Pinner

This Week in London – John Singer Sargent’s American portraits; Story Explorers at the British Library; and, narrative, humour and nostalgia at the Heath Robinson Museum…

by exploringlondon
Kenwood House. PICTURE: Krisztina Anna Berecz/Unsplash

• An exhibition marking the centenary of the death of painter John Singer Sargent
(1856-1925) opens at Kenwood House tomorrow. Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits focuses on a series of portraits of women who married into British and European aristocracy and who were once dismissively referred to as the “Dollar Princesses’. They include a war-time nurse, a helicopter pilot and the first sitting female MP. Among the works on show are Kenwood House’s portrait of Daisy Leiter, a Chicago heiress who married the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire; a portrait of Edith, Lady Playfair, from the Museum of Fine Art, Boston; and a portrait of Mrs Joseph Chamberlain from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Runs until 5th October. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-on/kenwood-heiress-exhibition-16-may–5-oct-2025/.

• A new experiential space to help children and their families journey through the British Library’s collection opens tomorrow. Story Explorers takes children on a journey, directed by Daisy the library cat, through four distinct environments – a library, the far reaches of outer space, a jungle and the bottom of the ocean floor – and features sound recordings, artworks, prints and books from across the world. Among the objects they’ll encounter are Victorian record from the Library’s Sound Archive featuring animal sounds, one of the first photographs taken of the Moon, an Arabic astrological and astronomical handbook from the Middle Ages and one of the earliest printed Japanese works that captures the anatomy of a whale. The free space is open for children aged two to nine and their families until 18th January. Booking is essential. For more, see https://events.bl.uk/exhibitions/story-explorers.

• Narrative, humour and nostalgia are explored into a new display at the Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner. Ways of seeing; Narrative-Humour-Nostalgia, which opens on Saturday, features painting, sculpture, video, soundscapes, and augmented reality to show how artists continue to use storytelling, satire, and memory to “provoke thought, entertain, and challenge perceptions”. Artists represented include Glenn Baxter, Sir Peter Blake, Chila Burman, Peter Coyte, Adam Dant, David van Eyssen, Nicky Hirst, Patrick Hughes, John Humphreys, Harland Miller, Heath Robinson, Richard Wilson, and Ronnie Wood. Runs until 19th July. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org/whats-on/ways-of-seeing-narrative-humour-nostalgia/

Send all items for inclusion to exploringlondon@gmail.com

This Week in London – Portraits from ‘The Face’; jazz and classical music at the London Transport Museum; and, Ralph Steadman at the Heath Robinson Museum…

by exploringlondon

• Iconic portraits which featured in the trail-blazing magazine, The Face, have gone on show from today at the National Portrait Gallery off Trafalgar Square. The Face Magazine: Culture Shift features more than 200 prints by more than 80 photographers including Sheila Rock, Stéphane Sednaoui, David LaChappelle, Corinne Day, Elaine Constantine, Juergen Teller and Sølve Sundsbø. The display explores how the cult magazine, which ran from 1980 to 2004 before being relaunched in 2019, impacted culture in the Eighties, Nineties and Noughties and in particular how it shaped the tastes of Britain’s youth. Runs until 18th May. Admission charges apply. For more, see www.npg.org.uk.

Support out work for £3 a month and gain access to all our stories…

• Visitors to the London Transport Museum are being treated to live performances from some of London’s most promising classical and jazz musicians under a new initiative which kicked off earlier this month. The young musicians, from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, or Trinity Laban, are performing in a programme designed to equip them with real-world performance experience. The music is being performed over various dates until 24th October. For more details, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/music-museum.

• A new exhibition celebrating the work of illustrator Ralph Steadman has opened at the Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner. Ralph Steadman: INKling spans the 70 years of Steadman’s career and covers his literary illustrations, including Steadman’s interpretations of Alice in Wonderland, Animal Farm, and Treasure Island, his illustrations for children’s books such as From Fly Away Peter (1963) and The Ralphabet (2023), and the “Gonzo art” he created in collaboration with Hunter S Thompson. Runs until 10th May. Admission charges apply. For more, see www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org/#whatson.

Send all items to exploringlondon@gmail.com.

