Posts Tagged ‘Harrods’

Tigers, Class War at Harrods – 2017

Tuesday, January 7th, 2025

Tigers, Class War at Harrods: On Saturday 7th January 2017 I photographed a rally in Altab Ali Park in Whitechapel against a planned coal-fired power plant and other threats to the world’s largest mangrove forest, then went to Harrods where the United Voices of the World were protesting with the help of Class War calling for better wages and conditions for waiters and for them to get all of the tips given by customers.


Save the Sunderbans Global Protest – Altab Ali Park

Tigers, Class War at Harrods - 2017
Many of the protesters had black ‘tiger stripes’ on their faces – the Sunderbans are the home of the Bengal tiger

This protest in East London organised by the UK branch of the National Committee to Protect Oil Gas & Mineral Resources, Bangladesh was a part of a global day of protest to save the Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest.

Tigers, Class War at Harrods - 2017

The Sunderbans, a UNESCO World Heritage site threatened by the planned Rampal coal-fired power plant and other commercial developments are the home of many species including the Bengal Tiger, and many at the protest had ‘tiger stripes’ on their cheeks.

Tigers, Class War at Harrods - 2017

The power plant is a joint project of the Bangladesh and Indian governments and would endanger the livelihoods of over 3.5 million people and make around 50 million more vulnerable to storms and cyclones, against which the Sunderbans serve as a natural safeguard. Coal would be brought up from India on one of the rivers through the forest and there would be industrial development on areas around it where this is currently banned.

Huge protests against it in Bangladesh have resulted in a number of protesters being killed, but the protest in London was entirely peaceful and ignored by the authorities.

Save the Sunderbans Global Protest


Harrods stop stealing waiters’ tips – Harrods, Knightsbridge

Tigers, Class War at Harrods - 2017

Grass roots trade union United Voices of the World which represents chefs and waiters working at Harrods protested outside together with Class War calling for 100% of the service charges to go to staff rather than the vast profits of the owners, the Qatari royal family, who were denying staff of around £2.5 million per year.

Class War came to Harrods to support the UVW union

A month earlier I had been there when UVW General Secretary Petros Elia had talked with Class War celebrating Christmas in a pub in Wapping about what was happening at Harrods. The company was keeping between 50-75% of all tips for itself and the UVW were going there to protest against this on January 7th. Class War were keen to come and lend their support.

The protest was robust but essentially peaceful, and was heavily policed with the protesters being warned they would be charged with aggravated trespass if they entered the store. A few individuals had gone inside earlier and had left fliers about the low wages and lousy conditions of the chefs and waiters for shoppers to find but their activities had not been noticed but the protest took place on the pavement and street outside.

Class War hold up a banner in front of the doors to stop police filming from inside

There were a few arrests during the protest for trivial offences – including one for letting off a smoke flare, but after the protest ended and I had left, police arrested four of the organisers – including Petros Elia – as they were packing up and held them for up to 18 hours before they were released on police bail.

No charges were ever brought, though one person who let off a firework unwisely accepted a police caution. The police action in making the arrests appeared to be a deliberate abuse of the law to both apply a short period of arbitrary detention and to impose bail conditions that they were not to go within 50m of Harrods to protect the company from further legitimate protests.

Harrods and their owners, the Qatari royal family, have many friends in high places including the Foreign Office and presumably these were able to put pressure on the police to take action against the protesters.

The campaign – and the protest – received tremendous support from the public and even from some of the right-wing press (perhaps because Harrods is owned by foreigners) and Harrods quickly announced that 100% of tips would be shared under an accountable system. You can read more and watch a five minute video of the protest on the UVW web site.

And of course see many more of my pictures and captions at Harrods stop stealing waiters’ tips.


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National Anti-Fur March 2010

Wednesday, November 13th, 2024

National Anti-Fur March: The march on began with a short rally in Belgrave Square before moving off to protest outside many of the luxury shops in the area that still sell fur products, including Harrods.

National Anti-Fur March 2010

Protests like this one organised by the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT) had played an important part in making the public aware of the terrible cruelty to animals taking place in fur farms which led to fur farming being made illegal in the UK in 2001.

National Anti-Fur March 2010

But it remains legal to sell fur in the UK – so supporting the cruelty in fur farms overseas. And the protesters demonstrated at many of the best known names in exxpensive fashion – including Armani, Gucci, Fendi, Joseph, Prada, Versace, Gianfranco Ferre, Dolce and Gabbana, Christian Dior, Roberto Cavalli and Nicole Farhi in Sloane St, and Burberry and Harrods in Brompton Road still selling fur products.

