Hidden London

Guy Fairbank | 5 days ago | Blogging

Island Records, St Peter's Square   Chiswick has a surprisingly rich musical heritage, Handily placed for Heathrow, away from the hustle and bustle of the West End and considerably more affordable,  the borough has been home to recording studios, record labels, music venues and artists.   The Chiswick Empire, demolished in 1959, played host to the likes of Alma Cogan and Marty Wilde, and when Cliff Richard performed there, a riot broke out. Down the road, the Rolling Stones, supported by Marianne Faithfull, filled the Commodore Theatre, which was then a rival to the Hammersmith Odeon. The Stones’ presence in W4 has continued: in 2005 they used Mark Knopfler’s British Grove Studios to record Blue and Lonesome and, only recently, Metropolis Studios for their latest, highly acclaimed album Foreign Tongues.    Another band from the Sixties with roots in Chiswick is The Who. Bass player John Entwistle was a local boy while guitarist and songwriter Pete Townsend was born in the former Chiswick Maternity Hospital (as was Phil Collins, Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan and Kim Wilde). Townsend once lived in Whitehall Gardens. Phil Collins formed his first band while attending Chiswick School. Kyle Simmons from Bastille is another old boy.   Near the site of the maternity hospital lies Eyot Green, and in 1968 a groovy rocker by the name of Steve Marriott fell foul of his neighbours. While recording Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake in Barnes’ Olympic Studios, Marriott installed loud speakers and invited his friends over for raucous parties.  The genteel next-door neighbours the Hasselthwaites pleaded with Marriott to keep the noise down but to no avail. Marriott’s antics inspired the Small Faces’ classic song Lazy Sunday Afternoon.   Linda Lewis Blue Plaque Another songwriter who made their home in Chiswick was Linda Lewis. Self-taught, she was arguably Britain’s first female singer-songwriter. Her self-penned song Rock-A-Doodle-Doo reached the top 20 in 1975, while her version of It’s In His Kiss cracked the top ten. Two years ago a blue plaque was unveiled in Arlington Mansions, where she lived in the 1970s. Look carefully in a A Hard Day’s Night and you might spot her playing a screaming fan. Which brings us to the Beatles.    On a sunny spring day in May 1966 the Fab Four arrived in Chiswick House to film arguably the first pop video. Before then promotion videos were simple studio performances but this was different.  Along came a film crew and director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Locations were chosen, 35mm colour film was loaded into the cameras and shooting for Paperback Writer and Rain began.   Chiswick was familiar to the Beatles. The previous year the City Barge pub on Strand-on-the-Green was used in a scene in their follow-up film Help!, when the Fab Four were being pursued along the pathway by a band of bagpipers called the Klang. They escaped by diving into the bar and ordering two lagers and lime and two lagers and lime.    This time they were left alone, so they could relax in the café with a cigarette as the crew set up filming. To the locals this was very big news and word soon got around that the most famous pop band in the world was in W4. Annie Evans, a girl who bunked off school to go and see her heroes, managed to climb over the wall by the conservatory and meet John and George - and Ringo, who offered to share his fish and chips with her. She made the front page of News of the World.  Another local, gardener John Kenton, recalled letting John ride his new Moulton bike around the grounds, much to the amusement of his bandmates....

