LondonLife – Regent Street curve…
Areas of London
10 Questions – Dr Louise Devoy, senior curator at the Royal Observatory Greenwich…
Exploring London spoke to Dr Louise Devoy about her role at the observatory, her new book, Royal Observatory Greenwich: A History in Objects, and her “must-see” for those visiting the observatory…
How long have you worked as senior curator at the Royal Observatory Greenwich and what was your pathway into the job?
“I’ve been working here for 12 years now and it’s been quite a journey! I originally studied physics with astrophysics at the University of Leicester and intended to continue with scientific research but my ideas changed after an inspirational internship working at a museum in the US. I really enjoyed learning about the history of astronomy – how our ideas have changed over time and the incredible stories of the people who were involved – and I continued my studies in the history of science. I’ve since worked at the Science Museum and British Museum and came here in 2013.”
Have you always been interested in astronomy?
“Yes, I have vivid memories of building a space rocket in primary school from cereal packets and yogurt pots that quite literally fired my imagination! I’ve still got The Night Sky Ladybird book that I bought and later in my teens my parents kindly bought me a telescope so I could learn more about practical astronomy. I don’t have much time for stargazing these days but I’ve recently purchased a compact smart telescope that you can put in your hand luggage and I’m looking forward to taking it on my travels.”
What does your job at the Royal Observatory entail?
“My job consists of two main parts; one based on research and one focused on communication. As a curator, I’m responsible for doing research on our collections, identifying objects for display and collaborating with researchers from other museums and observatories. Once I’ve done the detective work, I like to share these ideas and stories with our visitors through displays, talks and writing books and articles.”
What’s your favourite part of the day at the Observatory?
“For me, I enjoy seeing the sunset as I’m leaving the office, especially as the lights start to come on across London and you get a great view of the city from our hilltop location. It also makes me smile that sunset means going home for me, whereas for Greenwich astronomers in the past, it would have been the start of their working ‘day’!”
What prompted the writing of the book?
“It’s difficult to say but I definitely remember working on this during lockdown in 2020 and being inspired by similar books such as Neil MacGregor’s A History of the World in 100 Objects. Most books about the history of the Royal Observatory focus on the story of longitude, John Harrison’s marine timekeepers and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but I wanted to show how the Observatory has a much broader, richer history that encompasses many more people, subjects, stories and objects.
How did you decide which objects to feature in the book?
“I knew that we would be celebrating our 350th anniversary in 2025 and so I decided to choose objects that spanned the full chronology from 1675. I also wanted to expand the scope beyond the well-known clocks and telescopes to include books, paintings, manuscripts, watercolours, and even items of clothing previously worn by the Astronomer Royal and his family. In addition, I selected a few mystery objects to give me a good excuse to dig into the archives and piece together their stories.”
Do you have a favourite among them?
“I really like the story of the hole punch from the 1840s because it’s indicative of the paperwork and number-crunching that is an important but often overlooked aspect of astronomy. Once astronomers have done their observations, they have to apply mathematical corrections (‘reductions’) to account for atmospheric effects that might affect the results. It’s very tedious, repetitive work that was traditionally done by teenage boys known as ‘computers’. The seventh Astronomer Royal, George Biddell Airy (1801–1892) tried to make the process more efficient and less prone to errors by creating a template known as a ‘skeleton form’. The system worked well but generated vast amounts of paper, leading Airy to design a hole punch to organise the work. He was so proud of his idea that he encouraged other observatories to do the same and that’s why you’ll find another example of this hole punch over 8,000 miles away at the South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town. Airy invented his hole punch several decades before the standard office hole punch was patented, making our gadget one of the oldest in the world!”
What did you learn during the process of writing the book that you didn’t already know about the history of the Royal Observatory?
“The story of the secret binocular testing during the First World War really surprised me. The Observatory had already been involved in testing chronometers – portable, accurate timekeepers for navigation at sea – since the 1820s but the binocular testing was a new task. For security reasons, it was not mentioned in the Observatory’s Annual Reports and remained an unknown story for decades. I was intrigued by a one-line mention to it in the archives and dug a little further to uncover the full facts.”
Subscribe for just £3 a month to see all of Exploring London’s content – including the answers to the final two questions…
10 places to encounter London’s animal life…8. Epping Forest…
This 6,000 acre woodland and pasture habitat, located on the north-eastern outskirts of London, is famous for its ancient and veteran trees – numbering almost 55,000 – but is also home to a range of wildlife.
