Atop the Barbican’s main theatre, wrapped around the fly tower, sits a two-story conservatory filled with lush greenery, somewhat at odds with the dull grey of the rest of the estate. This conservatory is the second largest in London (after Kew Gardens) and home to over 1,500 species of plants, but is one of the city’s lesser-known green spaces …
It was opened in 1982 and was intended to be a major visitor attraction and indoor green oasis for Londoners. However, visitor numbers were low. Over the years, the City Corporation reduced opening hours and instead leased the conservatory out as a venue for private parties and corporate events. Visiting is restricted to Friday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 and Sundays from mid-day to 7:00 pm and you need to book a timed ticket. I went last Sunday at 1:00 and it was quite a comfortable viewing since ticketing has obviously led to good crowd control (you can book here).
Here are some of my images, starting with a resident terrapin (apparently ‘liberated’ from Hampstead Ponds) …
Images from the main tropical house …
I thought this was quite spooky and serpentine …
Some rather shy coi carp to finish with …
There is also an arid house, which is filled with cacti and succulents, but this was closed, so here are some pictures I took there when I visited back in 2018 …
Now, a few local flowers to celebrate Spring.
Tulips in Silk Street …
Little beds at the junction of Gresham Street and Wood Street. So nice when building owners plant flowers and look after them …
Work by the wonderful City gardeners on London Wall …
Finally, I couldn’t resist this shot of the Moon …
If you would like to follow me on Instagram here is the link …
I first wrote briefly about this building in June 2020 saying that I would return later to write more and I have finally got around to it!
Lloyd’s Register began as The Society for the Registry of Shipping in 1760. In that year, eleven men met in Edward Lloyd’s coffee house to talk about publishing a list of ships, a register to define their quality and safeguard life and property carried on them. Much of the Register’s history, including its origins, has been preserved in the organisation’s Archives which contain over 1.1million digitised and catalogued assets including ship plans and surveys.
It has now eveolved into a charity, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, whose objectives remain the same as those of Lloyd’s Register: to protect people from harm and to ensure the infrastructure that we depend on for day-to-day living is safe for society both now and in the future. The Foundation also strives to provide the right skills and education to achieve these objectives.
It can be found at 71 Fenchurch Street, EC3M 4BS on the corner with Lloyd’s Avenue …
The north and south turrets …
There are numerous maidens holding models of different types of vessels …
The second maiden from the left holds the model of a steamship whilst the figure immediatly behind her holds a model of a galleon …
This panel also contains six maidens. Those in the foreground hold a ship’s telegraph, a hammer and a propeller. A cog or ratchet wheel emerges behind the leg of the right-hand figure …
The central panel contains a standing female personifying Lloyd’s. She wears a crown of sails and stands on a ship’s prow, holding in one hand a caduceus, in the other a book. Behind her is a Zodiacal sphere, and to either side of her are two mermaids ..
A series of bronze maidens holding model ships …
The impressive entrance …
The panel on the left may represent ‘Trade’. At the centre stands a naked youth, wearing mercury’s winged bonnet and holding the caduceus in one hand and in the other an orb surmounted by a galleon …
At his feet are waves bearing a symmetrical arrangement of sailing-ships laden with exotic fruit. Behind the youth is a representation of the globe. Four maidens stand to the left and three to the right, some wearing ethnic costume. One holds an elephants tusk, another a sheaf of corn. An Indian woman holds a war axe whilst the remainder hold closed caskets.
In the panel on the right there is at the centre another naked youth holding a sextant and a compass …
At his feet are waves bearing a symmetrical arrangement of sailing ships laden with packages. Behind the youth is the sun, its rays projecting to form a pattern in the background. The sun is flanked by ornamental columns, with compasses at the finials. There are three maidens on the left and four on the right, carrying navigational instruments, a globe and the model of a ship.
The spandrel above the right hand window on Lloyd’s Avenue. At the centre, from left to right, are the Arms of Cardiff and the words VILLÆ CARDIFF, the Arms of Hull, and the Arms of Southampton, with the words VILLÆ SOUT(HAMP)TONIÆ …
Flanking these are cross-sections of the engines of steamships and pairs of maidens to either side, holding tools and navigational instruments.
Above the left hand window …
At the centre, from left to right, the coat of arms of an unidentified towm, with motto …S…COMMUNI.TATIS V, followed by the Arms of Dublin and the Arms of Belfast with its motto (PRO) TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS, surrounded by a trophy of machinery connected with shipbuilding. Pairs of maidens to left and right hold plans and a model of a steamship.
