The riverside community of Old Isleworth on the bank of the River Thames in London’s west (as taken from the opposite bank). In the left of the frame is the London Apprentice pub (see our earlier story on it here). We’ll resume our special series – 10 (more) curious London memorials – next week.
This pub, located in the City, takes its name from the street upon which it stands – Watling Street.
The street, which is just 180 metres long, bears the same name as a great Roman road which ran all the way from Dover through London to the long gone Roman town of Viroconium (now known as Wroxeter in Shropshire).
The Roman road followed, to some extent, the route of an ancient Celtic pathway. But while the Celtic pathway crossed the Thames at Westminster, the Roman road, once the bridge was constructed, crossed at London Bridge and headed through London, apparently taking in this surviving piece.
The building itself – located on the intersection with Bow Lane – is said to have been constructed from old ship’s timbers by none other than Sir Christopher Wren in 1668. The upstairs rooms were said to have been used as a drawing office during the construction of Wren’s masterpiece, St Paul’s Cathedral. It may have also been used as pub by the workmen building the cathedral – in fact it’s said to have been the first pub built after the Great Fire of 1666.
The pub is part of the Nicholson group. For more on it, check out www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/yeoldewatlingwatlingstreetlondon.
PICTURE: Duncan Harris/Wikipedia
Built in what was then Clement’s Lane, just off the Strand, in the early 1820s, Enon Chapel became something of a byword for scandal thanks to its rather stuffed crypt.
The Baptist chapel had two functions: the upper floor served as a chapel for worship while beneath it – separated only by a timber floor – lay a crypt where, for a small sum – said to be the very affordable amount of 15 shillings – people could bury their loved ones. (The smell can’t have been very pleasant from the get-go – apparently an open sewer ran under the chapel).
Despite the apparent smell and the fact people in the chapel fainted and even became sick from the mouldering bodies beneath their feet, it wasn’t until 1844 that, during the works to cover the sewer beneath the chapel, it was discovered the minister – who had since died – had interred an estimated 12,000 people plus people in the crypt, some of whom were buried under a shallow layer of earth while others were simply stacked in their coffins (or remains thereof).
The works were put on hold following the discovery but the remains weren’t removed until 1847 when they were taken out to West Norwood Cemetery, in the city’s south. In the meantime, the building was used as a dancing saloon, albeit with a new brick floor separating it from the crypt (the fact of the bodies beneath the floor certainly wasn’t hidden – the saloon even advertised the dancing events as “dancing on the dead”). In fact, it also became something of a tourist attraction with thousands of people visiting the site to view the remains before they were carted off.
While the scandal may not have resulted in instant action at Enon Chapel, it did help bring attention to the deplorable state of many of the City’s burial grounds which eventually resulted in the passing of the Burial Act of 1852 under which London’s burial grounds were closed and cemeteries built out in the countryside.
The building has long since gone.
• The Mayor’s Thames Festival kicks off tomorrow and runs for 10 days until 15th September. This year’s highlight’s include the day long A Ship’s Opera which culminates in a sound and light “spectacular” at Tower Bridge, large-scale artworks placed on boards along the river, an exhibition of more than 50 artworks inspired by the Diamond Jubilee Pageant along the Thames, a film celebrating the people who live and work on the river which will be shown for free on an outdoor screen, riverside choral performances, boat races – including the world’s slowest river race and the longest race on the Thames – and the Source to Sea River Relay in which a bottle of Thames water, filled at the Thames’ source, will be relayed by walkers, swimmers, rower and sailors for the entire length of the river. Most activities will be focused on the stretch of river between Lambeth Bridge and St Katharine Docks. For a full program of all events, check out www.thamesfestival.org.
