John English Gifts 2006

Collectors meet at this spacious empty shop in Princes Arcade for coffee and pastries. Rita Weller is signing Hazle's Visitor Book and Marilyn waits beside her. Proprieter Brian Pannaman sits in the foreground with the hot water urn to his left already surrounded by dirty cups. Hazle stood on the staircase behind Brian and briefly addressed the group. We were given access to the traders' loos conveniently opposite this shop - an important detail!

For those who have never been to John English Gifts, here is the tiny shop at 6 Princes Arcade in Piccadilly. Brian has been selling Hazle Ceramics here since 1994, after coming out of retirement as a jewellery retailer. The shop is fully stocked with giftware and collectables. Most Hazle flat backs are behind the door. A couple of years back it featured in a Dutch newspaper as one of the ten best things in London! Brian has an offsite storage unit which he visits most working days. It proved too costly to arrange an extra facility at the other shop just for the Signing so we all payed here. The old lamps in the arcade account for the yellow colour in this and the next photo.

At 12 noon those willing to brave the cold congregrated outside the shop, a former tailor. Our London Walks man Peter, an actor, stands in the doorway. He obviously enjoys story-telling and was an entertaining guide.

Piccadilly was once Portugal Street after Catherine of Braganza (wife of King Charles II) but the name never stuck. Picadils, stiff collars with a decorated border popular in the early 17th century, were sold by Robert Baker in The Strand. He amassed a fortune and built Piccadilly Hall which, unlike the street, no longer exists.

Founded in 1797 Hatchards, one of several bookshops in the street, currently holds three royal warrants. The late Queen Mother withdrew hers when it started selling books on modern royal scandals.

Of all the mansions on Piccadilly's north side, the only one left is Burlington House. It now houses the Royal Academy and five other "learned societies". The adjacent Burlington Arcade, shown left, is still patrolled by liveried beadles.

On St James' Street our group is to the right with White's, the oldest gentlemen's club in London, shown centre. Past members were notorious for gambling - with one man betting £30K (millions today) on which of two raindrops would reach the bottom of a window first. And massive wagers were placed on whether a man who had collapsed would die - he did - having been denied medical aid!

In the early 1800s Beau Brummell took up residence in the bow window. Companion to the Prince Regent, he led the trend for simpler, well-cut clothes. Beau once repaid a huge debt by waving to his lender from the window...

This is the Jermyn Street entrance to Piccadilly Arcade. The three arcades along Piccadilly in the 1700s marked the time when it became fashionable for the upper classes to shop for luxuries themselves rather than send servants.

Collectors view the statue of Beau Brummell (1778-1840). He eventually quarrelled with the Prince who then snubbed him. Beau responded by asking his companion, "Alvanley, who's your fat friend?" and fell spectacularly from grace. With vast debts in 1816 he fled to France, dying penniless and insane from syphillis.

Peter and the group opposite Floris at 89 Jermyn Street. Peter also took a photo of us all with Hazle's camera standing right outside the shop. Chris was in that so we don't have a shot. There are other buildings with famous stores in the road that Hazle might like to model but proprietors have asked to see how Floris turned out first!

Founder Juan Famenius Floris set up as a barber and comb-maker, but missed the aromas of his native Menorca and began blending oils and essences imported from Europe. The shop is fitted with Spanish mahogany showcases from Prince Albert's Great Exhibition in 1851.

Some of our walkers outside the parish church of St James in Jermyn Street. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren it is his only town church in the West End. It was built in 1684 on land owned by Henry Jermyn, Earl of St Albans. With a lofty vaulted ceiling, the large main chamber is grander than the exterior. It is currently a vibrant church of international renown. On the Piccadilly side, the small St James' Market has stood in the grounds for centuries.

Here is the actual Red Lion on which Hazle's Victorian Pub was based. The front is now painted black but was brown when she photographed it in the early 1990's. The brick upper wall is smooth stucco on the ceramic. It is in Duke of York Street which runs from Jermyn Street just past the church down to St James' Square.

Original 160 year-old carved mahogany and cut-glass mirrors are inside the Grade II listed building. Voted "Most Authentic Pub 1999" by CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale).

This is the monument in St James' Square to WPC Yvonne Fletcher who was shot by someone from the Libyan People's Bureau during an Embassy Siege in 1984, aged 25. She was the first and until recently the only woman police officer in the UK to be killed on duty. Yvonne was a contemporary of some of my cousins who lived in her home town of Gillingham in Dorset.

This statue of William III (of England) in St James' Square shows his horse tripping over a mole hill. William died of pneumonia in 1702, a complication of breaking his collar bone in the accident. As William of Orange he was persuaded by English Protestants to land an army at Brixham, Devon in 1688 and depose the unpopular Catholic King James II. James' daughter Mary was heir to the throne but with husband William already a monarch in Holland he refused to be merely a consort. So they ruled together as William and Mary until her death in 1694.

On Piccadilly Peter had spoken briefly about Fortnum & Mason. Their history was covered in write-ups on the last John English Signing in 2003 when we were treated to elevenses there, followed by a tour of the store. As a few of us walked back along Piccadilly after lunch (with the Peace March on the opposite side) I realised it was nearly 3pm and that Fortnum's clock would open on the hour with William Fortnum left and Hugh Mason emerging to bow.

A few minutes past three and Messrs Fortnum & Mason are back in their pavilions. We had been joined by another couple who had nothing to do with Hazle Ceramics but realised we were waiting for something, wanted to know what it was and stayed to enjoy the scene!

A guided walk seems to make a place feel more intimate on future visits. I now have an appetite to learn much more about the history of London...