The Venus Fountain, Sloane Square

This is the final part of my walk along Kings Road

I bet most people walk past this beautifully understated piece and don't even notice it. But, please do stop and take a look, because it's lovely.
A bronze life-sized Venus, holding a vase and pouring water from a conch shell, kneels upon a bronze vase-shaped basin decorated with a whimsical relief of Charles II and Nell Gwynn along the Thames. This sits within and above an octagonal stone pool lined with blue ceramic tiles.

It was created by sculptor Gilbert Ledward R.A. (1888-1960) and was intended to be ready for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation but, sadly, there were problems over its instalment and the deadline was not met despite the date inscription*.
It is a reference to the Kings Road which was built during Charles II's reign. Just to the west of Sloane Square was the house where Nell Gwynn, his mistress, stayed on occasion. The vase depicts the lovers seated by the Thames – Charles picks fruit from a tree, whilst Nell Gwynn fans herself. An impish cupid sits nearby with two arrows ready and a deer and hound run in the background whilst a swan swims past.
The inscription around the top of the basin reads, "Sweet Thames run softly, till I end my song", from 'Prothalamion' by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599). The poem was a spousal verse written to honour a double marriage, the title meaning a song preceding the marriage ceremony.
A proposal in 2006 for Grade II listing was not approved.

*The inscription at the bottom of the basin reads: 'GLIBERT LEDWARD RA 1952', and beneath this, 'PRESENTED BY THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS THROUGH THE LEIGHTON FUND'.

Accentuate the positive – three more nice things along the No.19 bus route

 Faces in Clerkenwell Road

 George at St George's, Bloomsbury

Screens on Battersea Bridge

Three nice things – a series by Jane's London

King Brendon Burns.

Back in August 2002 I was a Perrier judge at the Edinburgh Festival, having won the position through a written competition in Time Out.
It turned out not to be rather hard work – charging back and forth across the city, seeing sometime six shows a day, with many of them not very funny at all, can become rather tedious. Often there were only five people in the audience!
However, I was lucky to see so many great comics before they'd become household names. These included the fabulous Sean Lock (love that man so much!), Rich Hall, Alan Carr, Dara O'Briain and Adam Hills. It was also the year that Jimmy Carr really came to the fore; for some bizarre reason, rather than being the obvious newcomer winner*, he was instead 'promoted' as a front-runner for the main award**.
In the judges' meetings I tried to champion a few of my favourite candidates, but was consistently overruled; often by people who hadn't even seen the shows and weren't even judges. It was rather demeaning; both for me and the acts I was trying to promote.
For instance, they said no to Andrew Maxwell because they thought he talked about football too much. I don't recall it being more that 10% football – I know diddlysquat about football I still found what he had to say really funny. Interesting that two years later he went on to win another major award.
I also liked Reg D. Hunter. But a few of the other narrow-minded 'judges' thought Reg was mysogynistic; something that hadn't crossed my mind at all. I thought he had just been making clever observations about certain types of females. I talked to him at the awards party and he was confused and concerned about this.
And then there was Brendon Burns who put on my second favourite show of the festival**. It was filled with clever, intelligent, side-splitting observations, including one hilarious story about an article in a newspaper that he (and I) had seen involving a man and a goat and a train. Sublime.
During the show he had an assistant tallying up the swear words. He was 'king funny and 'king clever, hence the montage of London king pictures at the top. But, yep, you've guessed it; some of the other judges thought he swore too much. Oh d'uh! It was part of the show!
Brendon is back in London next week with his latest show "Brendon Burns: Hasn't Heard of You Either" at The Soho Theatre, July 8–13th. Be prepared; there will, more than likely, be blaspheming!

* Newcomer winner 2002 – Flight of The Conchords (I preferred Hal Cruttenden, but have since fallen in love with the NZers)
** Main award 2002 – Daniel Kitson – it was almost a unanimous decision.