National Anti-Fur March 2010

It seems only logical that when the government passed the law banning fur farming they should also have banned the sale of fur.

National Anti-Fur March 2010

But perhaps a significant reason for not doing so was the fact that fur is still used in some military uniforms, notably the bearskins worn by the guards. Worn at ceremonial events including the changing of the guards in London and Windsor, these stupidly large headdresses each requires the killing of a black bear in licensed hunts in Canada and cost over £2,000 each. They could be replaced by false fur at a hugely lower cost.

Many leading figures including the former and current Queen have announced they will not buy fur, but others among the uncaring rich continue to do so.

According to PETA, in a 2020 “YouGov opinion poll commissioned by animal protection charity Humane Society International/UK… Only 3% said they would wear the cruelly obtained material.

They say “Designers such as Calvin Klein, Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, and Tommy Hilfiger have pledged never to use fur in their collections. The majority of high-street and online stores – including Topshop, AllSaints, and ASOS – are also fur-free.

Others to have recently made the change to faux fur in their collections “include Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Versace, Coach, and Prada” and “in 2018, London Fashion Week became the first major fashion week not to show any fur on its catwalk” according to an Independent article.

But among those still selling fur, still part of the truly horrific trade, are “Dior, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Max Mara, Harrods, Alberta Ferreti, Carolina Herrera, Roberto Cavalli.

You can read a long account of the protest and see many more pictures from the event on My London Diary at National Anti-fur March.


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No More Fur March – 2008

Friday, September 27th, 2024

No More Fur March: Harrods has been getting a lot of attention in the media recently for the activities of its former owner, but on Saturday 27th September 2008 it was the destination of a march by the Campaign Against the Fur Trade.

No More Fur March

Shamefully you can still buy fur coats at Harrods, A ‘secret shopper’ filming for animal protection charity Humane Society International/UK who raised concerns was lied to in 2021 by sales staff wearing Harrods-branded name badges about the conditions in which the fur is farmed.

No More Fur March

Sales staff assured this customer that the foxes were kept in “separate rooms” with “enough space to play and everything“, and that they were “literally put to sleep” by injection when in practice they are confined in some farms in cages barely longer than their body length and anally electrocuted without any anaesthetic. The Harrods staff dismissed the many reports and videos of animals suffering in the fur trade as “only propaganda, madam“.

No More Fur March

You can find out more about the actual practices of fur farming with evidence on many pages acriss tge web, including on the Humane Society International web pages which also have information on the other ways animals are mistreated in research, farming and other areas.

No More Fur March

Fur farming was banned in the UK as ‘unethical‘ in 2000, but fur is still being imported into the UK from countries where fur farms raise and kill animals in desperately cruel conditions. Humane Society International has a letter you can sign to send Prime Minister Starmer calling on the UK government to end our association with fur cruelty for good and impose a fur import and sales ban.

Of course Harrods is not the only store still selling fur, and the march from Belgrave Square in 2008 also targeted other shops in Knightsbridge including “Gucci, Prada, Escada, Versace, Fendi, Joseph, Armani and Burberry” but in 2008 Harrods was the only department store in the UK still selling real fur.”

Since 2008 and despite many protests – as well as large events such as this there are smaller protests every weekend at Harrods and other shops selling fur – the sales of real fur in UK shops have continued.

Harvey Nicholls which had been fur-free since 2004 decided in 2014 to sell animal fur products again at its branches in London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Dublin, Leeds and Birmingham and the largest national anti fur campaign for many years was been directed against them. In 2023 they finally announced that they were returning to their no-fur policy.

More at No More Fur March.


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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Anti-Fur, Karma & Knightsbridge – 2007

Friday, December 1st, 2023

Anti-Fur, Karma & Knightsbridge. Saturday 1st December 2007 I came to London mainly to photograph the National Anti-fur march, but arrived rather early and took a walk around Knightsbridge and Hyde Park and after the march went on to see what was happening in Oxford Street and Regent Street where there was a traffic-free day to promote what the Church of Stop Shopping labels the Shopocalypse and stoke global warming. But I was warmed just a little by free hugs from Danny’s Karma Army.


National Anti-fur March – Belgrave Square – Harrods, Knightsbridge

Anti-Fur, Karma & Knightsbridge

Although farming of animals for fur was banned in this country in 2003, both fur farming and extensive trapping of wild animals for fur still take place in other countries.

