ITALIAN GARDENS, W2
London Archive Chronicles

A picture of Queen Anne’s Alcove, now situated by the Italian Gardens in Hyde Park, made in 1705 by Christopher Wren, who also designed St Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Observatory Greenwich. 

Historical data can be quite dull. Records of births and death, wills, contracts and other legal documents of this kind, court decisions, rate books etc - I am in debt to those people who can relate the story behind these documents. It requires a wide understanding of the historical context, the laws, the attitudes and the living conditions. In other words, if I may say so, it requires an educated imagination. Quite the oxymoron but there you have it. However, historical data as dry as bones, let alone the lack documents altogether, is not the dilemma that troubles the ruling classes. The documents recording and commenting lives of royalty and aristocracy have been carefully preserved and frequently come under the microscopic scrutiny of historians, writers and tabloid media. There would be no period drama as we know it without this custom. 

One of the most notable and ambitious of these productions, loosely based on historical sources, is the film Favourite, about Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, and her two female favourites, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough and Abigail Masham. Queen Anne’s reign was short, from 1702-1714, during which she mainly lived in Hampton Court and only occasionally visited Kensington Palace.  

The Queen Anne of the film Favourite is also very same Queen Anne that this alcove is named after. It was originally against the park wall in the Queen’s formal garden on Dial Walk, south of Kensington Palace. In 1867 Mr Cowley (a gardener?) paid for it to be moved to its present position at his own expense as it was considered ‘unsightly and a resort for undesirable persons’.  

I cannot help but relish the words ‘at his own expense’ and ‘unsightly’. I have seen far more ‘unsightly’ things in my life but none of them have upset me so much that I would have gone quite so far. This Mr Cowley must have been quite a character. I wonder what kinds of verbal and written exchanges there had been – between Mr Cowley and who? – leading up to the repositioning of the alcove. It sounds like a juicy story to me. 

Looking at the image, the attention is immediately drawn to the human figures sitting in the alcove. And because of these two, presumably father and son, there is a high chance that this photo is seen as problematic among the critical thinking art crowd. I have taken a photograph of Asian persons, the ethnicity often associated with the future in the Western media imagery, which has to be explained. Moreover, they are seated inside a construction that is associated with heritage and wealth but also with a Western cultural identity and therefore with its disputes. This image is, in addition, similar to those used for advertising, for example, days out for families by institutions like National Trust and National Heritage. None of this is a compliment to an art graduate. This photo affirms instead of questioning; it is a happy shot and therefore, a problematic image.  

This is exactly why it is not in my repertoire to take photographs of people or with people - they tend to become the focal point of the image. The questions ‘who, what, where, when, why?’ are interpreted through them; a narrative is imposed as the meaning of the image and the people are the verbs of those sentences, so to speak, that tell that story. That narrative is simply not where my interest lies. However, sometimes I have to make exceptions. 

I wanted to photograph the light on the alcove, the glow on those wooden panels and the flickering shadows on the white stone, but I missed my chance. People kept going past, slowly, in groups, a child ran across just as the people I had waited to move along were out of the frame, then another. I waited. I felt like I was loitering.  All I needed was a fraction of a second of an absence of human beings in front of the lens. Then the father and the son came into the frame. I saw a group of tourists walking towards the alcove. Cameras, waist bags, caps, white socks in sandals and an accent that I recognised. I feared that the light would change and I decided not to wait for a better moment. By that time, the father and the son had sat down. 
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This might be a problematic and a generic photograph but it is also a true one. Everything really was there: the alcove, that yellow orange glow, shadows from the leaves - and the father and the son, who stole the show.  ​
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​(Originally published 05.10.2022)

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© Carita Silander

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens/things-to-see-and-do/memorials-fountains-and-statues/queen-annes-alcove
https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/history-and-stories/the-story-of-kensington-palace/

A view of Hyde Park including part of the Serpentine, photograph, c1895

View of Kensington Palace and Gardens, engraving, c1750.
​Both images courtesy to London Picture Archive