LondonLife

LondonLife – Christmas comes to 10 Downing Street…

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PICTURE: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria Starmer turned on lights on the Christmas tree outside 10 Downing Street on 2nd December. The couple were joined by NHS workers, military personnel and members of the police. The Christmas tree is the winner of a competition run by the British Christmas Tree Growers Association, chosen for showcasing “the finest dedication, craftsmanship and commitment of British Christmas tree growers”. This year’s Nordmann Fir was grown by Evergreen Christmas Trees – a family run business based on the Welsh border who have been growing Christmas trees since 1992. The runner-up in the Christmas tree competition – Cadeby Tree Trust from Warwickshire – have supplied two Christmas trees for inside Downing Street. The wreath for the famous door at Number 10, meanwhile, was provided by Santa Trees, a Christmas tree farm from Cornwall. Lights on London’s most famous Christmas tree – that in Trafalgar Square – are being turned on this Thursday (5th December).

LondonLife – The ’12 Animals of Christmas’…

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Meerkats explore an advent calendar in the countdown to Christmas. PICTURE: Courtesy of London Zoo

London Zoo is celebrating the festive season with the ’12 Animals of Christmas’, a series of seasonally-based talks in which zookeepers discuss some of the zoo’s most iconic species and the animals partake of some Christmas cheer with an enrichment activity in which the animals can enjoy their very own Christmas food. The talks of just one part of ‘The Magic at Christmas at London Zoo’ experience which runs until 5th January. Visitors during that period also have the chance to meet Santa in a grotto experience at the heart of the zoo or upgrade to engage in a “deluxe session” with Mrs Claus which includes preparing treats for the animals and take a tour of the zoo, or join her in a special VIP breakfast. Santa can also be found popping up at different locations around the zoo to feed the animals and there’s a Winter Village Post Room where children can write their letters to Father Christmas. Other activities include a ‘Reindeer Rubbish Round Up’ recycling challenge, a Christmas craft station and even the chance to have a Christmas sleepover at the London Zoo Lodges. For more, see www.londonzoo.org/plan-your-visit/events/magic-of-christmas.

Asiatic lions explore scented Christmas presents. PICTURE: Courtesy of London Zoo
Squirrel monkeys explore food-filled stockings. PICTURE: Courtesy of London Zoo.

LondonLife – Quiet corner…

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Regent’s Canal in Angel. PICTURE: Daniil Korbut/Unsplash

LondonLife – Remembrance Sunday…

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Some 10,000 people lined Whitehall to watch the The Royal British Legion’s Veterans Parade and take part in the annual two-minute silence at the Cenotaph on Sunday…

Chelsea Pensioners march past the Cenotaph during the National Service of Remembrance. PICTURE: Sgt Donald C Todd/UK MOD © Crown copyright 2024
King Charles III leads the Royal Party during the National Service of Remembrance. PICTURE: Sgt Donald C Todd/UK MOD © Crown copyright 2024
King Charles III salutes after laying a wreath at the Cenotaph during the National Service of Remembrance. PICTURE: Sgt Jimmy Wise//UK MOD © Crown copyright 2024
The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery fired a Minute Gun from Horse Guards Parade at 11am to begin the Two Minute Silence. They then fired a second gun to mark its conclusion. PICTURE: Cpl Tim Hammond/UK MOD © Crown copyright 2024
Wreaths at the foot of the Cenotaph after the National Service of Remembrance. PICTURE: Sgt Donald C Todd/UK MOD © Crown copyright 2024

LondonLife – John Keats at Moorgate…

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The new sculpture of John Keats with Lord Mayor of the City of London, Michael Mainelli.. PICTURE: Courtesy of the City of London Corporation.

A new sculpture of Romantic poet John Keats has been unveiled near his birthplace in Moorgate to mark the 229th anniversary of his birth.

The work of British artist Martin Jennings, the sculpture is a bronze cast of an enlarged life mask of Keats which was made when he was 21 (he died just four years later of consumption in 1821).

A plaster cast of the life mask is owned by Keats House, in Hampstead, and it was scanned and digitally enlarged as the basis for the sculpture which is mounted on a stone plinth. The plinth in turn is set in a circular slate base inscribed with some words from the Keat’s Ode on Idolence.

The new statue, which was unveiled last Thursday, was funded by former City of London Corporation Alderman, Bob Hall, who has donated it to the City of London Corporation. Hall has previously funded a statue of poet John Donne – the work of Nigel Boonham – which sits outside St Paul’s Cathedral.

Keats was son of an ostler at an inn and livery stable called The Swan and Hoop, which stood not far from the modern-day Moorgate station.

LondonLife – City lights…

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PICTURE: Vitalijs Barilo/Unsplash

LondonLife – Lighthouse…

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The Shard. PICTURE: Sharan Pagadala/Unsplash

LondonLife – View from the river…

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PICTURE: Clovis Wood Photography/Unsplash

Looking south towards the Houses of Parliament from the River Thames.

