London Town with Mr Brown

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London Tour Guide (fully qualified with a Blue Badge !)
Walking tours of London, days out to Bath, Stonehenge, Windsor, Canterbury, Oxford and, especially, Shakespeare's Stratford-on-Avon
www.londontownwithmrbrown.com

24/01/2024

On this day 25th January 41 AD the foundation event of London: the Roman Senate accepted Claudius as new Emperor.
(seen here on a cameo at the British Museum)

Lacking experience, hearing impaired, afflicted with a limp and a stutter, he was in desperate need of a nice bit of conquering and expansion of the Empire to establish himself. Hence a couple of years later, having landed in Britain the Roman army established the first wooden fortifications and bridge on the banks of the Thames which eventually became the settlement of Londinium.

So arguably: no Emperor Claudius, no LondonTownWithMrBrown!!

Email [email protected] to join me for Roman tours on the streets of London or the British Museum

27/10/2023

On this day 27th October 1923, the birthday of artist Roy Lichtenstein whose original hand painted comic book style is so well known it has become shorthand for 1960s “Pop Art”.

See this example “Whaam !” on a guided tour of Tate Modern.

Email LondonTownWithMrBrown

www.LondonTownWithMrBrown.com

21/10/2023

On this day in London history 21st October 1944, the birthday of Mandy Rice-Davies, the “showgirl” whose 1963 connections with Christine Keeler and the politically toxic “Profumo Affair” made her a celebrity. As a consequence the press revealed the downright nasty dealings of her boyfriend, the slumlord Peter Rachman. The Oxford English Dictionary actually added the word “Rachmanism” as a shorthand description of appalling treatment of tenants. At one time Rachman was extracting rent from 1200 people living in flats in Notting Hill which were designed only for 200 at most. The accommodation was described as “dirty & unfit for human habitation” but tenants who were due to appear at a tribunal to testify against Rachmann mysteriously withdrew their complaints…. after a visit from his enforcers. When Mandy learned that Rachman had died of a heart attack, she fainted and had to be resuscitated. Her first words on recovering were: “Did he leave a will ?” After contributing to the downfall of the Government, Mandy went on to record minor hit singles, appear in movies and eventually settle down in Tel Aviv where she opened a series of successful clubs. Her life as she herself described it “a long slow descent into respectability”.

18/10/2023

On this day in London history 18th October 1922 the foundation of the BBC: The British Broadcasting Company which set up its broadcasting base here at Marconi House on the Strand with 4 employees. This was the origin of today’s British Broadcasting Corporation, currently employing around 21,000 people the world’s largest broadcaster. At the time in 1922 the building next door was the burlesque venue the Gaiety Theatre (2), the origin of the Gaiety Girls, but demolished in 1957 and now the ME Hotel (nice rooftop cocktail bar!). Original fittings from the theatre are still on display at The Victoria pub in Bayswater, original Gaiety Girls costume designs are on display in the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Theatre and Performance Galleries and the original Marconi House is still on the Strand.

For walking tours of Theatreland, visits to the V&A or historic pub crawls email me [email protected]

01/10/2023

This artwork, “The Family of Darius before Alexander” by Paolo Veronese shows a moment on this day in history, 01 October 331 BC. Alexander the Great had just defeated Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela (present-day Iraq). Sisygambis, mother of Darius, (the kneeling lady with the fur cape) threw herself to the floor before the man she thought was Alexander, but it was in fact his general Hephaestion….oops ! The artist leaves us equally unsure whether Alexander is the man in orange or in red on the right. Veronese painted this nearly 2,000 years after the battle (1565) and its Venetian audience would have enjoyed the deliberate lack of clarity and given a hearty chuckle to see these ancient characters dressed in contemporary outfits. It was painted in Venice, but you can now see how huge it is at the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square.

For fun and enlightening art tours of the National Gallery, Tate Britain, Tate Modern, The Wallace Collection or the Victoria & Albert Museum email me: [email protected]

29/09/2023

On this day in history, 29 Sep 1571, Caravaggio, the creator of this splendid artwork, was born. Full name Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, would have been 452 years old today. This piece, the “Supper at Emmaus”, is available to view for free at the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. It shows the moment of drama and revelation in this biblical story. The art of Caravaggio is fascinating and massively influential, but most of what we know about him comes from his criminal record. He wins the prize for “most arrested painter in art history”…. And, in a gloriously Italian manner, one of those arrests was over a violent argument about food in a restaurant ! Happy 452nd birthday maestro.

