Ukraine

This Week in London – Totally Thames underway; Open House London; monastic treasures from Kyiv; and, the Baa-Ewe Tapestry…

by exploringlondon
The River Thames winds through London. PICTURE: Sander Crombach/Unsplash

• Totally Thames, London’s month-long celebration of the River Thames, has kicked off with a programme featuring dozens of events along a 42-mile stretch of the river. Highlights include this weekend’s Great River Race, which takes place on Saturday, in which almost 300 crews compete across 21.6 miles from Millwall Slip to Richmond in the city’s largest river marathon. Also returning this weekend is the St Katharine Docks Classic Boat Festival, now in its 17th year, which brings together more than 50 restored historic vessels, including Thames sailing barges, Dunkirk ‘Little Ships’ and steam tugs, as well as live music, talks and family activities. This Saturday also sees Sing for Water celebrate its 25th anniversary by bringing together more than 300 singers from over 40 choirs in support of WaterAid, in the Bargehouse Courtyard behind the OXO Tower. Other events across the month include the Hands on History Mudlarking Programme in which visitors to three sites – the Roman Amphitheatre under Guildhall Art Gallery, St Paul’s Cathedral and London Museum Docklands – can meet experienced mudlarkers, handle archaeological artefacts and see some of the thousands of objects found preserved in the river. There’s also an exhibition, Lost and Found, featuring the work of photographer Henry Reichhold, and the chance to board the historic sailing barge Raybel which has been tranformed into a live cultural venue for the event with a programme of live music, talks and mini performances. For more, check out https://thamesfestivaltrust.org/whats-on/.

People attending Guildhall as part of the Open House Festival. PICTURE: ©Anna-Rose McChesney

• Open House London returns this coming week with a nine day program of events. The 35th edition of the festival, which runs from 12th to 20th September, again gives people the chance to enter hundreds of buildings normally closed to the public. Highlights this year, alongside tours of such regulars as 10 Downing Street, the BT Tower and Broadcasting House, include the Lloyd’s Building, which was designed by Richard Rogers and opened in 1996, recording studio Strongroom which has hosted everyone from Nick Cave and Radiohead to The Chemical Brothers and produced such hits as the Spice Girls’ Wannabee and Little Simz Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and the remains of London’s Roman basilica and forum beneath Leadenhall Market. There’s also the chance to step inside Wapping Hydraulic Power Station and the West Ham Pumping Station as well as a series of ‘festival neighbourhoods’ including in Fitzrovia, Bankside and Piccadilly and Jermyn Street as well as other openings right across London’s boroughs. For the full programme of events, head to programme.openhouse.org.uk.

‘Sacred Treasures from Kyiv’ at V&A South Kensington. PICTURE: © David Parry/V&A

• Monastic treasures from Ukraine go on display at the V&A in South Kensington for the first time from Monday. Sacred Treasures from Kyiv features 18th-century sacred objects on loan from Ukraine’s ‘Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra’ complex and includes seven objects including an Icon and a silver-bound altar Gospel, a diskos used to carry the Eucharist in Orthodox liturgy, and a silver gilded chalice depicting the crucifixion. The display marks the 975th anniversary of the founding of the Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is being accompanied by a programme of events. The display, which is free to view, can be seen until 17th September next year. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/sacred-treasures-from-kyiv.

• A seven metre-long tapestry, inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry and featuring Shaun the Sheep and friends, has been unveiled at the Natural History Museum ahead of the release of the upcoming film Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom on 18th September. The Baa-Ewe Tapestry, which was unveiled by Tom Daley, will be on display at the museum until 1st November. Created by a team of 15 designers and textile specialists, it took more than 180 hours to design and craft and features lovingly stitched scenes inspired by the film. For more, head to https://www.nhm.ac.uk.

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This Week in London – Underground shelters in wartime – then and now; new Ravenmaster at the Tower; and, ‘La Ghirlandata’ back at the Guildhall Art Gallery…

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• A new photographic exhibition exploring how Underground stations and metro systems provide shelter to citizens during periods of war, both now and in the past, opened at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden last week. Echoes of the Blitz: Underground shelters in Ukraine and London features 70 images, including historical pictures from the museum’s collection as well as 38 contemporary photographs shot by six renowned, mainly Ukrainian, documentary photographers. The latter include photography showing ordinary Ukrainian citizens sleeping, waiting, cooking, washing clothes, caring for their pets and creating temporary make-shift homes in metro stations of Kyiv and and Kharkiv show alongside black and white archive images of Londoners taking refuge in Tube stations during World War II. The exhibition, which is being run in partnership with Berlin-based journalistic network n-ost, can be seen until spring next year. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk.

