LondonLife

LondonLife – Christmas lights up at Kew…

by exploringlondon

kewaMore than 60,000 lights are being used to illuminate Kew Gardens this Christmas in a mile long trail through the foliage. The trail features eight newly commissioned installations from UK and international artists including Bloom – a display of 1,700 swaying flowers by the group Squidsoup (above), and the roaring scented Fire Garden – a display themed around the Twelve Days of Christmas by And Now: (pictured below are three French hens from the installation). The trail also features Wolfgang Buttress’ bee-inspired installation, known as the The Hive (pictured second below), which has been lit with 1,000 LEDs that pulsate and glow against the night sky, and finishes with an “explosion” of brightly coloured laser beams across the Palm House Pond (pictured third below). There’s also a panto featuring Santa and his elves and a Victorian carousel. The night lights can be seen until 2nd January. Admission charge applies (and there’s timed entry). Kew is also running a program of family-oriented Christmas activities during the day across the period. For more, see www.kew.org. PICTURES: Jeff Eden, RBG Kew.

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LondonLife – Autumn colour in Bushy Park…

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Autumnal colour on display in Bushy Park, south-west London. For more on the history of the park, see our earlier post here.

PICTURE: David Adams

LondonLife – Gasometer, East Greenwich…

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A gasometer built in 1886 as part of the South Metropolitan Gas Company’s East Greenwich works.

PICTURE: Sérgio Rola/Unsplash

LondonLife – HMS Belfast marks 45 years on the Thames…

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The HMS Belfast has marked 45 years since it sailed up the River Thames to its current mooring site off The Queen’s Walk, just to the west of Tower Bridge. The ship, which is Europe’s only surviving World War II cruiser and which, as well as taking part in that conflict, also saw action in the Korean War, opened to the public in 1971. More than nine million people have since visited the ship which features nine decks, all of which are open to sightseers. For more on the ship, see www.iwm.org.uk/visits/hms-belfast.

LondonLife – Heathrow gets greener…

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heathrow-garden-gateThe UK’s first airport “garden gate” – featuring some 1,680 plants – has been planted at Heathrow’s Terminal 3 in a six month trial of the concept which could see the garden gates being implemented across the airport. Designed by urban greening specialists Biotecture, the installation at Gate 25 covers seven different sites in the gate room and features plants such as English native ivy and the Peace Lily and provides an “eco-sanctuary”, conveying a sense of calm to passengers as they embark on their journey.

LondonLife – Decorative Bloomsbury…

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LondonLife – ‘Really Good’…

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really-good-by-david-shrigley-c-gautier-deblondeA giant hand giving a thumbs-up, the latest commission to grace Trafalgar Square’s famous Fourth Plinth, was unveiled late last month. Really Good, by UK artist David Shrigley stands seven metres high and features a disproportionately long thumb arising from a closed fist. The sculpture is the latest in a string of artworks to have graced the plinth which was built in 1841 and originally designed to hold a statue of King William IV but, thanks to a lack of money, remained empty until recent times. Speaking at the launch of the new work last month, the artist said the work was about “making the world a better place or it purports to actually make the world a better place”. “Obviously, this is a ridiculous proposition, but I think it’s a good proposition,” The Independent reports him saying. “Artworks on their own are inanimate objects so they can’t make the world a better place. It is us, so I guess we have to ask ourselves how we can do this.” For more on the Fourth Plinth program, see www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/arts-and-culture/art-and-design/fourth-plinth-2016

PICTURE: © Gautier Deblonde

LondonLife – Rooftop view…

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Looking across the roof of the National Gallery past Nelson’s Column to Westminster. PICTURE: London & Partners.

LondonLife – ‘Floating Dreams’ on the Thames

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Part of the Totally Thames festival, South Korean artist Ik-Joong Kang’s eye-catching installation, Floating Dreams, acts a memorial to the millions of people who were displaced and divided during the Korean War (1950-53) as well as symbolising the hopes that North and South Korea will once again be unified. The three-storey high installation, which sits on the river alongside Millennium Bridge, is constructed from 500 drawings created by the generation, now aged in their 80s and 90s, who had fled North Korea for South Korea during the war. Their images have been transferred on pieces of a traditional Korean rice paper known as Hanji and then compiled into the cube. The illuminated installation can be seen throughout the festival which runs until 30th September. For more on what’s happening throughout Totally Thames, see http://totallythames.org.

