St Mary’s Garden is a small public garden located next to the Garden Museum. It was created by Lambeth Borough Council in around 1932. It was originally part of the road which lead to the original Lambeth Bridge in 1862 which has since been replaced by a bridge further to the south.
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.
A Grade II* building The Tower was built in 1908 as an office block; it was converted to apartments in 2006. The architect was W. Aubrey Thomas, the same man that designed the Royal Liver Building.
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.
Designed by Thomas Rickman in the Gothic Revival style the Ramshorn was originally St David’s Parish Church and dates from 1824. It is now owned by the University of Strathclyde and houses Scotland’s National Centre for Languages and the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools.
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.
Part of an ongoing series, these two doors are from the Rembrandt House Museum, the house where Rembrandt lived between 1639 and 1656 and so would have been used by the painter himself.
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