1979, the International Year of the Child

There's always something new to discover in London, even if it takes over 45 years to find it...

I'm sure that I have mentioned before that I am one of the small team of volunteer guides who leads tours in The Royal Parks, specifically in Kensington Gardens and St James's Park. See more here. We report to staff within the Learning Centre building in Hyde Park, AKA The Lookout. I'm mentioning this because had I not been helping out as a steward* for a small 5km run last week I would still be none the wiser about what I am about to share with you.

As I left the Learning Centre, hi-vis in hand, I glanced sideways at the toilet block and pondered that I'd never had cause to use these facilities. This is probably why, until this particular day, I had never noticed the free-standing sculpture that faces the building. With time to spare before the runners set off, I went to take a closer look. 

Well, blow me down, the artwork is marvellous. 

I looked closer and saw that it is festooned with toys and some well-worn buttons. Turns out it's a drinking fountain. 

I pressed one of the buttons and strong jet of water jetted across my left shoulder. I repositioned myself and tried again but didn't manage to catch anything in my mouth. I tried another button which produced the same strong squirt effect but only managed to splash my face – but, oh, what fun!

I assumed it was a fairly new installation. But no. Who made this, when, and why? I could see no information panel on the plinth or at the base. I made a few circumnavigations to investigate the details and the other buttons and found some crudely-carved lettering around the bottom edges that show this artwork commemorates a huge event that happened here in 1979. It was hard to see very well so I took lots of snaps to be able to decipher it later.

"This fountain was made to commemorate the great children's party during the International Year of the Child 1979 when two hundred thousand children came to Hyde Park on two days in June"

Blimey! First I knew about it!  

I did a bit of googlywooglysleuthing and discovered that the event was organised by The United Nations. However, there are a couple of errors in that inscription in the sculpture – the event actually happened in May that year, not June, specifically on the weekend of May 5th & 6th, and other info such as here states that "over 160,000" children attended, which is short of 200K. 

There's a pic of the event on Alamy, but I haven't as yet found any newspaper reports. Surely it must have been covered on Nationwide? Thanks to David at London Inheritance for finding this filmed footage on YouTube. It's likely that similar gatherings happened in other major cities around the world. 

At that time I would have been 16 going on 17 and in the first year of Sixth Form. My Romford school was within OLEA (Outer London Education Authority) so surely this mass gathering must've been known to all schools? May 5th was/is my mate Gill's birthday and she confirms that she had a party at her home that Saturday. None of us who are still in touch from that time can recall hearing about the Hyde Park event at all. Hmm. Perhaps it was only the Inner London schools that got the memo.

Back to the whimsical sculpture. It was created/installed two years after the event in 1981 and I'm delighted to discover that it was designed by Theo Crosby, sculpted by Polly Hope. I've not seen anything similar except, perhaps, The Elfin Oak in Kensington Gardens, but that doesn't have interactive capabilities such as water spouts.  

Imho, Theo Crosby was one of the most important and innovative designer/architects of the 1980s. He was responsible for the revamp of Unilever foyer where his marvellous geometrical Retro-Deco panels and lighting were installed into any area that had, post-WW2, been stripped of its 1930's features. But his efforts were subsequently removed – a sad loss because, these days it appears that much of the innovative eighties is being dismantled, being not old enough yet to be revered. However, fans of alternative architecture clamour to see the MDF creations within Jencks' The Cosmic House, which I have visited (twice) and now realise that I haven't written about or shared my photos, so here's a montage:

That's it. Please get in touch if you have any personal memories of or info about the Hyde Park event, either in the comments or via jane@janeslondon.com

*This basically entailed wearing hi-vis polyester (ugh!) and pointing 'this way' whilst standing aside a post that had an arrow on it. It was actually a very pleasant ways to pass an hour or so because not only were the runners very jolly and thankful as they passed me, park users also came up to me and asked for directions.

All pics: Jane Amelia Parker / Janeslondon

The Society of Portrait Sculptors' fab selling exhibition FACE2026 at The Garrison Chapel

The Garrison Chapel is a Grade II listed 1852 church nestled between Pimlico Road and Chelsea Barracks. No longer a working church – it has been converted into an exhibition space for The King's Foundation. The exterior spaces around the chapel have been recently renovated and remodelled – the whole area is well worth a visit.