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LondonLife – West End street scene…

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Looking down Shaftesbury Avenue, the heart of London’s Theatreland, in the West End. PICTURE: Pedro Szekely/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

LondonLife – Remembering the Great Fire of 1666…

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London blazed again on Sunday night when a 120 metre long wooden replica of the city as it was in Restoration times was set alight to mark 350th years since the Great Fire of London. London 1666 was designed by US “burn artist” David Best for London’s Burning – a festival of events in the City of London produced by Artichoke to mark the anniversary. It had been placed on a barge moored in the River Thames before it was lit up to ensure that the fire didn’t spread anywhere it wasn’t wanted. The actual Great Fire of London broke out in a bakery on Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on 2nd September, 1666, and blazed across the city for four days, destroying more than three quarters of the old City of London as it render tens of thousands of Londoners homeless and devastated iconic structures like Old St Paul’s Cathedral. You can see a video of the burn here. PICTURES: © Matthew Andrews.

 

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LondonLife – Capturing nearly 600 years of London’s past…

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©-London-Met-Archives-Collage-323131Albury Street in Deptford, 1911. The image, taken by the London County Council, is just one of thousands which form part of a new free, online resource, Collage – The London Picture Archive. The world’s largest collection of images of London, the archive contains more than 250,000 images of London spanning the period from 1450 to the present day. It includes more than 8,000 historical photographs of life on the capital’s streets as well as major events – everything from the Great Fire of London in 1666 to the construction of Tower Bridge in the late 19th century. The photographs, maps, prints, paintings and films in the collection are all drawn from the collections of the City of London Corporation’s Guildhall Art Gallery and the London Metropolitan Archives in Clerkenwell. Other images shown here include (above right) ‘Street Life in London’, 1877 (taken by Adolphe Smith and John Thomson, this image was an early use of photography); (below) ‘Construction of the Metropolitan Railway (the first tube line)’, 1862 (taken at King’s Cross Station); and (far below), ‘The Construction of Tower Bridge’, 1891-1892 (taken from Tower Embankment). Collage – The London Picture Archive is free to access and available at www.collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk.

All images © London Metropolitan Archives (City of London).

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LondonLife – Tranquil waters of the Barbican…

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Inside the Barbican Estate residential development in the City of London. The Brutalist, Grade II listed, complex was developed in the 1960s and 1970s in an area which had been devastated in the bombing of World War II. For more on the development and the origins of its name, see our earlier post here. PICTURE: David Adams

LondonLife – Cricket at Regent’s Park…

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A quintessentially English summer pastime in London’s inner north.

PICTURE: David Adams

LondonLife – Shaded avenue on Hampstead Heath…

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LondonLife – Gnomes talk it up in Hampton Court Palace gardens…

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Fifteen gnomes have taken up residence in Hampton Court Palace’s gardens for the next couple of months and they’re feeling particularly chatty. The gnomes have been specially designed by local community groups and each reflects a unique aspect of the palace landscapes. They also each have a unique tale to tell through the voice of Umbriel, a gnome who starred in Alexander Pope’s epic poem, The Rape of the Lock, which was set at Hampton Court Palace (in fact it was the first time the word gnome appeared in English). Umbriel, voiced by actor Stephen Mangan, will regale visitors with tales from the palace’s rich history – from the time a mole unhorsed King William III through to the time a periwig was left behind by its owner in the maze (the stories were all written by schools and community groups for the project as well as children’s author Francesca Simon, poet Michael Rosen, and Historic Royal Palace’s joint chief curator Lucy Worsley). The gnomes (and Umbriel) can be experienced until 2nd October. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/. PICTURES: Courtesy HRP

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LondonLife – Sculpture returns to the City…

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Sculpture in the City has returned to the Square Mile for summer with 17 contemporary artworks by internationally renowned artists located in public spaces across the City of London. With the event now in its sixth year, this year’s sculptures include Jaume Plensa’s seven metre high cast iron work Laura (located at 30 St Mary Axe (aka The Gherkin), it’s pictured above), Matt Collishaw’s work, Magic Lantern Small – a grand scale “zoetrope”, one of the earliest moving image machines (located in Bury Court, it’s pictured below), and Huma Bhabha’s work, The Orientalist (located in Fenchurch Avenue, it’s pictured far below). Other works can be found in locations including St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate Gardens, The Leadenhall Building and St Helen’s Bishopsgate Churchyard. A map of the SITC trail and extra commentary on the individual artworks can be accessed by downloading the SMARTIFY app for Apple and Android devices and then scanning any of the sculptures. There’s also a map and information available at www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/sculptureinthecity. PICTURES: Nick Turpin

