West London

Around London – Architects on show; Queen’s Orchard at Greenwich; first women dentist honoured; and Patrick Heron and TS Eliot at the NPG…

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• Regent Street is showcasing a number of architectural installations created by architects in an initiative being conducted in conjunction with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Now in its fourth year, the Regent Street Windows project can be seen free in store windows including those of Topshop, Espirit, Jack Spade, Ferrari Store and Moss Bros until 6th May. Participating architects include Carl Turner Architects, naganJohnson architects, Gensler, Mamou-Mani, and AY Architects. Free 45 minute to one hour walking tours of the completed installations will be conducted by RIBA representatives at lunch time today, midday on Sunday and at 5.30pm next Wednesday. Prior booking is essential – email antonia.faust@riba.org for details.

• The Queen’s Orchard has reopened in Greenwich Park having been restored with the addition of heritage fruit trees, new gates, pathways and ponds. The orchard dates back to the 17th century  – its name has been found on a records dating back to 1693 and now features on a new metal decorative gate which, as well as a well cover, was designed by local artist Heather Burrell along with local school students and the Friends of Greenwich Park. The heritage fruit trees, which have a provenance dating back to the 1500s, include apple, pear, cherry, plum, peach, apricot, nectarine, quince, and medlar trees. For more, see www.royalparks.org.uk.

• The first woman to qualify as a dentist in Britain has been honoured by English Heritage with a blue plaque at her former home in Islington. Lilian Lindsay (1871-1960) lived at the house at 3 Hungerford Road, Lower Holloway, from 1872 until 1892 when she decided to become a dentist. Refused entry to the National Dental Hospital in London, she trained at the Edinburgh Dental Hospital and School (where she also met her husband Robert) before setting up a practice in Upper Holloway. Following her marriage, Lindsay relocated to Edinburgh where she and her husband ran a dental practice, only returning to London after their retirement in the 1920s. Both were actively involved in the British Dental Association. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk.

• A 13-year-old photographer, Gideon Knight, is holding his first exhibition, ‘Wild About Photography’, at The Temple, Wanstead Park in Epping Forest. Self-taught, Knight has drawn on his passion for bird-watching in capturing a series of images of birds and other wildlife in a range of natural environments – from the forests of Essex to the countryside of southern Ireland. The exhibition is free. Open on weekends and bank holidays until the end of June, between noon and 5pm. You can follow Gideon at  http://earlywormbirder.blogspot.co.uk.

• On Now: Patrick Heron: Studies for a Portrait of TS Eliot. On display for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery, the 10 paintings and drawings were completed in preparation for a 1949 modernist painting of the poet. They include two oil studies which have never before been seen in public. Heron secured permission to paint Eliot in January 1947 with the first sitting held two months later. Runs until 22nd September. For more, see www.npg.org.uk.

LondonLife – The Tweed Run London…

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Tweed-RunThe Tweed Run London celebrated its fifth anniversary last Saturday with more than 500 taking part in the rather unusual annual event in which participants combine their passion for British fashion with their love for cycling. Among those taking part (entry was via a lottery system) on bikes of all shapes and sizes were people from as far afield as The Netherlands, Korea, Russia, Australia, Japan and even Afghanistan. The two hour ride took in Marylebone High Street, Savile Row, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and the Houses of Parliament before finishing at Trafalgar Square. The ride has been copied by other cities around the world including, Tokyo, Toronto and St Petersburg. For more on the Tweed Run, see www.tweedrun.com. PICTURE: Selim Korycki, Tweed Run LLP.

Around London – Margaret Thatcher’s funeral; telling the Jewel Tower’s story; depot open weekend; and, Designs of the Year…

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• Margaret Thatcher’s funeral will be held next Wednesday at St Paul’s Cathedral from 11am with Queen Elizabeth II among those attending (the first time she has attended the funeral of a British politician since Sir Winston Churchill’s in 1965). The funeral procession of the former Prime Minister, who died on Monday aged 87, will start at the Houses of Parliament and make its way down Whitehall to Trafalgar Square before moving down the Strand, Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill to St Paul’s Cathedral. Baroness Thatcher’s coffin will carried in a hearse for the first part of the journey and will be transferred to a gun carriage drawn by six horses of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery at St Clement Danes church on the Strand for the final part of the journey. There will be a gun salute at the Tower of London. Meanwhile, a Book of Condolence has opened at St Margaret’s Church, beside Westminster Abbey, this morning and will be available for people to pay their respects until 17th April, during the church’s opening hours. St Margaret’s – which stands between Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament – is commonly known as the parish church of the House of Commons.

