1913 Ancient Monuments Act

Around London – Margaret Thatcher’s funeral; telling the Jewel Tower’s story; depot open weekend; and, Designs of the Year…

by exploringlondon

• Margaret Thatcher’s funeral will be held next Wednesday at St Paul’s Cathedral from 11am with Queen Elizabeth II among those attending (the first time she has attended the funeral of a British politician since Sir Winston Churchill’s in 1965). The funeral procession of the former Prime Minister, who died on Monday aged 87, will start at the Houses of Parliament and make its way down Whitehall to Trafalgar Square before moving down the Strand, Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill to St Paul’s Cathedral. Baroness Thatcher’s coffin will carried in a hearse for the first part of the journey and will be transferred to a gun carriage drawn by six horses of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery at St Clement Danes church on the Strand for the final part of the journey. There will be a gun salute at the Tower of London. Meanwhile, a Book of Condolence has opened at St Margaret’s Church, beside Westminster Abbey, this morning and will be available for people to pay their respects until 17th April, during the church’s opening hours. St Margaret’s – which stands between Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament – is commonly known as the parish church of the House of Commons.

• The story of the Jewel Tower – one of the last remaining parts of the medieval Palace of Westminster – is told in a new exhibition at the historic property. Now in the care of English Heritage, the tower – located to the south of Westminster Abbey, was built in 1365 to house King Edward III’s treasury, later used as King Henry VIII”s ‘junk room’, the record office for the House of Lords, and, from 1869, served was the “testing laboratory” for the Office of Weights and Measures. The exhibition, which opened this month, is part of the English Heritage celebrations commemorating the centenary of the 1913 Ancient Monuments Act. The Jewel Tower is open daily until November. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.english-heritage.co.uk.

• See some of the earliest underground trains, a Lego version of Baker Street station and ride the Acton Miniature Railway. The London Transport Museum’s depot in Acton is holding it’s annual spring open weekend this Saturday and Sunday and in celebration of the Underground’s 150th anniversary, attractions will include the Metropolitan Steam Locomotive No. 1 and the recently restored Metropolitan Carriage 353 along with model displays, rides on the miniature railway, film screenings, talks, and workshops. Wales’ Ffestiniog Railway team – celebrating their own 150th anniversary – will also be present with the narrow gauge train, Prince. Open from 11am to 5pm both days. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk.

• Now On: Designs of the Year. The Design Museum has unveiled contenders for the sixth annual Designs of the Year competition and you can what they are in this exhibition. Consisting of more than 90 nominations spanning seven categories, the nominated designs include the Olympic Cauldron by Heatherwick Studio, The Shard – western Europe’s tallest building – by Renzo Piano, a non-stick ketchup bottle invented by the Varanasi Research Group at MIT, and Microsoft’s Windows phone 8. The exhibition runs until 7th July – the winners will be announced this month. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.designmuseum.org.

Around London – Prehistoric life on show at Wellington Arch; Your favourite Michael Caine movie; Lichtenstein at the Tate; and, looking at Classical Greece through 19th century eyes…

by exploringlondon

Apologies for missing our series on Great Victorian Projects yesterday. It will resume next week. In the meantime…

• Fourteen rare Victorian paintings of life in prehistoric times have gone on display at Wellington Arch near Hyde Park Corner. The watercolors – which were commissioned by MP and archaeologist Sir John Lubbock in 1869 and have never before been displayed in public together – form the centrepiece of a new English Heritage exhibition, The General, The Scientist & The Banker: The Birth of Archaeology and the Battle for the Past. The “ground-breaking” works were painted by animal illustrator Ernst Griset and were ‘informed’ by then-recent archaeological finds including stone tools and fossils. The exhibition, which also includes rare artefacts, drawings and manuscripts tells the story of archaeological pioneers who fought to bring about recognition and legal protection for Britain’s ancient monuments and looks in detail at the achievements of three men – scientist Charles Darwin, archaeologist General Pitt-Rivers and banker Sir John Lubbock. The exhibition is the first of five being held in the arch’s Quadriga Gallery to mark the centenary of the 1913 Ancient Monuments Act. Runs until 21st April. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/wellington-arch/.

• Get Carter or The Ipcress File? Alfie or Educating Rita? The Museum of London is asking fans to vote for their favourite Michael Caine movie ahead of the opening of their new free exhibition on the actor next month. Voting for Caine on Screen can be found by following this link and closes at 5pm on 14th March after which the top four films will be revealed.  A full list of Sir Michael’s movies – and there’s more than 100 – is available on the voting form. More on the exhibition to come.

• On Now: Lichtenstein: A Retrospective. This exhibition on level two of the Tate Modern on South Bank is the first major retrospective on the Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) for 20 years and brings together more than 125 of his most definitive paintings and sculptures as it reassesses his work and legacy. Key works include Look Mickey (1961), Whaam! (1963) and Drowning Girl (1963). Co-organised by The Art Institute of Chicago and Tate Modern, it runs until 27th May. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.tate.org.uk.

• On Now: In search of Classical Greece: Travel drawings of Edward Dodwell and Simone Pomardi, 1805-1806. This free exhibition at the British Museum looks at Greece through the eyes of classical late eighteenth and early nineteenth century scholar Edward Dodwell and his Italian artist Simone Pomardi and features works produced during their travels in 1805-06. Lent by the Packard Humanities Institute, the works have never been seen in public before. See them in Room 90. Runs until 28th April. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org.