Museums

This Week In London – Kenwood House reopens; robot safari at the Science Museum; Kew Gardens illuminates for Christmas; Vivien Leigh at the NPG; and more…

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• Kenwood House in north London is being reopened to the public today following a £5.95 million restoration project which has seen the library returned to what Scottish architect Robert Adam had intended it to be. The project, which saw the Hampstead property closed since March last year, has also seen the restoration of three other Robert Adam-designed rooms – the entrance hall, Great Stairs and antechamber or entrance to the library – as well as the redecoration of four rooms in 18th century style, repainting of the exterior and the repair of the home’s roof – a job aimed at protecting the rooms and its stellar

Kenwood-House-Librarycollection of artworks by the likes of Rembrandt and Vermeer. English Heritage has also endeavoured to make the property more homely, replacing ticket desks and rope barriers with an open fire, warm rugs and leather couches on which visitors can relax. The library (pictured) was built and decorated to Adam’s designs between 1767 and 1770 as part of a wider remodelling of the villa for its owner Lord Chief Justice William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield. Redecorated many times since, it was restored in the 1960s but this redecoration was later found to be inaccurate. The Caring for Kenwood restoration project, which has also seen restoration of the Kenwood Dairy, was funded by a £3.89 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund as well as support from the Wolfson Foundation and other donors. To coincide with the reopening, a new app exploring Kenwood House has been released which can be downloaded for free from the iTunes store. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenwood/. PICTURE: English Heritage/Patricia Payne.

• Head out on a “robot safari” this weekend with a special free event at Science Museum in South Kensington. Robot SafariEU, part of Eurobotics week, features 13 biometric robots from across Europe including an underwater turtle robot, a shoal of luminous fish robots, a robotic cheetah cub and Pleurobot, a robotic salamander. Roboticists from across Europe will be on hand to help visitors interact with the bots. Suitable for all ages, the event kicked off on Wednesday night and runs again on the weekend. Admission is free but timed tickets are required. For more, see www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/RobotSafari.

• A memorial to author, scholar and apologist CS Lewis was dedicated at Westminster Abbey last Friday – the 50th anniversary of his death. Conducting the service, the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, said Lewis was “one of the most significant Christian apologists of the 20th century” and the author of stories that had “inspired the imagination and faith of countless readers and film-goers”. Douglas Gresham, younger stepson of Lewis, read from the author’s book, The Last Battle, at the service. The memorial is located in Poet’s Corner in the abbey’s south transept. For more see www.westminster-abbey.org.

• A Blue Plaque commemorating Al Bowlly – described as “Europe’s most popular crooner and famous radio and record star” – will be unveiled at his home in Charing Cross Road this week. Bowlly, who lived between 1899 and 1941, was the voice beyond songs like Goodnight Sweetheart and The Very Thought Of You. The English Heritage Blue Plaque will be unveiled at Charing Cross Mansions, 26 Charing Cross Road – his home during the pinnacle of his career. For more, see www.english-heritage.co.uk/discover/blue-plaques/.

• Kew Gardens has opened its gates after dark for the first time with a “captivating show of lights, sound and landscape” this festive season. A mile long illuminated trail, created in partnership with entertainment promoter Raymond Gubbay, will take visitors’ through the garden’s unique tree collections, kicking off at Victoria Gate where a Christmas village (and Santa’s Woodland Grotto) is located. The gardens will be open every Thursday to Sunday until 23rd December and then be open every night from 26th December to 4th January from 4.45pm to 10pm. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.kew.org/Christmas.

VivienLeigh• Actress Vivien Leigh is the star of a new exhibition opening on Saturday at the National Portrait Gallery. Starring Vivien Leigh: A Centenary Celebration tells her story with a focus on her Academy Award-winning role in 1939’s Gone With The Wind. The display features more than 50 portraits of Leigh by the likes of Cecil Beaton, Angus McBean and Madame Yevonde – many of which have never been exhibited in the gallery before – and a selection of memorabilia including magazine covers, vintage film stills and press books. Among the photos will be a newly acquired image of Leigh and her husband, Laurence Olivier, taken by British photojournalist Larry Burrows at a garden party in 1949 (pictured), along with two rarely seen portraits of Leigh – one taken on the set of The School for Scandal by Vivienne in 1949 and the other by Paul Tanqueray in 1942. The exhibition will be held in Room 33 and runs until 20th July. Admission is free. For more, see www.npg.org.uk. PICTURE:  Copyright – Larry Burrows Collection 2013.

This Week in London – JMW Turner and the sea; welcoming the ‘new’ Tate Britain; Hyde Park Winter Wonderland; and more…

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The-Fighting-Temeraire,-tugged-to-her-last-Berth-to-be-broken-up,-1838-©-The-National-Gallery,-London• A major exhibition on painter JMW Turner’s fascination with the sea opens at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich tomorrow. Turner and the Sea is the first “full scale” examination of the artist’s relationship with the sea and features works on loan from some of the world’s greatest art institutions. Highlights among the oils, watercolours, prints and sketches on show include The Fighting Temeraire (1839) (pictured), Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), Staffa, Fingal’s Cave (1832), Whalers (1845) and Calais Pier (1803) as well as Turner’s largest painting and only royal commission, The Battle of Trafalgar (1824). The works are being exhibited alongside works by other notable British and European artists including Thomas Gainsborough, Willem van de Velde, Claude-Joseph Vernet and John Constable. Runs until 21st April. Admission charges apply. See www.rmg.co.uk for more details. PICTURE: The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838 by JMW Turner, 1839, oil on canvas. © The National Gallery, London.

• The ‘new’ Tate Britain was unveiled to the public this week following a £45 million upgrade and refurbishment and the house-warming party is on this weekend. The work has seen the oldest part of the Grade II* listed building in Millbank transformed thanks to architects Caruso St John and sees the main entrance reopened as well as The Whistler Restaurant, new learning studios an a new archive gallery as well as a new cafe and bar for Tate members. It’s unveiling follows the opening in May of 10 new galleries and new BP displays including the chronological presentation of the Tate’s collection of British art. The house-warming party, a free event, takes place on Saturday from 3pm to 10pm and features music, the giving out of free limited edition prints and a series of talks, film screenings, workshops and even a treasure hunt. For more, see www.tate.org.uk.