This Week in London – Natural History Museum scientists name new species; Ketna Patel at the Heath Robinson Museum; and, David Hoffman’s images of the East End…

by exploringlondon
Interior of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. PICTURE: Michael D Beckwith/Unsplash

• A snake named after actor Leonardo DiCaprio, fossilised dung named after the author of Winnie the Pooh and a piranha named after Sauron, the evil Lord of the Rings figure, are among 190 new species named by London’s Natural History Museum scientists in 2024. The Anguiculus dicaprioi, or DiCaprio’s Himalayan snake, was named after DiCaprio while Alococopros milnei is a fossilised dung named after AA Milne in recognition of Winnie the Pooh (get it?) and a vegetarian piranha, or pacu, was named Myloplus sauron due to its resemblance to JRR Tolkien’s Eye of Sauron. Other newly named species included a new dinosaur from the Isle of Wight, now known as Comptonatus chasei, which was named for fossil hunter, Nick Chase, and a new species of pterosaur which was named Ceoptera evansae. For more on the museum, see www.nhm.ac.uk.

• The work of British-Indian artist Ketna Patel is the subject of a new exhibition at the Heath Robinson Museum. REMIXOLOGY: The Art of Cultural Storytelling by Ketna Patel invites audiences to
“reflect on how identity is shaped – by ourselves and by society” and celebrates what is described as her “signature approach” to her work which involves remixing diverse cultural influences into something new. The display can be seen at the Pinner museum until 8th February. Museum admission charge applies. For more, see www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org.

• Now on: Endurance & Joy in the East End: The photography of David Hoffman. This exhibition, hosted by the Museum of the Home, features the work of one of the leading “photographers of protest” in the UK and spans a 10 year period starting in 1973 when Hoffman lived in a squat in Fieldgate Mansions and documented issues seen in Whitechapel including homelessness, racism and the rise of protest. Running until 30th March, it can be seen in the Undercroft at 136 Kingsland Road. For more, see www.museumofthehome.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions-and-installations/endurance-and-joy-david-hoffman/

Send all items for inclusion to exploringlondon@gmail.com.

This Week in London – The ‘Concert of Antient Music’ recalled; National Portrait Gallery announces reopening date; and, Heath Robinson’s Shakespeare illustrations…

by exploringlondon
The Foundling Museum. PICTURE: dvdbramhall/Flickr (licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• The 18th and 19th century concert series – ‘Concert of Antient Music’ – is explored in a new display at the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury. Located in the Handel Gallery, Music for the King: The Concert of Antient Music looks at the story behind the establishment of this concert series which were held at various locations in London annually from 1776 to 1848 and which only featured works composed at least 20 years prior. The concerts attracted patronage from the likes of King George III and members of the nobility – in fact, the King was such an admirer of Handel’s music that he instructed an extra concert – a performance of Handel’s Messiah – be given annually for the benefit of the Royal Society of Musicians. The display includes portraits of composers including Handel, Geminiani and Corelli as well as those of singers and other performers along with the index of performances and payment records for performers, letters, tickets and programmes of the concerts. Admission charge applies. Runs until 8th October. For more, see https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/event/music-for-the-king-the-concert-of-antient-music/.

• The National Portrait Gallery has announced it will reopen its doors for the first time since 2020 on 22nd June this year. The reopening will follow a major redevelopment project, ‘Inspiring People’, which includes a comprehensive redisplay of the gallery’s collection, spanning from the Tudor period to today, as well as the restoration of Grade I-listed buildings and historic features. The new design – the work of Jamie Fobert Architects working in partnership with Purcell – will incorporate the Blavatnik Wing, the entire first floor encompassing nine galleries, which will explore society and culture in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It will also see the return of the gallery’s East Wing to public use as the Weston Wing, restore original gallery spaces and create new retail and catering facilities.

• On Now: Heath Robinson’s Shakespeare Illustrations. This exhibition at the Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner features Robinson’s illustrations from works including Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare (1902), Twelfth Night (1908) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1914) as well as some of the illustrations he created for a never published complete works of Shakespeare commissioned by the publishing house of Jonathan Cape. The exhibition can be seen until 19th March. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org/whats-on/heath-robinsons-shakespeare-illustrations/.

Send items to exploringlondon@gmail.com

This Week in London – Open House Festival; Winslow Homer at The National Gallery; and, a celebration of wood engravings…

by exploringlondon
An image from the Open House Festival 2020 PICTURE: Phineas Harper/Courtesy Open House Festival
An image from the Open House Festival 2020 PICTURE: Sophie Cunningham/Courtesy Open House Festival

