Walking the City of London

Category: Special Exhibitions Page 3 of 8

Sculpture in the City (and a few words about Thomas Bayes).

The Sculpture in the City project is always worth a visit, which is what I did last week. I have also added some other pieces that caught my eye.

First up is this one entitled Temple by Richard Mackness. It’s on the corner of Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street, EC2M 3XD…

‘In this object, questions of belief and value weave with consumer culture and the human need to find meaning and to belong’. You can read a fuller description here.

This one has been around since last year but I’m including it again because I like its location. It’s called Muamba Grove, 0 Hue 1 and 2 by Vanessa da Silva and can be found at St Botolph-without- Bishopsgate Churchyard, EC2M 3TL …

‘The artist’s process offers an indication of the inseparable link between the body and the sculpture – the artist’s own body becomes entwined within the making of the forms. Da Silva’s use of colour and carefully considered scale contributes to the sense of dynamic and fluid movement’. You can read more here.

If you visit the churchyard look out for St. Botolph’s Hall, once used as an infants’ school, but now a multipurpose church hall available for hire. At its front entrance is a pair of Coade Stone figures of a schoolboy and girl in early nineteenth century costumes …

In the foreground is the large tomb of Sir William Rawlins, Sherriff of London in 1801 and a benefactor of the church …

This is Book of Boredom by Ida Ekblad. It’s at Undershaft, EC2N 4AJ (in front of Crosby Square) …

‘Conveying a rich sense of abundance and corporality, this painted bronze sculpture presents a vibrant composition filled with fragmented, angular patterns and shapes, merging elements of figuration and abstraction’. You can read more here.

This is Untitled by Arturo Herrara at the base of the Leadenhall Building EC3V 4AB …

Untitled reflects the dynamic movement of people using the space and the mechanic stairs. Both designs energise the area under the stairs with an all over composition that mimics the traffic and activity of this large urban space in the City’.

I caught my first glimpse of these creatures, called Secret Sentinels, as I turned from St Mary Axe into Bevis Marks (EC3A 8BE). They made me smile, which is a good start! …

They were created by Clare Burnett

Secret Sentinels is a family of sculptures made from found objects and materials and covered in glass tiles. The sculptures are inspired by how we balance privacy against convenience in relation to state and private surveillance. The protrusions from each piece gently reference the surrounding, ubiquitous cameras in the City security systems, doorbells, phones and computers’. You can read more here.

Here are the other things that caught my eye during my walk that are not part of the Sculpture in the City project.

Infinite Accumulation by Yayoi Kusama is an extraordinary sculpture on the pavement outside the Liverpool Street Elizabeth Line station entrance …

Another work now on permanent display is outside Moorgate Station and was created by the British artist Conrad Shawcross RA. It’s called Manifold (Major Third) 5:4 and was installed late last year as the penultimate artwork for the Crossrail project. According to a sign close to the art, ‘this vast bronze sculpture is an expression of a chord falling into silence’ …

You can read more here.

The open space at Citypoint is currently a temporary home to Squiggle

Moving away from sculpture, I like the coloured glass deployed around 22 Bishopsgate …

Thomas Bayes (circa 1701-1761) has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons due to the sudden sinking of the yacht named after him and the tragic loss of seven lives. You can read the BBC news report here.

I thought you might be interested to know that Bayes is buried in a family grave in Bunhill Fields Burial Ground. It can be easily seen from the paths but the inscriptions are rather indistinct (despite restoration in 1969 funded by statisticians worldwide) …

In the vault are laid members of the Bayes, Cotton and West families.

The inscription on the east side of the tomb (Wikimedia Commons)…

On the top of the tomb is inscribed: Rev. Thomas Bayes, Son of the said Joshua and Ann Bayes (59).

The west side, Miss Decima Cotton who died on 12 April 1795 …

Born in Hertfordshire, Bayes studied at Edinburgh University and began his preaching career in that city; he later assisted at his father’s meeting-house on Leather Lane in Holborn before being appointed Presbyterian minister to the Little Mount Sion meeting-house at Tunbridge Wells in 1731, which post he occupied until his retirement 20 years later. During his lifetime Bayes published nothing under his own name, although he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1742, perhaps on the basis of an influential defence of Newtonian mathematics published anonymously in 1734. His fame rests chiefly upon his mathematical ‘Essay towards solving a problem in the doctrine of chances’, published posthumously in 1764; this adumbrates the highly influential ‘Bayesian’ approach to probability theory, as well as containing the famous ‘Bayes’ Theorem’, still widely used in statistics and information technology.

I was fascinated to find out that, armed with powerful computers to handle the data, American security experts use Bayesian inference to prioritise potential threats to the nation. You can read more here.

I found this image of the grave after restoration in 1969 …

I think it’s time to get the scrubbing brush out again!

On a more cheerful note, about 200 yards away is this building …

Concerned about Sir John Cass’s connection with the slave trade, the Business School that bore his name decided to rebrand themselves and, in an online poll, ‘Bayes Business School’ was the winning suggestion. I think it’s nice that his final resting place is so nearby!

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Victorian London in Photographs (pomp, progress and poverty). Plus the latest City Banksy and a ‘lost’ man!

I’ve just been to see this super pop-up exhibition in St Paul’s Churchyard. It runs until 29 September and I highly recommend it …

If, like myself, you like following London’s history using photographic images some of those on display will be familiar to you, but it’s great to see them again in a nice setting with very informative signage.

