Total Networking Event

Tuesday 16^th April, 6.00pm-6.00pm at De Vere Belton Woods Hotel, Belton, Nr Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG32 2LN, £15 per meeting. Monthly networking opportunity – This is your key monthly networking opportunity & this month we’re very pleased to be holding a joint meeting with the Grantham Business Club at their normal venue – Belton Woods Hotel.

For more information www.totalnetworking.co.uk

Related articles

• Grantham will have Thatcher statue (bbc.co.uk)

Who wouldn’t want to do a big steaming one right on that face?

A museum in Margaret Thatcher’s Lincolnshire home town has announced its intention to commission a decapitated statue of the former conservative prime minister.

The statue’s head will be placed alongside it in a porcelain bucket, which the public will be invited to micturate – or even defecate – upon.

Grantham’s Mayor, Eric Shun, said this morning “I was actually a huge supporter of Lady Thatcher’s, and agreed with her policies entirely, so initially I was against what seemed like a vey disrespectful idea.

“But we talked it over, the town council and the museum, and the more we thought about it, the more we realised that yeah; this is just what people are going to do with it anyway.

“If you put up a statue of her, no matter how well you try to guard it, it is inevitable that the head will be cut off and dumped in a bucket of faeces by the end of the day. Every day.

“By pre-empting this, and putting the statue’s head in a bucket from the outset, we save ourselves from the expensive restoration which would otherwise be required on a nightly basis.”

The museum hopes to put on a permanent exhibition - about Thatcher herself, and life in Britain during her reign - which it promises will be grizzlier than Goya’s Disasters of War, or anything by the Chapman brothers.

Director of the Grantham Museum, Leslie Fanshawe-Haines-Haines, said “We have high hopes that this will be a real crowd-puller. People will come from miles around to show their children the unmitigated horrors of which humankind is capable.

“Also, we’ll have a great range of accompanying merchandise in the gift-shop, from Margaret Thatcher voodoo dolls, to small cakes of urinal-soap carved in the likeness of her disembodied head.

“The mouth will be open in a sort of perpetual scream of horror, and you can pee right into it whilst shouting about the dangers of destroying a nation’s ability to do anything except sell badly thought-out financial packages to one another.”

2. Guildhall Yard. It wears both its modernity and antiquity very lightly. Two ancient structures – St Lawrence Jewry and the Guildhall itself – counterbalanced by the modern Guildhall Library and Guildhall Art Gallery, both late 20C. Integrated one with the other deliciously, architectural practice at its most sympathetic and very best. Then there is the pavement which incorporates the gentle curve marking the outline of the ancient Roman amphitheatre twenty feet or so below.

Guildhall and Art Gallery

St Lawrence Jewry

3 Staff. You’ll come across security who scan your bag inside the front door; someone on the front desk, and the two ladies (usually it’s ladies) who run the cloakroom downstairs. Always smiley, always friendly, always welcoming. Archivists and librarians ditto.

4 The Great Hall. A massive 15C late-gothic space containing monumental statuary commemorating Nelson, Wellington, both Pitts, plus huge statues of London’s legendary founding giants, Gog and Magog. It’s not always obvious whether it’s open, hence we had the place entirely to ourself one weekend last year. Do check!

5 The art. A very mixed bag, and something for everybody. In the main spaces at ground floor and mezzanine level there are many Victorian genre paintings and notable Pre-raphaelite stuff. But I rather like the London landscape paintings and big parades (Lord Mayor’s Show, Queen Victoria’s jubilee, etc). We use the gorgeous Blackfriars Bridge and St Paul’s by William Marlowe on the London Historian Members’ card. But special mention must go to…

6 … the massive The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782 by the American artist John Singleton Copley. One of the largest oil paintings in the country, the picture was commissioned by the City of London in 1783. It’s actually a multiple portrait picture featuring the main players on the British side, made out as a battle scene. Its home in the gallery today is a bespoke space that was worked in to the design of the building.

7 George Dance the Younger. On his father’s death, George junior took over the role of surveyor for the City of London aged just 27. He designed dozens of significant London buildings, the vast majority of which no longer exist. Probably the most significant is the Guidlhall’s facade and front door. So elegant. It reminds me a lot of the fine old London city gates, demolished by his own father in 1760. Irony.

8 The Roman Amphitheatre. When you look at old models or illustrations of Roman London (there is a rather nice example in the Crypt Museum at St Hallows by the Tower), there is always a glaring omission: the amphitheatre. That’s because it was only discovered in the 1990s when archaeologists were having a bit of a sniff around prior to the construction of the art gallery. It is directly underneath Guildhall Yard. Except for ancient history purists, our Roman bits are far from spectacular, but the City has made a noble attempt to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, and I understand there is a big makeover in the pipeline.

9 Tradition. There are all sorts of grand dinners to which we lesser types are not party. Men (mainly) in Livery, Chains of Office, plumed hats, at the very least swanky white tie, their good ladies in tow. There are public ones, though, that take place in Guildhall Yard. My favourite it the Cart Marking Ceremony which happens in July.  Also the livery companies compete with one another on Shrove Tuesday in pancake races. Quite new, that one, but all traditions have to start somewhere.

Cart Marking July 2011

10 The Clockmakers’ Museum. Beyond the library you will find this little-known museum which celebrates the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers (#61, 1631) and its Members’ work and achievements down the centuries. The displays are gorgeous, inspirational and the stories are fascinating. And it’s free.

TISSOT, James. The bridesmaid. Óleo sobre tela, 1873. Londres, Guildhall

Com o passar do tempo, o volume traseiro das saias, que se ajustaram à altura dos joelhos, era adquirido com o uso de anquinhas, feitas de crina de cavalo e de metal, unidas por uma dobradiça, que se fechava ou abria, de acordo com os movimentos de sentar ou levantar, dando o volume sobre os quadris, como retratado na tela de Tissot.

Deixe seu comentário:

Será que hoje em dia, a nossa vida em uma sociedade tão atribulada, permitiria o uso desse tipo de armação sob as saias?

If you are unsure whether this is the tour for you, consider the following: Have you ever wondered what that fine building called Holland House that sits behind ‘The Gherkin’ is all about ? Perhaps you looked up at the relief sculptures in Swan Alley just off Moorgate & wanted an explanation.  Maybe you saw Boris Johnson the Mayor of London say that the London Fruit & Wool Exchange could be redeveloped & realised you had no idea of its existence. In that case this is the tour for you to get the answers to these, (until now) mysteries!

See you Friday!

Henry VIII and the Barber Surgeons, panel, by Hans Holbein. Collection of Company of Barbers.

Henry VIII and the Barber Surgeons (detail), panel, by Hans Holbein. Collection of Company of Barbers.

Cutlers Blade Tree, 1851, made by apprentices of John Weiss and Sons. © Mr G Bond.

Doggett’s Coat and Badge prize from 1903. Collection of Company of Watermen.

Butcher, Baker and Candlestick Maker: 850 Years of Livery Company Treasures runs until 23 September. Entrance is £5, £3 concessions and Free to Art Fund members and other select groups. More information here. 

On leaving the gallery, we were accosted by a steward who told us that the Great Hall in the Guildhall was open if we’d care to take a look. We did care to take a look and had it completely to ourselves. Not sure if it’s open to the public every Sunday, but what a treat.

The Great Hall. London Guildhall.

Tues Sep 4th   free Barbican Library “Expose by Diversity” fabric, ideas, textile art exhibition (until 26th)

Wed Sep 5th free 2-3pm .Guildhall Library, treasures and history tour. Book on 02073321868

Sun Sep  9th  free  3-6pm film “We Are Poets” Keats House, Hampstead  book on 0207 332 3868

Wed Sep 12th free  12.30-1.30pm Shoe Lane Library, Little New Street EC4. meditation techniques demo. No need to book.

Loads more stuff. Pick up a free brochure at your chosen venue. From Waltham Forest end a 56 bus goes near the Guildhall Art Gallery. Tube is good of course too. Or 55 to Old Street and pick up a 76.