• The story of the Jewel Tower – one of the last remaining parts of the medieval Palace of Westminster – is told in a new exhibition at the historic property. Now in the care of English Heritage, the tower – located to the south of Westminster Abbey, was built in 1365 to house King Edward III’s treasury, later used as King Henry VIII”s ‘junk room’, the record office for the House of Lords, and, from 1869, served was the “testing laboratory” for the Office of Weights and Measures. The exhibition, which opened this month, is part of the English Heritage celebrations commemorating the centenary of the 1913 Ancient Monuments Act. The Jewel Tower is open daily until November. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.english-heritage.co.uk.

• See some of the earliest underground trains, a Lego version of Baker Street station and ride the Acton Miniature Railway. The London Transport Museum’s depot in Acton is holding it’s annual spring open weekend this Saturday and Sunday and in celebration of the Underground’s 150th anniversary, attractions will include the Metropolitan Steam Locomotive No. 1 and the recently restored Metropolitan Carriage 353 along with model displays, rides on the miniature railway, film screenings, talks, and workshops. Wales’ Ffestiniog Railway team – celebrating their own 150th anniversary – will also be present with the narrow gauge train, Prince. Open from 11am to 5pm both days. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk.

• Now On: Designs of the Year. The Design Museum has unveiled contenders for the sixth annual Designs of the Year competition and you can what they are in this exhibition. Consisting of more than 90 nominations spanning seven categories, the nominated designs include the Olympic Cauldron by Heatherwick Studio, The Shard – western Europe’s tallest building – by Renzo Piano, a non-stick ketchup bottle invented by the Varanasi Research Group at MIT, and Microsoft’s Windows phone 8. The exhibition runs until 7th July – the winners will be announced this month. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.designmuseum.org.

LondonLife – New pelicans fly into St James’s Park from Prague…

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Pelicans

Following a tradition that dates back to 1664, three new pelicans have taken up residence in St James’s Park in front of Buckingham Palace. A gift from the City of Prague in the Czech Republic (the birds were donated by Prague Zoo), one of the pelicans is named Tiffany (in honour of New York-based The Tiffany & Co Foundation – which funded transport of the birds) while the other two have yet to be named with the public invited to join in the process by voting for their favourite name for one of the birds from a shortlist published on the Royal Parks Foundation website, www.supporttheroyalparks.org (the poll closes on 16th April). Choices include Bela, Karola, Queenie and Isla. The first pelican to live in the Royal Parks was a gift to King Charles II from the Russian ambassador in 1664 and they have been there ever since. The new arrivals, join the existing ‘scoop’ of pelican residents in the park – Gargi, Vaclav and Louis. PICTURE: Courtesy of Royal Parks Foundation.

Around London – John Snow’s legacy; a spotlight on the music hall; Alice Kettle at the Queen’s House; and, Sydney Lee at the RA…

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• A new exhibition on the work and legacy of John Snow – who traced the source of a deadly cholera outbreak in the 1850s to a Soho water pump – opened at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine this week. Cartographies of Life & Death – John Snow and Disease Mapping – part of a series of events planned for the bicentenary of Snow’s birth – features both historical treasures, such as disease maps from the school’s archives, and new artworks inspired by science with the entire display presented as a disease mapping ‘detective trail’. There will be a pop-up water bar and street lectures and performances. Snow (1813-1858) is considered the founder of modern epidemiology, the study of patterns and causes of health and disease in populations. His work remain influential even today. Admission is free. The exhibition runs until 17th April at the school in Keppel Street. For more, see www.johnsnow.org.uk.

• A new installation at the V&A opening on Saturday will explore the rise – and fall – of the music hall. Music Hall: Sickert and the Three Graces picks up on artist Walter Sickert’s obsession with the New Bedford Music Hall in Camden Town and features film, music and objects presented in a ‘theatrical narrative’ which focuses on the world of the Edwardian Music Hall. Highlights include filmed extracts of Tanika Gupta’s specially produced play The Boy I Love (directed by Katie Mitchell) which takes its name from George Ware’s celebrated music hall song The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery. Admission is free. The exhibition, which is in the Theatre and Performance Galleries of the V&A, runs until 5th January next year. For more see www.vam.ac.uk.

• Three specially commissioned artworks by British textile artist Alice Kettle will be unveiled today at the Queen’s House in Greenwich. The Garden of England – Royal Museums Greenwich’s first contemporary arts program – features Flower Helix (hanging in the Tulip Stairs), Flower Bed (a “textile garden” found in the North West Parlour), and Queen Henrietta Maria (a stitched portrait of the wife of King Charles I also found in the North West Parlour). The display is accompanied by a program of events – for more on them, see www.rmg.co.uk. Entry is free – the exhibition is on show until 18th August.

• On Now – From the Shadows: The Prints of Sydney Lee RA. This exhibition at the Royal Academy represents a reappraisal of the work of painter-printmaker Sydney Lee (1866-1949) and features more than 50 prints and two major paintings. Lee studied in Manchester and Paris before coming to London where he lived in a house and studio in Holland Park Road in Kensington. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1930 and served as Treasurer from 1932-1940. The first exhibition devoted to his art since 1945, the event coincides with the publication of the first book on Lee written by its curator Professor Robert Meyrick, head of the School of Art at Aberystwyth University. Runs until 26th May. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.royalacademy.org.uk.

