Areas of London

This Week in London – Peru’s orchids celebrated at Kew; Brazilian Modernism at the Royal Academy; and a tribute to The Clash’s Joe Strummer…

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From a previous Orchid Festival at Kew Gardens which celebrated the biodiversity of Madagascar. PICTURE: © RBG Kew

• Kew Garden’s iconic orchid festival returns this Saturday with a Peruvian twist. The gardens’ 29th orchid festival explores some of the 3,000 species of orchids found in Peru’s varied landscapes. Inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory will be a floral recreation of the scenery of Peru including a cornucopia sitting on a grass island in the central pond which was inspired by Lake Titicaca and, in a smaller pond, floral parihuanas (flamingoes) stand proud in front of the iconic Machu Picchu. The display also includes the world’s largest bromeliad – Puya raimondii (commonly known as the Queen of the Andes) – which will be shown alongside floral sculptures inspired by the plant. The country’s diverse wildlife, meanwhile, is celebrated with an orchid aviary that brings to life the diverse bird populations of Peru, and visitors are welcomed by an alpaca bedecked in orchids. Visitors can also wander under a starry night sky adorned with dazzling allium flower heads, which will be recycled from Kew’s outdoor garden displays. There is also large-scale photography taken by celebrated Peruvian photographer Mariano Vivanco and new artworks created for the exhibition of Lima-born artist Gisella Stapleton. Runs until 2nd March. Admission charge applies (advance booking required). For more, see www.kew.org.

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• The diversity of 20th century Brazilian art is being celebrated in a new exhibition which opened at the Royal Academy this week. Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism features more than 130 works by 10 important Brazilian artists and spans the period from the 1910s to the 1970s. The artists include pioneers of Brazilian modernism such as Anita Malfatti, Vicente do Rego Monteiro, Jewish Lithuanian emigré Lasar Segall, Candido Portinari and Tarsilo do Amaral as well as self-taught artists such as Alfredo Volpu, Djaniro da Motta e Silva, Rupert Valentim, Geraldo de Barros, and the artist and architect Flávio de Carvalho. The exhibition also features a section dedicated to the historic Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, which took place at the Royal Academy in 1944 and was the first exhibition of modern Brazilian art in the UK. Runs until 21st April. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.royalacademy.org.uk.

• A “legacy stone” commemorating the former residence of musician and former lead singer of The Clash, Joe Strummer, has been unveiled in North Paddington. The stone was installed in the newly refurbished Maida Hill Market on the corner of Walterton Road, a location where Strummer, who died in 2002, squatted during the 1970s ( in fact, his address of 101 Walterton Road inspired the name for the band the 101ers). The stone is inscribed with lyrics sung by Strummer in the song Clampdown from The Clash’s 1979 album London Calling including “the future is unwritten” and “No man born with a living soul can be working for the clampdown”. The stone was installed as part of Westminster City Council project to revitalise the market and Market Hill Area.

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10 London mysteries – 7. The mysterious pyramid of St Anne’s Limehouse…

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On first glance, this stone pyramid standing in the churchyard of St Anne’s Limehouse appears to be a grave marker or tomb, albeit a rather unusual one.

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LondonLife – Never forget…

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10 Downing Street is lit to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January. PICTURE: Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street (licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as he attends a Holocaust Memorial Day event at the Guildhall . PICTURE: Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street (licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Prime Minister Keir Starmer poses for a photo with the Prince and Princes of Wales and survivors of the Holocaust as they attend a Holocaust Memorial Day event at the Guildhall. PICTURE: Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

London pub signs – The Ship Tavern, Holborn…

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This Holborn pub apparently has a history dating back to 1549.

It is believed to have been established to cater to farm labourers working in nearby Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

PICTURE: Edwardx (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

Its name, however, is said to be related to its proximity to the now-underground River Fleet which runs through Holborn and linked the area with the River Thames. It’s said that the pub’s clientele soon included dock workers and that it may have even had connections to smuggling and pirates. It was apparently these connections that gave the pub the name it still has today.

These days tucked down a narrow alleyway at 12 Gate Street in a building dating from 1923 (apparently considerably bigger than the original), the pub, which features wood panelled walls and leaded windows, has a storied history.

Having been established during the reign of King Edward VI, the pub is known to have provided a space for banned Catholic worship (complete with spotters to warn if officials were seen in the area and hiding places for the priests should the officials decide to raid the premises).

