Commerce Welcoming All Nations frieze

Work has started on a huge 73 foot long Victorian frieze in Battishill Gardens, Islington.

Carved in 1842 by little-known sculptor Musgrave Watson (who also carved one of the base reliefs of Nelson’s Column), the Commerce Welcoming All Nations frieze was originally across the front of a grand Hall of Commerce on Threadneedle Street in the City. Inside the building were two huge halls, with Corinthian columns and pilasters and elegantly coved ceilings, plus a reading-room, a room where commission agents could exhibit their samples, a place for wool sales, an auction for railway shares and rooms for meetings of creditors and private arbitrations.

The frieze, carved in Portland Stone, shows a winged Commerce with arms outstretched as she welcomes allegorical figures of the arts, Enterprise and Genius.

The Hall of Commerce was demolished in 1922 but the frieze was rescued. After spending fifty years in a basement of UCL, it was re-erected in the newly-created Battishill Gardens and unveiled by Sir John Betjeman in 1975.

In recent years undergrowth had begun growing into the stonework and new cracks were appearing. HOLT has been working with Islington Council to cut back the undergrowth, repair the stone and replace cement pointing with lime mortar. Our Proud Places team have been working with young people from alternative provision schools and youth groups to meet the conservators, learn about its history and have a go at stone carving for themselves.  

The gardens will be landscaped and the project completed in spring 2025.

Guilford Place drinking fountain

This week, we celebrated the restoration of Guilford Place drinking fountain in Bloomsbury. 

This is the thirteenth historic drinking fountain to be fully restored by HOLT across London and the second since the summer.

We were joined by over 30 local supporters as well young people who had been involved as part of HOLT’s Proud Places youth engagement programme. 

The fountain was erected in 1870 in memory of Mrs Francis Whiting by her two daughters, who lived in nearby Mecklenburgh Square. It has a sculptured marble figure of the ‘Woman of Samaria’ pouring water from a jug, from the Biblical story of Jesus’s meeting with a Samaritan woman at a well. The fountain itself survived the Blitz while all the housing around was hit by bombing. In recent years, the marble figure had been damaged with missing stonework, broken steps and it black with pollution, remaining that way since the late 1990s. 

The fountain had not been working for some years. Our recent survey found that 78% of passers-by said they would use it to fill up their water bottle if it was working again and we restored it this summer with the support of the WC Bar below it (a new wine & charcuterie bar converted from historic public conveniences), along with funding from long time HOLT supporter Roger Cline and the Jones Day Foundation.

Work included repairing the stonework, replacement marble pieces, plus the reinstatement of the plumbing.

Over 60 young people including A-level Art & Design students from Westminster Kingsway College were involved with the project as part of our Proud Places programme. This involved meeting conservators working on the site, stonemasonry workshops, poetry workshops, ceramics workshops and taking part in our Proud Prospects careers’ development. Also joining us was HOLT’s Chair Sir Laurie Magnus, our Patrons, a team from the Jones Day law firm and Tim Hyatt, Head of Residential at Knight Frank who had hosted some of the students, along with Coram's Fields Youth Club and Argyle Primary School.

"I'm so proud of Faadouma and so pleased that she could be involved in such a lovely event" said Faadouma Ali’s father. Faadouma, age 10, who is a pupil at Argyle Primary School, read out a poem at the event.

Centuries old East End tradition reinstated

The restored George Green tomb in Trinity Gardens, Poplar was unveiled last week. Green was one of the most important 18th century shipwrights in the East End. His charitable work included the founding of schools, almshouses and a Sailors’ Home and he spent over £100,000, the equivalent of over £11 million today, on philanthropic causes. When he died aged 82, the shops in Blackwall and Poplar were closed as a mark of respect and the population lined the route from his house to Trinity Chapel. Every vessel in the East and West India Docks flew its flag at half-mast. Much of George Green’s charitable work continues to benefit the local community today.

His tomb was isolated and in a very poor state with broken railings, illegible inscriptions and open to further damage. It was restored this autumn in a project working closely with George Green’s descendants (who contributed funding), George Green School, the Mayflower Primary School, George Green’s almshouses charity, The Worshipful Company of Shipwrights and Tower Hamlets Council. As part of our Proud Places programme, local pupils learnt about George Green as well as met the stonemasons working on site. 

After decades of abandonment, the centuries old tradition of George Green pupils laying a wreath to their founder has been reinstated. Headteacher of George Green School, Jon Ryder, spoke, alongside George Green school pupils Summayah Begum and Amina Taleb, 15, primary school pupils Ayman, Inara, Sabrina and Maryam, from Mayflower Primary School. 

“This is a very proud moment for me as current Headteacher of George Green's School. Today, the School is thriving thanks to George Green's vision and generosity. Tens of thousands of children have passed through our gates over the past 200 years. All of them have benefitted from George Green's belief in the importance of education. His tomb should stand as a symbol of the importance and significance of education. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be part of this project."

Jon Ryder, Headteacher, George Green School