I had a little rant about some modern architecture in July 2015 which I expect you’ve forgotten by now; I almost have, as Queen Elizabeth I said about something different. I refreshed my memory by re-reading Athens, 1931.
A sunny day this week was an excuse to walk around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. “Winter Wonderland” is being dismantled, hurrah, and there was thin ice on the Serpentine. The cafe attached to the side of the Serpentine Sackler looked as out of place as ever and there is an exhibition in tribute to its creator Zaha Hadid. It was the first permanent structure she built in London when it opened in 2013. As you know she died last year. The main building was built as a magazine in the early 19th century so it is appropriate that she had a preoccupation with “abstraction and explosion”. Here are some pictures I took of her pictures.
The building has a high brick vaulted ceiling and makes a good gallery space.
I took a path home through Kensington Gardens past The Arch by Henry Moore. Here is a description from the Kensington Gardens website.
The Arch is a six-metre high Roman travertine sculpture positioned on the north bank of the Long Water. It was presented by the artist Henry Moore to the nation for siting in Kensington Gardens in 1980 – two years after his eightieth-birthday exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London.
The Arch is made from seven travertine stones weighing a total of 37 tonnes. The stones were sourced from a quarry in northern Italy.
After being disassembled in 1996 due to structural instability, The Arch has been recently restored at its original location in Kensington Gardens by The Royal Parks and The Henry Moore Foundation.
Moore’s work is categorised as abstract but this goose found it functional.
Looking directly through the arch it frames a view down a broad greensward to Physical Energy (Watts, 1907) and Kensington Palace. The former is a tribute to Cecil Rhodes but keep that under your hat or there will be a clamour to have it destroyed. The vista, part of Charles Bridgeman’s master plan when he laid out the park for Queen Caroline in 1728.
The African connection continues with this needle nearby.
This memorial to Speke was erected in 1866, two years after his (accidental) death out shooting at Neston Park in Wiltshire. It is constructed from red granite, quarried and made in Aberdeen. There’s always plenty to see in London parks.