LondonLife – ‘CONGREGATION’ at St Mary Le Strand…

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CONGREGATION, a new large-scale installation by Es Devlin, can be seen at the church of St Mary Le Strand – but you’ll have to be quick, it’s only there for two more days (until 9th October). The work, curated by Ekow Eshun, was created in partnership with UK for UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, and was developed in collaboration with King’s College London and The Courtauld. Created over four months, it features chalk and charcoal portraits of 50 Londoners who have experienced forced displacement from their homelands. Ranging in age from 18 to 90, these “co-authors” have roots in countries ranging from Syria to Sri Lanka; from Rwanda to Albania. An accompanying soundscape has been composed by Polyphonia and features the voices of the sitters while film sequences have been created in collaboration with filmmaker Ruth Hogben and choreographer Botis Seva. CONGREGATION is free to visit and is open to the public daily from 11am till 9pm with free public choral performances outside the church at 7pm each evening to coincide with Frieze London. To book tickets, head to https://www.unrefugees.org.uk/esdevlin-congregation/.

LondonLife – Farewell to the Clouds…

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PICTURE: Clovis Wood Photography/Unsplash

The ‘Little Cloud World’ installation by Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III – aka FriendsWithYou, which has been in Covent Garden’s Market Building since the start of August, ends today. Launched in partnership with charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), the 40 inflatable clouds were about spreading a message of “spreading kindness, positivity and helping others”. For more, see www.coventgarden.london/experience/things-to-do/little-cloud-world/.

LondonLife – The Fourth Plinth readorned…

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‘Mil Veces un Instante’ by Teresa Margolles. PICTURE: © James O Jenkins
Teresa Margolles with ‘Mil Veces un Instante’ PICTURE: © James O Jenkins

The 15th commission in Mayor of London’s Fourth Plinth programme has been unveiled in Trafalgar Square.

Artist Teresa Margolles’ Mil Veces un Instante (A thousand times an Instant) is made up of plaster casts of the faces of 726 trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people which were made in Mexico City and Juárez, Mexico; and London. 

The casts – which Margolles spent more than 1,000 hours making – were created by applying plaster directly onto the faces of participants, meaning the plaster is infused with their hair and skin cells.

The next artworks to grace the Fourth Plinth will be Tschabalala Self’s Lady in Blue – a bronze work patinated with Lapis Lazuli blue which will be installed in 2026 – and Andra Ursuţa’s Untitled – a shrouded equestrian statue which will be installed from 2028.

Mil Veces un Instante replaced Samson Kambalu’s Antelope which had been on the Fourth Plinth since 2022.

For more on the Fourth Plinth programme, head to https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/arts-and-culture/current-culture-projects/fourth-plinth-trafalgar-square. You can also download the free arts and culture app Bloomberg Connects.

LondonLife – Stickered boxes…

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PICTURE: Diego Marín/Unsplash

LondonLife – Docklands colour…

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The DLR moving past the ‘City Island’ residential development covering 12 acres in the Docklands. PICTURE: Sue Winston/Unsplash

LondonLife – Colour palette, Shoreditch…

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PICTURE: Ambitious Studio* | Rick Barrett/Unsplash

LondonLife – Greenwich colonnade…

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PICTURE: Sue Winston/Unsplash

The Queen’s House Colonnade.

LondonLife – Cathedral crossing…

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Looking up in Westminster Cathedral. PICTURE: Matthias Götzke/Unsplash

LondonLife – Chelsea bridge…

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PICTURE: Dorin Seremet/Unsplash

The Albert Bridge in Chelsea which dates from 1873 with subsequent modifications made in the 1880s.

LondonLife – Taking to the skies…

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London City Airport. PICTURE: Henry Ren/Unsplash

LondonLife – Summer in the Square…

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PICTURE: Leif Christoph Gottwald/Unsplash

LondonLife – Scenes from the State Opening of Parliament…

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Last Wednesday, 17th July, was the State Opening of Parliament, the first since the new Labour government took office. More than 1,100 members of the armed forces were in attendance, accompanied by 200 military horses, as the procession of King Charles III and Queen Camilla made its way to the Houses of Parliament where the King delivered a speech outlining the government’s plans.

King Charles III is escorted by The Sovereign’s Escort of The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment through Horse Guards Tilt Yard as part of the State Opening of Parliament parade. PICTURE: Petty Officer Joel Rouse/UK MOD © Crown copyright 2024
King Charles III, and Queen Camilla, escorted by The Sovereign’s Escort of The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment. PICTURE: Corporal Nanda Atherton/© MoD Crown Copyright 2024
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The procession travels past the Houses of Parliament to the Sovereign’s Entrance. PICTURE: Sergeant Rob Kane/© MoD Crown Copyright 2024
Heralds, Black Rod, the Lord Speaker, Lord Chancellor and leaders of the House of Lords and Commons are among those proceeding through the Royal Gallery ahead of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. PICTURE: Copyright House of Lords 2024/Photography by Roger Harris © (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND-2.0)
King Charles III delivers the King’s Speech from the throne, written by the government, during the State Opening of Parliament. PICTURE: Copyright House of Lords 2024/Photography by Roger Harris © (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND-2.0)
Members of the the Army’s oldest regiment, The Honourable Artillery Company at the Tower of London firing a 41-gun signal salute. A further 62-round celebratory gun salute sounded to mark the 77th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Camilla. PICTURE: Cpl Danielle Dawson/UK MOD © Crown copyright 2024.