim took him to a rooftop near a hayloft where 11 boys were sleeping in a huddle.
That encounter helped open Barnardo’s eyes to the hardships faced by the children in the East End – in his words, “I had seen enough, and I needed no fresh proof of the truth of his story or any new incentive to a life of active effort on behalf of destitute street lads”.
After the fateful night on which Jarvis told his story, Barnardo paid for Jarvis’ lodgings. It’s been suggested that, thanks to the aid of a charity, he later went to live on a Canadian farm.
Barnardo meanwhile, established his first home for boys in Stepney in 1870 – a place where they could live and learn skills such as carpentry, metalwork, and shoemaking to help them secure apprenticeships.
Barnardo went on to open further homes and by his death in 1905 the charity he and his wife Syrie Louise Elmslie founded had some 96 homes caring for more than 8,500 children.
Jarvis’ story is encapsulated in Berlie Doherty’s bestselling children’s novel, Street Child.
Exploring London 