Category: Art Page 3 of 25

Heading east again – London City Island and Trinity Buoy Wharf.

On 7th November 2024

Regular readers will know that when I find it a bit difficult to source new stories about the City I head east and this is a report on one of my sorties.

I travelled on the Docklands Light Railway to Canning Town, making sure, of course, that I got a front seat so I could pretend to drive the train …

Trinity Buoy Wharf was my ultimate destination but I got there via London City Island and took a few images along the way.

Crossing the bridge to get there …

London City Island is described in its advertising as ‘a new Island neighbourhood on one of the best-connected sites in the capital. Bridging the business might of neighbouring Canary Wharf and the cultural energy of east London, London City Island is one of the most important waterside projects London has seen in recent years – an award-winning place that has received accolades from multiple prestigious awards bodies’. It was very pleasant to walk through.

The English National Ballet is here …

The sculpture is called After The Dance by Colin Spofforth (2023) …

I love a good ghost sign …

A strange fact associated with this place. In 1877 Togo Heihachiro, later a prominent Japanese Admiral, came for work experience with the Samuda Brothers after completing his training at the Naval Preparatory School in Portsmouth and the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. After returning to Japan, he led the Imperial Japanese Navy navy to victory in the Russo-Japanese War, establishing Japan as a Great Power. How ironic is that.

To say that Mr Mare of the above company had a colourful career would be an understatement. Once an MP, and apparently a millionaire, he was unseated for bribery in 1853 and declared bankrupt for the first of four times in 1855. He eventually died in Stepney in 1898 totally destitute. His story is told in fascinating detail in this Victorian Commons blog. Highly recommended.

The gates are by the sculptor Sir Anthony Caro …

I loved the texture and colours of this old brick wall nearby …

Some more artwork and sculpture along the way …

My final destination …

You know you are somewhere special when you see a London taxi with a tree growing out of its roof plonked on top of the local cafe …

The tree is an artificial sculptural construction made of metal. It was made by the artist Andrew Baldwin, who spent many years training as a master blacksmith and welder. I found images of the work before it was placed on the roof and of the lifting exercise itself …

The taxi/tree sculpture is a good example of Baldwin’s witty approach to artworks and there are some more of his unusual and original metal sculptures to be seen around the wharf …

Half man half dolphin riding a penny-farthing …

Steel house …

Some other images from around the wharf.

The Trinity House Coat of Arms – Trinitas in Unitate – Three in One …

Old tug boat with Canary Wharf and the Millennium Dome in the background …

Redundant machinery rusting away colourfully …

Anchor with the lightship in the background …

From an image point of view, a blue sky behind a red subject is perfect!

More sculptures …

Appropriately, I’ll finish with a buoy …

This was a great place to visit and you can read more about it here.

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Some local curiosities – including Quaker graves, an Indian Bean tree and classy bicycles.

By The City Gent

On 17th October 2024

In Architecture, Art, Memorials, Religion, Social History

One of the great joys of London is that you can walk over the same area again and again and still find something new or, alternatively, more detail about a place you knew already.

Last week I decided to start by visiting the pretty, quiet space in Banner Street known as Quaker Gardens (EC1Y 8QQ). All the other locations I write about today are about five minutes walk away from there …

There are three venerable London Plane trees providing shade …

This land, purchased in 1661 for a burial ground, was the earliest freehold property of the Quakers (also known as The Society of Friends) in London. Over a thousand victims of the Great Plague were buried here in 1665.

Here it is on John Rocque’s map of 1746 …

The Burial Acts of the 1850s forced the closure of all central London burial grounds. Having expanded considerably, by the time that the Bunhill site was closed in 1855 there were nearly 12,000 recorded burials.

I found these burial records from 1787 online …

Quaker burials are very simple and Quakers have not traditionally placed headstones on burial sites, being thought too showy or worldly. There is, however, a plain memorial to George Fox, Quakerism’s founder, who was buried here in 1691 …

There is also a stone plaque recording the history of the site and buildings …

The wording is not very clear now but I have found an earlier image …

Persecution of Quakers was common in 17th century England, one of the most serious punishments being transportation. Among the ‘martyr Friends’ buried here are included twenty-seven who died of plague awaiting transportation on the ship ominously named The Black Eagle. The war with the Dutch, along with the plague, made it difficult to find a ship’s master willing to brave the seas but in May 1665 the Sheriffs of London found someone willing to do so. The sea captain, called Fudge, boasted that he would happily transport even his nearest relations. About 40 men and women were bundled aboard his ship which was lying at Greenwich. Then Fudge was arrested for debt, with soldiers sent from the Tower to guard the human cargo as most of the crew had deserted. As well as the plague deaths, many more prisoners had perished before the ship eventually sailed.

The burial ground lay unused until 1880 when the Metropolitan Board of Works took part of the site for road widening and the compensation money paid for the building of a Memorial Hall, which included a coffee tavern and lodging rooms …

The Hall was destroyed by bombs in 1944. A small surviving fragment, known as the cottage, which had been the manager’s house, was restored to serve as a small meeting house (as it still does to this day) …

An old plaque dated 1793 …

‘This wall and Seven Houses on the grounds on the north side are the Property of the Society of Friends 1793’.

I haven’t been able to find out more about the very sadly missed Marna Shapiro …

I like the kisses.

A very appropriate place for quiet contemplation …

For a brief history of the Quakers I recommend this site – Quakers around Shoreditch. For a more detailed history, I have enjoyed reading Portrait in Grey by John Punshon (September 2006, Quaker Books). It’s where I found the story of the wonderfully named Captain Fudge and the Black Eagle.

Leave the garden by the Chequer Street entrance, turn left, and you will encounter something unusual – wooden block road paving …

Designed to be durable, but far less noisy than cobbles, experiments with wood block paving started in 1873 and initially proved successful. Eventually replaced by tar from the 1920s onwards, this section is one of few remaining in London. You can just make out some tree growth rings …

See the brilliant Living London History blog for a fascinating detailed history.

I must have walked past this typical industrial building in Banner Street dozens of times …

Last week I paused at the rather imposing entrance …

… and looked up …

A classical broken pediment, the date 1911 and the company name Chater Lea Ltd. This was a British bicycle, car and motorcycle maker and the Banner Street premises were purpose built for them in 1911. Eventually needing to expand production, they moved to Letchworth, Hertfordshire in 1928.

The company was founded by William Chater Lea in 1890 to make bicycle frames and components. It made cars between 1907 and 1922 and motorcycles from 1903 to 1935. William died in 1927 and the business was taken over by his sons John and Bernard …

You can read more about the company history here and it looks like they are currently working on a major relaunch. Here’s their website which also contains some great historical background and images.

It is nice to see that this extraordinary piece of work has found a place on Roscoe Street where everyone can see it. It needs to be viewed from a distance for maximum effect …

I watched it being created at this year’s Whitecross Street Party …

Nearby on Roscoe Street, the mysterious headless man – also created at the Party …

Tyger Tyger on Baird Street …

A Chequer Street EC1 celebration …

… and a mosaic on the same building …

Pretty door and heart combined at 65 Banner Street …

In a nearby car park …

I love the honey coloured bricks of the Peabody Estate …

In the foreground, another piece left over from the Party …

And finally, consider this tree at the west end of Chequer Street …

My scientist friend Emma reliably informs me that it’s an Indian Bean Tree, Catalpa Bignonioides …

The view from Whitecross Street …

These trees are described online as ‘principally grown for their broad headed attractive foliage, exquisite bell shaped summer flowers and in autumn they develop bean-like hanging fruit which persist through winter’.

Here’s an example of the fruit on the Chequer Street tree …

In my view, this tree is evidence of the considerable thought that went into the planning of the Peabody Estate environment as well as the buildings themselves.

Incidentally, the estate also boasts a man-eating Agavi plant …

Mr Peabody features strongly in my book Courage, Crime and Charity in the City of London which you can buy using the link on this site – only £10. Or just pop in to the Daunt Bookshop in Cheapside or Marylebone High Street.

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Robert Hooke – out of the shadows. Plus a great new perspective on London’s buildings, homes, streets and environment.

By The City Gent

On 10th October 2024

In Architecture, Art, Special Exhibitions

I was off to the Guildhall Gallery again last weekend looking for blog inspiration and, as usual, was not disappointed.

Robert Hooke (1635-1703) was a typical ‘Renaissance Man’ of 17th century England but is not anything like as well known as his contemporaries such as Sir Isaac Newton, Samuel Pepys and Sir Christopher Wren (a lifelong friend).

In the course of his career at the Royal Society and as Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, he carried out the earliest research with the microscope, described and named the cell, was a founder of the science of geology, and discovered the law of springs/elasticity, the achievement for which he is most remembered today. He was also a City Surveyor, organising the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666. Overshadowed by Newton and Wren, he faded into relative obscurity and now there is not even a portrait of him.

The Guildhall Gallery has gone some way to bringing him out of the shadows with a new exhibition in The Heritage Gallery, Robert Hooke and the Monument …

Hooke worked with Wren on the design of the Monument, built to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666. It remains a striking feature of the City and a major tourist attraction to this day …

It was originally intended to have a scientific function as a zenith telescope – instrumants that can be used for determining the precise measurement of star positions. Unfortunately, movement caused by the wind and nearby traffic made it unsuitable for this purpose.

Hooke’s diary (which is dated 1672-83) was a memorandum book he kept to remind him of the many places he had been and people he had met. It records his visits to sites in the City that he was working on including the Monument …

Indicated is an entry from 5th April 1676. He records going to see ‘the pillar’, i.e. the Monumant, in construction. He describes examining the balcony and the setting for the golden urn on top of it. He visited the construction work frequently and must have been very fit with a good head for heights!

The urn at the top …

Hooke was a true polymath. A diagram for a proposed design for a thermomenter is also on display …

…amongst other papers he collected …

You can also see a daguerreotype of the Monument from circa 1845 taken from Gracechurch Street, with the church of St Magnus the Martyr in the background …

Incredibly fragile, this is the oldest photograph of the City of London in the London Archives.

I’ve always been fascinated by Hooke and particularly love Micrographia. The Royal Society blog states: ‘This great book of explorations of the very small, the very far and the very elusive, needs little introduction. Written and illustrated with 38 lavish copperplate engravings, Micrographia or, some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses, with Observations and Inquiries thereupon, to spell out its full title, remains a landmark in the history of microscopy’.

The accuracy of his famous drawing of a flea is even more striking when we compare it with an image produced using the latest microscope technology …

You can read more here in the Royal Society blog.

Look at an online copy of Hooke’s beautiful book here.

Since he was a contemporary of Pepys, the famous flea is included on a paving stone in the Pepys garden in Seething Lane …

You can find a complete guide to the garden and its carvings in my blogs here and here.

If you visit the Hooke exhibition, make sure you also pop in to the upstairs gallery where a really enjoyable treat awaits …

The Giant Dolls House Project invited schools and community groups to create minature rooms in shoe boxes to show their perspectives on the City of London’s buildings, homes, streets and environment.

I was absolutely fascinated …

My favourite. I could imagine myself sitting in that chair, relaxing and reading a book from the little library …

Do visit if you can – my images don’t really do it justice.

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