Subscribe for £3 a month to access all of our articles (and support our work!)…
LondonLife – Rush hour, Poplar…
London pub signs – The Lord Clyde, Borough…
This Borough pub’s name comes from 19th century Field Marshall Colin Campbell Clyde (Lord Clyde).
Clyde (1792-1863) was a Scottish carpenter’s son who joined the military at age 16 and fought in many campaigns during the first half of the 19th century including the Peninsular War of 1808-1814, the War of 1812 in the United States, the First Opium War in China in 1842, and in India during the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1848-49.
During the Crimean War, Clyde led the Highland Brigade at the Battle of the Alma and repulsed the Russian attack on Balaclava. He become Commander-in-Chief, India, during the Indian Mutiny in 1857 and relieved the siege of Lucknow in India the same year.
Clyde was raised to the peerage in 1858. Her died in Chatham on 14th August, 1863, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
A pub was first erected on the site at 27 Clennam Street (on the corner with Ayers Street) at the time of his death in 1863 by brewers in East London (originally known as the Black Eagle Brewery, the name Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co – which appears on the pub’s exterior – was being used for the brewery by 1889).
It was rebuilt in 1913 – the present frontage dates from that period – and is now Grade II-listed thanks to its architecture, which exemplifies the development of the ‘house style’ in pub architecture of the early 20th century.
The signage on the pub depicts Lord Clyde wearing the insignia of the Knight Commander of the Bath, an honour he was awarded in 1849 for his services in the Sikh War. There is a statue of him in Waterloo Place in London.
For more, head to https://www.facebook.com/lordclydeborough/.
This Week in London – Lee Miller at the Tate; the Hallelujah Chorus’ origins and impact, and conkers on Hampstead Heath…
• The UK’s largest retrospective of trail-blazing 20th century surrealist photographer Lee Miller opens at Tate Britain today. Lee Miller features around 230 vintage and modern prints, some of which are on display for the first time, which reveal how her approach pushed boundaries and led to the creation of some of the most iconic images of last century. Highlights include the newly discovered solarisation exemplar, Sirène (Nimet Eloui Bey) (c1930-32), her celebrated surrealist image of Egypt’s Siwa Oasis, Portraitof Space (1937), London-based works such as You will not lunch in Charlotte Street today (1940) and Fire Masks(1941) which convey the “pathos and absurdity” of the city in wartime, and war-related images including portraits of Miller and David E Scherman in Hitler’s private bath in April, 1945, as well as a rare 1950 self-portrait showing Miller posed in Oskar Kokoschka’s London studio flanked by artworks. Runs until 15th February. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/lee-miller
• The initial and enduring impact of the Hallelujah Chorus is the subject of a new display at the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury. A Grand Chorus explores the profound impact music can have on listeners and performers and brings together musical scores, librettos, and musical instruments as well as paintings, photographs, audio, video, personal testimonies, and other archival material spanning three centuries. Originallycomposed as part of his famous Messiah oratorio, George Frideric Handel later incorporated the Hallelujah Chorus into an anthem he created speciallyfor the Foundling Hospital that premiered in 1749 as a fund-raising exercise. The exhibition also showcases a major sound and video installation byMikhail Karikis – We are Together Because (2025), described as a modern counterpart to the Hallelujah Chorus. Runs until 29th March. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/event/a-grand-chorus-the-power-of-music/.
• Swing a conker at the Hampstead Heath Conker Championships this Sunday. People are all ages are invited to join in, whether a conker veteran or a newcomer, with competitions held in a range of age categories. The competition is being held near the Parliament Hill Bandstand from 1pm to 4pm. Entry is free. For more, see www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/events/go-conkers-on-hampstead-heath-5-october.
Send all items for inclusion to exploringlondon@gmail.com
10 places to encounter London’s animal life…7. Kew Gardens…
Famous for it’s flora, Kew Gardens is also home to some unusual animal life including Chinese water dragons who live in the warm environments of the glasshouses.
See all of our content (and support our work) for just £3 a month…
Other animals in the gardens include foxes, hedgehogs and birds including green and great-spotted woodpeckers, mute swans, Canada geese, mallards, ring-necked parakeets, kingfishers, tawny owls, moorhens, and stock doves.
And, of course, the gardens are home to a myriad of insects including bees, butterflies and dragonflies as well as aquatic life including frogs, newts and fish.
WHERE: Kew Gardens (nearest Tube station is Kew Gardens); WHEN: 10am to 7pm (last entry 6pm) daily; COST: £25 adults/£8 children 16 and under (children under four free) (cheaper tickets for online bookings and during off-peak period from 1st November to 31st January); WEBSITE: www.kew.org.