Anti-Fur, Karma & Knightsbridge

Many of the countries where fur farming still takes place allow far more cruel practices than those that led to the ban here on the grounds of animal cruelty. Animals are reared in extremely crowded conditions and killed inhumanely – and on some farms skinned while still alive.

Anti-Fur, Karma & Knightsbridge

Trapping of animals for their fur also involves cruel practices, with wild animals caught in steel jawed traps, often only found and clubbed or suffocated after several days of agonising pain. Still in use in the USA and Canada, leg-hold traps were banned in the UK in the 1950s.

Anti-Fur, Karma & Knightsbridge

Yet despite this it remains legal to import most furs into the UK, although imports of seal, cat and dog fur are banned. But the UK still imports £55 million worth of fur a year, and estimated 95% of which comes from fur farms. The government abandoned promises to bring in legislation though they have now stated a willingness to support a private members bill on the matter should one be promoted. It seems unlikely that this will happen before the coming election.

Public opinion is very much against the use of animal fur, with opinion polls showing over 90% would like to see a ban. And most consumers now think that fur on garments is synthetic, but many of the big names in fashion and fashion stores are still designing with and selling animal fur. Their wealthy clients, including many overseas customers perhaps still see expensive animal furs as something to desire rather than as it should be, a badge of shame.

The marchers gathered in Belgrave Square and then marched past many of the shops which in 2007 were still selling garments using animal furs, which then included most of the famous names including Gucci, Versace, Fendi, Amani, Dolce and Gabana. Various stores, including Escada, Joseph and Burberry are also targets for the campaign, but the loudest condemnation was reserved for Harrods, the only department store in the UK still selling fur – and still selling animal fur in 2023.

Protests like this one and the continuing pressure from organisations such as PETA have led to many of thes brands end the use of animal furs. A post on Panaprium lists some who no longer do so: “Versace, Furla, Armani, Calvin Klein, Gucci, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Shrimps, and Vivienne Westwood” and also high street brands “Topshop, Zara, Gap, French Connection, AllSaints, Hobbs, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser, Ted Baker, H&M and Whistles“.

But there is still more to do. The Panaprium post by Alex Assoune is headed 28 Shameless Fashion Brands Still Using Fur in 2023 and lists them, as well as stating “There are too many fashion brands that use animal fur to list them all. It’s shockingly disgusting that clothing brands still engage in such barbaric practices for vanity and profits.”

More on My London Diary National Anti-fur March.


Knightsbridge and Hyde Park

I’d often walked past St Paul’s Church in Wilton Place, a nineteenth century Gothic building (erected in 1840, but much altered 50 years later) but had never before been inside. I’d arrived in Belgrave Square rather a long time before the anti-fur march was ready to start and as the church as open took the opportunity to go inside.

The building is worth a visit, not least for the interesting sepia tile pictures by Daniel Bell dating from 1869-79.

I crossed to Hyde Park, where there was an extensive funfair for the Christmas season and I wandered through it taking a few pictures before hurrying back to the march, stopping to take a couple of pictures of the French Embassy.

Knightsbridge & Hyde Park


Danny’s Karma Army – Taking Kindness Very Seriously – Regent St / Oxford St

Back in 2001, Scottish comedian and presenter Danny Wallace put an advert in a free newspaper call on people to ‘Join Me’ inviting people to join him in carrying out a random act of kindness for a stranger every Friday. To his surprise thousands did and in 2003 he wrote the book ‘Join Me’ about how he he “accidentally started a ‘cult‘” .

Initially known as ‘Join Me’ this movement became known as Danny’s Karma Army, and on December 1st 2007, some of them were out on Regent Street which together with Oxford Street was enjoying a traffic-free day for shoppers.

As I wrote in 2007:

There were a few street performers and musicians, but generally it seemed a recipe for incredible levels of boredom and immoderate spending, with one credit card company offering special prizes to big spenders.

The only relief from this was offered by members of Danny’s Karma Army who were offering free sweets and free hugs – and I took advantage of both as well as some pictures.

They do “random nice things for strangers on Fridays” but were putting in a bit of overtime on a Saturday. As well as rather silly and pointless things, some also apparently do rather more useful things like becoming first-aiders and supporting charities with money or time. So although personally I’d run a mile from a cult leader like Danny, good luck to them. And thanks for the sweets and hugs.

