Jewellery brand of the month: Brooch the Subject

This month, the spotlight is on Australia-based:

BROOCH THE SUBJECT

Brooch the Subject has been going for a few years now and has garnered a reputation for beautiful and well-made designs.

I bought this little Tomte brooch just before Christmas last year.

tomte brooch

Sadly, I missed out on the Christmas Fairy in the same release.

Christmas fairy

This Kitschy Kitten clock brooch was one of the brand’s earliest designs.

kitschy kitten clock brooch

I love the Emerald City brooch.

Emerald City brooch

Next on my list is this gorgeous Victorian-inspired design.

Victorian-style brooch

Find Brooch the Subject at the following locations:

Etsy: etsy.com/shop/BroochTheSubjectAus

Facebook: facebook.com/broochthesubject

Instagram: instagram.com/broochthesubject

Secret Rivers – Museum of London Docklands

Secret Rivers exhibition

I managed to catch the Secret Rivers exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands on its very last day. The exhibition looks at the history of several of London’s hidden rivers, many of which have been covered over, re-routed or used for other purposes.

First to be examined was the Walbrook, which flowed through the heart of the City of London. This river was often used for ritual (the Temple of Mithras, which I’ve previously visited, was nearby), and the items found in it bear witness to its role at the centre of life in Roman times.

Secondly, the most famous lost river, the Fleet, was explored. This river was located outside of the City, and as such originally played a role at the heart of rural life, before an increasingly dense population helped to pollute the river (during the fourteenth century, people used to build houses with toilets extending out over the river, so that waste would drop directly into it – one of the items recovered from the river was a three-seat medieval toilet). Eventually it was covered and used as a sewer, though you can still swim in the Fleet up at Hampstead, where the outdoor pools are filled with water from this river.

From here, the exhibition explored the contrasting ways in which rivers were used. The Neckinger in Bermondsey, for instance, was heavily polluted and had several mills along its banks, while the Westbourne in west London was used to create the ponds in Hyde Park. The Tyburn, now covered over, has been the subject of a campaign to restore it and use it for fishing, while the Wandle has been uncovered at several points, making it a haven for wildlife. There is also the Lea, still used for recreational activities and transformed towards central London by the construction of the Olympic Park.

Finally, the exhibition looked at the works of art that have been inspired by the hidden rivers. Of particular interest to me were the various books, which I plan to seek out in the future.

Bank of England Museum – a spook-tacular soirée!

I visited the Bank of England Museum on the Friday before Halloween to attend a spooky event, featuring the chance to explore the museum after dark, not to mention a ghost story.

It was fun to explore the museum without the crowds; even though I’d been there before, the experience was different this time round. I enjoyed talking to the museum staff about various Bank histories and legends.

Image of a storyteller in front of a 19th century photo of the Bank
Ghost stories at the Bank of England

The ghost story, telling the tale of Sarah Whitehead (the Bank Nun), was chilling and enjoyable. Cashier Paul Whitehead was arrested for forgery, convicted, and duly hanged in 1812. Friends tried to keep the tragedy a secret from his sister, Sarah, but one day when she visited the Bank to ask about her brother, another cashier blurted out the truth. The shock affected her mind, and from then on she would turn up at the Bank every day to ask about her brother, wearing a long black dress and a black crepe veil that gave her her nickname. Her ghost is said to still visit the bank, dressed in black, and still asking about her brother.