Tuesday, January 21 – Harrow on the Hill

While reading through my journal from last year’s trip, Mary made note of the reference to my birthday. Well, all these months later she followed that up by inviting me to a birthday dinner tonight with her and Tony. How thoughtful!

Thank you so much Mary & Tony for making this a wonderful and memorable birthday!

Wednesday, January 22 – Harrow on the Hill

I’m staying on the Hill to attend a play this evening performed by the Harrow School students. I’ve talked previously (last year’s journal) about the quality of these productions. A very talented group of boys!

Tonight’s performance is Bleak Expectations, a Dickensian spoof based on a BBC comedy series by Mark Evans.

This was a fun evening. And it’s always comical watching the Harrow boys as they take on the female roles!

Update: The Jeff Beck Guitar Collection auction

The auction was held today. With all items sold, the sale generated a total of $10.7 million (£8.7 million) – which is more than eight times the pre-sale estimates. Wow!!

Let’s take a look back at the guitars I highlighted from my viewing on Monday…

1959 Gibson Les Paul (est. £40,000-60,000). Sold for $493k (£400k)!

A guitar signed by the performers at The Jeff Beck Tribute Concert (est. £4,000-6,000). Sold for $117k (£95k).

The Tina Turner guitar (est. £8,000-12,000). Sold for $543k (£441k)!! I guess I wasn’t the only one who liked this! (The bidding can be watched in the video link below)

The full action results are here.

And here is a 6 minute highlight video of the auction, produced by Christie’s.

Thursday, January 23 – Harrow on the Hill

I’m back into the Capital today to visit another auction house. This time it is Bonhams, to attend an exhibit featuring Lee Miller, entitled Lee & LEE. Haven’t heard of Lee Miller? Well, I’m ashamed to say that I hadn’t either. Ashamed because she led an amazing life. So amazing in fact, that Kate Winslet recently produced and starred in a movie about her!

If you’re not aware of Lee Miller, do yourself a favor and read this biography. Or watch the movie! (I did, via Hulu, a couple nights before attending the exhibit today. It’s very good)

(Briefly, she was a fashion model turned photographer and war correspondent)

I’ll be visiting Bonhams twice today – first to view the exhibit, and then back tonight to attend an invitation-only talk about the life of Lee Miller with her son and granddaughter. I’m not sure why I was on the invite list, but I’ll take it!

The exhibit contains both Lee Miller’s personal possessions and props from the movie. The exhibit’s title, Lee & LEE, refers to the person and the movie title, respectively. On the right is Lee’s actual uniform.

The movie did a great job of recreating actual photos taken by Lee Miller. The framed piece was photographed by Lee; the other two were recreated in the movie.

I have a little time to kill before I return to Bonhams for the talk, so I’m going to check out a place recommended to me by Mary and Tony.

The building now known as the Fitzrovia Chapel was built in 1891–92 as the Middlesex Hospital Chapel. As you can probably tell by this photo, it is a very small space.

The interior of the chapel features a rib vaulted ceiling richly decorated with polychrome marble and mosaics. The mosaics were completed in the 1930s.

This is a beautiful little gem in West London. I would have included some exterior pictures, but it is presently covered in scaffolding!

Of special note, the chapel was the setting for The King’s Christmas Message in 2024. You can watch the video here.

As I approached Bonhams, I noticed that there was a very long line of people waiting to enter. This surprised me; I didn’t expect the Lee Miller talk to be so popular. (probably due to the fact I had no clue who Lee Miller was until a couple weeks ago!)

This was an enjoyable day, as I became more knowledgeable about a very interesting woman. And it’s notable (curious) that there was no auction associated with this exhibit.

For those who would like more information on Lee Miller, here’s a link to a Q&A with her son (who literally wrote the book about her).

As a footnote, I came across this photo of Lee Miller when I visited The National Portrait Gallery a few days ago…