A visit to Postman's Park
We visited Postman's Park yesterday. It's in the City of London, near St Paul's Cathedral. In a corner of the park there are lots of plaques like this one, created by the painter George Frederick Watts to commemorate people who died saving others.
The language is so lugubrious, like Edward Gorey's Gashlycrumb Tinies or Lemony Snicket. Every tile has something, a name or a place or a word that places it firmly in the past.
After the second wall (there are 4 in all) it becomes quite heartbreaking. I couldn't find out too much about it, just that Watts didn't like the upper classes much and wanted to celebrate ordinary lives. Lovely idea, beautifully done. More plaques in my Flickr set and the Postman's Park Flickr group.
Comments
Wow - I never knew about this place. I suspect I may end up visiting and taking similar photos at some point..
Posted by: Alix | August 6, 2008 12:12 AM
Isn't that Strange Anne - just been reading about Postman's Park in a book - and I didn't know where it was either!
Hope you're enjoying London!
Posted by: Ben | August 6, 2008 08:04 AM
How fascinating - another almost lost gem.
Posted by: Claire | August 6, 2008 08:59 AM
Hiya, Not sure if you came across my boyfriend's article on this place when you were looking for info? If not, he's got quite a bit of detail...
Posted by: Emerald | August 6, 2008 07:28 PM
I often used to spend lunchbreaks reading the tiles in Postman's Park when I worked around the corner at Barts Hospital many years ago. I remember a big black hulking statue of a minotaur in the park as well. Has my unreliable memory collaged that in from somewhere else? Or has it been removed?
I never made the connection with GF Watts. He's got a painting in Tate Britain called 'Hope' in which the allegorical figure of Hope sits blindfolded on top of the globe plucking out a melody on the one unbroken string of her lyre. Very Victorian. But it sort of fits with the sentiment behind Postman's Park, doesn't it?
Posted by: spud | August 7, 2008 10:37 AM
Was featured in the film Closer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closer_(film)
Posted by: shoop | August 8, 2008 04:55 AM
What a wonderful find. It's now on my list of places to visit when I'm next in London. Reminds me a little of these two plaques at the Victoria & Albert Museum :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15134271@N03/1580935278/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15134271@N03/1580043727/
Hope you're not feeling too glum now your holiday is over!
Simon James x
Posted by: Simon James | August 8, 2008 08:45 AM
I'm somewhat ashamed to say I didn't know about this until reading this post - visited it earlier today and it's rather extraordinary...
Posted by: Anonymous | August 12, 2008 02:38 AM
Whoops, that was me.
Posted by: Owen | August 12, 2008 02:41 AM
If only Edward Gorey had seen these, paricularly the "dangerous entanglement of weed" one...
Posted by: Dave | August 15, 2008 08:37 AM
'particularly', dammit.
Posted by: Dave | August 15, 2008 08:40 AM
I recently took a "History of Printing in London" walking tour, and this was a side portion of one of our stops. I instantly fell in love with it, and marked it as a place I need to come back to if possible. Unfortunately I live in California and am not certain when that will be. I didn't take nearly enough photographs of the tiles :(
Posted by: Corey Holms | August 21, 2008 05:03 PM