• Last year’s Olympics and Paralympics will be celebrated again in events taking place this weekend. On Saturday – a year since the Paralympic Games closed – disabled athletes and performers will descend on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for a day of celebration to mark National Paralympic Day. Part of the Mayor’s Liberty Festival, an annual showcase of deaf and disabled artists, highlights will include an aerial and sway performance – ‘The Limbless Knight’ – and the ‘Miracoco Luminarium’, an interactive light sculpture. The free day runs from noon to 8pm. For more information, see queenelizabetholympicpark.co.uk/events/2013/6/disability-sport (note that registration is required to watch paralympians in action in the newly reopened venue, the Copper Box). Meanwhile on Sunday, Hampstead Heath will host the annual Give it a Go! Olympic legacy festival. Kids will have the chance to take part in everything from penalty shootouts and street dance, boxing and fancy dress and circus workshops as well as martial arts and rugby sessions, and free tennis lessons. The day runs from 1pm to 5.45pm. For more, see www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/hampsteadheath.
• Victorian revivalism is under examination in a new exhibition at the City of London’s Guildhall Art Gallery. The multi-media, multi-sensory show Victoriana: The Art of Revival explores the work of contemporary artists inspired by the 19th century – including Yinka Shonibare, Grayson Perry and Paula Rego – and features graphic design, film, photography, ceramics, taxidermy, furniture, textiles and fine art. More than 70 works are included – among them is a piece created specially for the show, Paul St George’s ‘Geistlich Tube’ – and they’re grouped under four themes – the Neo-Victorian Identity, Time Travel, The Cute and the Curious, and The Reimagined Parlour. The exhibition opens on Saturday and runs until 8th December. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/victoriana.
This strange looking globe standing in Victoria Embankment Gardens just off Savoy Place may appear just another random piece of street art but in fact it’s a memorial to a man and his family who established the hotel now housed nearby.
Theatre impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte is known for having formed his own opera company – the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, it was known for staging Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Savoy operas’ – and for having founded the Savoy Hotel, which stands across the road from the memorial’s location.
The memorial, which was placed here in 1989 to mark the hotel’s centenary, takes the form of an armillary sphere – a model of objects circling the earth – standing in the middle of a cistern.
The inscription accompanying the memorial states that it honors not only Richard D’Oyly Carte but also others – including members of his family – who have since been involved in the hotel’s management. There’s also a note on the rim of the cistern, stating that the garden was “given to London by the Savoy in celebration of its centenary” while inscribed on the armillary sphere’s rings are the words “Savoy Centenary 1989, ‘For excellence we strive.'” and a line from dramatist WS Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) – “Every season has its cheer, life is lovely all the year”.
The weekend of 21st and 22nd September represents the final chance to go inside and explore the Grade II*-listed Battersea Power Station before it is transformed as the centrepiece of a new £8 billion riverside development featuring a blend of residences, offices, shops, leisure and hospitality facilities. The former power station, built on the south bank of the River Thames in the 1930s, is one of the highlights of this year’s Open House London and will take visitors on a walking route which starts at the 2.5 acre ‘pop up park’ which appeared on the riverside earlier this year and then leads through to the remains of vast central boiler house and the 1950’s turbine hall B. It’s the first time the building has taken part in Open House London and the last chance to see inside before works begin in October. The power station will be open from 11am to 4pm on both days with last entries at 3pm. Entry is free. For more, see www.batterseapowerstation.co.uk or check out www.londonopenhouse.org.
A rather humble looking fountain set into the railing outside the Church of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate at the corner of Giltspur Street and Holborn Viaduct, it’s easy to overlook this important part of London’s historic fabric.
But this free water fountain is London’s oldest and was installed here on 21st April, 1859, by the then Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Association. Established by Samuel Gurney – an MP and the nephew of social reformer Elizabeth Fry, the organisation aimed to provide people with free drinking water in a bid to encourage them to choose water over alcohol.
Within two years of the fountain’s creation, the organisation – which later changed its name to Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association in reflection of its expanded role in also helping animals – had placed as many as 85 fountains across London.
Such was the need for a clean water supply that, according to the Drinking Fountain Association, as many as 7,000 people a day used the fountain when it was first installed.
