Urban Squirrel Photography

Urban Squirrel Photography Photography, history, heritage and exhibitions

21/05/2026

‘In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World’ at the is full of beautiful illustrations and fascinating stories. “Beyond their beauty, many have hidden histories – tales of exploration, obsession, and knowledge.”
There are also stunning modern works by:
▪️ Kate Friend
▪️ Anahita Norouzi
▪️ İşık Güner .illustrations
▪️ Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
▪️ Justine Smith
▪️ Fran Monks
🌺 Be sure to look out for - and sniff! - the clever aroma stations with scents of Burning O***m, Damask Rose, Green Tea & Black Tea - all brilliantly created by Tash Marks at
This exhibition takes visitors on a journey from Oxford to the farthest corners of the world and back, uncovering the global stories behind some of Britain’s most beloved blooms – from roses and tulips to camellias and peonies.
From the curiosity and drive of early collectors, gardeners, and botanists, to the journeys of intrepid plant hunters, avid merchants, and colonial agents who turned flora into profitable business opportunities, dramatically transforming the world we live in. Contemporary artists and scientists also reflect on the interconnections between plants, people, and habitats in light of the current environmental emergencies, with creative responses and trailblazing approaches which prompt us to re-evaluate our relationship with the natural world, but also offer inspiration for how we might reset it.
📍Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford. OX1 2PH.
📆 Until 16th August. Open daily 10am–5pm, last entry 4.45pm
🎟️ £16.20, Concessions available. Members Free. Pre-booking recommended.

14/05/2026

May is and there are some amazing artists to visit.
These are just a few of the ones I loved from this week…
At The Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock: Oxfordshire Textile Artists with their exhibition ‘Reflections’
Margaret Slorach ‘Reflections of Workshops’
Mair Edwards - ‘Once in a Blue Moon’
Jane O’Brien - ‘Reflections of Pattern’
Amanda Hislop - ‘Land Fragments: a Series Reflecting on Landscape’
Rhia Pateman - ‘Reflections on a Walk 1’
Julia Oxlade - ‘River Reflections 3’ & ‘Sea Reflections’
Margaret Cra‘Reflections of the Past’ & ‘Walking Reflections’
Ann Lowe - ‘Ripples’
Polly Woolstone - ‘Down by the Sea’
Elaine Steele - ‘Heron’
Jane Craft - ‘Memories of Amersham High Street’
Susan Hollebone - ‘Reflections from my Childhood’
Christine Highnett christine_highnett - ‘Double Reflections of Canada’
At Chalford Park Barns, home of :
Louise Regan - painting, stonecarving & stonemasonry
Hugh Grant - Stained Glass
At Cross Leys, Chipping Norton:
Judith Yarrow - paintings, prints, cards (& honey!)
Jane Griffiths .and.cat - jewellery and artwork.
At in Bampton:
Keith Appleby .appleby1 - ‘Fissure’, ‘Spring Window’, ‘Celestial Ripples’,
At The Old Forge, Bampton:
David Williams
Sue Side .side_artist
Tamzin Keown

04/05/2026

Jewry Wall Museum, Leicester
Immerse yourself in the stories of Roman Leicester in a new multi-media exhibition at the Roman bathhouse ruins. See the finest collection of Roman discoveries in the Midlands including mosaics, ivory, glass, stone and metal jewellery. Experience everyday life in Roman Leicester including a visit to the bath house, shopping in the market and making a Roman meal.
There was so much to see at the newly reopened Jewry Wall Museum, based around the remains of the Roman town’s public baths complex, excavated from 1936 to 1939 by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon. The site contains one of the tallest surviving sections of Roman masonry in Britain, over 9 metres high and dating from about AD 160.
The interactive elements are really well done, and it’s fascinating to see all the Roman discoveries that have been made in Leicester over the years.
There’s also a really nice cafe, and they do a lovely iced latte!
📍 Jewry Wall Museum, St Nicholas Circle, Leicester. LE1 4LB
📆 Monday to Friday & Sunday: 10am until 4pm | Saturday & Bank Holidays: 10am until 5pm
🎟️ Adult (16+) £12.50 | Child (5-15) £6.25 | Family Ticket £32.00 | Concession £11.50 | EH Members £6.25. Tickets are valid for a year & Joint tickets available with the King Richard III Visitor Centre.

