Topolski’s ‘Memoir of the Century’

From the outside, Topolski might look like just another South Bank bar, but venture inside and you’ll find parts of what may be the most ambitious work by Polish artist Feliks Topolski, his “Memoir of the Century,” an epic chronicle of the key events and figures of the 1900s.

Feliks Topolski was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1907. After completing studies at the Warsaw Academy of Art, he traveled across Europe and eventually settled in London in 1935. His skill as an artist was quickly recognized; he was soon designing costumes and sets, and during World War II Topolski was hired as an official war artist, even sketching the Nuremberg Trials.