LondonLife – Yuri Gagarin relocates to Greenwich…

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Elena-Gagarina-and-Dr-Kevin-Fewster

A statue of Russian cosmonaut and first man in space Yuri Gagarin has been relocated to the newly named Yuri Gagarin Terrace outside the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. First unveiled in The Mall, not far from Admiralty Arch, on 14th July 2011, the statue was a gift from the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, to mark the 50th anniversary of manned space flight (you can read more at our earlier post here). But it was only granted permission to remain on the site for 15 months and so has now been relocated to Greenwich where it as officially unveiled last Thursday in the week of Gagarin’s birthday by his daughter Elena Gagarina (pictured here with Royal Museums Greenwich director Dr Kevin Fewster). The statue – a 3.5 metre high zinc alloy figure – shows Gagarin dressed in a spacesuit and standing on a globe. It stands just outside the observatory’s Astronomy Centre. For more on the Royal Observatory Greenwich – the “home” of Greenwich Mean Time, see www.rmg.co.uk.

10 of London’s greatest Victorian projects – 6. Victoria and Albert Embankments…

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We’ve already mentioned these two riverside embankments as part of our previous piece on Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s revolutionary sewer system. But so important are they to the shape of central London today – not to mention a great place to take a stroll – that we thought they’re also worth a mention in their own right.

Albert-EmbankmentAs mentioned, the Victoria and Albert Embankments (the latter is pictured right) – named, of course, for Queen Victoria and her by then late consort, Prince Albert, who had died in 1861 (see our previous post What’s in a name?…Victoria Embankment) – were located on opposite sides of the River Thames and involved reclaiming a considerable amount of the river so new sewers could be laid.

Construction of Victoria Embankment – which was also seen as a way to relieve traffic congestion in the central London area – started in the mid 1860s and was complete by 1870. Running along the north and western banks of the Thames between Westminster and Blackfriars bridges, its creation involved the demolition of many riverside buildings as a new walk and roadway were constructed behind a wall.

Numerous monuments have since been located along this promenade – they include the Battle of Britain Monument, RAF Memorial and the mis-named Cleopatra’s Needle (see our earlier post to find out why) – as well as a number of permanently berthed ships including the HQS Wellington – the base of the Honorable Company of Master Mariners – and the HMS President.

The walkway also features original decorative lamps – interestingly, Victoria Embankment was the first roadway in London to be permanently lit  by electric-powered lighting (from 1878).

The parks, collectively known as Victoria Embankment Gardens, contain numerous statues and monuments (including one to Bazalgette himself – it’s located close to the intersection with Northumberland Avenue) as well as a bandstand. They also contain the remains of York Watergate – once fronting on to the river, it shows how much land was reclaimed for the project (you can also visit the riverside entrance to Somerset House to gain a feel for where the river once was – look through the glass floor and you’ll see the old riverbank below).

Albert Embankment, meanwhile, runs between Vauxhall and Westminster Bridges on the eastern side of the river. Constructed around the same time as Victoria Embankment, it was designed to prevent flooding of the low-lying areas of Vauxhall and Kennington and to help in Bazalgette’s sewage system plan (although it apparently doesn’t have the same large sewers as can be found on the other side of the river).

Sadly, the demolition did see the centre of what was once the village of Lambeth removed to make way for the new promenade and roadway. But like Victoria Embankment, Albert Embankment features delightfully decorative lamps along the riverfront promenade and is a great place for a walk in any weather.

LondonLife – Kingston Bridge, south-west London…

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Kingston-BridgeThe photographer, TC Nepomuceno, says “I took this photo…when I was cycling by the riverside from Fulham to Kingston upon Thames. Was amazing to spot so terrific bridge! Kingston upon Thames (is) really worth a visit!”

 Taken an interesting photograph of somewhere in London? We’re always looking for interesting images of the city so if you’ve got one you reckon captures a snippet of life in London, please contact us at exploringlondon@gmail.com or via Flickr at www.flickr.com/groups/exploringlondon/.

Where is it?…#57

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Where-is-it--#57

Can you identify where in London this picture was taken (obviously out of season!)? If you think you can, leave a comment below. We’ll reveal the answer early next week. Good luck!

Well done to Mike, Visiting Houses and Gardens and Roberta Stimson (via Facebook) – this is indeed the Great Conservatory at Syon Park – London home of the Duke of Northumberland – located on the banks of the Thames in west London. The magnificent structure was commissioned by the third duke, Hugh Percy, and designed by architect Charles Fowler in 1826. Constructed of gunmetal, Bath stone and glass, it is said to have inspired Joseph Paxton in his designs for the Crystal Palace. For more on Syon Park, see www.syonpark.co.uk.

