Van Gogh's Living Wall - The Movie!

In May I posted a short piece on the Van Gogh Living Wall outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Digging around the net I have found this short film about the creation of the wall.

It was produced by the sponsor of the wall GE. Apparently it took 500 hours of work to precisely position each of the 8,000 plants. The computer generated template that was used being based on Van Gogh's Wheatfield, with Cypresses. This 2 minute corporate film does however have some interesting behind the scenes shots of the wall being assembled and then erected on site.


If you have taken your own photos of the wall you can tag them #GElivingwall and add them to an online mosaic of images being created on GE's Facebook page www.facebook.com/ecomagination .

I must say the wall looks better each time I pass it, as the plants mature and their colours become ever more distinctive.  I hope it sets a trend.

The First Apps Store was in London in 1871!

I have noticed with discomfort the legal battle between Apple and Amazon over the right to use the term "Apps Store". Clearly Apple have an unsupportable claim and Amazon should recognize that the name Apps has been associated with high-tech trading for over 140 years and that they are not just stealing it from Apple. For there was an Apps Store in London when Queen Victoria was still on the throne.

The store was established within John Nash's Western Strand development, close to Trafalgar Square, London at some point in the late 1860's.

For over forty years between 1871 and 1911, according to census records, it traded in the most up to date scientific instruments having developed from an opticians business. The business HQ was 433 Strand London.

Today 433 Strand is occupied by Ryman, the office supplies people. It requires some imagination inside the branch to put oneself back to the time of the previous owner, a Mr Alfred Apps.

Alfred Apps was born in 1839 in Battle, East Sussex. He died in 1913 in Calne, Wiltshire. In 1872 - his occupation was listed as optician & "maker of mathematical & pharmacological instruments"in  the 1872 London Postal book.

Apps' Store was legendary.

It seems he was even selling his instruments through the venerable, and still globally respected and influential, scientific body "The Royal Institution of Great Britain". So clearly, in his time, he was operating at the very cutting edge of technology, just as Apple and Amazon purport to do, and thus by both his name and the industrial connection all claims to the right to use his trading name of "Apps" must belong to his descendants.

Alfred Apps' last address was 5 Calverley Pk Villas, Prospect Rd., Tunbridge Wells, Kent. In his will he left £21,943, did he leave anyone his intellectual property rights and trading name too?

Van Gogh's Living Wall in Trafalgar Square

Over 8,000 plants have been planted on a hoarding outside the National Gallery recreating Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Cyprusses as a living wall.

You can see the original painting inside the National Gallery and the living version will be there until October.

The project is a collaboration between GE and the National Gallery, more details here.

UPDATE: August 2nd 2011 I have found a little film, made by GE, showing the wall being created. Follow this link to the new post. 

An Outdated Trafalgar Square

I wrote a little while ago about the practice of some London postcard companies endlessly recycling old images and selling them as new. Here is another notable example, purchased yesterday for a whole 10p in Trafalgar Square.

If you click on the image you will see more detail. Even without zooming, if you have visited London in the past decade, you will be able to tell this is a period piece.

The pedestrianised terrace and grand stairs leading from the National Gallery into the square have not yet replaced the road and the Sainsbury Wing extension to the National Gallery hasn't been built, so the view must be at least 20 years old. When you look in detail at the traffic I think it is more likely to be nearer 50 years old!

I suppose that as long as people keep buying old images, assuming them to be current, the postcard sellers will continue recycling them. At least I can build a collection of vintage views on the cheap.

Morning Joe in Trafalgar Square

Wandering past Trafalgar Square again today I noticed that yesterday's "Tahrir Square" style demonstration had left and had been replaced by NBC. The "Morning Joe" show are in town, to the bemusement of locals and the apparent delight of American's who knew who the key people were.

You sort of knew that you were in the presence of celebrity as they passed by, even if you didn't know their names or what they were famous for. Other people's celebrities are fascinating, you see them, all immaculately groomed and cosseted, confident yet aloof, smiles on a dime, constantly performing to an appreciative audience that may not actually exist in their proximity. I imagine that if Sian Williams and Bill Turnbull were filming in Rockefeller Plaza it would be a similar experience for the locals.

Shortly after they brushed passed me, on their way from the Green Room, they were in front of the cameras and I had my celeb-instinct vindicated.

Well, welcome to London Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough et al, I hope you get an opportunity to enjoy a little relative anonymity during your stay.

Tahrir Square in WC2? Seven Tents, a Gazebo and a Box of Chalk. Elsewhere, Loyalists Stage Counter-Demonstration With Lots of Ribbon.

I just caught a bus from Trafalgar Square. I noticed this small, confusing demonstration.

In addition to proclaiming Trafalgar Square to be occupied, the occupants of the seven tents had written various messages in chalk on the York Stone flags.

All good stuff, conspiracy theories, hormonal angst and a quest for meaning.Then I spotted this one.

Ahh, so AV will rectify it all then and all the more quickly by donning a hash-tag.

 

Shortly before I had been on Bedford Street where I saw this.

 

The Bible of domestic service has gift-wrapped herself for the wedding.

Maybe it is the April heatwave, perhaps we all over do it a bit.

Nelson's Column - A Little Known Memorial

Wandering around the triumphant Imperial memorials of Trafalgar Square it is easy to forget just how diverse the British Navy was in Nelson's day and how many fellow sailors from around the world fought and died in his campaigns.

One acknowledgement is made in this bas relief panel on the south face of the plinth to Nelson's Column.

The panel, "The Death of Nelson", is by J.E. Carew.

Often the advice to visitors in London is to "look up", there are so many details that can be missed. In this case though, most eyes do already look up, to Nelson, or at least across, to the Lions and the significant detail in these panels can be easily missed.

The Other Triton Fountain

Many people know the Triton Fountain in Regent's Park London but many more walk past another Triton fountain in London without ever realising it.

The two fountains in Trafalgar Square were switched off today for some urgent maintenance. A fault in them flooded the tube last week! It was a good opportunity to take some photos.


The two sets of bronze fountains were produced by two different sculptors, Sir Charles Wheeler and William McMillan, each set sitting within the stone pools beneath the original fountains designed by Edwin Lutyens. They were commissioned by Parliament to commemorate two First World War Admirals, Jellicoe and Beattie.

Wheeler produced the westerly memorial fountains to Jellicoe and a bust of the Admiral that stands to the north of the Square. The two groups of figures are:

The Mermaid Group

The Triton Group

Classics wasn't a strength at my truly vile comprehensive school, so I needed to resort to Wikipedia for assistance on the significance of "Triton". If like me, you are mythologically challenged, answers can be found here.

This is Wheeler's accompanying bust of Jellicoe.

I am a big fan of Wheeler, he was so incredibly versatile. More of his statuary, including examples in Trafalgar Square to follow.