An Obscure Weekend Elephant

As calm returns, trivia is palatable once more.

Each Friday we publish a picture of one of  London's enormous herd of elephants. You then have the whole weekend to email the location to discoveringlondon@hotmail.co.uk. The first person to locate each weekend's elephant will be rewarded with a glorious mention sometime on Monday when the location will be officially revealed.

This week's Weekend Elephant is a particularly obscure one and merits a clue:

This elephant has an SW1 address and can be found above the door of an defunct insurance company.

 Happy hunting!

UPDATE: Monday 15th August.

Last week's elephant has stumped everybody, uniquely there has not been a single correct entry! With no winner to announce, it only remains to put those of you who may have wondered out of your misery!

The particularly obscure elephant is to be found above the doorway of 29 Buckingham Palace Gate. The building is currently occupied by an insurance company who are in the process of winding up. Municipal Mutual do not appear to have any elephantine element to the company logo and I can offer no explanation for why it is there.

This week's upcoming Friday Elephant should be far more familiar!

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

The Museum Exhibit That Serves as a Memorial

Inside the London Transport Museum is an unusual, if not unique, memorial.

The waxwork of the bus driver in the museum's  Routemaster bus is based on a real person, Christopher Moyes.

 Chris Moyes was a former bus conductor who became a key player during the privatisation of the bus and rail industries in the 1980's and 1990's. He was the founder of one of the largest transport companies in the country, Go Ahead, who still run trains and buses all over UK.

“He averaged 1,000 miles a week on public transport – preferably his own buses and trains – and even took his enthusiasm home with him, owning, maintaining and driving a collection of vintage buses. Though criticised for phasing out the Routemasters among the 1,000 London buses operated by Go Ahead, he bought one himself "just for the fun and enjoyment of it" but thought it too uncomfortable for the modern passenger."

Chris Moyes died of a brain tumour aged just 57 in 2006.

When the London Transport Museum reopened, after a lengthy refit, in 2007 they decided to commemorate him with this waxwork and portrayed him as the driver of their Routemaster.


Other waxwork figures in the museum are also based on real people connected with London's transport. The museum's current Director, Sam Mullins, sits as a passenger inside a "padded cell" carriage from the 1890 the City and South London Railway, for example.

But I can't think of anyone else who has deliberately and posthumously been commemorated by a waxwork in quite this way.

Quotes come from the Daily Telegraph obituary of Chis Moyes, the full obit. is here.

Green Housing Monopolises Pall Mall

Street Art of any kind is rare in the clubland of St James's, so I was pleased to spot this small example in Pall Mall yesterday.

The green paper house is a reference to Pall Mall's inclusion as a property in the original British Monopoly boards. I am old enough to remember when there was only one iconic board available. Today there a bewildering number of different versions available. I am sure the new versions are still able to inspire family rows wherever they are played but they can't inspire pub crawls, so I remain a traditionalist.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Horses Tucked Up in Bruton Place

Above the entrance to Bellamy's Restaurant, in the former mews of Bruton Place, are these carved brick horse's heads.

They are a fine example of carving in brick and also a good example of Tuck Pointing. Now until recently I had no idea what tuck pointing was, a friend explained it to me and now I see examples everywhere. Nearby in Berkeley Square the whole frontage of number 55 is tuck pointed.

The expensive technique of tuck pointing developed in the late 17th Century and became common throughout the 18th and early 19th Centuries. The aim was to give the illusion of perfect brickwork, or sometimes to disguise inferior quality work and materials.

In tuck pointing a regular wall, built with lime mortar, such as the one above is first smoothed. Then a v-shaped groove is cut between the joints. Finally a ribbon of lime putty is placed into the grooves and cut with precision to make all the joints appear perfectly regular. Such a laborious process was reserved for the façades of the most prestigious addresses.

There are numerous examples of tuck pointing throughout London but there are very few specialist companies able to maintain or restore such  facades using this traditional technique. One such expert is Dr Gerard Lynch aka The Red Mason! His website has a lot more detail on this interesting technique. There is also an excellent guide from Historic Brick Pointing available as a pdf here.

Nose for Sale - Is it a Rick Buckley?

Paul Smith's antique shop in Albemarle Street currently have this handsome nose for sale.

 

The price tag is £550 and guesses at a 1960's US origin for the unsigned piece.

To my eye the piece is not stone but resin and seems remarkably like two of the famous Seven Noses of Soho (these were produced, in several sizes and in resin by Rick Buckley before being attached to buildings around Soho in the 1990's, see previous posts for more on them). The tentative attribution to a US artist is based on the fact that a Paul Smith buyer found this nose in Miami.

Now as someone who has devoted a lot of time to researching the noses and even leads guided tours around them, I would bet money this nose is a Rick Buckley ... but I have no proof. Can anyone help? Does anyone know if Rick Buckley produced free-standing noses for sale in addition to his building enhancements? Do you perhaps own a similar nose? Please drop me a line if you can shed any light on any of this.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, including The Seven Noses of Soho, see tabs for details.