• Hyde Park Winter Wonderland kicks off again tomorrow with highlights including the ice sculptures of ‘The Magical Kingdom’, the giant observation wheel, the ice rink and Santa Land. There will also be more than 200 chalets in the Angels Christmas & Yuletide Markets, the Bavarian village is back, and Zippo’s Circus will also be returning with a range of shows include Cirque Berserk for the evening crowd. Entry is free but tickets for various attractions can be bought at www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com. Runs until 5th January.

• ON NOW: The Young Durer: Drawing the Figure. This exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looks at the figure drawing of the young Albrect Durer (1471-1528), focusing on works created in his formative years between 1490-1496. Among the exhibition’s highlights is Mein Agnes (My Agnes), A Wise Virgin, and Three Studies of Durer’s left hand. The exhibition runs until 12th January.

• FURTHER AFIELD: Only a hop, skip and jump from London lies Down House, former home of naturalist Charles Darwin, in Kent. English Heritage are this weekend marking the anniversary of publication of his controversial book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (it was published on 24th November, 1859) with a range of specialist talks and tours at the property this weekend. For more on the weekend, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/events/origin-weekend-dh-23-nov/

This Week in London – The Hadron Collider at the Science Museum; John Richard Arthur honoured; Christmas at Carnaby; and South American gold at the British Museum…

by exploringlondon

First up, we’ve changed the name of the Thursday update of what’s happening in London to This Week in London which we think better describes what the column’s about. So, to some events we think you might be interested in…

• An exhibition that transports visitors to the heart of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) opened at the Science Museum yesterday. In the first exhibition of its kind, Collider offers visitors the closest thing to actually being at the CERN particle physics laboratory, blending theatre, video and sound to enable visitors to explore the control room, meet virtual scientists and engineers and see inside a huge underground ‘detector’ cavern. There’s also the chance to follow the journey of particle beams as they race around the 27 kilometre long LHC tunnel (incidentally about the same length as the Circle Line) and the exhibition’s highlight is a wrap around projection which takes watchers from an enormous experiment cavern to the heart of a particle collision. On show will be artefacts from the actual LHC including a 15 metre magnet used to steer the particle beam and objects from the museum’s collection including the accelerator used by Cockcroft and Walton to split the atom in 1932. Admission charge applies. Runs until 6th March. For more, see www.sciencemuseum.org.uk.

• John Richard Arthur, a former Mayor of Battersea and the first black man to hold senior public office in London, was honoured with an English Heritage Blue Plaque this week. The plaque was unveiled by Cr Angela Graham, the Mayor of Wandsworth, at his former home at 55 Brynmaer Road in Battersea – his residence during the major milestones of his political career. Elected on 10th November 1913, Archer lived at the home from about 1898 to about 1918. He has been described as a “key figure in the story of the Black contribution in Britain in the early part of the Twentieth century”. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/.

• Christmas comes to the West End this afternoon with the Carnaby Christmas Shopping Party taking place in 13 streets around the iconic fashion strip. More than 100 shops, restaurants and bars are delivering 20 per cent discounts and there’s also complimentary drinks, music, talks on fashion trends and the chance for the “best dressed” to win goodie bags. The party runs from 5pm to 9pm with the Christmas lights turned on at 6pm. Head to www.carnaby.co.uk for more.

El-Dorado• On Now: Beyond El Dorado: power and gold in ancient Colombia. This exhibition in Room 35 of the British Museum features items including ceramics and stone necklaces taken from Lake Guatavita near modern Bogota (The phrase El Dorado, “the golden one”, actually refers to a ritual which took place at the lake in which a newly elected leader of the Muisca people was covered in powdered gold before diving into the lake and washing it off to emerge as the new leader). They are just some of the more than 300 items in the display which come from the Museo del Oro Bogata – one of the best collections of pre-Hispanic gold in the world – as well as the British Museum’s own collection. Other objects include large scale gold masks, a painted Muisca textile, avian pectorals and necklaces with feline claws and one of the few San Agustin stone sculptures held outside Colombia. The exhibition, sponsored by Julius Baer, runs until 23rd March. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org. PICTURE: Anthropomorphic bat pectoral, Tairona, gold alloy, AD900-1600. Copyright Museo del Oro, Banco de la Republica, Colombia.

Around London – The Georgians at the British Library; wartime artist on show; Regent Street’s Christmas lights; Westminster’s new organ; and, celebrating success at the NPG…

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The-Georgians• The Georgians are under the spotlight in a new exhibition opening at the British Library tomorrow. Georgians Revealed: Life, Style and the Making of Modern Britain explores the ways in which the Georgian world influenced pop culture in Britain today, everything from fashion and theatre-going to our obsessions with celebrity scandals. The display features more than 200 artefacts from the library’s collection and includes Jeremy Bentham’s violin, Joseph van Aken’s An English Family at Tea, rare books and magazines, and illustrations and designs of landmark building’s such as Sir John Soane’s home (and now museum) in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The exhibition, which is accompanied by a series of events (see the library website for details) comes ahead of the 300th anniversary of the accession of King George I next year. Runs until 11th March. Admission charge applies. Meanwhile, to mark the exhibition, the library has joined with Cityscapes in launching a new Georgian garden installation on the library’s piazza. Titled Georgeobelisk, the six metre high installation, will remain on the piazza for five months. A tribute to the four King Georges, it also serves as a reminder that it was also during the Georgian era that the British love of gardening was cultivated. For more, see  www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/georgiansrevealed/index.html. PICTURE: Spectators at a Print shop in St Paul’s churchyard © British Museum.

