Symbols & Secrets – Walking the City of London

Whenever I’m beginning to panic a bit about what I’m going to write about in my blog, the Guildhall Gallery comes to my rescue and it has done so spectacularly this week with its Beyond Bayeux exhibition …

As the website promises, you can: ‘Discover the stories woven into the past and the artists creating the tapestries of tomorrow, at this beautifully curated exhibition in collaboration with Dovecot Studios. Featuring more than 20 extraordinary tapestries created by the master weavers of world-renowned Dovecot Studios, in collaboration with leading artists including David Hockney, Yinka Shonibare, Alberta Whittle, Rachel Maclean, Tania Kovats, Hurvin Anderson and Farshid Moussavi, this major exhibition celebrates tapestry as a vibrant and evolving medium for the 21st century’.

It’s a fabulous collection – here are some highlights.

David Hockney in collaboration with Dovecot Studios: A Tapestry Made from a Painting, Made from a Painting of a Tapestry, Made from a Painting (1973) ..

Rachel Maclean and Dovecote Studios: Goo Gaa (2024) …

Hurvin Anderson and Dovecote Studios: The Lincoln College Tapestry (2025) …

Sir Peter Blake CBE and Dovecote Studios: Target, Rainbow, Star, Heart (2012) …

Work in progress …

A fascinating video presentation …

Lots to see, with great signage …

It runs until 21 March 2027 and you can view on a ‘Pay What You Can’ basis.

In other news.

Couldn’t get tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition? Head north to the The Great North Museum where you can view an eight-metre-long embroidery that ‘chronicles the conquest of the British high street by Greggs’ most treasured (and tasty) artefacts, inviting you to look closer at the legacy that lives behind your everyday favourites’ …

‘The piece is rendered in authentic medieval style, complete with traditional border motifs and satirical Latin framing. The six chapters chart the Sausage Roll’s journey through decades of cultural change and quiet consistency’. For example, founder John Gregg riding through Newcastle on his trusty delivery bike, with the Tyne Bridge looming proudly in the background …

Post-war bakers perfecting the art of rolling golden, savoury comfort for a rebuilding nation …

Greggs of Gosforth shows lines out the door, much like today …

You can read more about this brilliant piece of marketing here and here.

When you leave the Guildhall Gallery, have a look at the bivalve shells (from creatures like oysters) trapped in the Portland stone since the Jurassic period over 100 million years ago …

There’s a nice little tour of the geology surrounding the Gallery in this YouTube video.

I don’t know if you agree, but I think these new City bollards look rather sinister …

Finally, in a nearby office, I noticed this space and its uplifting messages on the wall. I think it’s known as a ‘chill-out room’ where employees can retreat and relax if they are stressed out for any reason. I’ll let you decide whether they would have the desired effect on you if you were fed up …

Choose Happy!!

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Two treats at the Bank of England Museum (and the most beautiful font in the City).

By The City Gent

On 22nd October 2026

In Architecture, Social History, Special Exhibitions

I wrote about the Bank of England Museum and its fascinating exhibits in my 28 April 2018 blog and was tempted to visit again this week because it is hosting a special exhibition (in conjunction with the Insurance Museum) entitled After the Fire.

The first thing you see on entering the building are the wonderful illustrated panels by Alice Pattulo – you can see some of her beautiful prints here (along with a special wallpaper collection!) …

A fascinating, immersive experience packed with accessible information about the period such as Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House …

Take a seat, chat to a sea captain and maybe do a spot of underwriting …

Some of the period’s characters …

A street view …

There are also reproductions of various historically significant documents …

Other exhibits …

If you want to know more about Alice Pattulo’s background, I found this interview she did for Spitalfields Life way back in May 2012.

A bonus of my visit was this exhibition about someone who has always fascinated me, Eleanor Coade (1733-1821). She was born in Exeter, the daughter of a wool merchant. In the mid-1760s, after the family had moved to London, she set up in business in the City, selling linen. After her father’s death in 1769, she bought the premises of an ailing business run by Daniel Pincot at Narrow Wall, Lambeth, which was making a type of artificial stone. Here she began to experiment with her own formula. She sacked Pincot as her business partner two years later and continued as sole owner of the company.

