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• Ham House’s rare opening of their cabinets to show off their interiors

  08-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This weekend, loads of highly decorated doors will be unlocked for a rare chance to see what’s behind their ornate panels.
  An ebony cabinet, made in around 1675, decorated with floral marquetry, in the Long Gallery at Ham House, London | (c) National Trust Images/John Hammond
  These are a rare collection of wood cabinets that are opened just twice a year for visitors to explore their unique artisanship during the Cabinets Unlocked showcase. The collection of cabinets, held at Ham House near
  
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• Tickets Alert: A free celebration of Vivienne Westwood at Christie’s

  04-06-2024 16:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A display of Vivienne Westwood’s clothes and possessions is coming to London later this month, and there will also be a free evening at the exhibition.
  Propoganda, Dressed to Scale and Witches (c) Christie’s
  The British fashion designer and activist Dame Vivienne Westwood is recognised globally as one of the most influential designers of modern times, having established one of the world’s leading fashion brands. Christie’s auction house will sell items chosen by Andreas K
  
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• London’s free cycle hire scheme for disabled riders

  04-06-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A free cycle hire scheme has been launched in London, offering specially adapted bicycles for disabled people who might have difficulties using conventional cycle hire bikes.
  (c) Wheels for Wellbeing (WfW), Charlie Fernandes
  The new Wheels4MeLondon scheme, a collaboration between Sustrans, Wheels for Wellbeing, and Peddle My Wheels and funded by the Motability Foundation, will provide free cycle loans for disabled people.
  Many disabled people and those with long-term health conditions do not hav
  
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• National Archives showcases extraordinary WWII prison break stories

  04-06-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Drawing on the wartime records in its vaults, the National Archives currently has a free exhibition on how Prisoners of War tried to escape their camps and thwart their enemy’s actions.While there are examples of James Bond style escape kits and tools — much of the exhibition is made up of stories of the individuals who managed, or sometimes failed, to escape their prisoner camps and internment centres where foreign nationals were arrested for simply holding the wrong passport.
  There
  
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• Kew Gardens’s “corpse flower” is in bloom

  04-06-2024 11:20 via ianvisits.co.uk
  It’s only in bloom for a day or two, so if you can get to Kew Gardens sharpish, then one of the world’s smelliest plants is strutting its thing.
  Titan arum, also known as the corpse flower, has an incredibly foul smell of rotten flesh when in bloom, which evolved to attract pollinators that love to feed and breed on flesh. It’s also a huge plant, so if the smell isn’t enough of a lure, then the size might be.
  Cairns Botanic gardens, with the curator of the gardens, David
  
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• Elizabeth line ventilation shaft features subtle leaf-themed art installation

  04-06-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Around the back of Bond Street station is a tall ventilation shaft built for the Elizabeth line, and little noticed is that it’s also a work of art.Cascading down the side of the terracotta cladding around the three shafts are a series of falling leaves — and this is Anatomy of Time by Clare Twomey. The falling leaves are inspired by the plants that would have been seen along the banks of the River Tyburn long before the river was buried under the mass of buildings that make up centr
  
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• The Necropolis Railway station is up for sale

  03-06-2024 16:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you have very deep pockets and fancy living in a railway station for the dead, then the Necropolis Station in Waterloo is currently up for sale.
  (c) Dexters
  The railway station building, around the back of Waterloo station, was built to cater to that very Victorian obsession – the dead. As London’s graveyards overflowed and cemeteries were built on the outskirts of London, the London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company was granted permission to build a huge cemetery in Wokin
  
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• Parliament’s dining room open to the public during the General Election

  03-06-2024 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The election gives us a rare chance to use Parliament’s private facilities and dine in the House of Lords. While Parliament has been emptied of elected politicians, the Peers also pack up their bags and go home, leaving their dining room available for the electorate to use.
  Peers Dining Room (c) Parliament
  The House of Lords says that Peers’ Dining Room will be open Monday to Friday for lunch from Monday 10th June through to Wednesay 3rd July inclusive.
  A three-course lunch menu is p
  
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• Dennis Severs’ House is already selling Christmas tickets

  03-06-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  It may seem absurdly early, but tickets to visit the Christmas makeover at Dennis Severs’ House are already on sale — because they keep selling out.Just around the corner from Spitalfields market in east London, Dennis Severs’ House is set out as a Georgian house where the family have just stepped outside for a moment. You are invited into their home to walk around while they’re out. It’s not a museum with lots of precious objects but an experience.
  You are exhorted
  
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• National Portrait Gallery is now offering early hours tours

  03-06-2024 12:20 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The National Portrait Gallery has started offering new tours of the art collection, aimed at people who want a quieter visit before the crowds arrive. The new early-access tours will focus on the Gallery’s most popular portraits in spaces that are often busy during regular gallery opening hours.The 45-minute tours start at 10 am, giving you half an hour in the empty gallery before it opens to the public at 10:30 am.
  The Before the Crowds tours will take place on Fridays, Saturdays and Sund
  
