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A Moment in London’s History – The coronation of King Henry V…
oil on panel, late 16th or early 17th century (NPG 545) © National Portrait Gallery, London
This year marks the 610th anniversary of the coronation of King Henry V and since we’re gearing up for another coronation, we thought it a good time to take a look back.
King Henry V, then 26-years-old, became king following the death of his father – King Henry IV – on 20th March, 1413. The coronation took place early the next month on 9th April at Westminster Abbey.
It just so happened there was a snowstorm that day, which some took to mean there were hard times ahead but which his supporters apparently saw as a good omen, the white-out a symbol of Henry’s holiness.
The ceremony in Westminster Abbey was followed by a feast in Westminster Hall.
It is said to have featured sugar sculptures of antelopes and eagles with illuminated texts extolling the virtues of the new king hanging from their mouths.
Guests were served by servants on horseback and, as was tradition, the King’s Champion rode into the hall and issued a challenge (which nobody took up).
There are two carvings depicting his coronation on his elaborate chantry chapel in the abbey.
The coronation hailed the start of Henry V’s short, nine-year reign, the most recalled aspect of which is his famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt in October, 1415.
This Week in London – ‘After Impressionism’; a new woodland for Richmond Park; and, a new exhibition at the Heath Robinson…
• Paintings and sculptures by artists including Cézanne, Van Gogh, Rodin, Picasso, Matisse, Klimt, Kandinsky and Mondrian opens at The National Gallery on Saturday. After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art features more than 100 paintings and sculptures from museums and private collections around the world spanning the period between 1886 and 1914. Highlights include André Derain’s La Danse, Edgar Degas’s Dancers in the Foyer, Paul Cézanne’s Grandes Baigneuses, Edvard Munch’s The Death Bed, Paul Gauguin’s Vision of the Sermon, Camille Claudel’s Imploration / l’Implorante, and Lovis Corinth’s Nana, Female Nude. Admission charge applies. Runs until 13th August. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/after-impressionism-inventing-modern-art.
• Sir David Attenborough has planted an English oak tree to officially open the Platinum Jubilee Woodland, a new woodland in Richmond Park. The woodland has been created as part of The Queen’s Green Canopy initiative to celebrate and honour the late Queen Elizabeth II’s lifetime of service. Some 70 young trees have been planted in the woodland, including oak, Dutch elm-disease-resistant elm, small-leaved lime, and sweet chestnut trees, planted around a focal point which will later incorporate a seating area. Sir David’s tree is one of the last to be planted as part of The Queen’s Green Canopy initiative which concludes on 31st March. The project invited people from across the nation to plant trees in honour of Queen Elizabeth II to mark the Platinum Jubilee and benefit future generations. For more on the park, see www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond-park.
• Illustrative works by William Heath Robinson, Charles Robinson and Thomas Health Robinson, many of which have not be exhibited before, are on show in a new exhibition at the Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner. The works, which come from the collection of Martin and Joanne Verden, include original drawings for Railway Ribaldry and William Heath Robinson’s How to… series of books. Admission charge applies. Runs until 21st May. For more, see www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org.
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10 historic London homes that are now museums…9. Turner’s House…
Located close to the River Thames in south-west London, Sandycombe Lodge was designed and built by the artist JMW Turner as a country retreat.
The Twickenham property, which was constructed in 1812-13 on land the famed “painter of light” had bought six years earlier, also provided a home for Turner’s father, ‘Old William’, who was a retired Covent Garden barber and wigmaker. Old William would tend the garden and keep the house when Joseph Mallord William Turner, who is best known for his expressive landscapes and marine paintings, wasn’t present.
The finished property featured a large sitting room overlooking the expansive garden. It was initially known as Solus Lodge and the name later changed to Sandycombe.
Turner would use the home as a base for sketching and fishing trips. He painted many scenes of local landscapes including, notably, England: Richmond Hill on the Prince Regent’s Birthday in 1819.
Among those who visited Turner at the property was his friend and fishing companion, Sir John Soane (his influence can be seen on the home’s design in features such as the use of arches inside and the skylight above the stairs).
Turner, who also had a property in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, where he died in 1851, only had the house for 13 years – with his father’s health declining and his own touring schedule which meant he wasn’t able to spend as much time at the property as he would have liked, Turner sold Sandycombe in 1826 to his neighbour Joseph Todd. Todd, the owner of Twickenham Park, enlarged the villa and rented it out.
