March 2023 – Symbols & Secrets

Searching for mice at the Guildhall Art Gallery.

On 30th March 2023

If you get the chance, do visit the Guildhall Art Gallery to see The Big City exhibition. It’s superb, and admission is ‘pay what you can’. The challenge of finding the mice was keeping kids (and adults) very amused during my visit! More about that later.

Here’s my personal selection, starting with City Streets.

*Cheapside 10:10 am, 10 February 1970 by Ken Howard (1932-2022)*

This picture of Fleet Street in the 1930s is by an unknown artist and has a fascinating back story …

If you look at the characters in the foreground you’ll see that the picture is unfinished. Why is this? The label puts forward a suggestion …

The pedestrian crossing outside Barbican Tube station …

*Walk (1995) by Oliver Bevan (Born 1941)*

And now some pageantry …

*Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Service 22 June 1897 by Andrew Carrick Gow (1848-1920)*

Suffering from severe arthritis and unable to climb the St Paul’s Cathedral steps, the Queen remained in her coach, so the short service of thanksgiving was held outside the building. Some amazing old film footage has survived and you can view it here and here.

This is a more intimate picture of City pageantry and its participants (with some splendid beards on display) …

*A civic procession descending Ludgate Hill, London 1879 by James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902)*

Can you recognise the characters in this little group …

*Reception of George V and Queen Mary at the West door of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, Jubilee Day, 6 May 1935 by Frank O. Salisbury (1874-1972)*

Now for the mice.

These are two of the most impressively detailed paintings on display …

*The Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Banquet, 13 January 1969*

And this one …

*The Coronation Luncheon to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the Guildhall, London, 12 June 195*3

Both are by Terence Cuneo (1907-1996).

His most celebrated commission was the official picture of the Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953. One day, as he was painting the huge canvas, his cat brought a dead fieldmouse into his studio. As a distraction from the task in hand, Cuneo painted a portrait of it. Subsequently, a mouse became his ‘signature’ and can be found in every one of his paintings.

There are actually two mice in the first picture above and one in the second.

They are so tiny you won’t be able to find them using this blog and will have to visit the Gallery. They are very difficult to identify, especially the second one, so to help you I took the following pictures …

Good luck!

At the far end of the gallery, in a space specially designed for it, you will find at the action-packed painting by John Singleton Copley: Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar 1782 …

*The painting is best viewed from the balcony above*

A Spanish attack on Gibraltar was foiled when the Spanish battering ships, also known as floating batteries, were attacked by the British using shot heated up to red hot temperatures (sailors nicknamed them ‘hot potatoes’). Fire spread among the Spanish vessels and, as the battle turned in Britain’s favour, an officer called Roger Curtis set out with gunboats on a brave rescue mission which saved almost 350 people.

Look at the painstaking detail in the faces of the officers and Governor General Augustus Eliot, who is portrayed riding to the edge of the battlements to direct the rescue …

The officers were dispersed after the Gibraltar action and poor Copley had to travel all over Europe to track them down and paint them – a task that took him seven years at considerable expense. He recouped some of his cash in 1791 by exhibiting the picture in a tent in Green Park and charging people a shilling to see it.

Incidentally, just outside the entrance is the lovely little Veterans’ Garden created by the Worshipful Company of Gardeners to support the Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch which takes place today (Thursday 30th March). Read all about it here …

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‘On safari’ plus a pink banana and other random images.

By The City Gent

On 23rd March 2023

In Animals, Architecture, Wartime, Water

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of getting off the train at what must be one of the most strangely named stations in London …

Apparently the name derives from it being the former dumping ground for mud dredged from the Millwall Docks, which had to be regularly dredged to prevent silting up.

Very close by was the place where my safari started …

I suppose calling my visit a safari is a slight exaggeration but hopefully it sparked your interest to look at the blog.

Having browsed the Internet, this was the image I was hoping to replicate …

Sheep grazing with Canary Wharf in the background – what a great shot.