A raven at the Tower of London. PICTURE: Kasturi Roy/Unsplash

• A new Ravenmaster has been appointed at the Tower of London. Yeoman Warder Michael ‘Barney’ Chandler took up the role at the start of this month, 15 years after he first became a Yeoman Warder at the Tower. The Ravenmaster oversees a team of four responsible for the care of the Tower’s seven ravens which legend says must remain at the Tower to ensure its protection. The legend apparently goes back to at least the reign of King Charles II – when the King’s astronomer John Flamsteed complained that the resident ravens were impeding his work at the Tower and requested their removal, the King was told that if the ravens left the Tower then the Kingdom would fall (and so they remained). While the Yeoman Warders have longed cared for the ravens, the post of Ravenmaster was only created in the past 50 years and was first held by Yeoman Warder Jack Wilmington. Yeoman Warder Chandler, who became the 387th Yeoman Warder at the Tower when he was appointed in March, 2009, is only the sixth person to hold the office. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/.

• One of the most popular paintings at the Guildhall Art Gallery is being reinstalled to mark International Women’s Day on Friday. Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s La Ghirlandata has been on loan – first to the Tate Britain and then to the Delaware Art Museum in the US – but is now being returned. The painting dates from 1873 and depicts a ‘garlanded woman’ playing an arpanetta and looking directly at the viewer. The muse for the woman is said to have been the actor and model, Alexa Wilding, while the two ‘angels’ in the top corners were posed by William and Jane Morris’ youngest daughter, May Morris. The City of London Corporation acquired the oil on canvas work in 1927. On Saturday, free family activities will be held at the gallery to mark the work’s return. For more, see www.thecityofldn.com/la-ghirlandata.

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This Week in London – Ukraine’s culture on show; spotlight on the news; St George’s Day; and, London Transport’s posters at the Depot…

by exploringlondon
Easter egg, a dove of peace, Ukraine, 1970-1980. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

• A free display on the cultural heritage of Ukraine has opened at the British Museum. Located in the museum’s ‘Collecting the world’ gallery, Ukraine: Culture in crisis features objects drawn from the museum’s collection including a 5,500-year-old painted storage jar, hand-coloured lithographs of a man and a woman in Ukrainian dress dating from about 1813, and, an Easter egg decorated with the dove of peace (pictured) dating from between 1970 and 1980. There are also objects from the Greek colony of Olbia established on the Black Sea between 600 and 300 BC including a black glazed, fluted amphora from southern Italy dating from between 300 and 250BC. For more, head to www.britishmuseum.org. To learn more about the protection of cultural heritage in Ukraine visit icom-poland.mini.icom.museum/icom-poland-appeal-help-us-help-ukraine.

• The earliest surviving printed news report in Britain of the 1513 Battle of Flodden and an original BBC radio script of the D-Day landings are among exhibits at the British Library’s first major exhibition putting a spotlight on the role news plays in our society. Other exhibits on show at Breaking the News, which opens on Friday, include smashed hard drives used by The Guardian to store Edward Snowden’s hard files. The display explores what makes an event news and the meaning of a free press as well as the ethics involved in making the news, news objectivity and how the way we encounter news has evolved over five centuries of news publication in Britain. Runs until 21st August. Admission charge applies. For more, head to www.bl.uk/events/breaking-the-news.

• St George’s Day celebrations return to Trafalgar Square this Saturday. The free family event, which runs from noon until 6pm, will feature live music by the likes of string quartet Bowjangles, hoedown collective Cut A Shine, brass band Das Brass and folk headliner James Riley & the Rooftop Assembly. There will also be appearances from St George with his Dragon, Divine stilt walkers and the Pearly Kings and Queens as well as a range of food stalls. Other family-oriented activities including The Knights Training School, the Storytorium, a dragon Selfie station, face painting, upcycled arts and crafts, and a games area.

• The art and poster stores at the London Transport Museum’s Depot in Acton Town will be open to the public this weekend. The Art of the Poster Open Days, which run from today until Sunday, will give the public the chance to view some of the more than 30,000 posters in the depot’s collection and hear from expert guides about how posters have characterised London and its transport over the past century. There will also be talks from artists, curators and historians and visitors have the chance to design their own posters in creative workshops as well as, on Saturday and Sunday, riding the London Transport Miniature Railway. Timed tickets must be booked in advance. Admission charges apply. For bookings, head to www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/depot/art-poster.

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LondonLife – Protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…

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PICTURES: Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona/Unsplash

Demonstrations in support of Ukraine have taken place in numerous places in London since Russia launched its invasion on 24th February, including in Trafalgar Square.

LondonLife Special – UK Government lights up for Ukraine…

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PICTURE: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

As the world reacts to the Russian attack on Ukraine, on 24th February, Number 10 Downing Street, home of the British Prime Minister, and, below, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, in Whitehall are lit in the colours of the Ukrainian flag as the UK “stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine“.

PICTURE: Connor Matheson / No 10 Downing Street (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)