Burger Afternoon Tea For 2 – ‘Bottomless’ Prosecco – Chalk Farm

 

£29 instead of £60 for a burger afternoon tea for two at Bite Me Burger, Chalk Farm with ‘bottomless’ Prosecco - save 52%

5* The Royal Horseguards Champagne Afternoon Tea

 

£49 instead of £98 for an afternoon tea for two people at 5* The Royal Horseguards Hotel, Westminster, including a glass of Champagne each - save 50%

Happy International Friendship Day - Burgh House

 

ART   .    EVENTS   .    HISTORY Welcome all on this day of International Friendship. So much is happening behind the scenes at Burgh House. We have a host of new faces working hard to get the House back open and an incredible events and exhibition programme up and running. We will be introducing you to the new staff team over the next few weeks, we have a new Curator, the wonderful Sophie Richards just started, and a Front of House Manager, Sam Johnson who will be with us soon. Plus a full team of the most amazing duty managers looking after our events and some new trustees on our board ready to steer Burgh House into it's next exciting phase. Burgh House will officially reopen on Wednesday 15th September, Free to enter as always, 10am-4pm Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays ready for the opening of our next big and ambitious contemporary arts collaboration with artist Jonny Briggs, which opens on Wednesday 22 September. The House will also be open to visit on Sunday 29 and Monday 30 August for everyone who has missed us. We've missed you all, it's been hard to remain closed for so long, we have had so much to catch back up with and make sure everything is safe, but we are nearly there, ready to go and stronger than ever. This week also brought us sad news, the loss of a legend. We mourn the peaceful passing of the one-and-only Piers Plowright, friend, patron, neighbour and long time supporter of Burgh House. All our thoughts are with his family at this time. Knots: Jonny Briggs x Burgh House Contemporary Interventions into a Historic House Wednesday 22 September 2021 -– Sunday 6 March 2022   Burgh House is delighted to present Knots, an innovative, experimental, and site-specific exhibition of new work by young British artist, Jonny Briggs. Knots features multidisciplinary artworks which respond to and interact with the exterior, interior and architecture of Burgh House, encouraging visitors to reinterpret their surroundings and reconsider the roles of familiar objects. Surreal, staged photographs and sculpture will be presented both overtly and covertly in dialogue with selected objects from the Museum collection and located throughout the House and Garden in a game of hide-and-seek. Designed as an intervention into the spaces of the house and garden, Briggs has said, "I want the experience of discovering my work to be intriguing, amusing and unexpected."   Working collaboratively with a contemporary artist for the first time will see Burgh House’s Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Gallery on the ground floor playfully transformed into a strikingly monochrome installation, indicative of Briggs’ interest in the home as a metaphorical body, the visualisation of psychological spaces and trompe l'oeil.  Reflecting not only on Briggs’ own family history, but also on the human history of Burgh House and its past inhabitants, this imaginative and unconventional exhibition will include a series of absurdly shaped shoes, 3D photographic sculptures from which walking sticks protrude as well as masks and more. In generating new perspectives on Burgh House and its collection, the exhibition makes connections with the cultural history of the local area, and, more specifically, Hampstead’s place within the developmental history of psychoanalysis and surrealism. Briggs has said, "through my work’s focus on familial history and our relationship with the past I am keen to encourage awareness of mental health issues and, in its surrealist content and display, to discover the therapeutic value of humour".   A work commissioned by and created within Burgh House will be included in the exhibition and added to Burgh House’s permanent collection.   Who is Jonny Briggs? Born in Berkshire in 1985, Jonny Briggs is a multidisciplinary artist best known for his idiosyncratic brand of highly autobiographical, self-psychoanalytical and yet universally relatable photography, whose arresting, hybridised, multi-media creations operate in the interstices between fact and fiction. Briggs’ work is reflective of both the artist’s preoccupation with his own family history and with the practice of psychoanalysis, facilitating the articulation of the once unspeakable. Intelligent, intuitive and ingeniously deceptive, much of Jonny’s work over the past sixteen years has featured his parents in a variety of imaginative scenarios, their presence having much to do with the artist’s sustained interest in the credulous condition of childhood. Endeavouring through a series of reincarnations and reconfigurations, ‘to think outside the reality I was born and socialised into,’ he attempts to animate an ‘unconditioned self’.  The dialectical relationship between self and other is clearly something which fascinates Briggs whose work turns compulsively on the paradox that self and other whilst seemingly insuperably separated are at the same time mere recto and verso of one another. Briggs’ work seems characterised by radical uncertainty and insecurity, uncertainty in particular concerning the distinctions between past and present, self and other, fiction and reality. His characters/protagonists then, neither quite projections of the self nor representations of family members, not quite now and not quite then inhabit, it seems, the ‘eternal interim’ between life and death. In the artist's words, in recent years 'the physicality of the image has become more significant, through the production of photosculptures and photomontage. The gaze, the mouth, connection / disconnection, cutting and splitting have often surfaced in the work, as have photographs of photographs, featuring protruding body parts'. Briggs’ works seem imbued with a kind of cryptic potential, the accumulation of which as well as an undeniable emphasis on the fantastical combine to make viewing an intriguing and magical experience.  Briggs studied Fine Art at Chelsea College (1st class) and the RCA (Distinction) in London, graduating in 2011. He was awarded the Conran Award for Fine Art and the Saatchi New Sensations prize in 2011 and Foam Talent 2014 in addition to being a Catlin Prize finalist in 2012 and a Saatchi Gallery UK/raine Finalist in 2014. In 2017, 2018 and 2019 he received Paul Huf nominations. Solo exhibitions of Briggs’ work have been held at Simon Oldfield Gallery, London, 2013; Julie Meneret, New York, 2014; Marie-Laure Fleisch, Rome & NContemporary, Milan, 2015 and Photoforum Pasquart Photography Museum, Switzerland, 2017. His work has also been represented in group shows at Shanghai Centre of Photography in China; The Benaki Museum in Greece; and Saatchi Gallery; 176 Zabludowicz Collection; Jerwood Space and the Photographers' Gallery in London. Commissions include Saatchi Gallery, Channel 4, The Financial Times (made at Freud Museum in Hampstead) and Jerwood Visual Arts.   For more information email Sophie Richards