Around London – Celebrating the art of the Underground and art on the web; Picasso at the Courtauld; and, Frederic Church at the National…

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• A new exhibition celebrating the art of the Underground opens at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden tomorrow. Poster Art 150 – London Underground’s Greatest Designs showcases 150 posters with examples taken from each decade over the past 100 years. Artists include the likes of Edward McKnight Kauffer, Paul Nash and Man Ray. The posters were selected from the museum’s archive of more than 3,300 by a panel of experts. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to vote on their favorite poster as well as online with the most popular poster to be revealed at the end of the exhibition. The last major exhibition of Underground posters – the first commission of which was in 1908 – was held in 1963 to celebrate the system’s centenary. The exhibition is based around six themes – ‘Finding your way’, ‘Brightest London’, ‘Capital culture’, ‘Away from it all’, ‘Keeps London going’ and, ‘Love your city’. Runs until 27th October. Admission fee applies. For more on the exhibition and surrounding events, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk.

National-Gallery• The external facade of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square was decorated with artworks last Friday night (pictured right) in celebration of the completion of Your Paintings – a website which hosts the UK’s entire national collection of oil paintings (more than 210,000!). The projections – which were happening in 28 UK cities simultaneously – featured two National Gallery paintings – Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Gainsborough’s Mr and Mrs Andrews. To see the website, head to www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/. PICTURE: © The National Gallery, London.

• On Now: Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901. This exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House on The Strand tells the story of Pablo Picasso’s break-through year as an artist – 1901 – when the then 19-year-old launched his career in Paris at a summer exhibition. The display follows Picasso from his debut and into the start of his Blue period. Works exhibited are among the first to bear his famous signature. Runs until 26th May. There is an admission charge. For more, see www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/index.shtml.

• On Now: Through American Eyes: Frederic Church and the Landscape Oil Sketch. This free exhibition of 30 works at the National Gallery focuses on the work of Frederic Church (1826-1900), a member of the Hudson River School of artists and considered by many to be the greatest of the American landscape oil sketch artists. Works on display include those made at exotic locations such as Ed Deir, Petra, painted in Jordan in 1868, and Distant View of the Sangay Volcano, Ecuador, painted in 1857, as well as the paintings created closer to home, such as Hudson, New York at Sunset, painted in 1867. The exhibition is held in Room 1. Runs until 28th April. For more see www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

10 of London’s greatest Victorian projects – 5. Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s sewer system…

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Precipitated at last by the so-called ‘Great Stink’ of 1858, Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s subterranean sewer system was a remarkable feat of engineering and made radical new inroads in improving the health on Londoners during the Victorian age.

Joseph-BazalgetteThe state of the River Thames – basically an open sewer – and the city’s water supplies had become a growing cause for concern as the population of the city – and the amount of waste they produced – increased.

Not surprisingly in the mid-1800s this led to outbreaks of cholera which killed tens of thousands (the outbreaks were generally attributed to a miasma in the air until the work of Dr John Snow eventually proved otherwise – see our earlier entry on the Dr John Snow pub here for more). But it wasn’t until the hot summer of 1858 that – unable to escape the stink of the river under their noses at Westminster – politicians decided something had to be done.

Bazalgette (depicted right in a monument at Victoria Embankment) was chief engineer at the newly formed Metropolitan Board of Works (he was appointed in 1856) when legislation was passed which paved the way for the board to create a sewer system underneath London’s streets to serve the growing metropolis. He designed an ingenious system in which the flow from existing sewers and underground rivers was intercepted before it could reach the river and diverted along new low level sewers to treatment works.

All up, the £4.2 million project involved the construction of 1,100 miles of street sewers and five major brick-walled sewer tunnels which ran for some 82 miles along the banks of the Thames and were large enough to cope with the rising demand as the city grew. It also meant the creation of several massive embankments along the river, narrowing the Thames as land was reclaimed from the river.

The work proceeded apace and much of the system was completed by 1866 (it was officially declared open by Edward, the Prince of Wales in 1865). The Victoria and Albert Embankments – located on the northern and southern banks of the Thames respectively – were both open by 1870 and the Chelsea Embankment further upriver was completed in the mid-1870s. Bazalgette was knighted for his efforts in 1875.

The system, which also featured a series of ornately decorated pumping houses, has since been considerably extended and upgraded but at its heart is still that which was created by Sir Joseph and his team.

For more on the creation of Bazalgette’s sewer system, try Stephen Halliday’s The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis. For a mystery set against the backdrop of London in the mid-1800s, check out Clare Clark’s novel The Great Stink.

