BeenThere-DoneThat Blog

I often see prospective visitors to this country asking what the weather will be like at such and such a time of year. The simple answer is that nobody knows. Even our weather forecasters often get it wrong.

Let me give you an example. On Friday the forecast for Saturday was clear skies all day and on Saturday we did have some sun but there were clouds all across the sky and they were moving slowly which meant that when a cloud covered the sun it was often ten minutes before it shone again. This meant that at just the point I wanted to take a photograph the sun went in and I was twiddling my thumbs for 10 minutes waiting for it to come back out.

Remember, this forecast was only 24 hours in advance.

So what was I photographing?

Well, it started at Liverpool Street Station where we normally come in to London, or did it? We went from there by Underground to Paddington so did it really start from Paddington? You decide.

Having arrived at Paddington we went into the Mainline Terminus to have a quick look at Brunel's handiwork.

This station served as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the current station dates from 1854, and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. That glazed roof is supported by wrought iron arches in three spans, respectively spanning 68 feet, 102 feet and 70 feet. The roof is 699 feet long, and the original roof spans had two transepts connecting the three spans. This shows just one of the roof spans.

One has to admit that the roof does look impressive.

Paddington Station wasn't part of our original plan but as we were passing through we thought that we'd have a look. So where were we headed? Paddington Basin of course, where else!

Paddington Basin is the terminus for the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal and is on the eastern edge of Paddington Station. But back to the picture above first. Notice at the far end of the station there is a grey horizontal band running over the train – that is a footbridge and that is where we are going. Up to the footbridge and over the tracks we follow signs and suddenly emerge on the edge of Paddington basin. There are other ways to get there but that was most convenient for us.

We turn right towards the end of the basin and very soon passed a very modern looking footbridge to the opposite side of the basin which we ignored and continued to the next footbridge from which I took this picture.

In its heyday it was a very busy goods transhipment facility but like a lot of London's docks it fell into disuse when the traffic dwindled. The basin is now the centre of a major redevelopment as part of the wider Paddington Waterside scheme and is surrounded by modern buildings as you can see (The Canary Wharf treatment). Towards the far end is this unusual bridge, which you can just see in the picture above if you look carefully, but it's not what we mean when we talk about 'travelling by tube'.

You may notice that all of the boats are canal narrowboats. This is to become today's theme.

After having a leisurely look round we started off along the canal-side path in the opposite direction towards the main part of the Grand Union Canal. I was going to refer to the path as the 'towpath' which is what they are generally called but that didn't seem to really do it justice as it looked like this.

Although it looks pleasant enough those two bridges in the distance are carring road traffic and consequently it isn't quiet here. Nice place for a cup of tea or coffee in the canal-side cafe perhaps?

A little further on we have our first sight of Little Venice. This is where the Paddington arm joins the main Grand Union Canal forming this large basin. To continue on our planned route we need to be on the far side and, at first, I thought that Amanda would have to wade across carrying me on her back.

But having continued around the bend we spotted a nice little bridge.

That narrowboat is a floating cafe, you may notice some tables and chairs on the path beside the boat, which would have been an interesting experience for a meal but it was only mid-morning so we passed on that one. That bridge carries a road and so gives access to the local area should you so desire – we didn't.

The part of the canal that you can see beyond the bridge is not the part that we wanted so we crossed the bridge and turned right. Just as we left the Little Venice basin we came across numerous narrowboats moored along the canal on both sides. A lot of these, possibly all of them, appear to be 'permanent' moorings i.e houseboats where people live. We had to leave the towpath soon after this point, because the path was 'residents' only, and walk along the road for a short way.

You may notice in the far distance a boat in the middle of the canal and just behind it a dark rectangle which is the entrance to a tunnel. There is no path through the tunnel so we followed the road slightly uphill until we were at the same height as the top of the tunnel then followed the road opposite, Aberdeen Place, until it bent sharp left. Opposite us, on the bend, was a footpath which lead back to the side of the canal.

You can see the exit from the tunnel and the steps we came down to reach the canal-side path and we certainly weren't alone on this walk.

The surroundings started getting green and leafy so we guessed that by this time we were entering Regents Park and then we came across this house.