The fountain on Holborn Hill was removed in 1867 when the nearby street Snow Hill was widened during the creation of the Holborn Viaduct and the rails replaced but it was returned there in 1913. Rather a poignant reminder of the days when water wasn’t the publicly available resource it is today, the marble fountain still features two small metal cups attached to chains for the ease of drinking and carries the warning, “Replace the Cup!”.
PICTURE: Wikipedia/JustinC
We’re taking a break this week at Exploring London but we couldn’t resist posting a Where is it? for you. Can you identify where in London this picture was taken and what it’s of? If you think you can, leave a comment below. We’ll reveal the answer late this week. Good luck!
Sorry for the delay in getting the answer over. And well done to those who correctly named this as being at Guy’s Hospital in Southwark. Now a part of the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (and home to King’s College London’s School of Medicine), the hospital was originally founded by Sir Thomas Guy in 1721. The statue is indeed that of Viscount Nuffield, one of the hospital’s benefactors. Keep an eye out of our upcoming entry on Sir Thomas as part of our ‘Famous Londoners’ series.
This 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.
• 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.
It’s not immediately obvious what this series of upright stainless steel pillars standing on the eastern edge of Hyde Park has been placed there for.
But look a little closer and you’ll see inscribed upon a date which any long-term Londoner immediately recognises – 7th July, 2005: the day when a series of bombs claimed 52 lives on three trains and a bus at various locations around central London.
The memorial, designed by architects Carmody Groarke and engineering team Arup working in consultation with victims’ representatives, Royal Parks and the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, consists of 52 pillars – one for each victim of the bombings.
The 3.5 metre high, 850 kilogram pillars are clustered together in four groups representing the four locations of the bomb attacks – Tavistock Square, Edgware Road, King’s Cross and Aldgate. They are marked with the times, dates and locations of the bombings and there’s also a 1.4 tonne stainless steel plaque upon which are written the names of the victims located nearby.
The RIBA award-winning memorial, which is located just to the north of the colossal statue Achilles and Hyde Park Corner, was unveiled by Prince Charles and Lady Camilla on the fourth anniversary of the attack in 2009.
For more, see the Royal Parks website www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/hyde-park/hyde-park-attractions/7-july-memorial.
A remarkable Pre-Raphaelite painting has been found painted on the wall of a Bexleyheath house lived in by artist William Morris. The bedroom wall painting at Red House, which is believed to have been painted by Morris and other Pre-Raphaelites, was hidden behind a wardrobe and covered by wallpaper for years with only two figures from the painting visible. But following two months of conservation work by the National Trust – which acquired the property in south-east London in 2003 – a six by eight foot image has been discovered depicting Biblical characters such as Adam and Eve, Noah, and Rachel and Jacob. Designed to resemble a hanging tapestry, the image also contained faded and incomplete lines of text which have been identified as being from the Biblical book of Genesis (chapter 30, verse six). Morris lived at the house between 1860 and 1865, during which time Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his wife Elizabeth Siddal, Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown were regular visitors. It is understood his friends helped decorate the property’s walls, ceilings and items of furniture with wall paintings and patterns. While it is thought Jacob was painted by Morris, Rachel possibly by Elizabeth Siddal and Noah by Madox Brown, further research is being undertaken to help identify who painted which image. For details on visiting times and how to get to the property, check out www.nationaltrust.org.uk/red-house/. PICTURES: © National Trust / James Breslin and, © National Trust.
• 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.
The unobtrusive box-like structure and adjacent glass pillar located on the corner of The Mall and Horse Guards Road in Whitehall is another memorial that is easy to overlook.
Unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005, it commemorates the 4,000 police officers who have been killed in the course of their duty in the UK and was commissioned by the Police Memorial Trust.
The trust was formed in the mid-1980s by the late film director Michael Winner following the shooting death of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, who was killed while policing a protest outside the Libyan Embassy in St James’s Square on 17th April, 1984.