LondonLife – Screen characters set a new record in Greenwich…
It’s official, a new Guinness World Record was set in Greenwich on the weekend when some 874 people gathered at the Old Royal Naval College on Saturday dressed as their favourite characters from the big (and little) screen. The Old Royal Naval College team partnered with Elstree Studios for the event, part of the festivities being held to mark 100 years of film and TV at the site, which featured everyone from Stormtroopers to Jack Sparrow, Batman to characters from Bridgerton and Sherlock Holmes. The record, which was verified by Guinness, is officially known as the ‘largest gathering of people dressed as screen characters’.
This Week in London – Guildhall Library marks 600 years; the David Bowie Centre opens; the Chelsea History Festival; and returning to the Blitz Club…
• Guildhall Library is celebrating its 600th anniversary with a new exhibition. The display, which can be seen for free at the library, looks at the founding of the original library in 1425, what a medieval library would have looked like and what books it would have included as well as links with the library as it is today. Runs until 30th December. For more, see www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/history-and-heritage/guildhall-library/information-and-enquiries/visit-guildhall-library.
• David Bowie’s final, unrealised musical projects – The Spectator, an unseen Ziggy Stardust guitar, and Bowie’s costume designs are just some of the treasures housed in the new David Bowie Centre which opened to the public this month. Located at the V&A East Storehouse in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the new home for David Bowie’s archive features nine displays show-casing more than 200 items which also include handwritten lyrics, photography, costumes and sketches. As well as seeing the displays, visitors can book one-on-one time with some of the 90,000-plus objects in the archive through the ‘Order an Object’ service. More than 500 items were requested in the first week of the service going live with a frockcoat designed by Alexander McQueen and David Bowie for his 50th birthday concert in 1997 the most frequently requested item. Entry to the archive is free, but ticketed. For more, including bookings, see www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/david-bowie-centre.
• The annual Chelsea History Festival kicked off yesterday with more than 80 events taking place until Sunday. Events include tours of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and the chance to visit the Soane Stable Yard, the free exhibition Lost and Found in Hong Kong: The Unsung Chinese Heroes at D-Day at the hospital, walking tours including ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Chelsea’ and ‘1960s Chelsea’, and a medicinal trees tour at the Chelsea Physic Garden. For the full programme head here.
• A major exhibition on the Blitz club – which helped shape London’s culture not only in the mid-1980s but in the decades that followed – has opened at the Design Museum in Kensington High Street. Located in a Covent Garden side street, the club is credited with having “transformed 1980s London style”, generating a creative scene that had an enormous impact on popular culture in the following decade. Blitz: The Club that Shaped the 80s features more than 250 items including clothing and accessories, design sketches, musical instruments, flyers, magazines, furniture, artworks, photography, vinyl records and rare film footage. Runs until 29th March. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/blitz-the-club-that-shaped-the-80s.
Send all items to exploringlondon@gmail.com.
Famous Londoners – Obaysch the hippo…
Given our current series on London’s animal life, we thought it an opportune time to take a look at another of London’s most famous animals – in this case a hippopotamus called Obaysch.
Obaysch had been living near (and named for) an island in the River Nile in Egypt. He was gifted by the Ottoman Viceroy, Abbas Pasha, to the British Consul General, Sir Charles Murray (who became known as “Hippopotamus Murray” due to his affection for the animal).
Transported via a steamer to Southampton, he arrived at London Zoo in Regent’s Park on 25th May, 1850.
Said to have been the first hippo to be brought to Europe since the days of the Roman Empire, Obaysch soon gained the status of a celebrity at London Zoo with Queen Victoria among the thousands who came to see him (she apparently compared his swimming technique to that of a porpoise) in a craze that became known as “hippomania”.
In 1854, Obaysch was joined by a female hippo Adhela, also known as ‘Dil’, (again as a gift of the Viceroy) who was the first living female hippo in Europe since, you guessed it, Roman times.
In 1860, Obaysch escaped from the hippo enclosure and was only lured back to his enclosure by using one of the zookeepers whom he apparently particularly disliked as bait.
The zoo hoped the pair of hippos would breed but it wasn’t until 1871 that they first became the parents of a baby who sadly, didn’t survive.
Two more babies followed and the second of these, born in November, 1872, and named Guy Fawkes despite subsequently being found to be a female, became the first captive bred hippo to be reared by its mother.