National Army Museum - Chelsea History Festival tickets on sale

 

Chelsea History Festival is back!  17 - 26 September £0 - £20, in Chelsea and online This year's line-up features over 70 events, delving into the worlds of military and art history, and platforming new perspectives on social and natural history. Headliners include Jeremy Paxman, Olivette Otele with Peter Frankopan and Jonathan Dimbleby with Andrew Roberts. Don't miss exclusive pre-publication launches with Helen Fry, Robert Lyman and James Holland. There's plenty of events for family fun and a brand new History Village; learn first-hand what life was like in Roman London or the First World War and clash blades at Sword School. CHECK OUT THE PROGRAMME The Chelsea History Festival was created in partnership with the National Army Museum, The Royal Hospital Chelsea and Chelsea Physic Garden. Sponsored by Cadogan

Dates for your diary:

The Special Operations Executive in Burma 4 August, 7.00pm £8.00 in venue, £6.00 online Join Robert Lyman and Richard Duckett as they discuss the SOE's secret missions in Burma during the Second World War.  BOOK NOW Urban Warfare in the 21st Century 12 August, 7.00pm £8.00 in venue, £6.00 online Professor Anthony King launches his latest book which examines the character and impact of urban warfare in modern times. BOOK NOW

Action-packed summer fun

Drum a beat, crack a code and more! Various dates through August FREE Don't miss our exciting series of summer holiday workshops. Gather the troops and head to the Museum to create your own sound effects, step inside our giant board game, crack the codes and construct your own instrument. CLICK FOR SUMMER FUN

British Museum Families - Discover the British Museum’s special exhibitions this summer

 

Discover more about the British Museum’s special exhibitions this summer with events on-site and activities to do at home.   Keep scrolling for details of an immersive Roman experience at the Museum this weekend, and crafty ideas to explore medieval objects from our Thomas Becket show. Don’t forget under 16s go free to all our special exhibitions.  All the best,  The Schools and Young Audiences team

Book tickets

Meet the Romans  31 July – 1 August, 11.00 –16.00 Age: 5+  The Romans are coming to the British Museum!  Our historical re-enactors will be setting up camp on the forecourt of the Museum, offering you the opportunity to enjoy the sights and sounds of early Roman Britain, inspired by Nero: the man behind the myth.   This event is free to drop in to at any time, but you will need to book a free timed ticket to enter the Museum grounds.  Find out more

Supported by bp

Get crafty with Becket   Age: 6+ Make your own version of medieval objects, inspired by those in the exhibition Thomas Becket: murder and the making of a saint.   You can also watch storyteller Wendy Shearer bring classic tales to life in these family friendly videos, learn more about the pilgrimage to Becket's shrine in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and more!  Explore now

Stained glass window Age: Under 5s Take inspiration from the Miracle Windows from Canterbury Cathedral on display in our show on Thomas Becket and make your own by downloading our Little Feet under 5s instructions below and checking out this time-lapse video.  Start making

Imperial War Museums - Everything you need to know about the Battle of Britain

 