There are also some amusing figures nearby, children playing with dolphins on a leash …
I haven’t been able to capture all the great aspects of this building, so I do recommend a visit, particularly on a sunny day …
In my descriptions, I am extremely grateful to Dr Philip Ward-Jackson and his comprehensive guide Public Sculpture of the City of London from which I have quoted extensively.
Some miscellaneous news and images.
New Moon above St Giles …
The Big Egg Hunt is on in the City (these two are at Aldgate and Barbican respectively) …
There’s a new image on the Tower 42 screen (but so far I haven’t been able to find out what it’s about – maybe something to do with Turkey?) …
Tulips are emerging in the Silk Street beds, hooray …
And, in the middle of them, a Camassia. Maybe from last year …
If you would like to follow me on Instagram here is the link …
The big news is that the Magnolia trees beside St Giles are in bloom – this lasts less than a month so has to be savoured …
The Silk Street beds are looking good …
Some rogue visitors among the Polyanthus (possibly bulbs from last year) …
Must be fun to play amongst the daffodils …
St Giles silhouettes at dusk …
From the St Alphage Highwalk …
Magnolia Stellata …
Another highlight of the week was a guided walk around some of the fenced off areas of Bunhill Burial Ground organised by the Friends of City Gardens. The bunting and brochures were out to greet us …
For a detailed history of Bunhill, do have a look at my February 2022 blog. Relevant to our stroll, however, is the Act of Uniformity of 1663. This established the Church of England as the national church and at the same time created a distinct category of Christian believers who wished to remain outside the national church. These became known as the nonconformists or dissenters and Bunhill became for many of them the burial ground of choice due to its location outside the City boundary and its independence from any Established place of worship.
First stop was the earliest grave with a legible inscription, that of Theophilus Gale MA, an eminent dissenter who died in 1678 …
It is rather tucked away …
Hewas a doctor of divinity, a classical scholar and a learned theologian and philosopher. Gale is held in high regard in America’s Harvard University since, when he died, he left his library to the College, more than doubling its collection of books.
This is the impressive chest tomb of theologian John Owen (1618-1683) …
Bunyan spent more than ten years in prison for his beliefs and on one occasion Owen successfully negotiated his release.
This is the grave of Catherine (née Boucher; 1762 – 1831) the wife of the poet, painter, and engraver William Blake, and a vital presence and assistant throughout his life. Decorations have been laid on it by The William Blake Society …
She was the pretty, illiterate daughter of an unsuccessful market gardener from the farm village of Battersea. Her family name suggests they were Huguenots who had fled religious persecution in France. It was a highly satisfactory marriage. Blake taught Catherine to read and write (a little), to draw, to colour his designs and prints, to help him at the printing press and to see visions as he did. She believed implicitly in his genius and his visions and supported him in everything he did with charming credulity. After his death she lived chiefly for the moments when, she said, he came to sit and talk with her.
William is buried elsewhere in Bunhill, outside the fenced area …
Catherine as drawn by William (circa 1805) …
This lady’s importance is reflected in the inscription on her gravestone …
It differs somewhat from the stone in this image showing John visiting her grave in 1779 …
John Wesley was the founder of Methodism and his chapel and former home are across the road from Bunhill. He could see his mother’s grave from his bedroom on the top floor …
You can read more about my visit to his chapel here.
The large tomb at the centre of the photograph is the last resting place of Thomas Fowell Buxton of the famous Truman Hanbury Buxton brewery …
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet Buxton of Belfield and Runton, was an English Member of Parliament, brewer, passionate abolitionist and social reformer. He married Hannah Gurney, whose sister became Elizabeth Fry, and was a great friend of her brother Joseph John Gurney and the extended Gurney family …
Buxton can be seen on the back of the (last ever) £5 note which commemorated Fry’s work with women prisoners. He is the tall gentleman with glasses standing with the group in Newgate Prison …
The engraving on which the note’s image is based …
It’s entitled Mrs Fry Reading to the Prisoners in Newgate, in the year 1816.
On the way out we passed this rather strange sunken tomb of the Pottenger family …
I have not been able to find out anything about the family but the tomb is Grade II listed. The official record gives the following information: The monument takes the form of a stone chest with a coped lid and moulded base, sunk within a rectangular brick-walled well about three feet deep. (This is said to represent the original ground level within the cemetery). The sides of the chest have incised panels bearing the names of various members of the Pottenger family. The two end panels read, respectively, ‘RICHARD POTTENGER’S Vault 1761’ and ‘The Within are Gone to Rest’.
Bunhill is always wonderful to visit, and we were accompanied for most of the way by the tap-tap-tapping of a resident woodpecker.
If you would like to follow me on Instagram here is the link …
