Dositey Obradovich in the City: London #55

27 Clement's Lane.

 

'HERE LIVED IN 1784

DOSITEY OBRADOVICH

[Dositej Dimitrije Obradović]

1742~1811

Eminent Serbian man of letters

First Minister of Education

in Serbia.'

 

Obradovich was the founder of Serbian literature and the translator of Aesop's Fables into Serbian.

Samuel Pepys in the City: London #45

'SITE OF THE

NAVY OFFICE

IN WHICH

SAMUEL PEPYS

LIVED AND WORKED

DESTROYED BY FIRE

1673'

 

The above plaque is at the west side of Pepys Street near Seething Lane.

 

'SAMUEL PEPYS

DIARIST

1663–1703

ERECTED BY

THE SAMUEL PEPYS CLUB

AND PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION

1983'

 

Pepys's bust is in Seething Lane Gardens. Pepys and Sir William Penn are said to have buried their wine and parmesan cheese in the Navy Office gardens to protect them from the fire of London in 1666. The horns are unintentional.

 

The Hung Drawn & Quartered pub in Great Tower Street is named after Pepys's famous black-humoured remark shown on the wall:

 

'"I went to see

Major General Harrison

Hung Drawn and Quartered.

He was looking as cheerful

as any man could

in that condition."

 

Samuel Pepys

13th October 1660'

 

Thomas Harrison was one of the signatories of King Charles I's death warrant and a leader of the Fifth Monarchists. Harrison was executed at Charing Cross.

Dr Johnson, The Strand: London #31

 

This statue of Dr Samuel Johson stands to the east side of St Clement Danes, The Strand, which Johnson used to attend.

 

'SAMUEL JOHNSON

L . L. D

CRITIC  ESSAYIST PHILOLOGIST

DRAMATIST POLITICIAN WRITER TALKER

 

BORN

1709

 

DIED

1784

 

THE GIFT AND HANDIWORK OF

PERCY FITZGERALD, F. S. A.

AND ERECTED BY

THE REVD. S. PENNINGTON, M. A.

RECTOR OF ST CLEMENT DANES

1910.'

 

Among many other books, Percy Fitzgerald (1834–1925) wrote a biography of James Boswell (1740–95).

 

On the south side of the plinth is a representation of Boswell and Johnson, apparently at the time of their visit to the Hebrides. It was obviously cast from the same mould as another plaque of Fitzgerald's in Lichfield, Staffordshire, which was Johnson's birthplace.

 

On the north side, Johnson with Mrs Hester Thrale.

 

Below are links to two other posts I've made on Johnson.

 

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Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) and Lichfield, Staffordshire

Dr Johnson's House: London #22

John Milton in St Giles without Cripplegate Church: London #23

St Giles without Cripplegate, within the Barbican complex, London.

 

 

John Milton was buried here in 1674. The statue is by Horace Montford.

 

'JOHN MILTON

Author of Paradise Lost

Born Decr. 1608.

Died Novr. 1674.

 

His Father JOHN MILTON,

Died March 1646.

They were both interred in this church.

SAMUEL WHITBREAD posuit 1793.'

 

Under this is an allusion to Paradise Lost: a flaming sword with a snake wrapped around it, an apple in its mouth.

 

Another bust of Milton, this time looking older and frailer.

 

 

The west window of the tower, showing in detail the Milton coat of arms.

 

There is also a bust of Daniel Defoe, who died in the parish in 1731.

 

John Bunyan, who attended the church, is also remembered.

 

'JOHN SPEED

1552–1629

Citizen and Merchant Taylor,

historian and map-maker

who was buried in this Church.

 

This monument, which was

badly damaged in 1940, was

restored by the Worshipful

Company of Merchant Taylors

in 1971.'

 

Below is a link to a related post I made earlier.

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John Milton's Cottage in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire

Thomas Gray in Cornhill: London #20

 

'THOMAS GRAY

POET

WAS BORN IN A HOUSE

ON THIS SITE

 ––– ––– –––

 "THE CURFEW TOLLS THE KNELL

OF PARTING DAY"

 

This is a very distinctive plaque in Cornhill, and the quoting of the first line from the poem 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard', perhaps the world's most famous iambic pentameter, was probably inevitable.

The Art of Michael Visocchi and Lemn Sissay in Fen Court: London #19

Tucked away in Fen Court is this remarkable sculpture, which is explained, with the poem, in the interpretation plaque below.

 

 

 

 

'GILT OF CAIN

By

Michael Visocchi & Lemn Sissay

 

This powerful sculpture was unveiled by the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu on 4th September 2008. The sculpture commemorates the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, which began the process of the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire.

 

Fen Court is the site of a churchyard formerly of St Gabriel's Fenchurch St and now in the Parish of St Edmond the King and St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard St. The latter had a strong historical connection with the abolitionist movement of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Rev John Newton, a slave-trader turned preacher and abolitionist, was rector of St Mary Woolnoth from 1780 – 1807. Newton worked closely alongside the famous abolitionist William Wilberforce.