The artificial stone that she invented and produced, and which bore her name, was one of the most widely used materials of the 18th century. A ceramic material – whose recipe remained a closely guarded secret – Coade stone was exceptionally resistant to weathering and erosion. Its versatility made it immensely popular for a great variety of sculptures, large and small – monuments, statues, garden ornaments and furniture, and architectural details.

Here are some of informative panels on display in the museum.

What an extraordinary woman. Unfortunately no image of her seems to have survived. If you want to see some good examples of Coade Stone you’ll find them in Charterhouse Square …

Read more about the area in the excellent Ian Visits blog.

In other news.

On my way home, I decided to allow myself to become diverted and, on entering Lothbury, stopped to take an image of this impressive building which overlooks the Bank of England. It was built between 1923 and 1931 for the London & Westminster Bank, …

It has recently been renovated and you can read more about this project here.

The unusual looking Number 7 Lothbury is now converted into apartments …

There’s a great blog post (with super images) comparing it to a Venetian palace – you can read it here. If you’re interested, there is an apartment for sale there at the moment through Savills.

Next door is the lovely St Margaret’s church …

I popped in to admire the stunning baptismal font, in my opinion the most beautiful in the City. Its believed to be by Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721), and came from St Olave, Old Jewry, after that church was partially demolished in 1887. The font is a carved bowl with cherub heads at each corner and the sides are decorated with Adam and Eve …

… the dove returning to the ark …

… the baptism of Jesus …

… and the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch by Philip …

On to One Moorgate Place and The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, where my favourite Lady Justice upstages the number-crunching gentlemen in the background …

The building also boasts what I believe is the poshest and most beautifully polished letter box in the City …

And finally, the Globe pub shows off its bling in the late afternoon light …

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‘Yuko Mohri in Concert’ – An extraordinary new exhibition in the Barbican Curve Gallery (plus more street art, a dancing skeleton and an old phone).

By The City Gent

On 15th October 2026

In Architecture, Art, Memorials, Sculpture, Special Exhibitions

Yuko Mohri in Concert – what’s the background to the exhibition? I don’t think I can do better than (lazily!) reproduce the explanation at the entrance …

In Mohri’s ongoing Decomposition series (2021-), sensors plugged in to ripening fruit read the fruits’ changing moisture levels, converting their electrical resistance into sound and light. In The Curve, Mohri pairs the fruit with salvaged Barbican streetlamps, reflecting on the entangled lifecycles of organic and inert matter, while eroding the boundary between the gallery and the natural and built environments outside …

Two more sections are entitled Urban Mining …

And Moré Moré (Leaky) …

Entry is free, as is the invaluable exhibition guide …

A quite extraordinary visit to The Curve, I really enjoyed it …

In other news.

A while ago I wrote about my excursion down Sherriff Road, West Hampstead, just across the road from West Hampstead Underground Station. I included a picture of this mural but didn’t include an explanation. Here are both now …

One of those images where you just grab the moment …

The Bank Underground roundel and St Stephen Walbrook, built by Sir Christopher Wren between 1672 and 1679 after the Great Fire of London destroyed its medieval predecessor. Wren used the project as a testing ground for his plans for St Paul’s Cathedral, its defining architectural feature being Britain’s first domed ceiling …

In the background, by way of contrast, the 912 foot 22 Bishopsgate with its public viewing gallery …

Do pop in to the church if you have the chance. When I visited in 2014, I was stopped in my tracks by this monument to John Lilburne (d.1678), citizen and grocer, of the Lilburn family of Sunderland, and his wife Isabella. It’s the earliest monument in the Church …

I loved the little standing figures of the couple, he with cloak and long flowing hair above a tunic, with big cuffs and slender shoes, she a slim figure with long, flaring skirt, puffed out bodice and drapes over and behind her head. A charming pose with her arms crossed in front of her.

But what really caught my eye was the memento mori, a sculpture of a woman dancing with Death, who is a skeleton wearing a long skirt …

Inside a glass case you’ll see this famous phone …

You can read more about it and Dr Varah in my April 2018 blog.

And here’s my 2014 blog which tells you more about the church

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Tapestry at the Guildhall Gallery (and a woven commemoration of the Greggs sausage roll).

Two treats at the Bank of England Museum (and the most beautiful font in the City).

‘Yuko Mohri in Concert’ – An extraordinary new exhibition in the Barbican Curve Gallery (plus more street art, a dancing skeleton and an old phone).