It subsequently passed through numerous hands (the large grounds around gradually diminishing).
Used as a factory for making goggles in World War II, it was in a poor state when purchased by Professor Harold Livermore and his wife Ann in 1947. In the 1950s, they secured a Grade II*-listing for the property and later set up the The Sandycombe Lodge Trust, now Turner’s House Trust, in 2005.
On Livermore’s death in 2010 at the age of 95, the trust became the owner of Sandycombe. Following a significant restoration which aimed to take the house back to Turner’s original designs and which was completed in 2017, it opened to the public as a museum.
Displayed in the house are some of Turner’s sketches as well as model ships he used in creating his art. A ‘speaking clock’ captures recollections of friends and Old William is brought to life digitally in the basement. What remains of the gardens have also been restored.
The house features an English Heritage Blue Plaque.
WHERE: Sandycombe Lodge, 40 Sandycoombe Road, St Margarets, Twickenham (nearest rail is St Margarets; nearest Tube station is Richmond); WHEN: 12pm to 4pm Wednesday to Sunday (until 2nd July); COST: £8 adults/£3 child (3 to 15 years)/£17 family; WEBSITE: https://turnershouse.org.
LondonLife – Ending looms for ‘Executions’ at Museum of London Docklands…
Museum of London Docklands’ major exhibition, Executions, has less than a month to run, closing on 16th April. This week sees a special late opening on Friday night (24th March) with a candlelit evening featuring screenings, pop-up talks and tours. There will be execution ballads sung live and a selection of exhibition-inspired drinks available as visitors have the chance to explore some of London’s grisly past before the doors clang shut for good. For more, see www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london-docklands/whats-on/exhibitions/executions.
London Pub Signs – The Spanish Galleon…
This early 19th century pub was built in the Regency style as part of a redevelopment of central Greenwich.
The redevelopment was undertaken by architect Joseph Kay in the 1830s while he served as clerk of works to what was then Greenwich Hospital (now known as the Old Royal Naval College).
Its name, one of a number of nautical names for pubs in the area, purportedly comes from the pictures of British naval victories at the hospital.
The pub received minor damage during the Blitz.
Located at 1 College Approach, the pub has been Grade II-listed since 1973. In 2012, the pub underwent a refurbishment.
Part of the Shepherd Neame chain. For more, see www.spanishgalleon.co.uk.
Treasures of London – Coalbrookdale Gates…
Located at the southern end of West Carriage Drive – the road which divides Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park – are bronze-painted cast iron gates which were made for the Great Exhibition of 1851.
The gates are named for their manufacturer, the Coalbrookdale Company in Shropshire, and were designed by Charles Crookes.
Each of the gates were cast in one piece and feature cherubs or mer-children below gold crowns atop the finials. There are stags head urns sitting atop Portland stone pillars bearing Queen Victoria’s monograms at either end.
The gates were originally positioned as an entrance to the Great Exhibition and were known as the Queen’s Gate (due to their being through which Queen Victoria entered).
The gates were moved here from their original position during the construction of the Albert Memorial in 1871.
The now Grade II-listed gates were damaged by a bomb during World War II. They were restored in 2000.
This Week in London – Wren letter in the Painted Hall; art from America’s South; and, ‘Finding Family’ at the Foundling Museum…
• A letter written by Sir Christopher Wren requesting stone for the construction of the Royal Hospital for Seamen in Greenwich is on display in the Painted Hall vestibule. Wren wrote the letter requesting 2,000 tonnes of Portland stone to Thomas Gilbert, overseer of the King’s Quarries of the Isle of Portland, on 11th October, 1700. It is being displayed along with information explaining how the stone was brought from Dorset to London. The display is one of a series of events taking place at the Old Royal Naval College marking the 300th anniversary of Wren’s death on 25th February, 1723. Can be seen until January, 2024. An admission charge applies. For more, see https://ornc.org/whats-on/painted-hall-display-letter-written-by-sir-christopher-wren/. For more on events surrounding the 300th anniversary of Wren’s death, head to https://ornc.org/celebrating-wren300/.