Indeed, the pub would have also served those who attended executions of Catholics such as Robert Morton and Hugh More who were executed in 1588 in the nearby Lincoln’s Inn Fields (other executions there included that of Anthony Babington, executed in 1586 after being convicted of plotting against Queen Elizabeth I, and Lord Russell, executed in 1683 for his involvement in the Rye House Plot).

Other clientele, meanwhile, may have come from the nearby thoroughfare of Whetstone Park which was once notorious for gambling houses and other illicit behaviours.

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The Ship also has Freemason connections, being officially consecrated as a Masonic Lodge in 1736 by the then-Grand Master, the Earl of Antrim.

Famous figures said to have been associated with this pub include Richard “Trusty Dick” Penderell, who aided Charles I’s escape after the Battle of Worcester in September, 1651, the antiquarian John Bagford, the French diplomat and spy Chevalier d’Eon who lived both as a man and, later in life, as a woman, and John Smeaton, the builder of a lighthouse once located at Eddystone in Cornwell. It’s even been suggested Shakespeare visited.

There’s also said to be a number supernatural clients at the pub with mysterious figures seen sitting at tables and glasses being moved around (it’s been suggested some of these relate to the persecution of Catholics on the site).

For more, visit theshiptavern.co.uk.

10 London mysteries – 6. The disappearance of Edward V and his brother Richard…

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The disappearance of King Edward V and his brother, Richard, Duke of York, after being last seen in the Tower of London is one of London’s most famous mysteries. And while it’s one we’ve written about before, we thought we’d take a look at the recent announcement that new evidence had been found in the matter.

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LondonLife – The ups and downs of life at Canary Wharf…

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PICTURE: Marc Kleen/Unsplash

What’s in a name?…Archway…

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This north London district in the London Borough of Islington owes its name to a bridge which straddles Archway Road (part of the Great North Road or A1).

The bridge’s origins go back to the early 19th century when work began on a 230 metre-long tunnel underneath Highgate Hill which would allow users to bypass the hill’s steep gradient. If completed, it’s said it would have been the earliest road tunnel in Britain.

But in April, 1812, the tunnel collapsed and a cutting through the hill, utilising the work done on the collapsed tunnel, was then proposed. It would become Archway Road.

Hornsey Lane, however, ran across the top of the hill linking Highgate to its west to Crouch End in the east, and to ensure the lane remained when the cutting was completed, it was decided to build a viaduct to carry the lane across the cutting.

The bridge over Archway Road (the A1) as it is today. PICTURE: Google Maps

The resultant structure was designed by none other than John Nash in the style of a Roman aqueduct and opened in 1813.

Archway Road, which ran underneath the arch, was operated as a toll road until 1871.

The bridge, meanwhile, was demolished in 1900 and replaced by a cast iron bridge, designed by Alexander Binnie, which still stands.

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The area was referred to as Highgate Archway but gradually the Highgate was dropped and plain Archway adopted.

This was reinforced by the naming of the Tube station in Junction Road which was originally named Highgate when it opened in 1907 as the terminus of the Northern Line but was renamed Archway (Highgate) in 1939 and then just Archway in 1947.

Landmarks in this predominantly leafy residential area include the Whittington Hospital, originally built as the Holborn Union Infirmary 1877-79, on Highgate Hill.

On a similar theme, the Whittington Stone can also be found at the bottom end of Highgate Hill. It is said to commemorate the spot where Dick Whittington, having decided to leave London after failing to make his fortune, heard the Bow Bells ringing and turned back (the stone is topped with a statue of Whittington’s famous cat).

The green expanse of Hampstead Heath lies just to the west.

This Week in London – New artworks on the Tube network; Boulle clocks at the Wallace Collection; and, see extinct-in-the-wild doves at London Zoo…

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• Transport for London has announced it will be unveiling four major new artworks on the Tube network this year as part of its Art on the Underground programme which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. The works include Saved by the Whale’s Tail, Saved by Art, a large-scale piece by artist Ahmet Öğüt in collaboration with New Contemporaries In Art which, to be unveiled at Stratford Underground station in March, explores the role art plays in everyday life. There’s also a new artwork by Hungarian-born American artist Agnes Denes which will be featured in a new pocket Tube map, a new audio work produced by artist and composer Rory Pilgrim with the Mayor of London’s Culture and Community Spaces at Risk (CCSaR) programme which will be heard at Waterloo Station in June and July, and, a new mural by Rudy Loewe which will be unveiled at Brixton Tube station in November. For more on Art on the Underground, see https://art.tfl.gov.uk.