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• London’s Alleys: Cecil Court, WC2

  03-06-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This is one of London’s more famous passages, often nicknamed Booksellers’ Row, thanks to the large number of bookshops that line both sides of the alley.Although the alley route is old, and the buildings look old, in fact, most of what you see here is late Victorian, as the entire site was rebuilt in the 1880s. Back to the 1680s first though, and the area was lined with houses and back gardens, but the alley seems to appear later, as it’s not in a contemporary map but does app
  
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• Tickets Alert: Rare Patek Philippe watches going on display in London

  01-06-2024 20:32 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Patek Philippe, the maker of exceptionally expensive watches, will be exhibiting some of its rarer handcrafted watches in a free exhibition in central London later this month.
  (c) Patek Philippe
  They are so rarified and expensive that their famous slogan is, “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.”
  Having been on display at their Swiss head office, the exhibition will be the only opportunity to see unique pieces and limited editions
  
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• Bloomsbury street becomes a pocket park with bench made from Double Yellow lines

  31-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A double yellow line that once said no to parking is now a park bench saying yes to sitting after a road in central London was turned into a mini pocket park.The short road at the north end of Gordon Square in Bloomsbury was closed to road traffic in 2015 to be used as storage space for construction works, and now they have finished, rather than reopening the road, the council decided to turn it into a pocket park.
  They recently filled the road with planters and seating areas on one side and a n
  
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• Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! City of London’s Common Cryer reads the King’s Proclamation

  31-05-2024 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! By the King, a Proclamation!
  Earlier today, in keeping with ancient custom, a group of officials in the City of London wearing lace and tights read aloud the King’s Proclamation summoning a new Parliament.The tradition of reading out a Proclamation in public dates back to before newspapers existed. It also occurred at a time when Parliament only met when summoned by the monarch, more often than not, when they wanted to raise taxes to fight a war.
  So, for people in the Mid
  
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• London’s free exhibitions to visit in June 2024

  31-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Here is a selection of ten free exhibitions to visit while dodging random bursts of heavy rain in the summer months.At Home in Hackney: A community photographed 1970-today
  Hackney Museum, Hackney
  Free
  (Note closes Saturday 15th June 2024)
  From 1970s activism to the current party scene, the exhibition displays five decades of Hackney life through a camera lens.
  Details here
  Chihuly
  Chelsea Barracks
  Chelsea Barracks presents the inaugural edition of public art initiative ‘Modern Masters&rsqu
  
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• An upside down tube station illusion is coming to London

  30-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A museum filled with optical illusions, including an upside-down tube station, will open in London soon, twisting the definition of what a museum should be as deftly as its illusions distort visitors’ perceptions.
  Opening on 17th July, Paradox Museum will have over 50 exhibits and 25 immersive rooms that will resemble an upmarket hall of mirrors from seasides and funfairs, but will instead be in the heart of Knightsbridge.
  The organisers say that an average visit will last about 90 minutes
  
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• Tate unveils 2025 exhibitions: From 1980s club icon Leigh Bowery to Turner and Constable

  30-05-2024 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  It was confirmed today that the 1980s gay clubbing icon Leigh Bowery, Nigerian Modernism, and the classic artists Constable and Turner will all be the subjects of exhibitions at London’s Tate galleries next year.
  Fergus Greer,Leigh Bowery Session I Look 2 1988 (c) Fergus Greer, Estate of Leigh BoweryLee Miller, Model with lightbulb, Vogue Studio, London, England c.1943 (c) Lee Miller Archives
  Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate, said, “These exhibitions show Tate at our most ambitious an
  
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• Free display of Chihuly’s colourful glass art at Chelsea Barracks

  30-05-2024 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The newish gardens at Chelsea Barracks are currently an outdoor art gallery, having been decorated with works by the glass artist Dale Chihuly.Looking not entirely unlike exotic plants that have all flowered at once, the cluster of glassy art does seem to fit into the garden space, both standing out as art and yet feeling entirely at home as if they’ve always been here.
  The most obvious is Electric Yellow and Deep Coral Tower, a massive column of twisting yellow and red fronds rising from
  
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• You can Bank on mobile phone coverage on the London Underground

  30-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Bank tube station has become the latest station to join the expanding mobile phone coverage on the London Underground.Within the station, the Central line platforms, passageways, and escalators leading to and from the main ticket hall now have mobile coverage. Later this year, coverage will also be extended to the platforms of the Northern line when the City branch of the Northern line is also covered for the first time.
  Work will soon start to add mobile phone coverage to the Waterloo & Cit
  
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• Railways could carry electricity: HS1 and University of Kent investigate feasibility

  30-05-2024 09:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Railways that were once used to move coal to generate electricity could be used to carry the electricity itself –  if a study finds that high-voltage power cables can be safely run along the tracks.
  Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash
  HS1, the high-speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel, has commissioned a study to examine the options for distributing electricity along the tracks. HS1 says this could be done using a new cable within the existing train line boundary to he
  