LondonLife – ‘White Shirt Week’ in St James’s…

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Freddie-Fox-launches-White-Shirt-Week-in-St-James's-London

 

Freddie Fox (who plays Lord Alfred Douglas opposite Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde in David Hare’s The Judas Kiss now playing at the Duke of York Theatre) marks the start of ‘White Shirt Week’ which kicked off in St James’s on Monday. The West End area is home to Jermyn Street which apparently boasts “the highest number of world renowned shirt makers on one luxury shopping street” with each shirt maker having their own signature design. While the origins of the white shirt date back as far as ancient Egypt, it was only in more recent centuries that in the UK the white shirt developed from being simply an undergarment to a fashion item in its own right – in fact, by the 19th century, the white shirt was worn by gentlemen as a statement that they weren’t engaged in manual labour and could employ servants to launder it. For more on St James’s, see www.stjameslondon.co.uk.

Where’s London’s oldest….shopping arcade?

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Royal-Opera-ArcadeFollowing our recent article on John Nash (see the earlier post here), we’re taking a look at one of his projects as part of our series on London’s oldest. Built between 1816-18,  the Royal Opera Arcade – which features a series of shops running down the side of a covered central hall – is not only the oldest existing shopping arcade of its type in London but apparently in the world.

The 12 foot wide covered arcade was built on the west side of what was previously the Royal, King’s or Haymarket Opera House – Nash and George Repton completed the exterior of the property originally built by Sir John Vanbrugh at the same time the arcade was built – but is now the site of Her Majesty’s Theatre (the former theatre was destroyed in a fire in 1867).

It extends between Pall Mall and Charles II Street in the West End, running parallel with Haymarket. Burlington Arcade, frequently cited as the city’s oldest, was in fact completed a year later.

The arcade originally had 19 shops – each with a cellar and mezzanine level – running down its west side. It now features shops which sell everything from fine wines and art to books and sandwiches.

For more on the Royal Opera Arcade, see www.royaloperaarcade.com.

Famous Londoners – John Nash…

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Arguably the greatest architect of Regency London, John Nash’s imprint can still be seen in numerous sites around the city, from the master-planning of Regent’s Park and Regent Street to the beautiful buildings of All Soul’s Church in Langham Place and Marble Arch on the edge of Hyde Park.

Born the son of a Welsh millwright in Lambeth, London, on 18th January, 1752, Nash – who went on to work in a range of different architectural styles – trained as a draughtsman under the tutelage of architect Sir Robert Taylor and in 1777 established his own business as a builder and surveyor.

John-NashBut he certainly didn’t meet with immediate success and, following failure as a building speculator (he built properties in Bloomsbury Square and Great Russell Street but failed to make enough money from the venture – there’s a blue plaque on one of the houses, which he lived in, at 66 Great Russell Street), was declared bankrupt in 1783.

Meanwhile, his personal life was also in turmoil during these years – in 1775 he had married, Jane Kerr, the daughter of a Surrey surgeon, but separated from her in the early 1780s after various troubles including her eventually apparently having a child with a Welshman named Charles Charles, who is said to have died in prison after he was jailed for adultery.

Brought down by his misfortune, in the mid 1780s Nash moved to Carmarthen in Wales where he had family. Taking up work here, by the late 1780s he was designing prisons – the first was at Carmarthen – and worked on a number of other prominent buildings including St David’s Cathedral and various country houses.

Rising to prominence in Carmarthen society, by 1797, however, Nash was again working in London, initially in partnership with the renowned landscape architect Humphrey Repton with whom he had formed a business relationship some years earlier (although the partnership had soured over finances by 1800).

He built a substantial home at 29 Dover Street in Mayfair and in 1798, his first wife presumably dead, he married his second wife, Mary Anne Bradley, and soon started work on building a Gothic-inspired residence for them, known as East Cowes Castle, on the Isle of Wight. It was completed in 1802 but enlarged some years later.

Nash designed numerous country properties in the early 19th century, inspired by everything from castles to Italianate architecture, both in England and Ireland and soon came to the attention of the Prince Regent, the future King George IV (there was a rumour his wife was one of the prince’s discarded mistresses).

In 1806 he was officially made Deputy Surveyor General in the Office of Woods and Forests – the office which managed the Crown estate, and from 1815 on, he largely worked for the prince alone. Among the major London commissions from his royal patron were the design of Regent Street (he and his wife moved into number 14 in 1823) and the development of Regent’s Park on land formerly known as Marylebone Park and surrounding housing estates (for more on The Regent’s Park, see our earlier entry here). He also redeveloped St James’s Park.

In 1815, he was commissioned to develop the Prince Regent’s Marine Pavilion in Brighton and by 1822 had transformed the building into the spectacular Royal Pavilion which can be visited there today.

Nash was also involved in the development of The Regent’s Canal – which linked the Grand Union Canal in London’s west to the River Thames in London’s east and was completed in 1820 – and built many of the grand villas which still line it (for more on Regent’s Canal, see our earlier entry here).