Less is More in Pimlico

Ask any London buff to name a major work by G.E. Street or G.F Watts and I'll bet within moments you will get the reply "The Royal Courts of Justice and Postman's Park". Yet both men share another major example of their work in central London, but it is one that rarely features in the guidebooks and is visited only very rarely.

The church of St James the Less stands on Vauxhall Bridge Road, just a short distance from Pimlico Tube. This month it will celebrate its 150th anniversary, the publicity surrounding this milestone may help to bring it some well-deserved and much needed attention.

The Grade I listed church was built between 1858-61 as a tribute to Dr James Monk, by his daughters. The land, in what was then one of the poorest areas of Westminster, had been donated by Westminster Abbey.  It was referred to at the time as a 'lily among weeds' and also 'one of the most remarkable and beautiful of modern Gothic churches'.

The architect was George Edmund Street, this was his first church in London and he really went to town on the detailing. The interior is a heady mix of polychromatic brickwork, decorative ironwork, ornate stone carving, stained glass and marble columns all set beneath a painted ceiling. It is like walking into a jewel box. The exterior is treated with the same attention to detail. The distinctive campanile style tower is set with semi-precious stones and even the iron railings are rendered as works of art. More details on the architecture from Victorian Web.

But the most distinctive decoration in the church is this work by artist George Frederick Watts.

The glowing image above chancel arch is often referred to (even by Pevsner) as a wall-painting or as a fresco but in fact it is a mosaic. G.F. Watts did complete the work The Saviour in Glory or The Doom as a mural in 1861, it was his very last mural. However the mural quickly deteriorated and it was replaced with a Venetian glass mosaic to the original design, under Watts' supervision, in the 1880's.

If you have not visited the church before the upcoming celebratory weekend might be an ideal opportunity to do so. On Sunday, 31 July 2011, it will be 150 years to the day since the consecration of St James the Less Church in 1861. On Saturday 30th, the church is holding a community fete. There will be a variety of different things going on, including food and drink, musical entertainment and children's activities. On the Sunday there will be a celebratory service, followed by yet more food, drinks and entertainment.

To get an invitation, email Jane Petrie - jane.petrie@sjtl.org, or phone 020 7630 6282. and she will send you an invitation in the post - so do include your postal address. You can also follow updates on their Facebook page.


If you can't make the weekend celebration, the church is open to visitors everyday between 9am and 1pm, though you may have to ring the bell at the church office.

The church, whilst still very beautiful, is beginning to show its age. A long backlog of repairs and cleaning work is required to return it to full glory. The total cost of restoration and cleaning is estimated at £438, 000 including £16,000 just to clean and conserve the Watts mosaic. In the grand scheme of things this is not a fortune to spend on a Grade I listed masterpiece, if you would like to get involved in the church's fund-raising do contact them.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Yuri Gagarin and Henry Moore in Cultural Exchange

As the new Yuri Gagarin statue was unveiled in London today it was revealed at the reception that a familiar London landmark will soon be leaving for the Kremlin in Moscow. One woman connects the two unique public exhibitions - Elena Gagarina, Yuri Garagin's daughter.

 

The Yuri Gagarin statue was unveiled this morning outside the British Council's offices on the Mall near Admiralty Arch. It is an exhibition copy of the original which stands in Lyubertsy.  

 

The unveiling was performed by HRH Prince Michael of Kent and Elena Gagarina in front of a large crowd of press, dignitaries, and well wishers. Perhaps the most unusual feature of the morning was a greeting delivered live and direct from the International Space Station's crew, in a reception immediately prior to the unveiling.

Elena Gagarina is not only the daughter of the the first man in space, she is also Director of the Kremlin Museums. In this capacity, she, together with the British Council have arranged for the Kremlin to have its first ever show of Modern Art.

The Henry Moore exhibition will open at the Kremlin in Feb 2012 and will feature many sculptures and drawings by the British artist. The highlight of the show will be this familiar London landmark.

This is Moore's Knife Edge Two Piece made between 1962 and 1965. It stands near the Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament and regularly crops up in the background of political interviews.

 

The international loan of such a well-known London landmark is very unusual but then the gift of a Russian memorial or monument is equally rare. Special permission was required from the Governor of Moscow and Lyubertsy authorities to make a copy of the original Gagarin statue so that Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, could present it as a gift to the people of Britain. It will stand in the current location for one year before moving to a permanent site.

The statue's unveiling could not have been better timed. This year marks 50 years of manned space flight and today, July 14th is the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's lunch with HM the Queen. 

Gagarin visited the UK in July 1961. The authorities were wrong-footed and underestimated the enthusiasm with which he was greeted by the British public. What was to have been a pretty low-key 2 day visit was hastily extended to 4 days and a meeting with Harold Macmillan and lunch at Buckingham Palace arranged. During that lunch the Queen gave Yuri Gagarin a present of two dolls for his daughters, Elena and Galina. I wonder if they both still have them?

