Described by Historic Royal Palaces as one of Hampton Court Palace’s “crowning glories”, the Great Fountain Garden at Hampton Court Palace was created to represent the height of Baroque fashion as exemplified at the Palace of Versailles in France.
Kings of England
What’s in a name?…Great Ormond Street…
Perhaps most closely associated with the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, originally, known as the Hospital for Sick Children, this street was originally laid out in the early 18th century through what was then a rural area.
Located in Bloomsbury in the London Borough of Camden, the street runs north-east from Queen Square to Millman Street and was in the early 18th century known for its fine houses, a number of which still remain (Barbon Close, which runs south off the street is named for 17th century property developer Nicholas Barbon believed to have built a number in the street).
It is believed to have been named for James Butler, Duke of Ormonde (1610 and 1688), the Royalist commander in Ireland during the Civil War who was elevated to the dukedom following the restoration of King Charles II (there is an Ormond Yard in St James’s near where his residence was located.)
The hospital, meanwhile, stands on the north side of the street and was founded in 1852 (it’s famous for, among other things, the fact that Peter Pan author JM Barrie donated the copyright to the works to the hospital in 1929; it’s also famous, on a more medically-related note, for being one of the largest transplant centres in the world). The street is also home to The Royal London Homeopathic Hospital and was for about 50 years until 1906 the location of the Working Men’s College.
The street was also home to Powis House, built for William Herbert, 2nd Marquess of Powis, but later serving as the French Embassy. This burned down in 1713, was rebuilt by the French monarchy in an ornate style and went on to serve, between 1764 and 1783, as the Spanish Embassy before being demolished around the turn of the century. The site of the mansion is reflected in the location of Powis Place, which runs to the north off Great Ormond Street today.
Famous residents included prison reformer John Howard who lived at number 23 from 1777 until his death in 1790. Lord Thurlow, Lord Chancellor, was living at number 45 in 1784 when the Great Seal was stolen from his property (forcing the hurried creation of a new one).
This Week in London – Buckingham Palace’s Picture Gallery redisplayed; ‘Henry VIII’s Joust’ at Hampton Court Palace; and, Paul Sarrut’s images of World War I…
• Some 120 masterpieces from the Royal Collection – including paintings by Rubens, Caravaggio and Zoffany – have gone on display in Buckingham Palace’s Picture Gallery in a major transformation of the storied room. The new presentation, which almost doubles the number of works on show, comes as the palace’s State Rooms open to visitors for summer. Highlights of the redisplay, which took some 875 hours to complete, include Johan Zoffany’s The Tribuna of Uffizi which depicts the famed Florentine gallery with works by Holbein, Rubens and Raphael all identifiable, as well as George Stubbs’ A Rough Dog, believed to show King George IV’s pet dog, Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait of Johann Christian Fischer, not believed to have been hung in the gallery display before. Other new works include The Letter by Vermeer contemporary Gerard ter Borch, and Caravaggio’s The Calling for Saints Peter and Andrew while five paintings by Rembrandt have now been hung together and seven works by Rubens have been reunited. The gallery was created during the John Nash-designed redevelopment of what had been Buckingham House into Buckingham Palace and while King George IV died before its completion, the first arrangement was hung by the time Queen Victoria acceded to the throne in 1837. Open until 27th September. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.rct.uk.
• See jousting amid the drama of the Tudor court at Hampton Court Palace over the next two weekends. ‘Henry VIII’s joust’ will take visitors back to 1526 when they can watch knights clash on horseback while tensions build as it’s discovered Anne Boleyn has not been formally invited to the event. The family friendly event, which is taking place over the weekends of 11th and 12th July and 18th and 19th July, is included in general admission to the palace. For more, see https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/.
• The first ever UK exhibition dedicated to the work of World War I French liaison officer and interpreter Paul Sarrut has opened at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. Drawn on the Western Front: Paul Sarrut and the Indian Army features more than 50 drawings and works on paper exploring the experiences of some of the more than a million Indian men who volunteered to serve in the British Indian Army during the war. The display features Sarrut’s famous image of Sepoy Harnam Singh as well as also uniforms, photographs, archives and medals. The latter include Victoria Crosses awarded to Frank de Pass, the first Jewish recipient, and Khudadad Khan, the first Muslim and first soldier from the Indian subcontinent to receive the award. Free to enter. Runs until 27th February, 2027. For more, see https://www.nam.ac.uk.
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LondonLife – Trooping the Colour…
The annual King’s Birthday Parade, also known as Trooping the Colour, was held on Saturday in central London. The event saw 1,500 soldiers and hundreds of horses from the Household Division carry out complex drill manoeuvres to a programme of music and concluded with a 41 Gun Salute in Green Park, a 62 Gun Salute at Tower of London, and a flypast of military aircraft over Buckingham Palace.
LondonLife – The State Opening of Parliament…
King Charles III and Queen Camilla attended the State Opening of Parliament last Wednesday.
