Lord Mayor;s Show and David Hockney in Paris

I was off taking photos of the Lord Mayor's Show on Saturday, continuing with my documenting of the traditions in London. I hadn't been to the show before (quite often because the weather was bad and/or it's the season for colds and virus.)

I was surprised to find that it was such an old tradition, apparently it was the 795th show, which is quite incredible and there was at least one man dressed as a Knight representing the Knights of the Knightengild who were given land for loyalty to King Edgar in the 10th century. They protected London training in East Spitalfield. Knightengild is now the ward of Portsoken link to the history here


I was also surprised to see how many modern Livery Companies were part of the parade. I hadn't quite realised that modern businesses would like the idea of being part of a pageant, but I suppose tradition is a powerful thing.

I enjoyed being around before the start of the procession and at the end as people returned to the Cheapside area. The Lord Mayor's gold coach is amazing, it was a bit difficult to get a good photo as it came past though.


Spotted a news item about a new David Hockney Exhibition in Paris. Called Fresh Flowers it is Hockney using new mobile phone technology to make drawings and send them through to the gallery. I have always loved Hockney's response to new technology how he has embraced it and really enjoyed finding new ways to express himself.
Link to the gallery here

British Customs on Hampstead Heath

In my quest to find remaining British traditions I have been out about when the weather was fine and one trip was out to Hampstead Heath for the Conker championships, welly wanging and morris dancing.

The morris dancers were from Cecil Sharpe House, somewhere I still need to visit, and they had traditional costume including the hankies. Interestingly I did hear a few comments from people about how ridiculous they were. One Mom telling her children that in very negative way. What is it about the Morris that brings up such ridicule? is it just the hankies? Have we lost some of the actual power and real meaning of the dances? It will be interesting to find out more.

The conker championship had a lot of contestants, and it was one of the morris dancers who was last years champion and also won this year.


The welly wanging competition also saw some serious competition, actually it was all good fun there with stalls and info about the heath and other places nearby.



I took photos, noticing the long shadows as we're moving into that low Autumn sun now. The trees are only just getting their Autumn colours though. It will be good to get to the parks when they are really colourful.