Hub's Hub's Hub

When the British wanted to honor the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, famed Victorian philanthropist, they did it with a pun. His memorial fountain in London's bustling Piccadilly Circus is topped by an aluminum winged archer shooting an arrow downward ("burying a shaft"). Popularly, the statue is known as the god of love, Eros. Tradition has it that, while Eros stands in Piccadilly, no Londoner can be arrested for kissing a girl. Last week, if any Londoner felt like kissing in public, he had to watch his step; for Eros was removed--for the duration of World War II.

The removal was properly signalized by that proper British institution, the fourth editorial (known as the Light Leader) of the London Times. In its characteristic tone, half-bulldog, half-maiden aunt, the Light Leader thus saluted Eros' departure: "From this moment onwards nobody can doubt that there is a war on, for London is the hub of the universe, and Piccadilly Circus is the hub of London, and Eros is the hub of Piccadilly Circus. How then can the universe revolve, when its hub's hub's hub is missing? . . . Until Eros returns to his perch . . . all of us . . . will be wearing an invisible lozenge of black crepe on our sleeves, just in the place where we so steadfastly refuse to wear our hearts. . . "

Underground but far from dormant is art in wartime London. Fortnight ago the Stafford Gallery, in a basement hardly a bomb's throw from St. James's Palace, opened the first important art show seen in London since the war began. Head of the Stafford Gallery is high-strung, capable Mrs. Ala Story. Keystone of her plan, a British Art Centre.

Organizer Story has formed a committee of Big Names, from Hugh Walpole to A. P. Herbert, has turned her basement into a rallying place for artists, patrons, critics, buyers, the art public. Air raids need not overly annoy visitors, for the British Art Centre has full club facilities, including a bar and easy chairs.

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