Bart’s North Wing, Great Hall and Hogarth Staircase

Posted on 24 December 2025 by MMarks

I have already written about the Pool of Bethesda, Hogarth’s paintings in the staircase of the North Wing of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. That was ten years ago, when it was certainly possible to see the staircase, but now it has been totally refurbished and can be visited on Mondays and Tuesdays: Bart’s North Wing, the Great Hall and Hogarth Staircase. I read that Hogarth requested that the pictures should not be varnished, because that would make them harder to see, but his request was ignored. I do not know what has been done to them now but it is a beautiful refurbishment.

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Frankfurter Küche/Frankfurt kitchen

Posted on 16 December 2025 by MMarks

The Frankfurt Kitchen, the original fitted kitchen, was designed in 1926 by Margarete Schütte-Lihotsky. 10,000 of them were installed in Frankfurt am Main. I knew the V & A had one, but when I went to see it a few years ago, of the three people I asked, only one had heard of it and none of them knew where it was. Now the V & A Storehouse in Stratford can display it.

The V & A kitchen is not identical to the one in the diagram: it has solid fuel and electric stoves, not gas, and it has a chair rather than a swivel stool. It was designed to minimize the steps taken by the housewife. On the right-hand side there are drawers for various dry goods such as lentils, sugar, flour. The names are printed on them. They are called Schütten in German – I’ve seen it translated as dispensers. I actually have a couple made of toughened glass which a friend gave me.

George Skeggs

Posted on 4 November 2019 by MMarks

Time for some local trivia again. In August I was at an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and unfortunately I did not have my camera in my hand when I saw this gentleman rushing up the stairs in my direction – I only saw the crown of his hat, the shoulders of his suit and his cream chrysanthemum (I think) buttonhole. I managed to get a shot of him shortly afterwards but he was moving very fast so I could not imagine getting him to set up the photo again. Not many people make a good photo from the bird’s eye view.

More recently, I have learnt (from the Web) that this is George Skeggs and so I may see him again at more leisure.

George Skeggs, more commonly known – although there’s nothing even remotely common about him – as ‘Soho George’ is one of the last true Soho legends. Self-described as a ‘heterosexual Cockney artist, Hogarthian rake loves individuality,style, sleeps in front of a mirror, ex-gigolo old man held together with polygrip & rubber bands’, George has more style in his big toe than most of us will ever have in our entire lifetimes. Not only possessed of a unique and sophisticated elegance, he’s also a brilliant surrealist artist and chronicler of the history of Soho on twitter @SohoGeorge.