Obaysch died on 11th March, 1878 and Adhela four years later on 16th December, 1882. Guy Fawkes died in March, 1908.
This Week in London – Marie Antoinette; ‘Theatre Picasso’, ‘Exploring Space’ at the Science Museum; and Talk Like A Pirate Day…
• The UK’s first exhibition to focus on the French Queen, Marie Antionette, opens at the V&A on Saturday. Marie Antoinette Style explores the dress and interiors adopted by the Queen, an early modern “celebrity”, during the final decades of the 18th century. It features some 250 objects including loans from Versailles which have never before been seen outside of France. There are personal items worn by the Queen including fragments of court dress, her silk slippers and jewels from her private collection as well as items from the Queen’s dinner service at the Petit Trianon, accessories and intimate items from her toilette case and even recreated scents from the court and a perfume which was favoured by the Queen. There also contemporary couture pieces by designers such as Moschino, Dior, Chanel, Erdem, Vivienne Westwood and Valentino and costumes, including shoes, made for screen, such as for Sofia Coppola’s Oscar winning film Marie Antoinette. The exhibition can be seen in Galleries 38 and 39 until 22nd March. Admission charge applies. For more, see vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/marie-antoinette.
• Around 50 works by famed artist Pablo Picasso have been brought together for a new exhibition at the Tate Modern to mark the centenary of the artist’s work The Three Dancers (1925). Staged by contemporary artist Wu Tsang and write and curator Enrique Fuenteblanca, Theatre Picasso explores aspects of performance in his works and features the Tate’s entire collection of Picassos which, alongside The Three Dancers, also includes Weeping Woman (1937) and Nude Woman in a Red Armchair (1932). There are also loans from key museums in France as well as prints, drawings, sculptures, textile works and collages. These include the wool and silk tapestry Minotaur (1935) which is being displayed in the UK for the first time. Accompanying the works is Henri-George Clouzot’s 1959 film The Mystery ofPicasso. Admission charge applies. Runs until 12th April. For more, see
• A new free gallery revealing the stories behind space exploration opens at the Science Museum in South Kensington on Saturday. The gallery – Exploring Space – showcases iconic items from the history of space exploration including a chunk of Moon rock nicknamed ‘Great Scott’ which was collected in 1971, the Soyuz TMA-19M descent module that carried astronaut Tim Peake, and the Sokol KV-2 rescue suit worn by Helen Sharman in 1991. There are also new technologies from the space sector including prototype electric propulsion technology from Magdrive and the ‘rolly-polly’ LEV-2 Moon rover, the result of the first collaboration between a space agency (JAXA) and a toy company (Takara Tomy). For more, see www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/space.
• “Ahoy me hearties!” It’s International Talk Like A Pirate Day on Friday and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich is celebrating from Friday across the weekend with talks about everything from Barbary corsairs to sea shanties, character actors and two-for-one discounts on tickets to the Pirates exhibition. Visitors over the weekend who dress like a pirate will be in the chance to win prizes including Cutty Sark rig climb tickets, annual passes to the Old Royal Naval College, and a family tour of The Golden Hinde. And to brush-up on your pirate lingo, “Abbey-Lubber” means a lazy sailor avoiding work, and ‘Jack Ketch’ a hangman or executioner. For more, see rmg.co.uk/whats-on/national-maritime-museum/international-talk-pirate-day.
Send all items to exploringlondon@gmail.com.
10 places to encounter London’s animal life…5. Golders Hill Park Zoo…
Not to be confused with the much larger ZSL London Zoo, this small zoo in Golders Hill Park on the north-western side of Hampstead Heath is home to a number of exotic species including ring-tailed lemurs, red-necked wallabies and kookaburras.
Subscribe to get access
Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
LondonLife – Millennium Bridge bubbles…
What’s in a name?…Stockwell…
This district in the Borough of Lambeth in south London was formerly a rural manor located on the southern edge of London.
The name, variants of which date back to at least the late 12th century, is said to relate to the Old English words for a tree trunk – ‘stoc’ – and a well or spring, ‘wella’, and has been interpreted as meaning the well or spring by a tree stump, tree truck or perhaps a wood (there was apparently a Stockwell Wood which has long since disappeared).
The manor of Stockwell was formed at the end of the 13th century when King Edward I acquired the manor of South Lambeth and divided it into two, creating the manors of Stockwell and Vauxhall (the manor house itself, parts of which survived until the 19th century, stood on the north side of Stockwell Road).