But Perceval wasn’t the only PM to meet his maker on 11 May. Exactly 34 years previously, William Pitt (“the Elder”), 1st Earl of Chatham, died quietly at the family home in Hayes, Kent. But the death of “The Great Commoner” is remembered far more dramatically in a favourite painting of mine by the American artist John Singleton Copley (1738 – 1815). Though called The Death of the Earl of Chatham, what the painting is actually of is Pitt’s collapse in the House of Lords some weeks earlier, on the 7th of April. The picture can be seen at The National Portrait Gallery and I would urge you to look out for it on your next visit. Here it is.

The Death of the Earl of Chatham, By John Singleton Copley, 1779-81. Tate 2012; on loan to the National Portrait Gallery, London

Apart from the dying Earl, the picture includes John Jeffreys Pratt, 1st Marquess Camden; John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham; Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn; Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford; William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield; James Charles Pitt; William Pitt; William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland; Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lennox; Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham and 44 others.

This is a typical genre painting of the age, popular throughout Europe since at least the 16C. Mostly commissioned, the idea was to fill the picture with portraits of worthies, the more flattering the better. No doubt Copley, talented though he undoubtedly was, as an immigrant from the colonies would be most keen to garner favour in a world dominated by such as Joshua Reynolds.

So. While reminding myself of this splendid picture, I thought that John Singleton Copley rang a bell. It was the American thing. Of course. He was the guy who made one of the largest oil painting in England, The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782. It was commissioned by the City of London very shortly after the incident itself and can be viewed today at the Guildhall Art Gallery, where it occupies the whole back wall of the gallery over two floors. Read the full remarkable story of this painting here.

My curiosity about this emigre artist in London now suitably whetted, I looked for more of his works. Most are fairly standard and unremarkable for the age, although all very skilfully done. There is an exception: another highly dramatic and unusual depiction: Watson and the Shark. This painting shows the real story of a teenager Brook Watson being attacked by a shark off the coast in Cuba. The fish destroyed the bottom half of the boy’s right leg. Undeterred by his disability, Watson went on to have a fascinating and successful career as a commissary and merchant and, back in London a founder and chairman of Lloyds. He was MP for the City of London for nine years from 1784 and in 1796 became Lord Mayor of London. Not bad. And so we return to London, where you can see two of the pictures mentioned here absolutely for free at the National Portrait Gallery and the Guildhall Art Gallery. We’re so lucky.

Watson and the Shark, 1778. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

To the little-known but fabulous Guildhall Art Gallery. They have a vast collection of art works from which they permanently display a choice selection of later Victorian paintings. Currently they’re putting on the lovely ‘Age of Elegance: 1890 – 1930′, portraits of society ladies, panoramas of Imperial London, pre-Raphaelite ladies in idyllic meadows, and a few daringly experimental things from the 1910s leading up to a section on one Lady Lavery, a Beauty of the 1920s, surrounded by jewellery, scarves and accessories created by modern designers. All free. All frightfully civilised!

The Age of Elegance at the Guildhall Art Gallery

Examine stunning pieces of art from the Fin de Siècle to the Jazz Age at the Guildhall Art Gallery. Exhibited artwork includes A Sonata of Beethoven (about 1900) by Alfred Edward Emslie and The Garden of Eden (1901) by Hugh Goldwyn Riviere. And a section of the exhibition will be devoted to contemporary artists and designers inspired by John Lavery’s portrait of his wife, Lady Lavery (see below), such as, Rebecca J. Coles’ intricate, hand cut paper creations and Edie Obilaso’s sculptural and colourful hats.

Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard, London, EC2V 5AE.

This sounds like it might be fun:

Age of Elegance: 1890 – 1930

Late View, Friday 24 February, 6pm – 10pm

Inspired by the exhibition Age of Elegance: 1890 – 1930, join us for a Late View celebrating the Jazz Age in all its decadent splendour.

The exhibition and events are FREE. No need to book.