Becoming an official architect to the Office of Works in 1813 (an appointment which only ended in 1832, three years before his death), Nash went on to design churches – including All Soul’s in Langham Place (he’s depicted above in a bust at the church) – as well as West End theatres including the Haymarket Theatre and the Royal Opera House (which burnt down in 1867) as well as the adjacent Royal Opera Arcade and residences including Carlton House Terrace and Clarence House (for more on this, see our earlier entry here).

Other major commissions included the redevelopment of Buckingham Palace (parts of the current building are his work but the main facade isn’t – for more on the palace history, see our earlier entry here) and the Royal Mews, and the creation of Marble Arch, originally envisaged as the main gateway to the palace (see our earlier entry here). Nash also designed a conservatory for Kew Gardens.

Nash’s close relationship with the Prince Regent (who become King George IV on 29th January, 1820), meant that when the king died in 1830, he found himself on the outer (and his reputation took many years to recover thanks to his association with the unpopular king). With no knighthood forthcoming for his efforts (unlike many of his contemporaries) and the chance of further work unlikely (his work on Buckingham Palace had been left unfinished due to concerns over rising costs), Nash retired to his house on the Isle of Wight.

He died there on 13th May, 1835, and was buried in the churchyard at St James’s Church in East Cowes. He was survived by his wife who, having settled his debts, retired to Hampstead.

For an in-depth study of Nash, try Geoffrey Tyack’s book, John Nash: Architect of the Picturesque.

Around London – Duchess of Cambridge at the NPG; Imperial War Museum closed for now; and, Frozen London…

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• The controversial first official painted portrait of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, has gone on display at the National Portrait Gallery. Unveiled on 11th January, the portrait by Paul Emsley has already sparked considerable criticism. Emsley, the 2007 winner of the gallery’s BP Portrait Award competition, was chosen by the gallery’s director Sandy Nairne to paint the portrait which took three-and-a-half months to paint. It is now on permanent display in the gallery as part of Contemporary Collections in the Lerner Galleries in Room 36, on the ground floor. Admission is free. For more (including a film on the making of the portrait), see  www.npg.org.uk.

• The Imperial War Museum has closed its doors until July this year as the museum undergoes an extensive refurbishment. In July, the museum will launch a new exhibition –  Horrible Histories®: Spies, and also reopen of The Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes, The Holocaust Exhibition, Secret War, A Family in Wartime and the Explore History Centre. The redevelopment, meanwhile, will continue until summer 2014 when the brand new First World War Galleries will be opened, marking the 100-year anniversary of the start of the First World War. For more, see www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-london.

• On Now: Frozen London. This exhibition at the London Metropolitan Archives looks at the impact of some of the most severe winters the city has ever experienced which occurred between 1683 and 1895. A highlight is a look at the Frost Fairs which took place on the River Thames during that time. Runs until April 25th. Admission is free. For more, follow this link. Correction: Opened 21st January-25th April.

LondonLife – Forget the halls, they’re decking the city…part two…

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There’s still a weekend to go before Christmas and if, having finished all Christmas shopping, you’re still in the mood for seeing some light displays, here’s some more places to look for some amazing (and in some cases historic), Christmas decorations (for the first part of this overview, head here)…

Carnaby-Street• Last week we mentioned some of the key sites to look for light displays in the West End this Christmas. Some of the other places to look include: the iconic shopping strip of Carnaby Street (decorations there this year are inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones – pictured) as well as South Molton Street, off Oxford Street (which again features some beautiful illuminated archways), and streets throughout St James (the St James Christmas lights were this year switched on by opera star Katherine Jenkins who earlier led a carol service at St James’s Church) and Mayfair.

• Around Bow Lane and Watling Street in the City of London. Daubed with more than 10,000 lights, these narrow streets provide a wonderful sense of London past.

• Marylebone. The lights here are well worth venturing out for. Turned on this year by Strictly Come Dancing‘s Claudia Winkleman.

• Historic West End arcades. Still a place for fashionable shopping and tasteful Christmas decor, these include the Burlington Arcade, Royal Arcade, Princes Arcade and the Piccadilly Arcade.

• And, of course, throughout London many shops have Christmas window displays. They include that of Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly which this year have a Dick Whittington theme (see our earlier post here); Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge which have gone with an oriental theme; Harrods in Brompton Road which have a Disney Princess theme; and Liberty in Great Marlborough Street which have gone with a theme inspired by the age of steam trains.