The Trust ensured an individual memorial to WPC Fletcher now marked the spot of her death and was followed by further memorials to individual police officers before the trust began a campaign for a larger, national memorial in the mid-1990s.
As much as £2.3 million was raised from the public for the memorial which was designed by architectural firm Foster + Partners.
The memorial, which won a RIBA award, consists of a black granite clad wall with a glass chamber set into its face, inside which is a Book of Remembrance listing the names of all UK police officers killed in the course of duty (the pages of the book are apparently turned every two weeks). Above the chamber is carved the Metropolitan Police Crest.
The tall glass pillar which stands nearby in a reflecting pool was designed to pay homage to the blue lamps that once burned outside police stations.
For more on other police memorials in the UK, see www.policememorial.org.uk.
The Gold State Coach passes in front of Buckingham Palace on 2nd June, 1953. The image is among the displays at the special exhibition marking the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II which forms part of the summer opening of Buckingham Palace’s State Rooms. The exhibition, which runs until 29th September, features dresses, uniforms and robes worn by the principal royal party on the day along with works of art, paintings and other objects related to it. Admission charge applies. For more, check out www.royalcollection.org.uk. PICTURE: Royal Collection Trust/All Rights Reserved.
OK, so they’re not people as such, but the ravens at the Tower of London are renowned the world over.
Known as the “Guardians of the Tower”, there are currently as many as eight ravens living at the tower, lodged in a space on the grass next to the Wakefield Tower.
Legend has it that there must be at least six ravens living at the Tower – should they leave, not only will the Tower fall but the kingdom as well (although we hasten to add that it’s been argued this tradition only started in the Victorian age and that there have been times when the numbers of ravens dropped below the required six, such as at the end of World War II when only one raven remained).
It was King Charles II who first ordered the ravens be protected – an order which must have upset Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed who complained after he found that the birds were interfering with the observation work he was carrying out from the Tower’s north-east turret. He later moved out to Greenwich.
The eight ravens who now live at the tower include Rocky, Merlin, Hugine and the latest additions Jubilee – given to the Tower last year to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – and Grip, named after Charles Dickens’ pet raven.
The birds are looked after by a team of four headed by the raven master, Chris Skaife, who each day feed them 170 grams (six ounces) of raw meat and special biscuits soaked in animal blood.
Not all ravens can cut the mustard to work at the Tower – one recent addition Pearl was apparently bullied by other ravens and had to be withdrawn. And while the birds have the feathers on one wing trimmed to stop them escaping to a new life on the wing, that hasn’t stopped some from doing so including Grog who took off in 1981 and was last seen outside an East End pub.
The oldest raven to ever live at the Tower was Jim Crow, who died at age of 44 in 1928.
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/.
One of five City of London swords, tradition holds that the sword was given to the City Corporation by Queen Elizabeth I when the Royal Exchange opened in 1571.
It takes its name from its pearl-encrusted scabbard – there’s said to be 2,500 of them sewn onto it – and was traditionally used in celebrations. These include a ceremony which takes place when the reigning monarch comes in State to the City.
Seen during last year’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the ceremony involves the Lord Mayor taking the sword from the Sword-Bearer and offering it hilt-first to the monarch to touch – a symbol of the monarch’s authority over the city. It is then borne aloft in front of the monarch by the Lord Mayor.
Interestingly, the tradition of the monarch touching the sword hilt is said to date from the reign of King Charles I when the king entered the City in 1641 and just touched the sword given to him and handed it back to the Lord Mayor. Prior to that, the sword was handed over to the sovereign for the during the visit.
The City’s other four swords include the State Sword, the Mourning Sword, the Old Bailey Sword and Mansion House Justice Room Sword.
Guided tours of Mansion House – official residence of the Lord Mayor of London and where the Pearl Sword can be seen – are conducted on Tuesdays at 2pm (although it’s closed for August for refurbishments and on selected dates after that). Head here www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/mansionhousetours details. PICTURES Courtesy City of London.