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• A visit to Twickenham Museum

  30-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  On the edges of old Twickenham town centre is a small house and a small museum, and it’s, well, it’s very small indeed. It’s not that Twickenham lacks history but that the museum lacks the square footage to tell the story.
  It does have one remarkable redeeming feature, but more about that later.The museum is in an old Georgian house that was once home to a local watermen family. When its final owner, local conservation campaigner Jack Ellis, died thirty years ago, he donated th
  
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• Strawberry Hill House to be transformed by 30 floral designers for a flower festival

  29-05-2024 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If the Chelsea Flower Show whetted your appetite for all things floral, then you’ll want to hear that a gothic house will be filled with flowers for a whole weekend later this year.
  (c) Strawberry Hill House & Garden
  For one weekend, Strawberry Hill House in southwest London will be filled with the work of 30 floral designers, who have been given the run of the building for their displays.
  Responding to the theme of “nature unbound”, sustainable practices utilising the late
  
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• Highams station marks 150th anniversary with new heritage plaque

  29-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A commemorative plaque has been unveiled at Highams Park station to mark its 150th anniversary.
  The plaque was the idea of Network Rail’s chair, Peter, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, who suggested it at an event to mark the actual anniversary date — on 17th November 2023. Suggested and now funded by Arriva Rail London, the plaque was unveiled on Saturday 25th May 2024, on the station’s exterior.
  Lord Hendy and Gordon Turpin unveil the plaque – Photo: John Murray of PNJ Phot
  
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• Comics across the Pond: Exploring a century of US-UK cartoonist collaboration

  29-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  One hundred thirty years ago, the first full-colour newspaper comic was published in the USA but only arrived in the UK by accident. This accident triggered the rise of comics in the UK, and now the Cartoon Museum is looking at how the USA and UK cartoonists influenced each other over the past century or so.The accidental arrival of the New York World comics was due to unsold copies of the newspaper being used as heavy ballast in container ships heading to the UK and then being sold cheaply to l
  
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• London’s Pocket Parks: Stratford Park, E15

  29-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This pocket park near Stratford town centre can, sort of, be considered to be part of West Ham football club’s origin story.The area was still a mix of fields being slowly surrounded by expanding housing and industrial estates when some of the land was leased to Scottish shipowner Donald Currie in September 1892. He used the land to set up a company football club for his employees working in the docks.
  Called the Castle Swifts, the football team only used the site for a year, as there was
  
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• Exploring Japan’s design legacy: A pop-up museum in London

  28-05-2024 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Just down the road from the UK’s Design Museum is an exhibition of objects that would amply fit into a Japanese design museum — if it had one. That’s the idea behind this exhibition — as Japan doesn’t have a national design museum, what would people put in such a museum if one were to be built.Seven major Japanese creators, from filmmakers to architects and fashion designers, have presented their chosen national treasures, spanning 10,000 years from a variety of loc
  
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• Local councils push for transport expansion: Elizabeth and Bakerloo lines under review

  28-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Local councils have commissioned a review of transport options, including extensions of the Elizabeth and Bakerloo lines, to push them forward.
  The councils are all members of Local London, a lobbying group which includes Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Bromley, Enfield, Greenwich, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, and Waltham Forest.Boroughs in the Local London region say they have experienced significant demographic change and population growth, out-stripping national and London averages. However, th
  
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• Watch the Paris Olympics on big outdoor screens in London

  28-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There will be (at least) three free “fan zones in London for people wanting to watch the Paris Olympics this summer.
  (c) ianVisits
  Alongside the big screen sporting action, visitors to the Team GB Fanzone at King’s Cross in London will also enjoy/endure (delete as apropriate) live DJ sets, the chance to try their hand at Olympic-themed activities, and a programme of onstage entertainment, including Q&As and medal celebrations with Team GB’s returning athletes.
  Team GB says
  
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• c2c railway closures offers a rare chance to travel over a disused railway track

  28-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Network Rail is warning that the c2c railway between Barking and Fenchurch Street will be closed for six weekends in June and July due to maintenance work on the rail infrastructure.
  However, a special diversion will occur on one day during the closure, which will excite the train nerds.
  c2c train at Fenchurch Street station (c) c2c
  The diversions and closures will take place every weekend in June and the first weekend of July.
  During the closures, services on the Basildon and Rainham lines will
  
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• Former Camden Market street art doors up for sale

  27-05-2024 11:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Garden shed owners who love street art are in for a treat, as a load of street-art painted doors salvaged from Camden Lock Village have gone on sale.
  (c) RWB Auctions
  The village was next to the canal and used a load of “christmas market” style sheds to trade from. Then, in 2014, a group of urban artists painted the otherwise plain wooden doors as part of a project organised by The Real Art Of Street Art. The community advocacy group provides walls and other surfaces for artists to p
  
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