03/05/2026

A walk round Leicester
I went on a treasure hunt round Leicester with friends at the weekend, and saw some fascinating buildings. Leicester is one of the oldest cities in England, with a history going back at least two millennia
The site of an Iron Age oppidum, it developed into the Roman town of Ratae Corieltauvorum following the conquest. The ruins of Ratae were later settled by the Anglo-Saxons and then captured by the Vikings. After the Norman Conquest the town for a while came under the authority of the rebel Simon De Montfort, passing to the House of Lancaster after de Montfort’s death in 1265. Leicester became an important town, the meeting place of the parliaments of 1318, 1414 & 1450. Most famously King Richard III spent his last days in the town before his death at the Battle of Bosworth, and was buried there in August 1485. In the Victorian era the town became known for its hosiery and shoe manufacturing industries.
There are a number of great museums in Leicester, including the - Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester Guildhall, Newarke Houses & and if you need a curry afterwards, the are amazing.

01/05/2026

Great time today looking round the museum at the Loughborough Bellfoundry Trust, part of John Taylor & Co. Ltd, the last Bellfoundry in the country. Since 1859, over 25,000 bells that chime from towers in over 100 countries have been cast at this iconic Grade II* listed site.
Do follow them at and check out their website, which has some really good videos of the work they do.
John Taylor Bell Foundry in Loughborough is the world’s largest working bell foundry,
The present company is part of a line of bellfounders dating back to Johannes de Stafford in the 14th century, who was also a Mayor of Leicester. The Taylor family became involved in 1784 with Robert Taylor (1759–1830), and a foundry was established in Loughborough in 1839 by his son John Taylor (1797–1858), moving to the current site in 1859. The Taylors also had foundries in Oxford and St Neots in 1786 and 1854.
In 1881 at Loughborough, Taylor’s cast “Great Paul” (the largest British cast bell in Britain) for St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, weighing 17,002 kilograms (37,483 lb) or more than 17 metric tons. Rock band AC/DC used a 2000-pound cast bronze bell for the song “Hells Bells”, which was originally used on the Back in Black Tour in 1980.
📍 Loughborough Bellfoundry Museum, Freehold Street, Loughborough. LE11 1AR
📆 Tuesday 10am – Friday 1pm (last entry 3:30pm) & 1st Saturday of the month.
Tours and Casting Tours are also available - check website for details.
🎟️ Entry £5 and the ticket is valid for a year. Under 11’s FREE.

Fascinating documents in ‘The Music Is Black: A British Story’ at which help tell the story of the trade in enslaved pe...
18/04/2026

Fascinating documents in ‘The Music Is Black: A British Story’ at which help tell the story of the trade in enslaved people. A shameful part of our history, but such an important story to tell and not shy away from.
Images 1/2/3: Charter of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa, 1663, Royal African Company - King Charles II was an investor in The Company of Royal Adventurers, and granted it a monopoly over gold mines and trading in West Africa. The Company exchanged goods and weapons for captured Black Africans, then transported them for enslavement in the Americas and Caribbean. This forced migration resulted in the African diaspora. .
Images: 4 & 5: Letter from Samuel Galton to James Farmer, 1752 - James Farmer and Samuel Galton ran one of Birmingham’s most successful gun-making companies. Here they discuss preparing orders for their client, a British merchant travelling to Africa to exchange Farmer & Galton guns for enslaved Black African people..
Image 6: Letter to Josiah Wedgwood on the abolition of the slave trade, 1793, by Olaudah Equiano - Olaudah Equiano was a Sierra Leonean-born abolitionist, author and campaigner. In this letter to British ceramist Josiah Wedgwood, he shares his fears of being kidnapped and sold back into slavery while travelling to the port city of Bristol..
Image 7: Anti-slavery medallion, 1787, made by William Hackwood for Josiah Wedgwood and Sons with the plea ‘Am I not a man and a brother?’.
Image 8: Psalter (songbook) with canticles, Song of Songs and praises of the Virgin Mary, 1800s Aleka Zeneb (scribe) Ethiopia - British and other European empires used religion and missionaries to extend their control in colonised countries. Resistance to this oppression inspired songs of rebellion and from this emerged the gospel voice.
📍V&A East, East Bank, 107 Carpenters Rd, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, E20 2AR
🎟️ Main Galleries FREE! (‘Music is Black’ exhibition £22/£10 & Free for Universal Credit) .

