Pushkin House

The Lion of Knidos

St Giles · 0.1 miles

A marble lion, larger than life and weighing six tonnes, stands on a plinth beneath the roof of the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, forming part of the British Museum’s collection. Carved from the same Pentelic marble that built the Parthenon, the recumbent figure measures 2.89 metres in length and 1.82 metres in height; only its lower jaw and front legs are absent, and the eyes were probably once set with glass inlays. The statue originally topped a square funerary monument with a stepped pyramidal top, a form that has prompted scholarly debate over its date, ranging from the mid-fourth century BC to the second-century BC, with the museum currently estimating a creation period of 200–250 BC. The lion was first observed by the archaeologist Richard Popplewell Pullan in 1858 while he assisted Charles Thomas Newton in excavations near the ancient port of Knidos, now close to Datça in Turkey. After the monument collapsed, the marble lion was recovered, transported along the coast and loaded onto HMS Supply by Robert Murdoch Smith before being shipped to London. Since 2000 it has been displayed prominently in the museum’s Great Court. In 2008 the Turkish town of Datça lodged a formal request with the British Ministry of Culture and Tourism for the statue’s return. The monument is listed in OpenStreetMap as a historic feature near the St Giles area of London.

Covent Garden Market

Blackfriars · 0.6 miles

The former fruit-and-vegetable market at Covent Garden provides a compact city-centre experience, combining cafés, pubs, independent shops and two small markets – the Apple Market and the Jubilee Hall market – within the historic arcade that dominates the square. Set on the eastern edge of the West End, between St Martin’s Lane and Drury Lane, the landmark lies close to Blackfriars and is served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station; a short 300-yard walk links it to Leicester Square station. Originally part of the Anglo-Saxon trading settlement of Lundenwic, the site became a walled garden belonging to Westminster Abbey by the early thirteenth century. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, King Edward VI granted the land to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, whose family held it until 1918. Inigo Jones designed the Italianate arcaded square in the early seventeenth century, and by 1654 a modest open-air market had taken root on the south side. The market was formalised in a neo-classical building by Charles Fowler in 1830, later supplemented by the Floral Hall, Charter Market and the Jubilee Market of 1904. Traffic pressures led to the relocation of the wholesale market to New Covent Garden Market at Nine Elms in 1974; the central building reopened as a shopping centre in 1980, retaining its heritage listing by Historic England. Visitors can reach the area on foot or by public transport, though wheelchair access is limited. The square remains a focal point for street performers and retains many of its historic façades, offering a blend of retail, food and cultural attractions within a protected urban setting.

Lincoln's Inn

Gray's Inn · 0.6 miles

A Portland stone monument set within the historic precincts of Lincoln’s Inn commemorates members of the Inn of Court who lost their lives while on active service in the First World War. Erected in 1921, the structure was designated a Grade II listed building in 1999. The ensemble measures roughly 46 feet (14 m) in length and rests on a three-step stone base; a central pylon is flanked by a curved screen that incorporates seating, terminating in piers at each end. Latin inscriptions on the screen and monument read “HOSPITIUM SOC I S / SANGUINEM PRO PATRIA LARGITIS / FILIIS PARENTES”, while the end piers bear the Roman-numeral dates 1914 and 1919 in the apostrophus form. Brass plaques on the interior faces of the piers list 35 names of the fallen, and a bronze plaque on the pylon records a further 66 names in two columns. A later addition includes a bronze plaque naming 29 individuals from the Second World War, among them Prince George, Duke of Kent. The memorial forms part of a wider network of remembrance within Lincoln’s Inn, which also contains a commemorative table, a book of remembrance, a chapel plaque, and a memorial to the 1915 Zeppelin air raid. The site lies in close proximity to Gray’s Inn, as indicated by OpenStreetMap, and can be viewed at street level within the inn’s public areas. Admission is unrestricted, and no specific visitor facilities are recorded.

Royal Courts of Justice

St Clement Danes · 0.6 miles

The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by George Edmund Street, who died before it was completed, it is a large grey stone edifice in the Victorian Gothic Revival style built in the 1870s and opened by Queen Victoria in 1882. It is one of the largest courts in Europe. It is a Grade I listed building.

Cecil Court

Aldgate · 0.6 miles

A pedestrian lane with a line of Victorian shop-fronts connects Charing Cross Road and St Martin’s Lane in Westminster, and forms part of the Jubilee Walkway. The thoroughfare, whose origins trace back to the late 1600s, originally followed a hedgerow and served as a tradesmen’s route. After a fire in 1735, the street was rebuilt, and in 1764 it provided temporary accommodation for the eight-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who lodged with barber John Couzin and performed for King George III. A plaque at number 9 marks the site of Mozart’s residence, while a second plaque installed in 2012 commemorates the street’s early cinema links. Today the lane is home to roughly a dozen independent antiquarian and second-hand bookshops, offering specialities such as modern first editions, collectible children’s books, early printing, rare maps, antique prints, music and esoterica. Adjacent premises include art galleries, an antiques dealer, and shops dealing in silver, militaria, numismatics, porcelain, jewellery and art-deco items. The area acquired the nickname “Flicker Alley” because, from 1897 onward, it hosted a concentration of film-related businesses, including early offices of Cecil Hepworth, James Williamson and international firms such as Gaumont and Vitagraph. The street remains in the ownership of the Cecil family, with the present buildings laid out around 1894. Access is pedestrian only; the nearest Underground station is Leicester Square, and entry to the shops is free, each setting its own opening hours.

The Original Cell

Bank · 0.6 miles

The library is first fire-proof building in the country. As a result, the cell doors weigh half a ton each and are cast iron in order to attempt any outbreak of fire. Cell was used to store documents and other archives.