We couldn't decide whether it would make a nice weekend cottage or not so we decided not to buy. A mistake perhaps?

When we reached a bridge that gave us the opportunity to leave the canal we went up to ground level but don't worry because we will be returning to the canal later. This was our last veiw of the canal for the time being.

Crossing the canal we found ourselves in the green oasis of Regents Park with the BT Tower showing in the distance.

Regents Park is big! It covers 410 acres and it was just over a mile from the canal to where we were heading – Queen Mary's Gardens. The canal crosses the northern edge of the park and Queen Mary's gardens are, of course, near the southern edge. This involved crossing the 'Inner Circle', one of the few roads in the park, which surrounds Queen Mary's Gardens.

On the other side of the road we found the Garden Cafe and it now being lunch time what could we do but try it? There are two separate areas; the waitress service part and the part for the Hoi Poloi. I was going to suggest the waitress service part as I'd spotted something on the menu which sounded nice but then Amanda saw that they had a 'Stew of the day' in the other part which she liked the sound of – so we joined the Hoy Poloi. Today it was Chicken Stew and it really was very nice. I thoroughly enjoyed it, well we both did but we didn't enjoy the paper plates and plastic utensils. The waitress service next time perhaps.

After lunch we went to look at the gardens. They are mostly roses and, being roses, they won't bloom until about mid-june and there are 30,000 roses of 400 varieties. Amanda wants to come back after they bloom. I wonder if she'll count them?

We found an area including a pond, a nice little bridge and a cascade which looked rather picturesque that didn't involve roses.

We finally started back north towards the canal but when we reached it we first crossed over onto Primrose Hill. A bit like a continuation of Regents park with grassland liberally dotted with trees but also a hill! We had a really good view from the highest point and, as you can see from the photograph, it's really popular with visitors.

What we could see from right to left was the London Eye, the BT Tower, the Shard, St. Paul's Cathedral and Canary Wharf. Certainly worth the not very arduous climb of 256 feet.

So, back to St. Mark's Bridge on the canal at the bottom of Primrose Hill where we go back down to the canal-side path and yet more narrowboats – some moored some moving. Do you see a theme here?. After an interesting little walk along the canal it is not long before we reach our final destination.

Camden Lock and Camden Lock Market. You may notice that there were a lot of people – it was seething! This was a Saturday afternoon, remember, on a sunny day. I wonder what it's like during the week?

After turning off the canal-side path into the market at West Yard our nostrils were assailed with the very tempting smell of hot food. It smelled really delicious and appetising but, as we'd had lunch only a short while ago we had no appetite – bummer!

One thing we quickly discovered is that this place is a warren which made it even more interesting. Going through the stalls to the back we found a short passage into another large area of stalls, Camden Lock Place, and then there are all the stalls inside the surrounding buildings.

They seem to sell everything here – hot food, clothing, fabrics, jewelry, fancy goods, geological specimens, antiques – you name it they seem to have it.

Then there were the stalls inside the Market Hall building over two levels.

This market is interesting, amazing, stupendous! If you like markets you cannot afford to miss this one. We finally dragged ourselves away from all the stalls and emerged back onto the canal-side.

That boat in the foreground is one of the water buses which carry fare-paying passengers from Little Venice to Camden Lock (and back if so required). Then we crossed that bridge in the distance from which we had a good view of Camden Lock.

From here we set off towards the nearest underground station, Camden Town, along Chalk Farm Road and realised that there were also lots of small shops which were almost as interesting as the market. An amazing place indeed.

I took a lot more photographs than I have shown here many of which will appear on the main site in due course. Time to go home to rest our weary legs.
 

We have a drought at present and that's official. This is what our lawn looks like during this very same drought.

During this April the rain, at times, has been coming down in buckets and it's still raining. Today's forecast is 'Heavy Rain'. So what is going on?

Simple really. The groundwater is very low because we have had very little rain over the last two winters which is when the groundwater is normally replenished. We have also had plenty of cloud during the last two summers but little rain. Now it seems intent in making up for it but it will take a long time to make up the groundwater and we don't expect the official drought to end any time soon.

I went for a walk yesterday and when I got to this point I gave up.

