Tag Archives: mosaics

Wonderful Roman mosaics preserved near the Humber river

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KINGSTON UPON HULL (‘Hull’) did not exist as a significant settlement until several centuries after the Romans left Britain. However, the Romans built a road that ran north through Brough, which is west of Hull, to Malton (northwest of Hull), and beyond towards York. Along this road, at Horkstow and Brantingham, and at Rudston and Harpham, along a side road northeast of Hull, remains of buildings constructed by the Romans have been found and excavated by archaeologists. At each of these sites, large areas of Roman mosaics have been found.

The mosaics have been carefully moved to Hull and can be seen at the city’s Hull and East Riding Museum. There, they have been beautifully displayed. I do not think I have ever seen such a large collection of Roman mosaics as can be found in the museum. It is worth visiting Hull to view this remarkable set of mosaics. Although, in my view, the mosaics alone make the museum unmissable, there is much more to be seen in this superbly curated place.

Visitors to the museum, which specialises in archaeology, follow a route that leads from exhibits relating to prehistory to just after the English Civil War.  Each room or area along the way is designed to ignite interest in archaeology in the minds of everyone, from small children to adults. Every exhibit is labelled in language that is easy to understand, yet does not ‘dumb down’. Even if you enter the museum with little interest in archaeology and early history, you are bound to leave having become interested in these subjects.

Apart from the Roman mosaics, the museum contains several timber boats, the Ferriby vessels, that were built on the bank of the Humber in the Bronze Age. One of these is preserved in a special tank called the Boatlab, which contains equipment to preserve the ancient timber. It is believed the Ferriby boats are the earliest known form of seacraft made in Europe.

I have highlighted two aspects of this museum in Hull. They are the ‘icing on the cake’, but the rest of the cake is richly interesting. Many people disdain the idea of visiting Hull, but they are mistaken. The museum with its Roman mosaics is just one of many of the city’s relatively unknown but worthwhile attractions.

It is amazing what can be created with Lego bricks and old buttons

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THE PROVOCATIVE CHINESE artist Ai Weiwei was born in Beijing in 1957. He now works in places around the world including Beijing. In 2011, he was arrested in Beijing and held without charge for 81 days. At other times, he has been harassed by the Chinese state. Despite this and his overtly artistic criticism of the ruling regime of the People’s Republic of China and several periods of exile from that country, he now spends some time working in his studio in a house near Beijing. The rest of his time is spent working in various places including Cambridge (UK), Lisbon (Portugal), and Berlin (Germany). At the Lisson Gallery in Bell Street (near London’s Edgware Road stations), there is a small but wonderful exhibition of works by Ai Weiwei, which will continue until 15 March 2025.

The exhibits on display at the Lisson Gallery demonstrate the incredibly inventive and imaginative nature of Ai Weiwei’s creations. Two of the works on display are rusted cast-iron sculptures. Two huge images, one in the style of Van Gogh and the other in the style of Gauguin, are made using many thousands of tiny toy (? Lego) bricks of different colours. From a distance these, and other large pictures made with the tiny bricks seem as if they are painted, but seen close-up it is obvious that the images are a complex mosaic of toy bricks.

Other exhibits also employ Lego bricks. These are not flattish creations like the ones mentioned above, but three-dimensional sculptures. In each case, the artist has taken an object (e.g., a rusting military helmet or a porcelain model of a lion) and partially enclosed it within a structure made of Lego bricks.

Buttons are extensively employed in other exhibits. Ai Weiwei sourced the buttons from the now closed A Brown and Co Buttons factory. The buttons, which are variously coloured, are used like the Lego bricks to produce mosaics depicting words and images. The buttons are sewn on to fabrics and in one case onto a ring of sandals.

Without doubt, each of Ai Weiwei’s creations are based on his interpretation of events historical and contemporary. However, although knowing the ideas behind his artworks adds to the understanding of the show, the exhibition at Lisson Gallery can be enjoyed without any knowledge of what was going through the artist’s head while he was creating the works.

A strict and particular chapel

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I HAVE PASSED IT often, and have long been curious about it, but until today I have not bothered to find out about it. I am referring to a small chapel on the corner of Kensington Place and Newcombe Street, which leads to the south side of a space where a weekly farmers’ market is held (on Saturday mornings). Called the Bethesda Baptist Church, its congregation was established in 1866. The building resembles a style commonly used in the late 18th century. According to a history of Kensington Place (www.hillgatevillage.com/the-facts), the chapel was constructed in about 1824. Over the years, it has been used by various Baptist sects. Currently, it is the home to a congregation, who believe in Restricted Communion and Particular Redemption. This sect was founded in 1866.

