• The Lord Mayor’s Show is set to return to City of London streets this Saturday as the 698th Lord Mayor of London, Bronek Masojada, swears loyalty to the King, having been sworn in to office during today’s Silent Ceremony at Guildhall. This year’s procession – the latest in a line which go more than 800 years – features some 6,500 participants, 70 floats and 20 military and civilian bands and this year brings back the historic tradition of an historic flotilla. The Lord Mayor will leave Westminster at 8:30am on Saturday aboard the Royal Shallop Jubilant and head downriver, accompanied by a flotilla of livery company boats, to the HMS President before disembarking and heading to Mansion House. The procession then kicks off at 11am from Mansion House and makes its way along Cheapside to St Paul’s Cathedral where the Lord Mayor will swear allegiance before returning via Embankment and Queen Victoria Street. The flotilla aside, among the highlights this year is a giant bee sculpture made in Manchester from recovered knives appears in support of the No Knives, Better Lives campaign, the Royal Navy parading the King’s Colour on honour of his 78th birthday, and, performers including Grammy Award-winning South African dance group INALA, a Polish folk band, German and Swiss bands, and the US Navy Band which is marking 250 years of the United States. The event is being broadcast live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. For more on the show, including the route map, head to lordmayorsshow.london.
• The extraordinary five-decade creative partnership between Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) and Duncan Grant (1885-1978), two of the most influential British artists of the 20th century, is the subject of a new exhibition which opened at Tate Britain this week. The first major exhibition to chart the duo’s relationship and artistic trajectory, Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury, features more than 300 works from early post-impressionist and abstract paintings to late naturalistic self-portraits, landscapes and still lifes. Highlights include formative works such as Bell’s Iceland Poppies (c1908-9), experimental works like Grant’s After Chardin (c1906), Bell’s Studland Beach (c1912) and Grant’s Group at Asheham (1913) and their joint work Famous Women Dinner Service (1932-34), comprising 50 hand-painted Wedgwood plates celebrating figures from Jane Austen to Cleopatra. Runs until 11th April. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.tate.org.uk.
• The Royal Mews Christmas Shop at Buckingham Palace opens for its second year from today. Located in the historic stables, the shop features a range of Christmas-related products including, new for this year, a reusable and fillable Advent calendar and an expanded range of hand-finished tree decorations including including a felt gingerbread man, the annual Buckingham Palace bauble and a corgi wearing a crown made of recycled glass. Follow this link for more.
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