Former Empire's Sun Not Set In Notting Hill

Street artist "Former Empire" administers dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories throughout Notting Hill and beyond. There are large scale works, such as this on Pembridge Road.

And there are more modest works, such as this in the basement Gents of the Earl of Lonsdale on Portobello Road.

The artist's blog has other examples and some interesting links here.

Elephants in London - Quiz Results

The deadline for entries to London's most prestigious elephant based photo quiz has now passed. Overnight a hand-picked team has checked and re-checked all the answers provided. And the winner, with the greatest tally of correctly located elephants is ....



The Georgian Group!



So now they are pre-eminent not only as the Nation's guardians of Georgian buildings, monuments and landscapes but they are also London's leading pachyderm spotters! If you don't know about the work of this excellent organisation there is a link to their website here.


Congratulations! Your prize, a copy of Jan Bondeson's Animal Freaks, will be hand-delivered to you in Fitzroy Square in the next few days!


For everybody else who entered, thank you and commiserations.  To put you out of your misery here are the locations of all 21 elephants.


I have collected many other London elephants and will publish them here on a regular basis.

1 Africa House, Kingsway

2 Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre

3 India House, Aldwych

4 Oriental Club, Stratford Place

5, South Africa House, Trafalgar Square

6 Camden High Street

7 Animals At War Memorial, Park Lane

8 Liberty, Gt. Marlborough St.

9 Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens

10 Holland Street Chelsea

11 Allington House, Victoria St

12 South Lambeth Road Vauxhall

13 Baby Tembo LSE, Clare Market

14 Entrance to St Katherine's Docks

15, Adelphi, John Adam St

16 Fenchurch Street, City

17, Cutlers' Hall, Warwick Lane, City

18 Selfridges Duke St. Entrance

19 Chapel, Lincoln's Inn

20 Outer Circle, Regent's Park, Nr. Zoo

21, Burlington Arcade Piccadilly

A Chelsea Elephant

This is one of the elephants that remained in London after the 2010 Elephant Parade.

He was elephant No. 70 out of a herd of 258. The artist was Mark Shand and he stands at the entrance to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, wearing the uniform of the Chelsea Pensioners. The work is entitled "Dedicated to the Wonderful Chelsea Pensioners". If you missed the parade, you can still pay him a visit; if you missed making a contribution you may want to visit http://www.elephantparadelondon.org/ .

Grinling Gibbons - a beginning

Much more to follow on Grinling Gibbons, but I am building this blog one post at a time.

Grinling Gibbons was a Dutch-born sculptor (l648/172l) who produced the most amazing carvings I know of. For those that don't already know him there are some Wiki details here.

In the early 1970's London Transport even produced a guide on where to see his best work in the Capital.

I still think it is the best guide there is but there are a couple of omissions when it comes to Gibbons associations.

Two of these are at the V&A, a statue of him on the South façade and a mosaic on a staircase inside. I was in the area today so got a snap of both.

This mosaic was first painted by J.D. Watson, and then executed by Florence H. Cole and Amelia Gibbon (no relation!) "superintended" by Samuel Cooper for Minton, Hollins & Co.. More details of the original painting (also in their collection) here.


The exterior sculpture is by William S.Frith (1850-1924)

Gibbon's work generally photographs badly, even in the standard books, you do really need to see it to appreciate the skill and artistry. In future posts I will post locations and where possible my own attempts at photography.

Wheelerabila continued

As I was in the Royal Borough and had Charles Wheeler's autobiography with me I thought I would try and track down a couple of his old haunts.See labels for other Wheeler posts.

This private plaque marks the first flat he took in London.

It is at Hereford Buildings on the west side of Church Lane, Chelsea. The building was designed by Elijah Hoole in 1878 for associates of Octavia Hill.

Just around the corner in Justice Walk, was his first studio, "in the shadow of the old Courthouse"

There is a major refurbishment happening there at the moment. His former studio is hidden behind hoardings. I will snap it when the work is finished. For the time being this weathered sign will have to do.

The Father of the Lions and that Lion's Father

After an interesting comment on a previous lion post by ChrisP yesterday, I went off in search of the stone original of the lions in Dover Street and elsewhere. Just as Chris said, there it was at the Royal British Society of Sculptors, Old Brompton Road. Thank you again for the information.

As I was in the area, I went off to get a picture of the Stevens statue on the South facade of the V&A. En route I passed this!

Yes, yet another version, this one larger than the Dover Street and the Law Society lions. He is one of several, high up on the railings outside the Natural History Museum on Cromwell Road. A couple of minutes later and I was at the V&A.

This is the creator of the lions, Alfred Stevens (1817-75) portrayed by James Gamble, looking out onto Cromwell Road from the V&A. I felt quite pleased by now, I had snapped the original lion, another related lion on a prestigious institution's railings and the statue of their creator. So I wandered home, via a pub and saw this.

A modern concrete copy of the same lion, one of a pair, guarding the entrance to a garage in Chelsea. I feel sure I will be seeing more of the same now I have started this! I will post only the notable ones.