I thought I’d just share some pictures with you from our final event of the year, Art and the City, which happened yesterday. The format was a guided walk around City of London with the excellent Colin Davey, a City of London Guide; a very welcome hot lunch at the Barbican; a tour of the Guildhall Art Gallery and its wonderful Roman Amphitheatre, again led by Colin; the usual London Historians pub sesh afterwards. It was a lovely sunny day mostly, but very nippy indeed. My thanks to the hardy ten London Historians who braved the elements and, I believe, had a wonderful day out. I know I did. We will be introducing a lot more of this sort of thing in 2012. Unusual formats. Our member guides (of whom there are now at least a dozen) are very enthusiastic about helping to put together this programme.

These pictures barely scratch the surface of our day, but you get the idea. Thank, Colin.

Our first pleasant surprise was that the strangely-named Wren church St Vedast-alias-Foster was open. I hadn't been inside before.

Vista from the roof of One New Change shopping mall, aka the Stealth Bomber.

Colin packs our heads with new knowledge.

The Cordwainer

A Richard Rogers building. It's important to appreciate the modern too.

St Giles-without-Cripplegate. I had forgotten that this church is right at the centre of the modern Barbican.

Guildhall Art Gallery

The Roman Amphitheatre underneath Guildhall Yard.

Bottoms Up! Happy historians.

If you think that’s a lot to cram into one day, you are right, especially as we always find distractions along the way. Curiosity may have killed the cat but it sometimes leads to fascinating discoveries, not to mention photographs.

Staple Inn
The last survivor of the Inns of Chancery

The plan, insofar as there was a plan, was to visit St Paul’s Cathedral because the admission fee has been suspended for today. However, the first distraction occurred as we reached Holborn, in the shape of Staples Inn. The history of the Inns of Chancery and of Staple Inn in particular is long and complex, so is that of the present building. The best thing, I think, is to refer you to a site where this is set out concisely under the title The History of Staple Inn.

An open gate beckoned
So we went in!

We saw that the gate was open so, of course, we went into the courtyard for a look. First built in 1545-89, the structure has been refurbished or rebuilt several times, latterly as a result of wartime damage. Today it is a mixture of old and new but the frontage survives in its original form.

Staple Inn Courtyard
Pleasant in fine weather but a little chilly today

Walking through the city during the weekend always gives me an eerie feeling because the offices are locked up tight, the cafes and even the pubs are closed, and the streets are deserted, so that it feels like a film set between shoots.

Deserted streets
The cannon gun in Gunpowder Square

Deserted too is nearby Gough Square where once there lived a famous 18th century scholar who bequeathed us his legendary dictionary of the English language.

Dr Johnson lived in Gough Square
Hodge, transmuted into bronze, keeps watch

Dr Samuel Johnson’s house (identifiable in the picture by the circular plaque between the windows) can be visited though it seemed quiet enough today. Johnson’s cat, seated upon the famous dictionary, waits for his master to replenish his supply of his favourite food – oysters. What he thought of the dictionary, no one knows, though he was “a very fine cat, indeed”, according to Johnson.

Fleet Street
Within sight of St Paul’s

When we returned to Fleet Street, we were within sight of St Paul’s but the pavements were crowded with people waiting to see the Lord Mayor’s procession go by, though perhaps not so many people as I would have expected. The crowds were thicker on Ludgate Hill and we sat it out for a while in a cafe.

Stationers’ Hall 1873
A livery company for publishing and the media

We then continued on our way, keeping to the back streets as far as possible in order to avoid parts of town blocked by the crowds. Along the way we passed in front of Stationers’ Hall, built in 1873. The Stationers are one of London’s livery companies, many of which have long and colourful histories. Today, the halls are for hire as venues and the companies do valuable work raising money for charity.

"Tent City" at St Paul’s
This is just one corner of the encampment

We reached St Paul’s and made for the cathedral steps. There were already a lot of people here, as well as crowds lining the the road below. The steps provided a grandstand view of the Lord Mayor’s procession.

Down one side of the Cathedral is the notorious “tent city” put up by the anti-capitalist protesters. The picture shows just one end of the “city” which is quite extensive. It didn’t seem to be causing too much of an obstruction but it was clear that despite the large numbers of people gathered here, hardly anyone was showing any interest in the protesters and their displays.

