Postman's Park

Postman’s Park is one of the hidden parks of London, enriched with history as well as upholding an honour to heroes who have died to save others. It is located at St Martin’s Le Grand, London EC1A between Aldersgate Street and King Edward Street with an entrance found on both ends. The park is at Grade II meaning it is of more than special interest and do everything to preserve it.

The name came from the local office workers who came from the post office just by the park to sit down and have lunch. In 1887, socialist GF Watts wrote to the Times proposing a park to be builtin honour of “heroic men and women” who gave their lives to save others as a way to mark Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee. It was created and named Watts Gallery at the Watts Memorial/Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice in Postman’s Park with Doultton tablets running along the wall of the gallery of poignant detailing’s of the individual and their heroic acts.

Headstones of can be found on either side of the Memorial and it was said this was due to possibly being two churches on each side. The headstones are restored every so often.

In front of Watts Memorial is four beds of flowers and a sundial at the centre of it. When in full bloom, the flowers present a gathering of splendour and beauty of colours. Arrive on a sunny day in spring or summer as it'll be total treat to gaze at the flowers while you rest under the perfect shade of the London Plane tree on top of a small hill.

Despite being quite a small park, it attracts an abundance of animals such as bats, robins, blue and grey tits with boxes and feeders dotted around the park. Gorgeous Golden Orfe fishes can be found swimming around the trickling Gothic-styled fountain. The Golden Orfe fishes have been there over 10 years.

The film Closer, starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen, was filmed on location. Not one to ruin the film for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet so I won’t give anything away, but Alice Ayres taken off the tiles become an inspiration for one of the characters. The film itself is very much worth the watch and You can catch the Alice Ayres’s tablet above.

#PostmansPark

Barbican - Roman Signer: Slow Movement

Barbican Centre’s Curve Gallery hosted Roman Signer: Slow Motion from 4 March 2015 to 31 May 2015. The simplisticity of the work explores the social interaction between his work and the audience in a way we react to the beat of the motion.

Roman Signer: Slow Motion follows a canal as it is pulled across along the ceiling through the 90 metre long gallery as if it was moving through a canal. Known for his work that have notions of cause and effect, where he views his experiments as “events” and his audiences as “actions”. This very idea plays in the installation as we and follow the path of the kayak as we become active participants in his event.

Signer’s interest in kayaks began in the early 1980s and spent a great deal for many years being an ardent kayaker. Two films show his adventures through his affirmed interest in the innovation of the different sides of kayaks. For personal reasons, he stopped kayaking but used it in his works in creating two short films: Eskimoroll (Eskimo Roll, 1995) and Kajak (Kayak, 2000). Both films were shown at either end of the gallery.

Eskimoroll showed a kayak bound to a bicycle with rope as it was being pulled along with the bicycle as it rode away, causing the kayak to spin around several times as if capsizing.

Kajak showed a kayak with Signer in it as it was pulled by a car through the Rhine Valley at high speed.

Roman Signer: Slow Motion moves out on to the Foyer and out into the Lakeside Terrace as well.

Serpentine Pavilion 2015

The Serpentine Gallery is hosting their 15th Serpentine Pavilion this year. Internationally renowned artist to create and deliver an architectural structure that will take 300 square metres in the Pavilion Space in a space of up to 6 months, which will become a space for learning, debate and recreation. No budget is required for the Pavilion as it is funded by sponsorships and through the sale of the Pavilion. The aim is to introduce contemporary artists and architects to a wider audience. This year the Pavilion was designed by selgascano (founded by José Selgas and Lucía Cano) with the practice formed in Madrid in 1998.

The Pavilion is made with steel and multi-coloured fluorine-based polymer to play on the simplest forms of "form, light, shadow and colour" which focussed on visitors' experience. This is apparent in the whole design where light comes through the structure as it plays on the forms of the architecture. The architecture takes on different forms in fluid waves to minimalistic strips, giving more to explore the very fabric and essence of creativity in the colours and layers.

#SerpentinePavilion

Whitecross Street Party 2015

The Whitecross Street Party takes place on – you guessed it – White Cross Street in Islington near to the Barbican. It is an annual summer event of performances, food and entertainment. Usually over a two day period but this year has been packed into a whole day. The event was held on Saturday 18 July 2015 between 12:00 to 18:00.

