Famed as the illustrator of Winnie-the-Pooh, EH Shepard spent his early childhood at a property in Regent’s Park now marked with an English Heritage Blue Plaque.
Events
10 London sites relating to Winnie-the-Pooh – 5. London Zoo..
London Zoo played a key role in the creation of Winnie-the-Pooh.
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Where’s London’s oldest…international airport?
As is often the case with finding London’s oldest, this isn’t necessarily an easy question to answer.
Hounslow Heath Aerodrome in London’s west was the city’s first civil airfield. First used in 1910 and subsequently by the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, it properly entered service as a civil airfield in August, 1919, when on 25th of that month it became the origin point for the first international flight in the world – from Hounslow to Paris-Le Bourget. That flight, by a de Havilland DH.4A aircraft, was the first in what provider Air Transport and Travel Ltd offered as a daily service.
But despite that historic early role, the Hounslow Heath Aerodrome, which only had rudimentary facilities, had a relatively short-lived life as a civil airport. Croydon in London’s south, home to the RAF Station Croydon and the Waddon Aerodrome, was seen as a more suitable location for the city’s airport.
So, on 29th March, 1920, Croydon Airport opened. While it initially had temporary facilities on Plough Lane (planes apparently had to taxi across the lane to take off and after landing), a permanent terminal – the world’s first – opened near the Purley Way bypass in 1928, making it the city’s first purpose-built international airport (and the biggest and most advanced in the world at the time).
Croydon Airport is also famous for having the first air traffic control system in the world and also boasted the world’s first airport hotel which opened in 1928 (known then as Gate Lodge and today – it’s still in business – as the Croydon Aerodrome Hotel).
The airport was home to Britain’s first national carrier, Imperial Airways, which was founded when four airlines merged in 1924.
During World War II, the airport’s name changed to RAF Croydon – it served fighters taking part in the Battle of Britain – and in 1943 RAF Transport Command was founded at the site and used to ferry soldiers to and from Europe.
After the war, Croydon returned to its role as civilian passenger airport but lack of room for expansion saw Heathrow, founded in 1946 as London Airport and renamed in 1966, take over the role.
This Week in London – Queen Elizabeth II’s fashion archive on show; London Transport Museum Depot’s open days; and, wartime London in art…
• A christening robe, first worn by Queen Victoria’s eldest child, Princess Victoria, at her christening in 1841, and subsequently by 61 other royal babies including Queen Elizabeth II, is one of the stars of a new exhibition opening at The King’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace tomorrow. Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style features around 200 items from Queen Elizabeth II’s fashion archive – the largest exhibition of her clothing ever staged. Other highlights include a Norman Hartnell apple-green gown worn by the Queen a state banquet given for President Eisenhower at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, in 1957; a crinoline-skirted blue gown and matching bolero jacket worn by the late Queen for her sister Princess Margaret’s wedding in 1960; and, perhaps more surprisingly, a clear plastic raincoat made by Hardy Amies in the 1960s. The latter is just one example of late Queen’s private, off-duty wardrobe which is also included in the show. Other examples include a Harris tweed jacket and Balmoral Tartan skirt, designed by Norman Hartnell and worn in the 1950 and a green coat made by Angela Kelly. The exhibition runs until 18th October. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.rct.uk.
• Celebrate 120 years of the Bakerloo and Piccadilly Lines and 70 years of the Routemaster bus at a London Transport Museum Depot open day. The first to be held this year, the four open days at the Acton Town facility, will allow visitors to discover the more than 320,000 objects not on display at the museum’s Covent Garden site including the chance to climb aboard historic train stock dating from 1927 and 1938, get a close-up look at the pioneering RM1 and RM2 buses, and explore everything from rare signalling equipment to models, maps, station architecture and posters. A programme of talks is also taking place across the weekend along with activities for kids, heritage demonstrations, displays and stalls. The days run from today – 9th April – through to Sunday (12th April). Admission charges apply. For more, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/depot-open-days/icons-london.
• On Now: Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art. This free exhibition at IWM London tells the story of London during World War II and features more than 45 paintings and drawings as well as photographs, films, objects and oral histories. Works include some by well-known artists such as Eliot Hodgkin, Graham
Sutherland, Henry Carr, Evelyn Dunbar, Duncan Grant and Edward Ardizzone as well as lesser known figures, many of whom were employed by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee. The works are presented under four themes -Travel, Thames, Street and Shelter – and highlights include Frances MacDonald’s Sketch for ‘London Docks’ (1944), John Edgar Platt’s Wartime traffic on the River Thames (1942) and fireman artist Leonard Rosoman’s The Houses of Parliament on Fire, May 1941 (1941) – which captures the last night of the Blitz. Other works in the display are Duncan Grant’s painting of that iconic symbol of wartime resistance, St Paul’s Cathedral, Henry Carr’s St Clement Dane’s Church on Fire after being Bombed (1941), Evelyn Gibbs’ WVS Clothing Exchange (1943) and Evelyn Dunbar’s Convalescent Nurses Making Camouflage Nets (1941). The display can be seen until 1st November. For more, see www.iwm.org.uk/events/beauty-and-destruction-wartime-london-in-art.
