Mychael Barratt

Screenprint with hand colouring on paper

Signed and titled in pencil.

Numbered from the edition of 30.

Paper and image size: 1345 x 925 mm

Please contact the Studio on 0207 407 6561 for framing options and prices.

Soho Altarpiece is a ten-panel silkscreen and etching with hand-colouring. It was based on a fascination with the work of Jan Van Eyck, and in particular his Ghent Altarpiece which was featured in a once in a lifetime exhibition in Belgium in 2020.

The key has been done clockwise from the top left.

Adam

1           Adam as inspired by an antique carved Adam and Eve fireplace in  

             The Rodd, Sidney Nolan’s home in Herefordshire.

2          Chevalier d’Eon – 18^th century French officer, diplomat, transvestite and secret agent. This is taken from an 18^th century illustration and the other half is on the Eve plate.

3          Prince Monolulu, flamboyant gambling tipster who claimed to be a Zulu prince from Abyssinia.

4          Canaletto, born Giovanni Antonio Canal, famous Venetian landscape painter had a studio at 41 Beak Street.

Performers

5          Ignatius Sancho, composer of songs for society balls as well as being a writer and an abolitionist

6          David Garrick, Actor

7          Jessie Matthews, Actor, singer and dancer

8          Billie Piper, Actor renowned for ‘Going for dinner with Billie Piper’ -

the London cabby’s mnemonic used to remember the Soho Street order Greek, Frith, Dean, Wardour, Berwick, Poland.

9          David Tennant, Actor literally going for dinner with Billie Piper, played Don Juan in Soho

10       Omar Sharif, Actor

11        Fanny Kelly, Actor

12        Peter O’Toole, Actor

13        Henry Angelo, fencing master who retired after being injured in a dual with Edmund Kean, no. 14

14        Edmund Kean, Shakespearean actor

Musicians

15        Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, lived at 20 Frith Street during his European tour in 1764 when he was 8 years old.

16        Jimi Hendrix who was said to have released his ring-necked parakeets, named Adam and Eve, on Carnaby Street

17        Marc Bolan (as a boy who worked on his mother’s fruit stall on Berwick Street)

18        David Bowie, Musician, singer-songwriter, actor recorded Ziggy Stardust at Trident Studios, 17 St Anne’s Court

19        Count Basie, Musician, band leader

20        Nina Simone, Singer, musician

21        Franz Joseph Haydn, classical composer lived on Great Pulteney Street

22        George Frideric Handel, classical composer, Soho habitue

23        Richard Wagner, composer, wrote The Flying Dutchman on Old Compton Street

24        Ronnie Scott, Musician, club owner

26        Sarah Vaughan, performed at Ronnie Scott’s

27        Miles Davis, jazz musician, songwriter

28        Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson, singer who died mid-performance at the Café de Paris during an air raid in 1941

29        Grace Jones, singer, songwriter, actor

30        Joseph Merlin, musician, inventor in 1770 of the roller skates which he wore whilst playing a violin at an event in Carlisle House, Soho Square where he crashed into a £500 mirror.

John Snow

Banner – The Soho Altarpiece: A celebration of its History, Artists, Writers, Musicians and the Birth of Modern Epidemiology

31        John Snow, the father of modern epidemiology. John Snow was the scientist who first linked the cholera epidemic in Soho with a water pump in Broadwick Street. I have pictured him at the point at which he removed the Broadwick Street pump handle.

32        The Broadwick Street pump

33        The crowd on the street were inspired by an 1852 cartoon called ‘Court for King Cholera’ by John Leech. This was done at a time when the spread of cholera was attributed to overcrowding rather than impure water. I’ve included a whippet as a nod to John Snow’s Yorkshire roots.

Writers

34        Jean-Paul Marat, the French revolutionary writer lived in London from 1765 and frequented Soho coffee houses. Image referenced is Death of Marat by Jacques Louis David.

35        Arthur Rimbaud, mercurial French poet known for his tempestuous relationship with the poet Paul Verlaine (no. 36)

36        Paul Verlaine, French poet (see no. 35)

37        James Boswell, Scottish biographer known for his biography of Samuel Johnson (no. 38) 

38        Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer whose biography was written by James Boswell (see no. 37)

39        Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and playwright.

40        John Dryden, English poet and playwright and the first Poet Laureate lived at 43 Gerrard Street

41        Edmund Burke, Irish philosopher and statesman

42        Karl Marx, German philosopher and socialist revolutionary lived in a small room in Dean Street where he wrote much of Das Kapital.

43        John Keats, English Romantic poet

44        Percy Bysshe Shelley, English Romantic poet lived at 15 Poland Street

45        Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet and philosopher

46        Charles Lamb, English essayist and poet

47        Washington Irving, American short story writer

48        George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, playwright and political activist.

49        Sheraton table in honour of Thomas Sheraton who lived on Wardour Street

50        Jeffrey Bernard, English journalist famous for his weekly column ‘Low Life’ in The Spectator Magazine. Equally famous for the play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell by Keith Waterhouse.

51        Virginia Wolfe

52        Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet who lost his manuscript for Under Milkwood during a pub-crawl in Soho. These are the papers he is chasing but are also scattered throughout this panel.

Artists

53        The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough (the model for the Blue Boy was the son of a Soho ironmonger)

54        Tiger references The Tyger by William Blake, who was born and lived in Soho

55        William Hogarth (reference is his pug dog named ‘Trump’ from his self-portrait)

56        Josiah Wedgwood bowl (Wedgwood had two warehouses in Soho)

57        Aubrey Beardsley, eccentric English illustrator and author

58        Frank Auerbach, artist

59        Francis Bacon, artist

60        Lucien Freud, artist

61        Angelica Kaufmann, artist

62        J M W Turner (when he was a boy, Turner would sell cloudscape watercolours in Soho Square)

63        Joshua Reynolds, artist and first President of the Royal Academy of Arts

64        Richard Dadd, artist lived in Leicester Square (daisies from his painting the Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke)

Eve

65        Eve from the Adam and Eve fireplace in The Rodd (see no. 1)

66        Chevalier d’Eon, French officer, diplomat, transvestite and secret agent (see no. 2)

67        Mary Seacole, British nurse famous for her work in the Crimean War. Lived at 10 Soho Square

68        Muriel Belcher, founder and proprietress of The Colony Room, a private drinking den on Dean Street.

Nocturnal Revels

69        Quentin Crisp, eccentric English writer, actor, civil servant and life model. 

70        Theresa Cornelys, Venetian operatic soprano who was the founder of Soho’s first members’ club Carlisle House. She was once romantically involved with Casanova (no. 71)

71        Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer and writer, famous for his complicated and prolific love life (see no. 70)

72        Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, inspirational naval commander. Bought his coffee from a coffee house on Brewer Street that was built from the timbers of a French vessel captured in the Battle of the Nile

73        Emma Lady Hamilton, English maid, model, dancer, actress and the mistress of Admiral Nelson (no. 72)

74        Cristine Keeler, worked at Murray’s Cabaret Club at the start of the Profumo Affair

Map of Soho

For this panel, I have not numbered the details that are depicted by

logos which include their names (such as Wong Kei, Bar Italia, The Marquee, etc.)

75        Cloudsley Shovell, English Naval Commander

76        The Establishment Club, Peter Cook proprietor

77        Botero Cat, Soho Hotel, Richmond Mews

78        Bob Godfrey, animator depicted through his creation Henry’s cat

79        Quentin Crisp (see no. 69)

80        All references cited as 80 are Soho Noses, which are a number of works of sculptural graffiti affixed to building in and around Soho to comment on the widespread use of CCTV

81        St Martin’s College of Art, Charing Cross Road. The reference for this is a friend of mine, the gallerist Hazel Peiser depicted as she looked when she attended the college

82        Isaac Newton, English scientist and astronomer built an observatory of Shaftesbury Avenue

83        Foyles Bookshop, Charing Cross Road

84        Mrs Meyrick, Kate Meyrick ran the 43 Club at 43 Gerrard Street

85        Maison Bertaux, French café and tea room on Greek Street

86        Lenny Bruce, alternative American comedian whose act almost got The Establishment closed down

87        Sarah Siddons, Welsh actress known for acting in tragedies       

88        John Logie Baird, English inventor first demonstrated television at 22 Frith Street (Bar Italia)

89        Richard Dadd (see no. 64)

90        The Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Place

91        Loon Fung Supermarket, Chinatown, Gerrard Street 

92        Keith Waterhouse, British novelist, newspaper columnist and author of the Soho play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell

93        Jeffrey Bernard, writer (see no. 50)

94        Soho House, members social club on Dean Street

95        l’Escargot, French restaurant in a converted townhouse on Greek Street

96        Le Beat Route, nightclub on Greek Street

97        Peppino Leoni, founder of Quo Vadis, members club on Dean Street

98        Graffiti left by Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols in a flat on Denmark Street

99        Bench in Soho Square commemorating singer songwriter Kirsty MacColl

100      Mary Seacole, British nurse (see no. 67)

101      Hut in Soho Square (beautiful building that is actually an entrance to an electricity substation)

102      Ronnie Scott’s legendary jazz club, founded by jazz saxophonist Ronnie Scott (see no. 24)

103      The Groucho Club, private members club on Dean Street

104      Colin Wilson, author of The Outsider and Adrift in Soho. His disapproving prospective father-in-law was a rural landowner who came into Soho and horse whipped him. 

105      The Blue Posts, public house Rupert Street

106      The Colony Room, private members drinking club, Dean Street

107      Admiral Duncan, public house on Old Compton Street (image is of Admiral Adam Duncan)

108      The French House, restaurant and bar on Dean Street (Charles de Gaulle’s headquarters during WW2)

109      Karl Marx, German philosopher and writer, see no. 42

110      Botanist Joseph Banks, botanist and plant hunter who lived at 32 Soho Square

111      The Gargoyle Club, private members club on Dean Street which had Matisse’s Red Room hanging in its lounge

112      The Piano Bar, Carlisle Street

113      William Hogarth, painter and printmaker who frequented Soho and depicted it in his four times of day (also detail no. 55)

114      William Blake, painter, printmaker and poet (see details 54)

115      Reckless Records, Berwick Street

116      The Broadwick Street water pump

117      Ronnie’s Flowers, Berwick Street

118      Raymond’s Revue Bar, nightclub opened by Paul Raymond       

119      Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, image is from the play A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

120      Chinese New Year symbolised through the Chinese Dragon

121      John Constable, English painter

122      J M W Turner, English painter

123      Crazy Coqs, cabaret and theatre in the Brasserie Zedel

124       Topo Gigio, Italian restaurant on Brewer Street

125      Golden Square, sculpture of a stiletto shoe by Kalliopi Lemos

126      Mildred’s vegetarian restaurant on Greek Street and then Lexington

127      Small Faces, formed in Soho by impresario Don Arden

128      John Snow, scientist who proved the origin of the cholera epidemic (also see main reference no. 31) and Reverend Henry Whitehead, the St Luke’s Church curate who supported him

129      Madame d’Arblay, English novelist and playwright

130      Shane McGowan wrote A Rainy Night in Soho

131      Amy Winehouse often sang at the venue Jazz After Dark

132      Pamela Jennings, known as Soho Pam was a homeless woman who frequented streets around the Coach and Horses pub

133       Harold Moore’s Records, classical music shop on Great Marlborough Street

134      Willy Clarkson, theatrical wig maker lived on Wardour Street

135      Craftsmen Potters Shop, pottery shop originally on Foubert’s Place and now Marshall Street

136      Ring necked parakeets introduced by Jimi Hendrix (see detail no. 16)

137       Lady Jane, women’s clothing boutique on Carnaby Street

138       Jimi Hendrix’s guitar at the Bag’o’Nails

139      John Stevens, fashion entrepreneur who first worked for Bill Green at Vince’s (see no. 145) before opening His Clothes on Carnaby Street

140      The Crown and Two Chairmen, public house on Dean Street

141      Major General William Roy, founder of the Ordinance Survey Map lived at 10 Argyll Street

142      Tom Cribb, English world champion bare-knuckle boxer

143      Bob Fletcher

144      Liberty , shirt designer

145      Bill Green, fashion entrepreneur who opened London’s first men’s boutique, Vince’s in Newburgh Street

146      Lance Bowmer, mercurial and charismatic buyer in the British Crafts Room at Liberty

147      Iron Foot Jack, Australian born nightclub owner

148      King David, friend of Iron Foot Jack

149      Lucien Freud, painter (detail no. 60)

150      Francis Bacon, painter (detail no. 59

151      Muriel Belcher, landlady of The Colony Room

152      Olaudah Equiano, writer and abolitionist

153      Wedgwood Pottery, (see detail 56)

154      Stanley Green, known as The Protein Man, campaigner about the perils of protein

155      Graham Green, English writer and journalist

156       Toy car in Maurice House, Walkers Court

157      Maude Stanley, British youth work pioneer and women’s welfare activist

158      Anne Louise Germaine Necker, Baronne de Staël Holstein, ran salons and advocated equality for women

159      Freddie Mills, British boxer and world light heavyweight champion

160      Thomas Sheraton, furniture designer (see detail no. 49)

161      George Orwell, English novelist and journalist

162      Marcus Garvey, Jamaican writer, publisher and political activist

163      Amy Ashwood Garvey, Jamaican political activist who opened Florence Mills Social Club, a jazz club on Carnaby Street

The Hunting Ground

Soho started out as Henry VIII’s hunting ground and the name came

from an often-heard hunting cry ‘So Ho! So Ho!’ The piece is loosely based on Tudor tapestries.

164      Henry VIII, inspired by Holbein’s portrait

165      The Star and Garter is a Soho public house

166      John Blanke, Black trumpeter in the courts of Henry VII and VIII

167      The Blue Posts is a Soho public house

168      The Coach and Horses is a Soho public house

169      The Three Greyhounds is a Soho public house