This statue, known as both “My Children” and “Two Pupils”, represents children from the Royal Military Asylum that was based at the Duke Of York’s Square, London. It’s full title was the Royal Military Asylum for the Children of Soldiers of the Regular Army and mostly educated children who were orphans or who had fathers serving overseas.
I’ve walked by the Garden Museum a few times whilst in London and when I found myself with an afternoon free I decided it was the perfect time to visit. I was largely prompted by their temporary exhibit at the time – on until 19 June – called Wild & Cultivated: Fashioning the Rose.
A Grade II* listed building near Westminster Bridge, it used to be the headquarters of the London and Greater London Councils. Built of Portland stone in an Edwardian Baroque style its construction began in 1911 and it was opened by George V in 1922. After 1986 it ceased its council function and the building was sold – it now houses several businesses including the Sea Life London Aquarium and two hotels.
On my last trip to London there was such glorious sunny weather that I decided to head to Holland Park which I last visited in 2018. I wanted to see if the blossoms were in bloom yet on the trees – they weren’t quite but there were lots of lovely colourful flowers.
Unveiled in 2007 this statue, made of Portland stone, is of Sir Hans Sloane, a doctor, naturalist and collector who left his collection of 71,000 items to the nation. These were the beginnings of the British Museum and the Natural History Museum.
The Flying Horse is a Grade II* listed building that is the last remaining pub on Oxford Street. A red brick building with stone dressing in the Flemish Renaissance style it dates from around the end of the 19th century, redeveloped on the site of an earlier pub.
The idea for the National COVID Memorial came from members of the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign and you can read more about that here. It is a public memorial of pink and red hearts representing each person who has died of COVID in the UK. It can be found just outside St Thomas’ Hospital opposite the Houses of Parliament and stretches along the South Bank of the Thames.
This very impressive Queen Anne building on Oxford Street is the former Waring and Gillow building. Waring and Gillow were furniture makers; founded in the 1730s in Lancaster by Robert Gillow his eponymous company merged with the Waring Company of Liverpool in 1897.
Whilst visiting the V&A Museum I came across this sculpture on the opposite side of the street. It is a memorial to those killed after being forcibly repatriated by the Allies to the then Soviet Union at the conclusion of the Second World War.
The school was first endowed in 1645 as a free school for the children of the poor. A school was actually built about 1709 elsewhere but they moved to the current building next to St Mary Abbots Church around 1860.
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