• Slavery, the cruel segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era, and the civil rights movement in the southern United States are all explored in a new exhibition at the Royal Academy. Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers: Black Artists from the American South, features around 64 works – including assemblages, sculpture, paintings, reliefs, and drawings – by 34 artists spanning the period from the mid-20th century to the present. Drawn mostly from the collection of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia, many of the works are being seen in Europe for the first time. The display in the Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries also features quilts by the celebrated quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, and the neighbouring communities of Rehoboth and Alberta. Opening on Friday, the exhibition can be seen until 18th June. Admission charge applies. For more, see royalacademy.org.uk.
• Three masterpieces from The National Gallery’s collection – by Hogarth, Gainsborough and the Le Nain Brothers – have gone on show at The Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury as part of a new exhibition exploring what family is and can be. Finding Family examines the ways in which artists have represented and responded to ideas of family with reference to the historic paintings as well as contemporary works of art. The art is accompanied by creative writing created by participants in ‘Tracing Our Tales’ – the museum’s award-winning programme for young care leavers – who have responded to the exhibition’s themes. Opens on Friday and runs until 27th August. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/event/finding-family/.
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10 historic London homes that are now museums…8. Queen Charlotte’s Cottage…
A confession to begin – this property, located in Kew Gardens, was never actually a residence but instead was built as a country day retreat for the family of King George III at the behest of his wife Queen Charlotte.
The cottage, which features a thatched roof and half-timbered walls and dates from around 1772, is known as a cottage orné (decorated cottage).
Located in what’s described as “one of London’s finest bluebell woods” with parts of it more than 300-years-old, it was designed to be a place where the Queen and her growing family (the King and Queen would have 15 children) could enjoy picnics or take tea while on walks through the gardens during their summers at Kew.
Inside, the ground floor of the premises features two halls – one for the royal family on the left and another for servants on the right, each of which features a staircase leading to the first floor. In the centre of the ground floor is the Print Room, a small room hung with more than 150 satirical engravings including works by the famed James Gillray. There’s also a small kitchen.
On the upper floor is the Picnic Room which features two expansive recycled 17th century windows looking out to the garden and wall and roof paintings featuring trailing nasturtiums and convolvulus to give the appearance of a bower. The latter are thought to have been the work of Princess Elizabeth, generally viewed as the most artistic of King George III’s children.
Behind the cottage was a large paddock which was used to contain a growing menagerie of animals, no doubt to the delight of the royal children. Initially the occupants were Tartarian pheasants and oriental cattle but later it also housed a now extinct quagga (an animal similar to a zebra) and some of the first kangaroos to arrive in Britain (these were bred by the early 19th century, there were up to 18 of them). In 1806, the gardener was instructed to turn the paddock into a flower garden.
King George III was apparently fond of the cottage but he was last at Kew in 1806. It was used in 1818 following the double wedding of his sons, the Duke of Clarence (who became King William IV) and Edward, the Duke of Kent (father of Queen Victoria).
Queen Victoria rarely visited the cottage but had it maintained by a housekeeper. In 1889, the Queen gave the cottage to the public to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee.
The Grade II* cottage is these days managed by Historic Royal Palaces.
WHERE: Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, the south-west corner of, Kew Gardens (nearest Tube station is Kew Gardens); WHEN: Cottage is open from 4th April from 11.30am to 3.30pm on weekends and bank holidays; COST: (entry to Kew Gardens) £21.50 adults/£10 students/children £5 (discounts apply for advance bookings); WEBSITE: www.kew.org.
LondonLife – Buses on Piccadilly…
This Week in London – St Patrick’s Day returns; London’s first female mayor and Welsh thinker honoured with Blue Plaques; and, ‘Seeing the Light’ at the Foundling Museum…
• London’s annual St Patrick’s Day Parade will be held on Sunday with more than 50,000 people expected to take part. The festivities will kick off at noon with a spectacular parade featuring Irish marching bands, dancers and pageantry which will wind its way from Green Park through Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square. From noon until 6pm, Trafalgar Square will feature performances from the likes of Sharon Shannon & Band, Celaviedmai, The Craicheads, Celtic Youth Orchestra, Biblecode Sunday’s, and AIS as well as the Maguire O’Shea School of Dance and spoken word artist Leon Dunne. There will also be family-friendly workshops run by Irish youth creative programme Junk Kouture, a selection of food and drinks stalls including demonstrations by celebrity chef Anna Haugh and stalls where you can learn about Irish culture and community staffed by representatives of the Irish Cultural Centre, London Irish Centre, Irish in Britain, Irish Film London and London Gaelic Athletic Association. For more, check out www.london.gov.uk/events/st-patricks-festival-2023.