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10 London sites relating to Winnie-the-Pooh – 3. Punch Magazine…
Winnie-the-Pooh author AA Milne worked at Punch magazine prior to writing his famous book and it was while doing so that he started a friendship that was to prove consequential.
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Happy Easter!
Wishing all our readers a very happy and safe Easter break!
Three unusual London Easter traditions…
We pause our series on Winnie-the-Pooh to take a brief look at three uniquely London traditions which take place each Easter…
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10 London bishop’s palaces, past and present – 10. The Old Deanery…
Containing a residence for the Bishop of London (although, it has to be said, certainly not traditionally a bishop’s palace), the Old Deanery is located in Dean’s Court, to the south-east of St Paul’s Cathedral.
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10 London bishop’s palaces, past and present – 9. Croydon Palace…
A former summer residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury for centuries, Croydon Palace has in more recent times been used as a school.
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This Week in London – Lunar New Year celebrations; Aardman at the Young V&A; and, the women in Dickens’ life…
• Lunar New Year festivities will be held in Chinatown in central London this weekend including lion dances and the Chinese New Year Parade. Lion dances will be held throughout Chinatown on Saturday and Sunday while the parade kicks off at 10am on Sunday just east of Trafalgar Square reaching the square at 12 where an afternoon of festivities will be held. For more, see www.london.gov.uk/events/lunar-new-year-festival-spring-2026. Meanwhile, Lunar New Year celebrations will also be held in Greenwich on Saturday. The celebrations include lion dances, musical and dance performances, a martial arts demonstration, workshops including one on Tibetan dance and another on lantern making and the chance to sample Asian food. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk/lunarnewyear.
• A new exhibition at the Young V&A in Bethnal Green takes a look behind the scenes of stop-motion classics such as Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep. Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends, created primarily for children and families and marking Aardman’s 50th annversary, features some 150 objects including never-seen-before models, sets and storyboards from Aardman’s archives as well as interactive activities ranging from designing characters and experimenting with lighting through to creating live action videos. Among the items on show are early sketches of Wallace & Gromit, a hand-drawn storyboard from The Wrong Trousers (1993) train chase, Wallace & Gromit’s motorbike and sidecar from Vengeance Most Fowl (2024), and the airship model from The Pirates! (2012). Admission charge applies. Runs until 15th November. For more, see vam.ac.uk/young.
• The women who influenced Charles Dickens are at the centre of a new exhibition at the Charles Dickens Museum. Extra/Ordinary Women features a portrait of Dickens’ daughters, Katey and Mamie, on display for the first time, Catherine Dickens’s cookbook, and a draft preface to an 1857 manual for educating working class children written by penned by Angela Burdett Coutts and including edits by Dickens in blue ink as well as items owned by Ellen Ternan, best known for her 12-year extra-marital relationship with Dickens. Admission charge applies. Runs until 6th September. For more, see https://dickensmuseum.com/blogs/all-events/extra-ordinary-women.
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London Explained – Chinatown…
As London prepares to celebrate the Lunar New Year, all eyes naturally turn to London’s Chinatown, centred on Gerrard Street in Soho.
While the street dates back to the 17th century, by the first half of the 20th century it had become known for its nightlife, initially for nightclubs and then for a seedier side as striptease clubs opened.
The city’s first Chinatown had been established in Limehouse in the 18th century as Chinese immigrants and sailors frequented the area.
But after World War II, the damage in the Limehouse area and the comparatively cheap leases available around Gerrard Street, saw Chinese moved in during the 1950s and began opening restaurants and grocery shops.
Growing numbers of Chinese arrived from Hong Kong and by 1970, Gerrard Street has become a hub for the Chinese community in London. The London Chinese Chinatown Association formed in 1978.
It was in the late 1980s that Chinese gateways, a pagoda and street furniture were added. Gerrard Street and parts of Newport Place and Macclesfield Street became pedestrianised.
The first organised Chinese New Year celebrations took place in Gerrard Street in 1985.
This year’s Chinese New Year Parade – celebrating the Year of the Horse – will take place on Sunday, 22nd February. For more, see www.london.gov.uk/events/lunar-new-year-festival-spring-2026.
10 London bishop’s palaces, past and present – 6. Fulham Palace…
The former residence of the Bishops of London for more than 1,300 years, Fulham Palace is today a museum surrounded by 13 acres of gardens on the north bank of the Thames.
