A fascinating record of how London and Londoners were shaped by nearly 700 years of public executions. More frequent in London than in any other city or town in Britain, these morbid spectacles often attracted tens of thousands of onlookers at locations across the capital and were a major part of Londoners' lives for centuries. From Smithfield to Kennington, Tyburn to Newgate Prison, public executions became embedded in London's landscape and people's lives. Even today, hints of this dark chapter in London's history can still be seen across the city. Featuring the lives and legacies of those who died or who witnessed public executions first hand from 1196 to 1868, this book tells the rarely told and often tragic human stories behind these events. It includes a range of fascinating objects, paintings and documents, many from the Museum of London's collections, such as the vest said to have been worn by King Charles I when he was executed, portraits of 'celebrity criminals', and last letters of the condemned. From the sites of execution to the thriving 'gallows' economy, the book reveals the role that Londoners played as both spectators and participants in this most public demonstration of state power over the life and death of its citizens.

An exploration of Turner as an artist-traveler, in relation to two important European harbor scenes This publication marks the return to the United Kingdom, for the first time in over a century, of two groundbreaking oil paintings by J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851), on loan from The Frick Collection in New York: Harbour of Dieppe: Changement de Domicile and Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening. They were acquired by wealthy American industrialist Henry Clay Frick in 1914 and have remained in the USA ever since. Painted in the mid-1820s, Dieppe and Cologne exemplify Turner's lifelong fascination with the subject of ports and harbors -past and present -as dynamic, transitional places. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1825 and 1826 respectively, they represent in powerfully visual terms the outcomes of Turner's regular sketching tours within Europe that were central to his fame as an artist-traveler, as well as his radical approach to color, light, and brushwork. This sumptuously illustrated publication examines Turner's creative process, and his use of sketchbooks and watercolors to capture his ideas as he traveled. Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: The National Gallery, London November 3, 2022-February 19, 2023