The area become known for its market gardens and was transformed into an urban landscape until the mid-19th century. Remnants of the 19th century housing stock can still be found in areas including the Stockwell Park Conservation Area in the west of the district.
The area around Stockwell Tube station, which first opened in 1890 and has since been rebuilt a couple times, was heavily bombed during World War II and rebuilt following the war. New developments included a number of social housing estates.
Today, Stockwell and nearby South Lambeth host the district known as Little Portugal which, centred on South Lambeth Road, is home to one of the UK’s largest Portuguese communities. The area is also home to several other immigrant communities.
Local landmarks include the oldest surviving building in the area – St Andrew’s Church, Stockwell Green (built in 1767), the Stockwell Congregational Church (1798) and the Stockwell War Memorial.
The latter – a white stone tower – is located on a site first laid out in the 1920s and features a mural on an adjoining ventilation shelter commemorating French Resistance fighter Violette Szabo (there’s a Blue Plaque on her former home in Burnley Road) and other Stockwell residents who died in war. There is also the ‘Bronze Woman’ statue which was unveiled in 2008 as a tribute to Black Caribbean women.
Residents of Stockwell have included artist Arthur Rackham and pioneering theatre director Joan Littlewood as well as musician David Bowie (born in Stansfield Road), actors Joanna Lumley (who still lives there) and Roger Moore (born in Aldebert Terrace).
Tragically, Stockwell Tube station was where Brazilian man Jean Charles de Menezes was fatally shot by police on 22nd July, 2005, after being misidentified as one of four suicide bombers who were on the run after their devices had failed to detonate the previous day (the attempts had come just two weeks after the 7th July bombings in which more than 50 people had been killed).
Treasures of London – Coronation Stone, Kingston upon Thames…
This month marks the 1,100th anniversary of the coronation of the Saxon King Aethelstan, so we thought it fitting to recall the place of his coronation, believed to be the Coronation Stone at the heart of the south-west London Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.
Located outside the Guildhall, the now Grade I-listed stone is an ancient block of sarsen stone which was originally at a chapel, believed to have been wooden, on the edge of the town’s market place (close to the site of All Saints Church which originally dates from the 12th century).
Subscribe to access all of Exploring London’s content for just £3 a month.
This Week in London – Totally Thames kicks off; Black On The Square; and, ‘Rivers and Roads’…
• It’s September and that means Totally Thames – London’s annual month-long festival centred on the famous waterway – is underway. This year’s festival includes a packed programme of events which this weekend include the St Katharine Docks Classic Boat Festival, the Kingston River Cultures Festival, a mud-larking exhibition held in the ancient Roman amphitheatre under Guildhall Yard and a Victorian family day out at Crossness Pumping Station. Other highlights include a foreshore archaeology walk at Deptford (14th September), guided tours of the HMS Wellington (20th September), the month-long exhibition of winners and runners-up from the annual Thames Lens photography competition on the Riverside Walkway on the north bank near Millennium Bridge, and, of course, the annual Great River Race (on Saturday, 20th September). For more, head to https://thamesfestivaltrust.org/whats-on/.
• The contribution of Black Londoners is again being celebrated this weekend as Black On The Square returns to Trafalgar Square. The free, family-friendly festival, now in its third year features live music, dance, food and workshops and this year includes a focus on London’s nightlife under the theme ‘Intergenerate’ recognising Black Londoners’ contribution to electronic culture and night life and featuring Garage music producer and DJ Wookie. There will also be a series of stalls offering foods ranging from Caribbean classics to West African vegan bites and artisanal goods including jewellery, art, books, homeware and fashion with the ‘Accra to London’ stall offering a range of items influenced by Ghana’s capital city, Accra, a highlight. Runs from 12pm to 6pm on Saturday. For more, see https://www.london.gov.uk/events/black-square-2025.
• The Great West Road and the Thames have served as key routes into London since Roman times and they’re now the subject of a new exhibition at the Barbican Library. Rivers and Roads features the work of Brentford-based painter Helena Butler, who paints in a semi abstract style to capture the landscape and the feelings and images the local scenery inspires, and ceramic artist Anna Butler, who has produced a series in response to Alfred Noyes’ beloved poem The Shining Streets of London. Admission is free. Runs until 29th September. For more, see www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/events/rivers-and-roads-art-exhibition
Send all items for inclusion to exploringlondon@gmail.com.
10 places to encounter London’s animal life…3. WWT London Wetland Centre…
This year celebrating its 25th anniversary, the 105 acre site on the west bank of the River Thames at Barnes known as the WWT London Wetland Centre is a waterway-studded oasis not far from the heart of London.
