Sights in London
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St John’s, Smith Square
In the heart of Westminster, this eye-catching church was built by Thomas Archer in 1728 under the Fifty New Churches Act (1711), which aimed to build 50 new churches for London’s rapidly growing metropolitan area. Though they never did build all 50 churches, St John’s, along with a dozen others, saw the light of day. Unfortunately, with its four corner towers and monumental facades, the structure was much maligned for the first century of its existence thanks to rumours that Queen Anne likened it to a footstool, though it’s also said that she actually requested a church built in the shape of a footstool. Whatever the case, it’s generally agreed now that the church is a…
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Dulwich Picture Gallery
The UK’s oldest public art gallery, the small Dulwich Picture Gallery was designed by the idiosyncratic architect Sir John Soane between 1811 and 1814 to house nearby Dulwich College’s collection of paintings by Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Poussin, Lely, Van Dyck and others. Unusually, the collectors Noel Desenfans and painter Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois chose to have their mausoleums, lit by a moody lumière mystérieuse (mysterious light) created with tinted glass, placed among the pictures. In the Wolfson Room, seek out ‘Bridge in an Italian Landscape’ by Adam Pynacker, with its masterful use of light. Celebrating its bicentenary in 2011,…
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Banqueting House
This is the only surviving part of the Tudor Whitehall Palace, which once stretched most of the way down Whitehall and burned down in 1698. It was designed as England’s first purely Renaissance building by Inigo Jones after he returned from Italy, and it looked like no other structure in the country at the time. Apparently, the English hated it for more than a century.
A bust outside commemorates 30 January 1649 when Charles I, accused of treason by Cromwell after the Civil War, was executed on a scaffold built against a 1st-floor window here. When the monarchy was reinstated with Charles II, it inevitably became something of a royalist shrine. In a huge, virtually…
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All Hallows-by-the-Tower
A church by the name All Hallows (meaning ‘All Saints’) has stood on this site since AD 675, and the best bit of the building today is undoubtedly its atmospheric Saxon undercroft (crypt). There you’ll find a pavement of reused Roman tiles and walls of the 7th-century Saxon church, as well as coins and bits of local history. Above ground it’s a pleasant enough church, rebuilt after WWII. There’s a copper spire (added in 1957 to make the church stand out more), a pulpit from a Wren church in Cannon St that was destroyed in WWII and a beautiful 17th-century font cover by the master woodcarver Grinling Gibbons. From April to September, free 20-minute church tours leave at…
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Clapham Common
A magnificent expanse of green at the heart of the Clapham neighbourhood, huge Clapham Common is a verdant venue for many outdoor summer events (see http://claphamhighstreet.co.uk) and sports. The main thoroughfare, Clapham High St, starts at the common’s northeastern edge, lined with many of the bars, restaurants and shops that draw people to Clapham. It’s much more pleasant to explore the more upmarket streets of Clapham Old Town, a short distance northwest of the tube station, and Clapham Common North Side at the common’s northwesternmost edge.
Just west of the Pavement, the brick and stone Holy Trinity Church (1776) was home to the Clapham Sect, a group of…
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Wellington Arch
This magnificent neoclassical 1826 arch, facing Apsley House in the green space strangled by the Hyde Park Corner roundabout, originally faced the Hyde Park Screen, but was shunted here in 1882 for road widening. The same year saw the removal of the disproportionately large equestrian statue of the duke crowning it, making way some years later for Europe’s largest bronze sculpture: Peace Descending on the Quadriga of War (1912), three years in the casting.
Until the 1960s part of the monument served as a tiny police station (complete with pet moggy), but was restored and opened up to the public as a three-floor exhibition space, with exhibits on the blue plaque scheme …
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Chiswick House
This stunner of a neo-Palladian pavilion with an octagonal dome and colonnaded portico is a delight. The confection was designed by the third Earl of Burlington (1694–1753) fired up with passion for all things Roman after his grand tour of Italy.
Inside, some of the rooms are almost overpoweringly grand. The coffered dome of the main salon has been left ungilded and the walls are decorated with eight enormous paintings. With its stunningly painted ceiling (by William Kent), the Blue Velvet Room also has a portrait of architect Inigo Jones, much admired by Lord Burlington, over one of the doors. Look out for carvings of the pagan vegetative deity, the Green Man, in the…
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Syon House
Just across the Thames from Kew Gardens, Syon House was once a medieval abbey named after Mt Zion. In 1542 Henry VIII dissolved the order of Bridgettine nuns who were peacefully living here and had it rebuilt into a residence. (In 1547, they say, God got his revenge when Henry’s coffin was brought to Syon en route to Windsor for burial and burst open during the night, leaving his body to be set upon by the estate’s dogs.) The house from where Lady Jane Grey ascended the throne for her nine-day reign in 1553 was remodelled in the neoclassical style by Robert Adam in the 18th century and has plenty of Adam furniture and oak panelling. The interior was designed on…
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Eltham Palace
The art deco house here was built between 1933 and 1937 by the well-to-do textile merchant Stephen Courtauld (of Courtauld Institute fame) and his wife Virginia; from the impressive entrance hall with its dome and huge circular carpet with geometric shapes, to the black-marble dining room with silver-foil ceiling and burlwood-veneer fireplace, it appears the couple had taste as well as money. They also, rather fashionably for the times, had a pet lemur, and the heated cage, complete with tropical murals and a bamboo ladder leading to the ground floor, for the spoiled (and vicious) ‘Mah-jongg’ is also on view. A royal palace was built on this site in 1305 and was for a…
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Battersea Power Station
Its four smokestacks famously celebrated on Pink Floyd’s Animals album cover, Battersea Power Station is one of south London’s best known monuments. Built by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1933 with two chimneys (the other two were added in 1955), the power station was snuffed out in 1983 only to enter an existential limbo, slowly deteriorating as it passed from one optimistic developer to the next. The power station’s future seems as uncertain as ever, with another ‘master plan’ in the pipeline.