Danny’s Karma Army

You can hear more about Danny Wallace in a podcast interview with James O’Brien and hear Wallace now every week when “The Great Leader and his I.B.S (Important Broadcast Squad) assemble every Sunday morning from 11am – 1pm!” on an Apple Podcast Radio X, also available live on DAB.

Danny’s Karma Army


Fur Kills – Harrods Protest 2010

Sunday, November 13th, 2022

Fur Kills - Harrods Protest 2010

Back when we lived in caves and hunted animals for food it made sense to use their skins and fur for clothing. Even before the wide availability of synthetic materials in the second half of the last century fur there were still some functional reasons for using fur. And though it is possible to imagine that fur animals could be farmed without excessive cruelty, it seems very doubtful if this has ever actually taken place. The idea of ‘ethically sourced fur’ seems a nonsense – you can read how fur is acutally produced in one of mny articles on the PETA web-site, Inside the Fur Industry: Factory Farms.

Fur Kills - Harrods Protest 2010

But fur was a luxury item, one that signified wealth and privilege. A mink coat was something for women to aspire to, something that advertised their success in the world, though for those of us in the poorer areas it was often regarded as being all “fur coat and no knickers” marking out its showy and seemingly elegant wearer as vulgar and sexually immoral.

Fur Kills - Harrods Protest 2010

Our dressing-up box as kids – all from jumble sales – included a moth-eaten red fox scarf complete with head and tail. It smelt strongly, though perhaps not of fox. But the fox trims on my mothers’ coats owed their life to crude petroleum rather than any any living animal.

I’m not a fan of foxes. I’ve seen what they do in a chicken run, and it isn’t pretty. Last year I left a recently bough expensive pair of boots outside our back door overnight and one of our local foxes came and took a bite out of them – and they leave foul-smelling excrement on our yard to attract the unwary shoe. Of course I’m against hunting, but would certainly support measures that cut there populations perhaps by eliminating the waste food that has powered their growth thanks to fast-food outlets and fining those urban dwellers who leave out food for them.

But we don’t need fur for clothing. And I’m shocked to find real fur coats and scarves still being sold in shops and on-line. I’d even be in favour of banning the sale of ‘vintage fur’ as this perpetuates the idea of fur as a luxury that sustains the cruelty to animals of producing new fur. And I don’t believe there is such a thing as ‘ethically sourced fur’ which shops including Harrods continue to push.

As the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade pointed out in 2018: “Harrods is one of only two department stores in the UK which continues to sell real fur, even though the production of fur is illegal in the UK.” Hopes in 2010 that a change in ownership might change the policy were optimistic – and you can still buy fur there – should you want a gilet “crafted from mink fur – a delicate yet warming material that exudes undeniable glamour” it could be yours for just £8,910.

CAFT in 2018 wrote “The last survey at Harrods revealed a wide range of real fur garments on sale on display throughout the store, and included items made from beaver, chinchilla, red fox, arctic fox, mink, musquash, rabbit, wolf, coyote and squirrel.” They organise regular protests there and at other shops selling real fur products.

I found it hard not to admire the determination of the protesters and the inventive nature of many of their posters, placards, costumes and props, all of which made it easy to take interesting photographs – though there were a few activists who were not keen to be photographed. But I couldn’t help wishing that they could transfer some of their creative anger to protests over the way humans are being treated around the world and support these as well.

More at National Anti-fur March.


Protest tells Harrods ‘Stop Stealing Tips’

Friday, January 7th, 2022

Protest tells Harrods ‘Stop Stealing Tips’
On Saturday 7th December 2017, the United Voices of the World trade union held a protest outside Harrods in Kensington demanding that the restauarant workers there receive the service changes that customers pay on meals.

The UVW is a grass roots union that represents workers in low paid sectors, and their members include chefs and waiters at Harrods. As well as demanding that the workers get the tips they are also demanding that conditions and wages to be improved for waiters who are currently paid at or a few pence per hour above the legal minimum, overworked and poorly managed.

A few people seemed not to support the protest

Harrods, the richest and most prestigious department store in the world, is owned by the immensely wealthy Qatari royal family – and they were then adding to that wealth by taking up to 75% of the tips that customers believed and intended to be going to the staff who served them.

THe UVW succeeded in getting a great deal of public support and even some from our right-wing mass media (it almost certainly helped there that Harrods is owned by foreigners) and several hundred people came to protest outside the store, notably including supporters of Class War.

Harrods was supported by a large contingent of police, who at times went beyond there duty to keep the peace and seemed to be taking the side of the Qatari royal family who of course have many friends in high places including the Foreign Office who will have put pressure on the Met to take effective action against the protesters.

