In my blog three weeks ago I wrote about the treasure trove that you’ll find at All Hallows by the Tower and promised to return again and explore the Crypt Museum. This week’s edition is the result.
I headed down the steps to the atmospheric interior …
One of the first exhibits you encounter is this floor of a 2nd century Roman dwelling …
Sometimes it’s just easier to take a picture of an information label!
Walk where the Romans walked …
The church historian told me that, if I stood on the tiles long enough, I would be transported back to Roman times. Sadly, I was in a bit of a hurry.
On display are several casts of Roman gravestones.
A ‘most devoted son’…
And an ‘incomparable husband’ …
This stone once depicted a couple but the woman’s head is now missing …
The inscription reads : Demetrius, to Heraclia, his wife (set up this stone) at the expense of her own estate, as a memorial to her.
Lots of treasures in display cases …
Including this beautiful carving in alabaster …
This is the ‘great hoist’ …
Costing £3 in 1682, it was made to suspend the beautiful Grinling Gibbons font cover which can now be found in the south west corner of the church …
This is the original north door from the 1884 construction of the North porch …
It was badly damaged in the fire bombing that happenened three weeks after the direct hit on the church on 19 December 1940.
There are several connections with famous Americans.
William Penn was baptised in All Hallows and this memorial to commemorate the event was erected in 1911. It was damaged in the wartime bombing …
William’s father, Admiral Sir William Penn, was Commissioner of the nearby Navy Office and his son was baptised here on 23 October 1644. The Baptismal Register recording the occasion …
Penn’s entry is number 23 on the right hand page.
And what about this lady. For almost two hundred years the only non-American First Lady until the inauguration of President Trump on 20 January 2017 …
The relevant entry in the 1797 Marriage Register …
Under the High Altar is sited the Undercroft Chapel …
The altar comprises stones brought back to All Hallows from Richard I’s Castle Athilt in Israel.
As I said in my earlier blog, All Hallows really is a treasure trove and my blogs really just give a brief glimpse of how interesting the church is. So well worth a visit.
Occasionally I come across something in the City that is fantastic but which, for some reason, I was completely unaware of. I found it here at The London Centre on Aldermanbury …
NLA (New London Architecture) is an independent organisation for anyone and everyone with an interest in London’s built environment. Their basic remit is to engage with government, business and the public to educate, challenge, connect and create positive change.
In April 2023 they opened this new facility in the West Wing of the Guildhall complex. It’s a quiet place filled with meeting rooms and facilities that make it an ideal “hub for the built environment profession”. Entry to the public area is free so there’s no need to book. You don’t need to be a member of the profession to explore either, so just turn up. Opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday 11:00-17:00, and on Fridays they host free lunchtime talks from 12:30 – 13:00.
To facilitate city planning and other discussions about buildings, growth and expansion, the Centre houses three large scale models …
Here is more about them.
The original City of London Model (1:500 scale)
Anything in grey was built before 1945, enabling you to see the extent of central London that was re-built after the Blitz. The scale allows for lots of detail to be articulated — it’s not just boxy blocks — and some of the newest, modern high-rises even light up …
Guess where …
New London Model (1:2000 scale)
In this newer model they’ve shrunk the buildings and doubled the footprint of the original, greatly expanding just how much you can see from a virtual ‘sky-high’ vantage point. The model represents a 200 km2 area of Greater London, showing 240,000 buildings using data from 2012 …
Note Wembley Stadium in the foreground …
Royal Docks Model (1:1000 scale)
This was fully 3D printed and gives an overview of developments across the area over the next 10 years. The solid white buildings are existing while the buildings in frosted white show masterplans with outline planning permission. The model represents 10,000 buildings and the label points out the the water in the docks alone covers an area larger than the whole of Venice!
Oh, and guess what – there’s a separate Barbican model …
‘In addition to the models there are dozens of wall displays exploring various areas, opportunities and the unique London logistics that city planners and builders must consider. The entire centre is a living, working resource that also serves as a fantastic educational opportunity for anyone with an active interest in the seemingly endless queue of expansion, renovation and regeneration projects.’ Here are a few of them …
The Great Estates …
I really loved my visit – highly recommended.
