The National Gallery

This Week in London – A look inside The Crime Museum; Goya at The National Gallery; and, Africa on the Square…

by exploringlondon

• Objects and evidence from some of the UK’s most notorious crimes including the ‘Acid Bath Murder’ of 1949, the ‘Great Train Robbery’ of 1963 and the ‘Millennium Dome Diamond Heist’ of 2000 will go on show at the Museum of London from Saturday. Created with the support of the Metropolitan Police Service and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, The Crime Museum Uncovered exhibition features never-before-seen objects from the Metropolitan Police’s Crime Museum as it takes visitors through a series of real cases and tackles some of key challenges of policing in London – everything from terrorism and espionage through to counterfeiting and narcotics. The Crime Museum, which is now housed inside New Scotland Yard, was established in the mid-1870s as a teaching tool for police. Its Visitor’s Book contains some high profile names including that of King George V, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – creator of Sherlock Holmes, illusionist Harry Houdini and comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Runs until 10th April. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.museumoflondon.org.uk.

Goya• Almost half of Goya’s surviving portraits are on show in The National Gallery in an exhibition which opened yesterday. Goya: The Portraits features more than 60 of the celebrated Spanish artist’s surviving portraits, borrowed from public and private collections around the world. Highlights include the Duchess of Alba (a 1797 work depicting one of Goya’s patrons which has only left the US once before), the immense group portrait The Family of the Infante Don Luis De Borbon (pictured), the never-seen-in-public work Don Valentin Bellvis de Moncada y Pizzaro, the rarely exhibited Countess-Duchess Benavente, and the recently conserved 1798 portrait Francisco de Saavedra, exhibited for the first time in 50 years alongside a pendant painted the same year of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos. There are also works of royals including Charles IV in Hunting Dress and more personal works such as self portraits and paintings of his family members. Runs until 10th January in the Sainsbury Wing near Trafalgar Square. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk. PICTURE: © Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Parma, Italy.

• Black History Month is being celebrated in Trafalgar Square this Saturday in Africa on the Square, a programme of events inspired by the traditions and cultures of the continent.  The line-up includes a musicians and singers, acrobats, dancers, a fashion show and a market selling African-themed products as well as a host of activities for families, from hair braiding and face painting to mosaics and batik making. There will also be a talent show giving aspiring performances aged between 16 and 25 the chance to perform in front of a live audience. The free event runs between noon and 6pm. For more, see www.london.gov.uk/africa.

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What’s in a name?…Pall Mall

by exploringlondon

This curiously named street in the heart of London’s St James district traces the origins of its moniker back to the 17th century when the game of “pall mall” (“pell mell” and “paille maille” being among a host of alternative spellings) was played there.

The game, mentioned by Samuel Pepys in his famous diary, involves the use of a mallet and ball similar to that used in modern croquet but, according to some commentators, pall mall was more likely a predecessor of golf than croquet, with players attempting to belt the ball as far as possible along a pitch before putting the ball through a hoop suspended high off the ground.

Pall Mall, which runs parallel to The Mall from St James’ Street in the west to Haymarket in the east with an eastern extension, Pall Mall East, completing the journey from Haymarket into the northern end of Trafalgar Square, became famous in the 19th and early 20th centuries for housing numerous ‘gentlemen’s clubs’. Among those still in business are the Travellers Club, the Athaenaeum Club, the Reform Club, the Army and Navy Club, the Oxford and Cambridge Club, and the Royal Automobile Club.

St James’s Palace sits at the street’s western end and it is of note that nearly all of the southern side of the street is still part of the Crown Estate (the exception being a home Charles II is believed to have given to the actress Nell Gwynne, who apparently sensibly demanded the freehold on the property).

Other buildings along the street include Schomberg House, built for the Duke of Schomberg in the late 17th century (only the facade of which remains), and the Sir Christopher Wren-designed Marlborough House, which is tucked in between Pall Mall and The Mall and sits opposite St James’s Palace. The National Gallery and the Royal Academy also both briefly had homes in Pall Mall.