The Queenhithe Mosaic

 Hello! What a rubbish blogger I've been again....I had every intention of popping back in again last week, but it all went a bit bonkers....birthday, wedding anniversary, meetings....the list goes on. On today's agenda is the recent trip to the Queenhithe Mosaic on the North Bank in London.

Once the Romans had abandoned Londinium it all went a bit to pot and this part of the city lay abandoned until Alfred the Great saw to its resettlement in 886CE. By 899 a harbour and market had been set up which allowed the restoration of trade after the disruption of the Viking raids. The word 'hithe' is Anglo-Saxon for small port and today it's the only surviving one from this time in the country. It became Queenhithe ie. the Queen's Harbour at some point during the 12th century and it is now an ancient scheduled monument. In 2014 a 30m mosaic created by a collaboration between Tessa Hunkin and Southbank Mosaics was opened. Along its length it records 2000 years of the city's history with the Thames as the constant as it weaves its way through the years. I liked the detail that parts of the mosaic have been made from finds on the Thames foreshore. In the Tudor section they've included mudlarked bricks from the period. 

Just a selection from this piece of art. After the rather rushed feel of the South Bank of the river, the relative quietness of this side came as a rather refreshing change as we sought the mosaic out and then retired to a local hostelry for a well earned pint of Neck Oil which a London beer both Lovely Grey and I greatly enjoy. This is the final part of my recent day spent up in town.

Arilx

Art Critic

 I met my jolly good friend Julie [formerly Lovely Grey blogger] at Tate Modern a few days ago. We didn't have time to do all the floors [important things like the pub were calling], but during our time there we too were art critics.....art should provoke a reaction from those that view it. Some we liked some we didn't and the occasional piece I felt was in the category of 'The Emperor's New Clothes', but that of course is only my own personal opinion. What I wanted to see were artworks which made me stop and look again. These were my 10. Everybody's 10 would be different.

1.Portrait of an artist in crisis.Tetsumi Kudo

2 & 3 Awake I wait for you. Sandra Vasquez de la Horra

4. Gardening. Natalia Goncharova.

5. The Worker's Maypole. Andrea Bowers

6. Cat bus. Monster Chetwynd

7. Work 62-W Onada Minoru

8. Fire! Fire! Enrico Baj

9. Institution vs The Mass. Anna Boghiguian

10. Freddie the Frog Rings the Bell. Martin Kippenberger.

I count myself very lucky that I can see these galleries for free.

Arilx

Ee by gum

Art can be created anywhere. It doesn't need the kudos of being in a gallery to be admired. As we crossed the Millennium Bridge in pursuit of another piece of art along the North Bank, I stopped briefly to admire these little creative gems by Ben Wilson. There's a reason why he's called 'the chewing gum man' https://benwilsonchewinggumman.com/home-2/gum_pictures/chewing-gum-gallery 

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Arilx

The Lost Palace

 It must have been quite a shock for the employee of the Water Board way back in 1960 when he'd been told to dig a trench in a field for a new pipe to be laid. It didn't happen because he discovered what turned out to be one of the biggest and oldest Roman palaces in the country. The clues were there with other finds from the same period found in the locality, but no one was expecting the extent of it it when that first team of specialists were sent in to survey it. This was only to follow after several years of annual digs. Fishbourne Palace was officially opened to the public in 1968 and generations of children, myself included, have been going there on school trips ever since!

You can see the full extent of the original palace in the first image below. Some of it has been covered up again to preserve what's there and a lot of it has had to remain hidden because it's under a housing estate. However, what is on show is still pretty impressive. It's thought that a client king called Togidubnus lived here. He was the chief of the local British tribe, the Atrebates, who were very pro Rome [unlike some of the others] and this was his reward for looking after the Roman interests in the area. The palace was occupied until c270 CE when it burnt down and was left as an uninhabited ruin. 

One of the things the site is most well known for is its range of mosaics. Some have been damaged in antiquity, others scarred by physical field boundaries or the plough. One has a later burial in the middle of it [one of four found] still in situ. What you get here though is the story of the site's evolution. When it was first built black and white squares and geometric patterns were all the rage and then later on more colour and a wider range of naturalistic motifs come in. In one of the photos you can see where the newer mosaic has been built on top of the original one. The piece de resistance though is the one with cupid sitting astride a dolphin. Its level of preservation is incredible. 

The other remarkable thing which survived was the layout of the original garden. As the archaeologists dug down they came across the planting pits and holes and from this along with contemporary sources they've recreated the design and included plants that are known to have been favoured by the Romans. The garden you can see today is only half the size it once would have been, but isn't it amazing that the layout of those hedges you can see are exactly what they would have looked like all those centuries ago. We were visiting after all the recent storms so the borders had gone over, but it was my first encounter with a cardoon which would have been preserved in honey and vinegar and flavoured with cumin. These type of snippets fire me...the Romans used ivy to make a black hair dye and violets to flavour wine.