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10 London bishop’s palaces, past and present – 5. Durham House…
Now long gone, this central London property was once the residence of the, you guessed it, bishops of Durham.
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Lost London – Church of St Peter le Poer…
This parish church once stood on the west side of Broad Street in the City of London and dated back to the Norman era.
The church, which originally dated from before 1181 (when it was first mentioned) and was also referred to as St Peter le Poor, may have been so-named because of the poor parish in which it was located or for its connections to the monastery of St Augustine at Austin Friars, whose monks took vows of poverty.
Whatever the reason for its name (and it has been suggested the ‘le Poer’ wasn’t added to it until the 16th century), the church was rebuilt in 1540 and then enlarged in 1615 with a new steeple and west gallery added in the following decade or so.
The church survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 but just over a 100 years later has fallen into such a state of disrepair that parishioners obtained an Act of Parliament to demolish and rebuild it.
The new church, which was designed by Jesse Gibson and moved back off Broad Street further into the churchyard, was consecrated on 19th November, 1792. Its design featured a circular nave topped by a lantern (the curved design was not visible from the street) and placed the altar directly opposite the doorway on the north-west side of the church.
The church had acquired a new organ in 1884 but the declining population in the surrounding area led to its been deemed surplus to requirements. It was demolished in 1907 and the parish united with that of St Michael Cornhill.
Proceeds of the sale were used to build a new church, St Peter Le Poer in Friern Barnet. The new church, which was consecrated on 28th June, 1910, by the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram, also received the demolished church’s font, pulpit and panelling.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to all of Exploring London’s readers! Wishing you a great start to 2026.
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas…
Don’t forget to keep an eye out for our most read posts countdown of 2025 between Christmas and New Year!
LondonLife – Streets aglow for Christmas…
This Week in London – Art deco at the London Transport Museum; art storage during WWII commemorated; and, William Dobson’s self-portrait…
• An exhibition exploring the influence of the art deco movement on graphic poster design in on now at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. Art deco: the golden age of poster design features more than a hundred original 1920s and 1930s transport posters and poster artworks alongside photography, short films, ceramics and other objects to mark the centenary of the 1925 Paris exhibition where art deco originated. In the UK, Frank Pick, then-chief executive of London Transport, was the individual most responsible for advancing this form of graphic style, master-minding the publicity for the Underground and LT from 1908 onwards. A number of the posters in the exhibition in the Global Poster Gallery have never been put on public display before. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/art-deco.
Photo: The National Gallery, London
• An inscribed stone tablet commemorating the Welsh quarry where The National Gallery’s art was protected during World War II has been put on permanent display in the gallery. The tablet, made from slate taken from the Manod quarry in Eryri (Snowdonia), was conceived by the artist Jeremy Deller and designed and carved by letter-carver John Neilson. The work, which was commissioned by Mostyn, an art gallery in Llandudno and supported by CELF – the national contemporary art gallery for Wales, can be seen in the Portico Vestibule, close to Boris Anrep’s floor mosaic of Sir Winston Churchill depicted in war time. The Manod slate mine in north Wales was chosen to store the art after an earlier proposal to evacuate the works to Canada was vetoed over fears of U-boat attacks. At the mine, explosives were used to enlarge the entrance to allow access for the the largest paintings and several small brick ‘bungalows’ were built within the caverns to protect the paintings from variations in humidity and temperature. What was known as an ‘elephant’ case was constructed to transport the paintings on trucks from London and, by the summer of 1941, the entire collection had moved to its new subterranean home, where it was to remain for four years, returning to London only after the end of the war in 1945. For more see www.nationalgallery.org.uk/.
• A self-portrait by William Dobson, widely considered to be the first great painter born in Britain, has gone on display at Tate Britain alongside a Dobson’s portrait of his wife. Dobson’s painting, which was acquired by the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery, was made between 1635 and 1640 and is said to be a “groundbreaking example of English self-portraiture”. His Portrait of the Artist’s Wife (c1635-40), which joined Tate’s collection in 1992, depicts Dobson’s second wife Judith and would have been conceived around the time of their marriage in December, 1637. Dobson rose to the role of King Charles I’s official painter before his career was cut tragically short when he died at the age of 35. For more, see tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain.
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This Week in London – Trafalgar Square Christmas tree to light up; new location for returning Sir John Tenniel plaque; and, Chinese crafts at the V&A…
• The lights will be turned on the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree tonight. This year marks the 78th anniversary of the gift of the first Christmas tree to the people of London from the Norwegian city of Oslo in acknowledgement of the support Britain gave to Norway during World War II. The festivities will include the choir of St-Martin-in-the-Fields singing some well known Christmas carols to music led by the Regent Hall Band of the Salvation Army, the reading of a poem written by children who live in Westminster, a display by The Corps of Drums from the Band of His Majesty’s Royal Marines Collingwood and a performance by Det Norske Jentekor, The Norwegian Girls’ Choir, conducted by Anne Karin Sundal-Ask. Festivities start at 5pm and the lights switch on at 6pm. The tree will be in the square until 5th January after which it will be recycled. You can follow the tree on Instagram at @TrafalgarTree, on TikTok at @TrafalgarTree, and on X at @TrafalgarTree.
