Just across the road from Tower Hill Underground Station is one of London’s finest architectural landmarks, the former Port of London Authority (PLA) building on Trinity Square.
It towers over Trinity Square Gardens, home of the Mercantile Marine Memorial to the Merchant Seamen who died in both world wars …
The old PLA headquarters harks back to the great days of Empire and global trade. The ‘Great and the Good’ gathered to lay commemoration stones a few years after building work commenced in 1912 …
The inauguration of the building by Prime Minister Lloyd George in 1922 was reported as an event of national importance. The creation of a unified Port Authority in 1909 had been facilitated by an Act of Parliament, the organisation being set up to Protect the Port of London from the increasingly destabilising effect of competition between rival dock companies …
The grand classical entrance features four Corinthian columns. It is three storeys high and topped by a massive tower with a giant figure that would have been clearly visible from the river…
Old Father Thames stands triumphantly, holding his trident and pointing east, paying homage to the prosperity of trade between nations. The trident, his lush beard and the anchor at his feet associates Old Father Thames with Poseidon/Neptune – the Greek/Roman god of the sea – and shows how classical symbolism was used to into the 20th century to celebrate London’s influence over global maritime trade …
On the west side of the tower, within a galleon drawn through the waves by two sea horses, there stands a winged, nude male figure. He symbolises ‘Prowess’ and weilds a large antique oar …
On the east side is ‘Agriculture’, personified by a winged female figure with a flaming torch in her hand drawn in a triumphal chariot by two oxen. The beasts are lead along by a youthful male figure representing ‘Husbandry’ …
At street level is ‘Commerce’. A bearded male figure holds the scales of trade and a basket of merchandise. Before him is the lamp of truth …
‘Navigation’ is represented by a young woman with one hand on a ship’s wheel and the other holding a chart. Her foot rests on a globe and around her are the symbols of shipping …
Resting against elaborate lampposts outside the main entrance are two rather plump cherubs …
Inside the original building was a spectacular rotunda topped by a magnificent glass dome, created to emulate that of St. Paul’s Cathedral. This was totally destroyed in the World War II Blitz and I have only been able to find four images giving some idea of what it looked like …
The front of the building after the bombing …
In the 1970s, after the Port of London Authority moved to its current location in Tilbury, the building was renovated and the central courtyard was filled in with office space. It was then occupied by the European headquarters of the insurance broker Willis Faber Limited and continued to serve as offices until 2008. When Willis Faber moved on to a new location, the building lay vacant for several years.
It was purchased in 2010 by Reignwood, a Chinese investment company, and is now a Four Seasons Hotel. I must say, it really does look splendid.
Inside the main doors …
The rotunda has been reimagined …
It’s open to non-residents for drinks and snacks.
By the way, the 1946 reception of the first general assembly of the United Nations was hosted here in what is now known as the UN Ballroom. The occasion was attended by (among others) King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and US first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. From its second-floor location, the room’s windows overlook the Trinity Square Gardens and beyond to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. It’s available to book for events …
The Museum of London Archaeology practice were given access to the site during redevelopment and a selection of the artefects they discovered are on display in the reception area. These are just a few of the exhibits – it’s well worth popping in to the hotel to have a look …
Now something readers more my age will remember!
The Professionals was a TV series that ran from 1977 to 1983 featuring Bodie and Doyle, senior agents of the British intelligence service CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their handler George Cowley, fighting terrorism and similar high-level crimes. The PLA building appears in the opening sequence of the second series.
The famous railings they stride past are still there …
It’s worth walking round to the north side of the building which is also impressive …
You can just about make out a plinth in front of the building. It’s a bust of one of my heroes, the diarist and brilliant naval administrator Samuel Pepys …
The music carved on it is the tune of Beauty Retire, a song that Pepys wrote. The garden in which it stands in Seething Lane contains a number of paving stones representing his life and events that occurred during it. You can read more about them here and here. Just across the road is St Olave Hart Street. It’s tiny and wonderfully atmospheric, being one of the few surviving Medieval buildings in London.
Incidentally, it was exactly 67 years ago today that the terrible Smithfield Market fire of 1958 broke out. I have written about it in my recent blog Goodbye Smithfield Market – Special Edition.
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Last Monday I had the pleasure of visiting this super exhibition and I hope you will enjoy my report even though I have travelled once more outside my usual beat of the City.
