Favourite Castles - Landmark Trust Houses

East Banqueting House, Chipping Camden 1994 and 1995

East Banqueting House, Chipping Camden 1994 and 1995

Gothic Temple, Stowe 

Gothic Temple, Stowe

Gothic Temple, Stowe

Shute Gatehouse, Lyme Regis

Anna at Shute Gatehouse

Lyme Regis

British Design 1948 - 2012 at the V&A

John Piper's Coventry

The Exhibition of British Design 1948 - 2012 at the V&A is fascinating as it covers approximately my lifetime and includes some particularly potent images from the 1960s including my first car -  a Mini - reminding one forcefully how terribly small they were. There were also a number of striking pieces from the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral, including the only maquette of John Piper's Baptistry Window and some stunning cartoons by Graham Sutherland from the creation of his famous tapestry, 'Christ In Glory in the Tetramorph' .

Graham Sutherland "The Eagle" (An image depicting St John)

I was also lucky enough to attend a lecture introducing the exhibition by Ghislaine Wood, the curator, as well as Louise Campbell of Warwick University on Sir Basil Spence and the building of the new Cathedral and Jonathan Foyle of the World Monuments Fund on the Fund's plans to improve the Coventry Cathedral quarter of the City as well as restore and display the beautiful C15th stained glass from the old Cathedral. Work on this part of the project has already started at The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. 

Favourite Places - The Bishops' Palace, Winchester

Favourite Views - Chilcomb in Spring

Oilseed rape in flower covers the fields around Chilcomb

Marta Becket - To Dance On Sands

Marta Becket - 'Sunflower Alley'

Say that upon the altar of her beauty
You sacrificed your tears, your sighs, yours heart:
Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears
Moist it again, and frame some feeling line
That may discover such integrity.


For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews,
Whose golden touch would soften steel and stones,
Make tigers tame and huge leviathans
Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.


Proteus: Two Gentlemen of Verona
Act Three, Scene Two

The Song of Solomon

My beloved spake, and said unto me,

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land;

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.

Arise my love, my fair one and come away.

O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice and thy countenenace is comly.

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes.

My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.

So perfect for April

Favourite Views - The Hog's Back

View towards Godalming from the Hog's Back

For more views, click here 

Food Shopping in Winchester

Ross Brimfield at The Veg Shed

Shopping for food in the otherwise lovely cathedral city of Winchester is sorry experience. Three big supermarkets - Waitrose, Sainbury's and Tesco crouch on the extremities of the city like leeches sucking shoppers into their vast car parks - and forcing smaller specialist food shops to close. Incredibly, there are no butchers and no fishmongers left in this ancient city of 200,000, once the capital of England (well, Wessex) due mainly to our own weak-minded shopping habits, compounded by the cunning of the supermarkets who offer seemingly irresistible prices on everyday goods like lavatory paper and pet food. And for those trinkets we ignore the high prices we pay for imported vegetables and fruit and the factory-farmed chicken.

Not only do the supermarkets squeeze the last drop of profit out of all but the largest and best capitalised agribusinesses, but their profits are siphoned out of the area and contribute little or nothing to the wellbeing of city and its citizens, unlike small family-owned shops. And of course they avoiding paying as much tax as they can through transfer pricing, captive insurance companies, group relief and offshore trusts and make billions - while in a once charming and friendly city like Winchester (where as a schoolboy I used to be greeted personally by the bank manager), one is left talking to bored check-out staff rather than being known by name by knowledgeable shopkeepers who's defining advantage is service, not price.

There are signs of life however, outside the massive car-parks and ugly approach roads of the supermarkets. The Farmer's Market every fourth Sunday is hugely popular and carries interesting stock from small producers. And The Good Life, in Headbourne Worthy is a brave attempt at a farm shop, though it carries no fish. And, best of all, The Veg Shed run almost singlehandedly by Ross Brimfield, sells high quality and cheap vegetable, fruit and eggs from a wooden shack in two pub car parks three days a week and makes deliveries on the others. And he knows all his customers by name.  

Spitalfields Life Book Launch

Christ Church, Spitalfields

The launch of the book of Spitalfields Life was a magical evening; unique in publishing terms and probably the largest gathering of notable locals and far-flung well-wishers ever assembled in Spitalfields for any purpose.

We were bound together by the vision of the unnamed Gentle Author who has penned his daily stories of a place and its people in the most sensitive and yet enlivening way, and which, through the power of the internet, have instantly reached people across the world.

The book itself is a triumph of design and deserves to be the godfather of many other collections of blog pieces that one hopes could sometimes be opened on one's knee.

