Clapham Common’s Temperance Fountain
Step onto Clapham Common from the eponymous tube station and looming in front of you is a large drinking fountain. By the German sculptor August […]
statues
Palely loitering in Moorgate: the new John Keats memorial
Let’s face it, John Keats pretty much set the template for what we expect from Romantic poets – curly hair, brown eyes, a couple of […]
Epstein’s Einstein at the V&A
Have you heard of the family Stein? There’s Gert and there’s Ep and there’s Ein Gert’s poetry’s bunk Ep’s statues are junk And no one […]
The Wellington (aka Green Park or Constitution Hill) Arch
As well as Marble Arch to the north, Park Lane has at its opposite end what is now called the Wellington Arch. This is just […]
The Mysterious Panyer Boy of St Paul’s
When yu have sought the Citty Round, Yet still this is the highest Ground. August the 27 1688 Step out of the tube at St Paul’s […]
George Washington – one of the greatest Englishmen who ever lived
So why does a statue of colonial rebel George Washington lord it over Trafalgar Square? And why is there also a bust of the first […]
Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital
On the railings outside the Coram charity’s HQ in Bloomsbury is a white children’s mitten. Or, rather, what appears to be a child’s mitten, because […]
Soho Square, Ancient and Modern(ish)
There is an ancient hut in the centre of Soho Square, a half-timbered affair with beams that sag and bow. It gives the impression of […]
The Bali bombing memorial, Horseguards Avenue
On 12 October 2002, Islamist suicide bombers detonated a large car bomb and a device in a backpack in nightclubs in the popular tourist location […]
“Carve their names with pride”: the SOE Memorial
Many of the stories of those who served in WW2 are capable of inducing in those of us who have never had to face such […]