An unusual street name in London’s Kentish Town

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WHEN VISITING KENTISH Town in north London, we parked close to a featureless cul-de-sac with an unusual name: Frideswide Place. In general, London’s street names are not invented ‘out of the blue’ but usually refer to places, such as Pretoria Road, or people, such as Gainsborough Gardens. I wondered whether Frideswide referred to a place or a person or something else.

A brief search of the Internet revealed that Frideswide is the name commonly given to Frithuswith, a saint who lived from about 670 AD until 727. She was an English princess (daughter of a ruler of Mercia named Dida of Eynsham whose territory was in western Oxfordshire and the upper reaches of the River Thames) and an abbess. She founded a monastery in Oxford. She is reputed to have had great healing powers, and is remembered for this. She is now the patron saint of the City of Oxford. This is all interesting enough, but why is there a road named after her in Kentish Town?

An answer to this question can be found on a website about Kentish Town (www.kentishtowner.co.uk/2013/04/10/wednesday-picture-whats-in-a-street-name/):

“Sometimes a whole group of street names will relate to one landowner. For instance, the area to the east of The Oxford was owned by Christ Church, Oxford University. This includes Frideswide Place (which is cut off by the railway) … It turns out that St Frideswide Priory, established in 1122, was the predecessor to Christ Church [in Oxford].”

And that seems to me a reasonable answer to my question.

Art Deco in London’s Kensington

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Winchester Court

I AM ENTHUSIASTIC about the Art Deco style of architecture that flourished mainly between the two World Wars, but has not been entirely abandoned today.

Bombay, which I visit often, is rich in Art Deco buildings,  but in London, there are fewer examples. In Kensington, Winchester Court is a fine example. Built in 1935 on the site of a demolished orphanage,  it is not far from two other Art Deco edifices on High Street Kensington, both built as department stores: the former Barkers and its neighbour, Derry and Thoms.

Those interested in Art Deco will find interesting examples dotted around the London’s suburbs that developed during the inter-war years.

A peculiar mission in the wilds of Russia

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THE AUTHOR SOPHY Roberts made several quite arduous trips to various parts of Siberia. Her aim was to find pianofortes that had, in various ways and at different times in Russia’s history, found their way to cities and very remote places east of the Ural mountains, in Siberia. Her book, “The Lost Pianos of Siberia” describes her adventures and some of the pianos she found.

What made the book interesting for me was not so much the pianos themselves, but what Ms Roberts wrote about Siberia: its history; the people she met; and the landscape she saw. She also described early travel accounts of this vast often snowy part of Russia. Furthermore, she provided interesting insights into the Russian piano making industry that flourished both before and after the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Illustrated with photographs and maps, this book is both fascinating and a compelling read

Remembering a forgotten adventure during WW2 in German occupied France

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DURING WORLD WAR II, many Indian soldiers fought with the British in North Africa and on many other battlefronts. Vast numbers of allied soldiers were taken prisoner by the Germans in North Africa, and these prisoners of war (‘POWs’) included several thousand Indians. The POWs were taken first to Italy, and then to prison camps in German occupied territory. One of the prison camps that contained many Indians was in the French town of Epinal. In May 1944, allied aircraft heavily bombed the town as part of a programme to damage French the railway system that was being used by the Germans. During this attack, the camp housing the Indians was badly damaged, and many Indian POWs escaped. At least 500 of them found their way to safety in Switzerland, and a few fought with the French resistance. This almost forgotten episode is described in “The Great Epinal Escape”, a book written by Ghee Bowman (1961-2025).

The book details how and where the Indians were taken prisoner; who they were; their journeys from Africa to Epinal; and their lives in the camps. Then, in meticulous detail, it recounts how the escapees found their way to freedom in Switzerland and the help they received from French people on their difficult journeys. This assistance was given by ordinary people, who knew that if they were discovered to be helping escaped POWs, they would face horrendous punishments, including execution.

Bowman’ scholarly but extremely readable book is the only account in English of this great escape story. Whereas the daring escapes of British POWs from German prison camps have been related in books and films, the Epinal escape, probably the greatest escape of POWs during WW2, seems to have been ignored both by British and Indian historians. The reasons for this are discussed in Bowman’s final chapter.

I bought my copy of this book about an almost forgotten episode during WW” in Bangalore (India), and I have enjoyed reading it.