Some photos from the event can be found here 

The Gentle Author's own piece about the event and many more photos can be seen here 

Tichbourne Water Meadows in Winter

Click here for some more photos

The Road to Bangalore

Favourite Writings - Desiderata

Desiderarta

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

The Orangery Garden in Snow

An Astronomer's Paradise

An Astronomer's Paradise from Babak Tafreshi on Vimeo.

Favourite Places - Mottisfont Abbey

Mottisfont Abbey in winter

Thoughts on SOPA and PIPA

As a newcomer to this discussion, I have been looking at some of the il-tempered arguments that are raging around the proposed SOPA and PIPA Bills currently being considered by the US Congress and Senate.

The essence of the problem is that the internet has made the sharing of spoken, written, sung and photographed material incredibly easy, and the bodies that exist to protect such material from being shared without payment to the copyright holder, like the Motion Picture Association of America, are being rendered obsolete - and in their death-throes are thrashing around without regard to the underlying issues and what should be done about them.

It's interesting to start from the fundamentals; and the thought that sharing itself not a zero-sum game. Thomas Jefferson wrote:

"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."


The same is true of physical works. While physical property rights are usually 'rivalrous', intellectual property rights are non-rivalrous. If you make a copy of something, the enjoyment of the copy does not does not prevent enjoyment of the original.

But the Motion Picture Association and others lined up alongside them use intemperate language that clearly shows that they believe intellectual property rights are akin to real property rights and illustrate  this confusion by frequent use of terms like 'criminal', 'piracy' and 'copyright theft'. The unauthorised use of copyright material is not a criminal but a civil matter, and the criminal law should not be used to deal with it except in the most egregious cases - such as those involving serious fraud. 

The problem is that the concepts are dominated by money and big business trying to protect the 'rents' that they derive from their patent and copyright monopolies. Although patent law is somewhat outside the scope of this debate and is far more defensible, most people scorn the pharmaceutical companies for concentrating on creating patents for 'first-world' drugs and at the same time refusing to release from patent drugs that could then be made much more cheaply. And the worrying notion that certain useful gene sequences can be patented has made big pharma's position even less acceptable.

These perceptions add to the righteous indignation of those who think that the whole concept of unilaterally setting high fees for unselected chunks of copyright material is inequitable. This has been shown dramatically true by the success of iTunes, where users are quite happy to pay for legitimate downloads since a reasonable sum is charged for the individual songs that the users actually want. 

The same is true of films and DVDs. As soon as DVDs come down in price to something reasonable, people buy them in handfuls. If the film companies don't want to sell them for those prices because their films cost too much to make, they should make cheaper, better films and pay the 'talent' much less. There is no universal law which says that Hollywood stars have to be paid $20m a picture, and the idea that we made much better films now than we used to when they cost so much less to make, is laughable.

Of course, Google and other aggregators of content have created a world in which most material is actually free to read and view, even if is originally copyright - as are millions of YouTube videos of professional performances. It's not impossible that one day we will have to pay for access to YouTube - and would probably willingly do so if the fee was reasonable. Similarly some newspapers have successfully found ways to charge small amounts for access, while others have built up sufficient advertising revenue to continue to offer their content for free.  

The general public will not now accept an agenda that both excessively criminalises copyright infringement and at the same time walls off of the internet just to protect the high profits of big business. Instead they want the major producers and publishers of content to amend their business models to allow the production of content at a cost that the public is willing to pay.

Click here for an Infographic as to how the bills were supposed to work

Favourite Views - the Gold Coast

The Beach at Burleigh Heads looking towards Surfers Paradise, after a cyclone

Why We Spend Such a Lot of Time at Our Desks

I am sometimes gently chided for spending a lot of time at my desk. It's certainly true, but whereas the implication is that I should be doing something more worthwhile or undertaking some more social activity, the truth is that so much takes place on one's computer these days that it's very difficult to avoid being on it a great deal.

Take ordinary correspondence, for instance. That has almost entirely migrated to the computer, either on e-mail or as typed out letters or printing one's photographs to send as postcards. And it's easy to forget the amount of time our parents devoted to handwritten correspondence; their accumulated letters attest to this, and most of it was written at a writing desk. And of course, those letters required time to stamp and post as well, and a visit to the post office would count as a social activity.

Almost everything that once took time at post office and bank counters can now be done on one's computer. Our parents paid bills by writing cheques and posting them off. There were no standing orders or direct debits so they had to write a cheque for each bill. Of course they bought their tax discs at the counter and collected their pensions there too. All were potentially social activities - as I discovered when collecting my father's pension; the woman behind the counter clearly loved his visits! Now all are done on line and that social interaction is lost, as it certainly doesn't occur at one's desk!

