Shadow City explores the lost and imagined forms of London, seeking to uncover the forgotten and obscured elements of London’s past. The exhibition spans three centuries - from the late 17th century with Christopher Wren’s plans for rebuilding the City after the Great Fire, to the late 20th century, with a rare contemporary depiction of the Winter of Discontent and artworks opposing the potential conversion of Battersea Power Station into a theme park.
As Nicholas Boys Smith writes in the foreword to the accompanying catalogue: How many Londons are there? How many Londons have there been? How many Londons were never created? Would Charles Dickens identify modern Vauxhall as London? Would we discern our local high street beneath its Victorian clothing of costermongers and striped awnings, market stalls and hackney carriages, parasoled-ladies and sandwich men? Surely no time-travelling Tudor burgher would recognise the modern city? However, position him carefully in Westminster Abbey, besides Staples Inn, in Middle Temple or by the Charterhouse and he might. Can a city keep changing and still be the same place? And, as we walk the streets of modern London, can we imagine the shadow cities besides us of what was and what might have been?
Shadow City is divided into three sections. ‘A Modern Babylon?’ reflects on the development of the modern perception of London, and the elements of it that have been lost to our modern understanding. ‘Late Victorian Chelsea’ contains a wealth of engravings by Theodore Roussel, depicting the life and energy present within Victorian Chelsea. ‘Changing Tides’ explores the development and decline of the Thames, from the Port of London’s rapid expansion in the late 18th century to the Post-War collapse of London’s docks.
