Plaques route 1 St Johns Wood station to South Hampstead station

 

Starting at St Johns Wood station – finishing at  South Hampstead station

Come out of St Johns Wood station, cross the Finchley Road at the traffic lights and turn right to the end of Eyre Court. On the furthest side wall facing the road is the plaque to

Oscar Kokoschka CBE 1886 – 1980 Eyre Court

 Painter lived here

Oscar Kokoschka was an Austrian artist, poet and playwright, particularly noted for his expressionistic portraits and landscapes.  He studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna where he developed an original style  of innovative oil painting anchored by earlier traditions, and in 1926 visited London where he painted  the Zoo in Regents Park, began a series on the River Thames, the artery of life  He had an affair with Alma Mahler and although they broke up after a few years he never stopped loving her.  Having fled to Prague to escape the Nazis he  then had to flee to England with his girl friend Olda, thirty years younger than himself.  They lived in Boundary Road and in 1941 married in an air raid shelter that was being used as a makeshift registrars’ office because of the air raids. He taught at the Anglo French Art Centre in St John’s Wood and received the CBE in 1959.  He lived at Eyre Court from 1946-1953.

Retrace your steps to the traffic lights, cross Grove End Road and walk straight ahead to Circus Road. Turn right and take first on left into Cavendish Avenue. A little way down  on the left is No 1

Billy Fury  (1940 – 1983)   1 Cavendish Avenue

Billy Fury (born Ronald Wycherley) was an English singer and song writer and early rock-and-roll star, who equalled the Beatles by having  24 hits  in the 1960s. He spent 332 weeks on the UK chart but never had a chart-topping single or album.

https://youtu.be/9MTXBQp5OgI

 

Retrace steps back to Wellington Rd and cross at the traffic lights, turn right and walk down to No 24, opposite the BP petrol station

Marie Tussaud 1761 – 1850 24 Wellington Rd

 Artist in wax lived here 1838 -1839

Marie Tussaud was born in Alsace Lorraine and her widowed mother was employed by Dr Philippe Curtius, a physician and wax sculptor who taught Marie the art of wax modelling. She created her first figure,  Voltaire,  in  1777.  Until the  French Revolution in 1789 she created famous portraits of celebrities and was on good terms with the French royal family. She was arrested during the Terror and only saved from being guillotined at the last moment.  She was then employed to make death masks of the victims such as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Marat and Robespierre.  In 1802 she left for London and travelled with her collection throughout Gt Britain and Ireland.  Her catalogues were really informative with details of the lives of the wax figures and her admission prices appealed to the expanding middle class – 6d for the exhibition, 6d for the catalogue and 6d for the Chamber of Horrors.  She was helped by her two sons and In 1835 she established her first permanent exhibition in Baker Street; her fortune  was made when Napoleon’s Waterloo carriage was shipped over from France and exhibited there in 1841.

Continue along Wellington Rd, turn left into Wellington Place and walk along with the St Johns Wood church gardens on your right.  Cross the High Street  walk along Barrow Hill Road, bearing left into Bridgeman St, right into Allitsen Road and right into Charlbert  St.   On the wall of the Howard de Walden building you will see a plaque to

Mickie Most (1938 – 2003)

Michael Most (Michael Hayes) was a record  producer who achieved more world wide No 1 hits than anyone in the history of recording. His talent spotting included Lulu and Herman and the Hermits ( with their song I’m into something good) on RAK records label. He purchased the Howard de Walden building in St Johns Wood in 1976 and sold it  very profitably  when he sold his company to EMI .  He was in the top 500 richest people in England in 1995.

Retrace your steps up Charlbert St  past the Post Office, left into Charles Lane, an interesting mews which exits on High Street with its cafes and restaraunts  and opposite the Ivy is the plaque to

(Edward) Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten OM CH (1913 –  1976)

Peter Pears (1910 – 1981 )  45 St Johns Wood High Street

Britten was a composer, conductor and pianist, and one of the central figures of twentieth century British classical music. He showed his talent from an early age, composing  prolifically as a child. He collaborated with the poet W.H. Auden on several compositions, including Hymn to St Cecilia.  Britten and his partner Peter Pears, the tenor, followed Auden to America, spending the early years of the war there. While in America, Britten wrote his first music drama. Paul Bunyan, an operetta to a libretto by Auden, and the American period was also remarkable for a number of orchestral works, including the Violin Concerto Op. 15 and Sinfonia da Requiem Op. 20 for full orchestra.