There’s also something really interesting on at the Guildhall Library upstairs – something to visit at another time …
The idea of an embankment along the Thames was first suggested by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666 and work eventually began in 1861 under the control of Sir Joseph Bazalgette the Metropolitan Board of Works’ Chief Engineer. Its purpose was not only to ease congestion but also to house the main sewer and it was opened on 13 July 1870 by the Prince of Wales. The total area of land reclaimed was over 37 acres and about 20 acres of this were laid out as gardens and these were the objective of my walk last week.
The gardens shortly after opening …
Walking west from Blackfriars I encountered one of my favourite pieces of street sculpture …
He’s had a tough day at the office and now just wants to get home but, sadly, he’s been trying to grab that cab since 2014. Sculpted by J. Seward Johnson Jr. in 1983, it originally stood on Park Avenue and 47th Street in New York. It’s called, not surprisingly, Taxi!
A little further west are the gates to the Temple private gardens – haunt of the legal profession.
The flying horse Pegasus is the emblem of Middle Temple …
The badge of the Middle Temple consists of the Lamb of God with a flag bearing the Saint George’s Cross …
I walked past the two formidable dragons symbolising the entrance to the City of London …
Seven feet high, they were once mounted above the entrance to the Coal Exchange which was demolished between 1962 and 1963.
They were cast by London founder, Dewer, in 1849 as can be seen on the back of the shield …
Alongside the dragon on the north side of the road is a tablet commemoration Queen Victoria’s last visit to the City in March 1900 …
Time now to enter the first of the gardens and to admire the memorials erected to the great, the good and the brave.
This is the Lady Henry Somerset Children’s Fountain. She was elected president of the British Women’s Temperance Association in 1890 and during her time with them its political and social influence grew. She promoted many endeavours, including the use of birth control, as she argued that sin begins with an unwelcome child …
The formidable Lady Somerset …
What I also discovered in my research was that she outed Lord Henry as a homosexual (a crime during the 1800s), which resulted in their separation and her gaining custody over their son. As a result of publicising his sexual orientation, she was ostracised from society since in those days women were expected to turn a blind eye to every kind of their husband’s infidelity. His lordship decamped to Italy.
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900) was a composer and most famous for his collaborations with the librettist Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911). Their collaboration resulted in fourteen Comic Operas a number of which are still frequently performed today by both amateur and professional companies to the delight of people around the world …
His memorial features a bust atop of a pedestal together with a weeping Muse of Music. The plinth also carries lines from Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1888 opera The Yeomen of the Guard: “Is life a boon? / If so, it must befall / That Death, whene’er he call, / Must call too soon”.
The lines are repeated in the bronze sculpture at the base, which depicts an open book of music, one of the masks of Comedy and Tragedy and a mandolin …
Apparently the statue has been described as ‘the most erotic in London’.
Robert Raikes, pioneer of Sunday Schools …
Although Sunday schools were not original to Robert Raikes – they were in existence many years before he started his first in 1780 – it was he who put them on the map and whose efforts gave huge momentum to the movement in Britain. Hence, when in 1880 this memorial was erected to celebrate the centenary of the Sunday school movement, the statue featured Robert Raikes. Read more about this fascinating man here.
The flower beds are wonderful …
The Henry Fawcett memorial ‘erected by his grateful countrywomen’ …
Henry Fawcett was an economist and politician who was held in high regard by the public. He was born in 1833 and educated at the University of Cambridge. At the age of 25 he was involved in a shooting accident that left him blind. However, he refused to let his affliction dampen his life and ambitions. He rose to become a Professor in Economics at Cambridge University and was elected Member of Parliament for Brighton in 1865 to 1874, and subsequently for Hackney in 1874 to 1884. In 1880 he was also appointed the position of Her Majesty’s Postmaster-General. He introduced improvements in the Post Office such as the parcel post, postal orders and sixpenny telegrams. He was also an avid supporter of women’s rights and encouraged the Post Office to employ women. He married the renowned suffragist, Millicent Fawcett, in 1867.
More lovely flowers with the memorial to Lord Cheylesmore in the background …
This statue is in tribute to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, the 2nd Baronet probably best known as a temperance campaigner and radical, anti-imperialist wing of the Liberal Party. The statue depicts Lawson, standing as if about to speak while a member of parliament …
He was an extraordinary character and you can read more about him here.