The paths across the fields were very squishy mud interspersed with very deep puddles. Just behind that tree on the right you may notice a bank of dark grey cloud which was moving my way and I didn't want to be caught in the next deluge especially as I'd forgotten to bring my Ark with me. I really needed a wet suit to walk in those conditions so I gave up and went back home.

The long range forecast uses words like unsettled and changeable. It doesn't bode well for trips and photographs.
 

Another Thursday – another trip to Wapping.

Let me explain to our various overseas visitors that Wapping is not pronounced the way it is spelled but instead it's pronounced 'Wopping'. Now that we've got that sorted I'll remind you that at the end of the last report I said:

"Perhaps we'll get better weather next time. We want to do that same walk again to see some things that we missed but I'm not going to tell you what they were and to, hopefully, get some better photographs."

Well we did get better weather, sun all day and temperatures around 70-72F, and we did that same walk again (it was in Wapping) – but with added ingredients. The name comes from the Saxon meaning "the place of Waeppa's people"

So what connection does the title of this post have with Wapping? They are all pubs and they are all in Wapping High Street and they all back on to the River Thames.

Lets start at the beginning. I'm going to use the same map as last time with our new route added.

Last time we went as far as '2' which we also did this time but we went on to complete a circular route. We started, as last time, from St. Ctherine's Dock.

We walked along the same canal – you can see the masts of those two replica sailing ships (No. 1 on the map) sticking up into the sky in the distance.

Then onwards to Shadwell Basin (No. 2 on the map). This time we walked round the north side of the basin past the new housing towards the eastern end of the basin with the tall buildings of Canary Wharf visible in the distance.

At the far end is one of the old lifting bridges and this next picture is taken from the bridge (location 3)  looking back across Shadwell Basin.

We then walked eastward to the edge of the Thames and along the Thames Path for a short way

and came out opposite this.

So what is it?  It is the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, built in 1890, and was originally operated  using steam and later converted to use electricity. It was used to power machinery across London, using hydraulic power including bridges, lifts and cranes etc. The Tower Subway was used to transfer the power, and steam, to districts south of the river.

It was used as a model for power stations in Argentina, Australia, New York and Europe. When electricity became cheaper it lost popularity and eventually closed. It is now used as a cafe with the tables and chairs dotted around among the old machinery which is a novelty. They serve cups of tea and coffee together with lunch etc.

Pass the oil please.

Opposite the old power station is the first of our pubs – The Prospect of Whitby. No. 4 on the map.

The Prospect of Whitby lays claim to being one of the oldest riverside taverns in London and dates from around 1520 during the reign of Henry VIII. At one time it was one of the most notorious pubs in London being a meeting place for sailors, smugglers, cut-throats and footpads but now it seems to be a pretty nice pub.

It was formerly known as the Devil's Tavern, on account of its dubious reputation and before that it was officially called "The Pelican". The stone steps, alongside the pub and going down to the foreshore, are the "Pelican Steps"

All that now remains from the building's earliest period is the 400 year old stone floor.

In the 17th century, it became the hostelry of choice of Judge Jeffreys, known as "The Hanging Judge, who lived nearby and a noose hangs by a window, commemorating his custom. According to legend, criminals would be tied up to the posts at low tide and left there to drown when the tide came in.

You'll be wanting to see the noose then? Taking our lives in our hands we went down Pelican Steps on the the Thames foreshore to see the riverside view of the pub. Luckily it was low tide otherwise we may have got our feet wet. Possibly even our eyebrows.

You can see Pelican Steps and the noose is hanging from that tall post on the right.

Following a fire in the early 19th century, the tavern was rebuilt and renamed "The Prospect of Whitby", after a Tyne collier, a type of boat, that used to berth next to the pub.

Walking westward along Wapping Wall we went past numerous old wharves now converted to luxury appartments such as Metropolitan Wharf shown here and, after going down New Crane Steps, New Crane Wharf shown below. No. 5 on the map.

Notice that nice sandy beach along New Crane Wharf.

Having walked the length of Wapping Wall we joined Wapping High Street where the old dock buildings have all been renovated and converted to housing and it's been done very nicely. This is a view along Wapping High Street.

Further along Wapping High Street we reach our second pub – the Captain Kidd. No. 6 on the map.