• London’s first female mayor, Ada Salter, and Welsh philosopher and preacher Dr Richard Price have both been honoured with English Heritage Blue Plaques. A social reformer and activist, Salter became mayor of Bermondsey in 1922 and so became the first female mayor of a London borough as well as the first Labour woman to be elected as a mayor in Britain. The plaque has been placed on 149 Lower Road in Rotherhithe, the Women’s House of the Bermondsey Settlement where Salter lived in the late 1890s. Price, meanwhile, is considered to be one of the greatest Welsh thinkers of all time and, as well as a preacher and philosopher, was also a pioneer of actuarial science. A plaque has been placed on a red brick house at 54 Newington Green which dates from 1658 and is believed to be the oldest surviving terrace in London. Price, who was born 300 years ago this year, lived in the house from 1758 to 1787 and while there wrote letters to the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson with whom he enjoyed close friendships. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/.
• Joseph Wright’s painting A Philosopher Giving That Lecture on the Orrery in Which a Lamp is Put in Place of the Sun has gone on show at the Foundling Museum. The painting is at the heart of Seeing the Light, an exhibition which explores the connections between Wright, who hailed from Derby, his large network of friends and acquaintances, and key people in the Foundling Hospital’s history as well as objects in the museum’s collection. This includes the story of the founding of the Lunar Society. Admission charge applies. Runs until 4th June. For more, see https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/event/seeing-the-light/.
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10 historic London homes that are now museums…7. Sambourne House…
The former home of famed Victorian illustrator and photographer Edward Linley Sambourne, this property at 18 Stafford Terrace in Kensington has been preserved as a museum.
Sambourne, famed for, among other things, the cartoons he produced for Punch magazine, moved into the property in 1875, shortly after his marriage to Marion Herapath in 1874, and the couple, who would have two children – Roy and Maud – lived there for the rest of their lives.
After moving in, Linley, inspired by the grand houses of his artistic friends in the so-called Holland Park circle such as Nick Fildes, Marcus Stone and Colin Hunter, set about redecorating the property in what was then the popular Aesthetic style. He installed stained glass windows, Morris & Co wallpapers and Chinese ceramic vases and over the next 35 years purchased ceramics and furnishings specifically for the property.
While Sambourne adopted many of Aesthetic elements in his decorative scheme such as the stylised motifs inspired by nature and the muted colour palette, he didn’t particularly follow the style’s call for restraint and the house quickly became home to a growing collection of furnishings and objects (in fact an inventory take in 1877, just two years after the couple moved in, shows the home already contained more than 50 vases, 70 chairs and around 700 framed pictures).
Sambourne, who was said to have been “skilled at making a great show on a limited budget”, couldn’t afford to create a purpose-built studio and worked in various parts of the house, initially in the morning room, which he had extended to meet his needs, and later in the upstairs drawing room. After their daughter Maud married and left the property, he converted the former nursery on the top floor into a studio.
After the deaths of Linley in 1910 and Marion in 1914, their bachelor son Roy moved in and lived there until his own death in 1946. The house then passed to Maud (now Maud Messel), although she didn’t live there, and on her death passed to her daughter Anne Messel.
Anne had married Ronald Armstrong Jones in 1925 and then, following a divorce, Michael Parsons, sixth Earl of Rosse in 1935, giving her the title of Countess of Rosse. She inherited the house in 1960 – the same year her son Antony married Princess Margaret and received the title of Earl of Snowdon.
Lady Rosse, who had proposed the house be preserved as it had been in Linley’s day, subsequently negotiated the sale of the property to the Greater London Council in 1980 and in turn it was leased to the Victorian Society, which she had co-founded in 1957. It was subsequently opened as a museum.
In 1989, after the Greater London Council was abolished, ownership of the house transferred to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (the lease to the Victorian Society meanwhile, ended in 2000). In 2022, the house, now Grade II*-listed, was re-opened to the public after a significant renovation and refurbishment project.
Alongside the decor, furnishings and ceramics, the house displays a number of the cartoons Sambourne drew for Punch as well as drawings he did for other projects, such as Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies, and some of his collection of more than 30,000 photographs used to aid his production of cartoons (not all of which apparently are suitable for public consumption). Sambourne’s “detective camera” which allowed him to photograph subjects surreptitiously is also there.
