The Future’s Yellow?
Walking through Embankment Gardens at the end of January, I was half hopeful of seeing signs of the crocuses under the plane tree near the tube station: they normally appear as an early sign of spring. But lo, no crocus! An outdoor gym has sprung up instead. Meanwhile, remarkably early, at the other end of the…
Read MoreEvents Programme for February 26-6 March 2019
Following the success of Dialogues of the Dead: A Day of Explorations of Life Writing and Death, presented by the Centre for Life-Writing Research last year, The Wildgoose Memorial Library is hosting a series of events in association with CLWR as part of the Arts & Humanities Research Institute’s pop-up research studios, taking place in…
Read MoreA Home Away From Home: The India Club exhibition
“This month, a new National Trust exhibition opens in London, shining a light on the rich social history of one of the city’s most fascinating community spaces: The India Club. Founded shortly after Indian independence by Krishna Menon, President Nehru and Lady Mountbatten, the India Club is perhaps better known for its close links with…
Read More“In the Bush… in the Strand”
Isn’t it suggestive? Just the very name makes one wish to know more. Why was a house named like that in central London, in the midst of the Strand? Perhaps a Mr. Bush ordered it built? Perhaps, mysteriously, there is a link to the nearby Australia House… That would be fascinating! When I was studying…
Read MoreThe Strand is ready for Christmas
The Strand is ready for Christmas: thanks to the Northbank Association, strung with stars to brighten the cold skies. Looking along the street, however, is a less starry affair. A theme emerges, of the housed and the unhoused, picked up in the big window display of Coutts Bank, where paper houses press home the point…
Read MoreThe lost mansions of the Strand
Behold that narrow street which steep descends Whose building to the slimy shore extends Here Arundel’s famed structure rear’d its frame The street alone retains an empty name There Essex’ stately pile adorn’d the shore There Cecil, Bedford, Villiers – now no more. For several centuries, before the Georgians built Mayfair and when Chelsea was…
Read MoreLife (and Death) beneath the Virtual Strand
Since its retirement from public service in 1994 Aldwych tube station (née Strand) has been busily pursuing a second career in showbusiness. Scoring a part in The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’ video (1996) before going on to star in films like V for Vendetta (2005), Atonement (2007) and Fast and Furious 6 (2013), it’s also broken into…
Read MoreStrandlions
The 2018 London Design Biennale had as its theme ‘Emotional States’. From Argentina to Vietnam, a large group of countries presented ideas, constructions and installations interpreting that theme, mostly in material forms. One distinct work, sponsored by Google Arts & Culture, was Es Devlin’s poetry-roaring lion, installed alongside…
Read MoreThirteen Lions
The work of illustrator, graphic designer and game maker Maz Hemming, Thirteen Lions is a webcomic retelling the story of the Gunpowder Plot. It’s now being published online in instalments. While the conspiracy is currently in its infancy, there’s already been a pivotal cameo for the Duck and Drake – the pub on the Strand…
Read MoreAnthony Heap’s Strand
Anthony Heap (1910-1985) kept a daily diary for nearly 57 years – from just before his 18th birthday in 1928 until 36 hours before his death in University College Hospital in October 1985. He was a Londoner who lived until 1932 with is parents in Gray’s Inn Road. Anthony attended St Clement Danes Grammar School…
Read More