A Moment in London’s History…London Zoo is founded…
The origins of the modern ZSL London Zoo go back 200 years to the founding of the London Zoological Society by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles on 29th April, 1826.
While the idea of a zoo had been debated for some years, it was the death of Chunee the bull elephant at Cross’s Menagerie in the Exeter Exchange on the Strand that is said to have been the catalyst for immediate action.
Chunee, who’d been kept in an enclosure at the menagerie for six years, had been put down by a firing squad of soldiers after, having become aggressive during musth (a natural condition in adult male elephants which sees them experience a massive surge of testosterone and is often characterised by erratic behaviour), had injured one of his keepers and killed another. The soldiers, acting on the wishes of the menagerie’s proprietor Edward Cross, had fired 152 musketballs into the elephant but still had to finish him off with a harpoon.
Such was the outrage at this tragic event, that Raffles, famous for having established a trading post at Singapore, moved to to found the society.
Sir Thomas obtained land for the zoo in Regent’s Park before his death on 5th July that year (his birthday) but it was his successor, Whig politician Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, who oversaw the construction of the zoo’s first animal houses drawing on the services of architect Decimus Burton.
The zoo opened to fellows of the society on 27th April, 1828, permitting them to study the animals. It was granted a Royal Charter by King George IV in 1829. In 1831, animals held in the Tower of London’s menagerie were transferred to the zoo.
It wasn’t until 1847 that it opened to the public in a plan aimed at raising funds for its upkeep.
Initial animals at the zoo included monkeys, bears, kangaroos and zebras – naturalist Charles Darwin was among those who visited in the early years and was fascinated by an ape named Jenny.
While it wasn’t the first zoo in the world (but was the world’s first scientific zoo), it was later responsible for numerous world firsts with the first reptile house opening in 1849, the first public aquarium in 1853 and the first insect house in 1881. In 1850, Obaysch, the first hippo in Europe since Roman times, came to live at the zoo.
Others among the more famous animals housed at the zoo were the African elephant Jumbo who arrived in 1865, the Black bear Winnie who was part of the inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh, and Guy the Gorilla who arrived in 1947.
Larger animals were moved out to Whipsnade Zoo, the world’s first open-air zoo, in Bedfordshire in 1931.
Treasures of London – Tudor heart pendant…
The subject of a recent fund-raising campaign by the British Museum, the unique 24 carat gold heart-shaped pendant is linked to King Henry VIII and his first wife Queen Katherine of Aragon.
The pendant was discovered by a metal detectorist in Warwickshire in 2019. It features enamelled motifs depicting a Tudor rose intertwined with a pomegranate tree – the personal emblem of Katherine. Beneath them is a banner containing the word ‘touriors’, old French for ‘always’.
The obverse side is decorated with the initials ‘H’ and ‘K’ united by a tasselled cord and it also features a banner with the word ‘touriers’.
The jewel is attached to a 75 link gold chain by a clasp in the form of a hand emerging from a cloud.
The pendant is a rare surviving object celebrating Henry and Katherine’s marriage which was the longest of his life, lasting some 24 years before he ultimately had it annulled in 1533.
British Museum research has suggested that it may have been created for a tournament held in October, 1518, to mark the betrothal of the couple’s daughter, Princess Mary (late Queen Mary I), to the French heir. King Henry VIII was known to have frequently commissioned London goldsmiths to create jewellery peces for major celebrations and state occasions.
The museum announced that it had raised its target of £3.5 million to acquire the pendant on Valentine’s Day following a £1.75 million grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
Other major donations made during the campaign, which was championed by actor Damian Lewis (who played King Henry VIII in the series Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light), included £500,000 from the Julia Rausing Trust, £400,000 from the Art Fund including a contribution from The Rought Fund, and £300,000 from the American Friends of the British Museum.
Meanwhile, more than 45,000 people gave individual donations to the campaign, totalling £380,000.
The pendant can be seen in the British Museum’s Collecting the world gallery.
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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10 London bishop’s palaces, past and present – 8. Bishop of Ely’s palace…
Once a significant estate on the northern outskirts of London, the palace of the Bishops of Ely was used for some 500 years as their London residence.
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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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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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10 London bishop’s palaces, past and present – 3. Winchester Palace…
Now a few scant ruins located in Southwark, this was once the opulent palace of one of the most powerful clergymen in the country.
We’ve written about Winchester Palace before but we thought it was worth a second look in our current series.
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10 London bishop’s palaces, past and present – 2. York Place…
The precursor to Whitehall Palace, York Place was the London residence of the Archbishops of York between the 13th and 16th centuries.
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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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10 London bishop’s palaces, past and present – 1. Lambeth Palace…
Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London since 2018, was named as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury in October so we thought it a good time to explore some of the grand palaces which served as bishop’s palaces, some of them still standing and others not.