There is also an accompanying exhibition celebrating 50 years of manned space flight at the British Council but I will post separately about this.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Not Quite Tower Bridge

For those of you who have been following the series of pictures of Tower Bridge under construction, please bear with me. I put the first post out on Saturday and it generated a very high level of interest. The second post went up on Monday and things went to a level that this blogger never expected and has never experienced!

In addition to many kind comments, tweets, Facebook likes and so forth I have also been inundated with emails and phone calls. The interest has been global, from Argentina to China as well as the US, Canada and the UK. Last night I was getting more hits from New Zealand and Australia then back in the UK and this morning South Africa topped the chart!

The third post, with the final six photos of the bridge nearing completion, was planned for today. But there is a hitch: the man who saved the pictures in the first place, and who let me share them here, is away for a few days. He is totally unaware of all the interest his pictures have generated.

I feel it is only fair to let him know how popular they are, let him share the fun of seeing traffic come to them from all over the globe and also ask him whether he would be willing to share a few more details about where they came from and  how he saved them. After all, if anyone deserves the praise for sharing these historic photos it is him rather than your author. So I will wait until his return before publishing any more of his pictures.

In the meantime (I do realise this is hardly a suitable replacement for the intended images) but I did spot this outside Dolphin Square in Pimlico and it made me smile.

Back tomorrow with a more sober piece on a GE Street and GF Watts masterpiece that is about to celebrate an important anniversary. Thanks in advance for your forbearance.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Senior Whitehall Source Reveals New Nose in Soho!

I was contacted this week by a Senior Whitehall civil servant regarding a new nose in Soho! Seriously I was, I am not making this one up!

For those of you who do not already know about the legend of Seven Noses of Soho please see this link to an earlier post Seven Noses of Soho Discovered . For those of you who are already afficianados, I present to you "The Roman Nose"

My Senior Civil Service source, who I shall refer to as Tony, leaked the information to me by email on Monday. His cryptic Latin clue took some unravelling but after a long slog through Soho I was thrilled to spot it myself. Naturally this new discovery has been incorporated in all my future "Seven Noses of Soho" walking tours.

So now there are confirmed sightings of eight noses but two of them lie just outside Soho. Is it possible that a ninth still remains within Soho's boundaries? If that were true then there really would be Seven Soho Noses. Any sightings or alternate theories gratefully received.

McDonald's Defy Banksy Ban in Bond Street

Outside the West One Shopping complex, that houses Bond Street Station, this sign has appeared.

No food or drink illustrations allowed beyond this point

Inside West One the food illustrators, chiefly McDonalds, are carrying on regardless! In defiant mood they have even chosen to illustrate precisely the products that Banksy has specifically banned i.e. burgers, fries and sodas!

I will not give McDonald's the oxygen of publicity that they so clearly crave by reproducing their illustrations here, I am sure you can imagine the sort of images they have so blatantly used.

Banksy first issued a similar ban back in 2010 at his "Lambeth Palace" cinema on Leake Street, where Exit Through the Gift Shop premièred. You can see an image of the original large scale sign here.

The message of the smaller scale sticker at Bond Street is not diminished by its size. Nor do I think it matters whether Banksy himself produced the sticker version and placed it here, or whether it is the work of a studio assistant. The message is clear and I feel McDonald's should desist from food illustration at the site immediately.

Does anyone know of other sites where McDonald's are flouting similar bans?  If so please drop me a line and perhaps together we can nip this worrying trend in the bud.

Reagan Unsheathed

The protective sheath on the new Ronald Reagan statue was removed today in Grosvenor Square.

The unveiling took place in front of an audience of paying guests and dignitaries. The photo above shows temporary staging being erected yesterday. Heavy security closed Grosvenor Square from 5.30am today.

By around noon I was able to get near enough for a few pictures.

More details about the memorial from a previous post 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

London Doesn't Warm to Sculpture

The newest sculpture in the City of Sculpture series has been unveiled in Berkeley Square.

It is entitled Berkeley Square by sculptor Jeff Lowe and is strangely the first piece to have been created especially for the programme. It is intended as a "Celebration of the London Olympics".

Speaking from his "retreat" in the Algarve,  the artist has claimed  that  “People don’t warm to sculpture easily in London."

I wonder, what on earth could have led him to form this opinion? Perhaps it is born out of a very personal experience.

The artist explains his ambitions in an interview with Unique "I wouldn't be happy knowing that all I’d done in my life was to make good sculpture. I want to do more than that. I need to feel that I’ve come up with something that’s difficult for people to understand." First ambition, highly unlikely; second already achieved?

More on Jeff Lowe, including a variety of carefully selected, but badly scanned, pdfs of his press coverage, from his website here.