A room full of other people's rooms

On the morning of the private view, I was unavoidably delayed at home for reasons too boring to go into.

Early in the afternoon, I received an email from the gallery asking, er, was I coming in soon because the pictures were supposed to be up on the walls by 4pm. Private view was to start at 6.

Happily, Toby had told me a few days earlier that he would be available to help out, if needed. So I gave him a call, and with Louisa he came to pick me up – along with 25 framed pictures.

Toby and JPF in the empty gallery, four framed pictures leaning against the wall along the skirting, not yet hung

Toby, left, and me, about to do a very speedy hanging.

On the walls: the Peggy Jay Gallery with seven framed portraits hung in a line, JPF standing at the right with his hands on his hips, looking at them

Ready by 4pm. Thanks Toby, and Louisa.

***

The private view

At 6pm, people started to arrive. Hurrah! Many had backed my book, A Speccy Man Has A Breakdown, which never had a launch party – and this was my attempt to make up for that.

JPF addressing guests at Burgh House

Photos above and below, like many from the private view on this page, by Toby York. Other pics by Louise McLeod, Sheena Ginnings, Nancy Flintoff and me.

Nancy, left, and Harriet and friends listening as JPF talks at the private view, glasses in hand

Left: Nancy talking with two guests, wine glasses, portraits along the wall behind. Right: JPF with two guests in front of the portrait of Patrick McCann.

Two people looking at portraits of Jane Lunnon. Left: Mark Ellingham in profile at the portrait of Jane in her office, the Moon River lyrics on the sofa. Right: Ayla Lepine and a guest beside Jane and her predecessors.

***

Standing next to yourself

Sitters with their own portraits. Left: Ayla Lepine and me beside hers. Centre: Andrew Clover in front of the picture of him on his barge. Right: Joel Levack in front of the one of him hot-desking with Phil.

***

Days of people looking

A number of people I know came to the gallery, and because I’m only human I forgot to take pictures of everyone. Sorry / not sorry. In every case, it was a thrill to see them (you?). It still amazes me to think that I make pictures and people travel, in some cases quite a long way, to see them.

Some came from nearby. I couldn’t bring myself to mention the show in my own street’s WhatsApp group – I’m one of the admins, and it would have felt like using the position. My neighbour Teresa had no such difficulty, and put it in the group for a neighbouring street. Somebody from Lyndale Avenue came, went back and recommended it warmly, and several more arrived after that – including a couple I saw outside on the Saturday who hadn’t managed to get in, and who came back on Sunday.

I also met a number of terrific people who just happened to be passing.

A visitor looking at six portraits hung in the Peggy Jay Gallery at Burgh House, Hampstead, during Contain Multitudes, August 2026.

This man was from Lincolnshire.

I tried to be in the gallery all the time, every day, but obviously that’s not possible. One person I missed, a total stranger, sent a message from New York saying she had come in by chance and loved it.

I confess that for a while I assumed the message was some kind of scam, but I replied with thanks and received a warm follow-up with nothing asking for eg my bank details or weird shenanigans. So I guess it was real after all.

And I missed Estelle Lovatt, the art critic, who years ago ran classes I attended at the Hampstead School of Art. She wrote something about my show, and posted it online (check out the reference to El Greco!).

Left: SJG adjusting her glasses to study a family portrait. Right: DJF shielding her eyes to look at the portrait of Mark Stephens.

People who came. Left: Nigel, my neighbour, with the Van Gogh picture behind us. Centre: Bonnie and Catherine, whom I had never met in person before. Right: Pru and Colin, with the family portraits behind.

Close-up profile of JPF's mother in a blue fleece, hands clasped, mouth open, looking up at a Contain Multitudes print in the Burgh House corridor; JPF's father, in a tan suede jacket, stands further down the hall by more framed prints

More about the day my parents came.

GIF showing instructions through the loo on Saturday at Burgh House

On the Saturday the main house was shut, so I made this to show people they could still reach the gallery by coming through the cafe. It is on the way to the loo. The speech bubble comes out of my drawing of myself checking out the competition at a Sargent show, which was hanging a few feet away.

Flowers arrived one afternoon from a florist on Flask Walk, for a family event that had nothing to do with me. They looked great, so I took lots of pictures of them, with my portraits in the background – on a plinth, then in front of the Galley Beggar pictures, then facing three portraits across the room.

Left: the artist’s proof of Hunter Davies lifted from the table, tissue folded back, inscribed in pencil along the bottom. Right: visitors looking at it where it lay. I have written about why it ended up on a table.

***

Taking it down

Left: laughing beside the artist’s proof of Mary Ann Sieghart in her office. Right: hand on head, straight after somebody told me they wouldn’t want one.

Every picture in the show, filmed around the walls at Burgh House before the work came down

Left: the hanging wires, left empty. Right: my shadow on the floor, chairs stacked back against the brick.

That was a lot of fun.

Thanks for looking. You can read about the individual portraits – and the people pictured in them – on the main Contain Multitudes page.