Hogarth’s London

St Bartholomew the Great, EC1St Bart's Hospital Museum, EC1

Hogarth did not paint only satirical narratives. He also had a taste for grand history paintings and religious tableaux. Two of his most ambitious works are the murals that decorate the walls of the grand staircase of the old entrance hall to one of the buildings of St Bart's Hospital. One depicts the Good Samaritan, the other Christ healing the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, in which the figures by the pool were supposedly modelled on patients at the hospital. The murals were undertaken by Hogarth free of charge after he heard that the hospital governors wanted to commission a Venetian artist to do the work. During museum opening hours, you can walk though the main display room to see the murals from the hallway. To get a decent close up view, you can see them as part of a guided tour every Friday at 1pm. Open: Tues-Fri, 10am-4pm. Free admission. Contact: 020 7601 8152, www. bartsandthelondon.org.uk - click on About Us.


Museum of London, EC2

The 18th-century galleries are a good starting point to get a feel for the detail of Hogarth's London. The many exhibits range from wooden panels from Wellclose Square Prison, carved with graffiti by inmates in the 1750s, to a contemporary doll's house and the Lord Mayor's coach of 1757. You have a couple more weeks to enjoy the galleries before they close for restoration on March 6. Open daily, 10am (Sun 12pm)-5.50pm. Free admission. Contact: 0870 444 3851, www.museumoflondon.org.uk.


Covent Garden and Leicester Square, WC2

Hogarth spent part of the 1720s living as an apprentice in his future father-in-law's house in a corner of Covent Garden. The house, now demolished, was on the site of the Royal Opera House and Floral Hall, but parts of the Piazza still survive from Hogarth's time (see left). Leicester Square (called Leicester Fields at the time), was then a desirable address, and by the 1730s Hogarth was prosperous enough to move into a fourstorey house in the south-eastern corner of the square. It was where he produced most of his best-known works and although nothing of the building survives (it was pulled down in 1870) there is a small memorial bust and plaque dedicated to Hogarth in the north-east corner.


The Foundling Museum, WC1Dr Johnson's House, EC4

Although they certainly met, we don't know if Hogarth ever came to Dr Johnson's house in Gough Square. But it is worth a visit because it is both the best example of a London house of the period and during Johnson' s tenure it was the intellectual hub of the city. Full of Johnson memorabilia. Open: Mon to Sat, 11am to 5pm, £4.50. Contact: 020 7353 3745, www. drjohnsonshouse.org.


Hogarth's House, Chiswick

There are a few instances in Tom Jones where Mr Fielding refers the reader to a Hogarth picture to overcome the limitations of verbal description to give the best description of a character. It is a useful technique for anyone who has access to the pictures referred to. He confines the trick to minor characters as far as I remember.

Hogarth Alert. Artsword 7.00 tonight. (267).

So was it any good Spends? The 267 Hogarth channel?