Cultural Monday's....Topolski's Century and Gabriel's Wharf

Hidden among the arches of Waterloo is Topolski's Century, the artist's 600 ft record of the 20h century. Topolski was an eye witness to many of the major events, including both World Wars, the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights Movement in the US (to name a few). In particular, he was an official war artist for the Brits in World War Two, creating many sketches during the Blitz, and he was embedded with one of the units involved in the liberation of (if i recall) Bergen-Belsen.
In short? Dude's seen a lot, and his art is worth taking a look at. More over, his gallery has free admission on Monday's (2 quid for adults during the rest of the week). So off we went.


















Left: The UN Wheel, Right: World War I

One of the more interesting items for me, personally, was the original door to Newgate Prison, which was demolished in the late 17oos. Now...WHY Topolski had the door to Newgate, and decided that it would be a great piece to display as part of his artwork relating to the Soviet Union and Cold War mentality....I don't know. I can understand the prison connotations etc etc, but why THIS door? There's so much more history related to it! Sigh....silly artists.
History note: The 'original' Newgate was demolished in 1777, but the prison existed, in some form or another from the 1100s through to 1902. Also note that the 'original' as previously referenced, was definitely not the original, if nothing else, it burned down in the Great Fire in 1666. I'm not entirely sure which iteration the door is from, but that's neither here nor there.

After wandering through Topolski's Mural, his paintings regarding the opening of Bergen-Belsen being particularly poignant for me, we went for a walk along Southbank, including a visit to the top of OXO Tower and Gabriel's Wharf.