• Painting normally housed in “Britain’s answer to the Sistine Chapel” go on display in Somerset House today. The artworks, described as the “crowning achievement” of wartime artist Stanley Spencer, usually grace the walls of Sandham Memorial Chapel but are on display in London while the National Trust carries out restoration work at the Berkshire property. Spencer painted the works – which combine realism and visions from his imagination and were completed in 1932 – after serving as a hospital orderly during World War I.  The free display – Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War – can be seen until 26th January. For more, see www.somersethouse.org.uk.

• Regent Street’s Christmas lights – a preview of the upcoming DreamWorks film Mr Peabody and Sherman – will be turned on this Saturday night. Actor Ty Burrell, director Rob Minkoff and singer Leona Lewis will have the task of switching on the lights at about 7.15 pm while performers will include Passenger, Eliza Doolittle and former Spice Girls Emma Bunton and Melanie C. The event will be hosted by radio presenters Bunton and Jamie Theakston. The street will be traffic free all day and from 3pm to 7pm, Regent Street retailers will be showcasing fashions on a catwalk located just North of New Burlington Street. Programmes will be available from information points on the day.

• A new organ was dedicated in Westminster Abbey’s Lady Chapel on Tuesday. The organ was commissioned by the Lord Mayor of London, Roger Gifford, as a gift to the Queen to mark the 60th anniversary of her coronation in 1953. The Queen agreed the organ, which had briefly resided at the Lord Mayor’s residence the Mansion House, should be installed permanently in the Lady Chapel, built by King Henry VII. The new organ was dedicated by the Earl of Wessex. For more, see www.westminster-abbey.org.

• Now On: Achievement: New Photographs 2011-2013. Inspiring Britons at the peak of their professions are the subject of an exhibition running at the National Portrait Gallery. The display of recently acquired and previously un-exhibited photographs depict the likes of writer and presenter Charlie Brooker (by Chris Floyd), actress Gina McKee (Mark Harrison) and Skyfall director Sam Mendes (Anderson & Low). Admission is free. Runs until 5th January in Room 37a. For more, see www.npg.org.uk.

Where’s London’s oldest…museum?

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Power-House

London’s oldest museum is not the British Museum or any of the Kensington museums but is actually contained within one of the city’s iconic structures.

Located within the Tower of London, the Royal Armouries Museum takes the prize of being not only the city’s oldest museum but oldest museum in the whole of Britain.

It’s origins go back to medieval times when the tower housed the main royal arsenal and was a working armoury and, by the time of the Restoration, there was a permanent public display in the White Tower with the star attractions being the Spanish Armoury, a collection of weapons and torture instruments claimed to have been taken from the Spanish Armada of 1588, and the Line of Kings (see our earlier post on this here).

Other displays – including one focused on artillery and another on horses – were subsequently added in various buildings within the tower precincts including in the Grand Storehouse which, located to the north of the White Tower, destroyed by fire in 1841. Over the ensuing years, the displays were moved back into the White Tower.

As well as the revamped Line of Kings and the Power House exhibition looking at the people, institutions and history of the Tower, the current display includes a dragon made of more than 2,600 items of weaponry, following a long-standing tradition in the museum of creating displays out of masses of weapons.

As well as continuing its presence at the Tower of London, the museum is now also housed at Fort Nelson at Portsmouth – this opened in 1995 when it became home to the museum’s artillery collection – and in Leeds, which opened in 1996. There’s also some weapons on display in Louisville, Kentucky, in the US, under a  cooperative agreement with the Frazier International History Museum.

PICTURE: ‘Keeper’, the Dragon trophy – part of the Power House display in the Royal  Armouries Museum at the Tower of London. HRP newsteam.

WHERE: Tower of London (nearest Tube station Tower Hill); WHEN: 9am to 5.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5.30pm Sunday to Monday; COST: £21.45 adults; £10.75 children under 15; £18.15 concessions; £57.20 for a family; WEBSITE: www.hrp.org.uk/toweroflondon/.  

Around London – Reclaiming Castiglione; transport open weekend; and, Australia at the RA…

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Oriental• The UK’s first major exhibition on the work of the innovative but violent 17th century artist Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione opens tomorrow at the Queen’s Gallery next to Buckingham Palace. The exhibition, which features 90 drawings and prints from the Royal Collection, is aimed at re-establishing Castiglione as one of the greatest artists of the Baroque period, thanks to his being credited with creating huge drawings in oil directly on paper, producing about 60 etchings and inventing the technique of monotype. Works include his monotype prints Head of an oriental (late 1640s) and The Nativity with angels (about 1655), a translation of Titian’s Sacred and Profane Love and drawings like Circe with the companions of Odysseus transformed into animals. Castiglione’s “nomadic” career was marred by his violent temperament – he was repeatedly before the courts for assaulting people, apparently tried to throw his sister off a roof and was forced to leave Rome because, it is believed, he had committed murder. Castiglione: Lost Genius runs with Gifted: From the Royal Academy to The Queen, an exhibition of prints and drawings given to the Queen by Royal Academicians to mark her Diamond Jubilee, until 16th March. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.royalcollection.org.uk. PICTURE: Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, The head of an oriental, late 1640s. Royal Collection Trust/©Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2013.

• The restored Met Locomotive 1 and the Victorian Jubilee Carriage 353 will be on show this weekend as part of the London Transport Museum’s Open Weekend at its Acton Depot. Visitors will be able to explore the depot’s vast collection of more than 400,000 objects along with a range of other activities including miniature tram and railway rides, heritage bus rides, talks and film screenings, and costumed interpreters as well as the chance to watch artist Ross Ashmore paint the locomotive and Jubilee Carriage. The weekend kicks off tomorrow. For more information and bookings, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/museum-depot/events.

• On Now: Australia. This landmark exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts at Burlington House in Piccadilly features more than 200 works including paintings, drawings, photography, watercolours and multimedia pieces by 146 Australian artists. Spanning the period from 1800 until today, the display includes works by Aboriginal artists such as Albert Namatjira, nineteenth century immigrants such as John Glover and Eugene von Guerard, impressionists like Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts, early modernists like Margaret Preston and Roy de Maistre, 20th century painters including Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker and Brett Whiteley and contemporary artists including Gordon Bennett, Fiona Hall and Shaun Gladwell. Highlights include Frederick McCubbin’s The Pioneer (1904), four paintings from Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series (1946), Rover Thomas’ Cyclone Tracy (1991) and Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s Big Yam Dreaming (1995). Organised with the National Gallery of Australia, the exhibition runs until 8th December. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.royalacademy.org.uk.

LondonLife – Joey stabled at the V&A…

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War-Horse

Joey, the puppet horse used in the West End play War Horse, has taken up a new home at the V&A in South Kensington. Created by the Handspring Puppet Company for the National Theatre’s adaption of Michael Morpurgo’s novel, Joey appeared in more than 1,640 shows since his debut at the New London Theatre on 28th March, 2009. He will now be housed in the V&A’s Theatre and Performance Gallery in a specially created display which shows how the puppet was operated on stage and features three mannequin puppeteers to illustrate the process. Joey was donated by Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company who designed and created the puppets used in War Horse. War Horse, which continues its run at the New London Theatre, has been seen by more than four million people. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk. PICTURE: Joey at the V&A operated by Nicholas Hart (Head), Stuart Angell (Heart), Thomas Goodridge (Hind). © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 

 

Around London – Chinese masterpieces at the V&A; Iraq war photography; and, The Age of Glamour at the Cartoon Museum…

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Chen_Rong_Nine_Dragons• Chinese masterpieces are the focus of a new exhibition opening at the V&A in South Kensington on Saturday. Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900 will feature more than 70 works including some of the earliest surviving Chinese paintings and many shown in Europe for the first time. Organised chronologically in six successive periods, the works in the display range from intimate works by monks to a 14-metre long scroll painting. As well as examining the tensions between tradition and innovation, the exhibition will look at the variety of settings for which the paintings were created – from tombs and temples to banners, portable handscrolls and hanging scrolls – and the materials used. The exhibition runs until 19th January. Admission charge applies. Meanwhile, from 2nd November, celebrated Chinese artist Xu Bing will transform the museum’s John  Madejeski Garden into an “ethereal Arcadia” inspired by the Chinese fable Tao Hua Yuan (The Peach Spring Blossom) in an installation to coincide with the exhibition. Runs until 2nd March. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/chinesepainting. PICTURE: Nine Dragons (detail), Chen Rong (1244), © 2013 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

• A new exhibition of photography marking the 10th anniversary of the start of the second Iraq war opens today at the Imperial War Museum. Featuring the work of photographers Mike Moore, a former Fleet Street photographer who was the first press photographer to be officially embedded with the British Army, and Lee Craker, an American photographer who specialises in documentary photography, the exhibition examines the impact of the war on the Iraqi people and the US and British troops who served there.  The exhibit is the first photography show to be exhibited as part of the IWM Contemporary programme. Runs until 5th January. Meanwhile one of Britain’s leading contemporary photographers, Donovan Wylie, explores the effects of modern day military surveillance programs in a new exhibition, at the IWM, Vision as Power. The display includes five works. Runs until 21st April. Admission to both exhibitions is free. For more, see www.iwm.org.uk.

• The Age of Glamour: RS Sherriffs’ Stars of Stage & Screen. This exhibition at the Cartoon Museum in Bloomsbury features the work of Sheriffs, whose caricatures of the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo and Douglas Fairbanks were published in magazines including Radio Times, London Calling and The Sketch. As well as individual portraits, the works include ensemble drawings such as one featuring Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft in Romeo and Juliette. Runs until Christmas Eve. Admission charge applies. For more, check out www.cartoonmuseum.org.

10 fictional character addresses in London – 1. 221b Baker Street…

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221b-Baker-Street

Today we kick off our new Wednesday series with a look at some of the most famous addresses in London where fictional characters once lived. Most, if not all, of the addresses we’ll look at are not fictional in themselves – they do actually exist – but the characters said to have lived there owe their lives solely to the imaginations of their creators and the readers and audiences who have loved and admired them.

To kick it off, we take a quick look at what is certainly the most visited address of a fictional character in London – 221b Baker Street, the home of Sherlock Holmes and his associate Dr John Watson.

The-Sherlock-Holmes-MuseumWe’ve looked mentioned this Baker Street address in a couple of earlier posts – including a look at the origins of the naming of Baker Street and a piece on Sherlock Holmes himself.

So, to somewhat recap, the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has Holmes and Watson living at this address from 1881 (it becomes their address in the first book featuring them – A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887) to 1904 when Holmes retired (Watson was not a continual presence here, moving in and out a couple of times).

What’s interesting is that the address now belongs to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, although in terms of the other numbers in the street, this is actually located between numbers 237 and 241 (in a street which was, prior to the 1930s, known as Upper Baker Street).

What is now number 221 is a 1930s art deco building formerly known as Abbey House (but this would have been 41 Upper Baker Street in 1887). It was the headquarters of Abbey National which had a long-running dispute with the museum over the right receive mail at the address 221b (since the closure of Abbey House in the early Noughties, the museum has received the mail).

It should be noted that there are also numerous other theories over the ‘real’ location of 221b Baker Street – in particular one which suggests the real address is opposite the former location of Camden House in Baker Street, thanks to a reference in The Empty House.

The museum, which is located in a house built in 1815, is set up as it was in Holmes’ day and contains his first floor study, filled with artefacts relating to the many cases he solved – including his famous pipe as well as his deerstalker hat, magnifying glass, violin, and the wicker chair which was used in Sidney Paget’s famous illustrations.

Other rooms include Dr Watson’s small second floor bedroom and the housekeeper Mrs Hudson’s room.

Worth noting is that there is also reconstruction of Holmes’ study at The Sherlock Holmes pub, located at 10-11 Northumberland Street in Westminster. This had been created for the Festival of Britain in 1951 by the Marylebone Borough Library and Abbey National and was located at Abbey House. For on this, check out the Westminister Libraries & Archives site.

WHERE: The Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221b Baker Street (nearest Tube station is Baker Street);  WHEN: 9.30am to 6pm daily; COST: £8 adults; £5 children (under 16); WEBSITE: www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk.

LondonLife – A glimpse into London’s shameful past…

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Map-of-Romney-plantationA map of the Romney plantation is among a selection of unseen documents from a West Indian sugar plantation on show as part of a new display, A Material Connection, which opened at the Museum of London Docklands in August. The documents are just some of the 1,000 letters, invoices and deeds dating from between the 1740s and 1860s which make up the Romney family plantation archive.  It is the first time the public have a chance to see documents from the archive which was purchased by the museum in 2011 using an £85,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The display explores the role London played as a nexus between Britain and its slave colonies and in particular the relationship between a specific slave plantation and its owner. Opened on the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition (23rd August), the display forms part of the London, Sugar & Slavery exhibition at the museum. For more, check out the Museum of London Docklands.

PICTURE: Museum of London Docklands.

 

Around London: Nelson and the Navy; Whistler at Dulwich; Eric Coates’ Blue Plaque; childrens’ books at BL…

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• A new permanent gallery looking at how the Royal Navy shaped individual lives and the course of British history over the 18th century opens at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich on Monday 21st October, Trafalgar Day. Nelson, Navy, Nation charts a course from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 through to the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 and provides a setting for the museum’s many artefacts related to Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson. Among the 250 objects on display in the gallery are the uniform (with bullet hole) Nelson wore at the Battle of Trafalgar, artworks likes William Hogarth’s Captain Lord George Graham in his Cabin, a seven barreled volley gun and grim items like a surgeon’s tools including an amputation knife, bone saw and bullet forceps. There is also the last letter Nelson wrote to his daughter Horatia and mourning rings worn by close friends and family at his funeral. Entry to the new gallery is free. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk.

• The first major exhibition dedicated to the American-born artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s time in London between 1859 and his death in 1903 opened at the Dulwich Picture Gallery this week. An American in London: Whistler and the Thames features paintings, etchings and drawings produced by the artist and more than 70 objects related to Whistler’s depiction of the Thames and Victorian London. Highlights include Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge (1872/1873) and Brown and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge (1859-1863), the oil painting Wapping (1860-64) and the etching Rotherhithe (1860). There are also a series of portraits of Whistler and his patrons. Runs until 12th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk.

• Composer Eric Coates has been honoured with the unveiling of an English Heritage blue plaque outside his former home at Chiltern Court in Baker Street. Coates, who created “some of the best known and loved pieces of English light orchestral music”, lived in a flat at the property between 1930-39. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/.

• On Now: Picture This: Children’s Illustrated Classics. This exhibition in the Folio Society Gallery at the British Library takes a look at 10 of the most iconic children’s books of the 20th century – from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to The Wind in the Willows, Paddington Bear, Peter Pan and Wendy, and The Iron Man as well as Just So Stories, The Hobbit, The Borrowers, The Secret Garden and The Railway Children. On display is at least four illustrated editions or artworks of each title with Quentin Blake, Michael Foreman, Peggy Fortnum and Lauren Child among the artists whose works are being shown. The exhibition also features five specially filmed interviews with four illustrators and Paddington Bear author Michael Bond. Runs until 26th January. Entry is free. For more, see www.bl.uk.

Around London – The Cheapside Hoard revealed; Queen Elizabeth I at the NPG; 3D printing at the Science Museum; and, Viennese portraits…

by exploringlondon

Cheapside-Hoard-1• The ‘secrets’ of the Cheapside Hoard – the world’s finest and largest collection of 16th and 17th century jewels – are revealed in a new exhibition opening tomorrow at the Museum of London. The
Cheapside-Hoard-2Cheapside Hoard: London’s Lost Jewels publicly displays the hoard of Elizabethan and early Stuart jewellery and gemstones in its entirety for the first time since its discovery more than 100 years ago. The hoard, consisting of as many as 500 pieces including rings, necklaces, cameos, scent bottles and a unique Colombian emerald watch, was discovered buried in a cellar on Cheapside in the City of London in 1912. The exhibition uses new research and state-of-the-art technology to showcase the hoard as it explores the questions of who owned the hoard, when and why was it hidden, and why was it never reclaimed. New information revealed by the research shows that the hoard was buried between 1640 and 1666 (the critical clue was a previously overlooked intaglio – a gemstone engraved with the heraldic badge of William Howard, Viscount Stafford, who lived between 1612-1680). It also reveals Thomas Sympson was the “dodgy” jeweller responsible for two counterfeit rubies contained within the hoard (he apparently had a trade in selling counterfeit gems for as much as £8,000 each). Entry charge applies. Runs until 27th April. For more, see www.museumoflondon.org.uk.  PICTURED: Above: gold and pearl cage pendants from the Cheapside Hoard; and right: a bejewelled scent bottle.

• A previously unknown painting of Queen Elizabeth I is on display as part of a new exhibition, Elizabeth I and Her People, opening at the National Portrait Gallery today. The small painting, which has been attributed to miniaturist Isaac Oliver and which is a reworking of the classical story of the Judgement of Paris, was recently acquired by the gallery. It will sit among a selection of other portraits of the “Virgin Queen” in a display which endeavours to show how during her 50 year reign she portrayed the image of a strong monarch. The portraits are just some of the 100 items featured in the exhibition which also includes costumes, coins, jewellery and crafts and examines the rise of new social classes in Elizabethan society. Other portraits in the exhibition feature images of courtiers such as William Cecil and Christopher Hatton along with images of merchants, lawyers, goldsmiths, butchers, calligraphers, playwrights and artists. There is also a little known painting of three Elizabethan children and what may be the first portrait of a guinea pig. The exhibition, supported by the Weiss Gallery, runs until 5th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.npg.org.uk.

• Printed objects including replacement body organs, aeroplane parts and a music box have gone on display at the Science Museum in South Kensington as part of a new exhibition, 3D: printing the future. The exhibition looks at the rapidly evolving field of 3D printing and its growing impact on society through stories such as the use of 3D printing by engineers to create lighter aeroplane parts and the ways in which the medical industry is researching the use of the technology to create replacement body parts. The display will also include miniature 3D printed figures created from scans of visitors who took part in workshops during the summer holidays. This free exhibition runs in the Antenna gallery for nine months. For more, see www.sciencemuseum.org.uk.

• On Now: Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900. On at the National Gallery, the first major UK exhibition devoted to the portrait in Vienna features iconic works by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Richard Gerstl, Oskar Kokoschka and Arnold Schonberg alongside those of lesser known artists such as Bronica Koller and Isidor Kaufmann. Highlights include Klimt’s Portrait of Hermine Gallia (1904) and Portrait of a Lady in Black (about 1894), Schiele’s The Family (Self Portrait) (1918) and Nude Self Portrait by Gerstl (1908). Runs until 12th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

Around London – The Bard is back; Foundling Museum displays; and, exhibitions on iconoclasm and explicit Japanese art…

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• The Bard is back in Leicester Square with the announcement last week that restoration work on the square’s 19th century Grade II listed statue of William Shakespeare – the only full-length statue the playwright in central London – has been completed. The 11 month restoration was carried out as part of £17 million revamp of the square which has seen the installation of a new fountain. The statue, which was the work of James Knowles, has been in the square since it was completed in its current configuration in 1874. Meanwhile, in other sculpture-related news, Sorry, Sorry Sarajevo – a life-size statue of a man holding  a dead or badly injured man in his arms has been placed in St Paul’s Cathedral where it will remain for the rest of the year. The work by Nicola Hicks dates from 1993 – when the Bosnian war was at its height – and has been placed opposite Henry Moore’s 1983 sculpture, Mother and Child: Hood as part of the cathedral’s approach to next year’s World War I centenary.

• Two new displays opened at the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury last month. Hogarth and Copyright, which runs until 5th January, looks at the role the artist William Hogarth played in the passing of the 1735 Engravers’ Copyright Act (also known as Hogarth’s Act – it was the first law to protect artist’s rights over their work) while Handel and Lucretia, presented in conjunction with The Sir Denis Mahon Charitable Trust and running until 26th January, shows Guercino’s painting Lucretia alongside two early manuscripts of Handel’s cantata La Lucretia. Entry is part of admission price. For more, see www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk.

• A new exhibition tracing the history of attacks on artworks in Britain from the 16th century to today opened at Tate Britain in Millbank this week. Art under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm looks at why and how monuments have been damaged over the past 500 years. The display includes the remarkable pre-Reformation sculpture, the Statue of the Dead Christ (about 1500-1520), which was discovered in 1954 beneath the chapel floor at the Mercer’s Hall. Already damaged – most likely at the hands of Protestant iconoclasts – it may have been buried there to protect it. Also displayed are fragments of monuments destroyed in Ireland last century, paintings including Edward Burne-Jones’ 1898 painting Sibylla Delphica which was attacked by suffragettes in 1913-14, and Allen Jones’ 1969 work Chair – damaged in a feminist attack in 1986. Runs until 5th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.tate.org.uk.

• A controversial exhibition of sexually explicit Japanese works of art created between 1600-1900 opened at the British Museum this week. Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese Art – which carries a warning of “parental guidance for visitors under 16 years – features 170 works including paintings, prints and illustrated books. Drawn from collections in the UK, Japan, Europe and the US, the exhibition of explores the phenomena of what are known as shunga (‘spring pictures’), looking at why it was produced and to whom it was circulated. Admission charge applies. Runs until 5th January. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org.

Around London: Historic pearls at the V&A; ‘Big Brother’ house opening; aircraft pioneers honoured; and Jonathan Yeo at the NPG…

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The_Rosebery_Tiara_QMA_Collection._Photo_c_Sothebys• A pearl-drop earring worn by King Charles I at his execution in 1649, pearl tiaras worn by European nobles and a pearl necklace given to Marilyn Monroe by Joe DiMaggio in 1954 are among the items on display as part of a new exhibition which opened at the V&A last Saturday. The V&A and Qatar Museums Authority exhibition traces the history of pearls from the early Roman Empire to now and features more than 200 pieces of jewellery and works of art. Other items on display include ‘Queen Mary II’ pearls dating from 1662-1664, a miniature portrait of Queen Charlotte wearing pearl jewellery and a set of buttons, finely enamelled and framed with pearls, worn by George III in 1780. There’s also the Dagmar necklace given to Princess Alexandra when she married the future King Edward VII in 1863. The exhibition is part of the Qatar UK 2013 Year of Culture. Admission charge applies. Runs until 19th January. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk. PICTURE: Lady Rosebery’s pearl and diamond tiara (1878) © Christie’s Images.

• The Big Brother house – located in Elstree Studios in north London – opens to the public tomorrow and on Saturday as part of a partnership between Initial – an Endemol Company, Channel 5 and the National Trust. Some two million people tuned in to watch the final night of the show this summer leading one TV critic to describe the property as “the most important house in Britain”. The opening is being preceded by an Opening Gala featuring housemates past and present as well as celebrities – but that’s an invitation only event. Sadly, tickets for the opening are already sold out – for returns and your last chance of getting in, follow this link.

• The UK’s first aircraft manufacturers – Horace, Eustace and Oswald Short – have been commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque placed on their former workshop in Battersea. Unveiled this week by Jenny Body – the first female president of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the plaque can be found at the railway arches near Queen’s Circus where the brothers, who lived nearby in the Prince of Wales Mansions, worked on ballooning and first made the transition to aircraft construction. Among their firsts was the construction of the first British powered aircraft to complete a circular mile of flight and the creation of Britain’s first ever purpose-built aircraft factory (it was located on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent). For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/.

• On Now: Jonathan Yeo Portraits. New and previously unseen works including a six foot high portrait of controversial artist Damien Hirst and a portrait of Kevin Spacey as King Richard III feature in this exhibition running at the National Portrait Gallery. Other subjects featured in the painted works include media mogul Rupert Murdoch, model Erin O’Connor, artist Grayson Perry and actor Sierra Miller. Runs until 5th January. Admission is free. For more, see www.npg.org.uk.

Around London – Open House London; Yinka Shonibare at Greenwich; Bankside transformed; and Michael Peto at the NPG…

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Tower 42_external• It’s finally here. Open House London kicks off on Friday and with more than 800 buildings opening their doors, the only difficulty you’ll have this weekend will be choosing what you end up doing! This year’s theme is ‘celebrating architecture, people and place’ and among the highlights will be the opening of landmark structures like Battersea Power Station, Tower 42 (pictured), and the Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe) as well as 100 private homes, architects’ homes and “ground-breaking” housing developments and everything from the Shri Swaminarayan Temple in Brent to Horse Guards in Whitehall (certain buildings, like 10 Downing Street and The View from the Shard, are only open to people who won tickets in an earlier ballot). This year’s festivities also include a moonlit “culture crawl” through London on Friday night. If you haven’t ordered a hardcopy programme, you can check the listings online at www.openhouselondon.org. There’s also an Open House iPhone app available from the appstore.

• A series of works by Yinka Shonibare – including some never before seen in the UK – went on display at Greenwich yesterday, thanks to Royal Museums Greenwich. The works, which explore notions of “Britishness, trade and empire, commemoration and national identity”, can be found inside and around buildings including the Queen’s House, National Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory and include Fake Death Pictures – a series of five vision of the death of naval hero Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson, Wind Sculpture – a gravity-defying object located on the Queen’s House lawn, Cheeky Little Astronomer – a specially commissioned sculpture located in the Flamsteed House at the Royal Observatory, and Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle – last seen on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth. Yinka Shonibare MBE at Greenwich, which is supported by a range of talks, debates and tours, runs until 23rd February. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk.

• Bankside will be transformed this weekend as artists will be transforming disused hoardings and derelict buildings with original artworks as part of the Merge Festival. The work’s include Candy Chang’s Before I Die, Alex Chinnick’s Miner on the Moon, and Marcus Lyall and Mark Logue’s House of Pain. Until 20th October. For more on the festival celebrating Bankside, see www.mergefestival.co.uk.

• On Now: Michael Peto Photographs: Mandela to McCartney. This new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery just off Trafalgar Square features a previously unexhibited photo of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, taken at the beginning of their love affair. It’s one of 10 portraits taken by the late Hungarian-born photographer Michael Peto in London during the 1950s and 1960s – others feature Samuel Beckett, Jennie Lee, Paul McCartney and Ian McKellen. Admission is free. For more, see www.npg.org.uk.

LondonLife – Steps to nowhere…

by exploringlondon

Endless-Stair

Inspired by Escher’s staircase, the London Design Festival’s landmark project Endless Stair has taken up residence outside the Tate Modern overlooking the River Thames. Designed by Alex de Rijke of dRMM and Dean of Architecture at the Royal College of Art (in collaboration with AHEC, ARUP, Nüssli, Imola Legno, SEAM and Lumenpulse), the 187 step stairway is constructed from a series of giant interlocking staircases shaped from American tulipwood. The stairway will be in place until 10th October. The London Design Festival, meanwhile, kicked off on Saturday and runs until 22nd September. It features more than 300 events with the V&A once again the festival’s central hub. For more – including a full programme of events –  see www.londondesignfestival.com. PICTURE: Cityscape

 

Around London: Heritage Open Days; Afghanistan supply lines; and Leslie Howard’s Blue Plaque…

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• It’s a good weekend for a day trip with heritage sites all around the fringes of greater London throwing their doors open this weekend as part of the annual Heritage Open Days event. Among places taking part in this year’s event – which will be followed by Open House London next weekend – are Cleaves Almshouses – established in 1669 and located in Kingston upon Thames, Watford’s oldest building – St Mary’s Church, Lopping Hall in Loughton (so named for the fact it was given to the townspeople in exchange for lopping rights in Epping Forest), and St George’s RAF Chapel of Remembrance at Biggin Hill Airfield in Kent. There are more than 4,500 properties taking part over the weekend, which kicks off today and runs until Sunday, across England. For more information – including full listings of all premises taking part, check out www.heritageopendays.org.uk.

• A new display taking at in-depth look at the complexities of supplying soldiers in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province opened at the Imperial War Museum this week. War Story: Supplying Frontline Afghanistan follows the journey from RAF Brize Norton in the UK to Camp Bastion in Afghanistan and then to forward operating bases and patrol bases on the frontline and features photographs, interviews and time lapse footage collected by IWM staff on trips to Afghanistan undertaken last year and this year – the first time IWM teams have visited an active theatre of conflict since World War I. Runs until 27th April. For more, see www.iwm.org.uk.

• A blue plaque honouring actor and film director Leslie Howard was unveiled by English Heritage at his former childhood home in Upper Norwood in south London last week. Born in the London suburb of Forest Hill, his family moved to Vienna when was only three-years-old but returned to London five years later and lived at 45 Farquhar Road in Upper Norwood for the next four years before moving to another address nearby. Howard made his West End debut in 1917 – adopting the stage name Leslie Howard in favor of his birth name Leslie Howard Steiner – subsequently appeared on stage and in films including Pygmalion (1938) and Gone with the Wind (1939). He died in 1943 when the plane he was in was shot down by enemy fire over the English Channel. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/.

Treasures of London – Freud’s collection of antiquities…

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Freud's-DeskThis group of antiquities sits upon the desk of Sigmund Freud – the “founding father” of psychoanalysis –  at what was his home in Hampstead.

It’s part of an extensive collection of around 2,000 items which is on display at house – now the Freud Museum – located at 20 Maresfield Gardens.

The antiquities – which include Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Oriental artefacts fill a series of cabinets and sit on almost every available surface in Freud’s study including the desk upon which Freud typically wrote until the early hours of the morning.

Collected by Freud from the 1890s onward, they include everything from a bronze statuette of the Greek goddess Athena (dating from the 1st or 2nd century AD – it’s mentioned in one of his manuscripts and, one of Freud’s favorite objects, was one of only three items he chose to have smuggled out of Vienna when his entire collection was threatened in 1938), a small bronze head of the Egyptian God Osiris believed to date from between 1075-716 BC, and a silver Roman ring featuring a blue glass intaglio depicting a pastoral scene which dates from between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD (it was given as a gift from Freud to German psychoanalyst Ernst Simmel in 1928).

