Sunny in The City

My obstinate phone didn't allow me to post about today's visit to The City when I was chilling out at a cafe near St Paul's and I couldn't charge it sufficiently there either, because the place was closing. Thus I didn't take as many pictures as I normally would. Maybe it's better... I'm afraid the said phone is to blame for the fact that Judy wasn't with us. It must have gone dead yesterday when I was sending her a reply to confirm the postponement of the trip till today. What a pity...

No matter what, I must say it was a nice outing. Look at the weather: 

Approaching Guildhall Art Gallery we crossed a square with remains of a Roman amphitheatre underneath. A Londoner by birth who was wih us was stunned to find out about it. If you happen to walk across the square, make sure to see a big circle - it marks the amphitheatre!

Do these people know there is a Roman amphitheatre beneath them?

A Roman amphitheatre in London

At the gallery we saw No Colour Bar exhibition first. I'd seen it before on my own, but now I picked up different details and it was nice to discuss things with my companions. One of them was Yousif Naser. Those who know Yousif will agree with me, that he is a successor of Jessica and Eric Huntley in West London. With Dalal-Al-Mufti and others, he founded Ark Space in 1998 not far from the famous Walter Rodney Bookshop ran for many years by Jessica and Eric in West Ealing. (The bookshop was recreated in the gallery and can only be seen till the 24th of January.) The Rodneys came to London from West Indies. Yousif Naser, an artist and social activist, fled Iraq and has lived in exile for most of his life so far. 

Established in 1998, Ark Space has served as a resource for the local community. Many people have been involved in various Ark projects over the years. It is an area for people of all backgrounds in Ealing and the surrounding areas to pursue their creative activities and express themselves.

 Dozens of cultural activities have taken place in the venue (or rather venues, as Ark has had to move from place to place a number of times and has remained homeless since the renovation of Acton Old Town Hall): art exhibitions, musical performances, poetry readings, art workshops, lectures and discussions. I've attended quite a few of The Ark events and mentioned them in my blog, but the one connected with the so called Southall Riots I couldn't see.

Death of Blair Peach

Yousif told me that The Ark organised a week-long series of events in memory of Blair Peach, a teacher and social rights activist who was killed during the Anti-Nazi League demonstration against the National Front in 1979. 

Well, if I wanted to write about the day in such detail, I would probably need a good few hours. Thus, just look at the pictures and join me next time if you think it's worth it:

 After the gallery we went to see St Mary-le-Bow and several other churches including one which remained as a solitary tower amongst modern buildings (The Blitz had its effects...) and stopped at a monument to William Shakespeare and his two colleagues. It was cold and less sunny, my phone was useless from the moment we entered the top floor at the gallery so no pictures till I charged it a bit during our visit to The Bank of England Museum. None of us wanted to leave The City before we could hold a 13-kilo bar of gold. Then Yousif had to part with us to make his way to The Waterman's Centre in Brentford to attend the opening of an exhibition of his friend's works.

 These pictures were taken at the church next to Postman's Park which was closed as it was dark.

 If I remember well, here you can see part of the Bank of America entrance gate:

 Next to another ruined church we saw symbols of hospitality. Here is one of them:

 Cute?

First governor of New Zealand:

 Do I need to tell you what this is?

Signs of the Zodiac:

 Near Bow Lane I came across this sculpture, but could not identify who it was because of the students in my way!