Somewhere around here in 1701 the pirate, Captain Kidd, was executed by hanging on Execution Dock hence the name of the pub. The exact location of Execution Dock appears to be unknown except that it was near one of the local docks or wharves. His remains were gibbeted by the river Thames at Tilbury for more than twenty years.

Execution Dock was used for more than 400 years to execute pirates, smugglers and mutineers that had been sentenced to death by Admiralty courts. The "dock", which consisted of a scaffold for hanging, was located near the shoreline of the River Thames at Wapping. Its last executions were in 1830.

A short rope was often used for exceptionally nasty pirates which meant that, when they were dropped from the gallows, the rope didn't break their neck and they were then slowly asphyxiated. Customarily, these corpses were left hanging on the nooses until at least three tides had washed over their heads.

The Captain Kidd pub was established as a pub only in 1980 but the building itself is 18th century. The entrance visible on the street leads into a small, rather attractive courtyard which then gives access to the pub proper.

A short way further along Wapping High Street we saw yet another interesting warehouse conversion on the corner of Dundee Street.

A little further beyond that we encountered our third pub – the Town of Ramsgate with Wapping Old Stairs next to it. No. 7 on the map.

This shows Wapping Old Stairs. Amanda is on a set of stairs that just stop in front of a wall – very useful. The stairs to the right of those give access to and from the foreshore. The Town of Ramsgate pub is just out of the right edge of the picture and you may have noticed part of Tower Bridge showing in the distance.

The Town of Ramsgate was originally known as the Red Cow and then the Prince of Denmark with the origins of the pub claiming to go back as far as 1543.

We went back up to Wapping High Street and, after a short distance, turned onto the Thames Path along the edge of the river.

We eventually reached Readmead Lane which was where we turned off when we started this circuit and so have come full circle. We can recommend this area for some interesting exploring especially if you can manage a day when low tide is around the middle of the day which will enable you to go down some of the old steps onto the river foreshore.

We headed back to Tower Bridge and crossed to the south side of the river, along Shad Thames to Pea Pod for a late (2:15 PM) lunch. We have been here before and on our last visit had Old Guy USA (Jerry) with us.

After lunch we walked west along the Thames until we were opposite the Tower of London where I took this photograph of the White Tower. The last time I tried it was covered in scaffolding.

We went back across Tower Bridge, now heading for Tower Hill Station, and went past these in the Tower of London grounds.

They look remarkably life-like but they are made from multiple layers of wire netting moulded to shape.

So our legs are tired and we are tired – time to go home methinks. We covered an awful lot of interesting history today and we found that when we got home we were covered in it and had to rinse some of it off.
 

Wednesday 21st March

The London weather forecast from the Meteorological Office for tomorrow (Thursday) is sunny all day and we believe them don't we? A trip to London tomorrow sounds possible.

Thursday 22nd March

Up early ready for our trip to London and Amanda listens to the travel news on the radio. Oh oh! There is overhead wire damage on the railway south of us so there are no trains for part of our journey and buses are being used as a substitute. There is also an accident on the A12 causing considerable congestion and, guess what, the buses are using the A12.

A bulletin a little later says that the overhead wires should be repaired by 7:30 AM. We don't think that there's much chance of that so we prepare to cancel our trip but are still listening to the travel bulletins.

About 30 minutes before we'd normally leave for the station we see that our usual train has been cancelled but, surprise surprise, the trains are starting to run again after that with possible delays of up to 1 hour on the journey. We decide to chance it and go for the train after our normal one which leaves 30 minutes later.

We arrive on the platform of our local station 15 minutes before our train is due to arrive and five minutes later a train arrives. An extra train has been put into service and it gets us to Liverpool Street Station without any delays. Hoorah, we made it after all.

We walk, in sunshine, to the Guildhall Art Gallery (entry is free) where we descend into darkness, well very nearly darkness. We are going to see the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre discovered when the Art Gallery was being built. These remains are from the eastern entrance to the amphitheatre.

It was long suspected that Londinium must have had an amphitheatre but it wasn't until 1988 that these remains were discovered during excavations prior to building the new Guildhall Art Gallery. Excavations of the remains continued until 1996 when it was declared an Ancient Monument and the designs for the Art Gallery had to be revised to preserve the remains in situ.

