The Photographers' Gallery..Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Conde Nast Years 1923-1937

Yesterday afternoon as the rain cleared I went to visit The Photographers' Gallery in Ramillies Street W1F, a quiet street just behind the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street.

It is a really good space covering 7 floors and includes a cafe, print room and a beautiful shop.  I was there to visit the Edward Steichen exhibition that started there on on Friday and runs until January 18th 2015.

The exhibition covers two floors of the gallery and shows over 200 vintage prints of Steichen's portrait and fashion photography. His work appeared in Vogue and Vanity Fair and as well as the pictures there are several display cases holding these precious magazines.

I had seen several of the works previously at the 2008 National Portrait Gallery exhibition, Vanity Fair Portraits, and the Gloria Swanson one behind lace is a particular favourite.

As well as the exhibition yesterday they were running free workshops to let you recreate some of the pictures.  I tried to do the Swanson one but the lace was too dense and it turned out more Halloween than Hollywood!

A definite if you love fashion and the Golden Age of Hollywood and it's free to enter between 10am and 12pm on a weekday.  The cost at other times is £4.50 and £3.50 concessions but that covers all exhibitions running there.

A Walthamstow Sunday

On an incredibly warm and bright October Sunday I decided to visit the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow to see a new exhibition and also walk to Walthamstow Village to look at the road set up for the Mini Holland trial.

Rossetti's Obsession: Images of Jane Morris runs until 4th January 2015 and is a beautifully curated exhibition of photographs, pastels and drawings of the wife of William Morris, This year marks the Centenary of her death and this exhibition is a travelling one in partnership with Bradford Museums and Galleries.  I really enjoyed this and will go back to some associated events as well. Opening times are Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm and it is free entry.

A walk along Hoe Street and into St. Marys Road took me into Walthamstow Village to see the Mini Holland trial in action. As usual on a bright day Orford Road was busy with people and a few bikes. As I'm not a resident of an affected road I'll reserve judgement on it.

A short walk around the corner is the Vestry House Museum home of the archives of Waltham Forest and a place I visit regularly for exhibitions. I hadn't though known about their latest one Raids, Rations and Riots: Waltham Forest and the Great War which started last week and runs until Sunday 1st of March 2015. It is a thought provoking and informative exhibition which has displays about the Chingford Royal Naval Air Station which was situated under what is now the William Girling Reservoir as well as about the Walthamstow AEC factory that made the B Type bus from 1910. There are also many display items which tell the human cost that the Great War had on what is now Waltham Forest. This exhibition is also free and I would recommend a visit to both on the same day. This museum is also open from Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm

Makers at The Mill Exhibition...... Bromley-by-Bow

On Thursday I was fortunate enough to have been invited to the PV of a new exhibition at The House Mill, Three Mills which is running until Sunday 28th September 2014. There are several artists and designer-makers involved with this and the work on show ranges from photography and ceramics to large art pieces.

The invite came from fellow London Historian and illustrator Jane Young who is one of the exhibitors and an invite was also extended to Alan and Janetta Waltham who were behind the East London Art Group's recent show at Bow Arts The Nunnery.  After many months of missing each other I also got to meet artist Marc Gooderham whose work I have admired since seeing an exhibition at the Town House on Fournier Street earlier this year.

Thank you for the invite Jane and wishing all of you a very successful show.

It is a lovely exhibition and in such a fabulous setting but only on for another week. Full details are below...

Further information can be found here.. The House Mill

The Cornershop Bethnal Green

At the beginning of August a new shop opened in Bethnal Green just behind Columbia Road, a new cornershop but a cornershop like no other!  The shop looks like it has been fully stocked with groceries, sweets and newspapers but look a little closer and you'll see they are all made of FELT.

It is the work of Lucy Sparrow and it took 8 months to produce the 4,000 plus items. I visited yesterday with some friends and we spent a very long time looking at each individual item and seeing something new at every turn.  You cannot buy the 'stock' however you can order items to be collected or sent on to you. Lucy has also been running a series of workshops.

The exhibition is on until 31st August and is open between 10am and 7pm. Lucy can be found at Sew Your Soul or @sewyoursoul #thecornershop.  The 'shop' will be moving to a gallery in Brighton soon!

TIME Tattoo Art Today at Somerset House

This free exhibition started last month at Somerset House and had been on my To Do List for a while.  It is situated in the Embankment Galleries and displays original artworks from some of the most well known tattoo artists from around the world. Over 70 of them are represented in this colourful and thought provoking exhibition.

The theme of the exhibition is Time and the brief was to create an original artwork on any surface except skin, their favoured medium! My favourite is the beautiful Rouge painting by Rose Hardy.

It has been curated by Claudia De Sabe and Miki Vailetto and runs until the 5th October 2014. 

 Detail Rouge by Rose Hardy

Tower Hamlets at Street Level Bank Holiday Walks

Way back in April I mentioned that I was going to be doing an Introduction to Guiding Course in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and I don't think I've mentioned it again since... well a lot has happened since then....

I've walked an enormous number of the streets of TH, learnt the wonderful history relating to areas, buildings and people, met some great people who are also as mad about London as myself and as a result of the course I'm doing a stop on a guided walk very very soon!

After our course finished a core group of about 10 of us plus five guides who did walks for us each Saturday decided that it would be great to keep the momentum going and start looking into the possibility of putting a Tower Hamlets Guiding project together and the Tower Hamlets Walkshop evolved!  Course leader David Charnick discussed the possibility of starting with a series of  FREE walks over the Bank Holiday Weekend 23rd to 25th August 2014 one of which would involve six of the trainee guides.  This particular walk will take place on Sunday afternoon at 3pm and covers Bethnal Green and Mile End.

The other walks look at the very different areas around Mile End, Bow, Poplar, Limehouse, Stepney and a different side of Bethnal Green.

There is still more to learn about Tower Hamlets but I feel I know it as well as my home Borough now!

Here is the link to book these free walks on Eventbrite.  There are limited spaces so please book early!

There is also a page on Facebook with further information TH Walkshop