 

The granite sculpture is composed of a group of columns surrounding a podium. The podium calls to mind an ecclesiastical pulpit or slave auctioneer's stance, whilst the columns evoke stems of sugar can and are positioned to suggest an anonymous crowd or congregation gathered to listen to a speaker.

 

The artwork is the result of a collaboratin between the sculptor Michael Visocchi and poet Lemn Sissay. Extracts from Lemn Sissay's poem, 'Gilt of Cain', are engraved into the granite. The poem skilfully weaves the cold language of the City's stock exchange trading floor with biblical Old Testament references.

 

HERE IS THE ASK PRICE ON THE CLOSED POSITION,
HISTORY IS NO INHERENT ACQUISTION
FOR HERE THE TECHNICAL CORRECTION UPON THE ACT,
A MERGER OF TRUTH AND IN ACTUAL FACT,
ON THE SPOT, ON THE MONEY – THE SPREAD.
THE DEALER LIED WHEN THE DEALER SAID
THE BULL WAS CHARGING THE BEAR WAS DEAD,
THE MARKET MUST CALCULATE PER CAPITA, NOT HEAD.

 

AND GREAT TRADERS ACTING IN CONCERT, ARMS RISE
AS THE ACTUALS FROUGHT ON THE SEA OF FRANCHISE
THROWN OVERBOARD INTO THE EXCHANGE TO DROWN
IN DISTRESSED BROKERS DISCONSOLATE FROWN.
IN ACCOUNTING LIQUIDITY IS A MOUNTING MORBIDITY
BUT RAISING THE ARMS WITH SUCH RIGIND RAPIDITY,
OH THE REAPING THE RAPING RAPACIOUS FLUIDITY.
THE VIOLENCE THE VICIOUS AND VEXED VOLATILITY.

 

THE ROARING TRADE FLOOR RISES ABOVE CRASHING WAVES:
THE TRADER BUYS SHIPS, BENEATH THE SLAVES.
SWAY MACHETE BACK, SWAY MACHETE AGAIN
CUT BACK THE SUGAR RUSH, CAIN.
THE WHIPSAW IT'S ALL AND THE WHIP SAW IT ALL
THE RISING MARKET AND THE CARGO FALL
WHO'LL ENTER "JERUSALEM" MAKE THE MARGIN CALL FOR ABEL?
WHO WILL KICK OVER THE STALL AND TURN THE TABLE?

 

CAIN GATHERS CAIN AS GILT-GIFT TO HIS LAND
BUT WHOSE SWORD OF TRUTH SHALL NOT SLEEP IN HAND?
WHO SHALL UNLOCK THE STOCKS AND SHARE?
BREAK THE BINDS THE BOOND UNBOUND – LAY BARE
THE TRUTH. CASH FLOW RUNS DEEP BUT SPIRIT DEEPER
YOU ASK AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?
I ANSWER BY NATURE BY SPIRIT BY RIGHTFUL LAWS
MY NAME, MY BROTHER, WILBERFORCE.

 

This project was initiated by British Black Heritage and the Parish of St Mary Woolnoth and was commissioned by the City of London Corporation in partnership with the British Land Company.'

 

ADDENDUM: Lemn Sissay has now won the vote for Chancellor of the University of Manchester. Phew! I'm very pleased to say he easily beat the horrendous Peter Mandelson: we don't want dinosaurs, especially hypocrites like the architect of New Labour!

 

Links to my other posts of Lemn Sissay public poems are given below:

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Lemn Sissay's Poetry in Shudehill, Manchester
Hardys Well and Lemn Sissay's Poem

Lemn Sissay's 'Flags', Tib Street, Manchester
Lemn Sissay's 'RAIN'

Rodinsky's Room and 19 Princelet Street, Spitalfields, London

19 Princelet Street was built in 1714 and was the home of the French Huguenot Ogier family, who developed a very successful silk weaving concern.

In 1839 there was a synagogue on these premises, and now this Grade II* listed building is the Museum of Immigration and Diversity.

David Rodinsky (1925–69), a reclusive Jew who understood a number of languages and whose papers reveal a knowledge of cabbalism, lived above the synagogue for many years until his death in a psychiatric hospital in 1969, although this was not discovered until some time after his room – left suddenly, a little like Dennis Severs' imaginary family left their rooms in Folgate Street (see link below) – was unlocked in 1980.

The book Rodinsky's Room (1999) is written by Rachel Lichtenstein (whose Polish grandparents came to the East End in the 1930s) and Iain Sinclair (who wrote an early article on Rodinsky's room) in alternating chapters, although most is written by Lichtenstein, who slowly uncovers the mystery of Rodinsky at the same time as she discovers her own past.

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Dennis Severs' House (6-minute video)

John Betjeman in Cloth Court, London

 

Cloth Fair is a small street in the City of London, and off it is the passage Cloth Court.

A plaque records that John Betjeman once lived here.

'SIR

JOHN

BETJEMAN

1906–1984

Poet Laureate

lived here'

Betjeman loved living here, and fondly remembered the bells ringing from St Bartholomew the Great, the church on the other side of Cloth Fair.

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John Betjeman at St Pancras.