I have always been fascinated by this memorial to the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade …
Do take a few minutes to read this article about them from the 20th Century Society Journal:
The Imperial Camel Corps were formed to patrol the western desert in the First World War and fought major campaigns in Egypt, Sinai and Palestine. Their job was to protect Allied troops (evacuated after the failure at Gallipoli) from risings by the Ottomans and Senussi confederation of tribes. The Senussi were eventually forced into submission late in 1916 by starvation, and by being denied the use of wells by camel corps units and light car patrols. The Camel Corps’ most famous moment was assisting Lawrence of Arabia to capture Jerusalem in the rebellion of 1916-18, although the damper weather meant many animals became victims of sarcoptic mange. The majority of the Infantry were Australian, some of whom were already experienced camel jockeys. The corps were so successful that they were expanded from four to eighteen companies. Six companies were formed from British Cavalry, two from New Zealand Cavalry. The corps were reorganised into four large battalions to fight the Turks, assisted by an artillery unit from Hong Kong and Singapore.
Always look after your camel …
A World War One Anzac Australian Camel Corps soldier giving his camel a drink of water from a chattu vase, 1916. You can find more images here and here.
By the end of the war 346 of their formation had died in action. The reality of the ultimate sacrifice, the names behind the numbers …
The nearby York Watergate is almost 400 years old. It was built in 1626 in the grounds of York House as a mooring point for the Duke of Buckingham’s boat or the boats of guests. As a result of the building of the Embankment, the river is now over 150 yards away …
The watergate around 1850 …
More flowers – couldn’t resist taking pics …
And now to more recent conflicts. These memorials are located at the far west end of the gardens near Westminster Underground Station.
One of the aspects of this church that impresses me most is how it was reconstructed after direct hits by bombs during the Blitz.
The interior today …
The church was bombed on two occasions during the Blitz: first the east end was badly damaged by a bomb in December 1940, and three weeks later the whole building was gutted by incendiary bombs, leaving only the tower and outer walls standing. This photo from the 1947 publication The Lost Treasures of London by William Kent shows the devastation …
Here it is last week on a wet and windy day looking from the east …
Before entering the church from this direction I suggest a short diversion.
On Tower Hill Terrace you will find this pretty sculpture. It’s called The Seaand incorporates a tribute to Sir Follett Holt, KBE, the first Chairman of the Tower Hill Improvement Trust, who died 20th March 1944 …
It is one of two gate posts – this is its partner …
The PMSA says ‘Each of these groups comprises two children with dolphins swimming around them. Their frolicking pagan style contrasts rather vividly with the relief of the Toc H Lamp, also by Cecil Thomas, on the east wall of All Hallows behind them’
The Toc H relief …
I walked down the little path alongside the west wall of the church …
Embedded in the wall was this memorial to Samuel Gittens MD. It has three little cherubs heads and refers to his parents ‘Samuel and Mary Gittens of Barbados’ …
Alongside the north wall is the ‘Secret Garden’ …
It is such a shame that, even though the church is right alongside the Tower of London, it doesn’t seem to get many visitors. Do visit if you have the opportunity.
Here are just a few of its treasures.
This is the tomb of the Reverend ‘Tubby’ Clayton CH MC who became vicar of the Church in 1922 and remained there until 1963. He is best known for his work initially as an army chaplain during the First World War and in particular the establishment of Talbot House, a unique place of rest and sanctuary for British troops. After the war the spirit and intent of Talbot House became expressed through the Toc H movement …
His effigy is one of the last works by Cecil Thomas, the ‘soldier sculptor’, and Tubby’s dog Chippie sits on a tassellated cushion at his feet …
Clayton owned a succession of Scottish Terriers, one of them a gift from the Queen Mother. All of them were called Chippie.
Another work by Thomas, the Forster Memorial …
The magnificent font cover is by Grinling Gibbons and dates from 1682 …
The present pulpit dates from around 1670 and is carved in the Gibbons style. It comes from the church of St Swithun’s, London Stone, which was destroyed by bombing and not rebuilt …
Above it is the tester, or sounding board, designed to represent three pilgrim shells associated with the pilgrimage of St James Compostella in Spain.
All Hallows is known as the seafarer’s church with strong connections to the Port of London Authority and to maritime history generally.
Mariners lost at sea with no known grave …
The stained glass windows, especially in the south aisle, also bear witness to the church’s close association with the sea and the river Thames …
There are also, as you might expect, some superb model ships …
And what about this, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s electrically heated crow’s nest from the ‘Good Ship Quest’ on which he died on 5 January 1922 while in harbour in South Georgia …
The man climbing to the crow’s nest in the picture is Frank Wild. He took over the leadership of the expedition after Shackleton died.
