Kensington Gore – hot and cold and nine miles from Hounslow

Lowther Lodge, is a lovely GII* red brick building at 1 Kensington Gore, facing Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens as seen here. The house was built in the 1870s for William Lowther, MP, designed by architect Richard Norman Shaw who is also responsible for the Bedford Park Estate adjacent to Turnham Green. 

In 1912, Lowther Lodge was sold to the Royal Geographical Society and, over subsequent decades, the property was extended to include a library, a lecture theatre, offices and other facilities. One distinctive addition is the hall/meeting room at the junction with the Exhibition Road which is adorned with many things that please me – a distance marker, a bench mark, two statues and some street names.  

First, the white metal sign, dated 1911, showing the distances East to Hyde Park Corner and West to Hounslow. This has always intrigued me because I doubted that Hyde Park was a full mile away, but having now checked using my trusty string and wall map I can confirm it as a fact. Similarly, the marker that sits further up the road outside The Milestone Hotel is definitely half a mile away. 

This heavy metal information post is quite amusing as regards its details which have been crudely enhanced in black paint, making the lion and the unicorn appear as comedy cartoon characters and the manicules look more like random blobs rather than elegant pointing hands.

Marks on the bricks indicate that it used to be attached to the wall. Indeed, the oblique view confirms that there is a 4"/10cm gap. 

To the right of the mile-marker (surely it's not a milestone if it's not made of stone?) there is a little vertical rectangle of verdigri'd metal. Look closely and see "OS, BM, 0931, S" and a 3-line motif:

This is an Ordinance Survey Bench Mark used by surveyors to calculate heights above sea level. More about these here. 

On the other side of the mile-marker there looms a marvellous statue of David Livingstone, explorer, missionary, writer and medic:

This is the work of Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones, a prolific and popular artist whose work adorns many public places in London, including the Joy of Life fountain across the road within Hyde Park. 

Mr Livingstone was unveiled on 23rd October 1953. It 'pairs' with the earlier statue of Sir Ernest Shackleton that was installed in 1932 on the East side of the building in Exhibition Road: 

Shackleton, complete with thick fluffy boots and mittens, is the work of Charles Sarjeant Jagger whose most famous work is probably the Royal Artillery Memorial (1935) at Hyde Park Corner (which we know is one mile away!).

Finally, the lovely carved street signs – I wonder if these also came from Jagger's studio:

I'm told that London cabbies call this location 'Hot & Cold' due to the climates that these two intrepid gentlemen explored..!

Charles Baker, optical and surgical instrument maker, 244 High Holborn

Earlier this week, whilst hunting for something else in amongst my suitcases of collected bric-a-brac, I rediscovered my small collection of opera and field glasses.
Oh what a distraction!
Beautiful little pocket-sized binoculars made of brass (and other metals) and/or bakelite, many with mother-of-pearl, leather or shagreen embellishment. And most of them still in their perfect little pigskin pouches. OK, that was just for alliteration – I mean carrying/protective cases.
Someone recently suggested to me that they were not worth much, that they had no value, and asked me if I used glasses at the opera these days. A bit of a daft question as I rarely go to the opera! And also daft because one could say that Chinese tea caddies and Victorian children's dresses are also not used these days but that doesn't mean they aren't worth anything. I believe what he meant was that these are just collectables; they aren't top dollar items. Certainly not worth insuring.

Nevertheless I thought I'd do a bit of research on them and the pair that I found to be the most intriguing, for me as a Londoner, is the pair that when the centre wheel is at full twist, letters can be seen inscribed into on the shafts that read; "Sold By C. BAKER, Optician" on the left side, and "244 High Holborn, London" on the right.

Silver metal with hinged centre and mother-of-pearl inlay on the handles 

I at first wondered if this Chas Baker was the same person/company as the gentlemen's outfitter a further along High Holborn. After all, an optician simply sells eyewear, such as frames and other accessories; the optometry being carried out elsewhere. Therefore, I considered that the optician's shop might well be a branch of that large company. But it appears not.

Kelly's – just up the road

Intrigued by many of these things, I got got to googling. 

It seems Charles Baker was listed as a company as early as 1765 and by 1854 they had moved from premises at 51 Gt Queen Street, to 244 High Holborn, listed as an "optical and surgical instrument maker".  Interesting that the engraving reads "Sold by" rather than 'Made by". Hmmmm. Ponder, ponder.
My Kelly's Directory of 1895 shows that Mr Baker was at No.243 with his instruments and also at No.244 as an optician. By 1915 there are five companies listed at No.244 address including another optician.
The 1939 directory shows that 242-243 has become The Holborn Empire music hall with Baker at No.244 listed as a scientific instrument maker, sharing the premises with Ascot Gas Water Heaters. 

At this time, ads show that Baker is making full use of the theatre next door as a signpost. I like to think he would have had a display of opera glasses in his shop window ready to catch the eye of passing theatre-goers who had left theirs at home.
Moving forward quickly... in 1963 the Vickers company acquired C.Baker Ltd's microscope factory which later became Vickers Instruments. 
It's all here on Grace's Guide if you want to read it for yourself.

Of my other binoculars, the ones that also interest me are my two compact late-20s/early-30s Bakelite pairs made by A. Kershaw & Son of Leeds. I am particularly fond of the ones made in bright colours such as teal, emerald green or ultramarine. In 1920 the Kershaw company had various premises across the UK including offices/shop at 3 Soho Square. They had previously claimed to produce "the World's first cinematograph projector". By 1964 the company was swallowed up to the Rank Organisation.
And I also have some diddy little opera glasses made by Colmont of Paris; a company that I am told was one of the best French companies of this type back in the day. Ooh. 