This was our first view of the remains. The green pattern of lines at the back is meant to represent rows of bench seating in the amphitheatre proper – we are in the eastern entrance remember.

Having wandered along to the far end where the amphitheatre would have been we looked back to see this view.

Having had a good look round the amphitheatre remains we went back upstairs to look at the Art Gallery. It is very nicely laid out and has some amazing pictures some of which are shown here together with Amanda looking out from a gallery at a mega-picture of her illustrious ancestor.

This is that very picture and he's the chappie on the horse – General George Elliot, defender of Gibralter when the spanish tried, and failed, to lay siege to it. Amanda's grandmother was an Elliot.

I thought that this painting was particulary interesting as it was of the grand opening of Tower Bridge. Looks to be quite a celebratory affair.

We left the Guildhall Art Gallery and emerged into the sunshine. Yes it was still sunny. We now headed south for the River Thames and St. Catherine's Dock. We had been to St. Catherine's Dock before and there are pictures on the web site to prove it but this time it was just a starting point for our planned route.

As we went past the Old Stock Exchange we went in for a quick look. It has now been converted to an upmarket shopping centre and Cafe.

We continued on to St. Catherine's Dock by Tower Bridge and set off on our route shown on the map below as a black dotted line. The green area on the left edge is the Tower of London.

Most of that route, you may notice, is along what used to be a canal but is now no longer navigable because it is blocked at both ends and has new housing along its length which does make a nice setting and probably isn't cheap.

Remember the weather forecast? Sunny all day. Notice that although there are a few patches of blue sky there is now some significant cloud appearing.

Part the way along that route we came to the location marked '1'. You couldn't really miss it because there are what appear to be two large, old sailing ships parked next to the canal. They are full size replicas of real ships.

The Three Sisters is a replica of a 330 ton ship built at Blackwall Yard in 1788, which traded until 1854, taking manufactured goods to the East & West Indies and returned with tobacco & spices.

The Sea Lark is a copy of an 18th century American built schooner, which ran the blockade and was captured by the Admiralty during the Anglo-American War in 1812-14. The public cannot get on to these ships.

So what is this place? It is:

We noticed by now that the sun was covered in a layer of thin cloud. It was possible to see where the sun was because of the very bright patch in the sky but the light was very diffuse. Meteorological Office weather forecasts – don't make me laugh.

The story of Tobacco Dock hasn't finished yet. When this area was originally developed in early nineteenth century the site covered 30 acres and specialised in high-value luxury goods such as ivory, spices, coffee and cocoa as well as wine, tobacco and wool, all stored in elegant warehouses and cellars. Tobacco Dock was one part of this scheme.

In 1990, after investing 47 million pounds converting the old warehouse, it was re-opened as a shopping centre. Soon after it was hit by a recession and soon went into receivership and closed. Over 20 years later it is still closed although properly maintained. You can see the building to the right of the ships beyond the gates. The old warehouse which comprises the main part of the shopping centre is now a grade 1 listed building.

We left Tobacco Dock and continued our route to location '2' on the map. This is Shadwell Basin the largest area of open water remaining from the old London Docks.

You can see the towers of Canary Wharf in the distance. This is another old dock which has been converted to upmarket accommodation.

There are two old lifting bridges at each end of the basin and this is the one nearest the River Thames. You can see that Canary Wharf, the tall tower blocks, are really not far away.

We turned round and started back and noticed this view which we hadn't noticed on the way out. Looks quite imposing doesn't it?

We also saw this old water level gauge which runs from 16 to 24 feet – you do speak Roman don't you?.

On the way back along St. Catherine's Way we saw Alderman's Steps but have been unable, so far, to find out why they are so called.

So that was the end of our trip that nearly wasn't. Perhaps we'll get better weather next time. We want to do that same walk again to see some things that we missed but I'm not going to tell you what they were and to, hopefully, get some better photographs.
 

We do some boring things don't we?

 

On the 20th December last I posted about a short walk I did entitled 'So, was it muddy' and mentioned an Iron Age structure called 'The Rampart' that I passed. I didn't have time to take pictures of it on that walk as I was in a hurry to get back before lunch and, of course, Marie wanted to see a picture.

