Gardens – Page 3 – Symbols & Secrets

If you want to have a brief experience of the St Paul’s Cathedral crypt without paying to enter the Cathedral itself just make your way down the stairs to the Crypt Cafe. The entrance is opposite the Temple Bar …

Down below you’ll encounter some extraordinary monuments to deceased heroes. This is the one to Sir William Ponsonby …

‘Created in white marble, the figure of the dying hero rests against his fallen horse. He is nude except for drapery, and a broken sword slips from the fingers of his right hand. His shield is on the ground beside him. He looks upwards at a winged female figure in a classical tunic, representing Victory, who approaches from the left. She holds a wreath above him, and he reaches for it with his left hand’ …

You can read more about his background along with the gripping story of his final battle on the Waterloo Association website.

Nearby is this monument to two Naval heroes …

Both men died in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen.

Riou ‘ … …was sitting on a gun, was encouraging his men, and had been wounded in the head by a splinter. He had expressed himself grieved at being thus obliged to retreat, and nobly observed, ‘What will Nelson think of us?’ His clerk was killed by his side; and by another shot, several marines, while hauling on the main-brace, shared the same fate. Riou then exclaimed, ‘Come, then, my boys, let us all die together!’ The words were scarcely uttered, when the fatal shot severed him in two’.

In 1799 James Mosse was appointed Captain of HMS Monarch, also under the overall command of Admiral Nelson. Mosse took a leading role, sailing from one end of the line to the other, whilst both firing and receiving fire. He was killed soon after adopting his required position, his last orders being to ‘cut away the anchor’. Like Riou, he was buried at sea …

If you look through the gates to the main crypt area you can just see in the distance the tomb of their commander, Horatio Nelson …

Here’s a picture I took on an earlier visit …

After all that death and drama you might like some of the images of flowers I have been taking!

Good corporate neighbours on Gresham Street …

Also on the same street, the Goldsmith’s Garden (the old churchyard of St John Zachary) …

A Goldsmith’s leopard guards the entrance …

Across the road …

Opposite St Paul’s underground Station …

Near St Paul’s Cathedral …

At Aldermanbury …

The Silk Street flower bed. From planting on 22nd June …

To a splendid display today …

Finally, three things I have seen from or on the Barbican Gilbert Bridge.

Water lillies …

Pigeons who don’t like the rain …

And, the weird contribution, what may or may not be a fashion shoot …

It’s definitely a fella …

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Searching for mice at the Guildhall Art Gallery.

By The City Gent

On 30th March 2023

In Animals, Art, Gardens

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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Random subjects I found interesting, from street animals to stained glass. And did Batman and Robin share a bed?

By The City Gent

On 24th November 2022

In Animals, Gardens, Quirky, Stained Glass

Having a camera on my phone is a great asset but also leads to me taking pics of all kinds of random subjects that don’t have a particular theme. The time then comes when I don’t have a blog theme in mind so I cop out by publishing examples of this miscellaneous collection.

This is one of those times and I hope you enjoy this occasionally quirky selection.

I’ll start with the street animals.

Cricklewood Station boasts a friendly multi-coloured cow …

A cow painted in the red and green colours of the Portugal national football team stands outside a souvenir shop in the Algarve …

Same street – different cow …

Leadenhall market porker …

Every year the Worshipful Company of Paviours bring an inflatable animal (known as a St Anthony’s pig) to the Lord Mayor’s Show …

In medieval times the London meat market at Smithfield released pigs that were unfit for slaughter into the streets to fend for themselves. They were identified by a bell around their neck and some prospered sufficiently to get fat enough to eat. Every now and then the paviours (who maintained the roads) rounded them up and delivered them to feed the poor and needy in the care of St Anthony’s Hospital.

Now, from pigs to swans.

The Vintners and Dyers Companies share in the ownership of mute swans with the monarch and it is their job to catch and ring them in a ceremony known as ‘swan upping’ done each June. This man, the Swan Marker, is in charge of the Vintners’ Swan Uppers for the event, but also wears the uniform of Barge Master, dating back to the time when the Company owned a ceremonial barge on the Thames. Here he is with a feathered companion outside the church of St James Garlickhythe …

The Barge Master badge …

Clever advertising in Portugal …

Gifts to take home from Portugal …

Gifts to take home from London …

A sunny day at the Regent’s Canal, St Pancras …

I grabbed this image since the sky and clouds were so attractive. St Stephen Walbrook (1672) was Christopher Wren’s prototype for the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. It was the first classical dome to be built in England at the time …

Whoever decided to place this pool here in Cannon Street was a genius …

Lots of creative ideas for your pastry …

Batman and Robin street art snog …

You may be surprised to know that in the early 1950s comics they seemed to share a bed …

When observations were made about this the publishers were quick to make a statement, and I quote it here :

‘It’s necessary to point out that, no — they’re not sharing a bed, as many mistakenly think. You can distinctly make out a gap in the backboard, meaning that, though they are sleeping unusually close together for an adult guardian and his teen ward, they’re not in bed together‘.

So that’s cleared that up!

Nothing odd about a bit of nude sunlamp toning either, by the way …

Speculation as to the pair’s sexuality is discussed in The Slate article entitled, rather unfortunately, A Brief History of Dick.

I was invited for lunch at the Institute of Chartered Accountants and so got to see some of their splendid stained glass …

Another highlight of my year was seeing Tower Bridge raised. I have lived in London all my life and can’t recall witnessing this before in person rather than on TV …

And finally, another big ‘thank you’ to our wonderful City of London gardeners who work so hard all year to keep the place looking fresh and green …

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Walking the City of London

Category: Gardens Page 3 of 15

A tale from the Crypt, pretty flowers and a strange sighting on the Highwalk!

Searching for mice at the Guildhall Art Gallery.

Random subjects I found interesting, from street animals to stained glass. And did Batman and Robin share a bed?