Tiny London

A short film by Mario Muth

Tiny London from Mario Muth on Vimeo.

Exmouth Market

Exmouth Market, in the heart of Clerkenwell, North London, is a mix of small independent and long standing traditional shops, bars, restaurants and cafés.

It also includes the former home of Joseph Grimaldi (18 December 1778 – 31 May 1837) the English actor and comedian who invented the modern day ‘white faced’ clown. There is a blue plaque to commemorate the spot. Grimaldi regularly appeared as the ‘sad face’ clown at Sadlers Wells, which is only a short walk away. He first appeared on stage as a three year old and seems to have had an unhappy life despite being successful.

Grimaldi’s grave is in Joseph Grimaldi Park, in Pentonville Road. He requested decapitation before burial as he was so afraid of being buried alive.

The market includes Clarks Pie and Mash shop and.................

a traditional pub, The Exmouth Arms

  

On Fridays and Saturdays the street features a food market when the local restaurants and street vendors sell a variety of hot food-to-go from market stalls ranging from the basic to the specialist.

Café Kick is a well-used football themed café. The walls and ceiling are covered in football memorabilia and three table top football games take pride of place. The café is equipped with many TV screens showing football, crickets or other major sports. This place is a cut above other sports bars.






There is also a tattoo parlour should you fancy some body art.

The Shard

Another picture of the ever growing Shard (which Simon Jenkins now refers to as the Bermondsey Shard).

Click here for a view from the top (cheers Kevin)

Shard Spotting - Evening Standard 20 February 2012

Shard workers defy vertigo to bolt together spire at 985feet – Evening Standard 23^rd March 2012

Occupy London

Occupy London still occupying the common ground outside St Paul’s Cathedral. One placard reads "give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, give a man a bank and he can steal from everyone".

Still neat and tidy, still doing no one any harm.

 Just pricking the conscience and exposing the morality of the people who are in a position to make and influence change.

For more information on Occupy London click here.

Another nose

Admiralty Arch could be up for sale. Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude no longer considers the building ‘fit for purpose’ as a government office. The London landmark could be sold as flats or a hotel at a knock down price of £75 million. The arch is also home to a Rick Buckley 'nose'

Folklore has it that the nose is modelled on Napoleon and at a height that cavalry troopers can tweak it as they ride pass. The nose seems well ‘tweaked’ and not easily reached unless seven foot tall, standing on the shoulders of a tourist or on horseback, therefore being out of reach of most pedestrians.

It is considered to be one of the famous “seven noses of Soho”.

Monopoly

This is what really happens when you buy a house on Pall Mall.

The Whitechapel Gallery

The Whitechapel Gallery was designed by Charles Harrison Townsend and opened in 1901 as one of the first publicly funded galleries for temporary art exhibitions in London.

The gallery exhibited Pablo Picasso’s Guernica in January 1939 to raise money for the Spanish Republican cause. Labour Party leader Clement Attlee opened the exhibition and despite the galleries working class, East End location 15,000 visitors saw the painting in the first week, raising £250. Visitors were asked to donate a pair of boots as the price of admission, which would be sent to the Spanish front line. These were placed in front of the enormous picture and soon thousands of boots covered the floor of the gallery.

Picasso created Guernica to illustrate man’s cruelty during the Spanish Civil war. The picture is now behind bullet proof glass in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, while a tapestry copy hangs on the wall of the UN building in New York. So powerful is this picture that when Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared before the United Nations in February 2003, to gain approval for the war in Iraqi, the tapestry was hidden. Officials claimed it would be too 'visually confusing' for TV viewers.

  “A German officer visited Picasso in his Paris studio during the Second World War. There he saw Guernica and, shocked at the modernist 'chaos' of the painting, asked Picasso: "Did you do this?" Picasso calmly replied: "No, you did this!" - Slavoj Zizek

Ice cream van

A vintage ice cream van on the South Bank. Still in full working order and doing a roaring trade on a cold winters day in January.

A room for London

Perched on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank rests one of London’s most spectacular hotels. This one bedroom boat is available throughout 2012 and offers panoramic views across the Thames that stretch from the Houses of Parliament to St Paul’s Cathedral. The timber ‘boat’ has been designed by David Kohn Architects together with the artist Fiona Banner. It is intended to be moved to other dramatic locations around London at the end of the year.

 A Room for London - The Observer, Sunday 15 January 2012

A Room for London  - Living Architecture

A Room for London - FT, Tuesday 10 January  2012 

My ship-shape night in rooftop hotel - Evening Standard, 27 January 2012

 DavidByrne - Resident in the Room from 17 - 19 February 2012

New London Bus

Mayor Boris Johnson's barefaced vanity project. The new London bus

The Routemaster's triumphant return to London - Guardian 23 February 2012

Let's hear it for all buses - not just Boris Johnson's Routemasters - Guardian 21 February 2012