So I decided to march the same route again today in March. The Meteorological Office weather forecast for this morning was cloudy so I walked out of the house under sun and blue sky. They haven't a hope of getting it right in this country.

I set off across two fields and just before entering a wood I stopped to take a photograph of my boots at the same point that I did last time as a comparison. Now let's be honest – you do like seeing pictures of my boots don't you?

Mud? What mud? Then onwards into the wood.

Out of the wood, through the farm and up the lane. Walking along the lane I was accompanied by the song of a Skylark way above me in the sky somewhere the notes drifting gently to earth like a musical waterfall. Wonderful!

Marie has been on this part of the walk with us when we took her to Layer Marney Tower one year. This time I bypassed Layer Marney Tower and went off along the lane in the opposite direction. Back onto the footpath across the fields in the dull cloudy weather that the Meteorological Office had forecast and near the centre of the picture you may notice a clump of trees on the other side of the field. That's where the Rampart is hiding.

Having crossed the field and reached the Iron Age Rampart you can see that it comprises a very large ditch with a bank on each side. That must have taken some digging by hand and with primitive tools. I took these photographs especially for Marie, the first standing on the bottom of the ditch and the second standing on top of one of the banks. The things I do for some people

 

A few thousand years ago, when it was built, it would have been devoid of trees and probably much deeper than it is now.

So it was now just a matter of continuing my circular route back home.

Just in case you wonder why Amanda wasn't with me, she fell over in the garden about a week ago and wrenched her knee and although it is getting better she didn't want to risk it.
 

At 7:15 this morning I was sitting drinking a cup of coffee and minding my own business when, suddenly, I noticed this on the frame of the rooflight above my head.

It is an Angle Shades moth – Phlogophora meticulosa,but then you knew that didn't you.

It is a slightly odd shape but quite attractive. It's a common moth in England, although I haven't seen one before, and the larvae eat anything. I wonder how long it's been in the house?

I have just noticed that there is a face in there. The dark patches on each side have eyes, there is a nose between the eyes and the cut away shape of the wings adds a mouth.

Big Moth is watching you!

 

When we went on our last trip to London I took a photograph of Tower Bridge illuminated at night and that was when I realised something important. I couldn't see the controls on my camera in the dark so if I wanted to change a setting I had to walk across to the nearest source of light, change the setting and then walk back to my original viewpoint.

I decided I needed a torch small enough to fit in one of the pockets in my camera bag. I managed to get one which is just 3.5 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. It takes 3 small batteries and the light comes from 9 LEDs which use little power so the batteries will last a long time. On the last trip, when we got back, we also had trouble following the footpath in the dark across the fields from the station to where we had parked our car so the new torch would be useful for that.

So the new torch was put to use when we returned from our trip to London yesterday, Wednesday, and very useful it was.

We had been on another trip to the South Kensington Museums and started with the Victoria and Albert Museum to see some of the areas we had missed on the previous trip. One of those was the Silver Gallery. Notice the two elaborately decorated pillars in the foreground and you should also be able to see that there are more pairs of pillars further along the gallery but that they are plain. Originally all of the pillars were as elaborately decorated as the first two but at the beginning of the 1900s it was decided that, because tastes had changed, the decorative tiles should be removed.

Now it has been decided that the decorative tiles are a good idea but there were only enough left to complete two pillars. Better than none at all I suppose.

We also visited the British Galleries which seem to hold a lot of items that aren't actually British but were brought back to this country by British travellers to decorate their homes. I'm not really convinced that that is a valid reason for including them in a 'British' Gallery.

However we did see this picture and thought it would be of interest. "Well", I hear you say, " it is attractive but not particularly special" but you would be wrong! The picture has been created using nothing but small stone shapes, not micro-mosaics, and I suspect the sky is a piece of marble with the veining looking like clouds. Each shape must have been cut to perfectly fit in with all the other shapes and I think that that is astonishing.

The odd vertical shape just to the left of centre is a reflection which I couldn't do anything about.

