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Publisher of lively guides to the history, culture and contemporary life of your London neighbourhoo

08/04/2025

I was pleasantly surprised by my visit to Van Gogh’s House. It was derelict when it was first brought to the public’s attention but what a transformation now! The guided tour was excellent, the weather glorious and the trees in full bloom (in the neighbourhood, not at the house). Recommended!

23/03/2025

To lunch or dine at the Clink Restaurant in BRIXTON PRISON is quite an experience. Security is a top concern and by the time they have finished with you, nothing is left to carry except your Visa card to pay the bill.
“Your meal is cooked and served by prisoners training towards gaining their accredited qualifications. By dining with us, you are giving them a valuable learning experience .”
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How was the meal? Sophisticated and utterly delicious. I had crispy pork and garnish followed by a large oyster mushroom with tasty accompaniments, fantastic chunky chips and a blood orange pie with meringue topping. No alcohol. The phones being banned there are no photographs of the food - it’s a pity because it was beautifully presented. I left with a bittersweet feeling - worthy and well intentioned scheme but the gap between the two worlds feels so wide … The rural Brixton mill is just a short walk away and it was a very refreshing end to the day.

19/03/2025

THRILLING news: the wonderful new bookshop at Elephant & Castle has started taking in our publications. It is The Book Elephant owned by Tim and Kasia Wrobel (photo 2). They opened on 24 December 2024 after many frustrating delays but have been going strong ever since. It’s a really lively venue which serves tea and coffee, ant the hope one day of introducing beer!
At weekends when it’s really busy the bookshop is in the hands of the lovely Lucia and Eva (photo 4).
I’ve started volunteering there one day a week … Why? The start of a new venture? WATCH THIS SPACE …

28/02/2025

My friends have been raving about the Towner Art Gallery exhibition - ‘Drawing the Unspeakable’. I was curious and escaped to Eastbourne for a day.
It is an extraordinary show: the drawings of course but also the terrific curation of father (David) and daughter (Lisa) Dimbleby. Their texts -with dialogues- are beautiful and not only throw light on the works on display but also why they were chosen. Outstanding and very moving. The exhibition ends on 27 April.
From the INTRODUCTION: ‘What do we do when a situation feels unspeakable? When our body is disturbed - unsettled by emotion, fraught with feeling, which cannot be put into words. When speech does not release the disturbance, but distorts or augments it, or when a mouth is blocked and words do not come at all.’

25/01/2025

‘VAN GOGH BREAKS RECORDS AT NATIONAL GALLERY. The show was the Museum’s most popular ticketed exhibition’ reports the Museums Journal (online, 23 January 2025). The selection of paintings was outstanding and so was their presentation against beautifully coordinated colours. But Van Gogh’s slim connection with London was not mentioned, understandably. If you would like to catch up with it, check our publication ‘The Streatham Sketchbook’ (available on Amazon). Streatham was indeed the key location in this instance …

28/10/2024

Hew Locke’s exhibition at the British Museum is PROFOUNDLY moving. This artist provides such an important testimony to the deep, deep roots of our western culture - the British Museum is a major London institution which is too easy to trust without questioning. Full marks to them for commissioning this searching and soft spoken artist to challenge the hidden life of museum objects.
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“Do objects belong here, or in their place of origin? What is their place of origin? I have my opinions. Things change and shift and opinions differ. Everything is fluid” writes the artist.
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So much emotion in this soulful exhibition! DO GO.

25/10/2024

Will you be moved as much as I was by the exhibition ‘In the Footsteps of the East London Group’ at the Tannery Gallery? It bridges past and present in one clever move - the show juxtaposes the historic work of the East London Group (ELG) born in Bethnal Green in the late 1920s with that of contemporary artists. The latter have been asked to choose a historic work that resonates and produce a response to it.
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After the tumultuous years of WWI and its aftermath, the working class men and women of the ELG opted to paint subdued, poetic works, simplifying their cityscapes to essential blocks bathing in a soft, dreamy atmosphere broken by the occasional human silhouette or the slightly surreal intrusion of posts, sticks or branches.
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The first five pictures (details) are by the ELG, the last five (more details) by contemporary artists, ALL treating East London subjects - what do you think? I find restlessness and complexity have replaced the calm, pensive approach of the 1930s-40s. Explosive, vibrant colour has replaced the restricted palette of the earlier generation. FASCINATING comparison.
1. Elwin Hawthorne 2. Walter Steggles 3. Elwin Hawthorne 4. Harold Steggles 5. Elwin Hawthorne 6. Michael Johnson 7. Ferha Farooqui 8. Gethin Evans 9. Tim Craven 10. Alexandra Bloom

08/09/2024

The painter Timothy Hyman died this week, very unexpectedly. He had been a friend for well over 30 years. His two muses - his wife, Judith and his city, London were a constant source of inspiration.

He was also passionate about Pierre Bonnard and narrative painting (from medieval manuscripts and early Sienese painting to the contemporary work of Jiro Osuga and Bhupen Khakhar). He wrote books about these, but he would also weave some of these unlikely themes into his own paintings.
He was a deeply north bank man, calling South London ‘Terra Incognita’ in the painting ‘My London Cosmos’. Despite that he occupies a prominent place in the artist’s’ chapter of our latest book: ‘London’s South Bank - A History’. Oblivious to the clash of time, his ‘Utopian Thoughts while Crossing Waterloo Bridge’ pays homage to his absolute favourite painting, a 14th-century fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Siena. Siena in his mind, Siena in London …
YOU WILL BE MISSED TIM ❤️ ————————————
1. Tim Hyman in 2019
2. And 3. Were purchased by the Museum of London: ‘Night Bus’ (1981-5) & ‘At Barbican Station’ (1991-3) 4. ‘Utopian Thoughts while crossing Waterloo Bridge’ (detail), 2009 (Private Collection)

09/08/2024

One of my secret pleasures when going round the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is to catch up with artists I have met, those who have become friends and/or those who have been reproduced in Your London Publishing books. The selection is not exhaustive and in no particular order:
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1. Jock McFadyen 2. Sarah Medway 3. Tim Hyman (x2). 4. J’aime Gili. 5. Gethin Evans. So good to see you there!

10/06/2024

I delightfully lost myself in the landscapes of Jock McFadyen at the weekend … the subject matter hovered between Bethnal Green and Scotland, with occasional leaps of the imagination, for instance Bethnal Green and Mont Blanc united in a single picture. Mostly large paintings dominated by a still and glorious sky, the urban sprawl is reduced to a thin strip glittering with lights but otherwise lost in the immensity of the cosmos. This is a selection of details. To see the real thing, head for the Grey Gallery in Helmsley Place, Hackney next weekend - open between 12.00 and 5.00 pm

02/06/2024

St Paul’s Cathedral seems to be the great winner in the current (wonderful) show at Guildhall Art Gallery: Anne Desmet - Kaleidoscope London.

The Royal Academician is riveted by the use of a Kaleidoscope on her two favourite cities - London and Rome, metamorphosing both in surprising ways. At times, this new look on cities drives the artist to produce cosmic imagery - the last picture, planet visiting, inspired by Antoine de St Exupery’s ‘Little Prince’.

06/04/2024

To understand early paintings of London, you have to look abroad. After Antwerp (which has very strong links with London) my quest took me to Spain and one painting in particular: ‘El Greco’s View and Plan of Toledo’ housed in this city’s wonderful El Greco house and museum. It is dated around 1610-14. At that date the image of London was still in black and white. The earliest oil painting ‘London from Southwark’ dates from around 1630.

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