WHERE: Sambourne House, 18 Stafford Terrace (nearest Tube stations are Kensington (Olympia) and High Street Kensington); WHEN: 10am to 5:30pm, Wednesday to Sunday; COST: £11 adult/£9 concession/£5 child (six to 18-years-old/five and under free); WEBSITE: www.rbkc.gov.uk/museums/sambourne-house
LondonLife – Van de Veldes inspiration at Greenwich…
British artist Finn Campbell-Notman has been named as the winner of the Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year for his creation of a contemporary seascape inspired by the work of 17th century marine painters, Willem van de Velde the Elder and his son, Willem van de Velde the Younger. Campbell-Notman’s work, Fail We May, Sail We Must, has gone on display at the Queen’s House in Greenwich which is currently hosting the new exhibition, The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea. The new painting was inspired by Campbell-Notman’s personal experience as he found out more about the Van de Veldes while travelling in The Netherlands. “My approach to landscape painting is that a painting is rarely, if ever, a direct transcription from a single view, even those painted en plein air,” Campbell-Notman said in a statement. “One composes and constructs, simplifies, rearranges and perhaps adds certain elements to create a picture. The finished painting is thus a record of a dialogue with what is seen and what is reflected within and want I to transmit; between what is seen and what is felt.” For more, see www.rmg.co.uk/queens-house.
Treasures of London – The Jewel Tower’s vaulted chamber…
Located in the ground floor of Westminster’s three-storied Jewel Tower is a fine 14th-century ribbed vault, described as an “architectural masterpiece”.
The room is believed to have been constructed, along with the rest of the building, in the 1360s to the designs of master mason Henry de Yevele.
Located in the south-west corner of Old Palace Yard, the tower was originally used as a personal treasure-house for King Edward III and was known as the King’s Privy Wardrobe. Later it was used to house government documents and in 1869 became the Weights and Measures Office.
It is one of few surviving buildings from the medieval Palace of Westminster (the rest having been destroyed in the fire of 1834).
The vaulted chamber incorporates tiercerons – ribs set between the transverse and diagonal ribs to form simple fans and also features a series of sculpted bosses.
Made in Reigate stone, these depict human and mythical animal heads, as well as intertwined pairs of eagles and swans and plant designs. It is believed the bosses were once whitened.
The west wall of the chamber features the remains of a fireplace while the main window reveal is medieval (although the window itself dates from the 18th century).
The property, which is under the care of English Heritage, is not to be confused with the Jewel House at the Tower of London.
WHERE: The Jewel Tower, Abingdon Street, Westminster, (nearest Tube stations are Westminster and St James’s Park); WHEN: 10am to 4pm on weekends; COST: £6 adults/£3.60 children (aged five to 17 years)/£5.30 concession; family tickets available; WEBSITE: www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/jewel-tower/
This Week in London – The Van de Veldes at the Queen’s House; Young V&A to open in July; Roman pottery kiln to return to Highgate Wood; and, welcome to ‘Kyiv Road’…
• The work of 17th century marine painters Willem van de Velde the Elder and Willem van de Velde the Younger is the subject of a new exhibition at the Queen’s House in Greenwich – the location of a studio King Charles II granted to them. The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea features the newly conserved painting, A Royal Visit to the Fleet, which they worked on in their studio at the Queen’s House in the 1670s and which, at almost four metres across, was the largest seascape Van de Velde the Younger had painted to date (pictured after conservation above). Also on show is the The Burning of the Royal James at the Battle of Solebay, 28 May 1672, otherwise known as The Solebay Tapestry and originally one of six, along with a selection of some of the more than 1,400 drawings from the National Maritime Museum’s collection. The exhibition, which is free to visit, runs until 14th January, 2024. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk/van-de-velde.
• The Young V&A will open on 1st July following a three year transformation project, it was announced this week. Formerly known as the V&A Museum of Childhood, the Bethnal Green institution will display “remarkable and optimistic stories of children’s ingenuity” alongside 2,000 works from the V&A’s collection of art, design, and performance. Features will include an interactive Minecraft installation, murals by street artist Mark Malarko, tech solutions created for Raspberry Pi’s Coolest Projects, and, a display of portraits by photographer Rehan Jamil capturing young people expressing what creativity means to them and set alongside self-portraits by the likes of Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Quentin Blake, Kenneth Branagh, Dapo Adeola, and Linda McCartney. Also announced was the first exhibition at the new facility – Japan: Myths to Manga – which will open on 14th October. For more, see vam.ac.uk/young.