Police film the protest from inside Harrods – but Class War held a banner in front of the doors

I described the protest as “robust but peaceful” and although at times the protesters blocked the entrances and crowded around the doors, at times holding them open they made no real attempt to enter the store, as police warned that they would immediately be arrested for aggravated trespass. A couple were arrested for trivial matters on the street during the protest, but generally the protest went well and people were in a good mood as it ended and I caught the tube to go home.

Later I heard that as UVW members were packing away their flags, banners, drums and vuvuzelas, police had come and made 4 more arrests, including that of UVW General Secretary Petros Elia. It also appeared that some had been dragged inside the store and locked up by Harrods security staff before being handed over to police.

All were later released without charge, but on police bail – with the condition that they were not to go within 50m of Harrods. It appears to have been a deliberate abuse of the law to try to stop further protests at Harrods – however legitimate these may be. One man who had been grabbed after letting off a smoke flare on the street during the protest – now a rather common occurrence at protests – had apparently accepted a police caution.

Following the protest, and with threats of more protests to come, Harrods finally gave in and agreed to give 100% of the service charge to staff, with an independent tronc master to administer the distribution with staff on the committee.

The UVW continues to fight for its workers at Harrods, and in December 2021 planned a further protest in advance of a strike in the Christmas shopping period. The strike and protest were both called off after Harrods agreed to large pay rises, taking all the waiters and chefs above the London Living Wage – for some it meant a pay rise of almost £5,000 a year, and Harrods has also guaranteed annual increases of 3% from 2023.

Small but active trade unions such as the UVW, along with a few of the major unions are showing that collective action works, while some larger unions seem more rather less interested in their lower paid members. In March 2021, Labour’s North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll published an article in the Journal and Evening Chronicle and on his blog with the title ‘What Have Trade Unions Ever Done For Us?’ which included the following two paragraphs

For a start, unions stopped child labour. Unionised workplaces are safer, with 50% fewer accidents. Every year unions train 10,000 safety reps. Union members earn, on average, 12.5 per cent more than non-members. They have better job security, and stay in their jobs for an average of five years longer than non-members. Unionised workplaces have higher productivity and fewer industrial tribunals.

Apart from that, though, trade unions have only gained us paid holidays, maternity and paternity leave, paid sick leave, equal pay legislation, pensions, and workplace anti-discrimination laws. Oh, and the weekend. It was unions that fought for a five day working week.

Jamie Driscoll’s blog

If you work, join a union. “You have a legal right to join a union. It’s illegal for an employer to disadvantage you because you are a union member.”

Sloane Territory 1988

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2021

Doddington, Rollo, Estate, Battersea, Railway, Wandsworth, 1988 88-3f-61-positive_2400
Doddington, Rollo, Estate, Battersea, Railway, Wandsworth, 1988 88-3f-61

This rather different view of the London skyline was taken on my way to Chelsea to take pictures in a very different part of London around Sloane Square, from my train window as it came out of Clapham Junction on its way to London Victoria. The sheds are between the lines into Victoria and those I travel on more regularly towards Vauxhall and Waterloo and the council estates beyond them form a wall to the north of that line, part of the great post-war programme to provide decent housing at sensible cost under both Labour and Conservative governments. Then came Thatcher.

Hans Place, Knightsbridge, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3f-54-positive_2400
Hans Place, Knightsbridge, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3f-54

Though I often admire the design and detail of the great houses built from around the 1770s after architect Henry Holland leased land from Earl Cadogan and sublet building plots for family houses on a fairly grand scale, this is never an area where I feel at home. Even thought houses such as these are now largely split into numerous flats – there are ten bells at the side of the right hand door here – I still feel it is the kind of area I would be expected to doff my cap at the Tradesmen’s entrance. Harrod’s whose board appears here is a major estate agent for the properties in this area were a decent sized flat might cost a couple of grand a week.

Hans Place, Knightsbridge, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3f-56-positive_2400
Hans Place, Knightsbridge, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3f-56

Much of the area was rebuilt around the end of the 19th century, and I often find the red brick and terracotta rather overpowering.