Subscribe for just £3 a month to access all of our content and support our work at Exploring London!
The centre, which is managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (founded by Sir Peter Scott in the 1940s), first opened in 2000 on the site which had previously been home to several small reservoirs which had been there since the 1880s.
The reservoirs had been converted into wetland habitats (the work included removing an unexploded bomb from World War II), creating what was, at the time, the largest man-made wetland in any capital city. Sir David Attenborough, who has reportedly described the site as an “extra lung for Londoners”, officially opened the centre, initially known as the Barn Elms Wetland Centre.
In 2002, a significant area of the site – some 29 hectares (72 acres) – was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest by Natural England.
The site is home to a diverse range of wildlife including all manner of birdlife and insects as well as a couple of Asian short-clawed otters, the smallest of all 13 species of otters around the world, and a colony of water voles.
The wide variety of birdlife at the sanctuary – more than 250 species have been recorded – includes American wood ducks, white-faced whistling ducks, Hawaiian geese (nenes) and cranes as well as lapwings, common terns, pochards, sand martins, and reed warblers.
Insects found at the site include moths, dragonflies, crickets, grasshoppers and beetles and during summer months, two of Britain’s rarest bat species – the Leisler’s bat and Nathusius’ pipistrelle – are also often detected hunting over wetlands.
Along with six hides for watching and photographing the wildlife, the site also includes an adventure play area with a zip line, a water play area, a “mud kitchen”, a ‘Wild Walk’ featuring balance beams and bridges, and special pools for “pond dipping”.
The centre also boasts a discovery centre with interactive displays and a cafe. It holds a range of activities each week including walks, photography workshops and special tours, such as a British Sign Language tour.
WHERE: WWT London Wetland Centre, Queen Elizabeth Walk, Barnes (nearest railway station is Barnes Bridge); WHEN: 10am to 5:30pm daily (until the end of October); COST: Adults from £16.29/Junior (3-17 years) from £10.58/Family from £45.81; WEBSITE: www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/london
LondonLife – Murals, Hawley Street, Camden Town…
This Week in London – Wildlife Photographer of the Year is coming; ‘Vanishing Africa’; and, ‘Black Chiswick Though History’…
• Depicting a dramatic stand-off between a lion and a cobra in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Gabriella Comi’s impressive image is among the 60,636 entries, from across 113 countries and territories, received in the Natural History Museum’s 61st annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The competition’s category winners and the prestigious ‘Grand Title’ and ‘Young Grand Title’ awards will be announced on 14th October, 2025, after which, from 17th October, 100 of the images will go on show at the museum in South Kensington. Other images revealed this week include Amit Eshel’s portrait of an inquisitive pack of Arctic wolves and photographs of flamingoes, coyotes and red deer by emerging young photographers as young as nine-years-old. For more, see https://bit.ly/WPY61Exhibition.
• The Science Museum has launched a new online exhibition, Vanishing Africa, which features images by Kenyan-born photographer Mirella Ricciardi and reveal how much climate change is changing the continent. Taken in East Africa over two years in the 1960s, the photographs are a visual record of the Indigenous peoples of the region, including the Maasai, Samburu, Turkana, Orma, Pokot and Rendille people, and “capture a land of untamed wilderness, diverse wildlife, and Indigenous communities attuned to nature”, an East Africa which many no longer recognise. The exhibition has been published to celebrate the ‘UK/Africa Season of Culture’ and launches ahead of the international climate summit, COP30. To view it, head to www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/vanishing-africa-through-mirella-ricciardis-lens.
• On Now: Black Chiswick Through History. This project, launched in 2011, looks at how the history of Chiswick House is connected to Black history and people of colour. This year’s installation explores the life of 18th-century Chiswick House resident James Cumberlidge – one of the few people of African heritage in Britain whose likeness was captured and preserved for posterity – and traces his journey from page boy at Chiswick House to trumpeter in the Royal Court of King George III. There’s also a painting dating from the 1870s which depicts Queen Victoria attending a fashionable garden party right here at Chiswick House in July, 1875. Runs until 28th September. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://chiswickhouseandgardens.org.uk/event/visit-chiswick-house/.
Send all items for inclusion to exploringlondon@gmail.com.
10 places to encounter London’s animal life…2. Mudchute Park and Farm…
There are a number of “city farms” in London and one of the largest is Mudchute Park and Farm on the Isle of Dogs.
Exploring London 