Attributed to André-Charles Boulle, movement by Jean Jolly, Mantel clock (About 1715)/© The Trustees of the Wallace Collection 

• On Now: Keeping Time: Clocks by Boulle. This exhibition at the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square explores the art and science of timekeeping through a display of five pieces created by André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732). Boulle, the most famous cabinetmaker working for the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV (1638–1715), ended up giving his name to a style that featured elaborate veneer designs incorporating turtleshell, brass and other materials. The objects on show in the Housekeeper’s Room include a monumental wardrobe from 1715 that encloses a clock; two mantel clocks, one from around 1715 featuring Venus and Cupid, and another, from a decade later, with the figure of Father Time; as well as two pedestal clocks. A complementary display in the museum’s Billiard Room brings together two artworks as it explores the concept of time – The Dance to the Music of Time (about 1634-6) by Nicolas Poussin in which the Four Seasons dance to the song of Father Time, the composition of their rhythmic bodies echoing the workings of a clock movement, and The Borghese Dancers (1597–1656), where five female figures masquerade as the Hours, attendants to the goddesses of the Dawn and Moon. Runs until 2nd March. Free admission. For more, see www.wallacecollection.org.

Adult Socorro doves at London Zoo’s Blackburn Pavilion. PICTURE: © London Zoo

• London Zoo has welcomed three new Socorro doves as part of a global effort to breed and reintroduce them to the wild. The three doves, which moved from Portugal’s Lagos Zoo at the end of 2024, have joined six other Socorro doves at the zoo. The species, which is extinct in the wild, is endemic to the tiny Socorro Island off the coast of Mexico and the Socorro Dove Project, an international initiative, is working to reintroduce the species to the island by 2030. The Socorro doves can be seen in Blackburn Pavilion, London Zoo’s historic tropical birdhouse, which is also home to the endangered Sumatran laughingthrush, the critically endangered Bali starling and the critically endangered blue-crowned laughingthrush. For more, see www.londonzoo.org. 

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LondonLife – London, 1879…

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‘Street Scene in London 1879’, by Félix Hilaire Buhot (French, 1847–1898) France. PICTURE: Courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art/Unsplash

This Week in London – Natural History Museum scientists name new species; Ketna Patel at the Heath Robinson Museum; and, David Hoffman’s images of the East End…

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Interior of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. PICTURE: Michael D Beckwith/Unsplash

• A snake named after actor Leonardo DiCaprio, fossilised dung named after the author of Winnie the Pooh and a piranha named after Sauron, the evil Lord of the Rings figure, are among 190 new species named by London’s Natural History Museum scientists in 2024. The Anguiculus dicaprioi, or DiCaprio’s Himalayan snake, was named after DiCaprio while Alococopros milnei is a fossilised dung named after AA Milne in recognition of Winnie the Pooh (get it?) and a vegetarian piranha, or pacu, was named Myloplus sauron due to its resemblance to JRR Tolkien’s Eye of Sauron. Other newly named species included a new dinosaur from the Isle of Wight, now known as Comptonatus chasei, which was named for fossil hunter, Nick Chase, and a new species of pterosaur which was named Ceoptera evansae. For more on the museum, see www.nhm.ac.uk.

• The work of British-Indian artist Ketna Patel is the subject of a new exhibition at the Heath Robinson Museum. REMIXOLOGY: The Art of Cultural Storytelling by Ketna Patel invites audiences to
“reflect on how identity is shaped – by ourselves and by society” and celebrates what is described as her “signature approach” to her work which involves remixing diverse cultural influences into something new. The display can be seen at the Pinner museum until 8th February. Museum admission charge applies. For more, see www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org.

• Now on: Endurance & Joy in the East End: The photography of David Hoffman. This exhibition, hosted by the Museum of the Home, features the work of one of the leading “photographers of protest” in the UK and spans a 10 year period starting in 1973 when Hoffman lived in a squat in Fieldgate Mansions and documented issues seen in Whitechapel including homelessness, racism and the rise of protest. Running until 30th March, it can be seen in the Undercroft at 136 Kingsland Road. For more, see www.museumofthehome.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions-and-installations/endurance-and-joy-david-hoffman/

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LondonLife – Christmas fog…

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Taken near Tower Bridge. PICTURE: Yao Hu/Unsplash