•The most complete Roman pottery kiln ever found in Greater London is going on display in a visitor centre at Highgate Wood from September next year. The kiln, which was excavated from the wood in Haringey in the 1960s and 1970s, has been in storage beneath Bruce Castle Museum. But thanks to a £243,550 grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to charity Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln, it will be returned for public display. The kiln is said to be one of the best-preserved Roman pottery kilns found in the UK and is thought to be the last one built by Roman potters who worked in Highgate Wood between 50CE to 160CE to supply Londinium and south-east England with distinctive ‘Highgate Ware’ pottery.
• A small section of Bayswater Road has been renamed Kyiv Road to mark the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The new road name was installed last Friday on the road which runs from Palace Court to Ossington Street and is located not far from the Russian Embassy. Councillor Adam Hug, leader of Westminster City Council, said the request for the new name came from the Ukrainian community. “Westminster is home to Ukrainians displaced by the war, and our residents have opened their hearts and their doors to those fleeing Putin’s war machine,” he said in a statement. “As the centre of an international capital, it seemed to us entirely fitting that part of our City should carry a torch for the unbowed defenders of Ukraine. It’s a small stretch of road, but we want to show the people of Ukraine that their struggle has a visible place in our city.”
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10 historic London homes that are now museums…6. Hogarth’s House…
Described as the “father of British painting”, 18th century artist William Hogarth bought this property in Chiswick at the height of his fame in 1749.
The property, which had been built between 1713 and 1717 and had previously been the country property of a pastor and his family, then located in what was a rural area and served as the Hogarths country home (they had an inner London home in Leicester Fields).
Hogarth extended the home and had a studio installed above a (now lost) coach house in the rear of the garden. As well as his wife Jane, occupants included Hogarth’s sister Anne and his mother-in-law.
Following Hogarth’s death in 1764 (Hogarth, who actually died in the Leicester Fields property, is buried in the nearby St Nicholas Church), Jane continued to live at the property and along with her cousin Mary Lewis, ran a business selling prints of her husband’s works. Mary inherited the house when Jane died in 1789 and remained there until her own death in 1808.
The house, which features three stories and an attic, subsequently passed through various hands including, from 1814 to 1833, Rev Henry Francis Cary, who translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (and counted literary luminaries such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Charles Lamb as friends). It was sold for redevelopment in 1901 and, following a failed campaign by artists and writers to buy the house, it was purchased by Chiswick resident, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert William Shipway.
Drawing on the help of the architect Frederick William Peel and Hogarth’s biographer, Henry Austin Dobson, he had the house restored and turned into a museum, installing a collection of the artist’s works and commissioning replica furniture based on images in Hogarth’s prints (he even personally took photographs for a guidebook).
The house opened to the public in 1904 and in 1909 Shipway gave the house to Middlesex County Council. Its ownership passed to Hounslow Council when Middlesex County Council was abolished in 1965.
It was damaged by in September, 1940, during World War II after a parachute mine detonated nearby but was repaired and reopened in 1951. A single storey extension to the property was rebuilt at the time to provide a space for exhibitions.
The now-Grade I-listed property’s interior was refurbished for the tercentenary of Hogarth’s birth in 1997 and again in 2011. A further project in 2020 known as the Mulberry Garden Project – funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund – added the Weston Studio for learning and activities, but also re-landscaped and reinterpreted the garden to highlight historic planting and themes.
The house and garden are currently managed by London Borough of Hounslow.
Inside, the house continues to show Hogarth’s artistic output including such famous engraving series as A Harlot’s Progress, A Rake’s Progress and Marriage à-la-mode. The house also contains some of the replica furniture commissioned by Shipway.
In the garden is a Mulberry tree believed to be the last survivor of an orchard first established on the site in the 1670s.
There’s a statue of Hogarth and his famous pug dog, Trump, located in Chiswick High Road.
WHERE: Hogarth’s House, Hogarth Lane, Great West Road, Chiswick (nearest Tube station is Turnham Green while nearest Overground is Chiswick Station); WHEN: 12pm to 5pm Tuesday to Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays; COST: Free; WEBSITE: https://hogarthshouse.org.