Of course, our list is by no means been comprehensive and is only confined to London’s heart – please share any other sensational Christmas decorations you’ve come across elsewhere in the city…

Around London – A West End institution reopens; Barnet’s Foundling Hospital under the spotlight; English landscape masters at the RA…

by exploringlondon

• A West End institution which has hosted a who’s who of Londoners – including the likes of Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and Winston Churchill as well as, more recently, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Princess Diana – has reopened its doors to the public after a four year redevelopment. Originally opened in 1865 by French wine merchant Daniel Nicholas Thévenon and his wife Celestine, Café Royal at 68 Regent Street – overlooking Piccadilly Circus – has been relaunched as five star hotel featuring more than 150 rooms, six historic suites and a variety of dining venues – including the spectacular Grill Room – as well as a private members club, meeting rooms and wellbeing centre. The redevelopment of this storied building, which centres on the original premises – retaining John Nash’s Grade I-listed facade, has seen the restoration of grand public rooms, originally dating from the 1860s and 1920s, as well as an expansion into neighbouring buildings – all under the watchful eye of David Chipperfield Architects and Donald Insall Associates. For more, see www.hotelcaferoyal.com.

 • One of six small hospitals set up by the Bloomsbury-based Foundling Hospital, the Barnet branch operated in Monken Hadley in west London from 1762-1768. It’s now the subject of one of two new exhibitions which opened at the Barnet Museum at the beginning of the month. The Barnet Foundling Hospital, Monken Hadley, 1762-1768, features a range of objects relating to some of the children placed in the hospital including identifying coin tokens left by mothers, and letters written by manager Prudence West. The exhibition initially runs until 14th January – after which objects will be replaced with prints – and then until 28th February. The second exhibition, Foundling Voices, is on tour from the Foundling Museum and features oral histories of some of the last people to be cared for by the Foundling Hospital in Berkhamsted which closed in 1954. This runs until 13th January. Admission to both is free. For more, see www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.

• On Now: Constable, Gainsborough, Turner and the Making of Landscape. This exhibition, recently opened in the John Madejski Fine Rooms and Weston Rooms at the Royal Academy of Arts, features works of art by three “towering figures” of English landscape painting – John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough and JMW Turner. The 120 works on display includes paintings, prints, books and archival material. Highlights include Gainsborough’s Romantic Landscape (c 1783), Constable’s The Leaping Horse (1825) and Boat Passing a Lock (1826), and Turner’s Dolbadern Castle (1800). There are also works by their 18th century contemporaries and artifacts including letters written by Gainsborough, Turner’s watercolour box, and Constable’s palette. Admission charge applies. Runs until 17th February. For more, see www.royalacademy.org.au.

LondonLife – Forget the halls, they’re decking the city…

by exploringlondon

We’ve decided not to kick off our next Wednesday series until the new year so in the meantime, we’ll take a look at where you can find some of the best – and some of the most historic – Christmas decorations in London (and we’d love to hear your thoughts as well!). Here is some of what you’ll find in the West End this year…

Trafalgar-Square-Christmas-Tree1. Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree:  A symbol of Christmas in London since 1947, this massive tree (usually a Norwegian spruce) is an annual gift from the people of Norway as thanks for British support during Norway’s years of occupation in World War II. The tree – which is usually around 50 to 60 years old, more than 20 metres high and resident in the forests around Oslo – is felled in November in a ceremony attended by the Lord Mayor of Westminster, the Mayor of Oslo and the British ambassador to Norway before being brought to the UK by sea. This year’s tree lighting ceremony took place on 6th December and a program of choirs will be singing at the tree during evenings in the lead-up to Christmas.

2. Regent Street Christmas Lights: The street’s stunning Christmas light displays apparently date back to the early 1950s when the lifting of wartime lighting restrictions allowed the display. The lighting ceremony has since become an annual event – this year’s lights – which stretch over a mile and tell the story of the 12 Days of Christmas – were turned on by some 40 Olympians and Paralympians in November and will remain up until early January next year.

3. Oxford Street Christmas Lights: Switched on in early November by singer Robbie Williams (with supporting act Leona Lewis), the Oxford Street Christmas display – this year more properly known as the Marmite Oxford Street Christmas Lights – has been a West End tradition since 1959. This year’s mile long display involves 300,000 LED bulbs. Among the stars who have switched on the lights over the display’s 53 year history are the Spicegirls, Westlife and The Saturdays, who held the honor last year.

4. Bond Street Christmas Lights: A more boutique display than its more celebrated neighbours, this year’s lights were switched on by Gareth Malone and the Military Wives Choir.

5. Covent Garden decorations: This year’s decorations include an innovative display from United Visual Artists in the Market Building as well as a giant Lego advent calendar with a new window opened each day at 4pm in the lead-up to Christmas. Other Christmas-related features include a 32 foot high topiary reindeer as well as the chance for kids to pet a real reindeer on Saturdays. There’s also a food market and choir singing.