LondonLife – London, wrapped for Christmas …

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Christmas bells in Covent Garden. PICTURE: Paul Arps (licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Carolling in Trafalgar Square. PICTURE: steve_w (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Lights in Regent Street Saint James’s. PICTURE: JuliaC2006 (licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Cutty Sark Christmas tree. PICTURE: sarflondondunc (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Leadenhall Market. PICTURE: Artem Manchenkov/Unsplash

Cartier with a cosmic display in New Bond Street. PICTURE: JuliaC2006 (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

This Week in London – London homes at Christmas; Christmas Eve at the Dickens’; and, ‘Women & Freud’…

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A Christmas Tree (not part of the Museum of the Home). PICTURE: Tj Holowaychuk/Unsplash

• The Museum of the Home in Shoreditch has once again redressed its ‘Rooms through Time’ display for the festive season. Located in the Grade I-listed Almshouses and adjoining Branson Coates Wing, the display spans the some 400 years and explores how seasonal festivals, culture and personal traditions” have shaped our lives at home during the winter months. This year the redressing also includes seven new period homes which reflecting the stories of East London. See everything from a Midwinter Celebration in 1630 to a Midnight Mass in 1956, a Christmas Party in 1978, and a futuristic New Year’s Eve in 2049. Runs until 12th January. Admission is free. For more, see www.museumofthehome.org.uk/whats-on/rooms-through-time/winter-past-2024-2025/.

• Join the Dickens family for Christmas. The Charles Dickens Museum in Bloomsbury is holding a special Christmas Eve opening with the house decorated in a traditional Victorian style. Guests, who each receive a free mince pie and mulled wine or soft drink alternative, will be able to watch adaptations of A Christmas Carol, including The Muppet Christmas Carol, throughout the day in ‘The Smallest Theatre in the World.’ Admission charge applies. To book, head to https://dickensmuseum.com/blogs/all-events/christmas-eve-at-the-charles-dickens-museum.

On Now: Women & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists. This display at the Freud Museum in South Hampstead draws on manuscripts, images, objects, visuals, and film footage to bring to life the many women who shaped Freud’s life including everyone from the early “hysterics”, who Freud called “his teachers” to later patients such as Princesse Marie Bonaparte (who went on to become an analyst) through to his daughter Anna Freud and her partner Dorothy Burlingham, to artists such as Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Louise Bourgeois, Paula Rego, Alice Anderson and Tracey Emin. The exhibition also celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first publication of Sigmund Freud’s work by Hogarth Press, founded and owned by Virginia and Leonard Woolf and a key feature in Bloomsbury life. Admission charge applies. Runs until 5th May. For more, see www.freud.org.uk/exhibitions/freuds-women/

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10 London mysteries – 5. The St Pancras walrus…

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Archaeologists were excavating the former St Pancras Old Church burial ground ahead of the expansion of St Pancras Railway Station to accommodate the Eurostar in 2003 when they came across a rather unusual coffin.

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Where’s London’s oldest…greeting card shop?

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It’s that time of year and while it seems less people are these days sending Christmas cards, there are many who still do.

While we’ve previously written about the origins of greeting cards at Christmas (and who first sent them), today we’re taking a look at the oldest shop in which they’re still sold in London – often said to be the Medici Gallery in South Kensington.

The Medici Gallery in South Kensington: PICTURE: Google Maps

The gallery was opened by the Medici Society in 1908. This organisation had been founded by Philip Lee Warner and Eustace Gurney with the intention of promoting the work of artists to a wider audience. It initially operated on a subscription basis under which subscribers pay a set rate and then obtain copies of prints but later became a limited company.

The name Medici was said to have been chosen as a homage to the Medici family known for, among other things, the promotion of the arts in Florence during the Renaissance.

The gallery first started selling greeting cards in the 1930s and continues to do so today.

For more on the shop at 26 Thurloe Street, see www.medici.co.uk/.

Lost London – Richmond Lodge…

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Located close to the River Thames, Richmond Lodge was a royal hunting lodge before becoming a favoured residence for Hanoverian royals for several decades in the 18th century.