Many hobbies too have moved to the computer. All desk-based hobbies certainly, except perhaps jigsaw puzzles (though even they can be replicated there). Of course tinkering with motorcycle engines in the garage or collecting stamps will always be un-computerised, but they were hardly social activities either. And for some people computer games have become a completely new and absorbing hobby. In fact, computer games are often quite social as they can be played against someone else. And some people play bridge and chess on line with others across the world with great enjoyment.

My hobby of photography, which I have pursued since the early 70s, used to result in many trips to Boots to get films developed, and much time spent pasting the better photographs into albums and writing captions. And both were at least partly a social activity as the choice of photos to be preserved was probably something to be discussed on the sofa, rather than alone in one's study looking at a computer screen while simultaneously editing the photos and uploading them to Flickr.

Keeping up with family and friends too, which once involved postcards, letters and expensive phone calls is now the preserve of Skype and Facebook.

Dealing with banking, insurance and investments is also now a largely on-line occupation, but they were usual solitary actives anyway. Catching up with the news and listening to music are also less social than they used to be with the TV and hi-fi, though the totally new pastime of watching videos on YouTube is often a shared activity.

So much of what we used to do that once involved at least some social interaction has moved onto one's desktop, and new ways of keeping in touch have developed to such an extent that the use of letters, postcards and the telephone have declined dramatically.

And one could probably say that social interaction at home has diminished, but by much less than is commonly thought given the number of activities that were always solitary. But we would do well to mind the chiding, nevertheless!

The Royal Hospital Carol Service 2011

The Royal Hospital Carol Service was held in the glorious Wren chapel on 15th December and was as usual packed out. The chapel choir under Ian Curror is one of the finest in London and they performed flawlessly, especially in the singing of the extraordinary medley of carols by John Willcocks - A Christmas Pudding - which got a round of applause. Click here for some photos from the event.

Thomas Miller Carol Service 2011

The Thomas Miller carol service was held at St Katherine Cree Church on 14th December and was very well attended by current and former staff. The firm has contributed to the restoration of the church as it has been connected with it for many years from the days when the firm was at 14-20 St Mary Axe (the site of the Gherkin today), Mitre Square and is still close by at 90 Fenchurch St.

The history of the church is interesting as it dates back to 1108. The present building was put up in 1631 and is the only Jacobean and Neoclassical church in London. The organ was built in 1686 by 'Father' Smith and rebuilt by Henry Wills at the end of the C19th and has been played by Handel, Purcell and Wesley. The bells were originally placed in the tower in 1754 and had been silent for over 100 years until they were restored in 2007. They are referred to in the song 'Oranges and Lemons' as the 'Maids in White Aprons'.

After the Great Fire the church remained standing and was used by the Livery Companies to serve food to the workers as the livery halls were rebuilt. Coats of arms representing the then seventeen Livery Companies can be seen on the ceiling. 'Paradise Lost' was printed in a room off the nave at about the same time.

A previous post recalls some additional history.

Wellbeing of Women Christmas Fair 2011

The Wellbeing of Women Christmas Fair was held at the Drapers' Hall on 5th December, where more than 50 stalls sold cakes, clothes, silver, china, belts and gloves, chocolate, scents, jewellery, books and gifts of all kinds, to the accompaniment of carols from The Treblemakers. Champagne, coffee and sandwiches were available for those who needed a break. The event was even more splendid and better attend than in previous years and raised significant sums for the charity, the Drapers donating their premises for free.  Click here for some photos and here for a video of the carol singing.

Favourite Rivers - the Itchen

The Itchen in autumn - with St Catherine's Hill behind

In Praise of Cats - “For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry”

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.

For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.

For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.

For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.

For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.

For he rolls upon prank to work it in.

For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.

For this he performs in ten degrees.

For First he looks upon his fore-paws to see if they are clean.

For Secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.

For Thirdly he works it upon stretch with the fore-paws extended.

For Fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.

For Fifthly he washes himself.

For Sixthly he rolls upon wash.

For Seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.

For Eighthly he rubs himself against a post.

For Ninthly he looks up for his instructions.

For Tenthly he goes in quest of food.

For having consider’d God and himself he will consider his neighbour.

For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.

For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it chance.

For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.

For when his day’s work is done his business more properly begins.

For he keeps the Lord’s watch in the night against the adversary.

For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.

For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.

For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.

For he is of the tribe of Tiger.

For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.

For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.

For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.

For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he’s a good Cat.

For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.