The exhibition is described as follows: ‘Art and money have much in common. Both influence who and what we think of as valuable. It can be surprising to think of money, so functional in form, starting its life as drawing or sculpture. The current Money Talks exhibition at the Ashmolean explores the place of money in our world through art, highlighting a multitude of global perspectives across time. Works on show range from rare monetary portraits and historic depictions of wealth to contemporary activist Money Art, alongside more unusual examples from some of the best-known artists including Rembrandt and Warhol. Together, they expose the tension between the power of money and the playfulness of art’.
Here are some of my favourite exhibits.
The exhibition entrance, with a dollar sign by Andy Warhol …
There is the fascinating story of the design for the coinage of Edward VIII who chose to abdicate before any came into circulation. I like the ‘warning’ on this box: NOT TO BE OPENED EXCEPT IN THE PRESENCE OF TWO SENIOR OFFICERS OF THE ROYAL MINT …
What it contained …
Edward proved rather difficult because he wanted the coins to incorporate his ‘best’ profile …
‘Cubist’ designs submitted for the reverse of Edward’s coinage. They were rejected, with the Mint Advisory Committe declaring that they ‘could not be taken seriously’ …
They probably had a point.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II …
The slightly disconcerting hologram …
An enormous tapestry ‘Comfort Blanket’ by Sir Grayson Perry is based on the design of a very familiar monetary object – the £10 banknote. In Sir Grayson’s own words, it is ‘a portrait of Britain to wrap yourself up in, a giant banknote; things we love, and love to hate’
The two defining artistic movements of Art Nouveau and Art Deco left their imprint in monetary art, much as architecture, jewellery and furniture. ‘Jugendstil’ or German Art Nouveau in money can be best exemplified through the works of the Viennese ‘Avant Garde’ artists like Gustav Klimt, Franz Matsch and Koloman Moser. This is Moser’s draft artwork for 50-crown note for the Austro-Hungarian Bank …
The Inflation Display – some crazy high value notes …
Artists have always highlighted and reflected on wealth, power and money. But the contrasting way in which money is depicted and treated in Eastern and Western traditions of art is interesting in itself. Perhaps owing to the bad press money gets in the Bible and the Christian world view, money is often depicted in negative ways in Western Art.
Greedy usurers and tax collectors, miserly men, conniving and hoarding women are often the subjects associated with money. The ‘crookedness’ of money is also physiognomic: these subjects are often shown with grotesque features, unkempt appearances and unsavoury expressions.
Two Tax Gathererers, 1540s, Workshop of Marius van Reymerseale, an artist known for his satirical paintings of greed and corruption …
Tax collectors were paid percentages of the revenues they collected and would extort every last penny from taxpayers.
The Miser, 1780s, by Thomas Barker of Bath …
His unwillingness to part with money is underlined by the poor quality of his clothing and a generally unkempt look.
The man with the moneybag and his flatterers, Johnnnes Wierix, around 1620 …
This crude composition based on a Flemish proverb uses toilet humour to allude to the power of wealth. A defecating rich man scatters coins from a sack and ‘ass-kissers’ and ‘brownnosers’ scuttle up his humongous behind.
On the contrary, in the Eastern traditions, money is celebrated as an agent of fulfilment, plenitude and fertility.
This shift in attitude prompts Eastern artistic engagement with money to be far more positive and fun. It celebrates money’s agency in bringing prosperity, wealth and happiness. Here we see representations of gods and goddesses, symbolisms and happy cultural associations with money …
A seated figure of Kubera, Buddhist god of wealth, Tibet, 18th–19th century.
Lakshmi, Hindu goddess of wealth …
Humour, satire, irony and wit are often deployed as critical tools by artists to playfully poke fun or shine a light on different social and political topics. These include many of the enduring questions and issues facing society, from the pressures of inflation to the intersections between gender, celebrity and status.
James Gillray lampoons a belching and farting prime minister …
Pitt the Younger, depicted as Midas, Transmuting All into Paper, 1797.
Another Gillray. Political Ravishment, or the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street in Danger, 1797 …
Prime Minister Wlliam Pitt, the young man, is shown trying to woo an old lady, the Bank of England, as he slips his hand into her pocket.
Bringing us up to date, a rather careworn looking King Charles III …
The final exhibit, Susan Stockwell’s sculpture ‘Money Dress’ is an excellent example of a ‘feminist’ intervention using money as medium. Shaped like an impressive Victorian gown, it is dedicated to the early 20th-century explorer and anthropologist Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) …
The exhibition is open until 5th January 2025 – highly recommended.
Finally, some images from the streets.
Last Saturday I was feeling a bit grumpy as I went to buy a paper when I met this lovely man pushing his beautiful Christmas dust cart …
We shook hands, wished one another a Happy Christmas, and I didn’t stop smiling for ages!