• A Blue Plaque commemorating Alice in Wonderland illustrator and political cartoonist Sir John Tenniel has been returned to London’s streets – but to a different location than that where it was first positioned. The plaque, which is actually jade-green and white, was originally unveiled by the London County Council in 1930 at Tenniel’s longtime Maida Vale home (the colour was due to the request of the house-holder). But following its removal when the house was demolished in 1959, the plaque was so damaged that its destruction was authorised. But this wasn’t carried out and the plaque, which features an early “wreathed” design, has been in storage since. Following restoration, however, it has now been relocated to a new home – a property at 52 Fitz-George Avenue in West Kensington where Tenniel spent the final years of his life.
• The first major UK exhibition exploring contemporary studio crafts in China is on now at the V&A South Kensington. Dimensions: Contemporary Chinese Studio Crafts features more than 80 objects including almost 50 new acquisitions and puts a spotlight on “contemporary and modern makers who build upon longstanding tradition to reinvent ancient practices, pioneer alternative techniques, and develop new channels for self-expression”. Many of the objects – displayed in the China and Ceramics galleries – sit in dialogue alongside permanent displays of historic Chinese craftsmanship. Highlights include large scale works such as Lin Fanglu’s She’s Bestowed Love (2025), that transforms intricate tie-dye practices into a monumental textile sculpture, more delicate pieces such as Zhang Huimin’s Golden Mammary 4 (2025), a brooch produced by pushing the boundary of filigree in a reinvention of traditional practice, a wall hanging by pioneering artist of studio pottery Tan Chang, as well as works by the three potters who were the first to be exhibited in China under the mantle of ‘modern ceramics’: Mei Wending, Zeng Li and Zeng Peng. Runs until 27th September next year. Free admission. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/dimensions-contemporary-chinese-studio-crafts.
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This Week in London – Christmas at Hampton Court; Caravaggio’s Victorious Cupid; and, Romani art, culture and heritage…
• Christmas has come to Hampton Court Palace with the one-time home of King Henry VIII decorated with traditional decorations and hosting a range of Christmas-related activities. Musicians located throughout the palace are playing a mixture of classical tunes and familiar Christmas melodies while in the Wine Cellar “intriguing history” of Christmas is being brought to life in story-telling sessions. The culinary Christmas traditions of the Tudors, meanwhile, are on display in the historic kitchens with, between 20th December and 4th January, the Historic Kitchens team recreating recipes from the Tudor court. The Magic Garden is hosting a special playful outdoor adventure for younger ones between 17th December and 4th January. The Hampton Court Palace Ice Rink has also returned (until 4th January) and there’s a Christmas market being held in the Great Fountain Garden on 5th to 7th December and again on 12th to 14th December. The Festive Fayre will feature more than 100 independent exhibitors offering artisan food and drink, unique gifts and stocking fillers while there will be live music on the East Front bandstand and horse and cart rides in the grounds. Admission charge applies. For more on Christmas activties at the palace head to www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/whats-on/christmas-festivities/.
• Caravaggio’s Victorious Cupid – never-before seen in public in the UK – is at the centre of a new exhibition which has opened at the Wallace Collection. The sculpture is presented with two Roman sculptures that along with the Caravaggio were all once part of the portfolio of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564–1637), one of the most celebrated collectors of his day. The life-sized Cupid was once displayed along with works by the likes of Raphael, Titian and Giorgione in his grand palazzo located near the Pantheon in Rome along with an extensive gallery of classical sculpture. Caravaggio’s Cupid, which is free to enter, can be seen in the Exhibition Galleries until 12th April. For more, see www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/caravaggios-cupid/.
• A new display honouring the livelihoods, creativity and craft of Romani communities and their contribution to British society has opened at the London Museum Docklands. By Appointment Only: Romani art, culture and heritage centres on three works, Sugar Coated (2025) by Corrina Eastwood, Tap Your Heels Together Three Times (2025) by Delaine Le Bas and What Makes a Home? (2025) by Dan Turner. There’s also timeline by John-Henry Phillips which illustrates the history of Romani communities from 500-1000 up to 2022. This is displayed along with the Historic England film Searching for Romani Gypsy Heritage with John Henry Phillips (2024) and an oral history piece both of which contextualise the timeline. The exhibition in the Reflections Room is free. For more, see www.londonmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/by-appointment-only/.
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