LondonLife – Cycling in Clapham…
This Week in London – Freud’s antiquities; how design can help the aging; and, new home for the Migration Museum…
• Sigmund Freud’s collection of ancient antiquities and books inspired by them are the subject of a new exhibition at the Freud Museum London in Hampstead. Freud’s Antiquity: Object, Idea, Desire, which opens Saturday, explores the crucial role the collection played Freud’s development of the concepts and methods of psychoanalysis. The display, which is co-curated by Professor Miriam Leonard of UCL, Professor Daniel Orrells of Kings College London, and Professor Richard Armstrong, of the University of Houston, discusses six separate aspects of Freudian theory alongside representative objects from the collection and spans his entire psychoanalytic career from 1896 to 1939. Alongside the physical objects is a comprehensive digital multimedia resource, containing video recordings, podcasts, photographs of rarely seen objects from the collection, and a list of suggested reading. A series of events accompanies the exhibition. Runs until 16th July. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.freud.org.uk/exhibitions/freuds-antiquity-object-idea-desire/.
• A new display at the Design Museum will showcase how cutting-edge design can help people live “more independently, sustainably and healthily but also with joy and fulfilment” as they age. Designing for our Future Selves, which opens on Friday, follows on from last Future of Ageing exhibition and will feature 10 design initiatives currently being developed by Design Age Institute and its partners which aim to positively impact the way we live and work as we grow older. The exhibition is free to visit. Runs until 26th March. For more, head here.
• A permanent home for the Migration Museum, currently based in Lewisham, will be built in the Square Mile following planning approval this week. The new facility at 65 Crutched Friars will be located in a 21-storey building and will consist of three floors featuring space for exhibitions and events, a cafe and a shop. The City of London Corporation said the developer had agreed to provide the museum space rent-free for 60 years and to cover its operating costs for three years, and has also donated £500,000 to support its fund-raising campaign.
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LondonLife – Somerset House goes for a ‘Whorl’…
A new art installation – Jitish Kallat’s Whorled (Here After Here After Here) – has been unveiled at Somerset House. The work, located in the Edmond J Safra Fountain Court, is more than 30 metres in diameter and comprises two intersecting spirals that represent a “seismic ripple” or a galactic whorl which spirals outwards from the centre of the courtyard. The work, which draws upon sacred geometry and alchemical diagrams, features two 168 metre scrolls which follows the visual language of UK motorway signage. As visitors walk through the spirals, they are taken on a journey past signs indicating the distance from Somerset House to more than 300 locations across the planet and beyond including celestial bodies, such as the Moon, Mars, and distant stars in the Milky Way. The installation is free to see until 23rd April.
This Week in London – Boleyn ring at Hampton Court; and, Status Quo at the Barbican…
• A gold signet ring once believed to have belonged to the Tudor-era Boleyn family has gone on display at Hampton Court Palace. The ring, was discovered in a field near Shurland Hall on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, the country home of one of Anne Boleyn’s cousins and a property she visited with King Henry VIII. It is engraved with with a bull’s head – which appears in the arms of the Boleyn family (a visual pun on the family name, which was often spelled as ‘Bullen’) – and arrayed with sunbeams and stars of white enamel as well as being decorated with icons of the Virgin and Child and St Catherine of Alexandria on its shoulders. Analysis concluded the ring was consistent with objects of the early Tudor era, leading historians to suggest that it may have belonged to either Thomas or George Boleyn – Anne Boleyn’s father and brother. The ring, which was purchased by Historic Royal Palaces with support from the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Art Fund, the Meakins Family and John Harding, under the terms of the Treasure Act 1996, can be seen in the Great Hall. Included in general admission. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/.
• One of the UK’s most successful rock bands, Status Quo, are the subject of a new exhibition at the Barbican Music Library. Celebrating Seven Decades of Status Quo is the first ever public exhibition on the band and features never-before-seen material including the original handwritten lyrics to Caroline and Down Down as well as tour posters, photographs and more than 40 of the bands key albums. The display is a collaboration between Paul and Yvonne Harvey, who ran the band’s official fan club, ‘From The Makers Of…’ (FTMO), and Status Quo fan and collector Andy Campbell. Status Quo was formed in 1962 and has since had more than 60 chart hits as well as opening the LIVE AID concert in Wembley in July, 1985, and receiving a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 1991. Runs until 22nd May. Admission is free. For more, see www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/libraries/barbican-music-library.
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