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London Wetland Centre
One of Europe’s largest inland wetland projects, this 43-hectare centre run by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust was transformed from four Victorian reservoirs in 2000 and attracts some 140 species of bird as well as 300 types of moth and butterfly. From the Visitor Centre and glassed-in Observatory overlooking the ponds, meandering paths and boardwalks lead visitors around the grounds, taking in the habitats of its many residents, including ducks, swans, geese and coots and the rarer bitterns, herons and kingfishers. There’s even a large colony of parakeets, which may or may not be the descendants of caged pets. By no means miss the Peacock Tower, a three-storey hide on the…
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St Bartholomew-the-Great
This spectacular Norman church dates from 1123. It was originally a part of the monastery of Augustinian Canons, but became the parish church of Smithfield in 1539 when King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. It sits on the corner of the grounds of St Bart’s Hospital, on the side closest to Smithfield Market. Its authentic Norman arches, the weathered and blackened stone, the dark wood carvings and the low lighting lend the space an ancient calm. There are historical associations with William Hogarth, who was baptised here, and with politician Benjamin Franklin, who worked on site as an apprentice printer. Another selling point for modern audiences is that scenes from…
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Dickens House Museum
Charles Dickens, the great Victorian novelist, lived a nomadic life in the big city, moving around London so often that he left behind an unrivalled trail of blue plaques. This handsome four-storey house is his sole surviving residence before he upped and moved to Kent. Not that he stayed here for very long – he lasted a mere 2½ years (1837–39) – but this is where his work really flourished: he dashed off The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist despite worry over debts, deaths and his ever-growing family. The house was saved from demolition and the museum opened in 1925, showcasing the family drawing room (restored to its original condition) and 10…
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St Lawrence Jewry
To look at the Corporation of London’s extremely well preserved official church, you’d barely realise that it was almost completely destroyed during WWII. Instead it does Sir Christopher Wren, who built it in 1677, and its subsequent restorers proud, with its immaculate alabaster walls and gilt trimmings. The arms of the City of London can be seen on the north wall and the Commonwealth Chapel is bedecked with the flags of member nations. Free piano recitals are held each Monday at 1pm; organ recitals at the same time on Tuesday.
As the church name suggests, this was once part of the Jewish quarter – the centre being Old Jewry, the street to the southeast. The district…
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Albert Memorial
This splendid Victorian confection on the southern edge of Kensington Gardens, facing the Royal Albert Hall, is as ostentatious as the subject, Queen Victoria’s German husband Albert (1819–61), was purportedly humble. Albert explicitly insisted he did not want a monument; ignoring the good prince’s wishes, the Lord Mayor instructed George Gilbert Scott to build the 53m-high, gaudy Gothic memorial in 1872. The 4.25m-tall gilded statue of the prince, surrounded by 187 figures representing the continents (Asia, Europe, Africa and America), the arts, industry and science, was erected in 1876. An eye-opening blend of mosaic, gold leaf, marble and Victorian bombast, the…
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Smithfield Market
Smithfield is central London’s last surviving meat market. Its name derives from it being a smooth field where animals could be grazed, although its history is far from pastoral. Built on the site of the notorious St Bartholomew’s fair, where witches were traditionally burned at the stake, this is where Scottish independence leader William Wallace was executed in 1305 (there’s a large plaque on the wall of St Bart’s Hospital south of the market), as well as the place where the leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, Wat Tyler, met his end in 1381. Described in terms of pure horror by Dickens in Oliver Twist, this was once the armpit of London, where animal excrement and…
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Royal Albert Hall
This huge, domed, red-brick amphitheatre adorned with a frieze of Minton tiles is Britain’s most famous concert venue and home to the BBC’s Promenade Concerts (the Proms; see p306) every summer. The hall, built in 1871, was never intended as a concert venue but as a ‘Hall of Arts and Sciences’; Queen Victoria added the ‘Royal Albert’ when she laid the foundation stone, much to the surprise of those attending. Consequently it spent the first 133 years of its existence tormenting concert performers and audiences with its terrible acoustics. It was said that a piece played here was assured of an immediate second hearing, so bad was the reverberation around the oval…
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Handel House Museum
George Frederick Handel lived in this 18th-century Mayfair building for 36 years until his death in 1759; this is where he composed some of his finest works, including Water Music, Messiah, Zadok the Priest and Fireworks Music. The house opened as a museum in late 2001 after extensive restorations and looks as it would have when the great German-born composer was in residence.