More research needed.

In the meantime, I am hoping to be able to get a group together to visit the marvellous British Optical Association Museum in Craven Street, Charing Cross, where they may have more info about Charles Baker.

Nerd Nite London – it's hip to be square

Rubbish pics, but you get the drift. Bottom left is the MoC shop

Last month I went to my first Nerd Nite evening at The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.
The premise is that there are three talks from three different 'nerds' over a limited time on totally random things, each followed by a Q&A session which, when I was there, thew up some amusing questions.
It's aa informal evening with the audience sat around moveable cafe tables drinking from a licensed bar. There are also nibbles available and I noticed people eating their own brought-in pizzas etc.
 I learned, or rather attempted to understand, about the lives of women in Nepal, quantum superpositions and 1950s video projection technology. Every subject was interesting even if I didn't understand half of what was being imparted. The last talk definitely winning my internal award for the most nerdy(!).
It was so good I will be plan to go the next one on May 18th.
If you have a nerdy subject that you think would benefit from a wider audience, just contact the organisers.

'Drawn By Light' and 'Making Life Worth Living' at The Science Museum

Wandering down Exhibition Road, marvelling at how the partial pedestrianistation has been a big success, I noticed that the boards have been removed from the wonderfully elaborate Henry Cole Wing of the V&A to reveal the recent clean up.

I don't think it looks very much different. Was this really necessary? Below are some shots of it a few years ago with a couple of shots on the bottom row showing how it looks today (thanks to Google Streeview):

I was on my way to The Science Museum to see two photography exhibitions.
Make Life Worth Living is a commissioned series of photos by Nick Hedges and illustrates the poor living conditions in major UK cites during the late 1960s. Viewing the images I found it really hard to fathom that people were allowed to live in such damp and basic 'housing' during my lifetime. Free entry.
Drawn By Light charts the early days of photography from as far back as 1820. As well as some amazing photos, there are examples of the type of kit used when a 'portable' camera was the size and weight of a second person. But the results were well worth the effort. Some of the images look really contemporary and truly ahead of their time.
An adult ticket for this exhib is £8 but here's a little tip... you can get half price entry if you pick up and fill in one of the leaflets which can be found there (I found mine on the counter of the cafe opposite the exhibitions on the second floor). The price goes down even further to £3.20 if you decline the donation fee when paying for your ticket.
Both exhibitions are on until 3rd March.

Hexen 2.0 exhibition at the Science Museum

Hexen 2.0 is an exhibition by British artist Suzanne Treister on at the Science Museum until 20th April. 
According to the blurb, the exhibition "charts the coming together of diverse physical and social sciences in the framework of post-Second-World-War US governmental and military imperatives. Investigating cybernetics, the history of the Internet, the rise of 'Web 2.0' and mass intelligence gathering – using drawings, alchemical diagrams, photographs, text works and 78 specially designed tarot cards". 
Well, I couldn't have put that better myself!!!
I just love her drawings and illustrations and have ordered a copy of the book so that I can reconfigure history and map out hypothetical future narratives for myself.

If you have never been to the Science Museum... what are you waiting for? Go go go – it is fabulous and full of amazingly interesting stuff (for want of a better word!). 
And whilst you are there check out the Hidden Heroes exhibition too.

Inside the Human Body

That marvellous Michael Mosley has done it again and made some more wonderfully informative TV programmes called 'Inside The Human Body'.

If you missed them, hunt them out on replay or find selected excerpts on the web.

Our bodies are magnificient machines and we take them for granted. I have learned that we effectively get a new skeleton every 10 years, new skin every month and our stomach lining replaces every 3 days. And we don't even notice that all this is happening. We really are amazing.

Hunting for these pics, some of which may appear to make no sense at all unless you have seen the programmes, reminded me that I put together some collections of body parts a while back... here and here.... and in December my own body was letting me down. But my personal mini-army of repair bugs fixed me... Wow!

Top row: Paddington, Stepney, Wapping, Homerton

Middle row: St James's, Gray's Inn Rd, Caledonian Rd, Bloomsbury Sq

Bottom row: Smithfield, Bloomsbury, Haymarket, Highgate

James Watt's 'magical retreat' at the Science Museum

This morning I went along to the Science Museum for the Press Launch of "James Watt and our world".

Adam Hart-Davis left his toilet obsessions at home and gave a short speech about the exhibition. Boy, that man's colourful – instead of sporting multi-coloured cycling gear he was wearing a natty green corduroy suit with a bow tie and odd matching shoes.

But I digress... this is not meant to about Mr A H-D; it's about James Watt, an amazingly talented and clever man who is known as the first hero of the Industrial Revolution. Talk about prolific! The list of his achievements is too long for me even start here, so go google. Or better still, go to the museum and see the exhibition for yourself.

On show again after a long absence, is Watt's attic workshop – a time capsule that contains everything as he left it when he died in 1819. I was lucky to be able to go behind the curved glass wall and see up-close some of his possessions, tools and furniture, all complete with nineteenth century dust! Wonderful.

And the rest of the Science Museum is wonderful too... cars, space travel, plastics, metals, machines, buttons to press, and one of the best gift shops ever...