"The Music of Protest"
or
Hanging out with friends

I also get the impression that many of the inhabitants are less than fervent activists and are just there as somewhere to stay and hang out with friends. If the activists’ intent is to stir up public interest, then they seem to be failing in their aim. There is resentment in the public at this taking over of public spaces.

A glimpse of the Lord Mayor
Waving to the crowd from his gilded coach

For a while we watched the procession filing past. It is very long and takes quite some time to pass a fixed point, though I am not sure how long. We caught a glimpse of the Lord Mayor, leaning from his gilded coach and waving good-naturedly to the crowd. It was just a glimpse as our view was obstructed by distance, the crowds and temporary structures put up by the protesters for no very obvious reason.

The Nave of St Paul’s
Looking towards the high altar, font in the foreground

The dome of St Paul’s is such a well known sight and image that its Dome, rendered in thousands of photos and paintings, seems a very icon of London, as in the famous wartime photo by Herbert Mason. It is easy to forget how huge and intricate the structure is inside. So much so that you cannot hope to absorb it all in one short visit.

Complex in design
And richly decorated

The simply elegance of that dome does not prepare us for the complexity of design and richness of decoration of the interior. Multiplied by the vast scale of the building, it is a staggering achievement, a building and an artwork all in one but of gigantic size. The height, supported by soaring arches takes your breath away.

The great Dome…
…seems to float unsupported above like a separate world

The great Dome seems to float over all without any support, hanging like a cloud. Light pours in through the windows so that you hardly notice the gallery running all around its base, crowded with tiny human figures.

The gallery
A small section for comparison

This small section of the gallery seen closer up will help, in comparison with the previous photo, to give some idea of the scale of the dome in human terms.

Ceilings
Intricately worked and richly coloured

The ceilings are high, almost beyond comfortable viewing but they are so opulent in design and coloration that you cannot do less than crane your neck to look up at them.

Pillars and canopy, High Altar
More than a touch of oriental splendour

If the exterior of St Paul’s follows lines and proportions of Classical simplicity and elegance, the interior seems to have drawn its inspiration from oriental temples in its vivid colours and complexity of line.

Gilded screens
Gold lustre sparkles on all sides

There is gilding everywhere. It shines or sparkles according to position and the lighting, but there are great quantities of it, adding richness to the gilded objects themselves and contributing a glow to the surroundings.

Sir Joshua Reynolds
In solitary dignity

The Great and Good are represented here, of course, sometimes in solitary dignity, as in the case of Sir Joshua Reynolds, but sometimes in scenes on unabashed allegory.

Monument to Captain Robert Faulknor
Unabashed allegory

For example this monument, raised by Parliament, in honour of Captain Robert Faulknor, killed in 1795 aboard the frigate Blanche while engaging the French. Here we have a naval officer, dressed in a Classical tunic and carrying a shield, no less, attended by mythical beings.

In a different style altogether…
…Henry Moore’s slightly creepy Mother and Child

I have no idea what St Paul’s seems like to a believer. As one exempted from that useless baggage, I can say that I found St Paul’s a magnificent and remarkable building, one that can be admired for the ingenuity of its design, the skill of the craftsmen who made it and the sheer aesthetic magnificence.

Parade of Lions
The lion symbolizes British imperial pride

Much of the iconography in St Paul’s has to do with war, conquest and, directly or indirectly, British imperial pride. The lion is the symbol of Britain in its pugnacious imperial mode so we expect to find lions in St Paul’s. It is quite interesting to compare their different expressions and attitudes.

Candles and an icon
An unexpected sight

I was a little surprised to find two banks of lighted candles near the doors of St Paul’s as I associate this igneous activity with Catholicism rather than with the Church of England. The image of Christ looks rather like a Greek Orthodox icon too… All part of the rich texture of the St Paul’s experience, I suppose.

Leaving St Paul’s
The Cathedral and its tube station

Leaving St Paul’s, we set out for our next destination, the Guildhall. When we arrived, though, we found that others were using it as a rendezvous as well.