Harrods, Hans Rd, Knightsbridge, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3f-66-positive_2400
Harrods, Hans Rd, Knightsbridge, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3f-66

Harrods grew from a small shop to take over the whole 5 acre block here. Charles Henry Harrod had begun as a shopkeeper in Borough High St in 1824, moving on to shops in Clerkenwell and then Cable St in Stepney before buying a single room shop on the Brompton Rd in 1849, sensing a business opportunity with the Great Exhibition which was to open in 1851 nearby in Hyde Park. Opening with just two shop assistants and a messenger boy the shop grew rapidly, taking over adjoining buildings. His son Charles Digby Harrod took over the running of the business around 1860 and was employing 100 staff by 1881. The success was partly due to the business refusing credit to any of its customers, insisting on cash, and also by delivering all goods free of charge. Remarkably the business survived being burnt to the ground on December 7 1883, managing to deliver all of its Christmas orders from temporary premises across the road, and a new building was erected within a year. Charles Harrod sold the store via a stock market flotation in 1889, but the new company kept the family name.

In 1894 Harrods employed C. W. Stephens, an architect who had worked for the Belgravia Estate to design a new building for the store. It had to be built bit by bit as Harrods slowly acquired more of the land between Hans Crescent and Hans Road and the business had to be kept open as it was rebuilt. The work was largely completed around 2012, though external and internal changes continued.

I think my picture on Hans Road shows the Coronation Tower over the entrance to the delivery yard and I think dates from 1910-2. The Survey of London describes the commercial buildings of Stephens as in the “ornate, eclectic school of late Queen Anne architecture“, noting that Harrods stands out because of its rich casing of terracotta from Doultons.

Cadogan Hall, Sloane Terrace, Sedding St, Sloane Square, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3g-14-positive_2400
Cadogan Hall, Sloane Terrace, Sedding St, Sloane Square, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3g-14

Rather more to my taste is Cadogan Hall, still when I photographed it the First Church Of Christ Scientist, built in a Byzantine Revival Style, architect Robert Fellowes Chisholm, better known for his work in Madras, India where he worked from 1865-1902 when he returned to London where he had been born in 1840. Grade II listed in 1969 the church went out of use in the 1990s and was bough by the then owner of Harrods, Mohamed Fayed, who wanted to convert it to a luxury house, but was prevented in making the alterations he wanted because of its listed status. In 2000 it was bought by Cadogan Estates who converted it to a concert hall, offering it to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as their London home.

Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3g-21-positive_2400
Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3g-21

The Royal Court Theatre can justifiably claim to be “the writers’ theatre… a leading force in world theatre for cultivating writers – undiscovered, emerging and established” but I think it is also a rather tricky place to photograph.

The show on at the time appears to have been Howard Brenton’s ‘Blood Poetry’, first performed at the Haymarket Theatre Leicester in 1984, in which Percy Bysshe Shelley and his mistress live with Lord George Byron in Italy in a commune of free love, writing the bloody poetry of revolution, and come to a sticky end.

The director of the Royal Court at the time was Max Stafford-Clark, who I had the pleasure of appearing on-stage with at Battersea Arts Centre along with Jeremy Hardy and journalist Dawn Foster in an after-performance panel discussion ‘Art & Accidental Activism’ of Lung Theatre’s ‘E15’ – who I’d earlier photographed on the streets of Battersea at the start of their run.

Venus Fountain, Sloane Square, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3g-23-positive_2400
Venus Fountain, Sloane Square, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-3g-23

Little seems to be known about the early life of Nell Gwynn, who grew up in a brothel in Covent Garden and was hired to sell oranges and other fruits in a scantily clad costume to the audience at the newly opened theatre in Bridges St (later the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) at the exorbitant price of 6d (2.5p). Despite being illiterate she learnt to be an actress and took various roles as a part of the King’s Company, becoming a star for her performance in the 1665 restoration comedy ‘All Mistaken, or the Mad Couple’ and going on to star in many other plays.

King Charles II, who was married to Catherine of Braganza had various mistresses, and fathered seven sons by them, including two by Nell Gwyn, who was the longest serving and most loved of them all. Her elder son was made the Earl of Burford, but the younger died at the age of six.

The royal couple are depicted on the base of this fountain, designed by Gilbert Ledward R.A. (1888-1960) in 1953. My picture shows Charles II picking an apple from a tree. This relief – which also includes cupid, a deed, a hound and and a swan on the Thames – is perhaps more interesting than the Venus above. It’s presence here is said to have been because the king will often have travelled through here and down the then newly opened King’s Road to a house where Nell occasionally stayed. It seems a little contrived; at her insistence, the king had given her a house on Pall Mall and granted her son a house, renamed Burford House, in the Home Park at Windsor for when he was in residence there. She also had a summer home in King’s Cross.


All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.