In 1940 he composed Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo Op 22 which was premiered at the Wigmore Hall in September 1942. Britten and Pears had returned to England in spring 1942, Britten completing Hymn to St Cecilia and a Ceremony of Carols Op 28 while crossing the Atlantic . On arriving in England Britten and Pears both applied for recognition as conscientious objectors. This was granted on condition they gave recitals under the auspices of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts.

From 1943 until 1947 they lived at 45A  St John’s Wood High Street, where  visitors to the flat included Erwin Stein and his daughter Marion, (later the Countess of Harewood and Mrs Jeremy Thorpe) who took refuge there after their flat was ruined by a fire.  Britten began work on his great opera Peter Grimes, which was premiered at Sadlers Wells in 1945.

https://youtu.be/7nlzGsnwWmE

Facing the plaque walk to the right up High Street, cross Circus Road into St Ann’s Terrace and on the right at no 24 is the blue plaque to

Barbara Hepworth 1903 – 1973 and John Skeaping 1901 – 1980 Sculptors

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p013h27r/barbara-hepworth

Continue along the terrace and turn right into Acacia Road,  left into Ordnance Hill and first   right into Queens Grove  and at No 32 is the home of

Sir George Frampton R.A. 1860 – 1928  

Sculptor lived and worked here 1894-1908

Sir George was a leading member of the New Sculpture school. He trained at the Royal Academy schools and in Paris and taught at the Slade in 1893. He preferred polychromatic sculpture to “white” sculpture – for example his Lamia had an ivory head and bronze clothing. His studio was at 32 Queens Grove from 1893-1908 when he built a new studio at 90 Carlton Hill in order to  have a beautiful garden. His sculpture of Peter Pan was created there.

Retrace steps along Queens Grove until you reach an old station building on the corner of the Finchley Rd. Turn right and 2 houses along is No 28, now a Pilates studio.

Thomas Hood 1799 – 1845 

 Poet lived and died here

An editor, publisher, poet, and humourist, Thomas Hood was born in London, the son of a bookseller. After his father died in 1811, Hood worked in a counting house until an illness forced him to move to Dundee, Scotland, to stay with relatives. In 1818 he returned to London to work as an engraver and then had some success with his poems which included Eugene Aram and the Song of the Shirt, which he wrote while living at 17 Elm Tree Road from 1841 – 44;  he then moved to 28 Finchley Road, jokingly calling himself “Hood of the Wood”.  Having  survived years of poverty he was at last earning £300 p.a. as editor of the New Monthly magazine. He was a much loved husband, father and friend  and the public subscription after his death raised £1386 15s 6d for the benefit of his family.

Retrace your steps back to the corner traffic lights and cross Finchley Rd. Turn right into Marlborough Place and first right into Marlborough Hill. Walk along with the school on your right until you reach No 31

Sir Bernard Spilsbury 1877 – 1947  31 Marlborough Hill

Forensic pathologist lived here 1912 – 1940

Sir Bernard Spilsbury was a forensic pathologist who was involved in many notorious murder trials,  including  the trial of Dr Crippen in 1910,  the Brides in the Bath trial in 1915, the trial of Herbert Rowse Armstrong, the solicitor  convicted of poisoning his wife with arsenic, and the Brighton Trunk murder.  He was responsible for devising the Murder bag, the kit used by detectives attending the scene of a suspicious death.  He also played a crucial role in the development of Operation Mincemeat, a deception operation during the Second World War which saved the lives of thousands of  Allied service personnel by persuading the Germans that the Allies were going to land in the Balkans rather than Sicily (and which featured in the film The Man Who Never Was) by choosing the body for the imaginary man.  He died by committing suicide at his laboratory at University College, London.

Continue along, turn left at Boundary Road and first right into Loudon Road, then over the railway to South Hampstead Station on your right.

 

Walk – about 45 minutes  2.6 miles /4.2 km

This page was added on 28/08/2020.

No Comments

Start the ball rolling by posting a comment on this page!

Add a comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.