Squadron Leader Douglas Bader (front centre) with pilots of No. 242 Squadron grouped around his Hurricane at Duxford, September 1940. © IWM CH 1413   SUMMER SALE THIS WEEKEND ONLY Get 20% off tickets to IWM Duxford, Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast. Simply book your summer visit (between 31 Jul - 5 Sep) using the promo code 2DAY20. The sale begins Saturday 31 July, 00:01 and must end midnight Sunday 1 August. Click here for T&Cs. Does not include Air Shows or Flying Days. BOOK HERE   9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN This time 81 years ago, Britain was deep in the throes of a major air campaign against the German Air Force (Luftwaffe), fought largely over southern England. After the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk and the fall of France, Germany planned to gain air superiority to prepare for an invasion of Britain. Here are the things you need to know about one of Britain’s most important victories of the Second World War.  1. This was Hitler's chance to invade Britain Hitler had expected Britain to seek a peace settlement after Germany defeated France, but Britain was determined to fight on. Hitler wanted to bring the war to a quick end and ordered an invasion of Britain, codenamed Operation ‘Sealion’. But to be successful, the Germans first needed to secure control of the skies over southern England. This would remove the threat posed by the Royal Air Force (RAF). 2. The Battle of Britain saw the RAF take on the Luftwaffe The Battle of Britain was ultimately a test of strength between the Luftwaffe and the RAF. Germany had been banned from having an air force after the First World War, but the Luftwaffe was re-established by the Nazi government. By 1940 it was the largest and most formidable air force in the world. The RAF met this challenge with some of the best fighter aircraft in the world – the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire. 3. The Brits had a highly effective air defence network The Dowding System was named after Fighter Command’s Commander-in-Chief Sir Hugh Dowding. It brought together technology such as radar, ground defences and fighter aircraft into a unified system of defence. It would give Britain a critical advantage in the Battle of Britain. 4. There were several phases to the Battle of Britain In July 1940, the Germans began by attacking coastal targets and shipping on the English Channel. They launched their main offensive on 13 August, moving inland to target airfields and communications centres. During the last week of August and the start of September, Germany intensified their efforts to destroy Fighter Command. Airfields were significantly damaged, but most remained operational. The Luftwaffe assumed the RAF was on its last legs, but Fighter Command was bruised, not broken. When the Germans moved their attacks to London, it was devastating for the city’s residents, but it gave Fighter Command time to recover. It was now able to repel the Luftwaffe’s assaults over the next few weeks. The Luftwaffe had failed to secure the air superiority needed for invasion. Hitler indefinitely postponed Operation ‘Sealion’.   © IWM   SPITFIRE N3200: THE VIP EXPERIENCE Enjoy an in-depth, two-hour encounter with Spitfire N3200, which was recovered from the Dunkirk beaches after being buried for 45 years. Sit in the cockpit, hear a private talk from an IWM expert, get up close to the engine and gun bays, see parts not on display to the public, receive an exclusive gift and much more. Includes free admission to IWM Duxford for three people. BOOK TODAY       5. Not all of the pilots were British Nearly 3,000 men of the RAF took part in the Battle of Britain, named 'The Few' by Winston Churchill. While most were British, men also came from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Belgium, France, Poland and Czechoslovakia. There were even some pilots from the neutral United States and Ireland.  6. 'The Few' were supported by many Ground crew looked after the aircraft. Factory workers helped keep aircraft production up. The Observer Corps – tens of thousands of volunteers – tracked incoming raids. Anti-aircraft gunners, searchlight operators and barrage balloon crews all played vital roles. The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) served as radar operators and worked as plotters, tracking raids in the group and sector operations rooms. And there were nearly 1.5 million men in the Home Guard, who were the ‘last line of defence’ against German invasion. 7. All of the RAF helped defend Britain Victory in the Battle of Britain was decisively gained by Fighter Command. But RAF Bomber Command attacked German industry, raided ports were Germany assembled its invasion fleet and targeted airfields and aircraft production. RAF Coastal Command carried out anti-invasion patrols and provided vital intelligence on German positions along the European coast. 8. The Battle of Britain was a defensive victory for Britain The Luftwaffe was dealt an almost lethal blow which it never fully recovered from. Germany’s failure to defeat the RAF and secure control of the skies over southern England made invasion all but impossible. Britain secured one of its most significant victories of the Second World War. It was able to stay in the war and lived to fight another day. 9. You can commemorate 'The Few' at the Duxford Battle of Britain Air Show Duxford Battle of Britain Air Show will take place on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 September. Tickets go on sale to IWM members today and to the general public next week on Tuesday 3 August. Step back to the summer of 1940 for an event to remember on the airfield which played a central role in the Battle of Britain.   © IWM   GET EARLY ACCESS TO DUXFORD BATTLE OF BRITAIN AIR SHOW TICKETS Become an IWM member and enjoy priority booking from today, ahead of tickets going on sale to the public on Tuesday 3 August. Plus, get a 10% discount on Air Show tickets, and free year-round entry to IWM Duxford, Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast. LEARN MORE