It’s that time of year and while it seems less people are these days sending Christmas cards, there are many who still do.
While we’ve previously written about the origins of greeting cards at Christmas (and who first sent them), today we’re taking a look at the oldest shop in which they’re still sold in London – often said to be the Medici Gallery in South Kensington.
The Medici Gallery in South Kensington: PICTURE: Google Maps
The gallery was opened by the Medici Society in 1908. This organisation had been founded by Philip Lee Warner and Eustace Gurney with the intention of promoting the work of artists to a wider audience. It initially operated on a subscription basis under which subscribers pay a set rate and then obtain copies of prints but later became a limited company.
The name Medici was said to have been chosen as a homage to the Medici family known for, among other things, the promotion of the arts in Florence during the Renaissance.
The gallery first started selling greeting cards in the 1930s and continues to do so today.
Located close to the River Thames, Richmond Lodge was a royal hunting lodge before becoming a favoured residence for Hanoverian royals for several decades in the 18th century.
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• One of the world’s most valuable watches – the No 160 watch which Abraham-Louis Breguet designed for Marie Antoinette but which wasn’t completed until the 1820s, well after her death – is the star of the show at the Science Museum’s new exhibition Versailles: Science and Splendour. Opening today, the exhibition, created in partnership with the Palace of Versailles, takes visitors on “a 120-year journey through the evolution of science at Versailles” and explores how Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI encouraged the pursuit of scientific knowledge and harnessed that knowledge as a tool of power. More than 100 objects are on display and, along with Breguet’s watch, they include Louis XV’s rhinoceros, a detailed map of the moon by Jean-Dominique Cassini, and Claude-Siméon Passemant’s Clock of the Creation of the World (1754). The watch, meanwhile, has its own fascinating history, including two decades in which its whereabouts were unknown after it was stolen in 1983 (in fact, its display in this exhibition marks the first time the timepiece has travelled abroad since its safe return to the LA Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in 2008). Runs until 21st April. Admission charge applies. For more, see sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/versailles.
• A medieval silk seal bag, which dates from the reign of King Henry III, has gone on public display for the first time in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey. The display follows the discovery by scholars that the bag’s material is a perfect match to the silk cloth used to wrap the remains of the Emperor Charlemagne when he was buried in Germany’s Aachen Cathedral (Charlemagne, seen as the first Holy Roman Emperor, died in 814 but was re-buried in the karlsschrein (Charles’s shrine) at Aachen in 1215). The bag at the abbey contains a wax seal, the Great Seal of King Henry III, which was attached to an inventory of the jewels and precious items on Edward the Confessor’s shrine located in the heart of the abbey. It was drawn up in 1267 when Henry III was in financial difficulties and forced to pawn items from the shrine to Italian merchants to raise funds (it is believed the items were all returned within 18 months). The silk used for Charlemagne’s shroud is believed to have been spun in the 12th century in Spain or the eastern Mediterranean and, while the small piece at the Abbey originates from a separate silk, it is understood that it would have been produced by the same weavers on the same loom. The bag can been seen until Easter next year. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.westminster-abbey.org/visit-us/plan-your-visit/the-queens-diamond-jubilee-galleries/.
• A new interactive electric bus display has opened at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. The Wrightbus Electroliner display – which has been provided by Transport UK London Bus – is based on an electric vehicle bus type which has been part of the fleet of buses operating in London since 2023. The new display features the front of the bus and includes an interactive driver cab and passenger space. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk.
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The Tower of London is known for many mysteries – the most famous, perhaps, being the fate of the two ‘Princes in the Tower’. But among the other mysterious deaths which took place behind the closed doors of the fortress is the death of the deposed King Henry VI.
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• Step back in time at Kensington Palace this Christmas with an experience inspired by Queen’s Victoria’s childhood at the palace. Victoria’s Childhood Christmas features intricately designed installations – everything from trees hung with sugar ornaments and handmade paper decorations to bespoke illustrations and period-style gifts – as well as an exploration of how some of the traditions still celebrated today – such as arranging numerous Christmas trees on table tops and displaying unwrapped presents around them – can be traced back to the 1830s at Kensington Palace. There’s also a pop-up theatre set which captures the magic of Victoria’s winter trips to London opera houses and a festive-themed afternoon tea inspired by Princess Victoria’s Christmas traditions served in The Orangery. The experience, which is included in general admission, can be seen until 5th January. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/
Parmigianino (1503–1540), ‘Studies of Saints John the Baptist and Jerome, a Crucifix and Various Heads’ (recto), about 1525–7; Red chalk on paper, 13.5 × 22.1 cm; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (87.GB.9); PICTURE: Courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program
• Parmigianino’s Madonna and Child with Saints (1526‒7) returns to display in The National Gallery for the first time in a decade in honour of the gallery’s 200th anniversary. The work, which is also known as The Vision of Saint Jerome, was presented to the gallery in 1826 and is being displayed with a selection of some of the most important preparatory drawings providing a rare opportunity to follow the artist’s creative process. The painting can be seen in Room 46 until 9th March. Entry is free. For more, see nationalgallery.org.uk.