The event’s exhibition “Rise of the Non Conformists” was set up by a group of took inspiration from William Blake where he was laid to rest. The event encourages “peaceful non-conformists to rise once again”. The exhibition is drawn live during the day with their final artworks displayed along Whitecross Street for 2 months. There are also art installations dotted up and down the street.

The event is family-friendly with lots to do with the children as the event caters with various areas where children can play and participate in workshops. Fortune Street Park which stems from Whitecross Street became a children’s activity zone with a bouncy castle, an area for face painting and a play area.

There are performances set up on stages and canopies running along the street with performances from solo artists and groups.

The stages are interspersed with stalls of food and an array of items ranging from clothing to artworks.

Hitchcock Gallery

The Hitchcock Gallery is a permanent collection of mosaics held on the walls of Leytonstone tube station. It was created by the London Borough of Waltham Forest with commission from Greenwich Mural Workshop to celebrate 100 years since the birth of Alfred Hitchcock in Leytonstone. The works feature scenes from Hitchcock’s films and is 17 mosaics in total. The installation started in June 2000 with the final installation in April 2001. The Gallery was unveiled in 3 May 2001.

The Gallery itself is partly in dimly lit areas so it’s best to head down on a sunny day just to get enough light come through into the station. On each mosaic, an attached plaque placed either above or below the artwork describing the scene shown as well as quotes from people related to the film. The pictures were chosen by local people. The designs were done by Steve and Nathan Lobb, Carol Kenna, Claire Notley and Julie Norbun at the Greenwich Mural Workshop. Below are the mosaics with the texts on the adjoining plaques and location in the station:

Entrance

Rebecca
1940
Joan Fontaine as the new Mrs De Winter struggling to escape the memory of her husband’s first wife, Rebecca. Here Mrs Danvers (Judith Anderson) wills her to suicide. In the background, St John’s Church, Leytonstone, as it was in Hitchcock’s childhood.

Mrs Danvers (Judith Anderson): “You’re overwrought, madam. I’ve opened a window for you. A little air will do you good. Why don’t you go? Why don’t you leave Manderley? He doesn’t need you. He’s got his memories. He doesn’t love you - he wants to be alone again with her. You’ve nothing to stay for. You’ve nothing to live for, have you, really? Look down there. It’s easy, Isn’t it? Why don’t you? Go on, go on. Don’t be afraid…”

The Wrong Man
1956
Hitchcock’s bleakly realistic account of a real-life story has Henry Fonda as New York musician Christopher Ballestrero mistakenly identified by the police as an armed robber.

“When I was no more than six years of age, I did something that my father considered worthy if reprimand. He sent me to the local police station with a note. The officer on duty read it and locked me in a jail for five minutes, saying ‘This is what we do to naughty boys.’ I have, ever since, gone to any lengths to avoid arrest and confinement. To you young people my message is – Stay out of jail!” – Alfred Hitchcock

Rear Window
1954
James Stewart as action photographer LB Jeffries is confined to his apartment by a broken leg. With the help of fiancé Lisa Freemont, played by Grace Kelly, he begins to suspect a murder has occurred and sets to solve the crime.

“I’ve never seen Hitchcock look through a camera – some directors never stop.” - James Stewart
Stella (Thelma Ritter): “We’ve become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house for a change. Yes sir. How’s that for a bit of homespun philosophy.”

Hitchcock and Deitrich

Marlene Dietrich, star of his 1950 thriller Stage Fright, relaxes with Hitchcock off-set.
“Marlene was a professional star – she was also a professional cameraman, art director, costume designer, hairdresser, makeup woman, composer, producer and director.” – Alfred Hitchcock

Left side:

North By Northwest
1959
Hitchcock’s supreme chase comedy-thriller in which Cary Grant, as urbane business man Roger Thornhill, is mistaken for a spy, and is pursued across the country by both enemy agents and the police. In this famous scene his life is threatened by, of all things, a crop-dusting aeroplane.
“It is only when you adopt the basic premise that Cary Grant could not possibly come to harm that the tongue in Hitchcock’s cheek becomes plainly visible.” – Hollis Alperi, Saturday Review

The Skin Game
1932
Based on a play by John Galsworthy, the story about the struggle between the old English way of life and the advance of the factories into the countryside and explores how the country people and the nouveau riche can be equally unscrupulous where property is the goal.

