| Description |
And did those feet in ancient times…
The streets of London resonate with the presence of previous inhabitants… blue plaques tell us that Jimi Hendrix, Daniel Defoe, Marie Lloyd and William Blake lived here. When I look up at the first floor of what is now the Ministry of Wax at 17 South Molton Street, I think of Blake, who lived here between 1803 and 1821, composing, designing, engraving, printing and colouring many of his late works. A place where, the Tate website cheerfully tells us, he was to ‘suffer his bitterest disappointments’, and sink, ‘into poverty and paranoia’.
William Blake, along with the other blue plaque recipients, is rightly celebrated and remembered, but there are innumerable others who have or are drifting out of memory. The Urban Ghosts we search out in this issue are often the quiet, the illusive, the obsolete and the forgotten, with our contributors looking at the enduring influence of all aspects of place, memory and change. |