• The Buckingham Palace State Rooms are open for one hour tours on select dates throughout winter. Led by an expert guide, the tours, which have a maximum of 30 people, include a complimentary guide. For more, see https://www.rct.uk/whatson
The location of Queen Boudicca’s grave has remained a mystery for almost 2,000 years and, dare we say it (yes, thinking of you, King Richard III), is likely to remain so.
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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).
• Early innovators of optical, kinetic, programmed and digital art are being celebrated in a new exhibition which opens today at Tate Modern.Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet features the work of more than 70 artists who worked between the 1950s and the dawn of the internet age and “who took inspiration from science to create art that expands and tests the senses”. Works on show include Electric Dress (1957) by Japanese artist Atsuko Tanaka of the Gutai group which is being shown alongside her circuit-like drawings, German artist Otto Piene’s Light Room (Jena) which surrounds viewers in a continuous light ‘ballet’, British-Canadian Brion Gysin’s homemade mechanical device, Dreamachine no.9 (1960-76) which creates kaleidoscopic patterns, and Tatsuo Miyajima’s eight-metre-long wall installation of flashing LED lights, Lattice B (1990), which is a meditation on time. A series of rooms, meanwhile, explores the art shows which played a key role in the development of digital art including London’s groundbreaking ‘Cybernetic Serendipity’ exhibition held at the ICA in 1968, and the exhibition also features the work of early adopters including US artist Rebecca Allen and Palestinian Samia Halaby as well as some of the earliest artistic experiments in virtual reality such as Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss’ interactive installation Liquid Views (1992). Runs until 1st June. Admission charge applies. For more, see tate.org.uk.
• The Museum of London Docklands is launching The Reflection Room, a new display space for artists on Friday. The new space, which the museum says will offer “room to explore a range of ideas and perspectives that foreground emotions and human experiences connected to London’s history”, will open with British-Caribbean artist Zak Ové’s mixed media installation Exodus. The installation, which is said to suggest a “reflection on today’s discourse around migration” will be accompanied by a wall of historic maps that present a visual sense of data on international migration, agricultural trade, and tourism between 1500 and 2005. Exodus can be seen until May. Admission is free. For more, see www.londonmuseum.org.uk/docklands/.
• The final tranche of tickets for London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display go on sale on Monday, 2nd December, at noon. Tickets must be bought in advance to attend and cost between £20 and £50 depending on the viewing area while Londoners will pay £15 less on each ticket booked than those living outside of the capital. Tickets will be available at www.ticketmaster.co.uk. For more on the event, see www.london.gov.uk/nye.
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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 ZooSquirrel monkeys explore food-filled stockings. PICTURE: Courtesy of London Zoo.
This St Pancras pub – located inside St Pancras International Station itself – bears the name of poet, writer, broadcaster and activist Sir John Betjeman.
The Betjeman Arms seen in 2016. PICTURE: Elliott Brown (licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)
Betjeman, who was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984, did have a particular connection to this location: he helped save the George Gilbert Scott-designed station from demolition in the 1960s with the station eventually awarded Grade I listed status in 1967.
The campaign to save St Pancras was just one of the many to save historic buildings that Betjeman was involved in, although not all were successful.
Betjeman is also remembered in a larger-than-life statue of the man which is located on the station concourse. Martin Jennings’ bronze statue depicts the poet and stands on a slate roundel featuring a selection of his writings.
The pub, which features a Betjeman ale, is now part of the Young’s group. For more, head to www.thebetjemanarms.co.uk/.
The Charles Hare uniform PICTURE: Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Newly acquired by the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich is the uniform of an officer in the French Imperial Customs Service (Les Douanes) worn by a Naval midshipman during his escape from Napoleonic France.
The son of a naval officer in Lincolnshire, Charles Hare had joined the Royal Navy at the age of 11 in 1801 and was serving as a naval midshipman on board the ship Minerva when it was captured off Cherbourg in 1803.
Along with the other officers, Hare, just 13-years-old, was sent to a the walled town of Verdun which served as a prison depot and allowed to live within the walls on parole. In 1806, however, he was transferred to the prison fortress of Sarre Libre (now Saarlouis in modern Germany).
On 12th August, 1809, Hare – now aged 19 and wearing the above mentioned uniform which includes a dark green coat with stripes of silver lace at the collar and a shako, a tall and cylindrical military cap featuring a plume of green and white feathers – made his escape from Sarre Libre.
He travelled by carriage to Mainz and then took a number of boats along the Rhine including on a barge hosting a wedding where he had to join in the drinking of brandy and singing. He eventually reached the port of Rotterdam in what is now The Netherlands.
On the 25th August, fishermen rowed Hare and his dog out to the British warship Royal Oak which was involved in a blockade of the Dutch coast. A few days later he sailed back to Britain where later that month Hare was reunited with his mother and sisters (his father had died in the year he joined the Navy) in the village of Fillingham, Lincolnshire.
A amall drawing on inner cover of Charles Hare’s account of his escape. PICTURE: Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Astonishingly, along with the uniform, the museum was also able to acquire a hand-written account of Hare’s escape which he apparently wrote for his young son George.
In it, Hare talks about the risk he was taking in wearing a “military habit” (he could have been executed as a spy if discovered) and his pet English terrier dog which he had been given while at Verdun and which accompanied him throughout the escape.
Hare soon returned to his career in the navy and eventually settled in Canada.
Following conservation work, the uniform – the most complete surviving example of its type from the Napoleonic era – can be how seen in the Nelson, Navy, Nation gallery at the National Maritime Museum.
WHERE: Nelson, Navy, Nation gallery at the National Maritime Museum, Romney Road, Greenwich (nearest DLR is Cutty Sark; nearest train stations are Greenwich and Maze Hill); WHEN: 10am to 5pm daily; COST: Free (booking recommended): WEBSITE: rmg.co.uk.
• The largest survey of the development of photography in Britain across the 1980s to date goes on show at the Tate Britain today. The 80s: Photographing Britain draws on almost 350 images and archive materials from the period to explore how photographers responded to the “seismic social, political, and economic shifts around them” during the decade. It features the work of more than 70 lens-based artists and collectives and features images taken from across the UK – from John Davies’ post-industrial Welsh landscape to Tish Murtha’s portraits of youth unemployment in Newcastle and Don McCullin’s portraits of London’s disappearing East End. Along with documentary photography capturing key political events such as John Harris and Brenda Prince’s images of the miners’ strikes and Syd Shelton and Paul Trevor’s images of anti-racism demonstrations, the exhibition also includes a series of thematic displays, featuring works such as Roy Mehta and Vanley Burke images of their multicultural communities, which explore how photography became a compelling tool for representation. Other subjects covered include countercultural movements that took place in the 80s and the presence and visibility of the LGBTQ+ community during the period of the AIDS epidemic. Runs until 5th May. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.tate.org.uk.
Tirzah Garwood, ‘Etna’, 1944, oil on canvas. PICTURE: Courtesy of Fleece Press/Simon Lawrence
• The first major exhibition devoted to the British artist and designer Tirzah Garwood has opened at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious comes 10 years after the critically acclaimed show celebrating the work of Eric Ravilious, husband of Garwood who was a celebrated artist and printmaker in her own right. More than 80 of Garwood’s work are on show including most of her existing oil paintings. Along with Garwood’s works – which include everything from woodgravings to a series of experimental marbled papers and collaged paper portraits – are 10 watercolours by her husband which draw out the couple’s “thematic similarities, shared interests and distinct artistic personalities”. Runs until 26th May. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk.
• Luke Jerram’s massive travelling installation Mars is unveiled at the Painted Hall in Greenwich this Saturday. Measuring seven metres in diameter and internally lit, the work features detailed NASA imagery of the Martian surface, recreated to scale (but about a million times smaller than the actual planet). The installation, which follows on from Jerram’s earlier artworks Gaia and Museum of the Moon, features a surround sound composition by BAFTA-winning composer Dan Jones which includes clips from NASA missions to Mars. Can be seen until 28th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://ornc.org/whats-on/mars/.
London’s rich layers of history has left its fair share of mysteries and in this series we’re going to take a look at 10, some well-known and others, such as this first one, less so…
First up, it’s a 500-year-old murder mystery. The victim was Robert Pakington, an MP and prominent member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, who is often said to be the first victim to be murdered with a handgun.
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One of the most devastating moments of World War II in Britain took place 80 years ago this month when, at 12:26pm on 25th November, 1944, a German V2 rocket bomb hit a Woolworths store in New Cross, south-east London.
One of the plaques memorialising those killed in the V2 attack outside what is now an Iceland in New Cross. PICTURE: Spudgun67 (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)
There were some 30 staff and 100 customers in Woolworths when the rocket struck (a queue had formed at the store after word had spread that tin saucepans had arrived).
The massive blast flattened the shop and spread into nearby streets, bringing down neighbouring houses and shops, overturning an army lorry and causing cars to burst into flames.
Some 168 people, including Woolworths customers and store workers as well as 33 children (some just babies in prams), were killed in the blast. Some of those who died were in the neighbouring Royal Arsenal Co-operative Socierty store, others were sitting at their desks in nearby offices and some were killed while sitting on a passing bus. Some 123 passersby were injured in the blast.
