Yesterday I went for my first breast screening. Or bap squashing session as it ought to be called. Ooh good, I thought, I have finally got a good reason to put together a collection of London breasts.
Have you noticed how many bare breasts are out there? Above our heads there are ladies who are scantily dressed in gauzy or loose fitting scraps of material, some look like they've left the baby on the bus with one boob uncovered, and many are completely naked. One relief even makes it looks like she's in the process of having an imaging test done too.
Some of the women depicted are truly beautiful. But many others I have spotted are really bizarre with pneumatic nipples or deformed breasts placed way too high up the chest or too far apart. Perhaps the artists had never actually seen a woman's naked body before and just placed tea cups of plaster where they thought they might belong.
But I do find interesting is that most of these were created and put in place during the 'prudish' Victorian period – the Victoria memorial and statuary around the Albert Hall are tits agogo. I suppose they explained it away as 'art'.
Also included in this set of images is a rather well-endowed devil and a docker's mistress which, as you can see, looks very matronly from a certain angle and is probably why it is so named.
I have also noticed that many of Covent Garden's Mercers Maidens (not included here) are also rather perky – see here.
Very titillating!
Haha. You've got to love those Victorians!
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