There was an exhibition devoted to the eighteenth century fashion setters, Mr & Mrs Garrick. The Garricks were certainly a fashionable couple, David Garrick was a famous actor, theatre manager and playwright and his wife Eva Maria Veigel was a Viennese dancer. They were very keen on fashionable society and created their own lifestyle to be at the height of London fashion.

This was a corner of their bedroom.

This is the Raphael Gallery which I though was rather imposing. The gallery houses the surviving designs painted by Raphael for tapestries commissioned in Rome in 1515 by Pope Leo X. These cartoons, as they are known, have been owned by the British Royal Family since 1623 and they have been on loan to the Museum since 1865.

This room set shows the panelling in the Music Room from Norfolk House. Norfolk House was located on the west side of St James's Square and was the London residence of the Dukes of Norfolk from 1722 until it was demolished in 1938.

What is a remarkable coincidence is that it's just like our music room. Well, actually, we don't have a music room but if we did we'd have one just like this.

We did, eventually, run out of things to look at and decided to have a sit down and a cup of tea/coffee. We also decided to try a cafe in the Natural History Museum as the price of such things in the Victoria and Albert Museum Cafe is about twice what I'd expect to pay in London. It turned out that although the Natural History Museum was cheaper it wasn't by very much.

After we had finished our drinks we thought we'd have a look round at some of the things we had missed on our previous visit. That included the Dinosaur Gallery.

One of the exhibits that caught my eye was this replica of a dinosaur's nest. I think that the little dinosaurs are rather cute.

Meeting one of these wouldn't be so cute.

There was one exhibit that we both thought to be very well done and that was a life-sized replica of Tyrannosaurus Rex which was animated in a remarkably life-like manner. I couldn't take a photograph because the lighting was too dim and the replica didn't stop moving so ruled out a very slow shutter speed. It's worth seeing if you visit the Natural History Museum.

Afterwards we wandered around the Mineral Gallery and saw these very pretty opals together with a lot of other rather colourful minerals.

We were very definitely flagging now and it was time to leave for Liverpool Street Station, and home, so I'll leave you with this view of the Main Hall after dark.

When we arrived back at our local station we had to walk across a public footpath across the fields to get back to where we had parked our car. My new little torch proved to be invaluable in this situation so it was a worthwhile purchase. It was bitterly cold walking across the fields and we were glad to get back inside our car. Brrrrrr!

We have a lot of Collar Doves around here and they never miss an opportunity to sit in the sun when they have the chance especially in the winter.

It's not unusual to see this but this morning they had to go right to the top of an Oak tree to catch the sun because, being winter and early in the day, the sun was very low in the sky.

I wonder what they talk about?

All the stairs were the greatest problem with relections and sunlight next. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself so let's start at the beginning.

Friday 13th January 2012 saw us headed out to London once again on our first day trip of the year. Our last trip was three months ago and was also to London. We arrived, as usual, at Liverpool Street Station and took the underground to Tower Hill which involved the first of a lot of stairs.

You have probably done it yourself, come out of Tower Hill Station and charged off towards the Tower of London visible ahead but then you would have missed something important. Very soon after leaving the station there are some steps (more steps) going down to a pedestrian underpass and on the left there is a stone wall with the statue of a man wearing a skirt standing in front of it. Why would that man be wearing a skirt? Well that's how the Romans used to dress init? He is in fact Trajan, a Roman emperor, and the wall he's standing by is part of the old Roman wall that surrounded Londinium (London).

A view from the other side of the same wall shows the Tower of London beyond and, to the right, Tower Hill Station. So the next time you go to Tower Hill don't walk straight past the wall without a second glance.

Back to Tower Hill Station we go past it into Trinity Square and then out of Trinity Square keeping right along Coopers Row. A short way along on the right-hand (East) side is the Grange City Hotel. You could be forgiven for walking past but just stop a moment and look through the opening.

Notice that, right at the back, there is a stone wall – more of the old Roman wall around Londinium. There is a public right of way through the arch and the courtyard at the back so just walk through and have a look.

There is a bronze coloured plaque on the railings providing some information. This map shows the location:

 

Back we go to Tower Hill Station and westward on the Underground to South Kensington. The easy way to get to the museums is through the pedestrian subway. It's very well used and the individual museums are sign posted along the way…

… and that museum is where we're headed. When entering from the subway you will emerge straight into the Sculpture galleries.