• The Open House Festival, a two week-long celebration of buildings and neighbourhoods in London, kicks off today. Now in its 30th year, highlights from this year’s programme include the introduction of nine “headline neighbourhoods” – among them Aldgate, Somers Town, Battersea, and the Greenwich Peninsula, each of which will feature a specially-curated programme of free events. Buildings open for tour include the Bank of England, the recently refurbished Leathersellers’ Hall, and ROOM, an inhabitable sculpture by Anthony Gormley forming part of Mayfair’s Beaumont Hotel as well as pioneering homes such as the David Adjaye-designed ‘Fog House’ in Clerkenwell, the Khan Bonshek-designed ‘Two-up Two-down House’ in Stratford, and Richard and Su Rogers’ high-tech house in Wimbledon. There are also tours of housing estates including Dawson’s Heights designed by Kate Macintosh for Lambeth and infrastructure demonstrations including the new Rolling Bridge designed by Tom Randall-Page at Cody Dock in Canning Town as well as walks, talks and other event. The festival runs until 21st September. For the full programme, see https://open-city.org.uk/open-house-festival.

Winslow Homer ‘The Gulf Stream’, 1899 (reworked by 1906)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1906 © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

• The first in-depth exhibition in the UK of the work of late 19th and early 20th century American painter Winslow Homer has opened at The National Gallery. Winslow Homer: Force of Nature features more than 50 paintings and watercolours from public and private collections spanning over 40 years of the artist’s career. Highlights include his paintings from the front lines of the American Civil War such as Prisoners from the Front (1866), those depicting the lives of African Americans during the period known as Reconstruction such as A Visit from the Old Mistress and The Cotton Pickers (both 1876), paintings from his travels to England and the Caribbean such as Inside the Bar (1883), A Garden in Nassau (1885), and The Gulf Stream (1899, reworked by 1906), and works created in the final years of his life such as Driftwood (1909). The exhibition can be seen in the Ground Floor Galleries until 8th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/winslow-homer-force-of-nature

• A celebration of some of finest wood engravings of the past 100 years and those who made them opens at the Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner on Saturday. Scene Through Wood, which comes from the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, celebrates the founding centenary of the British Society of Wood Engravers. It traces wood engraving from its origins – objects on show include an early woodcut by Albert Dürer (1471-1528), its subsequent development by 18th and 19th century naturalist Thomas Bewick and the establishment of the SWE in 1920. Included is the work of notable 20th century artists such as Robert Gibbings, Eric Ravilious and Gertrude Hermes as well as more recent figures such as Monica Poole, Edwina Ellis, Simon Brett and Anne Desmet. Admission charge applies. Runs until 11th December. For more, see www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org/whats-on/scene-through-wood/.

Send all items for inclusion to exploringlondon@gmail.com.

10 of London’s most curious (and historic) graves – 3. William and Agnes Loudon…

by exploringlondon

One of the more eccentric grave monuments in London, this massive triangular shaped memorial in a Pinner churchyard was erected by landscape gardener and horticultural writer John Claudius Loudon for his parents.

Located in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, the massive Grade II-listed monument is shaped like an inverted V with an arch piercing the base and features what appears to be a stone coffin stuck through it about halfway up the structure.

On one end, it bears an inscription to Scottish merchant William Loudon, who died on 29th December, 1809, and, on the other end, another to his wife Agnes, who died on 14th October, 1841.

It’s been suggested – and the words on the ornamental ironwork in the arch, ‘I Byde My Time’, are seen as supporting this theory –  that the reason for the odd design lies in the terms of a will which stipulated Loudon and his wife would only inherit a sum of money if their bodies stayed above ground.

That theory kind of falls apart, however, given that they are actually both buried below the monument. Another theory suggests the monument was deliberately designed to show that the couple were socially above – or perhaps closer to God – than the rest of those buried in the graveyard.

John Claudius Loudon, who died in 1843 – just a couple of years after the monument was erected, is buried at Kensal Green.

WHERE: St John the Baptist Church, Church Lane, Pinner (nearest Tube station is Pinner); WHEN: Reasonable hours; COST: free; WEBSITE: www.pinnerparishchurch.org.uk

PICTURE: Top – Matt Brown (licensed under CC BY 2.0/cropped); Right – Peter Reed (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0/cropped)

This Week in London – Smithfield Market celebration; Hampton Court’s annual food festival; and, Edwardian illustrators…

by exploringlondon

• The 150th anniversary of the Smithfield Market will be celebrated at a street party this weekend. The Museum of London and Smithfield Market are joining in offering the free event which, reminiscent of St Bartholomew’s Fair, will feature food, music and historical re-enactments. Performers include Nadia Rose, Stealing Sheep, Girls Rock London, Gandini Juggling and Horrible Histories. Designed by Sir Horace Jones, the redesigned market – which is owned and managed by the City of London Corporation, was officially opened on 24th November, 1868. Runs from 11am to 8pm on Saturday and Sunday. For more, see www.culturemile.london/festival/smithfield-150/.