Exhibits include early editions of Handel’s operas and oratorios, portraits of musicians and singers who worked with Handel and musical instruments in the Rehearsal & Performance room on the first floor; musicians regularly come to practice so you may be treated to a free concert. The staff attending…
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No 10 Downing St
This has been the official office of British leaders since 1732, when George II presented No 10 to Robert Walpole, and since refurbishment in 1902 it’s also been the PM’s official London residence. As Margaret Thatcher, a grocer’s daughter, famously put it, the PM ‘lives above the shop’ here. For such a famous address, however, No 10 is a small-looking building on a plain-looking street, hardly warranting comparison to the White House, for example. A stoic bobby stands guard outside, but you can’t get too close; the street was cordoned off with a rather large iron gate during Margaret Thatcher’s times. Breaking with tradition when he came to power, Tony Blair and his…
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Sutton House
Abandoned and taken over by squatters in the 1980s, what was originally known as Bryk Place when built in 1535 by a prominent courtier of Henry VIII, Sir Ralph Sadleir, could have been tragically lost to history, but it’s since been put under the care of the National Trust and magnificently restored. The first historic room you enter, the Linenfold Parlour, is the highlight, where the Tudor oak panelling on the walls has been carved to resemble draped cloth. Other notable rooms include the panelled Great Chamber, the Victorian study, the Georgian parlour and the intriguing mock-up of a Tudor kitchen. There’s a shop and pleasant cafe on site.
West of Sutton House, in…
reviewed
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Westminster Cathedral
With its distinctive candy-striped red-brick and white-stone tower features, John Francis Bentley’s 19th-century cathedral, the mother church of Roman Catholicism in England and Wales, is a splendid example of neo-Byzantine architecture. Although construction started here in 1896 and worshippers began attending services seven years later, the church ran out of money and the gaunt interior remains largely unfinished.
The assumption of colour by the gloomy interior is a painfully slow process. The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and other parts of the interior are ablaze with Eastern Roman mosaics and ornamented with 100 types of marble; other areas are just bare brick.…
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Brompton Cemetery
As London’s vast population exploded in the 19th century, seven new cemeteries – the ‘Magnificent Seven’ – opened, among them Brompton Cemetery, a long expanse running between Fulham Rd and Old Brompton Rd. The chapel and colonnades at one end are modelled on St Peter’s in Rome.
While the most famous resident is Emmeline Pankhurst, the pioneer of women’s suffrage in Britain, the cemetery is most interesting as the inspiration for many of Beatrix Potter’s characters. A local resident in her youth before she moved to the north, Potter seems to have taken many names from the deceased of Brompton Cemetery and immortalised them in her world-famous books. They…
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Hackney Museum
This small museum tracing the history of one of the most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in the country is particularly stylish, with display boards featuring translucent squares of the same colour and one case showing single mementoes and effects from diverse ethnic communities – Jews, Chinese, Indians etc – behind square panes of glass. Even the 1000-year-old Saxon log boat, discovered on the marshes of Springfield Park in 1987, has been placed in the floor under glass squares. Yet the design is not so flashy as to interfere with what’s on show, from zoetropes and an early-20th-century (and very confusing) locality map to a pie ‘n’ mash shop and a dream kitchen of the…
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HMS Belfast
White ensign flapping on the Thames breeze, HMS Belfast is a magnet for naval-gazing kids of all ages. A short walk west of testicular City Hall, this large, light cruiser – launched in 1938 – served in WWII, helping to sink the German battleship Scharnhorst, shelling the Normandy coast on D-Day and later participating in the Korean War. Her six-inch guns could bombard a target 14 land miles distant.
Ranging over five decks and four platforms, HMS Belfast is surprisingly interesting – even for landlubbers – as an insight into the way of life on board a cruiser, from boiler room to living quarters. The operations room has been reconstructed to show its role in the 1943…
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St Martin-in-the-Fields
The ‘royal parish church’ is a delightful fusion of classical and baroque styles that was completed by James Gibbs (1682–1754) in 1726. The church is well known for its excellent classical music concerts, many by candlelight, and its links to the Chinese community (mass is held in English, Mandarin and Cantonese).
A £36-million refurbishment, completed at the end of 2007, provided a new entrance pavilion, a wonderful new cafe that hosts jazz evenings once a week, a foyer, and several new areas at the rear of the church, including spaces offering social care to the Chinese community and homeless people.
Refurbishment excavations unearthed a 1.5-tonne limestone Roman…
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