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This Week in London – One of the world’s most valuable watches at Science Museum; medieval silk bag (with a story) goes on show at Westminster Abbey; and, new electric bus display at London Transport Museum…

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The ‘Marie Antoinette’ perpetuelle, Breguet, No 160, Paris, 1783-1820
© The Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem

• One of the world’s most valuable watches – the No 160 watch which Abraham-Louis Breguet designed for Marie Antoinette but which wasn’t completed until the 1820s, well after her death – is the star of the show at the Science Museum’s new exhibition Versailles: Science and Splendour. Opening today, the exhibition, created in partnership with the Palace of Versailles, takes visitors on “a 120-year journey through the evolution of science at Versailles” and explores how Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI encouraged the pursuit of scientific knowledge and harnessed that knowledge as a tool of power. More than 100 objects are on display and, along with Breguet’s watch, they include Louis XV’s rhinoceros, a detailed map of the moon by Jean-Dominique Cassini, and Claude-Siméon Passemant’s Clock of the Creation of the World (1754). The watch, meanwhile, has its own fascinating history, including two decades in which its whereabouts were unknown after it was stolen in 1983 (in fact, its display in this exhibition marks the first time the timepiece has travelled abroad since its safe return to the LA Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in 2008). Runs until 21st April. Admission charge applies. For more, see sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/versailles.

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• A medieval silk seal bag, which dates from the reign of King Henry III, has gone on public display for the first time in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey. The display follows the discovery by scholars that the bag’s material is a perfect match to the silk cloth used to wrap the remains of the Emperor Charlemagne when he was buried in Germany’s Aachen Cathedral (Charlemagne, seen as the first Holy Roman Emperor, died in 814 but was re-buried in the karlsschrein (Charles’s shrine) at Aachen in 1215). The bag at the abbey contains a wax seal, the Great Seal of King Henry III, which was attached to an inventory of the jewels and precious items on Edward the Confessor’s shrine located in the heart of the abbey. It was drawn up in 1267 when Henry III was in financial difficulties and forced to pawn items from the shrine to Italian merchants to raise funds (it is believed the items were all returned within 18 months). The silk used for Charlemagne’s shroud is believed to have been spun in the 12th century in Spain or the eastern Mediterranean and, while the small piece at the Abbey originates from a separate silk, it is understood that it would have been produced by the same weavers on the same loom. The bag can been seen until Easter next year. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.westminster-abbey.org/visit-us/plan-your-visit/the-queens-diamond-jubilee-galleries/.

• A new interactive electric bus display has opened at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. The Wrightbus Electroliner display – which has been provided by Transport UK London Bus – is based on an electric vehicle bus type which has been part of the fleet of buses operating in London since 2023. The new display features the front of the bus and includes an interactive driver cab and passenger space. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk.

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10 London mysteries – 4. How did King Henry VI die?

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The Tower of London is known for many mysteries – the most famous, perhaps, being the fate of the two ‘Princes in the Tower’. But among the other mysterious deaths which took place behind the closed doors of the fortress is the death of the deposed King Henry VI.

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LondonLife – Christmas intersection…

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PICTURE: Samuel Regan-Asante/Unsplash

Looking toward the Royal Exchange in the City of London.

This Week in London – Queen Victoria’s Christmas childhood; Parmagianino’s Madonna and Child with Saints; and, Buckingham Palace winter tours…

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• Step back in time at Kensington Palace this Christmas with an experience inspired by Queen’s Victoria’s childhood at the palace. Victoria’s Childhood Christmas features intricately designed installations – everything from trees hung with sugar ornaments and handmade paper decorations to bespoke illustrations and period-style gifts – as well as an exploration of how some of the traditions still celebrated today – such as arranging numerous Christmas trees on table tops and displaying unwrapped presents around them – can be traced back to the 1830s at Kensington Palace. There’s also a pop-up theatre set which captures the magic of Victoria’s winter trips to London opera houses and a festive-themed afternoon tea inspired by Princess Victoria’s Christmas traditions served in The Orangery. The experience, which is included in general admission, can be seen until 5th January. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/

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Parmigianino (1503–1540), ‘Studies of Saints John the Baptist and Jerome, a Crucifix and Various Heads’ (recto), about 1525–7; Red chalk on paper, 13.5 × 22.1 cm; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (87.GB.9); PICTURE: Courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program

• Parmigianino’s Madonna and Child with Saints (1526‒7) returns to display in The National Gallery for the first time in a decade in honour of the gallery’s 200th anniversary. The work, which is also known as The Vision of Saint Jerome, was presented to the gallery in 1826 and is being displayed with a selection of some of the most important preparatory drawings providing a rare opportunity to follow the artist’s creative process. The painting can be seen in Room 46 until 9th March. Entry is free. For more, see nationalgallery.org.uk.

• The Buckingham Palace State Rooms are open for one hour tours on select dates throughout winter. Led by an expert guide, the tours, which have a maximum of 30 people, include a complimentary guide. For more, see https://www.rct.uk/whatson

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