The current show is Face2026 – ends 26th April – however, the guy on the desk told me when I was there on Saturday that there was still fortnight to go. Hmm. You'll need to double-check that. 

Here are some pics showcasing a diversity of mediums.

Yes, that's Maggi Hambling, looking very much like her own work, specifically her Oscar Wilde memorial behind St Martin in the Fields church! 

 

Nice to see some smiling faces for a change.
I particularly admired some of the wood carvings, especially top right above (Albert Kozak) and top right below (Jared Bartz), the latter carved with a chainsaw(!) – I happened to meet and speak to Jared who was also visiting on Saturday.

I also really liked a group of twelve small pieces comprising one work by Aleksandra Mazurkiewicz, shown above bottom left next to two close ups which highlight the texture and textiles applied here. I think they probably echo the Stations Of The Cross. The small semi-concealed face was possibly my favourite piece in the whole exhibition. 

Shoreditch – powerful architecture, marvellous metal and a helping hand

This actually follows on from this piece I wrote on my Substack – I continued my walk westwards from Norton Folgate towards City Road, entering this part of old Shoreditch at Worship Street.

Many years ago I recall being disappointed that the magnificent box girder bridge over the railway in Worship Street, used as a location in many movies as a prostitute pick-up zone, had been removed a couple of days before I had planned to go and photograph it for London The Way We See It*, a website set up by dicksdaily who nominated a street each week and we'd have fortnight to go and take photographs, then load up a max of three. It was a wonderful way to see different perspectives.

The bridge was later reinstated, and further along the street what looks like the love child of Nefertiti and Ming the Merciless appeared:.

I love it – look at those tapering corner columns, so redolent of Egyptian temple architecture, and the futuristic spaceship vibe, as if any second it might do a vertical take-off! It's actually the charging station for the loading bay mechanism next to it, allowing heavy items to be transported to the railway lines and platforms below.

I turned left into Curtain Road. The Horse & Groom pub is probably one of the oldest structures remaining on this section of the street. It's worth a visit for it's wood panelled interior, but be sure to check out the artwork and signage on the side:

As you can see, the large red letters show that here was a service station/petrol garage here back in the 1950s, indeed probably pre-that too – I'm judging by the type style here, I can't be bothered to research absolutely everything I write about unless it ends up being part of a guided tour!

Lower down on the wall someone has added some info about the QE1-era Curtain Theatre that used to be in the area behind the pub. I visited the site back in, ooh, er, about ten years ago when archaeologists were busy looking for clues and artefacts. I recall being really fed up that day which is possibly why I didn't take any photos let alone write about it on this blog.  Ah – found it in Londonist.

Then, via a few zig-zags, to the junction of Leonard Street and Paul Street where there is a building I have been watching for many years. Ironically, it's called Development House, which is amusing because it has been in a state of nothingness for many years, accessed only by graffiti artists. 

But it's the sculptural piece that adorns it. that I'm interested in.

The artwork It depicts two men scaling the building and reaching for a third person to join them. I wonder if another companion piece was originally installed in the gardens below...?**  

I have, on many occasions, tried to find out who created this marvellous artwork as I cannot see any marks that could be names on it – perhaps someone else with a better zoom lens can help me here. A visit to RIBA library would be helpful but it's gonna be closed for while yet. 

A proposed development was planned for here, due to be completed in 2022. But it now looks as if demolition has been shelved because the interior is currently available for rent, having been 'freshly refurbished' so perhaps the building and the sculpture is here to stay for the foreseeable future. 

I wonder if the change in plans has anything to do with the gaping great hole on the north side of Development House which has looked like this for as long as I care to remember:

Let's end on one my other favourite details in this area... from the open air basement car park, head northwards along Tabernacle Street and then turn left into Singer Street. A few paces in on the left side there is a gateway leading to the rear. I find it wonderfully uplifting that, even though the ground floor has clearly be refitted, they retained the gorgeous bit of fancy Victorian metalwork for Nos 5, 6 & 7.

 

*having just googled LTWWSI, I discover that top of the list is a project of the same name by Bob Marsden.  I think this might be the same Bob Marsden that I got chatting to a couple of years ago in Victoria Embankment Gardens where we were both admiring the military statuary and we have been following each other ever since. If it is indeed the very same BM, he's a lovely fella. 

** This reminds that there is another sculpture on a late C20th building that I need to find out about here on the side of 1 Putney Bridge Approach which is more abstract in form. 

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..!

Sir George Peabody and Paul Julius Baron Von Reuter – marvellous memorials

I wrote recently about the shops around the exterior of the Royal Exchange and their lovely architectural details. The pedestrianised street that runs along the eastern side offers plenty more to feast your eyes on. Here you'll find gorgeous Victorian street furniture, such as bollards and benches and lamp posts that contain some of the few surviving gas-powered lanterns in the City of London* as well as some K6 phone boxes and, along the buildings on the eastern side facing the exchange building, there are some delightful metalwork panels at low level that depict four hands gripped together – I always think of The Musketeers when I see these; all for one and one for all! 

There are also some excellently-achieved sculptural works to be found here, commemorating two men who had a huge impact on The City and beyond. 

George Peabody was a much loved and well respected businessman and philanthropist. He sits comfortably in his chair staring across Threadneedle Street and, I like to think, into the middle distance, to where the first of his housing estates was constructed in Islington**. Look closely around the base of the plinth to see the names of the people who made this piece:

William Wetmore Story was an American sculptor and Ferdinand von Miller of Munich was also a sculptor in his own right but here he simply casted Story's work as it is not listed as one of his achievements here.   

At the centre of the street, there is different style of memorial created a little over 100 years later. The bust of Paul Julius Reuter has to be one of my favourites in The City due to the mass of justified letterform at lower level echoing the marks at Cornhill.  

Michael Black's informative piece was installed here in 1976. More information and other works here. 

PJBVReuter created the news agency whose Grade II HQ building designed by Lutyens, sits at 85 Fleet Street, currently adjacent to a huge hole where major redevelopment is underway. But I digress...!

*I have yet to finish my coherent history of this form of street lighting (having found that much of the info available is confusing and often contracting in 'fact') – when I finally stop adding and amending to it I will make it live so that I can directt people to it after they attend my walking tours on the subject. 

** Find out more on my 'Look At The Estate We're In' guided walking tour – see here for more

Public Art in The City of London – Sara Barker at Angel Court

Angel Court echoes an ancient path that today links Throgmorton Street to Copthall Avenue between high-rise glass office buildings. During Lockdown, whilst wandering the City of London's quiet streets on a hunt for works made by women (working title: Formed by Females*) I tracked down two metalwork sculptures created by Sara Barker in 2017. 

Earlier this month I revisited these works and took these photos. First, 'Selvedge With Dark' at the Throgmorton Street end. I really like the subtle interplay of the overlaid flat mesh panels. I am a sucker for a grid pattern.

At the other end of Angel Court, high of the wall is this piece called 'Last of Light (Three Needles)' which references the old name of nearby Three Needle Street (Threadneedle St):

*The whole point of this had been to highlight how few pieces of pubic art have been created by women. Well, it turns out there are lots!  For instance, across the metropolis, we also have excellent works by Frick, Hambling, Jonzen and Hepworth to name just four and, also in the City, between Cannon Street and Queen Victoria Street, is one of my favourite pieces (actually three large pieces) 'Forgotten Streams' by Cristina Iglesias here – you might recall her similarly excellent installation in Burlington House courtyard as part of the RA Summer Show 2022.

Youth by William Dudeney – a lovely statue near Gough Square

Outside the door of  Pemberton House, 6 East Harding Street, between Gunpowder Square and Gough Square, there is a lovely sculptural piece of a young man casually perched on one knee.

I can find no marks on it at all; no date, no signature. The chunky athletic build is typical of the 1930s – rather Eric Gill-ish or Edward Bainbridge Copnall-like, or he might even be a Jacob Epstein creation. 

