Henry Moore’s Draped Seated Woman has returned to the East End after taking a 20 year holiday at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Purchased in 1962 by the LCC under its ‘Patronage of the Arts Scheme’ where sculptures by leading artists were acquired for housing estates, schools and other public places for the benefit of local people. 

Draped Seated Woman was placed on LCC’s Stifford Estate in Stepney, where it gained the nickname ‘Old Flo’ by the residents and where she stayed for 35 years...

Solo Show of Contemporary Artist Louise McNaught explores the theme endangered animals through paintings and 3D painted sculptures at the Curious Duke Gallery, currently London's leading urban and contemporary art space for emerging artists. 

The exhibition on opens Friday 7th April. McNaught's wonderfully colourful combinations of animals and neons where the animals are ‘God-like, sublime and ethereal in their luminescence.’ 

McNaught embraces a mixed-media approach which is motivated by e...

Spriggan, a guardian of abandoned ruins in Crouch End

Spriggans, a guardian of abandoned ruins in Crouch End

The sculpture depicts a Spriggan - a mythical creature, usually of rather ill disposition, which is said to be a guardian of abandoned ruins, barrows and buried treasures. Sometimes Spriggans would even steal human children and leave their own ugly offspring behind, so be on guard if out walking with your kids!

This particular Spriggan is a work of an internationally acclaimed London-base...

What is a Coat of Arms?

During medieval times a coat of arms was very important. It told everybody who you were, what family you belonged to, who your relatives were, what territory you may hold. It basically said everything about a powerful person that you wanted (and needed) people to know.

A coat of arms is a unique design belonging to a particular person (or group of people i.e. the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries) and is used by them in a wide variety of ways. Some of these ways include...

History of Mason's Yard, Mayfair

Ormond Yard was laid out as a 200 feet square plot of land originally designed to be a stable yard and by 1740 the yard was already being called Mason's Yard, probably due to the owner of the two houses fronting both the yard and Duke street was a Mr Henry Mason. It would make sense for him to have rented some stables in Mason's Yard.

The worshipful Society of Apothecaries's Hall is filled with rhinoceros, but why?

National Police Memorial

Seated at Cambridge Green, on the corner of The Mall and Horse Guards Road, directly outside the Old Admiralty Building.The site had previously been occupied by an air shaft on the Bakerloo Line of the London Underground.

What is the objective of having a war memorial? 

To remember the dead? To bask in the glory of sacrifice for King and country? Ex-servicemen were quoted by the Manchester Guardian as reminiscing about the war as they examined the statue, and remarking on how the bronze figures had captured the reality of their time in the artillery. The newspaper noted that the frankness of the portrayal was a "terrible revelation long overdue", and hoped that veterans would be able to show the monument to the...

Christie's is the world's oldest fine art auctioneer and has sold fine art, furniture, jewellery and wine since 1766, when James Christie conducted the very first sale in London. Since then, Christie's has continued to build its reputation as the perfect backdrop for the sales of the world's finest collections and greatest works of art before their auction. 

It was in 1823 when Christie's moved to its global headquarters at 8 King Street, St. James's, which remains to be its London headquarter...

One hundred years ago Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary stated to his friend and journalist John Alfred Spender, editor of the Westminster Gazette "the lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time." It was dusk as he was watched the first of the gas lights along the Mall were being lit. The next day Grey would face the Cabinet and persuade them that the time had now come to declare war on Germany.

From what had been a European war, when Britain declare...