For every house is incompleat without him and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.

For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt.

For every family had one cat at least in the bag.

For the English Cats are the best in Europe.

For he is the cleanest in the use of his fore-paws of any quadrupede.

For the dexterity of his defence is an instance of the love of God to him exceedingly.

For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.

For he is tenacious of his point.

For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.

For he knows that God is his Saviour.

For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.

For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.

For he is of the Lord’s poor and so indeed is he called by benevolence perpetually – Poor Jeoffry! poor Jeoffry! the rat has bit thy throat.

For I bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better.

For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in compleat cat.

For his tongue is exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in musick.

For he is docile and can learn certain things.

For he can set up with gravity which is patience upon approbation.

For he can fetch and carry, which is patience in employment.

For he can jump over a stick which is patience upon proof positive.

For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.

For he can jump from an eminence into his master’s bosom.

For he can catch the cork and toss it again.

For he is hated by the hypocrite and miser.

For the former is affraid of detection.

For the latter refuses the charge.

For he camels his back to bear the first notion of business.

For he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly,

For he made a great figure in Egypt for his signal services.

For he killed the Ichneumon-rat very pernicious by land.

For his ears are so acute that they sting again.

For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.

For by stroaking of him I have found out electricity.

For I perceived God’s light about him both wax and fire.

For the Electrical fire is the spiritual substance, which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of man and beast.

For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.

For, though he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.

For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadrupede.

For he can tread to all the measures upon the musick.

For he can swim for life.

For he can creep.

Christopher Smart (1722-71)

With acknowledgement to my favourite blog: Spitalfields Life

Favourite Corners of London - Victoria

Gastronomia Italia

One of my favourite corners of London is Victoria, round the back of the station, centred on Wilton Road and Warwick Way These streets form a village where you will find three of my favourite shops and cafes, Rippon Cheese and Gastronomia Italia in Tachbrook St and Delicias de Portugal in Warwick Way, all of them introduced to me by my old friend Francis. Rippon really is just a cheese shop. It has a small entrance hall in which cheeses are wrapped and money taken, but all the cheeses are displayed in a cold room behind reached through a heavy hanging plastic curtain. One needs to know what you buy as the selection is so great, and one can't take long because of the cold, but each cheese is in perfect condition and invariably delicious. As well as a very fine selection of English artisanal cheeses, France and Spain are fully represented, and unexpected  places like Finland provide extra interest.

Next to Rippon is an iconic Italian deli, Gastronomia Italia (pictured above) where one can find every shape of Italian delicacy. I go there principally for their gorgeous crispy and salty cheese biscuits (Barilla Sfoglia di Grano) - and a quick macchiato. Then on to Delicias de Portugal in Warwick Way where one can select a famous and delectable cheese (Terra Nostra - like an Edam, in a red wax sleeve) and some other unusual delicacies, like very finely cut smoked pork loin. There are tables outside where one can nibble a piece of Portugese cake with a cup of their delicious milky coffee.

Service is of course from people from the region who know their stock and are happy to talk and advise. Everything here is authentic and things are always offered in slivers to try first. One doubts that even 1% could be found in a supermarket.

The Heaver Estate, Balham

View Larger Map

Much of 18C Balham was owned by the Duke of Bedford, including 150 acres of prime farmland known as 'Charringtons'. A century later, with farming in decline, the Bedford family sold the land to Richardson Borradaile, a wealthily merchant and MP, who built Bedford Hill House - a beautiful ivy-clad mansion situated where Veronica Road is now, roughly between Nos 12 and 18.

1i 1843 the house and its estate were sold to William Cubitt, brother of the builder Thomas Cubitt. Together they improved the house and grounds, adding an ornamental lake which lay by Elmbourne Road - between Manville and Huron. The family enjoyed uninterrupted views towards Balham until 1855 when a railway embankment was built along Balham High Road and Bedford Hill. A year later Balham Station opened and landowners were put under pressurev to release land for much-needed homes.

Alfred Heaver was an ambitious and visionary house builder when he acquired the now empty house and parkland. Ritherdon Road was the first to be laid out in 1888 and was to be the main access to the estate. That same year Heaver applied to construct Streathbourne, Drakefield and Louisville Roads across the grounds of Elms Farm and the nearby mansion Streatham Elms, and by the time they were completed in 1892, he was already building more roads running north off Ritherdon Road. With around twelve different styles of property, the Heaver Estate had now reached the neglected gardens around Bedford Hill House and when Veronica Road was built in 1897, it was demolished.