I had occasionally made attempts to find out more, specifically to ascertain who sculpted this piece and to clarify whether this building was constructed in the 1930s or the 1950s, made all the more confusing seeing as there is no mention of 'Pemberton' House' in the 1939 directory shown here, although it might have already been a whole block by then and perhaps the name of Pemberton House might have been later applied when it was converted and repurposed to recognise Pemberton Row at the end of E Harding St. 

A sculpted panel at the top of the building showing a representation of the printing industry bears the dates 1476-1956, though this doesn't actually confirm that 1956 is the date of the building – especially as the strip containing those dates looks to be a later addition. 

I wondered if it the building might have been constructed by Eyre & Spottiswoode, an interesting18th century printing company that, as you can see, also had a club in the same block/building. Whether the club was for all members of staff of just for the directors, I don't know. It might well have been a sports facility and this would tie in with this young man's athletic features. 

So back to the young man – it turns out that until today, I hade been searching using the wrong keywords, not using the name 'Pemberton' – basically, I hadn't looked very hard because all the info I needed is on Chris's excellent Ornamental Passions and has been there since 2012! 

He is called 'Youth' and was carved by William Dudeney, commissioned in 1955 by The Starmer Group, a company started by this man, that by the mid-1950s had acquired this site as their HQ, though this doesn't clarify when the building was constructed or when the name Pemberton was applied to it.

I am therefore assuming the name change happened quite recently when the block was converted to residential use. Any further info welcome. Incidentally, a furnished one bedroom flat starts at about £530 per week, which seems cheap to me considering the location. 

Read about another of William Dudeney's printer-related sculptures here  – and notice how one of the figures in that group is holding a printing block that containing Dudeney's name (with letters reversed) – clever. 

If Not Now, When at The Saatchi Gallery

Those of you know me well will know I roll my eyes and sigh every time I hear there's a women's thing on. Hence why I wasn't going to bother with this show at the Saatchi until 22 Jan 2024. Ah, but I'm always up for a free tour, so I went along and was pleasantly surprised by the content of this show. By which I mean the quality of the work, the ideas, the execution, not the 'what it is to be a woman' stuff, which I can never understand unless you also have had experience of being a man and can compare the two!

The show emphasises how women have struggled to be seen and heard in the art world throughout the decades, specifically since the 1960s. As you can see from my pics here, there's an emphasis on childbirth, body parts and restrictive clothing. I am still confused as to whether these women are boasting or complaining (a question I often ask when someone tells me they have a hangover after a big night or had to do [paid] overtime!). 

I probably find it hard to empathise because I have always worked in a male-dominated world, first for my father at his upholstery shop, dealing directly with sometimes stroppy customers as well as his boisterous friends in the pub, and then in the world of advertising and print where the air was often blue – if you didn't give back as good as you were given, or manage the situation there and then, then you'd simply fail. Don't be a mouse etc. I recall one print rep who was particularly colourful with his language. He was asked by my male colleague to tone it down. The fella assumed the reason was because I was there. He looked at me and said "oh yeah, mustn't swear, there's C*** here" – Unbelievable! Nobody laughed. We were all gobsmacked by him. He certainly didn't win any work for his company.

You might think idiots like that rep are made up creations for 1980's movies and dramas, but no, these characters were common and banter like that was considered amusing, if only to their peer group. I used to sometimes deliver items for print to the newspaper offices on Fleet Street and the uncouth things that were said to me because I was an 18-yr old blue-eyed blonde, beggared belief. Even at the time I thought these men were pathetic, all trying to outdo each other to be the biggest, rudest, puffed shirt. I wondered if there was a prize for who could say the F-word the most times in one sentence. Bless em! It must be hard being a man sometimes; competing with other men, jostling for attention, rutting and strutting and guzzling pints. here's an idea – the Saatchi could put on a show for men who feel they aren't powerful in today's world; my wife doesn't understand me; she thinks I'm an idiot, etc

But back to the ladies. I researched this females in art thing early last year whilst pulling together an online talk about women who are commemorated by statues in London; Nightingale, Seacole, Pankhurst, Cavell etc. I noticed that most of the memorials were created by male artists which seemed odd, and rather ironic. So I started 'collecting' women sculptors across London, expecting there to be a just a handful, and the list keeps getting longer. It's worth considering that many of the female artists whose work adorns our streets were active well before WW2 and I'm not sure they'd like to be considered as hampered by their sex. 