• The Tower of London’s iconic exhibition, the Line of Kings, has had a makeover. Described as the “world’s longest running visitor attraction”, the Line of Kings features more than 500 objects including historic suits of armour – such as those worn by King Henry VIII, King Charles I and King James II – as well as life-sized wooden horses and individually carved king’s heads, many of which were made between 1685 and 1690. The exhibition was originally created following the Restoration in 1660 and was used as propaganda to promote the king’s rule (interestingly omitting queens and featuring only those deemed “good kings”). Rearranged and dispersed over the centuries, it’s been brought back together in the White Tower and reopened last month. Entry to the exhibition – a collaboration between Historic Royal Palaces and the Royal Armouries – is free as part of general admission to the Tower. For more, check out www.royalarmouries.org/line-of-kings. PICTURE: HRP/Newsteam
• Four cameras mounted on top of St Paul’s Cathedral’s Golden Gallery have captured a 360 degree time lapse video of the capital. The video, which was shot in early July, captured 36 hours in the life of London and is the work of specialist photographer Henry Stuart who previously completed two projects from the Golden Gallery – a GigaPixel image of London and a Day Meets Night image. The latest project captured some 8,000 panoramic images. The time lapse video, which is set to Kyrie from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Missa in C major ‘Missa solemnis’ K337 being sung by the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir, can be found at http://visualise.com/videos/london-360-time-lapse-from-st-pauls-cathedral.
• On Now: London Cycles. This free exhibition at the Museum of London looks at cycling in the capital with highlights including 10 large scale portraits by Ugo Gattoni, bikes including an 1880s “boneshaker”, a penny farthing, an 1930s Enfield cycle and a ‘Boris’ bike as well as head cam footage from riders including from the annual Tweed Run bike. The free display runs until 22nd September. For more, see www.museumoflondon.org.uk.
Amid all the grand war-related memorials of London, this rather humble memorial sitting outside the north transept of St Paul’s Cathedral in St Paul’s Churchyard can easily be overlooked.
Known as the Memorial to the Londoners killed in World War II Bombardments or simply as the ‘People of London’ memorial as it’s called on the sculptor’s website, it commemorates the 30,000 Londoners who were killed during the Blitz (not to be confused with the National Firefighters’ Memorial, known informally to many as the Blitz Memorial, which sits opposite the cathedral’s south transept and commemorates firefighters who died during the Blitz).
The round memorial was carved from a three tonne block of Irish limestone and is set into paving (it was initially very shiny).
The gilded inscription which runs around the outside reads “Remember before God the people of London 1939-1945” while on top, written in a spiral, is an inscription written by Sir Edward Marsh – “In war resolution, in defeat defiance, in victory magnanimity, in peace goodwill”, the text of which was used by Sir Winston Churchill in the frontispiece to his history, The Second World War.
Unveiled by the Queen Mother on 11th May, 1999, the memorial is the work of Richard Kindersley, whose other memorials include the Commonwealth Memorial on Constitution Hill.
Kindersley writes on his website, that the “position of the memorial adjacent to St Paul’s is most appropriate, as most people will remember the dramatic photograph of the Cathedral dome of the taken during a devastating attack in 1941.”
It was paid for by public funds raised following an appeal in the Evening Standard newspaper, launched in connection with the 50th anniversary of VE Day.
The humble Blue Plaque is set for a new lease on life following an announcement this week. The London Evening Standard has announced it will help breathe new life into English Heritage’s Blue Plaque’s scheme this week with the scheme – which was suspended in January due to funding cuts – set to relaunch next year in association with the newspaper. As many as 20 new plaques have already been funded through a £80,000 donation from property developer David Pearl, says the paper, and the public are being urged to help financially support the programme at www.english-heritage.org.uk/donate. The Standard also noted that from next year its readers will be able to vote for candidates for future plaques. Each Blue Plaque costs about £4,000 to create and install. Pictured is a Blue Plaque commemorating poet Alexander Pope’s residence in a Chiswick property between 1716-1719. The property is now the Mawson Arms public house.
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