On 4th August 1901, at the age of 60, Alfred Heaver was shot in the back and head as he walked to church with his wife in the village of Wescott near Dorking. The assailant, who turned the gun on himself, was his sisters's husband James Young. The inquest stated that had had a grudge against his brother-in-law for many years and had even filed down the ends of the bullets to cause him maximum injury.

Although Heaver did not live to see the completion of his estate, it is considered to be one of the finest examples of 19C suburban development and was made a conservation area in 1978.


Sullivan Thomas

The Rev Hamilton Lloyd 1919 - 2011

Ham Lloyd at home

A very dear friend, Hamilton 'Ham' Lloyd, the vicar of Litchfield, died on 29th October 2011, aged 92. Ham was finest of men, noble, erudite and open-hearted. A fine cricketer and raconteur and a man of deep faith as well as love of country, he treated everyone the same - from the bishop and the squire to parishioners of every rank - and was equally loved by all.

This short obituary has appeared in the Whitchurch and Litchfield Parish Magazine:

The Reverend Hamilton Lloyd

9th July 1919 –  29th October 2011

in memoriam

Hamilton Lloyd, “Ham” died on 29th October 2011.   His life spanned 92 years.  He was born just after the end of the First World War in Birchgrove, Swansea and was educated at Cardiff High School before going up to Oxford to read history.  He was the only child of William and Hilda Lloyd.


Whilst at Oxford the Second World War broke out and he joined the University Air Squadron and thence the Royal Air Force.  He flew spitfires and hurricanes.


Owing to the development of an eyesight problem he could not continue to fly for the duration of the War and decided to train for ordination in the Church of England.  He attended Ripon Hall Theological College, Oxford in 1942 and married Suzanne Moon.  It was to be wonderfully happy marriage that lasted for over 65 years.  They had one son, Christopher.


Hamilton was ordained in 1944 and served as curate at St. Charles the Martyr, Falmouth, Cornwall.  In 1947 he became Rector of St. Gerrans with St. Anthony in Roseland.  After four years he left the Diocese of Truro and joined the Diocese of Winchester.  The family moved to Bournemouth where Hamilton oversaw the building of a new church, Holy Epiphany.


The move from Holy Epiphany to All Hallows, Whitchurch came in 1960.  At that time the united benefice was made up of Whitchurch and Tufton.  During his tenure Litchfield was added. After many happy years, including many games of cricket, Hamilton and Suzanne moved to the parish of St. Michael and All Angels, Lyndhurst and stayed there until he reached the retirement age of 65.


But retirement was not for him and he gladly accepted the invitation to look after the little church of St. James the Less at Litchfield.   This he continued to do until he died – some 28 years.  The last service he took was Harvest Festival on 2nd October this year.


His second wife, Cecilia, survives him as does his son, Christopher, four grandsons and five great grandchildren.


He will be sadly missed - as will his monthly musings from Litchfield which he penned for the parish magazine.

Fine Cell Work at the Glaziers' Hall

Help For Heroes tapestry commissioned from Fine Cell

Following the success of previous livery hall exhibitions - at Drapers' Hall in 2008 and the Leathersellers' in 2009, Fine Cell held their autumn 2011 livery company selling exhibition at the Glaziers' Hall, on the south bank of the Thames beside London Bridge where the principal rooms have a stunning view of the City.

London Bridge and the Fishmongers' Hall from the Glaziers

The exhibition was hugely well attended and raised significant sums for the charity, which teaches prisoners to sew cushions and tapestries in their cells.  Fine Cell aims to 'train prisoners in paid, skilled, creative needlework undertaken in the long hours spent in their cells to foster hope, discipline and self esteem. This helps them to connect to society and to leave prison with the confidence and financial means to stop offending'.


Click here for some photos of the event. 

Shades of the Past

When I was a child, my father sometimes took me for a walk in the late afternoon. We would wander down through the pasture, not hurrying. He would tell me the names of the trees, point out a bird's nest so well hidden that the careless eye would never see it. Sometime, if the day was uncommonly warm, he would say to me 'Walk in my shadow, I'll be your shade'.


Even now, I recall how good it was to be a child, becoming aware of the natural order of life, watching the miracles of the changing seasons, marvelling at the mysteries that even my father couldn't explain. I walked with his safe in his shadow, protected by the shade he provided me.


One day we discovered that I had grown too tall to fit into his shadow. We didn't speak of it. We just both knew that the time had come for use to walk side by side - each casting his own shadow.


Later, I came to understand that the shadow of my father was as it was because of who he was: big enough, wise enough, strong enough to be my shelter till I was sufficiently strong to step outside and walk my own way.


My father gave me the best of himself - his shadow and his substance

JB via SW