Category Archives: The UK

Unknown's avatar

Change happens – the City, London

by

During the lonely, lockdown days of 2020 we were in the City, in London, and walked as far as we could, whenever we were allowed. There were not many others about.

Liverpool Street Station was under wraps during that time, but we were able to walk around the various blocked off sections to the quieter, completed bits. The photograph above is of Exchange Square, which is between what might be called the back of the station and The Exchange Building on Primrose Street. Broadgate Tower is across the road, to the right of where I am standing to the take the photograph. To the left of the photograph, and out of sight, is the reclining figure of the huge, Broadgate Venus – five tonnes of curvacious, patinated bronze, sculpted by Columbian artist Fernando Botero.

Today, while walking with a friend in the City, I decided to show her the now unwrapped Liverpool Street Station. As I expected, Broadgate Venus was where I last saw her, but what I did not expect was all that had been laid out before her – the curving, densely planted flowerbeds, the soft-stepped fountain, the mature trees, and so much green grass. It looked beautiful, and was crowded with office workers out for their lunch breaks. I presume Broadgate Venus is delighted.

(The yoga lady in the image above, photographed in 2020, would today have been standing in a flower bed, somewhere in the bottom left quarter of the photograph below, with Broadgate Venus, even further to the left, just outside the frame.)

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

Unknown's avatar

A late night drive into London

by

Our drive into London this evening went smoothly, along quiet roads. The city looked beautiful and the weather was warm.

We stopped briefly at a petrol station before we crossed over the Thames. It was an hour before midnight and the staff were still in the shop, serving and cheerful. Just outside, not far from the entrance, a man sat on the ground, wrapped in blankets, homeless as a fly-tipped bundle.

On the other side of the river the traffic was mainly taxis and buses, parading slowly, at the required twenty-miles an hour towards the centre. We joined it, overtaken occasionally by the rattling engine of a delivery bike, or the hysterical siren of a blue lit police car – life from the real world, unzipping the city beneath.

As we swung along the river they were talking on the radio about the man released after 17 years of wrongful imprisonment, and the bill he would have to pay to cover the cost of his food and board during that time. It sounded all wrong, especially beside a river that looked so pretty at night, with the bridges lined up in both directions, their lights shining above the water.

Opposite Battersea Power Station, the almost-full moon hung, still as a picture, at the same height as the old station’s four pale towers. If it had been easy to stop we would have, but we were too tired and it was too late.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

Unknown's avatar

A first visit to the National Portrait Gallery

by

Our visit to the National Portrait Gallery today was fascinating – plenty of portraits from the Tudors onwards, and the perfect amount of information beside each painting to add another layer to our morning of seeing who was who, and why they were there.

The man above is Jem Wharton (1813 -1856) painted by Liverpool artist William Daniels. This little portrait was on one of the top floors of the National Portrait Gallery, just off from rooms full of huge paintings in lavish detail of various Tudors and members of their courts. What caught my eye was the attitude staring out from the frame, the occupant so watchful of the man who would paint him.

Who was the subject? The information beside the painting told me that it was Jem Wharton, one of the ‘most successful boxers in early 19th-century Britain’, winning his first bare knuckle fight in 1833, and retiring undefeated in 1840. He’s been painted wearing boxing gloves but apparently these were only for training sessions and not actual fights. The detail that he had paused in the middle of training for the artist, made sense for me of the impression I had of his reluctance to be still and to be studied.

This was just one of the many paintings that made me pause and really indulge in the irresistible chance to wander up close to the subjects – to stand and stare without having to look away while I tried to see what the artist had seen.

I loved the visit. My two main impressions: first – the powerful propaganda potential of portraits; and second – there were a lot of portraits of men, painted by men. There were women, but they only really started to come into their own as we worked our way down to the lower floors.

If you’re thinking of going, you’ll need at least a couple of hours and you’ll probably want to go back again.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023