For fun and enlightening tours of the National Gallery, Tate Britain, Tate Modern, The Wallace Collection or the Victoria & Albert Museum email me: [email protected]

03/09/2023

On this day in London history, 3rd September 1938 was the birthday in Marylebone of the great architect Sir Richard MacCormac (1938 – 2014). Often called a “humane Modernist” his legacy is all around us in London: The Science Museum extension (1), Southwark Tube station (2), the new BBC Broadcasting House in Portland Place (3). All showing off his unique style featuring fine materials, great attention to detail and elegant geometry. His company MJP Architects is based in Spitalfields where he also lived with his partner Jocasta Innes in two beautifully renovated houses on Heneage St, as featured in his book “Two Houses in Spitalfields”. To quote from the Gentle Author in Spitalfields Life: he “will be fondly remembered for his shrewd intelligence, wit and generosity of spirit.”

For guided tours featuring architecture or any part of London email me on [email protected]

22/06/2023

“Hello darkness, my old friend”
On this day in London the National Portrait Gallery reopened after 3 years of closure for restoration.
And this picture of William Shakespeare (maybe) was the first portrait purchased in 1856 when the gallery opened. Catalogue number NPG1

We don’t know for sure that this is West Midlands leading playwright, but it certainly fits the dates and I just love that cool, piratical earring.

It’s purely my imagination but is this maybe (despite being married with 3 children) the hipster Will S, living the Shoreditch dream: hanging out with lords and actors; drinking and brawling with Ben Jonson; partying with the Dark Lady AND the Fair Youth !

While other later images of him show a settled middle-aged Stratford-on-Avon landowner. A bit portly maybe, receding hairline maybe , but you know what, the boy done good, had some real fine times and now just kicking back and relaxing. More wine w***h !!

For a Shakespeare walking tour or guided tour of the National Portrait Gallery email [email protected]

17/06/2023

London Town With Mr Brown is taking a break from London guiding, with a weekend University of Cambridge course called “Poets, painters and musicians in Shakespeare’s England” appropriately at the stunning Tudor mansion of Madingley Hall with its fabulous gardens as created by Lancelot “Capability” Brown. The Browns are everywhere !

Join me for my (soon to be created) Shakespeare walking tour of London. Email [email protected]

25/05/2023

Yesterday in music history…. RIP Tina Turner 24th May 2023.

As “Little Ann” backing singer in a band led by her future husband, Anna Mae Bullock started in the rock business aged 17. Taught how to release her wild vocal skills by Little Richard, she got her first break when a male singer failed to show for a recording session. Volunteering to record “guide” vocals so the musicians and studio time wouldn’t be wasted she blew everyone away with her powerful delivery on “A Fool in Love” (except the engineer who apparently yelled at her “Goddamit stop hollerin’ in my microphones!”)
Despite (or perhaps because of) the abuse she suffered from her husband, she was one of the hardest working people in show business, once discharging herself from hospital to go back on stage 2 days after giving birth.
Her breakout hit came over a decade later with “River Deep, Mountain High” one of the most intensely crafted studio recordings ever, on which Tina estimated she sang the first line over a thousand times before moving on to record the second.
The hit cover of “Proud Mary” was followed by her autobiographical hit “Nutbush City Limits”, her appearance as the Acid Queen in “Tommy” the “rock opera” and (after finally dumping her abusive spouse), the global superstardom that came with “What’s Love got to do with it ?”
No second hand emotions today. Just RIP Anna Mae.

12/05/2023

Happy birthday Dante Gabriel Rossetti (DGR) the epitome of the troubled artist. Born in London and living for many years on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea with a menagerie of exotic animals including a toucan dressed in a cowboy hat riding round on a llama; heartbroken at the early death of his first wife, he dramatically flung all his unpublished poems into her coffin; later in need of material he rather sheepishly had the body exhumed to retrieve them.

DGR was an artist of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood along with William Holman-Hunt and John Everett Millais, who all have work on display at the wonderful and under appreciated Tate Britain collection including this delicate and intriguing depiction of the Annunciation “Ecce Ancilla Domini”

Let me take you on an art history tour around London’s galleries. Email [email protected]

08/04/2023

On this day in history 8th April: 1605, the birthday of Philip IV of Spain; 1973 the passing away of Pablo Picasso. Both are responsible for great artworks in the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London. Philip because he commissioned these fabulous portraits from Diego Velasquez (the artist most famous for “The Rokeby Venus”). Picasso who created “Motherhood” (picture 4). Both paintings feature in my “Women in Art” themed tour of the National Gallery.

For walks in London including tours of the National Gallery email me:
[email protected]

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https://londontownwithmrbrown.com/

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