The museum has launched a conservation fund to repair and conserve the most fragile of the items and is aiming to raise £40,000 for the work. It follows a successful campaign earlier this year to raise funds for the conservation of Freud’s famous couch, brought from his former home in Vienna (seen in the background of this image).

Freud and his family lived at the home after escaping from Austria following the country’s annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938. It remained the family home until the death of Freud’s daughter, Anna, in 1982. The museum opened to the public in 1986.

PICTURE: Courtesy of the Freud Museum.

WHERE: Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead (nearest Tube stations are Finchley Road and Swiss Cottage);  WHEN: Noon to 5pm, Wednesday to Sunday; COST: £6 adults; £4.50 seniors; £3 concessions (including children 12-16); children under 12 free; WEBSITE: www.freud.org.uk.

Around London – 1863 FA Minute Book at BL; marking International Slave Remembrance Day at the NMM; Kenwood House concerts; and Dylan at the NPG…

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FA-Cup-Minute-Book• The 1863 FA Minute Book forms the centrepiece of a new display at the British Library marking the 150th anniversary of The Football Association. Handwritten by Ebenezer Cobb Morley, the minute book contained the 13 original rules of football and is valued at £2.5 million. It is being displayed along with other football related artefacts – such as a Guide for Referees from the 1930s – in the Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery alongside the Magna Carta, Shakespeare’s First Folio and Captain Scott’s diary and is the first time the library has had a football-themed display. The Football Association was formed on 26th October, 1863, at the Freemason’s Tavern in London with the meeting documented in the minute book which also records the establishment of The FA Cup and the first international football match. Football Rules, entry to which is free, runs at the British Library in King’s Cross until 17th December. For more, see www.bl.uk. For more on the FA’s 150th anniversary, check out www.thefa.com.

• As mentioned last week, Hidden London kicks off today and runs over this August bank holiday weekend. The second year it’s been held, the initiative is your chance to see some of the country’s finest museum collections and archives.  To see what’s on, head to www.hiddentreasures.org.uk/?page_id=118.

• The National Maritime Museum tomorrow marks International Slavery Remembrance Day tomorrow with a series of free family-oriented events. The programme, which takes place at the museum and around Greenwich, involves music, workshops, talks and walking tours and will culminate in a commemorative ceremony by the River Thames. The day falls on the date of the first successful slave uprising in the western hemisphere which took place in Haiti on 23rd August, 1791, and led to the island’s independence. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum/.

• English Heritage’s season of concerts at Kenwood House beside Hampstead Heath kicks off this weekend. Live by the Lake features artists including Suede and Keane, an outdoor live screening of Singin’ in the Rain featuring the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Opera Alfresco and An Evening of Gershwin. Events run until 1st September. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenwood-house/.

• Pastel portraits by Bob Dylan go on show at the National Portrait Gallery in the West End from Saturday. Bob Dylan: Face Value features 12 new works by singer/songwriter and the portraits represent characters, some of which are real and some fictitious. Dylan, who has 110 million record sales to his name, has been sketching and drawing since childhood but only starting exhibiting his portraits six years ago. The exhibition, in Room 40, is free and runs until 5th January. For more, check www.npg.org.uk.

Around London – ‘Hidden Treasures’; Open House programme; and the Isabella Plantation celebrates 60 years…

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St-John's-Gate• Hidden Treasures – the national initiative to celebrate the UK’s museum and archive collections – kicks off for its second year next Thursday, 22nd August, and runs over the bank holiday weekend until 27th August. Among the London institutions taking part this year are the British Library, the British Postal Museum and Archive in Houghton, the Museum of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell (pictured) and Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham. Hidden Treasures is an initiative of the Collections Trust and the Independent newspaper. All events are free but some have to be pre-booked and have limited spaces so make sure you check out the details at www.hiddentreasures.org.uk/?page_id=118.

• The programme for Open House London – held over the weekend of 21st and 22nd September – will be made available online from today (or alternatively you can order a hard copy via the Open House London website). It’s important to note that a few of the buildings involved can only be entered by those successful in a ballot – they include 10 Downing Street, The View from The Shard, EDF Energy London Eye and Gray’s Inn. Head to the website – www.londonopenhouse.org – to enter the ballots which close on 13th September.

• The Isabella Plantation – a 40 acre ornamental woodland garden located in the south west area of Richmond Park – is celebrating 60 years since its creation and they’ve kicked off a fortnight’s programme of free events community to mark the occasion. The events, which will be focused around the yurt by Peg’s Pond in the plantation,  include guided walks, a showcase of art for young people and a Teddy Bears picnic on the bank holiday weekend. One of the most visited parts of Richmond Park, the plantation is home to the Wilson 50 National Collection of Evergreen Azaleas, more than 150 hardy hybrid Rhododendrons, 50 species of Rhododendron and a large collection of camellias and magnolia as well as many rare and unusual trees and shrubs. While the plantation can be dated as far back as 1771 (then named Isabella Slade), it was planted for timber in 1831, and in 1953 the present garden was established and the old name Isabella adopted for it. For more on the events, see www.royalparks.org.uk.

• As Muslims mark the end of Ramadan this weekend, the festival of Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated in Trafalgar Square on Saturday. As well as the chance to sample foods from across the Islamic world, there will also be entertainment on stage, exhibitions and children’s activities. The festival, put on by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, runs between 1.30pm and 6pm. For more, see www.london.gov.uk/eid.

• On Now: Take One Picture – Discover, Imagine, Explore: Children Inspired by Willem Kalf. This display at the National Gallery focuses on Willem Kalf’s Still Life with Drinking-Horn (about 1653) and features alongside it responsive works created by children from 25 schools across the UK and as far afield as Turkey with works from other schools captured in a slide-show. Located at the Annenberg Court (Getty Entrance), admission is free. Runs until 12th September. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk.