Reading Matters

Beatrix Potter plaque marks her childhood home

I don't know how many times I've walked past this attractive plaque over the past 13 or so years, but whenever I see it I curse myself for not having a camera. Thank goodness for smartphones, because when I strolled past it on Saturday afternoon, during a 15km walk to Chelsea and back (for lunch and then cake), I finally managed to take a snap.

The wording on the plaque reads:

Beatrix Potter, writer and artist, 1866 to 1943, lived in a house on this site from 1866 to 1913, erected by The Boltons Association, The Beatrix Potter Society and Frederick Warne & Co. in 1988.

It's located (almost) on the corner of Old Brompton Road and Bolton Place in Earls Court. To see a map of the location and find out some information about the author, visit the London Remembers website.

English Heritage suspends London's blue plaque scheme because of funding cuts

If you have ever traipsed around London you may well have spotted the odd blue disc or two adorning the facade of certain buildings. These are part of English Heritage's blue plaque scheme, which commemorates "the link between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked".

Many of these plaques celebrate writers — the one pictured right, for instance, marks the building where Lytton Strachey, critic, biographer and founding member of the Bloomsbury Group lived between 1880-1932.

The scheme, believed to be the oldest of its kind in the world, has been running for 146 years. But today English Heritage announced it is suspending the scheme because of Government funding cuts.

This isn't the first time the scheme has been suspended — it was put on hold from 1915 to 1919 and 1940 to 1947 because of war-time cutbacks — so let's hope it is reinstated very soon. But I wouldn't hold my breath: the present Coalition Government is ruthless when it concerns anything to do with culture and the arts — dare I mention the closure of Britain's public libraries?

Over the years I have much enjoyed spotting these literary landmarks — here's a few I've sourced from my photographic archive.

Patrick Hamilton: 2 Burlington Gardens, Chiswick
I wrote about this plaque when it was installed in February 2011.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard: 69 Gunterstone Road, West Kensington
I have walked past this building thousands of times over the past 12 years and never noticed it until very recently — he is most famous for penning King Solomon's Mines.

George Eliot: 4 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea
It's not entirely clear whether this is an "official" plaque — it doesn't seemed to be referenced on the English Heritage site. I wrote about this residence when I happened to walk past it last year.

Oscar Wilde: 34 Tite Street, Chelsea

Charles Dickens: BMA House, Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury
Again, not sure this is an "official" blue plaque.

Ian Fleming: 22 Ebury Street, Belgravia
I wrote about this plaque last April.

Thanks to @MarDixon for alerting me to this story.

A visit to the library at Chartered Accountants' Hall, One Moorgate Place, London

A few weeks ago I went on a four-hour cycling tour of Baroque architecture sites in London and Greenwich. It was hosted by Open City, a charity which champions good architecture and design in the capital. Midway through that tour we stopped to admire the Grade II-listed Chartered Accountants' Hall at One Moorgate Place, which has a series of decorative friezes (one of which is pictured above) running along the second level of the building. Our tour guide mentioned that if we ever got the chance it was worth taking a look inside, because there was a particularly beautiful library on the ground floor.

With that magic word 'library' ringing in my ears, I was delighted to discover that the building, which is home to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), was open to the public today as part of Open House London. Of course, I made sure to toddle along, camera at the ready...

I wasn't disappointed. When I walked into this room, which features a high ceiling, Doric columns, an elaborate-looking bridge, portrait gallery and book-lined alcoves on two sides, I couldn't believe the beauty of it. I suspect everyone else on the free guided tour thought the same, judging by the 'oohs' and 'ahhs' as we entered the room — followed in quick succession by the clicking of camera shutters.

I missed a lot of what the guide was saying because I was too mesmirised by the decor. But I do know that the Members' Room, as it is known, is part of the original building (there are 20th century additions to the rear), which was designed by the eminent Victorian architect Sir John Belcher in 1890.

And while I was there to admire the book-lined walls, the real show-stopper was the bridge, which spans the width of the room. There was something familiar about it that I couldn't quite put my finger on. And then I discovered its design was based on the Rialto Bridge in Venice and suddenly it made sense... 

According to our guide, it is too weak to walk over and is merely for decorative purposes, but I'm not sure if that has always been the case.

Sadly, it's much the same for the books, which are no longer loaned out and remain on the shelves to look pretty. The ICAEW has a "proper" library elsewhere in the building for its members to use.

There were other curiosities on show, tucked safely away in glass cabinets — that's probably because the room is available for hire, so if you've got a spare £1,300 or so, you can host a dinner or party in rather sumptious surrounds.

In another room upstairs, I was delighted to see this drawing, dated 1950, on show. It breaks all kinds of copyright to publish here, I'm sure, but it gives you a glimpse of what it must have been like to visit the library at the time. As our guide explained, it was  "very much a gentleman's club".

To get an even better look at the room, which doesn't seem to have changed much in more than 100 years, check out this full 360° tour.

Writing Britain: an exhibition for literature lovers

If you live in London you could be forgiven for thinking that the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympics were the only big events happening this summer. But lovers of literature haven't been forgotten: for the next four months the British Library is staging a spectacular exhibition that showcases treasures from the nation's English language heritage. And what an exhibition it is!

I was recently invited to go on an exclusive curator-led tour of Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands and more than a week later I'm still mulling it over.

There are so many incredible items on display that I came away feeling totally overwhelmed. I'm not sure what impressed me most — that there were so many books and manuscripts on display, some of which have never been seen by the public before, or that it was so cleverly arranged in themes, rather than chronology. Its breadth and scope, which covers everything from William Shakespeare to JK Rowling — and everything in between — is equally breath-taking. 

There are more than 150 literary works on display divided into six different themes — rural dreams, dark satanic mills, wild places, Cockney visions, beyond the city, and waterlands — relating to various British landscapes and environments.

Exhibition highlights

There are (literally) dozens of highlights — and if you're a fan of the English classics you won't be disappointed, because it's stuffed to the brim with Brontes and Hardys and Conan Doyles et al. But given my preference for 20th and 21st century literature, I was delighted to see:

• Kazuo Ishiguro's manuscript for The Remains of the Day

• Angela Carter's manuscript for Wise Children

• George Orwell's manuscript map, diary page and letter illustrating his experiences in the north of England, later published as The Road to Wigan Pier
  

• JG Ballard's manuscripts for Crash and Kingdom Come
  

• Ian McEwan's typewritten manuscript for On Chesil Beach

• Daphne Du Maurier's early plan for Rebecca, which was used as evidence when the author was unsuccessfully sued for plagarism. (See the US District Court stamp in the photograph above.)

• JK Rowling's original manuscript for her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which she famously wrote in a cafe in Edinburgh. Interestingly, the curator confessed that the last time they borrowed this manuscript from the author, it was simply popped in the post, but this time around it came via special delivery!

I found it particularly fascinating to see the handwriting of so many famous writers and the notebooks or type of paper they chose to write in: Charles Dickens' was particularly messy and full of scribbles; Arthur Conan Doyle's was scrupulously neat and tidy; Angela Carter had a preference for yellow legal pads; and Lewis Carroll drew amazing pictures and had perfect print-like writing.

How to book a curator-led tour

If you fancy visiting the exhibition, it runs until 25 September 2012. I would recommend giving yourself at least an hour, possibly two, to check it out. As well as letters, photographs, manuscripts, notebooks, maps, drawings, poems and song lyrics to look at and admire, you can also listen to sound recordings and watch a short film.

For a limited time visitors can get a curator-led tour for the normal ticket price of £9 — I highly recommend this as it helps to have someone explain what you are looking at and why certain items were chosen or acquired.

The curator-led tours take place every Tuesday evening between 6.30 and 7.15pm — the first one is tomorrow, June 7 — and every Thursday between 3.30 and 4.15pm until 5 July. The special tour tickets can be booked online or at the British Library box office. Don't miss it!

The house where Ian Fleming once lived

Are you a James Bond fan?

I've not read any of the books, but I still felt a little buzz of excitement when I recently stumbled upon Ian Fleming's former residence by accident. It is located at 22 Ebury Street, just a stone's throw from Belgravia Books, in Belgravia.

There's a blue plaque high up on the wall which states:

IAN FLEMING
1908-1964
Creator of James Bond Lived Here

The elegant cream building was originally a Baptist church but was subdivided into flats.

An article published in The Telegraph claims Fleming bought the flat from fascist leader Oswald Mosley in 1934. And the book London, City of Words states he lived here from 1936 to 1939.

If anyone has read Moonraker you may already know that villian Sir Hugo Drax also lived in this flat and that Bond chased him down Ebury Street, all the way to Dover!

The inn that Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Dickens referenced in their work

Here's a London building with a literary connection: Staple Inn on High Holborn was built in 1585. It houses an inner courtyard (sadly, not open to the public), which has been referenced in the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who (according to this tourism website) wrote, 'there was not a quieter spot in England than this'. Charles Dickens also mentioned its tranquility in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

The house where George Eliot spent the last few weeks of her life in 1880

Cheyne Walk is a lovely street in Chelsea that is lined with tall, elegant houses that overlook the Thames. It has many literary (and artistic and musical) connections. And if you walk along it and admire the houses your eye will spot numerous blue plaques heralding who lived and died there in times gone by.

Number 4 will be of interest to fans of George Eliot, for this is the house she spent the last few weeks of her life before she died of kidney failure in December 1880.

According to my copy of London: City of Words, George had "moved there with her young husband, John Cross, after the death of her long-term partner, George Lewis".

The entry for No 4 Cheyne Walk on the British History Online Website adds: "On December 3rd the house was taken by the famous novelist, Mrs. Cross, better known as George Eliot, whose residence, short as it was, has given it its chief interest. She came here with high hopes of better health than had latterly been her lot and of gaining pleasure from the beautiful riverside; but it was only for a few days. She caught a chill at a concert in St. James's Hall, and died on the night of December 22nd."

This illustration (see left, published via Wikipedia Commons) shows what the house looked like in 1881.

You might also like to know that Keith Richards, he of Rolling Stones fame, moved into No 3 during the summer of 1969. What funny neighbours they would have made had George and Keith lived in the same century!

'Poet and hack' at St Pancras International

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I took these photographs of Sir John Betjeman's statue at St. Pancras International (also known as St Pancras railway station) last week.

Sir John (1906-1984) was a poet, writer and broadcaster, who staunchly defended Victorian architecture and was largely responsible for ensuring the beautiful facade of this building was not pulled down when there was a move to do so in the 1960s.

This wonderful statue, by sculptor Martin Jennings, stands on the platform in the newly revamped station. It's a fitting tribute to him: from a distance he almost looks real, hand on hat to stop it blowing away, and his coat billowing in the wind, as he stands looking up at the the most glorious single span roof I've ever seen.

At his feet are lines from his own poetry, including: "Here where the cliffs alone prevail. I stand exultant, neutral, free,/ And from the cushion of the gale. Behold a huge consoling sea."

Where Ford Madox Ford once lived

I took a walk through Kensington and Notting Hill this afternoon and noticed this very large house perched atop Campden Hill Road. The English Heritage blue plaque on the wall drew my attention. It indicated that Ford Maddox Ford (1873-1939), a novelist and critic, once lived there. He is best remembered for his novel The Good Soldier.

The London Library

Yesterday evening I took a walk around St James's Square in London's West End. It was that in-between time when the light fades from the sky and a kind of golden pinkish glow descends, making everything look strangely magical.

The square, which was set out in the 1650s, is lined with buildings that once housed famous residents -- British Prime Minister William Pitt The Elder (1708-1778), the 34th American President General Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) and British mathematician Countess Augusta Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), among others.

Tucked away in the north-west corner is the London Library. Until last night, I'd never heard of this private lending library which was founded in 1841 by the historian Thomas Carlyle.

According to the official website, it is now the largest independent lending library in the world. Individual membership starts at £210 (about $US420) per annum but judging by their stock and the lovely-looking book-filled rooms within, I reckon it might be worth it.