Around London – Resurrection men at the MoL; Hollywood costumes at the V&A; Hanwell locks “at risk”; and, David Nash sculptures at Kew…

by exploringlondon

• A new exhibition at the Museum of London opens tomorrow (Friday) looking at the “murky world” of the early 19th century ‘resurrection men’ and the surgeon/anatomist whom they supplied with bodies. Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men will centre around the 2006 excavation of a until then forgotten burial ground at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. The excavation of the area – which was used between 1825-41 – uncovered some 262 burials and while many contained just one person, others contained a mix of bones providing ample evidence of dissections, autopsies, amputations and the wiring together of bones for teaching as well as evidence animals had been dissected for comparative studies. The excavation revealed that rather than rely on body snatchers, the hospital had used its own ‘unclaimed’ patients for dissection practice. As well as human remains from the find (displayed for the first time), exhibition highlights include various instruments used in early 19th century surgery, a plaster cast of James Legg who was hanged for murder before his body was flayed and cast in plaster for study purposes and a wooden skeleton and other detailed anatomical models made by Joseph Browne. The exhibition runs until 14th April. An admission charge applies. For more details – including the programme of talks taking place alongside the exhibition – see www.museumoflondon.org.uk.

• The three piece white suit worn by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, the blue and white gingham pinafore dress worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and costumes worn by Meryl Streep in the recent film, The Iron Lady,  are all making their public appearance in London this weekend with the V&A’s major autumn exhibition. Opening on Saturday, Hollywood Costume features more than 100 iconic costumes designed for some of the big screen’s most unforgettable characters. A three gallery (or three ‘act’) journey covering the silent film era of Charlie Chaplin through to a look at motion capture costume design in Avatar, the exhibition explores the role costume design plays in cinematic storytelling and examine the changing social and technological context in which designers worked over the past century. Sourced from major motion picture studios, costume houses, museums, archives and private collections, the costumes will be  displayed alongside interviews with costume designers, actors and directors. Runs until 27th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/hollywoodcostume.

• A flight of locks which raise the Grand Union Canal 53 feet over the course of a third of a mile at Hanwell in west London is among the top Grade II heritage sites at risk in England, according to English Heritage. The organisation released its Heritage At Risk Register 2012 this week and announced a new program to examine how Grade II listed buildings not already covered by the register can be assessed. Other “at risk” sites in London include Kensal Green (All Souls) Cemetery – one of London’s “magnificent seven” Victoria cemeteries, Abney Park Cemetery in Hackney, Gunnersbury Park in Houslow and 94 Piccadilly (Cambridge House) in Westminster. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/heritage-at-risk/.

• On Now: David Nash at Kew: A Natural Gallery. New works by renowned sculptor David Nash were officially unveiled at Kew Gardens last weekend. Mostly created using Kew trees which have come to the end of their life whether through storms, lightning or disease, the series of sculptures – created on site since April in a ‘wood quarry’ in the arboretum – has been installed in gallery spaces across the gardens including The Nash Conservatory, the Temperate House and The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art. They are displayed along with a series of drawings and short films. Runs until 14th April. An admission charge applies. See www.kew.org.

Around London – Open House London; 16th century tankard at MoL Docklands; and, Spanish artists shine at the British Museum…

by exploringlondon

• It’s Open House London weekend and that means your chance to enter scores of buildings not normally open to the public. More than 750 buildings are taking part in this, the 20th year the weekend has been held and there’s also an extensive program of free talks, walks and specialist tours. Among the buildings open this year are the iconic Gherkin building in the City (formally known as 30 St Mary Axe, pictured), Heron Tower in Bishopsgate, numerous livery company halls including that of the Apothecaries, Fishmongers and Carpenters, government buildings including Marlborough House, Westminster Hall, and the Foreign Office and numerous historic residences from the Mansion House, home of the Lord Mayor of London to Osterley Park House in west London. Among the events on offer is a moonlit hike through London tomorrow night to raise money for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres and rides on the new Emirates Airline cable car as well as boat tours to the Thames Barriers. If you didn’t order a guide, you can see the program online at the Open House London website – www.londonopenhouse.org. PICTURE: (c) Grant Smith/VIEW Pictures

• A 16th century wooden tankard, found by a mudlark on the Thames foreshore near Ratcliff in London’s east, has briefly gone on display at the Museum of London Docklands. The large vessel, capable of holding three pints, has the initials RH inscribed on the base. It’s unknown for what purpose it was used, perhaps serving as a decanter rather than for individual use and may have been used on a ship. The vessel will be on display at the museum only until 27th September. For more, see www.museumoflondon.org.uk.

• On Now: Renaissance to Goya: Prints and drawings from Spain. Opening at the British Museum today is this new exhibition featuring important prints and drawings by Spanish and other European artists working in Spain and spanning a period from the mid 16th century through to the 19th century. While all the works are drawn from the museum’s collection, many have never been on display before. The artists represented include Diego Velazquez, Alonso Cano, Bartolome Murillo, Francisco Zubaran and Jusepe de Ribera as well as Francisco de Goya. Held in room 90. Admission is free. Runs until 6th January. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org.