105 A WEDDING FESTIVAL, BILLINGSGATE MARKET.
Oil picture. 29 by 23½ in.
This painting represents a bit of old Billingsgate. In the distance are houses on the Surrey side of the river. The wedding party are being entertained by music, their costume belongs to the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Above is a sign of a woman’s head. Billingsgate was rebuilt in 1850, and again rebuilt and enlarged 1874-77. Lent by the Fishmongers’ Company.
Oil picture. 66 by 35 in.
In 1741 the Rotunda was built on the Ranelagh estate, being first opened with a public breakfast 5 April 1742. It soon became a most fashionable place of public resort, visited too by the leading literary men, until the early part of the nineteenth century. Allusions to it would fill a volume. On 30 September 1805 an order was made for taking down Ranelagh House and the Rotunda, and the garden, together with the sites of these buildings, was not long afterwards added to the Royal Hospital grounds. Part of the Hospital may be seen on spectator’s right; on the left is a glimpse of the river.
By Hayman and Hogarth. Lent by the Earl of Ilchester.
107 [OLD LONDON BRIDGE AND NEW LONDON BRIDGE FROM SOUTHWARK.] Plate XLVI.
Watercolour. 26½ by 9¼ in.
This painting, in which body colour has been used for the high lights, is of much value as a topographical record. It is signed and dated, and shows that old London Bridge was still being used for traffic as late as the year 1830, when the new bridge was nearly finished. It also gives their relative positions, and the nature of the projecting starlings which had been added to break the rush of water on the piers. At the end of new London Bridge is the church of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, pulled down soon afterwards. The first stone of the new bridge was laid 15 June 1825, and it was publicly opened by William IV and Queen Adelaide 1 August 1831.