Guy Fairbank | 14th September 2023 | Arts

200 miles north of London, near the cathedral city of Ripon, lies Newby Hall. It’s a handsome house, originally built by Sir Christopher Wren and enlarged and improved by John Carr of York and Robert Adam. It was once owned by the Weddell family, and later became the home of the Marquesses of Ripon. Today it’s owned by the Compton family, who are descendants of the family and who have maintained its beautiful gardens. They’ve even installed a miniature railway (and Gyles Brandreth’s collection of teddy bears). Walk around the extensive grounds and aside from the herbaceous borders, an enchanting rock garden and the gentle River Ure, you’ll find a weatherbeaten equestrian statue and a rusty old door, leading nowhere. Look at them more closely and you’ll discover they both have City of London connections. The man on the horse looks quite the worse for wear, but when you learn of his history, you can understand. He’s travelled all the way from Livorno in Italy, once known as Leghorn. Originally the figure represented John III Sobieski, King of Poland from 1674 to 1696. He was a notable soldier, who most famously led the army that defeated the Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The city had been besieged for two months, until the combined armies of the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, under the command of Sobieski, broke the siege and scattered the Ottoman forces. The Pope saw Sobieski as the saviour of Western European civilisation, which explains the original erection of his statue in Italy.   The statue is made from Carrara marble, while the reins are made from bronze. It stands on an ashlar plinth, which was added later.  Looking majestic, the Polish king is seen holding the reins, staff in hand, as the horse tramples on the cowering figure of a Turk, his left hand raised to protect him - except the figures are no longer of a Pole and a Turk. Instead, they were changed to represent Charles II and Oliver Cromwell. How they were changed and how they landed up in North Yorkshire is a fascinating story.  In 1675 Sir Robert Vyner, Lord Mayor of London purchased the statue and brought it to London. An ardent royalist, he employed a sculpture to refashion the figures as Charles II and the hated Cromwell and had it erected in the City, by the Stocks Market. When the site was cleared to build the Mansion House the statue was moved to the Vyner estate in Lincolnshire, then Newby Park in 1883, when Henry Vyner married Lady Mary Robinson of Newby Hall. But there was more to Vyner than loyalty to the Crown, for he was also a goldsmith. It was he who was responsible for making the new Orb and the Crown of St Edward, which were used for the king’s coronation in 1661 - and for the crowning of King Charles III in May.   The antique door has an equally intriguing history, for it once hung in Newgate Gaol. Legend goes that it was through this door that serial jailbreaker Jack Sheppard once escaped, on the 30th August 1724. Born in Stepney in 1702, Jack trained as a carpenter but gave up the life of a craftsman for the life of thievery and fame. His numerous escapes from prison, notably from Newgate Gaol’s infamous “Castle” cell, made him a local hero. Sir James Thornhill even made a visit to sketch young Jack. In July 1724, Sheppard was arrested yet again for theft, led off to the Old Bailey and sentenced to be hanged. But all was not lost, for Jack was then visited by a couple of his accomplices - his girlfriend Bess Lyon and another female, Poll Maggott. As Bess and Poll distracted the guards, Jack managed to loosen an iron bar in a window, climb through the grille and change into some women’s clothes that Bess had brought along. He was then smuggled out, under the noses of the turnkeys. However, in November 1724 Jack’s luck finally ran out and he was sentenced to be hanged for robbery. More than 200,000 Londoners lined the streets to watch an open cart take Jack to Tyburn. ...