And what more appropriate place to start than Lambeth Palace, the official Thames-side residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
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LondonLife I – Marking 80 years since the end of World War II…
Earlier…
Bonfire Night – Five places in London featured in the events of the Gunpowder Plot…
It’s 5th November and that means Bonfire Night, the annual event featuring bonfires, effigies of Guy Fawkes (and others), and fireworks displays in commemoration of the November, 1605, foiling of a conspiracy to kill King James I (and many others) by blowing up the House of Lords (you can read more about it in earlier posts here and here).
Here’s five places of significance to the story of the plot:
1. The Houses of Parliament: It was in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords that Guy Fawkes was found with 36 barrels of gunpowder. The cellar is now gone – having been destroyed when the Houses of Parliament burned down in 1834.
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Lost London – The Whitehall Mural…
Known through its many surviving copies, the Whitehall Mural was a dynastic portrait understood to have been created to decorate a privy chamber of King Henry VIII at the Palace of Whitehall.
by Hans Holbein the Younger
ink and watercolour, circa 1536-1537
NPG 4027 © National Portrait Gallery, London (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
The mural, which was the work of Hans Holbein the Younger, featured four figures standing around a central plinth. They include King Henry VIII and his wife Jane Seymour at the front with the King’s parents King Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth of York at the back.
It is believed the portrait, commissioned during the King’s brief marriage to Jane Seymour (between 30th May 1536 and 24th October 1537), may have been created to celebrate the birth of Prince Edward (later King Edward VI) in 1537 and may have been commissioned before or after the prince’s birth.
The iconic image of the bearded King Henry VIII – which was created for the purposes of propaganda – shows him as something of an idealised powerful monarch with feet firmly planted apart and his arms out with a dagger hanging at his waist.
The mural was lost when a fire consumed much of the palace on 4th January, 1698. But copies – both of the mural as a whole and of the individual figure of King Henry VIII – survive including one by Flemish artist Remigius van Leemput commissioned by King Charles II the year before the fire.
There’s also a full-sized cartoon (pictured) showing the left-hand section of the mural which was created by Holbein in preparing to create the mural. Depicting King Henry VIII – his head turned in a slightly different aspect to the final version – and King Henry VII, it would been used to mark out the mural on the wall where it stood.
This Week in London – The story of Henry VIII’s lost dagger; ‘Secret Maps’ at the British Library; and, ‘Connection and Identity’ at Greenwich…
• The disappearance of a jewelled Ottoman dagger which is believed to have once belonged to King Henry VIII has inspired a new exhibition at Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole’s former home in Twickenham in London’s west. Henry VIII’s Lost Dagger: From the Tudor Court to the Victorian Stage looks at the history of the 16th century dagger which, said to have been richly decorated with “a profusion of rubies and diamonds”, was once part of Horace Walpole’s collection. When the collection was sold in 1842, the dagger passed into ownership of the Shakespearean actor Charles John Kean who directed private theatricals for Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. Kean (1811-1868) pioneered what critics dubbed “living museums” on the Victorian stage by using real artifacts, including the dagger, during performances. But after Kean’s death the dagger vanished without a trace. Dr Silvia Davoli, the principal curator at Strawberry Hill House, launched an investigation to find the dagger and instead found six almost identical daggers scattered around the globe. Two of these daggers – known as the Vienna and Welbeck Abbey examples – are featured in the exhibition alongside reproductions of 18th century materials which related to Walpole’s lost dagger from Yale University’s Lewis Walpole Library. The exhibition can be seen from Saturday until 16th February. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk.
• The role maps have played in preserving secrets for the benefit of their creators from the 14th century to the present day is the subject of a new exhibition at the British Library. Secret Maps features more than 100 items ranging from hand-drawn naval charts given to Henry VIII to maps of cable networks used to intercept messages between the world wars; and the satellite tracking technology used by apps today. Among highlights are a map from 1596 attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh on an expedition in search of the mythical city of El Dorado in what is now Guyana in South America; a map produced in 1946 of British India (modern-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) with a ‘top secret’ report investigating the potential economic and military impact of partition for the proposed state of Pakistan; one of only two known existing copies of a secret map produced by Ordnance Survey during the General Strike of 1926 amid fears of a public uprising; and a 1927 Cable Map of the world which reveals a global network of censorship stations and was used by the British government to intercept messages sent via submarine and overland cables. Runs until 18th January (and accompanied by a programme of events). Admission charge applies. For more, see https://events.bl.uk/exhibitions/secretmaps.
• Staffordshire-based artist Peter Walker’s large scale interactive artworks, Connection and Identity, can be seen in the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich from Friday. Identity features eight columns suspended within the hall which shift in colour and light while Connection showcases “a dramatic and modern reinterpretation of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam“. The installation, which is located in the hall sometimes described as “Britain’s Sistine Chapel”, is accompanied by music specially composed by David Harper. Runs until 25th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://ornc.org/whats-on/connection-and-identity/.
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