Obviously many people cycle to Oxford Station to catch the train. How do they get to their bike if it’s in the middle of this lot …
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London’s historic Smithfield meat market is to close for good after the City of London Corporation voted on Tuesday this week to pull out of plans to relocate it to Dagenham.
Smithfield became London’s livestock market in the Middle Ages and animals reared as far away as the Midlands were brought here for sale. In 1174, William Fitzstephen described it as ‘A smooth field where every Friday there is a celebrated rendezvous of fine horses to be sold… [pigs] with deep flanks, and cows and oxen of immense bulk.’ Animals were kept at Smithfield to be rested and fattened up. Once sold, they headed inside the City walls to the Newgate Shambles – the city’s main slaughterhouses – or to Eastcheap, a market in the east of the city.
There follows a brief history of both the market and the area itself and includes an extraordinary Pathé News film that I have discovered about the terrible fire that seriously damaged the market in 1958.
Smithfield was ofen used for public execution and this slate triptych was unveiled by Ken Loach in 2015 and commemorates the Great Rising of 1381 (more commonly known as the Peasants’ Revolt) …
The Revolt was led by Wat Tyler and on June 15th 1381 he had the opportunity to speak directly to the 14-year-old king, Richard II. Accompanying the King was the Lord Mayor of London William Walworth and, for reasons that are not entirely clear, Walworth ran Tyler through with his sword. Badly wounded, Tyler was carried into nearby St Bartholomew’s Hospital but, rather unsportingly, Walworth had him dragged out and decapitated. It was certainly a very dangerous time to be a poll tax protester.
Of the 288 people estimated to have been burnt for heresy during the five year reign of Mary Tudor, forty eight were killed in Smithfield. ‘Bloody Mary’ was the daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon and the burnings were part of her campaign to reverse the English Reformation.
The ‘Marian Martyrs’ are commemorated with this plaque erected by the Protestant Alliance in 1870 …
The gilding is a little faded in this picture. It reads …
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. The noble army of martyrs praise Thee! Within a few feet of this spot,John Rogers,John Bradford,John Philpot,and other servants of God, suffered death by fire for the faith of Christ, in the years 1555, 1556, 1557
One terrible occasion was on 16 July 1546 when Anne Askew was burnt at the stake along with John Lascelles (a lawyer and Gentleman of the King’s Privy Chamber), John Hadlam (a tailor from Essex) and John Hemsley (a former Franciscan friar). A great stage was built at Smithfield for the convenience of Chancellor Wriothesley, other members of the Privy Council and City dignitaries, to watch the burning in comfort …
The execution of Anne Askew and her companions – 1563 woodcut from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.
Anne herself, having been illegally broken on the rack, was unable to stand, and was chained to the stake in a sitting position. You can read more about this fascinating, brave lady here.
Every burning was different; if the fire ‘caught’, it could be over relatively quickly, but on damp days, or when the wind persisted in blowing the flames away from the body, it could take up to an hour for the condemned person to die, an hour of excruciating agony.
Another famous person who suffered here was William Wallace, ‘Braveheart’ in the movie of that name. This memorial is on West Smithfield, its railings often adorned with flowers and Scottish flags …
Translations from the Latin: I tell you the truth. Freedom is what is best.Sons, never live life like slaves. And the Gaelic: Death and Victory, an old Scottish battle cry.
Smithfield wasn’t all about executions, it also hosted the famous Bartholomew Fair. This annual summer gathering ran for over 700 years. Starting in 1133 as a trade show for buyers and sellers of cloth, the food, drink and sideshows eventually became the main attraction. By the 1600s, London’s most famous fair was pure entertainment – two weeks where crowds gathered for food, drink, puppet shows, wrestlers, a ferris wheel, dancing bears and contortionists …
Many Londoners loved it but the chaos disturbed those who wanted a civilised city and Bartholomew Fair was shut down in 1855.
The market grew throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, as did the noisy procession of animals which made their way there. In Oliver Twist, published 1837–1839, Charles Dickens captured the disorder: ‘It was market morning. The ground was covered, nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire… the bleating of sheep, the grunting and squeaking of pigs… the shouts, oaths and quarrelling on all sides… rendered it a stunning and bewildering scene.’
The livestock market was closed in the 1850s and construction of a covered market at Smithfield began in 1866. Horace Jones was chosen as the architect of the grand new market and you can read more about him in my blog of 8th August.
His imposing and elegant complex of buildings included the Central Meat Market, General Market and Poultry Market. All were innovatively designed to help business run smoothly in the face of mountains and mountains of meat …
The market flourished but was not lucky enough to escape the traumas of two World Wars. Several hundred Smithfield employees were killed in the 1914-18 war and civilians were caught up in a terrible event towards the end of World War II.
