Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • London – Westminster – Tate Britain (Captain Thomas Lee by Marcus Gheeraerts)

    London – Westminster – Tate Britain (Captain Thomas Lee by Marcus Gheeraerts)

    I like the sign to the left of this painting by Marcus Gheeraerts (1561/2-1636) which reads “what would you wear in a photo if you really wanted to impress someone?” as this certainly looks like some sort of dare. But, it’s not, it’s very serious and it was the uniform of an Irish soldier, who kept their legs bare for reasons that I’m not sure that I can understand (but is probably related to the need to fight in Irish bogs). The embroidered top isn’t quite part of the uniform, that’s just an indication of how wealthy Captain Thomas Lee (1551-1601) was. The painting is also seen as an attempt by Lee to impress Queen Elizabeth I, although his life plan didn’t quite work out as he was executed at Tyburn in 1601 and the Queen didn’t stop it.

    The artwork was painted in 1594, which was the prime of the artist’s career as he fell a little out of favour after this. The museum holds a few paintings by Gheeraerts, but I’d say that this one is the most spectacular looking and the gallery was able to acquire this painting in 1980.

  • London – Westminster – Tate Britain (Lady Kytson by George Gower)

    London – Westminster – Tate Britain (Lady Kytson by George Gower)

    This artwork doesn’t make Lady Kytson (1547-1628) look the most glamorous, but it wasn’t the done thing at this time to smile for portraits. She was a brave lady and remained a Catholic at a time when this wasn’t perhaps entirely wise under the Protestant rule of Queen Elizabeth I, meaning that Kytson was arrested and her activities were monitored.

    The artist was George Gower (1540-1596) who was a popular portrait painter of the period (there were more P’s there than I initially intended). This artwork was acquired by the Tate in 1952 and is the oldest surviving work by Gower, along with the portrait of her husband, Sir Thomas Kytson. By 1581, Gower had become the Serjeant Painter to Queen Elizabeth, meaning that he had become something of a court favourite. As an aside, the gallery only worked out what the hat she was wearing was meant to look like when the painting was thoroughly cleaned in 1995.

  • London – Kensington – Natural History Museum (South Shields Sunday Stone)

    London – Kensington – Natural History Museum (South Shields Sunday Stone)

    Not all rocks are old…. This exhibit at the Natural History Museum was formed in a coal mine in the 1800s, when the white mineral barium sulphate met coal dust. This only happened when miners were at work, so there’s a wider gap on Sundays, or “a calendar in rock” as the museum calls it.

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Troops on Sheringham Beach)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Troops on Sheringham Beach)

    And my last photo (for today at least) from the Imperial War Museum archive (© IWM H 11689), this is a photograph of Sheringham beach which was taken on 12 July 1941 by Captain Len Puttnam. The military had allowed the public to access the beach, but they were present to ensure that they didn’t stray too far, with the men of 2/5th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment overseeing proceedings.

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Blitz Attack on Queen Victoria Street)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Blitz Attack on Queen Victoria Street)

    This is Queen Victoria Street in London following an air raid that took place on 11 May 1941. This is another photo from the Imperial War Museum archive (© IWM HU 1129) and it was taken by the London Fire Brigade to record the moment. The lighting makes it quite an evocative photograph on what transpired to be the last night of heavy bombing during the London Blitz, although no-one in the image would have realised that. The Blitz had wrecked large chunks of the capital and this is evident at the bomb map at http://bombsight.org/.

  • London – Kensington – Natural History Museum (Megatherium)

    London – Kensington – Natural History Museum (Megatherium)

    A plaster cast of Megatherium, one of the largest mammals that has lived, and it’s effectively just a giant ground sloth. This cast was made in 1848 from two different skeletons and it’s been on display in the museum since 1850. I’m sure that, even at this large size, it still looked quite adorable and the animal could be as long as six metres in length from head to tail. They were found in the Americas and one of the reasons thought for their extinction around 12,000 years ago is human movement into the areas where they lived.

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Damage to Downing Street)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Damage to Downing Street)

    I will, at some point, stop faffing about looking through the Imperial War Museum’s on-line photographic album, but these are interesting photos (well, I think) of damage done to Downing Street on 20 February 1944. A fleet of 200 German aircraft attacked London, killing 600 people and doing damage to numerous Government and residential buildings.

    Repairing the damage with ladders. This was towards the end of the bombings in London, the last Luftwaffe air raids were in May 1944.

    An annoying hole in the ceiling of the drawing room and that isn’t snow on the ground, it’s glass. The work of a sentryman had to continue though, so they made a path through the glass for him.

    The photographer at the time, Captain Horton, noted that although the window was blown out, the photograph of Winston Churchill was left intact.

    And thanks to the Imperial War Museum – © IWM H 36080 © IWM H 36081 © IWM H 36087 © IWM H 36091 © IWM H 36092 © IWM H 36088.

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (War Shelters at London Liverpool Street)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (War Shelters at London Liverpool Street)

    Rummaging through the on-line collections of the Imperial War Museum (© IWM D 1574), I rather liked this photo taken by Bill Brandt in 1940. Brandt was born in Hamburg in 1904, but he renounced his German origins and moved to live and work in London in 1933. This photo is of Londoners packed into the underground station of London Liverpool Street and for some reason, I hadn’t realised that they were quite so packed in. Some of the photographs that Brandt took at this time were sent to the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to show him the fortitude of the London population. Very much a snapshot of a different time.

    And another (© IWM D 1573), from the same station.

  • London – Kensington – Albert Memorial

    London – Kensington – Albert Memorial

    This is the subtle little memorial that was constructed in Kensington Gardens to honour Prince Albert, following his death in 1861. I’m not sure that many people have had a monument that took ten years to build and cost the modern equivalent of £10 million, although at least that was partly paid for by public subscription. The monument was unveiled by Queen Victoria in July 1872 and it was influenced by the thirteenth century Eleanor Crosses (here’s the one I visited in Waltham Cross).

    The statue was originally covered in gold, but this had worn off by the early twentieth century. It wasn’t replaced until relatively recently, in the late 1990s when the regilding was completed. I think it’s all a bit much, but it is a hugely impressive monument. The frieze at the base of the monument has 187 carved figures of various painters, poets, musicians and architects, although the public aren’t allowed that near to it to look at it properly.

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Another War Recruitment Poster)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Another War Recruitment Poster)

    On the theme (well, I posted about one other) of recruitment posters at the Imperial War Museum photo archive, this (© IWM Q 33121) is another First World War recruiting poster. I wonder whether a similar campaign would work today if they needed men (or women now) to fight, would a call to protect Queen and country be enough? Hopefully we’ll never need to find out….