I don’t know about you, but I’ve found it rather difficult to feel very ‘Christmassy’ this year. However, the Christmas lights are beginning to cheer me up and here is my selection (plus a fascinating visit I made to Somerset House).
I’ll start with one of my favourites – hats off to Chartered Accountants Hall …
I think those icicles look really authentic …
Then there’s this installation at City Point …
And on the St Alphage Highwalk overlooking the Salters’ Hall garden. This one is constantly changing …
A profound message on the green wall nearby …
Onward to Spitalfields Market …
And Bishopsgate …
And Broadgate …
Here’s a small Christmas tree selection, starting with City of London Girls’ School …
Wood Street …
St Giles Church …
King’s Cross Station …
The Courtauld Gallery …
And Somerset House with the skating rink in the background …
What was I doing at Somerset House?
Visiting the Beano Exhibition of course. Here’s edition Number 1 …
There are reckoned to be only 25 copies still in existence and one sold in 2015 for £17,300.
I laughed out loud at this imagining of how the Bash Street Kids turned out 30 years on. Especially Smiffy!
There’s a first edition of the Dandy on display also …
In 2004 a copy fetched £20,350. Only 10 copies of the comic’s first edition are known to exist, but the free gift metal whistler sold in the auction is the only one to have survived.
It’s a great exhibition, highly recommended …
Be sure to log in next week because it’s the famous Christmas Quiz!
If you would like to follow me on Instagram here is the link …
As regular readers will know, every now and then I like to publish some images that I have taken that don’t fit easily into any particular theme and this week’s blog is an example. They include wanderings outside the City and even London itself but I hope you will still enjoy them.
Walking down Errol Street in Islington (EC1Y 8LU – opposite Waitrose) I looked up and, for the first time, noticed this very touching memorial …
This wonderful map entitled The Streets They Left Behind is interactive. Just click on the poppies to read more about the men who never returned.
Just across the road in Whitecross Street are the premises of A Holt & Sons Ltd …
Because so many trades have moved out of the City and its adjacent boroughs, I had always assumed that the building contained flats and that the signage had been retained as a quaint ‘feature’ to attract tenants. How wrong I was!
The business (which specialises in cotton textiles) was founded by Abraham Holtz who started his enterprise on a stall nearby and who then bought these premises in 1864. It has been in the family ever since (the ‘z’ was dropped from the name at the time of the First World War). Have a look at their website for the full fascinating story.
The building is adjacent to the tiny, covered alley called Shrewsbury Court …
Despite my best efforts, I haven’t been able to establish the origin of its name. You can read more about its history here in the splendid Ian Visits blog.
A few yards inside the alley is one of my favourite London doors. The story I have conjured up in my mind is that, some time in the early 1970s, the people living there found that visitors knocked on the door rather than ringing the bell. When asked why, callers usually said that they didn’t know there was a bell. As a consequence, the residents (who obviously had artistic talents) got out their paint brushes and added this helpful sign to indicate where the push button bell was. Brilliant!
If learning a bit more about City doors takes your fancy have a look at my blog entitled That rings a Bell.
The other day at the Museum of London I was admiring this painting of London as seen from Southwark in around 1630. It’s one of the few painted records of the City before it was destroyed in the Great Fire …
My eye was drawn to London Bridge where a wide selection of traitors’ heads offered a grisly welcome to newcomers approaching from the south …
I liked this view of the outside of the Charterhouse with the very old gates, a gas lamp and an iconic red London pillar box …
The Kentish ragstone wall is fantastic …
I wrote recently about the great Italian experience that is Eataly on Bishopsgate. Here’s some of the scrumptious produce on sale …
There are a few doorways around the City that have always intrigued me since the wood seems to be incredibly old and repurposed from another function. The first is on Foster Lane and the next two Carter Lane …
I have noticed a recent trend in City opticians to have really wacky displays that don’t seem to bear much resemblance at all to their product. This one’s in Aldersgate and is obviously referencing the nearby Barbican estate …
Generally speaking, I don’t approve of graffiti, but this made me laugh …
When visiting Highgate Cemetery a few weeks ago I encountered these two ladies on Highgate Hill. The first (‘Big girls need big diamonds’) is obviously Elizabeth Taylor …
If you are visiting nearby and are interested in finding them they are on the outside wall of the oddly named Brendan the Navigator pub (N19 5NQ).
In the Egyptian Avenue in Highgate Cemetery you will come across the vault containing the remains of Mabel Veronica Batten. In front of the entrance there are always fresh flowers placed in a marble container inscribed with the name of her lover, Radclyffe Hall, who is also laid to rest there …
Hall, born Marguerite Radclyffe Hall but known to her loved ones as John, was a lesbian who dressed in men’s clothes in a society and era when same-sex love was considered not only immoral but legally punishable. Her book, The Well of Loneliness, dealing with a love between two women, was published in 1928. Here she is circa 1910 …
Picture: National Portrait Gallery, photographer unknown.
Her novel became the target of a campaign by James Douglas, editor of the Sunday Express, who wrote, ‘I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel.’ A judge eventually ordered the book destroyed, with the defendants to pay court costs.
A lady entrepreneur sets out her wares on Kilburn High Road …
Nearby stalls …
And finally, some images from a really enjoyable trip to Ipswich.
Ipswich Museum is a delight containing an extraordinary range of exhibits, all displayed in an authentic Victorian environment.
Ever wondered what a boa constrictor’s skeleton looks like? Wonder no more …
Ever fancied a close encounter with a woolly mammoth? This is the place to come …
In a sad sign of the times, ten years ago someone broke in and sawed off and stole Rosie the Rhino’s horn!
When the weather was miserable at the beginning of the month I decided to go in search of some colour and humour to cheer myself up. I started a little to the east of the City in Rivington Street and wandered slowly back to Whitecross Street. I finished with a quick diversion to Paternoster Square to see something unusual – wall-painted street art in the City of London itself.
My first exciting discovery was this work by Dan Kitchener outside the Callooh Gallery …
I know I posted this before but can’t resist doing it again …
Can you see the old fireplaces? Probably exposed as a result of bombing and now bricked up. I got a bit carried away thinking about families gathered around them in wintertime, chatting and drinking tea and maybe making toast just like I did as a kid …
On Boot StreetN1 6HJ.
As I left the subway I caught a glimpse of the spectacular Leysian Mission building – something for a future blog …
I’ll have to do a bit of research. I really liked the doorbells but resisted the temptation to press one to see if they still worked …
These plaques, placed by some of the great and the good at the turn of the last century, were intriguing also …
I noticed the green line on the pavement, there to help sight-impaired people find their way from the Underground station to Moorfields Eye Hospital. Some say that green is the last colour you see before you lose your vision entirely but I couldn’t find a scientific confirmation of this …
And so onward to the western branch of Old Street and some street art by Bowen and Blackmore …
Now half way down Whitecross Street. Note the ‘correspondence’ …
Alongside, the pretty tattooed angel now has a weird companion …
Finally, off to Paternoster Square to record these two characters flanking the entrance to the public loos (EC4M 7BP)!
Only a week to go!!! Don’t forget, there’s an exciting new installation created by my friend Natalie Robinson now set up for you to visit. The display is based on her body of work ‘Reflection: what lies beneath – new maps’ and will be part of the Totally Thames 2021 Festival until the 30th.
You’ll find Natalie’s banners on the Thames Path at Walbrook Wharf. Here are a few images to whet your appetite …
If you would like to follow me on Instagram here is the link …
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