• Shakespeare’s Restless World
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    There is a great new series Shakespeare’s Restless World on Radio 4 by Neil McGregor starting today – the idea is to talk about one object a day over twenty days – giving some of the context to Shakespeare’s life.    This is linked with the forthcoming must see exhibition at the British Museum –…

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  • Zoffany at the Royal Academy and the East India Company
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    If you can fight your way through the queues for the David Hockney show, I thoroughly recommend a visit to the exhibition Johan Zoffany RA Society Observed at the Royal Academy. Zoffany’s sometimes mischievous portraits of London society are bound to fascinate anyone with an interest in Georgian London. For me however, it is the…

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  • Les Miserables and revolting students at Greenwich
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    Luvvies and revolutionaries are preparing to man the barricades at The Old Royal Naval College (ORNC) at Greenwich where scenes from the forthcoming blockbuster film Les Miserables are due to be shot early in April. The ORNC’s Lower Grand Square, which is flanked by the King Charles and Queen Anne Courts, is being mocked up…

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  • The London Hydraulic Power Company
    The London Hydraulic Power Company
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    One of my favourite things about walking London is the little things you find that tell a big story. Take this valve cover marked LHP in Royal Mint Street. Its a remnant of the London Hydraulic Power Company, a network that powered equipment all over London in the late 19th and early 20th century. Hydraulic…

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  • Southwark and Dickens
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    Renowned British artist Maggi Hambling has been chosen to design a sculpture commemorating novelist Charles Dickens’s connections with the London Borough of Southwark. The sculpture will be installed on the recently created pedestrian piazza outside St George the Martyr church at the junction of Tabard Street and Borough High Street. Hambling, who designed the reclining…

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  • Dickens unveiled
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    In a dramatic moment worthy of a Charles Dickens plot, the winning design for a monument in Southwark to honour the great English novelist will be unveiled on Tuesday 7th February, the 200th anniversary of his birth. The design will be selected by a commitee of representatives from local organisations including Southwark Council and Bankside…

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  • Sir John Soane’s 175th anniversary
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    Sunday 22nd January is the 175th anniversary of one of the great architects of London – Sir John Soane. His buildings, in which applied classical styles to the needs of the modern city, are not only important in themselves, but they also are a great boost to the confidence of London. During Soanes lifetime London…

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  • The Elysée Palace, Greenwich
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    The magnificent Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich has acquired yet another alias. It appears in the Maggie Thatcher biopic Iron Lady as the Elysée Palace, official residence of the French president. Meryl Streep, who has just won a Golden Globe best actress award for her portrayal of the former Tory Prime…

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