This is one of my favourites …

The ‘great and the good’ take the inaugural journey on the new underground railway. The date is 24 May 1862 and they are in an open wagon at Edgware Road Station. ‘Number 16’ is William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), later Prime Minister for four terms.

Another image I know well illustrates the vast difference between the lives of our railway passengers and the lives of the poor and destitute …

This photograph of a woman was taken by John Thompson in 1877 and was titled The Crawlers. Reduced to poverty, she explained to him that she was looking after a friend’s baby in exchange for some bread and a cup of tea.

Another image from 1877 along with an example of the excellent exhibition signage …

Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to travel back in time and tell the these two ladies, and the young lads with their backs to us, that people would be looking at their images and thinking about their lives almost 150 years later …

Street Life by the same photographer …

Pomp at the new Crystal Palace …

And progress – both Bankside Power Station and Tower Bridge under construction …

Another theme – Grand Boulevards …

Do pop along and see it if you can – it’s a great exhibition and my images are just a small sample.

On a similar theme, I have a little collection of old postcards of which these are a few examples.

Tower Bridge gradually taking shape, as seen from the river …

St Paul’s Cathedral from Bankside with a paddle steamer moored in the foreground …

Flower seller ladies outside the Royal Exchange. I like this image, with the top-hatted man on the left having the flower placed in his buttonhole and the lady near the middle shielding her eyes from the sun …

Euston Station with the famous arch which was controversially demolished in 1962 (‘an act of cultural vandalism’ said one commentator!) …

Covent Garden Market …

A busy day at Bank Junction …

Incidentally, just behind the exhibition is a great example of what pollution can do to Portland stone over time …

The plaque reads as follows: HEAD AND SHOULDERS OF PORTLAND STONE STATUE OF SAINT ANDREW SOUTH PEDIMENT. THE COMPLETE STATUE 12 FEET HIGH AND WEIGHS SIX TON. CARVED BY FRANCIS BIRD IN 1724 FOR £140. THIS PART WAS REPLACED IN 1923 AND VACUUM IMPREGNATED WITH SILANE RESIN.

STOP PRESS, the latest City Banksy has been removed from its street setting and installed in Guildhall Yard. For how long I do not know …

Finally, whilst walking along Chalk Farm Road yesterday, I saw this sweet request taped to a shop window near the 31 bus stop …

I don’t suppose he subscribes to my blog but you never know!

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Tower Bridge and the extraordinary Sir Horace Jones. Plus a gathering of equerries and bedchamber ladies!

I thought I was familiar with the names of all the archiects associated with the City but somehow one of the most eminent seemed to have slipped my mind – although I must have read about him on numerous occasions. Some of his greatest works will be well known to all my readers – for example the original market buildings at Smithfield, Billingsgate and Leadenhall. His greatest surviving achievement however, in my view at least, is the structure that represents London itself to many people throughout the world – Tower Bridge.

Jones was a brilliant artist as can be seen from this pen-and-ink drawing by him from his 1884 design …

© London Metropolitan Archives, City of London (ref COL/SVD/PL/03/0293)

This model at The London Centre gives some perspective as to its location …

The modern City framed by the Bridge …

In action …

From the River Thames heading east …

Serious engineering …

You can read about my tour of the bridge in March last year here.

My further interest in it was spiked, as it often is, by the current exhibition featuring Tower Bridge at the Guildhall Gallery …

The great man himself. Horace Jones 1819-1887 painted in the year before his death by Walter William Ouless

Some of the fascinating items on display in the exhibition.

This dramatic photograph captures the hive of activity during construction …

Centre stage are the high-level footway bridges slowly coming together while in the background you can see the South Abutment Tower under construction. Work on the bridge had started in 1886 and work was completed in 1894 (seven years after Horace’s death).

Hot tickets …

The ‘Ceremonial’ document outlining the programme. I was intrigued by the occupants of the carriages. What’s the difference between a ‘woman of the bedchamber’ and a ‘lady of the bedchamber’? And there are examples of chaps who are ‘in waiting’. Two equerries, a groom and a lord to be precise. No doubt a precise pecking order has been established over the centuries!

A napkin from the opening Celebration Dinner …

A great selection …

Instructions on how to operate the raising mechanism, an engineer with a super king size spanner, a workman doing masonry repairs, a police officer pulling a rope across the road to close it to traffic, the Tower Bridge tug and the Bridge Driver in the control cabin.

For the people of London during the First World War the bridge was more than a metaphorical symbol of resistance. Perched atop the upper walkway sat an anti-aircraft gun, its height and tactical position aligning it perfectly to defend against German raids. Its presence brought comfort to Londoners in the area and this poster captures the sentiment …

Each of the men listed in the centre of the poster were presented with a print as ‘grateful recognition of their services in protecting London against hostile aircraft during the Great War of 1914-1918’.

Whilst I was visiting I treated myself to this book. It’s a great read …

It explains in interesting detail why, despite a knighthood and elevation to the Presidency of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Horace never really received the full recognition he deserved and this remains the case today. For example, the Guildhall Gallery now owns the Ouless painting above but it is not on display. I’m pleased to say, however, that there is an excellent bust of Horace that you can go and see. It really gives a hint of the powerful presence and personality that clearly upset some of his contemporaries …

Unfortunately, I’m sad to say that it is tucked away at the back of the cloakroom! You’ll find it by turning right as you leave the special exhibition.

It’s on until 19 September and is located in the Heritage Gallery. During your visit you can enjoy watching films from the London Metropolitan Archive. This one is of the 1928 Lord Mayors Show …

You can also inspect a superb back-lit copy of the ‘Agas’ map of circa 1561 …

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