This museum is astonishing and, in some ways, overwhelming both in terms of the exhibits and the building itself spread over 6 floors which means traversing lots of stairs unless you are a wimp, of course, and want to use the various lifts around the place. It is difficult to mentally grasp the number of items on display here from the very small to the extraordinarily large. This shows part of the Glass gallery and these display cabinets line both sides.

You want ceramics? They have ceramics!

In the Jewellry Galleries there is a rather interestingly lit spiral stairway which goes up to yet another Jewellry Gallery above.

Cast Court is one of those places where as you come through the door your chin hits the ground with a thump as your jaw drops. To say it's surprising must be the understatement of the year. Some of the exhibits are gigantic. In the picture below the figure bottom right of centre gives an idea of scale.

Behind the open courtyard, called the John Madejski Garden, is the Cafe. It offers a comprehensive choice of refreshments from tea, coffee, light refreshments and cooked meals. We stopped to have lunch there at about 1:15 and, because it is popular, there were very few vacant tables although we did find one. It is probably less crowded well before and well after one o'clock.

The food is very good although not cheap. There are a number of counters serving different types of food. A salad counter, a tea, coffee and cakes counter, a hot food counter and a light snacks counter. It is a little confusing because having got our main meal we then had to go to the tea/coffee counter for drinks. The Salad Counter and the Hot Food Counter don't have tills but the other counters do so they apparently expect you to choose your main course then go to one of the other counters to pay.

There are five separate areas in which to sit. One either side of the food counters and three different rooms off to the side called the Morris, Gamble and Poynter rooms. This is the Gamble Room.

After lunch I decided to pop across the road to the Science Museum whilst Amanda continued looking around the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The Science Museum is spread over seven floors (more stairs) and on the ground floor in the entrance hall are various large machines such as the one shown here.

One of the problems I had in this museum was reflections on the glass cases, probably caused by the general lighting, which shows up in this picture of a difference engine, one of the early mechanical computers.

One of the highest floors included a gallery dedicated to the history of flight and had lots of aircraft of all types hanging around, literally, in the roof including this Hurricane fighter plane and the Spitfire just beyond it to the right.

On a lower floor was this gallery with an interesting collection of vehicles including the original Stephenson's Rocket locomotive, a Ford Model T, and over in the far right-hand corner a V2 rocket with its nose buried in the ceiling.

This is the original Stephenson's Rocket:

In the section on Space Exploration there is a replica of a Moon Lander.

After wearing my legs out going up and down from floor to floor I went back to the Victoria and Albert Museum to meet up with Amanda again.

We had a last look round which included Tipu's Tiger. This is an 18th century Indian automaton showing a tiger eating a european which was considered to be very amusing in its time. It was worked by rotating the handle visible near its shoulder and the growls of the tiger and the cries of its victim could also be heard. Better than television.

As I said earlier the building itself is interesting such as this staircase here:

The problem I had with scenes like this was with the very bright patches of sunlight set against the much lower levels of lighting out of the sun. Usually I prefer sun for photographs but not in situations such as this.

We'd had a very enjoyable day in the Victoria and Albert Museum and we've only seen a fraction of what it has to offer. This is a museum that you cannot afford to miss and you cannot afford to spend less than a day there.

Now it was time to head home but with a small diversion which meant going back to Tower Hill and I'm sure you'll guess why we left it till last.

I admit it – I went berserk with the camera today so there are many more pictures than those shown here and a lot of them will appear on the main web site in due course.

 

The Main Web Site:

The most popular page on the main web site is the 'Day Trips from London' page with, on average, 10 views every hour. That's 235 views every day and 85,925 views in total for 2011.

There were visits from all around the world from over 200 countries with the most visits from the U.K. and just 1 from the Cook Islands.

The longest duration of any visit was over an hour and there were approximately 500,000 visits during 2011 with over 1,200,000 pages viewed.

The Blog:

There were 2500 attempted spam comments during 2011 on the Blog (notice that I said 'attempted' ) and it had around 6000 visitors looking at over 12,000 pages.

I don't have any statistics for the Forum.