For example, and just picking a few ladies that come immediately to mind, we have Kathleen Scott near Carlton Terrace, Liz Frink and Irene Sedlecka in Mayfair, Karin Jonzen and Cristina Iglesias in The City, Barbara Hepworth in Oxford Street, Gillian Wearing in Parliament Square, Maggi Hambling in Charing Cross and Emily Young all over the place! 

I really should reinstate that talk, but I still need to work out how to condense it into one hour. Ditto the walking tours designed as three distinct routes, but I keep getting distracted. For instance, it's taken me ages just to write this blog post. I often say that I need about seven parallel universes just to finish all the stuff I've started, let alone walk the walks, read the books, and see other things myself.

Remnants of Rachel Whiteread's 'House' on Wennington Green, Grove Road, East London

Wandering westwards along Roman Road recently from its welcoming arch at the Parnell Road seeing how the road has evolved from the wonderfully scuzzy and diverse market street I used to know in the 1970s when my friend's family lived nearby, I arrived at the junction of Grove Road and pondered whether to carry on to Bethnal Green, head south to Mile End, or go for wander along the canal to Hackney. There's lots to see here. Instead, I entered the green space opposite the St Barnabas church and revisited a patch of art history. 

Scrutinising the ground, I found what I was looking for. A couple terracotta bricks in an L shape were partially obscured by the grass so I scraped away at the area with the soles of my shoes to better reveal them, then repeated the process at other spots close by.

These are some of the bricks that indicate the outline of where Rachel Whiteread's 'House' used to be, at what was No.193 Grove Rd. To see the original house and the artwork's construction see this film on YouTube. It was here in 1993, that this major artwork was demolished as Rachel won the Turner Prize that year. 

For the life of me I still cannot fathom how that decision was made – the demolition, not the winner of the Turner Prize! It's akin to the destruction of the Art Deco Firestone Factory in West London. Had 'House' been on land that was earmarked for development and reconstruction then I might understand that its removal was necessary. But today there's just a large expanse of mown grass mostly used by dog walkers. 

30 years ago Rachel's star was in ascendance, yet a bad decision was made to remove her innovative and thought-provoking sculpture. It always seems to me in these situations that no-one wants the 'responsibility' to be the one who authorises a controversial decision that might rock the boat. No-one wants to be the person who instigates a U-turn. The powers that be, the pen pushers, the jobsworths, the complainers, the people unable to see further than their noses, the people who just do what they are told, the contractors, the "it's out of my control, I've got a bit of paper" people who justify themselves by carrying out orders and not being personally responsible for these things. All exacerbated by non-thinking fools who just repeat whet they see in the tabloids about an 'ugly lump of concrete' yet rarely do readers visit the project themselves or attempt to understand the rationale, the meaning, the relevance to local and social history that is being told.  

People who did notice me taking pics and pacing out the ground simply looked at me like I was a bit bonkers. Which I'll accept! Had they known what I was doing I am sure they'd have come over for a chat as I was being rather obvious about it.  Ah Well. What's gone is gone. All that's left, three decades later, is a few bricks in the grass, but there's no explanation for them. I had expected to find something of that kind attached to one the benches that sit in the long grass within the plot, but no. 

Something else I noticed that day, which I thought was bizarre, was the nearby two picnic benches: 

These both had small cushions on them at the corners (not fixed in place) and one had a briefcase at one edge and a clip board at the other. It looked a bit religious, as if some people had just had a meeting and then wandered off, leaving their stuff behind. Is it always like this? Or was it just on that Saturday?

Then I noticed, between the adjacent bushes, some remnants of cushions and other food-related rubbish, plus a discarded Tigger stuffed toy. Looks like a dog had attacked a family picnic! 

What's that all about?!