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LondonLife – Childhood dreams captured in a jar for all to see…

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Steven-SpielbergDirector Steven Spielberg, actor and playwright Mark Rylance, physicist Professor Stephen Hawking, TV personality Simon Cowell, and The Duchess of Cornwall are among 50 high profile personalities who have put their childhood dreams and aspirations on show around the country – including in London – to mark not only the release of the film The BFG but also the 100th anniversary of Roald Dahl’s birth. Launched last weekend, the ‘BFG Dream Jar Trail’ features a series of up-to-six-foot-tall ‘Dream Jars’, each of which contains a sculpture representing the childhood dreams of a different personality. The free trail – which takes in London sites such as Trafalgar Square, the Tower of London, Leicester Square, Harrods, Emirates Stadium and The Shard – has been created in support of the work of Save the Children and a specialist nursing programme supported by Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity with the jars to be auctioned in collaboration with Paddle8 later this year to raise money for both causes (the auction will be launched on the film’s premiere on 17th July). At least 34 jars have already gone on display with more to be unveiled in coming days. The joint creation of  Save the Children, the Roald Dahl Literary Estate, Entertainment One and VisitLondon.com with support from Unilever, the trail can be seen until 31st August. To see the art trail map and discover the stories behind each jar and its location, head to www.visitlondon.com/bfg. For more on the 100th anniversary of Roald Dahl’s birth, head to www.roalddahl.com/roalddahl100. PICTURED: Above – director Steven Spielberg’s self-designed jar, on display in Leicester Square, illustrating his childhood fantasy of having all the sweets in the world but none of the ill effects from overindulgence.

LondonLife – Digging up Greenwich Park’s past…

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Greenwich-Park-in-summerThe remains of the 17th century Old Keeper’s Cottage in Greenwich Park are being brought to light in an archaeological dig underway in the park this week. The lodge stood close to Queen Elizabeth’s Oak near the centre of the park and was demolished in 1853. This year’s dig is the final of a three year project to unearth the lodge’s remains, sparked after tiles were discovered near the site of the cottage in 2010. Finds so far include a second century Roman brooch, post-medieval pottery and a Victorian watch-winder. The digs have also revealed remains associated with the lodge including two buildings and part of the boundary of the complex. Toni Assirati, head of education and community engagement at Royal Parks, says while much is already known about the history of Greenwich Park – which dates back to 1427 – much remains to be yet discovered about its social history. “This project will hopefully help us find out more about the lives of the people who worked and lived in the park.” Members of the public are invited to attend from 3pm to 6pm on 13th July to hear more about the project from the archaeologists involved as well as see some of the unearthed artefacts. For more about Greenwich Park, see our earlier post here or head to www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/greenwich-park. PICTURE: Greenwich Park, looking toward Observatory Hill (the site of the dig is to the left of the hill). © Anne Marie Briscombe/Royal Parks.

LondonLife – The Hive arrives at Kew…

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An award-winning art installation exploring the world of the British bee has been installed at Kew Gardens in west London. Designed by artist Wolfgang Buttress and created by BDP, Simmonds Studio and Stage One, the Hive was the centrepiece of the UK Pavilion at the 2015 Milan Expo and has become the first British pavilion to be brought home and reused. The 17 metre-high, 40 tonne installation, which has been set in a flower meadow, twists into the sky suggesting the shape of a swarm of bees. Inside, thousands of flickering LED lights create a sense of what life is like inside a beehive while a soundtrack inspired by the deep humming of the bees fills the air. Both sound and light inside the hive will change in intensity as energy levels in a real beehive located elsewhere in the gardens changes, providing a unique insight into life inside a bee colony. Between 2nd July and 30th October, the installation is being accompanied by a ‘Pollination Trail’ across the gardens which explores the relationship between bees and plants and a series of specially trained ‘hive explainers’ will also be on hand inside The Hive. The gardens are also hosting a series of special talks, films, workshops and ‘lates’ as well as special, family-oriented events. For more see, www.kew.org. PICTURES: Jeff Eden, RBG Kew.

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