End of journey…
…for the Mayoral coach

We had to wait until the police gave permission for us to cross the road and the hold-up, it turned out, was because they were waiting for the Mayor’s coach to arrive. I got this photo but the Mayor was not aboard any longer.

Unhitching the horses
The courtyard has been spread with sand

The courtyard of the Guildhall had been designated as the place where horses drawing the Mayor’s coach and other vehicles would be unhitched and put in their vans for return to their various stables. The ground had been covered with a thick layer of sand, no doubt to provide some protection to the paving and make cleaning easier.

The big clean-up
The road sweeper lorries come from several places including Islington

When we later emerged from our visit, we found the clean-up in progress with street-sweeper lorries going round and round, directed by men in luminous jackets, sweeping up the sand and any dirt collected in it. It was an amazing sight. You can see the decorative paving reappearing, albeit under a thin covering of water and sand.

Bag search
We had to put our bags through the X-ray machine

We had come to the Guildhall Art Gallery to see an exhibition called Atkinson Grimshaw, Painter of Moonlight. I am used to having my bag searched when I go into public places but was surprised by the use here of an X-ray machine similar to those at airports.

The upper gallery
A relaxed and comfortable space – with art

The Guildhall Art Gallery has both permanent exhibitions and visiting exhibitions. You are allowed to take photos in the permanent exhibitions but not in the others. I therefore cannot show you anything of the Grimshaw exhibition though you can get an idea of the man and his work from John Atkinson Grimshaw – The Complete Works.

The Three Princesses
by Edward Matthew Hale (1852-1924)

As well as paintings, there are also sculptures such as this pair.

King George V and Queen Mary
by Sir George Frampton (1860-1928)

A more modern piece gained a certain notoriety when it became the victim of a violent gesture of political dissent.

The lady’s not for beheading
Baroness Thatcher by Neil Simmons

This statue was attacked and decapitated in 2002. It has been repaired and is now kept behind glass to forestall any possibilities of further attack.

I enjoyed looking at the paintings by Grimshaw, especially as I had not knowingly seen any before. In fact, if I am to be honest, Grimshaw was new to me, so my education has been extended by this exhibition. The paintings will no doubt seem old fashioned to some, at least in the context of modern and abstract art, but they should be judged on their merits and I found some of them very striking indeed.

Copyright © 2011 SilverTiger, http://tigergrowl.wordpress.com, All rights reserved.

Blackfriars Bridge and St Paul's by William Marlow (1788), Guildhall Art Gallery.

A quick straw poll among a group of members and followers made this the unanimous favourite. I had decided to avoid St Paul’s and the Palace of Westminster as being a bit touristy, but I think we’ll just have to break this self-imposed rule, partially because of the quality of the painting, but also because it includes a lovely depiction of old Blackfriars Bridge. The third to be built in Central London after London Bridge and Westminster Bridge, Blackfriars was opened in 1769, hence it was very new when this painting was made in 1788. Designed by Scotsman Robert Mylne when still in his 20s and made using Portland stone, it was a very handsome structure. However, it had a history of frequent repair work and eventually got replaced exactly a hundred years later by the current bridge, opened by Queen Victoria herself in 1869. Designed by Thomas Cubitt and built out of wrought iron, I think  this too is very fine-looking bridge. Here is a picture from a similar viewpoint as the William Marlow picture.

Blackfriars Bridge and St Paul's by "Chris O", Wikimedia Commons

This view will once again be substantially different when the Blackfriars Station redevelopment is complete.

Getting back to the Guildhall Art Gallery again for a moment, along with Dulwich, the Wallace Collection and the Courtauld, it is one of my favourites outside of the grand collections such as the National, Tate etc. Entrance is free and I thoroughly recommend a visit. We’ll be organising a London Historians guided tour in the near future.

Update 25/9/2011
Here is the factory prototype of the new members’ card, which I signed off on Friday. Very pleased with it. Personalised versions for all new members who have joined since 1 September should be ready by the end of the week.