Earlier…
LondonLife I – Marking 80 years since the end of World War II…
Twentieth century
What’s in a name?…Stockwell…
This district in the Borough of Lambeth in south London was formerly a rural manor located on the southern edge of London.
The name, variants of which date back to at least the late 12th century, is said to relate to the Old English words for a tree trunk – ‘stoc’ – and a well or spring, ‘wella’, and has been interpreted as meaning the well or spring by a tree stump, tree truck or perhaps a wood (there was apparently a Stockwell Wood which has long since disappeared).
The manor of Stockwell was formed at the end of the 13th century when King Edward I acquired the manor of South Lambeth and divided it into two, creating the manors of Stockwell and Vauxhall (the manor house itself, parts of which survived until the 19th century, stood on the north side of Stockwell Road).
The area become known for its market gardens and was transformed into an urban landscape until the mid-19th century. Remnants of the 19th century housing stock can still be found in areas including the Stockwell Park Conservation Area in the west of the district.
The area around Stockwell Tube station, which first opened in 1890 and has since been rebuilt a couple times, was heavily bombed during World War II and rebuilt following the war. New developments included a number of social housing estates.
Today, Stockwell and nearby South Lambeth host the district known as Little Portugal which, centred on South Lambeth Road, is home to one of the UK’s largest Portuguese communities. The area is also home to several other immigrant communities.
Local landmarks include the oldest surviving building in the area – St Andrew’s Church, Stockwell Green (built in 1767), the Stockwell Congregational Church (1798) and the Stockwell War Memorial.
The latter – a white stone tower – is located on a site first laid out in the 1920s and features a mural on an adjoining ventilation shelter commemorating French Resistance fighter Violette Szabo (there’s a Blue Plaque on her former home in Burnley Road) and other Stockwell residents who died in war. There is also the ‘Bronze Woman’ statue which was unveiled in 2008 as a tribute to Black Caribbean women.
Residents of Stockwell have included artist Arthur Rackham and pioneering theatre director Joan Littlewood as well as musician David Bowie (born in Stansfield Road), actors Joanna Lumley (who still lives there) and Roger Moore (born in Aldebert Terrace).
Tragically, Stockwell Tube station was where Brazilian man Jean Charles de Menezes was fatally shot by police on 22nd July, 2005, after being misidentified as one of four suicide bombers who were on the run after their devices had failed to detonate the previous day (the attempts had come just two weeks after the 7th July bombings in which more than 50 people had been killed).
Treasures of London – Coronation Stone, Kingston upon Thames…
This month marks the 1,100th anniversary of the coronation of the Saxon King Aethelstan, so we thought it fitting to recall the place of his coronation, believed to be the Coronation Stone at the heart of the south-west London Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.
Located outside the Guildhall, the now Grade I-listed stone is an ancient block of sarsen stone which was originally at a chapel, believed to have been wooden, on the edge of the town’s market place (close to the site of All Saints Church which originally dates from the 12th century).
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Lost London – Kew Gardens’ flagpole(s)…
Once the tallest wooden flagpole in the world at 68 (225 feet) tall, the Kew Gardens flagpole stood for almost 50 years before it was dismantled in 2007.
The flagpole, a Douglas fir from Copper Canyon on Vancouver Island, was erected on 5th November, 1959, as a gift from the the British Columbia Loggers Association in Canada to mark both the centenary of the Canadian province of British Columbia (1958) and the bicentenary of Kew Gardens (1959).
The tree, which was around 370-years-old when cut, had originally weighed 37 tonnes, but after it was floated up the Thames to Kew and there underwent shaping, this was reduced to 15 tonnes.
Sadly, in 2006, it unfortunately failed its safety inspection – thanks to decay and woodpeckers – and was taken down the following year.
The flagpole was apparently the third (strictly the fourth) erected on the same site at the gardens which had originally been occupied by the ‘Temple of Victory’, a structure which had been built on the orders of King George III to commemorate the Anglo-German victory over the French at the 1759 Battle of Minden during the Seven Years’ War and which was removed in the mid 19th century.
The first flagpole on the site, which stood more than 31 metres (100 feet) tall. was erected in 1861. It had also come from Vancouver Island in British Columbia and replaced one which had snapped when it was in the process of being erected.
The pole was finally taken down in 1913 after being found to be suffering from dry rot.
A replacement, again from British Columbia, was erected in 1919 (its raising having been somewhat delayed by factors related to World War I). It was removed some time before 1959.
After the third giant flagpole was removed (the concrete footing can still be seen), the gardens decided not to erect another as that would mean cutting down another large tree. While far less of a spectacle, there is now a lesser flagpole near Victoria Gate where the flag is flown on special occasions.
10 World War II memorials commemorating Londoners – 10. Blitz Memorial (Memorial to the Civilians of East London)…
This evocative memorial, which stands on the north bank of the River Thames at Wapping, is designed to show the figure (or rather the absence of the figure) of a dove.
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This Week in London – Royal art on tour; ‘More than Human’ at the Design Museum; and, the St Paul’s Watch celebrated…
• More than 70 works of art from the King’s private collection – many of which have never been shown publicly before – go on show from today as part of the summer opening of Buckingham Palace’s State Rooms. The King’s Tour Artists, which can be seen in the ballroom, features works by 43 artists who have travelled with the King and Queen during the past 40 years. They include the earliest work on show – From the Afterdeck of HMY Britannia by John Ward, the inaugural tour artist – as well as Basilica of San Vitale, created by Fraser Scarfe who became the first tour artist to create digital artwork on an iPad when he accompanied the King and Queen on a State Visit to Italy. Other works include a pair of portraits of the King and Queen when Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall which were painted by James Hart Dyke following a tour to the Gulf States in 2007, a drawing by Claudette Johnson made after the first official royal visit to Rwanda in 2022, and a terracotta head by Marcus Cornish, the only sculptor ever to have been chosen as a tour artist, which depicts a war veteran met by the royal party during a visit to Slovakia in 2000. Other highlights of the summer opening include the chance to see the recently installed Coronation State Portraits of the King and Queen in their permanent home. Runs until 28th September. Admission charge applies. To book, head to www.rct.uk.
• Artworks for octopii and an immersive seaweed installation are among artworks in a new exhibition at the Design Museum focusing on a growing movement of ‘more-than-human’ design. More than Human brings together more than 140 works spanning contemporary and traditional practices, fine art, product design, architecture and interactive installations – the work of more than 50 artists, architects and designers. As well as the artworks for octopuses by Japanese artist Shimabuku and the seaweed installation by artist Julia Lohmann, other highlights include a vast new tapestry that explores the perspectives of pollinators by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and an eight metre long mural by MOTH (More Than Human Life Project), depicting the growing movement to award legal rights to waterways around the world. Runs until 5th October. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/more-than-human.
• On Now: Saving St Paul’s: The Watch and the Second World War. This free outdoor exhibition – part of St Paul’s Cathedral’s commemorations around the 80th anniversary of World War II, honours the volunteers known as the St Paul’s Watch and their efforts to protect the cathedral during the Blitz. That included during the two direct hits to the cathedral – in October, 1940, and April, 1941. A short film accompanies the display which can be seen in the cathedral garden. The exhibition can be seen until October, 2025. For more, see www.stpauls.co.uk.
10 World War II memorials commemorating Londoners…7. First V1 rocket to strike London…
The first V1 rocket attack on London took place in June, 1944, and resulted in six deaths and 30 injuries.
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10 World War II memorials commemorating Londoners…5. The Stairway to Heaven Memorial, Bethnal Green…
This unique memorial commemorates the worst civilian tragedy of World War II in the UK – the disaster at Bethnal Tube station in east London.
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Lost London – Hotel Cecil…
Once the biggest hotel in Europe, the opulent Hotel Cecil opened in 1896 on a prominent site overlooking the Thames. But it only survived for little more than three decades.
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10 World War II memorials commemorating Londoners…3. Coronation Avenue bombing…
Weeks after the start of the Blitz, on 13th October, 1940, a bomb struck a residential housing block and the air raid shelter located in Stoke Newington.
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10 World War II memorials commemorating Londoners…2. Kennington Park air raid shelter…
More than 100 people died when, on the night of 15th October, 1940, a bomb destroyed an air raid shelter located in Kennington Park in Lambeth.
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While no official death toll was announced at the time, it’s now believed that 104 people died in the bombing. Forty-eight bodies were recovered and buried in Streatham Cemetery while the remainder still lie under the park.
The majority of those killed were women and children with the youngest just three-months-old. The oldest known victim was 75.
While Lambeth’s civilian dead are commemorated in a memorial at Lambeth Cemetery dedicated in 1952, in early 2000s the Friends of Kennington Park raised funds for a permanent memorial to those killed in the tragedy in the park.
The memorial, which was designed by Richard Kindersley and is located in the South Field close to the Tinworth Fountain Gate, is an upright stab of Caithness stone brought from Scotland standing 2.6 metres tall.
It is inscribed with a quote from poet Maya Angelou – “History despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived but if faced with courage need not be lived again.”
While another inscription around the edge of the stone commemorates the more than “50 men, women and children” who died during the bombing, a nearby interpretation board puts the toll at more than 100.
WHERE: Kennington Park, inside the Tinworth Fountain Gate, Kennington Park Road, Lambeth (nearest Tube station is Oval); WHEN: Usually 7.30am until 15 minutes before sunset; COST: Free; WEBSITE: www.lambeth.gov.uk/parks/kennington-park
Where’s London’s oldest…(still running) Indian restaurant)?
