From the ‘Heaven Sent’ collection by Frances Wadsworth-Jones
A young artist being showcased at the Museum of London has found inspiration for jewellery in pigeon droppings.
Frances Wadsworth-Jones from Ealing, west London, creates brooches using crushed precious and semi-precious gems which sell for up to £2,500.
She said it “played on the idea” that bird droppings landing on someone was “lucky”.
Filipinos in the UK have spoken of their desperate attempts to contact loved ones back home in the wake of typhoon Haiyan.
At least 10,000 people are feared dead and thousands of survivors desperately need food, fresh water and shelter.
More than 120,000 people from the Philippines live in England and Wales, with 44,000 in London.
They have described the heartache and sleepless nights caused by the “national calamity”.
Continue reading here.
This weekend the doors of some of London’s most creative, intriguing and historic buildings will open to the public for free for the 21st year.
But in 1992 when Victoria Thornton started Open House London and looked for participants the response was “No, no, no”, she says.
Today the concept has “snowballed” to include 20 cities around the world.
And even that most famous of houses 10 Downing Street opens later.
Continue reading here.
(Published 21 September)
Evidence from Jack the Ripper’s murders, death masks, the first truncheons and vintage police cars could be brought together for the first time under plans to create a Metropolitan Police exhibition.
With New Scotland Yard being sold and its private collection from crime scenes needing a new home, the Mayor of London is championing the idea of a new Met Police museum.
At the moment, artefacts from the Met’s 184-year history are in a warehouse, and small, scattered pockets across London largely closed to the public or only viewable by appointment.
Continue reading here.
“Whitehall partially blocked: a man is naked atop the equestrian statue”. It has to be one of the strangest tweets the BBC London 94.9 travel team has ever put out. Last year a Ukrainian man was up there for three hours. Jo McDermott returned with a fully clothed man from English Heritage.
Listen: NAKED STATUE DAMAGE REPAIR
Broadcast on 31 July, 2013
The Duke of Cambridge’s steed stands foundering with a set of wooden planks at its knees.
Prince George should be holding a Field Marshall’s baton but it was snapped off by a naked man last November.
While his sword is bolted back into his left hand he wears the same irrepressible expression he had when Dan Motrescu sat on his head.
Soon repairs will put this chapter of the bronze commander’s 107-year history behind him.
Continue reading here.
The names of 205,000 people once restricted to overgrown graveyards and dusty archives have been liberated for the world to see.
Brompton Cemetery in West Brompton, west London, is the first of the “Magnificent Seven” London cemeteries constructed during the 1830s and 1840s to put all its burial registers online.
It means Janet Ellis has found a family grave she did not know was there.
She also discovered a 13-month-old relative, for whom no records existed.
Continue reading here.
For the 100th anniversary of Chelsea Flower Show, I wrote about the small show with a big birthday.
I also produced an audio slideshow in which members of a nursery which has shown at every single show recall their memories.
Posters of Margaret Thatcher due to be shown at Westminster Tube station have been banned by advertising bosses.
Six portraits of the former prime minister, including a depiction of her as Queen Victoria, were due to run from this week.
CBS Outdoor, which sells advertising space across the London Underground, said running them would break Transport for London (TfL) guidelines.
Former Culture Secretary David Mellor said it was a “stupid situation”.
Nearly 800,000 people read this. Continue reading here.
I told Ben Hudson ‘You look like a young Michael Hutchence’. He said ‘Who’s he?’.
The sound of No Woman, No Cry emanates from a disused platform at Charing Cross Underground station as weekend engineering works are announced and a man plays scales on a bamboo flute.
It’s the last audition day for performers hoping to gain the busking licences for the Tube which were first made available 10 years ago.
Over three weeks, 250 people have played for a panel of three – sometimes including record company professionals – hoping to join the 350 performers who try to entertain commuters. There are up to 100 licences available.