The 16th century monument to the Italian merchant Hieronimus Benalius who lived in nearby Seething Lane and died in 1583. He left instructions for Masses to be said for his soul …
This wall monument contains the kneeling effigies of Francis Covell and his wife, each in long robes and with ruffs at the necks. They kneel facing one another, and probably originally had a desk between them which has disappeared …
In the Lady Chapel is the tomb of Alderman John Croke from 1477. It was destroyed during the war, but rebuilt and restored from the remaining fragments …
This is the formidable pillar monument to Giles Lytcott and his family …
The lower inscription …
Ten children but only three living at the time of the mother’s death. It didn’t matter how rich you were, child mortality was high.
You can read the full insciption here. Intriguingly it refers to an ancestor ‘poisoned in the Tower’.
A niche in the wall holds a 17th century wooden statue of St. Antony of Egypt …
There are several fine 18th century sword rests …
How fantastic that this brass from 1612 has survived to tell a sad story …
Here lyeth the bodie of Marie Bvrnell late wife of Iohn Bvrnell Citizen & marchant of Lon don ye only davghter of Mathew Brownrigg of Ipswich in ye covntye of Svffolk Esq. A woman Syncerely lyvinge in ye feare of god & dyinge con stantly in ye fayth of Christ Ihesvs she departed this lyfe ye 5 daye of Aprill 1612 beinge of yf age of 20 years havinge fynished in wedlock wth her sayd hvsband to yeafes & v moneths & bear ing him Issve one sone whereof she dyed in child bed & expecteth now wth ye Elect of god a Ioyfvll resvrrection
Poor Marie. So typical of the time, a young woman dying in childbirth.
And now down to the crypt museum. A subject for a future blog …
Until 26th May 2024, Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Artshines a light on artists from the 1960s to today who have explored the transformative and subversive potential of textiles, harnessing the medium to ask charged questions about power: who holds it, and how can it be challenged and reclaimed? Spanning intimate hand-crafted pieces to large-scale sculptural installations, this major exhibition brings together over 100 artworks by 50 international practitioners. Drawn to the tactile processes of stitching, weaving, braiding, beading and knotting, these artists have embraced fibre and thread to tell stories that challenge power structures, transgress boundaries and reimagine the world around them.
This review summed it up nicely for me -‘hybrid, heterodox, filled with strangeness and anger and beauty and horror, Unravel at the Barbican is often gorgeously excessive, at other moments quiet and private, not giving up its secrets until you linger’.
An extraordinary experience – not at all what I expected and highly recommended. I really wanted to ignore the ‘Do Not Touch’ signs!
Here are some of the images I took when I visited last Saturday.
Views from the upstairs gallery …
Yinka Shonibare’s figurative sculpture Boy On A Globe uses his signature Dutch Wax fabrics to address race, class and the legacy of imperialism by reflecting on colonial trade and the entangled economic histories embedded within fabrics …
Hannah Ryggen’s Blut im Gras (Blood in the grass), 1966, protests against the US war in Vietnam. The then-US president Lyndon B. Johnson is depicted here nonchalantly wearing a cowboy hat …
Arch of Hysteria by Louise Bourgeois uses a textile doll or model to convey a psychic experience of pain …
Myrlande Constant’s tapestries are drawn from Haitian Vodou traditions, her father was a Vodou priest …
Tau Lewis uses recycled fabrics and seashells in The Coral Reef Preservation Society, partly in homage to enslaved people who lost their lives in the Middle Passage, a stage of the Atlantic slave trade …
These larger-than-life, deity-like macramé sculptures by Mrinalini Mukherjee surge up from the ground as though organic beings. Drawing on nature and myriad artistic references, their knotted, rippling forms confound expectations of textiles as two-dimensional …
Sarah Zapata’s work embraces her identity as a Peruvian American – two cultures in which textiles are integral …
Solange Pessoa’s work, Hammock, was created in response to the land of Minas Gerais, Brazil, where she grew up. Textiles, in the form of rags and canvas, act as a carrier for living and decaying matter …
Tracey Emin is here too with a hard hitting work, No chance – WHAT A YEAR, about being raped when she was a thirteen-year-old girl (Content trigger warning) …
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