The oldest Indian restaurant in London – and, according to the website, the UK – Veeraswamy was founded in 1926, at 99 Regent Street.
The restaurant was opened by Edward Palmer, the great-grandson of General William Palmer, who was secretary to Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of India and the Moghul Princess Faisan Nissa Begum.
It’s name is said to have come from his mother’s family and Palmer is said to have been greatly influenced by the princess in the creation of the menu.
The restaurant – located in Victory House and entered from Swallow Street – was taken over by the MP William Steward in 1934. He sold it in 1967 and the restaurant later passed through several hands.
The current owners – Namita Panjabi & Ranjit Mathrani of MW Eat – bought it in 1996. They have since modernised the menu and interiors.
Over the years, the restaurant has attracted a star-studded clientele which included royalty including Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), King Abdullah of Jordan, and the Maharajah of Cooch-Behar as well as Winston Churchill, actor Marlon Brando and Princess Anne.
In 2016, the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star.
The restaurant, which is located on the Crown Estate, is currently collecting signatures for a petition asking King Charles III to intercede with the Crown Commissioners, asking them to renew its lease after the commissioner served a notice to vacate. The matter is currently before the courts.
For more, see www.veeraswamy.com/.
This Week in London – Hiroshige at the British Museum; poppies return to Tower for VE Day commemoration; and, Do Ho Suh at the Tate Modern…
• An exhibition exploring the art and legacy of Japanese artist Hiroshige opens at the British Museum today. Hiroshige: artist of the open road takes visitors on a “lyrical journey” through Edo-period Japan, exploring both natural landscapes and urban life as well as considering Utagawa Hiroshige’s (1797– 1858) lasting influence on modern and contemporary art. The display marks the major gift of 35 Hiroshige prints to the American Friends of the British Museum from the collection of Alan Medaugh, a leading US collector of the artist’s work with these works being shown alongside 82 Hiroshige prints loaned by Medaugh and other works. Among them are the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Highway (1833–35), One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856–58) and Eight Views of Stations along the Main and Secondary Roads (about 1839) as well as examples of his famous bird-and-flower prints Runs in the Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery (Room 35) until 7th September. Admission charge applies. For more, see britishmuseum.org/hiroshige.
• The 80th anniversary of World War II is being marked with a new display of ceramic poppies in the Tower of London. Almost 30,000 poppies, previously seen in Paul Cummins’ 2014 artwork, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, are being used in the new installation designed by Tom Piper. Opens on 6th May in advance of the 80th anniversary of VE Day, marking the official end of the World War II in Europe, on 8th May. Included in admission with a small section visible from the public footpath. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/tower-remembers-2025.
• The large-scale installations, sculptures, videos and drawings of artist Do Ho Suh are going on show at the Tate Modern from today. The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House, the title of which comes from a Korean expression referring to the hanok – a house that could theoretically be disassembled, transported and reassembled at a new site, includes works from across three decades. They include the new installation Nest/s (2024) and Perfect Home: London, Horsham, New York, Berlin, Providence, Seoul (2024), Who Am We? (2000_ – a mosaic of tens of thousands of tiny portrait photographs collected from sources including school yearbooks, and his major Rubbing/Loving Project: Seoul Home (2013-22) project. Runs at the Bankside institution until 19th October. Admission charge applies. For more, see tate.org.uk.
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10 historic London docks…7. Royal Docks…
This series of three inter-connected docks in London’s east were once the largest enclosed docks in the world (they’re still the largest enclosed docks in the UK).
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LondonLife – Cambridge completes a clean sweep at The Boat Race…
CCambridge took the honours over Oxford in both the men’s and women’s races as well as both reserve races and the lightweight men’s and women’s races in the annual rowing event on the River Thames in west London on Sunday.
The Light-Blues won the men’s race by five-and-a-half lengths – their sixth victory in seven years, while the women won by two-and-a-half lengths in their eighth consecutive win.
There was controversy when the women’s race had to be restarted – the first time its happened on the Championship Course (the women’s race moved there in 2015 having earlier been held at Henley-on-Thames and before 1977 on the River Isis in Oxford and the Cam in Cambridge – and history was also made in the men’s race with Sarah Winckless the first female umpire.
The first men’s race was held in 1829 and the first women’s in 1927. It takes place over what is known as the Championship Course which covers 4.25 miles between Putney and Mortlake.
For more on the race, see www.theboatrace.org.
10 historic London docks…5. The London Docks…
Once the largest enclosed docks in the world, the London Docks were constructed in Wapping in the early 19th century.