It took three days to clear the debris. Twenty four of those killed were never identified.
It is believed that the nearby New Cross Station was the intended target.
The V2, the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile, travelled at some 3,000 mph and, as such, few too high and fast to be tracked by radar, put down by anti-aircraft fire or intercepted by fighter aircraft.
V2s had only started to be used in September, 1944, following an order from Adolf Hitler for their manufacture in December, 1942. The first V2 rocket had hit Chiswick on 8th September, 1944, and over the next few months about half of the 3,000 rockets fired at Allied targets were aimed at London.
Such was the fear over the rocket attacks that it had only been on 10th November 1944, that Winston Churchill had publicly admitted the country was facing rocket attacks.
The New Cross attack is commemorated by two memorial plaques at the site, one erected by the Deptford History Group in 1994 and the other by the London Borough of Lewisham in 2009.
• World premiere installations Ombre by TILT – which takes the “form of a series of giant plants in bloom springing up from the landscape in a spectrum of vibrant shades” – and Threshold by Studio Vertigo – an “illuminated helix-like shape, bathed in golden yellow light to evoke the warmth and joy of the festive season” are at the centre of this year’s Christmas light trail at Kew Gardens. Other highlights at this year’s festive showing include Camellia Walk, which has been transformed into a snowy lane which showcases the spectacular tree canopy and evoking a wintery wonderland, Fish are Jumping by Dutch artists TOER and Mist Arches by Culture Creative which create “an atmospheric ambience across Kew’s Lake Crossing”. Annual favourites such as the light show on the Temperate House, the Fire Garden and Christmas Cathedral have also returned along with the Palm House finale. The trail can be visited on selected dates until 5th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.kew.org/christmas.
• Around 100 prints by Pablo Picasso – including some from his 347 Suite which have never been displayed before – are on show in a new exhibition at the British Museum.Picasso: Printmaker charts the artist’s engagement with printmaking (he produced around 2,400 in total) and centres on some of the more than 500 now in the British Museum’s collection (the largest in the UK). Highlights include his first professional print – The Frugal Meal (1904 – pictured) – as well as prints from the Vollard Suite (1930-1937) such as the aquatint Faun Uncovering a Woman (1936), and, the 347 Suite‘s Tree in the Storm, with Flight Towards a Church (1968). The exhibition can be seen in Room 90 until 30th March. Admission charges apply. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org/picasso.
• The T rex’s new Christmas jumper has been unveiled at the Natural History Museum. This year’s design – which can be seen modelled by the T rex – features festive colours of red, blue, green and white and an image of the museum’s latest prehistoric resident, Fern the Diplodocus, who took up residence in the redesigned gardens earlier this year. The jumper can be seen in the Dinosaur’s Gallery until January. Human-sizxed versions can be bought in the museum shop (www.nhmshop.co.uk). For more, see nhm.ac.uk.
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…
There’s a couple of possible explanations for the name – the first is that the oak in question once marked the southern boundary of the estates or “honour” of the 12th century Earls of Gloucester – hence ‘Honor Oak’.
The second is that Queen Elizabeth I apparently had a picnic with Sir Richard Bulkeley of Beaumaris under its branches on May Day, 1602. Hence again ‘Oak of Honor’ or ‘Honor Oak’.
Sadly, the original tree is gone – it was apparently hit by lightning in the 1880s – and a replacement, which can still be seen today, was subsequently planted nearby.
There’s a few stories surrounding the hill and its oak including that it was here that the Roman general Paulinus overcome Boudicca in 61AD. Another says that the highwayman Dick Turpin used it as a lookout.
Its height did see the hill put to use as a beacon by the Admiralty during the Napoleonic Wars and as a semaphore station by the East India Company. A beacon on top of the hill was erected to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935 and subsequently used for celebrations including the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen’s silver and golden jubilees.
There was also a gun emplacement built upon the hill during World War I.
The area around the hill was largely rural until the late 18th century. In 1809, the Croydon Canal Company constructed a canal which ran from Croydon north to New Cross and which included numerous locks. It was taken over almost 30 years later by the Croydon and London Railway for its new line (the current railway line, the stops on which include Honor Oak Park (opened in 1886), runs along the same course).
There was a bid to incorporate One Tree Hill into a golf course in the late 1800s but following a protest, this was halted and in 1905 the hill was acquired by the Camberwell Borough Council as public open space. It remains so today.
The Church of St Augustine was built to the designs of William Oakley on the hill’s east side in the late 19th century.
Famous residents in the streets around the hill have included Spike Milligan.
The Honor Oak Reservoir lies just to the north of the hill. It was constructed between 1901 and 1909 and was the largest brick built underground reservoir in the world. The roof of the still-in-use reservoir is grassed over and used as a golf course. A rather grand pumping station stands nearby.
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