At 11:30 in the morning on 8th March 1945 the market was extremely busy, with long queues formed to buy from a consignment of rabbits that had just been delivered. Many in the queue were women and children. With an explosion that was heard all over London, a V2 rocket landed in a direct hit which also cast victims into railway tunnels beneath – 110 people died and many more were seriously injured …
In the Grand Avenue is a memorial …
The original commemoration of names (above the red granite plinth) is by G Hawkings & Son and was unveiled on 22 July 1921. 212 people are listed.
Between Fame and Victory holding laurel wreaths, the cartouche at the top reads …
1914-1918 Remember with thanksgiving the true and faithful men who in these years of war went forth from this place for God and the right. The names of those who returned not again are here inscribed to be honoured evermore.
The monument was refurbished in 2004/5 and unveiled on 15 June 2005 by the Princess Royal and Lord Mayor Savory. The red granite plinth had been added and refers to lives lost in ‘conflict since the Great War’. On it mention is made of the women and children although the V2 event is not specifically referred to.
‘The latin inscription on the coat of arms translates as ‘Thou hast put all things under his feet, all Sheep and Oxen’ – the motto of the Worshipful Company of Butchers.
Tragedy struck again when two firefighters lost their lives in a terrible blaze at the Union Cold Storage Company which broke out on 23 January in 1958. The fire burned for three days in the centuries-old labyrinth, which ultimately collapsed. According to news reports at the time, when the first fire engines arrived, thick acrid smoke was pouring out of the market’s maze of underground tunnels leading to cold storage rooms.
Trying to reach the source of the fire …
The Pathé News film about the fire is one of the most gripping and frightening I have ever seen. You can watch it here – take particular note of the unsatisfactory breathing apparatus the men had to wear: https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/186863/
Jack Fourt-Wells and Richard Stocking, a Station Officer and a firefighter, headed down into the dense smoke, never to be seen alive again. Once inside the pitch black labyrinth of basement rooms and small passages they searched in vain for the source of the fire but with their breathing apparatus rapidly expiring, were overcome by the thick smoke. Their colleagues found them amongst the frozen meat packets and carcasses, and immediately got them out of the tunnels. Many attempts were made to resuscitate both men but tragically they were pronounced dead at the scene.
After the fire …
Fire Brigade processes and equipment were radically revised as a result of the catastrophe. This article gives much more information – it makes fascinating, and horrifying, reading: Sixty years on from the Smithfield fire.
The report of the V2 rocket attack above mentions railway tunnels.
The market’s most revolutionary feature took advantage of London’s growing railway network. Smithfield was connected to the north, south, east and west. Metropolitan Railway freight trains passed right underneath the market. So Jones designed a massive basement of brick arches and iron girders to receive them. From there, the meat was lifted to the surface by hydraulic lift, or taken up the spiral ramp in the nearby rotunda.
A sketch from the Illustrated London News 1870 showing the arrival of an early meat train …
Anyone standing in the market basement now can watch the trains whizz past …
Smithfield was almost a city within a city – and one with its own hours.
To give customers time to buy and prepare their meat for sale the same day, the market opened at night and workers finished their shifts in the early morning. Many headed to ‘early houses’ – pubs within the market or nearby which opened early for workers.
The market was mostly filled with men. Their work might have seemed grisly to outsiders but it was a tight-knit community, full of tradition, with generations of the same families working in the same place. Until 1996, the market was heavily unionised and there were strict job divisions. You might be a puller-back, a pitcher, a shunter, shopman or bummaree.
By the 1880s, Smithfield was receiving enormous quantities of frozen meat from Argentina, New Zealand and Australia. It was a symbol of Britain’s global influence, with London at the centre. But from 1945, Smithfield gradually became less busy as meat stopped arriving through London’s docks. Britain’s trading relationships changed and supermarkets began placing orders directly with suppliers, cutting out Smithfield’s traders.
Other London Markets, like Billingsgate, Spitalfields and Covent Garden, moved out of central London. Follow this link for some fascinating photographs. Smithfield stayed, but reduced in size.
Here are some images I took last Monday.
The arrival of the Elizabeth Line has revitalised the area with new shops and restaurants popping up all the time …
The entrance to Grand Avenue …
Which remains truly grand …
Apparently, these are the most frequently photographed telephone boxes in London …
But something is clearly going on at the west end of the market …
This is the site chosen for the relocated London Museum.
If you would like to see what the site looked like before the development began here is a link to the London Inheritance blog which is, as usual, full of fascinating facts and images.
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