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A Moment in London’s History – The taking of the Stone of Scone…
A rectangular block of pale yellow sandstone decorated with a Latin cross, the Stone of Scone, also known as the Stone of Destiny, long featured in the crowning of Scottish kings. But in 1296, it was seized by King Edward I as a trophy of war.
He brought it back to England (or did he? – it has been suggested the stone captured by Edward was a substitute and the real one was buried or otherwise hidden). In London, it was placed under a wooden chair known as the Coronation Chair or King Edward’s Chair on which most English and later British sovereigns were crowned.
On Christmas Day, 1950, four Scottish nationalist students – Ian Hamilton, Kay Matheson, Gavin Vernon and Alan Stuart – decided to liberate the 152 kilogram stone and return it to Scotland.
The stone broke in two when it was dropped while it was being removed (it was later repaired by a stone mason). The group headed north and, after burying the greater part of it briefly in a field to hide it, the stone was – on 11th April, 1951 – eventually left on the altar of Arbroath Abbey in Scotland.
No charges were ever laid against the students.
It was brought back to the abbey and used in the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
The stone was eventually returned to Scotland in 1996 on the proviso it could be temporarily relocated back to London for coronations and now sits in Edinburgh Castle. It was taken to London temporarily in 2023 for the coronation of King Charles III but has since been returned.
There is a replica of the stone at Scone Castle in Scotland.
10 historic London docks…2. St Katharine Docks…
Located just to the east of the Tower of London, St Katharine Docks were opened in 1828 following the demolition of more than 1,000 houses along with a brewery and what was left of the medieval St Katharine’s Hospital.
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Where’s London’s oldest…(purpose-built) mosque?
We’ve amended this article based on feedback….
While there is believed to have been at least one earlier mosque opened in London (a room in a house was apparently converted for this purpose in Albert Street, Camden, in 1895), London’s first purpose-built mosque opened in 1926 in Southfields in the city’s south-west.
Known as the Fazl Mosque (Grace Mosque in English), the mosque – which is also known as the London Mosque and is the second oldest in Britain – is said to have cost some £6,223 and is understood to have been designed by TH Mawson and Sons.
Said to have been financed by the donations of Ahmadiyya community in India (the land had been purchased in 1920), the foundation stone was laid in 1924 by Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad, the second Caliph of the Ahmadiyya and leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
The Grade II-listed building was formally opened by Khan Bahadur Sheikh Abdul Qadir, an ex-minister of Punjab Legislative Council, on 4th October, 1926, with about 600 guests.
The mosque can accommodate about 150 people and the first Imam was Maulana Abdul Rahim Dard.
Visitors to the mosque have included King Saud of Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince Faisal Bin Abdul-Aziz, who visited in 1935. In more recent times, Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, and Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, have both visited the property.
The fourth caliph, Mirza Tahir Ahmad, lived in an apartment in a separate building on the premises, originally built for the mosque’s imam, after migrating from Pakistan where prohibitions were placed on the Ahmadis, banning them from any public expression of the Islamic faith.
It remained so until his death in 2003 after which the current caliph, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, lived there until relocating to the estate known as Islamabad in Tilford in 2019.
During this period between 1984 and 2019, the mosque at 16 Gressenhall Road served as the de facto headquarters of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community worldwide.
This Week in London – The Charles Dickens Museum celebrates 100 years; activist Olive Morris commemorated; and, ‘The Story of Soldier Magazine’…
• The Charles Dickens Museum, located in the author’s former home at 48 Doughty Street in Bloomsbury, is marking its centenary this year, and to celebrate the occasion, it’s holding a special exhibition of highlights from its collection. The museum, which first opened its doors on 9th June, 1925, has brought together everything from Dickens’ hairbrush, walking stick and only surviving suit through to portraits and photographs made during his lifetime as well as original manuscripts, letters to his family and friends and rare first editions. The exhibition runs on 29th June. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://dickensmuseum.com/.
• Housing rights campaigner and activist Olive Morris has been commemorated with an English Heritage Blue Plaque in Brixton. Jamaican-born Morris (1952-1979), who dedicated her life to helping the oppressed and exploited, hosted Black women’s study groups and lived as a squatter at the three storey property at 121 Ralston Road in the 1970s. She was a significant figure in the British Black Panther movement, co-founded the Brixton Black Women’s Group and the Organization of Women of African and Asian Descent in 1978, and was one of the “Old Bailey three” who were acquitted after being prosecuted over a protest outside the Old Bailey, winning the right to a fair representation of Black people on the jury during the court proceedings. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/.
• Soldier magazine, the official magazine of the British Army, is marking its 80th anniversary with an exhibition ay the National Army Museum. The Story of Soldier Magazine charts the publication’s history from March, 1945, when it was launched by Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, through the role it’s played in covering every major conflict since as well as the issues shaping military life. Runs until 6th July. Admission is free. For more, see https://www.nam.ac.uk.
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