Sit in St George's Square

A rarity in Pimlico in that it is a green space which isn't behind locked gates, St George's Square is a peaceful place to pass half an hour or so, with plenty of quiet benches around the edges, and the central fountain broken only by occasional noise drifting over from the playgrounds of Paddington Academy.


We are told that the Square was a byproduct of the laying out of two streets in 1839, and by 1843 it had been developed into a formal square, open to the Thames at one end. Today, but for the A3212 which slices through it, it remains much as it might have been when Bram Stoker lived at number 26 until his death in April 1912. To your author, the square is also known as 60p tea square, thanks for the Cabbie's Shelter which sits on Lupus Street at the Northern end.

For more, see http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/environment/landandpremises/parksandopenspaces/st-georges-square-consultation/

Relax in the sun at Gordon Square Garden

Your author spent a day recently amongst the buildings of the University of London around Bloomsbury, and one of the most atmospheric spots was Gordon Square Garden, surrounded by tall trees with a sunny open area in the middle, occupied by a range of relaxed people.


During the first part of the 20th Century, the garden was a focal point for the Bloomsbury Group, with the Stephen siblings (including Virginia Stephen, later Woolf) living at number 46 from 1904 to 1907 and held regular open Thursday 'at homes' for literary figures and intellectuals.

The square now largely houses university buildings, and was restored in 2006 with the help of the University and a grant from the National Lottery.

For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Square

Eat at the National Dining Rooms

As regular readers may have noticed, your author has a bit of a thing for museum cafes and restaurants, and he has been to the National Dining Rooms, at the National Gallery, on a couple of very pleasant lunchtimes. Its probably more to do with a love of museums and galleries than a never-ending search for the best restaurant in London, but it is nice nonetheless.


A branch of Peyton and Byrne, it is overseen by prize-winning executive chef, Simon Duff, who originally trained under Marco Pierre White, and has worked at a number of London venues including the Franklin hotel and the Swissôtel the Howard.

It's a little pricey, especially if you're drinking, but on the right menu £23 will buy you two courses, and when you consider that you get some of the best paintings in the world thrown in for free, it doesn't seem so bad.

The National Dining Rooms is situated in the Sainsbury Wing of The National Gallery, on Trafalgar Square, and is open from 10am - 5pm every day, and until 8:30pm on Fridays. For more, and a full menu, see http://www.thenationaldiningrooms.co.uk/

Enjoy Shonibare's Nelson's Ship in a Bottle

It's been up there two weeks, and its usually at about this time that your author catches up with things, so let's take a look at Yinka Shonibare's Nelson's Ship in a Bottle, the latest project to grace the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square.


Your author has only ever seen it in stunning sunlight, as in the picture above, but it looked beautiful. Of course, it's being billed as the first artwork on the Fourth Plinth to specifically reflect on the historical symbolism of Trafalgar Square, as it references both the Battle of Trafalgar and Nelson, and its a stunner.

Your author is no sort of art critic, so he'll leave the rest to the blurb, which you can see at http://www.london.gov.uk/fourthplinth/plinth/shonibare.jsp

_{^Picture by Magnus D^}

Check out the final plinthers

There's only a few days left to see what attention-seeking members of the public do if you give them enough leeway. That's right, Anthony Gormley's One & Other, which has seen nearly 2,500 people given an hour each on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth since the beginning of the summer, is finally due to finish on 14th October.


The Fourth Plinth was designed by Sir Charles Barry and built in 1841 to display an equestrian statue. In recent years it has seen a number of sculptures, including Marc Quinn's 'Alison Lapper Pregnant', Thomas Schütte's 'Model for a Hotel 2007', and following the end of Gormley's project, a temporary fibreglass statue commemorating Battle of Britain hero Sir Keith Park is due to occupy the space for six months. The statue will not be permanent as popular rumour has it that the fourth plinth is being reserved for a statue of the current Queen, after her death.

Until Sir Keith Park gets his go, however, there are still a few days for you to marvel at ordinary people with novelty signs shouting incoherently at people just out of sight at http://www.oneandother.co.uk/

_{^Boris mock-up by the author^}

Discover the First Plinth, the Second and the Third

We know an awful lot about the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. Gone are the days when it housed thought-provoking art. Now it's just a bunch of attention-seeking members of the public doing something wacky for Sky. And eventually, so rumour has it, it will house a statue of Queen Elizabeth II. But what about the other three plinths in the Square?


Well, the first houses a statue of King George IV on horseback. George, for those like your author who are a little patchy on royal history, was the son of the mad King George III, and was king from 1820 until his death in 1830. He also served as Prince Regent for a further nine years before 1820 during his father's madness.

The second plinth carries a statue of Sir Henry Havelock, a 19th Century General who served in India and the Afghan War, and died of dysentery in India in 1857, a few days after the end of the siege of Lucknow, where he had been trapped with his troops for over a month.

The other plinth commemorates Sir Charles Napier another 19th century British imperial general and former Commander-in-Chief in India, and a descendant of King Charles II.

In 2000, Ken Livingstone caused controversy by suggesting that the statues of Sir Henry Havelock and General Charles Napier could be replaced by "more relevant" figures, stating "I imagine that not one person in 10,000 going through Trafalgar Square knows any details about the lives of those two generals". For now, however, they remain as a testament to the imperial age and the longevity of statues.

For a more thorough look at the Square, try Londondrum or Wikipedia.

_{^Havelock Statue picture from Flickr courtesy of Soham Pablo^}