This is a copy of a triclinium. They were often under the shade of the vines and were for diners to recline on outside. 

Finally just to round things up I've picked a few of the treasures on display in the small on site museum. The phallus often features on Roman finds because it was a symbol of good luck. In there we also have the charred remains of one of the three wells and an oolithic limestone Celtic Mother Goddess representing fertility.

Even though this is in Sussex I often wonder why I am far more likely to visit this sort of thing when I'm away on holiday. It must be at least 20 years since I last came, but I'm pleased we made the effort. For those who have a BBC Gardener's World voucher you can get free entry for one of you [check entry conditions]. I won't leave it so long next time!

Arilx

Beauty berries

 

Hurrah after a few years wait we have achieved what we set out to do....purple and orange berries side by side on our back fence🧡💜 The callicarpa is a cutting from my parents' plant. Simple pleasures.

Arilx

A grave day

 Tragically Charles Cook died on 20th March 1767 aged only 30. He was killed by a falling tree. Whilst I can't find anything about the man when he was alive [bar he had a wife called Sarah] his demise is all there for you to see recorded on his incredible gravestone. He is wearing a rather marvellous tricorn hat and one has to assume that whoever paid for this was someone with money as it must have cost a pretty penny with all that florid carving. It has been restored and is now listed and I can see why. You don't often come across examples as good as this in Sussex. This one is in Walberton and is well known locally. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Arilx 

The Garden in the Ruins

Below is a black and white image of the former Great Hall in Nymans House which was owned by Maud and Leonard Messel. I say former because, on one fateful night in February 1947, it caught fire and with the post war shortage of building materials it had to remain a ruin. Only the Northern wing was repaired and made habitable for the family once again. The ruins stood proud, but inaccessible to any visitors until August 2022 when it was reopened to the public as 'the garden in the ruins'. Even now you can only see it on limited dates [depending on whether there are volunteers available to man it] and during certain times of year. That has always been the case for me. However, pick a random Monday in September when you've popped in with your friend Jak on her first visit and hey presto! 

What a little gem and all the better for it being a complete surprise. It's divided into six compartments for want of a better word each split by different screens. These pay homage to the Messel's son Oliver who went on to become a very famous theatre set designer. His sister was Anne who was the mother of Anthony Armstrong Jones. She was the last person to live in Nymans until her death in 1992.

Arilx

 

More from Alton

 As I'm usually that gal with a plan up her sleeve, my original one had to be scotched because what I'd chosen wasn't open. A quick spin round a well known search engine told me that Alton has a sculpture trail and as we were taking a wander anyway a nose along the High Street seemed as good an idea as any. My friend Jane has lived here for more than thirty years, but she too was seeing some things for the first time. Sometimes it's just nice to be able to follow a route which someone else has devised and not have to do the thinking. We arrived to find the added bonus of the vintage vehicles....usually the centre is like a ghost town on a Saturday afternoon apparently so it was rather splendid to see the place buzzing. Brief notes included as appropriate😀

Outside the Railway Arms we have two pieces of work by Richard Farrington. One shows us how two men would have transported a large barrel up a flight of steps and the other one....I'm going to whisper so that I don't look like a complete philistine, but it looks like it would be right at home in the Thomas the Tank engine yard. Perhaps the fact that Alton is on the Watercress Line with regular steam trains running along it was his inspiration. There's a reason that I'm not gainfully employed as an art critic!

This one's been included simply because of its rarity value. There aren't many places you get to see the Royal Cipher for Edward VIII as he only reigned for 325 days. Apparently there are a handful of postboxes, but I've yet to clock one so this little find was pleasing for that reason alone. It's on the Telephone Exchange.

Another mild obsession of mile stones or mile plates as in this 19th century metal example. The shortening of Winchester to Winton is merely a cost cutting exercise....less space needed less metal needed.

On the former Red Lion is this rather stunning Gothic looking hanging bracket. A local blacksmith called Nimrod Lock made it.

Many homes will have had or possibly still have a set of kitchen scales made by the famous Birmingham firm of W & T Avery Ltd. This set though outside the town hall could weigh up to 10 tons. I'd like to know what they were weighing....any ideas anyone?

'The Bear' by Mark Coreth [2005] and two cars which just made me laugh as they look like they've escaped from one of the Pixar animations. It wasn't quite so amusing when I saw a beautifully preserved Peugot 205 accompanied by its very proud owner. Suddenly I felt a bit of a veteran myself as I learnt to drive in one of those!😆 

Hope everyone has a good weekend. We have a couple of non Mythago weekends upon us so further outings are in the pipeline.

Arilx