Guy Fairbank | 29th May 2022 | History

The Grapes, Lime Street  As you turn right out of Mansion House Station and walk down Garlick Hill, look up to your left and you’ll see two Vintners’ plaques positioned high up on a redbrick building. The property is no longer in the Company’s possession but it reminds us that across the centuries, throughout the City, several addresses were acquired by the Vintners’ Company.  Despite a change of ownership, and indeed in most cases a complete rebuild, you can still find clear signs of our previous extensive involvement in real estate.    Just to the east of Leadenhall Market is Lime Street, a curving street that leads up to the Lloyds building.  Above the appropriately named Grapes pub there’s the Vintners’ coat of arms and motto. Our interest in the property dates back to the reign of Edward VI, when in 1550 a Christopher Barker bequeathed the property to the Company in his will. We no longer have his will but the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) hold the deeds from 1423. The latest is dated to 1939 so it appears we held onto the property for nearly 400 years, along with numbers 13 and 14 next door.  When in Lime Street, also look out for a plaque to the Pewterers’ Company on the corner: a reminder that their hall once stood here, before a careless cook caused a catastrophic fire.   The next marker is a little harder to find but it’s well worth the effort. North of the church of St Vedast Alias Foster lies Fountain Court: look for a narrow passageway off Foster Lane. Around this charming little garden you’ll find a sculptured head of former vicar Canon Charles Mortlock by Jacob Epstein, a section of Roman tessellated pavement found beneath the demolished church of St Matthew Friday Street, and an Assyrian brick, from the excavations on the Ziggurat of Kalhu (modern day Nimrud). It was given by archaeologist and parishioner Max Mallowan, husband of Agatha Christie, in the 1950s. In the corner is also a lead plaque with the recognisable three tuns and chevron, dated 1711. Records in Guildhall Library show that the Vintners bought what became Nos. 3 and 4 Foster Lane in 1548 and didn’t sell the two properties until after 1945, when the site became the vicarage for St Vedast.     South of St Paul’s runs the delightful Carter Lane, which was once an important artery of the City. Its history goes back to the twelfth century, when it was known as Shoemakers’ Row. Its present name probably refers to its later use as a handy route for deliveries. To the left of Cobb’s Court look up at the Victorian building, with its attractive palmette columns, and you’ll see the Vintners’ arms with a decorative ‘RR’ below, with further one to the left, with a date below of 1880. While those initials are a mystery, deeds in the LMA record show we had interest in this site and other properties in and around Cobb’s Court from the 1550s until about 1870. These were listed as being in the parish of St Ann’s Blackfriars, which was destroyed in the Great Fire. The churchyard still exists, along with a fragment of Blackfriars Monastery. From 1878 until 1913 we also owned the nearby St Ann’s Tavern, which was previously listed as a coffee house, but has long since gone.   Samuel Pepys might not have been enamoured of Master Vintner Thomas Bludworth (‘A silly man, I think’ he memorably observed in his diary) but his birthplace has a connection to the Company. Pepys was born in 1633 in Salisbury Court, a side street off Fleet Street, where his father was a tailor. Its name comes from the Bishops of Salisbury, who once had a substantial mansion here. In 1822 it was where The Sunday Times began. On the west side is a handsome Queen Anne-style office, with oriel windows and fine brickwork decoration, which incorporates the familiar three casks and a chevron. Surveyor papers report that in 1827 and 1828 the properties were in such poor condition that orders for necessary repairs were issued (and ...

Guy Fairbank | 05th April 2022 | Literature

Emery Walker House   During the First World War, if you’d been walking across Hammersmith Bridge at night you might have spotted a shifty looking gentleman surreptitiously throwing bits of metal off the bridge and into the River Thames. This mysterious dumper was a disgruntled bookbinder by the name of Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, who died 100 years ago this year. As for the metal, they were his collection of Doves Type, a beautifully designed font created with his partner Emery Walker.   In the last years of the 19th century Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson (1840-1922) decided to abandon his life as a barrister and become a bookbinder.  With his wife he set up the Doves Press at 1 Hammersmith Terrace, which they named after their local pub, the historic Dove. In 1900 he went into partnership with an engraver Emery Walker (1851-1933) and for the next few years created some of the most beautifully printed Arts and Crafts books.   Inspired by 15th century Italian Renaissance books they designed a special Doves Press. They carved the punches by hand and only used one size - 16pt, in upper and lower case and no italics. Each book was beautifully produced and of the finest quality. They didn’t include illustrations; instead they used large wood-engraved capital letters. Their Doves Bible was a notable example of their craftsmanship.   But their partnership did not last. Cobden-Sanderson became difficult to work with and their business arrangement was dissolved. It was agreed that Cobden-Sanderson would retain the exclusive rights as the older man, then on his death they would pass to Walker. Nonetheless, after the press closed in 1916, Cobden-Sanderson noted in his diary that he had ‘bequeathed’ the type to the bed of the River Thames.   In fact he didn’t want the type falling into his ex-partner’s hands. Over several months, from August 1916 to January 1917, punches, frames and type were carefully disposed of in the river. All was carefully planned: he waited until any vehicle passed along the bridge or a boat under the bridge.  The only pieces of Doves Type to remain was Walker’s. But that wasn’t the last bit of Cobden-Sanderson to go into the river. In 1928 he and his wife’s ashes were washed away in a great flood.    But that’s not the end of the story.  A few years ago designer Robert Green, along with some professional divers, managed to retrieve some 150 pieces from the river. You can see them in the nearby Emery Walker’s House, at 7 Hammersmith Terrace, which is now a museum.  ...