• Hampton Court Palace is hosting its annual food festival over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Highlights include The Kitchen theatre featuring live cookery demonstrations from top chefs and gastronomic experts including Nadiya Hussain, Melissa Hemsley, Dr Rupy Aujla, Rhiannon Lambert, Lisa Faulkner and Michel Roux, Jr and The Classroom, which will be offering hands-on masterclasses such as sourdough workshops and ‘naked cake’ decorating with the BBC Good Food Cookery Team, gin and cocktail masterclasses and kids’ cookery. There will be stalls from more than 100 food providers offering everything from oysters to sausages, sweet treats and ales as well as a bandstand with live music and activities including vintage games, shire horses and a circus school. The festival runs from 25th to 27th August. Free entry to the palace and gardens is included with the ticket. For more, see www.hrpfoodfestivals.com.

• The work of largely forgotten Edwardian female illustrators Alice Bolingbroke Woodward and Edith Farmiloe is going on show in a new exhibition at the Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner. Peter Pan and the Other Lost Children, which opens Saturday, has been designed around 19 of Woodward’s original watercolour drawings from the first Peter Pan and also includes seven watercolours from her drawings from a 1930s edition of Alice in Wonderland. The display, which also includes works by Farmiloe, has been timed to coincide with the centenary of the Representation of the People Act of 1918. For more, see www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org.

Send all items for inclusion to exploringlondon@gmail.com.

Around London – Aliens at the Royal Observatory; celebrating spring at the British Library; Blue Plaques for Heal and Mendelssohn; and, Barocci at the National Gallery…

by exploringlondon

• It’s alien season at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and to kick off a series of special events around all things extra-terrestrial, a new exhibition looking the history with things not of this earth opens tomorrow. Alien Revolution, which looks at man’s obsession with intelligent alien life – a trend which began in the century following Copernicus’ discovery that the earth was a planet and the sun a star, will be held in the observatory’s Astronomy Centre until August. Runs until 8th September. Admission is free. Other events include shorts courses looking at science fiction and astronomy, family events and special planetarium shows such as We Are Aliens which runs in April. For more on the events, see www.rmg.co.uk.

• The British Library’s Spring Festival kicks off tomorrow with five days of film, design and fashion including the unveiling of a new artwork by fashion illustrator and artist Julie Verhoeven. Verhoeven – who has worked for fashion houses Louis Vuitton, Versace and Mulberry – will be joined by Dylan Jones, editor-in-chief of GQ, to talk about what inspires them while others among fashion’s leading names will be contributing postcards in a one night only pop-up exhibition – Late at the Library: Fashion Flashback – which will also feature talks involving Jones and illustrator Tanya Ling. The event also features a spring market held in the library’s piazza at which designers will be selling wares inspired by the library’s collection. Other events include the showing of a series of short films.  For more about the Spring Festival events, head to www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/spring-festival-2013/index.html.

• Furniture designer Sir Ambrose Heal was honoured with the unveiling of an English Heritage Blue Plaque at his former home in Pinner yesterday – the date marking 120 years since he joined the family firm, Heal’s. The house – at Fives Court, Moss Lane in Pinner – was Sir Ambrose’s home from 1901-1917 during the period when he began exerting his influence over the business, having won a silver medal at the 1900 Paris Exhibition for a bedroom suite. Heal was knighted in 1933 and appointed a royal designer for industry in 1939. Meanwhile, a Blue Plaque for 19th century composer Felix Mendelssohn was unveiled at 4 Hobart Place earlier this month, commemorating the house he stayed in at the height of his career during his numerous visits to London. The house was the home of the Hanoverian embassy secretary, Karl Klingemann, at the time. For more on Blue Plaques, see www.english-heritage.org.uk.

• On Now: Barocci – Brilliance and Grace. This landmark exhibition at the National Gallery is the first major monographic exhibition dedicated to the art of 16th and 17th century Italian artist Frederico Barocci – pioneer of the Baroque style. Highlights include his spectacular altarpiece, The Entombment of Christ, from the coastal town of Senigallia, the Last Supper – painted for Urbino Cathedral, as well as two altar pieces from Rome – Visitation from the Chiesa Nuova and Institution of the Eucharist from Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Also included are portraits, smaller devotional paintings, Aeneas’ Flight From Troy – his only secular narrative, and more than 65 preparatory drawings, pastel studies and oil sketches. Runs until 19th May. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.