“Hitchcock loves to be misunderstood, because he has based his whole life around misunderstandings.’ – Francois Truffaut

Psyche1960
Hitchcock directs Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, who “goes a little mad sometimes”, and Janet Liegh as the unfortunate Marion Crqane before the infamous shower scene.

“At the end of Psycho, I realised I’d worked with the director who’d been more open to the actor’s suggestions and ideas than I’d worked with”- Anthony Perkins
“Psycho gave me very wrinkled skin. I was in that shower for seven days…At least he made sure the water was warm.”- Janet Leigh

Suspicion
1941
Cary Grant as dubitable playboy Johnny Aysgarth bringing to his young new wife a drink, which she suspects to be poisoned.

Johnnie Aysgarth: “If you’re going to kill someone, do it simply.”

Hitchcock At Work

In a directorial pose from the Skin Game of 1931 Hitchcock is imagined directing some of his stars, including Margaret Lockwood, Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre and Cyril Richard.
‘In Hitchcock’s eyes the movement was dramatic, not the acting. When he wanted the audience to be moved, he moved the camera. He was a subtle human being, and he was also the best director I have ever worked with.’ – Bruce Dern, actor

Number 17
1932
Jewel thieves and Sheldrake - played by Donald Calthrop and Garry Marsh - attempt a getaway to the coast on a stolen train moments before their high speed chase ends in disaster.

‘A lot of movies are about life, mine are like a slice of cake’. - Alfred Hitchcock

Young Alfred outside his father’s shop

Alfred Hitchcock as a boy on a horse outside his father’s greengrocers at 517 The High Road, Leytonstone (circa 1906).

Right Side:

To Catch a Thief
1955
High on a roof, reformed cat-burglar John Robie, played by Cary Grant, is caught against a sky illuminated by fireworks as he attempts to capture the imposter who has been giving him a bad name.
“Hitchcock couldn’t have been a nicer fellow. I whistled coming to work on his films.” – Cary Grant

The Birds
1963
Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels, one of the Bodega Bay residents inexpicably attacked by ever increasing flocks of birds, in Hitchcock’s apocalyptic allegory.

“Hitchcock captures the subtleties of females warring with each other; all those nuances of knives and guns conducted in looks and body language. He sculpts the human body in space.” – Camilla Paglia

Saboteur
1942
Handcuffed together, Robert Cummings as Barry Kane and Priscilla Lane as Patricia Martin escape from a gang of enemy saboteurs. In the background is the old Leytonstone High Road.

“The drama of a nation stirred to action, of a people’s growing realisation of themselves and their responsibilities” – Motion Picture Herald

Vertigo
1958
Tom Helmore as Gavin Elster and Kim Novak as Madeline in Hitchcock’s masterly study of love and obsession.

“Hitchcock knew exactly what he wanted to do in this film, exactly what he wanted to say and how it should be seen and told…And anyone who saw him during the making of the film could see, as I did, that he felt it very deeply indeed.” – Samuel Taylor, screenwriter
Cary Grant as dubitable playboy Johnny Aysgarth bringing to his young new wife a drink, which suspects to be poisoned.
Jonnie Aysgarth: “If you’re going to kill someone, do it simply.”

Strangers On a Train
1951
Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith and co-scripted by Raymond Chandler, this is the story of the psychotic Bruno, brilliantly played by Robert Walker, who suggests exchanging murder victims with Guy, played by Farley Granger, a stranger that happens by chance to share the same train.

Bruno (Robert Walker): “Some people are better off dead - like your wife and my father, for instance.”

Pleasure Garden
1926
A good old-fashioned melodrama, full of life, death and passion, this was Hitchcock’s first feature as sole director and comes his enthusiasm for the theatre and the music hall.

“Once a man commits himself to murder, he will soon find himself stealing. The next step will be alcoholism, disrespect for the Sabbath and from there on it will lead to rude behaviour. As soon as you set the first steps on the path to destruction you never know where you will end. Lots of people owe their downfall to a murder they once committed and weren’t too pleased with at the time ’- Alfred Hitchcock

#AlfredHitchcock