Monday 21 October: Irene Lofthouse

Sporting Lambs

David Mullany’s wonderful walk around just four streets will stay with me for a long time. Meeting on Lamb’s Conduit Street – the name of which has fascinated me each time I walk it – the group continued to swell even as David spoke about the Rugby Estate, the school, the development of the sport, and the Midland lad who links all of them. Moving around, we heard of a cross-dressing Chevalier possibly spying for France; the return of pickled Nelson and his coffin-makers; of penal reformer John Howard, so incensed by the state of prisons, went to research those in Europe, only to succumb to typhus on a prison visit in Kherson, where a statue was erected to him. We saw initials and dates in stone that told so much of boundaries, a passage with hopscotch, the remains of the Foundling Hospital entrance – and the reason for Lamb’s Conduit going back to Henry III – I’ll see women with pails each time I walk there now.

A Jamboree of Flamenco

Lourdes Fernandez furious feet flash across the stage, red shawl swirling, body twirling, fingers curling, interpreting, responding to the musicians’ playing – what a fabulous fusion evening.

Echoes of Care

Heartbreaking statements arrested me in this moving exhibition at Corams.

Illuminated words from archive records: 100,000 digitalised by 6,500 volunteer transcribers over four years – what a feat to give these voices and stories life.

Passing through the exhibition, some are seen in the statements, others heard of Foundling Hospital apprentices; stories of hardship and hope, changing circumstances, human kindness that transformed life. Tissues were needed for both the pain and the joy.

26 Connections

Carved, chiselled

whittled wood

stone, slate

letter-pressed

calligraphic collaborations

words whetted

marking moods

etching emotions

honing humanity

kindling kindness

Brunswick Gardens Photo Exhibition

Women supporting women.

Entrepreneurs, enablers.

Making moments matter.

Connecting through creating to reduce inequalities.

Hospitality.

Humanity.

Human

Kind

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