The street art around Brick Lane changes all the time so earlier this week I popped back to see developments.
A very good example of this is the changing face of number 33A Fournier Street.
April 2018 …
Gilbert and George live across the road (image copyright The Art Newspaper) …
April 2021 …
September 2022 …
January 2023 …
This week …
More images from my walk …
This piece by Stik is ‘The UK’s 17th favourite artwork’ according to The Guardian. It has been here since 2010 and has obviously been treated with respect …
Having been away I have neglected the blog somewhat so I hope you will forgive me if this week’s offering is a rather miscellaneous collection of City images and a few pics from my holiday by Lake Como!
HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge look good on a grey, cloudy day …
The City skyline from nearby …
The poor Gherkin is gradually being surrounded and the Walkie Talkie really is a monster from this viewpoint …
Control of protected views has still managed to give St Paul’s the priority it deserves. Long may this continue as even more development gains approval …
The Shard from Hay’s Galleria …
The refurbished facade of the old headquarters of the Eastern Telegraph Company on Moorgate is gradually being revealed including this fabulous stained glass …
At first it was called Electra House (named after the goddess of electricity) and the centre section shows her perched on top of the world. You can read more about her and the building in my April 2020 blog.
Nice brickwork in St Thomas Street on the south side of London Bridge Station …
A wacky installation at Vinegar Yard across the road …
Re-purposed warehouses nearby …
A re-purposed pub across the road from St Bartholomew the Great …
Angel III by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, opposite St Paul’s Cathedral …
You can read my blog about City Angels (and Devils!) here.
Also outside the Cathedral …
The explanation …
Golden cherubs at Ludgate Circus …
This building was originally the London headquarters of the Thomas Cook travel agency. Built in 1865, the first floor was a temperance hotel in accordance with Cook’s beliefs. Read more about the cherubs, and many of their fellows, in my Blog Charming Cherubs.
The wording on this foundation stone in King Edward Street emanates pride in the British Empire at its height …
Across the road nearby are the coat of arms and the motto of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. It’s the Newgate Street Clock, the Worshipful Company’s 375th anniversary gift to the City of London …
The motto Tempus Rerum Imperator can be translated as Time, the Ruler of All Things.
Drawing on Guildhall Library’s remarkable Shakespeare collections, this exhibition examines the history of the printing of William Shakespeare’s plays, from the small ‘Quartos’ of the late 16th century and the Folios of the 17th century, to the reworking of the text in the 18th century and the rediscovery of the original texts in the 19th century …
Just inside the door you are greeted with an image of the funerary monument of William Shakespeare in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon circa 1616-1622 …
There are a series of excellent, informative panels …
They range over subjucts such as the difference between a Folio and a Quarto …
… printing technology …
…and how the works were viewed and appreciated over the centuries …
The books, of course, are the stars of the show (and they do not all relate solely to Shakespeare).
It was not until some years after his death that the majority of his plays were gathered together, edited to create a definitive version of the text, and published 400 years ago in the now iconic First Folio, 1632.
And here it is in facsimile …
The engraved portriat by Martin Droeshout is one of the few likenesses with any claim to authenticity.
A facsimile of the Second Folio, also published in 1632 …
An original Third Folio, 1664 …
And the Fourth, 1685 …
The Library Shakespeare – An example of the late 19th century emergence of ‘gift books’, nicely bound with coloured illustrations …
An 1853 spoof comic version of Macbeth Macbeth Travestie. Macbeth somewhat removed from the text of Shakespear: in two acts …
There are almost thirty items in the exhibition …
… and there is a splendid free guide …
There is also an interesting photowall showing some of the Guildhall Library’s other treasures …
After you leave the building, walk across the road to the little green space on the corner of Aldermanbury and Love Lane …
Constructed in 1896, this pink granite monument stands within the former churchyard of St Mary Aldermanbury. Its primary purpose is to honour the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, but it also serves as a tribute to Henry Condell and John Heminge, two associates of the Bard who worked with him at the Globe …
They played a cucial role in compiling and printing the First Folio after his death in 1616 …
Both lived nearby and were buried in this churchyard …
The church was gutted in the Blitz with only the walls remaining standing. The stones were subsequently transported to Fulton, Missouri in 1966 and rebuilt in the grounds of Westminster College as a memorial to Winston Churchill who had made his Sinews of Peace, “Iron Curtain” speech in the College gymnasium in 1946.