Just a few of the fascinating stories being told in ‘The Music Is Black: A British Story’, the first exhibition at the n...
18/04/2026

Just a few of the fascinating stories being told in ‘The Music Is Black: A British Story’, the first exhibition at the new in Stratford, London.
Image 1: Photograph of Guyanese-born musician, actor and author Cyril Cy Grant, who was the first Black person to perform regulary on British TV, often singing the news in a calypso style. While serving as a navigator im 1943 during the Second Worid War, Grant was
shot down and spent two years in a prisoner of war camp in Germany: A newspaper
article about his capture referred to him as ‘A Member of the RAF of indeterminate Race’ - a phrase he reciaimed as the title of his 2006 memoir.
Images 2 -3: Photograph of Auxiliary Territorial Service volunteers, 1944 - the photograph shows volunteers from British Honduras (now Belize) at the Auxiliary Territorial Service training camp outside London during the Second World War. The Service recruited women from across the British empire to support the war effort, in roles from ammunition inspectors and mechanics to butchers and bakers. Second from the right in the second row is Nadia Cattouse, who later became a folk singer, musician, actor and activist, appearing on BBC shows for over 30 years.
Image 4: Diary belonging to Arthur Roberts, 1921 - Roberts was raised in Glasgow and joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1917. This diary vividly documents his time fighting in the First World War, including a chilling account of his involvement in the Battle of Passchendaele in western Belgium, which came at the cost of 250,000 casualties..
📍V&A East, East Bank, 107 Carpenters Rd, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, E20 2AR
📆 Opening hours: 10pm-6pm, seven-days-a-week, with late night openings to
10pm every Thursday and Saturday
🎟️ Main Galleries FREE! (‘Music is Black’ exhibition £22/£10 & Free for Universal Credit) ..

18/04/2026

The first exhibition at the new ‘The Music Is Black: A British Story’ is a brilliant, immersive sound experience, telling the story of the power and impact of Black British Music. Informative, fun and with an amazing soundtrack of over 120 tracks from every era.
📍V&A East, East Bank, 107 Carpenters Rd, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, E20 2AR
🎟️ Main Galleries FREE! (‘Music is Black’ exhibition £22/£10 & Free for Universal Credit) .

The new V&A East museum opens this Saturday 18th April.Designed by architects Sheila O’Donnell & John Tuomey - - who we...
17/04/2026

The new V&A East museum opens this Saturday 18th April.
Designed by architects Sheila O’Donnell & John Tuomey - - who were influenced by the design and structure of a gown by Cristóbal Balenciaga in the V&A’s collections.
‘As with Balenciaga’s creations, the outer skin of the new V&A building acts as a three-dimensional ‘folded dress’, lending the museum a distinctive form and striking identity. V&A East has been designed as a statement structure with a distinctive facade that wraps the building. The angular outer skin appears different from various approaches and view points’
The first exhibition ‘The Music Is Black: A British History’ is fantastic - historic, intelligent, educational, nostalgic and fun, and of course with an incredible soundtrack!
The cafe menu by is inspired by immigrant cuisine and rich, shared flavours and cultures. I recommend the Cardamom Mandazi! .
📍V&A East, East Bank, 107 Carpenters Rd, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, E20 2AR
📆 Opening hours: 10pm-6pm, seven-days-a-week, with late night openings to
10pm every Thursday and Saturday
🎟️ Main Galleries FREE! (‘Music is Black’ exhibition £22/£10 & Free for Universal Credit) ..

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