 Brownlow Mews is a back street in Holborn parallel to Grays Inn Road. I walk down it fairly often. And marvellously, it now sports - on display for any passer-by to admire - a photograph of suffragettes gathering on the mews in January 1910 for a march during the first of that year's two election campaigns. As you can see, the suffragettes were determined to turf out the Liberal government which had failed to give women the vote - a demand not finally conceded until 1918, and not conceded on the same terms as men until 1928.  The photograph looks north up the mews to the arch, which is still there. I suspect the rather grand light on the top right is at the back of the Blue Lion - which is also happily still there (though it was rebuilt in 1936). In this second photo, you can see the suffragette photo on public display amid the plants closest to camera. I don't know who put the photo there, but it's a nice touch. This final photo is taken from the top of Brownlow Mews looking south through the arch. It's worth a wander if you are in the area. 
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 This is the title page of the hugely rare first edition of William Morris's Chants for Socialists. It was published by the Democratic Federation - the forerunner of the Social Democratic Federation - in 1883. And it consisted of just one poem, '. Here's the whole eight page pamphlet, with on the inside of the rear cover the social programme of the Democratic Federation. Chants for Socialists appeared in several subsequent editons - expanded to contain six, and later seven, poems. Of the 1883 edition, Morris wrote on 4 Septemer 1883 to his daughter ,Jenny: ‘Item I have designed a membership card for the Dem. Fed. which I myself did not think much of but which pleased our “simple folk”. Item I have made a little poem for them, a copy of which I would have sent you, my dear, but that it has gone to the printer straight’. That poem was 'The Day is Coming'.  What an exquisite synagogue! This is the Congregation of Jacob on Commercial Road, a small orthodox shul established in 1903, and based here on one of the main arteries of London's East End since 1921. In the years before the First World War, this part of the East End would have been overwhelmingly Jewish. Now there's only a handful of East End synagogues still open, and this is perhaps the only one that serves a local congregation  Rev. David Brandes has worshipped here all his life - his family's story is interwoven with that of this synagogue. He still lives just a couple of minutes walk away. And he is devoted to keeping this synagogue alive. It was founded to serve new migrants from Poland, Lithuania and Russia. Now its sabbath attendance sometimes slips below twenty.   We were just passing by - pausing to admire the building's distinct and elegant facade - when David ushered us in and showed us around, His message is that worshippers and well-wishers are welcome. He emphasises how well the synagogue and its congregation get on with their Muslim and Christian neighbours.  The building is wonderfully well kept - and while we were there, a workman was smartening up the small backyard, the cleaning woman arrived to keep the shul spick-and-span and a friend from Argentina popped by to help.   And adorning every wall there are plaques in memory of past members of the congregation - testament to a community which, in the East End at least, has almost vanished.
   The third Banksy in as many days. And look who's taking a selfie with his students in this PA photo which, spookily, features on the BBC News website. These monkeys are messing around on a rail bridge over Brick Lane. As for the selfie, this is what it lo0ked like ...   And aware that there was a bit of professional interest in my selfie, I also took a shot looking out -  The snappers snapped! It's a long time since I've been 'papped' - and the Oregon politics students I was showing round the East End thought it was a hoot. (And they were the first to spot the photo on the BBC website). Of course, I told the class that Banksy was a good mate and tipped me off about his latest handiwork. And I also explained how 'a good friend of' in news reports is often code for the man/woman themselves. So if you would like me to sprinkle a little bit of artistic stardust over a bridge / wall. / pediment near you, just drop me a line!   These bugs live in a palace - or more accurately in an underground vault in an elegant Mayfair mansion. They are part of a collection assembled by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus. And that collection is at the heart of the Linnean Society, founded in 1788 and - by its own account - the 'oldest learned society devoted to the science of natural history'.  The Linnean Society is based in Burlington House, a grand Italianate building looking out on Piccadilly and right next to the Royal Academy.  It's on the left as you go through the grand archway which gives access to the Royal Academy's courtyard.  Carl Linnaeus died in 1778 and six years later his widow sold his library of 4,000 books, plus all his natural history specimens, to James Edward Smith, a botanist then still in his twenties and the founder of the Linnean Society. The cost - one-thousand guineas, which seems a bit of a steal. The specimens are all carefully stored in an underground strong room - the Fort Knox of natural history. These are not simply of antiquarian interest but remain in use for cutting-edge research.   
Linnaeus's library is exceptional - including all the editions of his own work, Systema Naturae, which established his binomial nomenclature, the now universally applied system of naming organisms. But the oldest book in the collection is the one below, which dates from the closing years of the fifteenth century - a real work of art as well as science. 
Above ground, the first floor houses a splendid library - beautiful as well as functional. Most weekdays, the premises are open to the public. What are you waiting for?   It was - and remains - the worst single incident in the annals of London's police. Three police officers were shot dead and two other police seriously wounded when they interrupted a group of (broadly) Latvian anarchists trying to burrow into and rob a jeweller's in Houndsditch in the City of London. Nearby on Cutler Street, a memorial to the three police officers put up in 2010 on the centenary of the murders has recently been relocated - and spruced up to make it more legible. A new plaque underneath provides some of the context - and links the Houndsditch killings to the siege of Sidney Street a little under three weeks later, when two of those wanted for the police murders were beseiged in a boarding house in Stepney.  I've blogged a lot about the Houndsditch shootings and about the siege of Sidney Street - and if you are curious to know what happened, who the gunmen were, what their connection was to anarchism, how the police threw a net around 100 Sidney Street, and why the sensationalist reporting of the incidents fuelled antisemitism, well, there's a new book I can recommend -   Love! It's half-a-century since I last saw this band. But their show at the Shepherds Bush 02 last night was pretty nifty! Guitarist Johnny Echols, now 77, is the only veteran of Love in its heyday. He was a founder member and was with the band for its first three albums, including the legendary Forever Changes released in 1967.  Last night, the band - now The Love Band with Johnny Echols if you are being precise - played just about the whole album with strings and brass (well, a trumpet player). And wonderful it was to be in the front row! I last saw Love at Leeds Poly in the summer of 1974. I would have been 17. Arthur Lee - the front man who defined the band (and died in 2006) - was there, but not really there if you see what I mean. The concert was a disappointment. The new Love is musically far superior, and while I'm glad I saw Lee's Love, the new incarnation offers a better live performance. What a joy to hear such enduring favourites from Forever Changes performed so well on stage. And then there were some other Love numbers, including their frenetic rendition of My Little Red Book Forever Changes was graced by a wonderful cover design - the work of Bob Pepper. When I was a sixth former, I actually copied the artwork. Still got that. Didn't turn out too bad!   Summat's up on Whidborne Street! This is King's Cross, just by the Hillview estate. A couple of really old light industrial buildings have added a touch of the pastoral to this end of the street - fading and dilapidated, but one of my favourite spots in London.  But today when I ventured there, most of the undergrowth which had given a touch of rustic magic to these builduings had been pruned. There was a developer's board on one set of doors, and windows were missing on the other building. My heart went cold!  These buildings are in a conservatrion area, though not themselves individually listed. And though they look plain and ordinary, there is romance to them too. And these light industrial survivals - probably early nineteenth century - are vanishingly rare in the heart of the modern city. The more southerly building, the one closest to the camera in the photo above, sported one of the very few surviving original signs showing a geographic telephone number, TER 4577, before even the '01' code for London. I photographed it a few years back.
The refurbished residential house at the northern end of the street happily survives, but the pub opposite, most recently McGlynn's, is ominously boarded up.   So, what has Camden gone and done? They have given the go-ahead for the adaptation of the building as an art gallery, exhibition and sttudio space, with extrernal changes kept to a minimunm. Let me quote from the planning recommendation: 'The proposal involves the conversion of a long-standing, vacant two-level building, historically used as workshops but used for other commercial uses in later years. While Policy E2 typically seeks to protect viable office floorspace, it is recognised that the existing building is currently in poor condition and has been vacant for over 10 years. The proposals would bring the building back into use and provide refurbished building stock, would assist the careers of artists and provide learning and development opportunities for students, artists and the public, and support the employment of staff (who would be at the premises during operating hours). The proposed gallery would have an educational element, holding educational talks and lectures as part of the gallery's operations, and being situated in proximity to King's Cross, would contribute to the further development of the Knowledge Quarter. 'Taking into account the building's existing condition and the long period of vacancy, and balancing the public benefits to be brought about from the scheme, the proposed change of use would be acceptable. This is also balanced against the site being brought back into a use that requires minimal physical intervention which is positive from a sustainability and heritage perspective. With regard to the external alterations, the principal element of these works is the construction of the centrally located entry porch and stairs. The porch and stairs would be largely hidden from public views and is otherwise a relatively minor addition, sympathetically designed to comfortably integrate within the existing building. 'There are very few changes proposed to the outer street elevations and the building will largely read as being unaltered. The existing historic sign above the southernmost set of doors on the Whidborne Street elevation, advertising one of the earlier tenants at the site, will be retained and refurbished.' What will Whidborne street look like once the construction work is complete? Well, this is the developers' version of the Whidborne Street elevation:  It could be so much worse. The buildings will not be demolished; the new plans are in sympathy with the existing construction; the planned use is socially beneficial.
But I will miss the old Whidborne Street!  Brushing the statue's teeth ... that does look like what this guy is doing, doesn't it. At first glance, at least. We're at Guilford Place, on the north end of Lambs Conduit Street. So this is the Bloomsbury district of central London. And the wider picture offers a broader context.  With the craftsman's permission, I filmed him at work for a couple of minutes. He's cleaning and repairing the sculpture on top of a water fountain that dates back to 1870. And he wasn't brushing the woman's teeth but restoring her nose ... A website about the fountain and the conservation work being undertaken explains:
The statue is a sculptured marble figure of the ‘Woman of Samaria’, in loose robes and scarf, kneeling on left knee to either fill or pour a water jar. In the story of the woman of Samaria meeting Jesus he embraces her even though she is a social outcast with five previous husbands: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.” Samaria is in what we would now call the West Bank, so part of Palestine. And of course people from Samaria are Samaritans. So too, in my view, is the guy doing the work (in the biblical sense of the good Samaritan, someone coming to the aid of a stranger in need) - so here we have Bloomsbury's two good Samaritans.  Thursday was D-Day plus 80. And Friday was Z-Day plus 60. That venerated band The Zombies played to a full house at the Barbican to celebrate sixty years on tape - not the anniversary of when the band was founded, but when it first went into the recording studio. And yes, there were almost as many Zimmer frames in evidence (among the audience, not the band!) as at Normandy. The band's two stalwarts are Rod Argent on keyboards and their marvellous singer Colin Blunstone. I saw them twelve years ago when they were already a bit more than simply veterans. And last night, with those two key figures both a remarkable 78, they delivered live yet again. Here they are performing one of their best-known songs 'Time of the Season'. In case you're wondering, this is what the Zombies looked like in 1965 when they were young and fresh-faced.  By then, they'd had their only British chart hit 'She's not there' - still part of the repertoire and played at the Barbican as their finale with special guests and former band members And among those special guests were the silver-haired Paul Weller, and the waistcoated former Zombie, Chris White
Thanks guys - good to see you again. And 'Hold Your Head Up' (yes, they played that too)!  |
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