Lewis Carroll

London Pub Signs – The Walrus and The Carpenter…

by exploringlondon

This rather oddly named pub can be found at 45 Monument Street in the City of London, just a short walk (you may have guessed) from The Monument itself.

There actually nothing terribly mysterious about the name – it comes from a nonsensical narrative poem by Lewis Carroll which he puts in the mouths of those rambunctious twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee in the book, Through The Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, published in 1871.

No, the real mystery here is why this particular pub, which sits on the corner with Lovat Lane (renamed from Love Lane in the early 20th century; no prizes for guessing what went on there previously), was given this name.

The pub – and there’s been one on the site since at least the early 19th century – was apparently previously known as The Cock and once served the porters from the nearby Billingsgate Market on Lower Thames Street (just across the road). But after Billingsgate moved out to Docklands in 1982, the pub changed its name.

Why remains a matter of conjecture – although in the poem the two main characters encounter a bed of oysters which they eventually eat (perhaps there’s a link here to the fact Billingsgate was formerly located nearby?).

The rooms inside include the, given the pub’s moniker, appropriately named Lewis Carroll Bar and Dining Room.

The pub is now part of the Nicholson chain, previously having been under the Charrington and Fuller’s umbrellas. For more, see www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/restaurants/london/thewalrusandthecarpentermonumentlondon.

PICTURE: Chemical Engineer (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0).

 

This Week in London – Victorian portraits; celebrating life at the Tate; Haiti’s slave revolution; and, saving paintings during wartime…

by exploringlondon

• Portraits by four of the most celebrated figures in early art photography – Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, Oscar Rejlander and Clementine Hawarden – have gone on show in a new exhibition which opened at the National Portrait Gallery today. Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography is the first exhibition in London to feature the work of Swede Rejlander since his death and includes the finest surviving print of his famous work Two Ways of Life (1856-57) which used his pioneering technique to combine several different negatives in creating a single final image. Also on show is an album of Rejlander’s photographs purchased by the gallery after it was prohibited from being sold outside of the UK in 2015 and works by Lewis Carroll depicting his famous muse Alice Liddell including lesser known photographs taken when she was a woman. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Charles Darwin and actress Ellen Terry are among the subjects shown in the exhibition which runs until 20th May. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.npg.ork.uk/victoriangiants. PICTURE: Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1866. © Wilson Centre for Photography 

• A Francis Bacon portrait of Lucian Freud is being shown for the first time since 1965 in a new exhibition at Tate Britain celebrating human life in painted works. All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life features around 100 works by artists including Walter Sickert, Stanley Spencer, Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, RB Kitaj, Leon Kossoff, Paula Rego, Jenny Saville, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and others, as well as groups of major and rarely seen works by Freud and Bacon. Among the works by the latter are Freud’s Frank Auerbach (1975-76) and Sleeping by the Lion Carpet (1996) and Bacon’s Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne (1966) and Study After Velazquez (1950). Runs until 27th August. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.tate.org.uk.

• The legacy of the world’s first slave revolution – the Haitian Revolution – is explored in an exhibition at The British Museum. A revolutionary legacy: Haiti and Toussaint Louverture charts how the revolution led to the abolition of slavery and the formation of Haiti as an independent republic in 1804 and features a selection of objects commemorating the man who emerged as the revolution’s foremost leader, Toussaint Louverture. Among them is a screenprint, specially acquired for this exhibition, showing Louverture in military uniform by the African American artist Jacob Lawrence. There’s also a Haitian Vodou boula drum dating from the early 1900s, a Haitian banknote commemorating the nation’s bicentenary in 2004, a Senegalese coin commemorating the abolition of slavery and the cover of CLR James’ account of the revolution, Black Jacobins, written in 1938 and reissued during the civil rights movement in 1963. Haitian-born poet Gina Ulysee will perform a specially commissioned work which responds to the display on 16th March. Part of The Asahi Shimbun Displays, it runs until 22nd April in Room 3. Free entry. For more, including associated events, see www.britishmuseum.org.

• A series of photographs recalling the removal of The National Gallery’s paintings to a disused slate mine in Snowdonia during World War II will go on show at the gallery on Monday. The 24 images document the dispersal of the paintings to Manod with five additional images by photographer Robin Friend showing the quarry as it looks today. There’s also a 30 minute film directed by Friend, Winged Bull in the Elephant Case, which follows the journey of a National Gallery painting that has taken human form as it tries to save its friends and get back to London (it can be seen on Saturday on BBC2 at 10pm). The free display – Manod: The Nation’s Treasure Caves – can be found in the Annenberg Court until 8th April. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

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This Week in London – Exploring London’s archaeology; Alice in Bloomsbury; and, ‘Soundscapes’ at the National Gallery…

by exploringlondon

Canal-Museum• Descend into ice wells at the London Canal Museum; delve into the archaeological archives of the Egypt Exploration Society; discover the history of the Spitalfields Charnel House; and, tour the remains of London’s Roman military fort with experts from the Museum of London. The British Festival of Archaeology kicked off last weekend and there’s a plethora of events happening across London as part of the more than 1,000 taking place across the country. For a full programme of events – many of which are free – head to www.archaeologyfestival.org.uk. The festival runs until 26th July.

• Follow Alice down the rabbit hole in a new exhibition which opened at the Cartoon Museum in Bloomsbury yesterday. Marking the 150th anniversary of the book’s publication, Alice in Cartoonland looks at how cartoonists, caricaturists, satirists, animators and graphic artists adapted and used author Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Lutwidge Dodson) and original illustrator John Tenniel’s work in social and political commentaries as well as just to have fun. The display features posters, cartoon strips, comic and graphic novels and artwork from TV and film versions of Alice with Low, Vicky, Shepard, Steadman and Gilroy among the artists represented. Runs until 1st November (with some events held in conjunction with it). Admission charge applies. For more, see www.cartoonmuseum.org.

• Exploring the National Gallery’s art collection is usually done with the eyes but thanks to an innovative project which kicked off last week, it’s now also about listening. A series of contemporary sound artists and musicians including Nico Muhly, Gabriel Yared, Susan Philipsz, Jamie xx, Chris Watson, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller have created sounds and musical pieces in response to works they have chosen from the gallery’s collection. Selected works include the late 14th century The Wilton Diptych (Muhly), Hans Holbein’s 1533 painting The Ambassadors (Philipsz) and Paul Cézanne’s painting Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) (Yared). Soundscapes runs until 6th September in the Sainsbury Wing. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

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