William Hogarth Trust
registered charity no.1092251

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Food Street Market – Hogarth Statue

We wrote on behalf of our charity, the William Hogarth Trust (regd no 1092251), to submit comments on the application for a foor streetmarket.

The charity originated from the team which ran the project to commission and install the Millennium statue of William Hogarth near the junction between Annandale Avenue and Chiswick High Road. We are concerned about the impact of the proposed market on the statue. We wrote to Hounslow’s Licensing Panel in 2020 expressing the risk of positioning a German sausage stall very close to the statue, a scheme which was rejected. Now the present licensing application, currently agreed on a temporary basis, is likely to cause the same risks. On the plans submitted as part of the food market application stalls labelled E4, E5, E6 and E7 surround the small enclosure where the statue stands and stalls E8 and E9 are very close by.

We have expressed two specific concerns. First, that the statue with its enclosure, seating and planting has become a place where people gather and read the information panel guiding them to Hogarth’s House. Small children are brought to pat the nose of Hogarth’s pug dog! It has become a local landmark and, while it is now the property of Hounslow Council, we keep an eye on it and monitor its condition. Our first objection is that food stalls next to the statue will greatly reduce the dignity of the landmark and minimise respect for Hogarth and for the sculpture which was a Millennium Project supported by a huge number of donations from the local community.

Secondly, we have a practical concern. Stalls cooking food will disperse droplets of fat and grease into the surrounding air. Our expert conservator advises that there is likely to be a build-up of grease on the statue which could in the long term combine with traffic pollution from the busy High Road (especially the sulphur dioxide) and etch the surface of the bronze. This will then require frequent cleaning to protect the patinated surface. Both the potential damage and the expense of specialist cleaning should be avoided.

For these reasons we requested that when considering whether to grant a permanent licence the Panel should require the stall plots specified above be deleted from the layout. The Panel meets on 17 January.

“Hogarth’s Garden”, a concert at St Nicholas’ Chiswick, 7.30pm 23 June 2023

London Early Opera’s concert, entitled Hogarth’s Garden, takes place on Friday 23 June at St Nicholas’ Church. Tickets are available from eventbrite

The sumptuous programme includes baroque music, narrations and images and is a promotional concert to launch London Early Opera’s new vocal consort and to record a new album with Signum Records. It reflects Hogarth’s life and work in 18th-century London, his inspiration for the artwork at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the Foundling Hospital and his connections with the composer George Frideric Handel who owned a prestigious art collection.

London Early Opera directed by Bridget Cunningham,  Charles MacDougall, vocal consort, & narrations from Lars Tharp, Hogarth enthusiast & ceramics historian