Unfortunately, on the day I visited the weather was awful and the sheep unobliging …

*‘Just what do you think you’re staring at?’*

The donkeys looked pretty fed up too …

*‘Put that camera away – I’m not looking my best!’*

Even the llamas didn’t want to know …

The goats, on the other hand, were delighted to see me …

I have a suspicion that not everyone obeys the ‘Do not feed the animals’ rule.

And I must say, this Ack-ack gun was an unexpected discovery …

These guns were a crucial part of London’s defence system during the War. Scroll down to the end of the blog to see a map of the damage bombs did around St Paul’s Cathedral.

Walking nearby along the river there are some great views and, of course, an interesting bollard or two …

So I’ll try to return when the weather is nicer.

Here are some more random images that I have recorded on my walks.

Outside St Giles the Magnolia trees are blossoming …

Daffs are popping up everywhere. They cheer me up even when the weather is rubbish …

And they’re not alone …

I came cross some Barbican acrobatics …

Barbican water feaures …

Water feature plus residents …

I went to a meeting in Finsbury Circus recently and they had a rather nice roof terrace so I snapped this city skyline view …

I’m not a great fan of that new monster building on Bishopsgate, but it does generate interesting reflections at certain times of day. In the foreground is St Giles Church and on the left Tower 42 …

And finally, an apartment hosting a giant pink banana being cuddled by a furry white poodle. I so wish I knew their background story!

PS Don’t forget, the excellent Magnificent Maps exhibition at the Metropolitan Archive finishes on 29th March, so no time to lose if you want to visit.

This is a screen shot of one of the displays showing the bomb damage around St Paul’s Cathedral …

Here is the key – just look at the devastation and wonder how the Cathedral survived …

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‘Love is the Running Towards’ and other surprises.

By The City Gent

On 16th March 2023

In Architecture, Art

As regular readers will know, when I am looking for inspiration I often head east and last week was no exception.

Turning right at the Old Street roundabout I was intrigued to see the words that have appeared above the doors to the fire station …

Dating from November last year, this is part of a homage to the London Fire Brigade which you can read more about here.

There is also a celebration of the Brigade’s new typeface. It’s called Fire Brigade Sans and here’s what it looks like …

A few posters from the exhibition …

I headed south to Rivington Street where I usually find something to photograph. What about this splendid building …

A benevolent angel looks down at us from the corner of the bulding next door …

There’s a typical Dan Kitchener mural …

And various other pieces of work that made me smile …

This drawing high up on a wall looked vaguely familiar …

Then I realised I’d seen a work in the same style in Moor Lane outside the Barbican …

Incidentally, and bizarrely, this ‘crypto heritage’ plaque in Rivington Street celebrates the launch of the cryptocurrency Etherium …

It’s still around if you fancy a risky investment.

This is number 81 Rivington Street …

It displays the coat of arms of the Borough of Shoreditch, More Light – More Power. The twin bodied, single headed lion was taken from the coat of arms of the medieval Lord of the Manor, John de Northampton, second Lord of the Manor of Shoreditch and Lord Mayor of London 1381-1382 …

Adopted in 1900, the motto was inspired by the success of the refuse destructor located where National Centre for Circus Arts is now on Hoxton Square. Responding to the need for street lights, the progressive idea to generate power from refuse was launched in 1897. The energy this generated powered the street lighting across Shoreditch and became a particularly powerful symbol of the progressive Shoreditch policies.

The ‘destructor’ …

Back in Old Street, I admired once more the beautiful civic building that is the old Shoreditch Town Hall which opened in 1866 …

Later in 1904, the extension to the Town Hall included the tower and statue of Lady Progress.

The statue is based on the popular Victorian figure of ‘Hope’, with allusions to both Greek and Norse mythology and uncanny similarities to the Statue of Liberty. Aligning with the symbolic prominence of the refuse destructor and the progression it represented, she is depicted elsewhere in the borough as a beacon of light rising from ashes.

The latin translates as ‘Out of the dust, light and power’.

Old Street Magistrates Court was transformed into a hotel in 2016 (previous temporary visitors included Reggie and Ronnie Kray) …

The eastern half of the building contained a police station …

It included accommodation for a married inspector on the first floor and for 40 single men on the second and third floors. There was a kitchen and mess room along with rooms for storing, drying and brushing clothes and boots. You really could say there was a ‘police presence’ in those days.

The building in 1974 …

On my walk I checked out a few blue plaques. This one is at 333 Old Street …

This one is in Hoxton Square …

Parkinson was the first to describe ‘paralysis agitans’, a condition that would later be renamed after him.

The square also hosts this cutely named cocktail bar …

Walking back home via Tabernacle Street I admired the old street sign for Platina Street …

… along with the metal bollard which has seen a few bumps and scrapes over the years …

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Art Deco in the City

By The City Gent

On 9th March 2023

In Architecture, Art Deco, City Symbols, Commerce

Two weeks ago I published a blog about Art Deco in Miami, which many people liked, so I thought it might be nice to write something about Art Deco in the City.

I am going to cheat a bit and republish the blog I wrote on this subject way back in November 2017. Sadly the wonderful Express Newspaper building is currently hidden behind hoardings but the pictures here will give you a good idea of how impressive it is.

Here’s the 2017 blog:

I used to often confuse Art Deco and Art Nouveau – probably because they both begin with the word ‘art’. I had to get my head around this properly when I decided to write this blog and therefore searched for a simple explanation.

The one I like best is that Art Nouveau tends to be flowing and flowery whereas Art Deco tends to be sharp and streamlined. Both designs evolved as a result of the culture of the times – Nouveau influenced by the industrial revolution and Deco by the First World War.

Here are some of my Art Deco favourites.

Every now and then when I headed off to meetings in the East end of the City I would walk past the magnificent, undulating and symmetrical Ibex House at 42-47 Minories. Built in 1937, it is clad in black and beige faience and, apparently, has the longest strip windows in London. When it opened you could rent space for 6 shillings (30 new pence) per square foot – which included the cost of cleaning.

*Ibex House, Minories – view from Portsoken Street*

I often feel a bit nostalgic walking down Fleet Street. I well remember its heyday when lorries trundled past carrying gigantic rolls of paper and you could hear the presses rumbling into the night producing the next day’s print news. Sadly, it was also the home of the notorious so-called ‘Spanish Customs’, restrictive practices which eventually left the industry open to brutal modernisation and, finally, total relocation.

The former Daily Express building in Fleet Street (1932) has a black facade with rounded corners in vitrolite with clear glass and chromium strips and, in my view, looks quite futuristic even today. The newspaper moved out in 1989 and the current owners are investment bankers Goldman Sachs. The foyer is stunning but currently hidden from view behind curtains – come on, Goldman’s, draw back those curtains and let us mere mortals have a peep!

*120 Fleet Street – Architects Ellis and Clarke and later Sir Evan Owen Williams*

The foyer, currently hidden from the street

The former Daily Telegraph building at 141 Fleet street is another Art Deco masterpiece (also owned by Goldman Sachs). It is meant to be overwhelming and certainly succeeds with its giant fluted columns topped with carved Egyptian capitals.

*Daily Telegraph building 1928 by Elcock and Sutcliffe with Thomas Tait (who studied under Charles Rennie Mackintosh)*

Just above street level, Twin Mercuries head off to distribute news around the Empire with the sun rising over the centre of the hemisphere which is, of course, England. Apparently the carver, Arthur Oakley, shortly afterwards became a monk specialising in religious ornaments.

*Relief of twin Mercuries by Arthur Oakley*

*This clock above the entrance is a delight*

Florin Court , designed by Guy Morgan and Partners and opened in 1936, is famous now as the fictional ‘Whitehaven Mansions’ home of Hercule Poirot. It’s in Charterhouse Square and originally boasted squash courts, a dining room and a cocktail bar. Nowadays, there’s a gym, a spa and a wi-fi area.

I have two favourites – Fox Umbrellas and the ship’s prow in Bury Street.

Fox Umbrellas at 118 London Wall was constructed in 1937 on the ground floor of an early 19th century terraced house. It is by the shopfitting firm E. Pollard & Company and has a vitrolite front along with curved non-reflective glass (an American invention for which Pollard held the English patent). According to the blog London’s Historic Shops and Markets, this ‘invisible’ glass, which was was very expensive, allowed passers-by to see much further into the shop and made the stock on display more visible at a time when interior lighting was duller and less sharp than today. It works by using a steeply curved concave glass to deflect light towards matt black ‘baffles’. Pollards installed the same type of glass at Simpsons of Piccadilly, where it is still in place today (the store is now a Waterstones).

*Fox’s today – you can see the unique curved glass*

Pop in for a glass of wine – many of the original features have been preserved.

For the Art Deco ship’s prow, first find Holland House in Bury Street just opposite the Gherkin and the subject of my earlier blog, Ship Ahoy. Walk around to the south east corner of the building, step back and admire this brave vessel plunging through the waves towards you, the funnel smoking impressively. It’s a granite structure by the Dutch artist J. Mendes da Costa and reflects the company’s main business of shipping.
I love this story about the ship’s positioning.
Apparently the company owner, Helene Kröller-Müller, had wished to buy the whole of the Bury Street corner, but had been thwarted by the adjacent owners who refused to sell. As a consequence, Holland House is broken into two sections, and it has been suggested that the aggressive prow of the ship was intended to ‘cock a snook’ at the neighbours.

*The ship’s prow with the Gherkin in the background*

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My ‘Tower Bridge Experience’.

By The City Gent

On 2nd March 2023

In Architecture, City Symbols, Commerce

I visited Tower Bridge last week and joined the folk paying for and enjoying the Tower Bridge Experience.

I approached from the north and took this image of the modern skyline with the Tower of London in the foreground …

This plaque made me smile. It commemorates the celebration of the centenary of the bridge’s construction in 1994 when HRH Prince Charles attended. As well as HRH the plaque manages to squeeze in the names of : the Lord Mayor, two Sheriffs, four Aldermen, no fewer than 33 Commoners, the Town Clerk and the City Engineer …

The emblem at the foot of the plaque is that of the Bridge House Estates, a fascinating institution that has existed for over 900 years and now does much more than manage the City’s famous bridges. Read more about it here.

If approaching the bridge this way, look out for the lamp standard that doesn’t have a lamp on it …

Under the bridge is a little room that was once used by soldiers guarding the Tower as somewhere to keep out of the cold. This is the cunningly disguised chimney for their coal fire.

Between 14 and 15 million rivets were used to hold the bridge together. There are some nice examples on the bridge approach …

This picture is from the exhibition inside …

Incidentally, the red, white and blue colours date from the Queen’s 1977 Silver Jubilee. It used to be painted a sludgy brown (or ‘chocolate’ if you prefer). The paintwork on the stairwells and girders inside the building is still the old colour …

Some views looking upriver before you enter the bridge building itself …

The ship moored next to the Belfast is the Norwegian warship Nordkapp …

Another interesting City skyline view …

In the foreground is the artificially constructed Tower Beach. Read all about it in my blog entitled A Wander Near the Tower of London.

The exhibition inside has been extensively upgraded since I last visited over 10 years ago.

There are some great films of the City at the turn of the 20th century showing on a loop. This is obviously Bank junction …

Here are a few more examples …

Victorian construction techniques could be dangerous …

Up to 850 people were employed at any one time when building the bridge from 1886-1894 and 10 are known to have died in accidents.

The upper walkway …

There is a section of glass floor (but you can walk around it if you’re nervous!) …

There are great views both up and downriver. This is looking east towards Canary Wharf …

A highlight is, of course, the brilliant Victorian engineering that was created to operate the bridge lifting mechanism. When it was built it was the largest and most sophisticated bascule bridge ever completed (‘bascule’ comes from the French word for ‘seesaw’).

Two giant giant boilers made the steam to power the engines …

The stokers had to shovel about 3,000 kilos of coal every day for which they were well rewarded, earning between £25 and £30 a week, a good wage in the 1930s. Many, according to the commentary, saved enough to buy their own homes.

The pumping engine machinery is beautiful …