gassed by john singer sargent

‘Gassed’ by John Singer Sargent at the IWM Blavatnik Gallery

09/02/2025 donbrown 0

John Singer Sargent was an American expat artist whose luminous portraits of late Victorian and Edwardian society – the aristocrats and the rich – made […]

west island st james's park

The Body in the Lake: a Buckingham Palace Mystery

09/02/2025 donbrown 0

When John Nash remodelled Buckingham Palace and St James’s Park for George IV in the 1820s, he replaced the previous formal ‘canal’ waterway in the […]

Some more books worth your time

23/01/2025 donbrown 0

I keep saying I’ll do more book reviews, and then failing to, so the next good intention is to post up here books that I’ve […]

inside the old reading room of the british library

The Old British Library Reading Room in the British Museum

23/01/2025 donbrown 0

Ever since the British Library decamped to its new home at St Pancras in 1997 and the subsequent creation of the Great Court, the British […]

Mk1a Spitfire at IWM London

The Rolls Royce Merlin – the engine that won WW2

21/01/2025 donbrown 0

For men of a certain age (a demographic that to which I very squarely belong), those brought up with war comics, Airfix models and the […]

two piccadilly sculptures

Piccadilly Sculptures – old(ish) and new(ish)

16/01/2025 donbrown 0

It’s often said that if you spend your time just looking at street level then you miss a huge amount of the art and history […]

The stuffaboutlondon review of 2024

01/01/2025 donbrown 0

Thanks to everyone who has visited the blog this year, passed comments, shared on Facebook or whatever. It’s been another record-breaking (for me) year, with […]

The “McGill Oak” Tree on Strand and the “Great Storm”

11/12/2024 donbrown 0

It has been estimated (by whom, I have no idea, but let’s roll with it), that London has more trees than people. That means more […]

Support this blog by buying books

11/12/2024 donbrown 0

For quite some time I’ve had links from book reviews and such like to Amazon, and in nearly ten years of blogging I’ve made the […]

clapham common temperance fountain

Clapham Common’s Temperance Fountain

08/12/2024 donbrown 0

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 […]