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Lot Essay
The tower in the view is that of the church of St Anne in Wardour Street. Built by William Talman in 1717 and replaced by Samuel Pepys Cockerell in 1803, the tower survived an air raid in 1940 but the rest of the building was destroyed. In 1976 an appeal to restore the tower was launched by the Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman:
'High in the air two barrels interlock
To form the faces of this famous clock
Reduced to drawing-room size this clock would be
A Paris ornament of 1803.
Let's make it go again, let London know
That life and heart and hope are in Soho'
The tombstones of Theodore, the dethroned King of Corsica; and Hazlitt can both be seen at the foot of the tower.
After the Second World War Nevinson's style moved away from Futurism and Vorticism to a more poetic realism. He painted a number of views of London, often from high vantage points.
'High in the air two barrels interlock
To form the faces of this famous clock
Reduced to drawing-room size this clock would be
A Paris ornament of 1803.
Let's make it go again, let London know
That life and heart and hope are in Soho'
The tombstones of Theodore, the dethroned King of Corsica; and Hazlitt can both be seen at the foot of the tower.
After the Second World War Nevinson's style moved away from Futurism and Vorticism to a more poetic realism. He painted a number of views of London, often from high vantage points.