Bethesda Chapel, Kensington

Currently, I am reading about a clergyman, Conrad Noel (1869-1942), who believed fervently that the church should be both democratic and all-embracing. So, it was with some interest that I stumbled across a chapel in which people believing in ‘Restricted Communion’ gather to worship. The sect is a branch of the Strict and Particular Baptists, who follow the decrees of High-Calvinism. If you are finding this a bit difficult to follow, then you are not alone. Let me take a stab at giving a simple explanation of what the congregation in the Bethesda Chapel believe: a set of beliefs that are new to me. One website that seemed to clarify them well is www.sbhs.org.uk/membership/strictbapt/, from which I have attempted to extract the following information.

‘Strict’ refers to ‘restricted communion’. Unlike many branches of the Christian Church, which permit anyone who believes and loves Jesus Christ to partake in Holy Communion, the Strict and Particular Baptists believe that Communion should only be offered to those “who have been baptised by immersion as believers”.  The above-mentioned website explained:

“Strict Baptists see baptism as a rite by which believers testify to their faith in Christ, and associate it with church membership. The Lord’s Supper is for those who have joined the church in this way.”

As for ‘particular’, this lives up to the common meaning of the word. The Strict and Particular Baptists believe that:

“…Christ died to make certain the salvation of a definite number of people whom he has purposed to save, rather than to make possible the salvation of an indefinite number of people who might choose to believe.”

That is, only the ‘select’ few, known as the ‘Elect’, will be saved. The sect does not accept infant baptism, even by immersion, as being sufficient to become part of the Elect. Another website (www.baptists.net/history/2022/07/the-articles-of-faith-of-the-gospel-standard-churches/) explained what is required to become a member of a Strict and Particular Baptist sect such as that which uses the Bethesda Chapel:

 “At a regularly constituted church meeting … the candidate (whether already a member of another church or not) shall make a verbal confession of faith, and declare what he or she believes God has done for his or her soul. If accepted by a vote of the majority of members present and voting, signature in the church book to the Articles of Faith and Rules will be required. Thereafter, at the earliest convenient opportunity, the person shall, unless previously baptised by immersion, be so baptised in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and be formally received into church fellowship at the next observance of the Lord’s Supper.”

The Articles of Faith, and there are many of them, are strict. Thus, despite my oversimplification, it would seem that the Strict and Particular sects are, unlike the open-door church espoused by Conrad Noel, extremely exclusive and restrictive.  

PS: A little way west of the Bethesda Chapel, there is an institution that is, unlike the chapel, far from exclusive: it is open to all children regardless of faith, providing they live in its catchment area: Fox Primary School. This state school, which was founded in 1842, is housed in modern buildings. I mention it as a postscript because its walls are decorated with several attractive, colourful mosaics.

Mosaics and Greeks in Moscow Road

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THE SYNAGOGUE IN Bayswater’s St Petersburg Place, a gothic revival edifice, looks no more exotic or out of place than the Victorian gothic Church of St Matthew built 1881-82 on the same street. In fact, it is another building to the north of these two that is unashamedly exotic in appearance: Aghia Sofia (Saint Sophia), the Greek Orthodox cathedral on Moscow Road. This domed building constructed for a community of prosperous Greek merchants was designed by John Oldrid Scott (1841-1913 and completed in 1877.

The first Greeks began arriving in London at the end of the 17th century. By the late 19th century (according to the website http://www.stsophia.org.uk), members of the Greek community in London:

“… were distinguished for their industry and their business acumen, and … soon became for the most part financially independent. They now wished to enjoy a more comfortable life, both for themselves and their families. They kept their offices in the City, but took up their private residences in other parts of London. The favourite districts were Lancaster Gate and Bayswater. These districts, which today are almost in the centre of the unending metropolis, were then only on its fringe, and to go from the City to Hyde Park, for instance, was considered a long excursion, which was undertaken, normally, only on holidays, as a relaxation and in order to enjoy the fresh country air.

After three decades had passed from the founding of the Church of Our Saviour [in the City near London Wall], no one any longer had his private residence in the City; and whereas previously all had lived within a very short distance of the Church, now five whole miles divided the Church from the residential district of the faithful.

For the men, in particular, who had every day to make the journey to the City, a tiring one with the means of transport then available, it was hard to undergo the same fatigue on Sundays also, when they were supposed not only to perform their religious duties, but also to rest from the labours of the week. Moreover, the number of the Greeks had greatly increased, and there was scarcely room for them all in the Church then existing. These various difficulties made it imperatively necessary to build a new larger Church, situated closer to the residences of the Brothers.”

Just as the Jewish people, who had also settled in Bayswater, far from the older synagogues in the City and established a new one near their new homes, the Greeks did the same. Moscow Road’s St Sophia’s church interior is filled with icons and other religious paintings is colourful and attractive. Instead of frescos on the walls, which were believed to be at risk of damage from London’s damp climate, the church’s interior is lined with mosaics. Some of the earliest of these were designed by Arthur George Walker (1861-1939). In 1926, the Russian born mosaic artist Boris Vasilyevich Anrep (1883-1969) created some more mosaics for the cathedral. The marble floor of the edifice is also attractive.