What do you thing of this proposed title for my book about India?

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AT PRESENT I AM WRITING another book about travels in India. It describes a journey we made through the following Indian states: Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. During this journey we travelled along a road in Gujarat called THE ROAD TO HEAVEN.

My working title for the book is “ROAD TO HEAVEN AND A PASSAGE THROUGH INDIA”.

Without having read the as yet unfinished book, is this a title that would make you consider reading it, OR CAN YOU SUGGEST A BETTER TITLE?

If I use your suggested title, I will, of course, acknowledge your help.

Lobbing potatoes and images of trees through a pinhole

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ARTIST RODNEY GRAHAM (1949-2022) was born in Canada. There is an exhibition of some of his works at the Lisson Gallery in London’s Bell Street until 11 April 2026, It contains several sets of his artworks.

One of the sets is called “Oxfordshire Oaks”. It consists of six oak trees, each photographed with a pin-hole camera. Because the image in the camera appears upside down, Graham made the enlarged prints from the camera upside down. The trees in the photographs are impressive examples of oaks, and look surprisingly good upside down.

Another of the exhibits is a film, “Edge of a Wood”, projected onto two neighbouring screens. This did not impress me, but the third collection that includes image that form part of two installation: “Lobbing Potatoes at a Gong” and “Potatoes Blocking my Studio Door”, was both attractive and amusing.

I had never come across Rodney Graham before. The exhibition at Lisson Gallery was a delightful surprise.

Portraits and portraying the countryside through the eyes of David Hockney

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IT IS EASY to understand the great popularity of paintings by David Hockney. They are colourful,  often cheerful, and full of life. Until 23 August 2026, there is a delightful exhibition of his work at the Serpentine North gallery in London’s Hyde Park.

 

The highlight of the show is a series of prints of images that Hockney created on his iPad  in France. They are joined together to form a huge, long picture depicting the seasons in the countryside of Normandy in France. Entitled “A Year in Normandie”, it was inspired by the famous Bayeux Tapestry. However, unlike the tapestry that portrays military activities, Hockney’s twenty-first century take on it contains only idyllic views of a peaceful countryside, changing in appearance as the year proceeds. The result is wonderful.

 

In addition to the Normandy scenes, there is a good selection of Hockney’s portraits on canvas. Painted mainly during the last year or two, many of them include objects such as tables painted so that perspective has been reversed. For example,  the front of a table in a picture is painted narrower than the distant end of it.

 

All in all, this is a great exhibition.  It shows that advancing age need not be an impediment to creative artistic productivity: Hockney is in his late eighties, soon to be 90.

Landing at an airport on London’s Southbank

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AIRPORTS FIGURE IN many people’s lives these days. The artist Yin Xiuzhen (born 1963 in Beijing) studied art at Capital Normal University, then called Beijing Normal Academy, in Beijing from 1985 to 1989. Many of her works incorporate sewing, a skill that kept her amused as a child during Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). “Heart to Heart” is an exhibition of her works at London’s Hayward Gallery that continues until 3 May 2026. The gallery’s website subtitles the name of her show with the words:

“See the familiar in new ways, as artworks made from unconventional materials and overlooked objects reveal personal and collective stories.”

And what one sees at the exhibition confirms those words. The website also noted:

“Yin Xiuzhen is renowned for her use of secondhand clothing, concrete, food and household ephemera in her immersive installations and sculptures. She creates multimedia artworks that negotiate the spaces between memories, individuals and the globalised societies that we live in today.”

One of the immersive installations on display is “International Flight”, which incorporates examples of her “Portable City” series. The Portable Cities are open suitcases in which there are models of city centres, including those of many places in China and one of London.  On entering the first gallery of the Hayward through a door marked “All flights”, one can see a model of a passenger jet plane made of cloth, suspended from the ceiling. Below it, at floor level, there is a life-size model of a baggage claim conveyor belt, on which several examples of Portable Cities are displayed. Near the conveyor belt, there are three seats of the kind usually found in the departure lounges of airports and a few baggage trolleys on whose handles are the words: “Press Down to Release the Brake”. The installation is not only visually fascinating and somewhat humorous, but also a creative portrayal of globalism.

The airport installation is only one of several highly original installations on display. The others are well-worth seeing, and if you are in London, this intriguingly original exhibition should not be missed.