Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
age and nature's primeval force. It was criticized at the time as “soapsuds and
whitewash”, though Turner himself claimed he merely painted what he saw, having
been “lashed to a mast” for four hours.
1
William Blake
Two rooms on the upper floor of the Turner Wing are devoted to the visionary works of
the poet
William Blake
, who was considered something of a freak by his contemporaries.
He rejected oil painting in favour of watercolours, and often chose unusual subject
matter which matched his highly personal form of Christianity. He earned a pittance
producing illuminated books written and printed entirely by himself, and painted purely
from his own visions: “Imagination is My World; this world of Dross is beneath my
notice”, he wrote. He also executed a series of twelve large colour prints on the myth of
the Creation, now considered among his finest works, several examples of which are
normally on display here. Blake's works were originally intended for a room back in the
southern corner of the main building, which is decorated by Boris Anrep's floor mosaics,
accompanied by quotes from Blake's poem
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
.
From Millbank to Victoria Street
he area between
Millbank
- the busy riverside road that runs past Tate Britain - and
Victoria Street
- the link forged in the 1860s between Parliament and the newly built
Victoria train station - is home to various governmental ministries that can't quite fit
into Whitehall. It's also a favourite place for MPs to have their London bases, and
many of the restaurants and pubs in the area have “division bells”, which ring eight
minutes before any vote in the House of Commons. As for sights, the area boasts one
of the city's most exotic and unusual churches, the Catholic Westminster Cathedral.
St John's, Smith Square
Smith Square •
T
020 7222 1061,
W
sjss.org.uk •
!
Westminster
Hidden away in the backstreets west of Millbank is the beautiful early Georgian
architectural ensemble of
Smith Square
, home to the church of
St John
, a rare and totally
surprising slice of full-blown Baroque, completed in 1728. With its four distinctive towers
topped by pineapples, it was dubbed the “footstool church” - the story being that Queen
Anne, when asked how she would like the church to look, kicked over her footstool.
Bombed in 1941, the interior was totally gutted and has since been restored as a classical
music venue, so to visit you'll have to go to a concert. The church's atmospheric restaurant
is in the brick-vaulted crypt beyond the box o
ce (access from Dean Stanley St).
St James-the-Less
Vauxhall Bridge Rd • Mon-Fri 9.30am-1pm • Free •
T
020 7630 6282,
W
sjtl.org •
!
Pimlico
Another sight worth seeking out is the remarkable High Victorian church of
St James-the-Less
, designed by George Edmund Street in the 1860s, which lies on
the south side of Vauxhall Bridge Road, amid an unprepossessing 1960s Lillington
Gardens housing estate. The red-and-black brickwork patterning on the exterior is
exceptional, but pales in comparison to the red, black, cream and magenta tiling
inside. The capitals of the church's rounded pillars hide biblical scenes amidst their
acanthus-leaf foliage, and the font boasts similarly rich adornments, while above the
chancel arch there's a wonderfully colourful fresco by G.F. Watts.
Westminster Cathedral
Victoria St •
Campanile
Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm, Sat & Sun 9.30am-6pm • £5
Cathedral
Mon-Fri 7am-7pm, Sat 8am-7pm, Sun
8am-8pm • Free •
T
020 7798 9055,
W
westminstercathedral.org.uk •
!
Victoria
Set back from the stark 1960s architecture of Victoria Street, you'll find one of
London's most surprising churches, the stripy neo-Byzantine concoction of the Roman
