Piccadilly - Drawing Room Day

A Drawing Room was the name given to an afternoon reception at Court, when young debutantes were presented to the monarch. It was a day of increased traffic, as carriages containing those destined for Buckingham Palace queued down the Mall and up St James’s. This view looks from the north side of Piccadilly, across to the site of what was to be the Ritz, opened in 1906, adjacent to Green Park. The subject afforded the artist the opportunity to capture a London crowd at its most diverse. An Admiral and a General in their contrasting blue and red uniforms can be seen in the foreground, while the massed bands of the Household Cavalry are about to traverse the middle distance, coming up St James’s from St James’s Palace. The scene is the English equivalent of the daily life of the Parisian boulevards, popularised by Jean Béraud (1849-1935). Gregory was adept at crowd scenes. His most popular picture, Boulter’s Lock, Sunday Afternoon, which depicts boats congesting on the River Thames at Maidenhead, is now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight.