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We have a Tate à Tate and Barry goes to heaven.

We have a Tate à Tate and Barry goes to heaven.

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Wednesday. Train from our local station to Stratford. Change on to the Jubilee Line and thence to Waterloo Station where we once again emerged into daylight. We headed north and found ourselves on the approach to Waterloo Bridge over the Thames and then, off to our left we saw this.

The Royal Festival Hall with the London Eye and Big Ben in the background. However we weren't looking for the Royal Festival Hall but it does act as a guide. What we were looking for was the Queen Elizabeth Hall which is next to it.

Amanda spotted some steps which appeared to be going up into Queen Elizabeth Hall so we hopped up those. Well I was speaking figuratively and we didn't actually hop, you understand, as it would have been difficult going up stairs on one leg and old legs at that. Then I spotted an open door with some greenery beyond. Going through the door we weren't surprised to find a garden because that is what we had come here to see.


The top picture shows the path we came in on to this point and the second picture shows the way on. This is on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall and there are even tables and chairs where you can sit awhile and buy a snack and a drink from that grey/green shed at the back if you so choose.


From the far end of the roof we had this view over the river showing one of the piers where you can get on the Thames Clippers and there is also Hungerford Bridge which, although a railway bridge, has pedestrian walkways on each side.

If you happen to be in this area then the roof garden is worth a visit.

Turning to our left gave us this view of the other end of the Royal Festival Hall.

We had heard that people can just pop in to the the foyer area and use the facilities so we put it to the test. We went down, on a bright yellow spiral stairway, to riverside level and walked in. Easy Peasy so far. There seemed to be a good number of people sitting around in comfortable seating chatting or just using their laptops and, what is more, there were toilets.

There were different levels and we didn't feel like interlopers so it does seem to be open to the public. There is also a snack bar.

Time to move on. We walked east along the Thames-side path, past the Oxo Tower which we visited last time, to the Tate Modern. We have been here before but didn't see much more than the old Turbine Hall so we were going to look round the galleries this time.

We looked round a number of the galleries and I list below photographs of everything that has merit.

Oh! Just the Turbine Hall then. Enough said.

We left via the Turbine Hall and walked a short way further east. Time to catch the bus – but not one of those red double deck buses as we are going on a river bus to Tate Britain. The 'buses' have different routes and different designations e.g. the one we wanted was the 'Tate to Tate' and its designation was RB2. There are electronic displays on each pier which give arrival times for the next buses and their designations. If you have a Travel Card or an Oyster Card then showing them when you pay will get you a 33% discount. If you have a London Bus Pass (London Residents only) then that will get you a 50% discount.

Our fare was £4.50 each with the discount. We didn't have long to wait and we were off. The seats are comfortable and this photograph shows only a quarter of the accommodation as there is just as much off to the right hidden by the structure and as much again behind me.

We had a good view of the Tate Modern on the way upstream.

We passed under the Millenium Bridge then Blackfriars Station/Bridge


We were there in what seemed like no time at all and watched our 'bus' leave for its final stop at Vauxhall.

We left the pier and walked the short distance to Tate Britain.

It is a nice building, and entry is free, but before we started to look round we wanted lunch, it was 1 o'clock, so we found the restaurant.

A pleasant place for a meal and the food was good BUT the portions were very small. I, for example, had Fishcake with Mushy Peas (£8) and that is all that was on my plate – nothing extra such as salad or potatoes. Amanda had Crispy Lamb (£7) with Radicchio Salad and Goats Cheese and Potato Crumble. There was not much of the salad and the crumble was little more than a sprinkling of garnish. Choice of desserts were limited but we had a slice of cake each.

Having finished lunch we ventured forth to look around. It is a nice building and the main rotunda is quite spectacular featuring a rather interesting staircase.



We found another interesting staircase in another part of the building.

We weren't going to be able to look at everything so we chose a particular period which included John Constable.


I've chosen to show that particular Constable because we used to have a print of it hanging in our sitting room which we had inherited from my parents but it wasn't a very good one so we disposed of it. This version is much better. smilies

Time was getting on and we had some more places to visit yet so we left the Tate and walked north-west up to Victoria Street and Westminster Cathedral. Do not confuse this with Westminster Abbey. The foundation stone was laid in 1895 and the fabric of the building was finished in 1903. The design was of the Early Christian Byzantine style by the Victorian architect John Francis Bentley. It still isn't finished although it would appear so with a cursory glance. It is a striking building and certainly worth a visit. Entry is free.



Whilst we were in there I asked if I could go up to heaven and an angel in the guise of a young lady from the gift shop agreed to take me up in the lift. She left me there and returned to earth. I could tell I was in heaven because of the views.



There a number of well known landmarks in that last picture – can you spot them.

Unfortunately the authorities in heaven decided that I couldn't stay because I hadn't been good enough so I was sent back to earth for some more practice. You can't win them all.

As we were getting ready to leave for our next destination we chanced to see a young man with a hawk which was used for scaring the pigeons away from the area which it certainly did. It was a Harris Hawk.

We caught a No. 11 bus in Victoria Street and made the short journey to Westminster Abbey where we were hoping to see a part of the abbey where entry was free after 4:30 PM and we arrived there just after half past four. Walking towards the West Front we turned right under an arch into the Dean's Yard. This is it:

Turning sharp left inside the yard there is an open doorway with an attendant on guard whom you should ask to visit the Cloisters and he should let you pass.


Note the difference in the roof profile on different sides of the quadrangle. If you follow the signs you may also visit the College Gardens. I have also heard that you can get in to the Cloisters free on weekends after 2:30 PM but we haven't tested that yet. You can try it if you like and do let me know if you get in.

We decided that we were getting tired and chose to head home. We walked to St. James's Park Station and on the way saw this.

A number of visitors seem interested in seeing this rotating sign, I don't know why, so I thought I'd include it. I hope that you are suitably interested.

Time to go home.

More of the same but more of the difference.

More of the same but more of the difference.

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A week ago I said we planned to return to Hampstead one day; well this is one day! Same place – different bits.

It all started so well. Today (Tuesday) was forecast to be this week's sunny day and, surprisingly, that is how it turned out; right to the very end. We went to Hampstead Station (Northern Line) via the tube and emerged into the sunlight.

We turned south along Heath Street (You can go north along Heath Street as well) and then right into Church Walk. A very pleasant street with lots of Georgian Houses. It turned out that this part of Hampstead was mainly Georgian so not very old at around 200 – 300 years.


And it wasn't called Church Walk for nothing you know.

It was a Georgian church and we didn't go inside as it was about to be invaded by a large party of what appeared to be visitors on a tour of Hampstead. We didn't see them again.

We turned right further along into Holly Walk which runs alongside a separate piece of ground used as the churchyard and you should notice a couple of large memorials just behind the railings in the next picture.

That lane led us up to Mount Vernon where we noticed this house together with another rather nice little lane called Holly Berry Lane. The plaque on the wall says:

"The Watch House – In the 1830s the newly formed Hampstead Police Force set out on its patrol & nightly watch from this house"

It was an arresting sight and so was looking back down Church Walk from the top.

There are plenty of nice little corners in this part of Hampstead and it is hilly.


One of the things we had planned to do on our next visit to Hampstead was to see two National Trust properties – 2 Willow Road and Fenton House. We discovered before we left home that they are both closed Mondays and Tuesdays and, of course, this weeks sunny day was Tuesday so we didn't even go near 2 Willow Road but Fenton House was in this area so we caught a glimpse of it behind its rather fancy gates. Next time perhaps?

We saw the Holly Bush Inn which is Georgian and a mere 200 years old. It did, however, have a menu posted outside and the various dishes did sound nice but it was too early for lunch so we passed by.

We were on top of a hill here and we wanted to head for Flask Walk and Well Walk which were on the other side of Hampstead High Street so we needed to head down the hill. From High Street we turned into Back Lane

which led us into Flask Walk. Flask Walk displays two distinct aspects. The top alleyway part with its shops and the lower part with its leafy residential aspect.


Why 'Flask' Walk? It recalls the centuries-old practice of Londoners climbing up to the two villages, Hampstead and Highgate, to fill leather flasks with pure spring water rather than risk the cholera-riddled infected waters of London.

On the way down Flask Walk we came across this building. Since many of the worker's homes in Victorian Hampstead had no running water, this public building provided both drinking water and facilities for bathing.

I don't need to tell you the date because it's on the building.

On our route we were going past Burgh House and Hampstead Museum and we thought we'd have a look round but, no, closed Mondays and Tuesdays. They seem to have a thing in Hampstead about closing on Mondays and Tuesdays but we did at least see the outside. It is, like a lot of Hampstead, Georgian.

We joined Well Walk and went past one of the original Chalybeate wells originally promoted for the medicinal value of the chalybeate waters (water impregnated with iron). Keats, the poet, and Constable, the painter, both lived in this area for a time.

We eventually joined East Heath Road on the edge of the 791 acres of Hampstead Heath. We were headed for one of the places we missed last time because we became lost on the heath and eventually ran out of time. So will we get lost this time? Of course not. *cough*

We started off along a well marked path in a wooded part of the heath.

We were looking for an obvious junction which we found and where we turned left arriving, eventually, at Viaduct Pond. See, I told you we wouldn't get lost.

The viaduct carries another path across the pond. We made our way up the side of the pond onto that very path then took a smaller path through the woods ahead and finally emerged onto a larger path. We knew where we were now so turned left and headed for our next destination. Just to be safe we asked some people coming from the opposite direction who told us that we were indeed going the wqrong way. Whoops! Lost again. If you do go to Hampstead Heath no matter how many maps you take you will get lost. It is a nice place to get lost though.

They did gives us some directions which we managed to follow and finally arrived on the path we wanted.

That's Amanda on the path and just ahead of her is a right turn which we need to take. This is what we were looking for.


It is Kenwood House run by English Heritage and, best of all, entry is free. They have a place for refreshments called the Brewhouse Cafe which is where we now repaired to have lunch. The food turned out to be very good. I had poached salmon with roast new potatoes and cous cous and Amanda had free-range pork sausages with apricot chutney and roast new potatoes. Can't you just picture those little sausages gambolling around in a big field? Lovely! The main courses were just £9.50 each. Good value.

There is also a very nice outdoor area where you can choose to eat your meal or refreshments if you so choose.

After lunch we went into the house which, you may remember, is free.

The original house dates from the early 17th century and the orangery was added in about 1700. In 1754 it was bought by William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield who commissioned Robert Adam to remodel it from 1764-1779. Adam added the library (one of his most famous interiors) to balance the orangery, and added the Ionic portico at the entrance. In 1793-6 George Saunders added two wings on the north side, and the offices and kitchen buildings and brewery (now the restaurant) to the side.

The house does not contain much furniture but it does have an extraordinary collection of paintings including a self-portrait by Rembrandt and paintings by Vermeer, Gainsborough and Landseer to name but a few.


The first picture above is the Library, added by Robert Adam, and the second picture is the Upper Hall with Amanda sitting at the table waiting for dinner. I didn't have the heart to tell her it probably wouldn't arrive.

Out in the grounds is this rather grand bridge.

Except it isn't anything of the sort. It's a fake. Just a wooden facade painted to look like a real bridge. The back looks quite different.

It was created around 200 years ago. Don't believe everything you see.

That was our Hampstead trip for the day but we had a little more time so we went, via the tube, to Lancaster Gate and into Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens. Just inside the gate is the Italian Gardens.

I was looking forward to photgraphing the fountains – but – no fountains. Sorry fountains are closed on Monday and Tuesday. I don't actually know if that is true but they definitely weren't running. Not one little drop. I don't know why but it was disappointing.

However there was something unusual.

No not the non-fountain but what's behind it. Oh! You can't see it? I'll move round a bit then.

Can you see the Heron perched on the edge of the bowl now? This one is obviously hoping for a fish dinner and, because it's so used to all the visitors, it hasn't taken fright as it would do normally and flown away.

So that was the end of our day – or was it?

We caught the Central Line to Liverpool Street Station for our train home except that there wasn't one. No trains running on the main line to Norwich. There were hundreds of people standing around on the main concourse all looking at the departures board. I've never seen so many 'Cancelled' and 'Delayed' indicators. Who do they think they are – an airport?

We had planned to get a train somewhere between 6:00 and 6:30. So much for planning.

We eventually learned that a train had damaged the overhead power lines which supply electricity to the trains motors and that this was just north of Chelmsford (one of the places our train goes through). This left just one track operating for trains going both ways so all trains were having to take turns to share this section.

Then just before 7:30 there was an announcement that a train was leaving for our neck of the woods but that induced a torrent of people and by the time we got to the train we would have needed a shoe horn to get in. We didn't bother.

Then, shortly after, another announcement said that a train going to Harwich International (north of our station) which wasn't going to stop at our station was having two additional stops which did include our station. We got to the train to find that there was room but only if we were prepared to stand. We had no idea how long we'd have to wait if we didn't get this one so we decided to take a chance.

It did actually leave on time, about 7:40, and we crawled for 30 minutes to the next stop. When we started again we picked up speed and we going quite well for some time until we stopped and waited – and waited – and waited. We must have waited there for about an hour then started a stop-start journey through various stations until we finally arrived at ours. After we'd been standing for 1 and a half hours two younger people offered us their seats and we collapsed into them before they changed their minds.

That journey took a total of 2 hours 45 minutes instead of the normal 55 minutes.

We were very glad to arrive home especially as it was 10:30. What an end to an otherwise nice day!

Time for a Change, some Oxo and a secret!

Time for a Change, some Oxo and a secret!

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The change in question is New Change and if you want to be precise – 1 New Change. For those of you that don't know, New Change is a short street on the eastern edge of St. Paul's Churchyard in London and there is a large shopping centre there that takes up the whole street. As it is the only building in the street it's number must be 1 mustn't it?

A sunny day saw us arrive at Liverpool Street Station from where we walked the short distance to Wormwood Street to catch the number 100 bus. That was a surprise because it turned out to be a single deck bus which is unusual in London. We alighted near St. Paul's Underground Station and walked the short distance to 1 New Change.

We have been here once before (A Later Date), late in the day, when the weather wasn't so good and the sun was in the wrong place. This time the weather was good and the sun was in the right place.

A lot of people don't realise that 1 New Change has a roof terrace which is freely available to the public. There is a restaurant up there too but you aren't obliged to use it. There are lifts up to the terrace and they are outside the building and the walls are made of glass. Why would the lift walls be made of glass? Because you get a nice view of St. Paul's Cathedral on the way up and down together with some interesting reflections.


The roof terrace is quite large and you get a good view of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye is just visible on the left-hand edge.

You can even see visitors on the Golden Gallery at the top of the dome.

Looking in the opposite direction the Shard is rather obvious.

It was now time to move on so we went down in the lift and back to the bus stop where we caught the 100 bus once again to continue our journey across Blackfriars Bridge to the south side of the River Thames. This is where we were going.


The Oxo Tower is another shopping centre on the edge of the Thames and it has a publicly accessible viewing gallery looking out over the river on the sixth floor. This is the view east towards St. Paul's.

This is the view west up river showing the restaurant terrace on the left over looking the river.

This interesting view shows the river apparently choc-a-bloc with boats and the bridge choc-a-bloc with buses. I've never seen so many London buses in one place before.

We left the viewing platform and went back down to earth. Just behind the Oxo Tower is a nice little park.


Back on the 100 bus and we're off to Barbican for lunch. Reasonably good food for a very reasonable price – a main course for £9.50. After lunch we walked to Finsbury Square to catch the number 271 bus north. At Archway we changed onto the 210 bus for the last leg of our journey to visit somewhere secret.

As it's secret I'm not going to tell you anything about it except to say that it's on Hampstead Heath near Inverforth Close and it's known as London's Hidden Garden. It is actually called Hill Garden or the Hampstead Pergola but it's called the Hidden Garden because so few people seem to know about it even though it's free. There were only relatively few visitors there when we were there.

There is a lovely ornamental pond.


Then there is the Pergola.

We thought 'goodness that's a long pergola' as we could just see the cupola at the very end. We wandered along slowly until we reached the little building.

Amanda reached it just before I did and that is her silouette in the doorway. I can remember, as I was climbing the steps, that I thought that the pergola was very long indeed until I reached that doorway. Then I realised that there was more – lots more.

The house beyond the pergola is Inverforth House once a single private residence it is now converted to apartments. The original house was built in 1807 but was rebuilt in 1905 which  greatly altered the original structure.

The pergola went on ahead to a junction where it branched both left and right. We looked back to the cupola.

The branch to our left was a cul-de-sac but the branch to our right went on, and on.

What an extraordinary place this is. We left, finally, back past the ornamental pond. This garden is one that you really should not miss especially as there is no entry charge.

Oh, I forgot. It's a secret and I haven't told you anything about it so you won't be able to go after all. What a pity! You don't know what you're missing.

We headed off across Hampstead Heath with a printed copy of a nice map available on the Hampstead Heath web site showing the various paths which criss-cross over the heath. Unfortunately the paths on the ground don't always match the paths on the map and you will get lost especially in the wooded parts which are extensive and plentiful. Now that's an order. We got lost so I don't see why you shouldn't.


We did, eventually, find our way to the Highgate Ponds of which this is Highgate Men's Pond.

Now that we actually knew where we were we were able to successfully navigate to the top of Parliament Hill for the view. We could see the top of the Gherkin, the dome of St. Paul's and the Shard.


It was getting late and we had yet to find our way back to Liverpool Street Station and thence to home so we called it a day. One thing we've learned is that there is a lot more to see here so we plan to return some day.

 

Off the Wall and Mind the Gap

Off the Wall and Mind the Gap

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'Off the wall' is an expression used in the UK and, I believe, in the USA which means unusual or bizarre. In this particular case 'Off the wall' is on the wall! But I'm getting a little ahead of myself here so lets go back to the beginning shall we?

Yesterday, Wednesday, we hopped on a train once again and ended up at Liverpool Street Station in London emerging onto Bishopsgate at about 10:15 AM in sunny weather. The temperature was around 46 F which was a little cool but is pretty good for February. We could have been up to our knees in snow.

We were intending to spend the morning wandering the streets so a bit of sun is nice and not having to dress up like a couple of Arctic explorers was also nice. You can join us if you like.

Turn left along Bishopsgate, right into Middlesex Street ( used to be Petticoat Lane until the Victorians renamed it) then left into Wentworth Street where the Petticoat Lane Market is now held.

Down Wentworth Street to Brick Lane and turn left along Brick Lane.

It does feel, when wandering along Brick Lane, that this is part of Bangladesh and we did see a sign referring to the area as Banglatown. We also saw signs in what I belive may be Bengali.

Wanna buy a Saree? This is not really about the shop but the decoration on the boarding filling the window. Yes it's street art again.

If you take the trouble to look there's a lot of it about.

Some of it is fairly conventional.

But some of it is definitely 'off the wall'.

We couldn't leave without showing you this little chap. Well, maybe not so little.

I am given to understand that it is supposed to be a hedgehog. The general shape is about right but the poor thing's spines seem to be a bit sparse. The artist is known as 'Roa' and is from Belgium.

I took far more photographs than I could show here and we decided to stop at this point.

Right! Keep up! Don't lag behind or you'll miss the bus. We have a number 26 to catch. We didn't have to wait long and we were off to our next destination. On the way we saw this old shack, from the top deck of the bus, which you may recognise.

Then we made our way up Fleet Street.

Past the Temple Inns of Court and the Royal Courts of Justice.

Finally arriving at Aldwych where we get off the bus. Still with us? Good.

A short walk up Wellington Street, turn left along Tavistock Street, turn right into Tavistock Court and we're here – Covent Garden Market. Why are we here? Well that will have to wait for an hour or so because it's time for lunch and our intrepid travellers are famished.

Some time ago we visited Docklands and had lunch at a cafe called Henry's which we quite liked although they blotted their copybook by taking 30 minutes to bring our dessert. Remember? There is another branch of Henry's here in Covent Garden and we thought we'd see if they could do any better.

We arrived at about 1:10 PM so we expected it to be busy but they found us a table and left us to study the menu. We were on the same level as the street but there was a lower floor in a large well which gave us the impression that we were on a balcony. This was our view.

We gave our order for our main courses about 10 minutes after we arrived but it took about 20 minutes for them to arrive. I ordered a Chicken and King Prawn Jambalaya and Amanda ordered Blackened Chicken Breast & Avocado Salsa which were both very nice and quite filling. We both decided to have a dessert and I had a Sticky Toffee Glory which is described thus:

Fresh bananas, vanilla ice cream and broken meringue,smothered in toffee sauce.

I had that when we ate in their cafe at Docklands and I remarked at the time that although it was very tasty I could not detect any meringue so I decided to try again here and I have to say I could not detect any meringue in this one either. Perhaps the meringue is broken into such small pieces that it's undetectable but that would seem rather pointless.

We both did enjoy our lunch however and we would go there again but not if we were in a hurry as they are rather slow. If you have plenty of time we would recommend it especially as, for London, the prices are very reasonable. It cost us £44 for two including a tip.

Time to move on to our next destination and we had to walk only about 100 yards to here:

This building, so I understand, used to be the old Covent Garden Flower Market and is spread over three floors. On entering the people at the desk suggest starting on the top floor (there are lifts and stairs) and working downwards. I can see the logic in that as it means starting with the earliest transport and moving towards the present day.

The first area one encounters is this:

It certainly looks striking. The light grey ramp on the right is the way on to the main displays. This next picture gives an idea of the main space with galleries on each side. It certainly is big enough for a bus or two and some trains.

We started at the top where there are some examples of horse drawn buses and trams.

I suspect that those vehicles wouldn't provide as much comfort as we expect today.

The horse drawn trams don't look particulary luxurious and look rather similar to the horse drawn buses except that the trams run on rails and appear to be able to carry many more passengers.

We moved down to the floor below and forward in time to when underground trains started to run although these were hauled by steam locomotives.

You may notice that there is no cab on this locomitive so the driver and fireman had no shelter. They may not have needed it underground but there would be times when the train was running out in the open and in all weathers.

The old style carriages had separate compartments along the length of each coach with each compartment arranged across the coach with bench seats along each side. You can see, in the photograph below, that although we were prepared to 'mind the gap' there wasn't any gap!


If Amanda is waiting for the train to start she may be in for a long wait unlike this old buffer (notice the manic look in his eyes) who decided to try one of these individual shelters used during the second world war for people who would be working in the open, such as a railway yard, and not near a normal shelter when there was an air raid.

Then we get to the time when electric locomotives were introduced which didn't fill the tunnels with smoke.

The London Underground has been running for 150 years this year.

There were taxis, buses and trams in fact far too many vehicles to go through here and many more photographs will appear on the main web site in due course.

When we had finished looking around, and there is an astonishing amount to look at, we retired to the cafe for some refreshment. I had coffee but Amanda decided to have hot chocolate and this is what she had:

The cafe is situated above the shop and the shop is stocked with a wide range of London Transport items.

This is a really interesting museum and certainly worth a visit. It is run as a registered charity which is partly funded by donations from Transport for London but the rest must come from the general public. Your visit will help to support them and it will keep you happily amused for some time.

We finally decided that we'd had enough for one day and caught the No. 26 bus back to Liverpool Street Station and thence to home.

 

An elephant’s tentacles and some pickled moles.

An elephant’s tentacles and some pickled moles.

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On Tuesday the weather forecast for Wednesday was sun and clear skies up until lunchtime and then sunny intervals for the afternoon. Sunny intervals can be anything from one quick flash of sun in the whole afternoon to frequent sunny spells. However I planned to be indoors for most of the afternoon so that didn't matter. I decided to go.

Amanda wasn't coming this time because she had a dental appointment and wasn't particularly interested in some of the venues I was planning to visit.

When I left for the railway station I made allowances for some minor traffic hold-ups. There weren't any! So I arrived at the station much too early which, as it happened, turned out to be a boon.

When I went into the ticket office I discovered it was shut. The shutter was down and padlocked. Nothing to say why. I went around the corner to the automatic ticket vending machine to find an extraordinarily long queue. One look told me I'd be very lucky to get my ticket in time to catch the train.

I joined the queue which was moving very slowly and, as we got nearer my trains departure time, I heard an announcement over the station speaker system that said the train was running 10 minutes late so there was still hope. I did get my ticket and got onto the platform just in time to see the train appear in the distance which then pulled in a few minutes later.

Missing that train wouldn't have been a disaster but it would have chopped 30 minutes off my day.

I arrived at London Liverpool Street Station around 10:30 and went out into Bishopsgate and turned left. A little way along Bishopsgate I turned right into Middlesex Street. Middlesex Street, as you probably know, used to be called Petticoat Lane and the market there is still known as Petticoat Lane Market but the name was too much for the prudish Victorians who thought that streets shouldn't refer to undergarments and so changed it.

A short way along Middlesex Street I forked left along Widegate Street which brought me to one end of Artillery Passage; my first 'target' of the day. The sun is shining brightly off to the right but there isn't going to be much sunlight in this narrow passage.


I walked through and out into Artillery Lane, on to White's Row, across the busy Commercial Street and into Fashion Street. I was now in my next target area – Spitalfields/Shoreditch – and I was looking for 'Street Art'. This is becoming very popular with tourists looking for something different from the usual run of things and there are walking tours which go for the street art. I did come across one of these tour groups whilst I was walking around.

This was one of the artworks that I first saw.

I continued along Fashion Street and emerged into Brick Lane. I had heard that Brick Lane was known for its Curry Houses and I must admit that I have never seen so many Indian Restaurants in one street. Unfortunately I had also heard that most of them are overpriced and mediocre. I haven't been in to any of them so I cannot say if that is true or not.

Continuing north along Brick Lane I soon arrived at Hanbury Street and turning east into Hanbury Street I found this:

Someone has a vivid imagination.

I saw quite a varied selection of these artworks more of which will appear on the main web site in due course.

I went back into Brick Lane and crossed over into the western part of Hanbury Street which brought me to Spitalfields Market. We did visit Spitalfields Market on our last trip to this area but there were some large empty areas with hoarding around them. However, this time, there were lots more stalls.

You want stalls? We can do stalls!


After look round I made my way into Bishops Square and thence into Folgate Street to see Dennis Severs House at number 18.

Dennis Sever was an artist who lived in this house in much the same way as the original Huguenot occupants might have done in the early 18th century. It is not open every day so you should check their web site before you go. It wasn't open when I was there but then I hadn't intended to go inside.

I walked to the western end of Folgate Street and turned right towards Shoreditch High Street, which is effectively an extension of Bishopsgate, where I intended to catch a No. 8 bus to High Holborn near Tottenham Court Road underground station. I arrived after a 30 minute ride and headed south down Shaftesbury Avenue. After a short distance I reached a 3-way split. Fork left for Neal Street, fork right for Shaftesbury Avenue and the straight on, my intended route, for Monmouth Street.

This brought me, very quickly, to Seven Dials. I visited Seven Dials once before but was unable to take a good photograph of the monument because it was surrounded by hoarding as it was being cleaned. So I rectified that.

You should be able to see three of the seven roads that converge here and you should also be able to see the cloud appearing which now doesn't matter as I've done most of the exterior photographs that I had planned.

Now it's time for lunch so I walked off along the eastern part of Earlham Street towards Cucumber Alley. I was heading for the Euphorium Bakery in the basement of the Thomas Neal's Centre who provide sandwiches, cakes and hot and cold drinks in modern pleasant surroundings. I had a nice sandwich and coffee but certainly not cheap at £5 for the sandwich and £2 for the coffee.

Now that I was re-fortified I headed up Bloomsbury Street and then Gower Street just north of the British Museum. I was first planning to visit the Grant Museum of Zoology at the junction of Gower Street and University Street.

The Grant Museum of Zoology is the only remaining university zoological museum in London and houses around 67,000 specimens, covering the whole Animal Kingdom. The museum consists of just one large gallery.

There are numerous cases so most of the specimens are relatively small.This jar of pickled (preserved) moles illustrates the point.

Why would someone want a jar of preserved moles? Ah, well, I'm glad you asked that question because I can tell you the answer. As this is a teaching establishment it was the case that many years ago students had to learn dissection in order to observe how animals were constructed so numerous specimens of particular species were required. Hence the jar of moles that were never used for their intended purpose. I also remember seeing a similar jar of lizards.

Some of the specimens were, shall we say, a little bizarre.


However all of the specimens were interesting. Being a half-term holiday for schools it was obviously interesting for children.

Being fairly well preserved I thought I fitted in rather nicely. It was, however, time to move on to the Petrie Museum of Archaeology nearby. This museum houses an estimated 80,000 objects, making it one of the greatest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology in the world. It illustrates life in the Nile Valley from prehistory through the time of the pharaohs, the Ptolemaic, Roman and Coptic periods to the Islamic period.

 William Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) excavated literally dozens of sites and most of these specimens are the result of that work.

There are a number of galleries with many cases of artifacts.



One could be driven potty in here.

More pictures in this museum and of the Grant Museum will, eventually, appear on the main web site.

That was the end of what I thought was an interesting day and all I needed to do was to get myself home without incident. Yes I did manage that.

 

A Musical Soiree

A Musical Soiree

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Pamela has been a very good friend of ours for many years and she has a birthday coming up which will mark yet another decade so she decided that a celebration was in order which she described as 'A musical soiree'. She lives in Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk and plays the bassoon.

So it was that last Saturday we headed 50 miles north to Bury St. Edmunds first on the A12 then the A14. The A14 approaches Bury St. Edmunds from the east and about 7 miles east of Bury St. Edmunds is the small village of Woolpit where we decided to stop to have lunch and a look around.

Woolpit's history goes back at least two thousand years and this shows the centre of the village with some of the ancient, timber-framed buildings and the church tower showing over the top.

This is a closer view of the old village water pump shown on the left in the previous picture.

There were other rather nice buildings scattered around the village.

After our walk round we went into the Teacups Tearooms, the red building, in the next photograph, partly hidden by a silver car. They provide light lunches such as salads and sandwiches, which can be toasted, as well as tea, coffee and cold drinks.

Amanda had a savoury flan salad which she said was very nice and I had a toasted sandwich which I liked very much. We followed that with some cake which was delicious.

There were cars parked everywhere in the village today which may be partly due to it being the weekend when a lot of the residents will be at home and also because there was an art and crafts exhibition in the church. Under those circumstances it wasn't really worth me taking photographs inside as the interior was covered in stands of various types.

It didn't, however, stop me taking a few pictures outside.

Woolpit is a very small village with an extraordinarily large and impressive church with what must have been some very expensive features. Take the porch as an example.

That chequered pattern on the side wall is known as Flushwork and must have been expensive to create. Look at the numerous carvings and embellishments on the porch and the top of the tower. They wouldn't have been cheap. Just below the roof line there are small windows using flushwork again. Here is a closer look.

This money would probably have come from the very wealthy wool merchants which were prevalent in Suffolk during the medieval period. The roof inside was also exceptionally well decorated but we will have to make a return visit to photograph that.

Having had lunch Amanda decided that she would like to have a look around the art and crafts exhibition in the church and I decided to walk to Drinkstone to see if I could find the two windmills.

The walk entailed going down Rag Lane to the end, along a public footpath across some fields then along a country road. This is the veiw I had going across the fields.

Can you see the post mill on the right (without sails) and the smock mill on the left (also without sails)? I was obviously on the right track. Those black cows with a white band round their middle are Belted Galloways.

I was, eventually, able to get this close to the smock mill.

The post mill was further back on private property so the best I could do was this.

Not quite so good. It's a shame that neither mill has its sails. I started back for Woolpit and as I came back along Rag Lane I caught these two views.

We decided to head for Bury St. Edmunds but instead of taking the easy route along the A14 we chose to meander through the country lanes. As we were passing through Beyton we saw this church and so stopped.

We could see inside that it had obviously been renovated, probably in Victorian times, and decided that there was not much of interest. WRONG!

It turns out that, for example, although all the quire stalls look fairly modern some of them are actually medieval and some are modern reproductions. In the next photograph the stalls on the left are medieval and the one on the right is a Victorian reproduction. There is a noticable, although not marked, difference in colour.

We moved onward and stopped again in the village of Rougham. They also had a large imposing church although not quite of the same standard as Woolpit.

There was some noticable decoration around the top of the tower. That panel in the centre appears to be text but we couldn't read it. Latin perhaps?

We decided to move on to Bury St. Edmunds. Pamela was holding her soiree at the Manor House, Nowton Court on the outskirts of Bury St. Edmunds and we were also staying the night at the same place which was very convenient.

It turned out to be a lovely 19th century building in large grounds with some exceptional trees. It was also very quiet.

In the second picture above we had our breakfast the next day in the lower part of the two storey bay window on the right so that we were looking out into these grounds.

However back to today. We were shown to our room which was very nicely appointed, settled in and then went outside for a quick look round.

It'll do.

An hour or so later we went down the rather imposing staircase, which I suspect they had built especially for us, to join the reception.

There was champagne which I tried (it's a long time since I had any) and it confirmed my previous memory of it – I can't see why anyone would get excited about it.

After a lot of chatting we moved off to the function room. I should point out that Pamela, being a musician, has a lot of musician friends so she had arranged a group of her friends to form a small orchestra of about 20 instruments which was the musical part of the soiree. The main piece was a serenade by Brahms in five movements, which I hadn't heard before and was very nice indeed.

I was very interested, as I'd never sat quite so close to an orchestra before, to see how the musicians played each of their instruments. There were violas, cellos, a double bass, flutes, oboes, bassoons and french horns. Amanda and I both thought that it really was very good.

There was then a long break where we all descended on the buffet like a plague of locusts which we did very well. One thing about this place is that they do know how to produce good food.

By now some of the musicians had had to leave but there were enough left to form a 'wind' octet of pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons and french horns. We were then treated to two short pieces the last of which was the Teddy Bears Picnic.

It was now about 11:00 PM and the Soiree had now ended so we went to our room and went to bed after a very, very enjoyable evening.

Next morning we had our breakfast looking out of the window onto the sunny lawn – super.

Our plans were that after breakfast we would set off for home going via Sudbury where we would stop to have a look round. By the time we'd arrived in Sudbury the sun had gone and we found that we were both feeling rather lethargic so we cut our visit short. We'll go again another time. I did take a few photographs as a taster.



The last picture is the Mill Theatre.

We'll take you another time.

 

The view from Platform 1

The view from Platform 1

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It is true that when we travel to London by train we use platform 1 at our local railway station but that's not the one I'm talking about. We'll get to that later.

We decided to go to London on Wednesday but we weren't going to visit any, what might be called, 'meaty' sites but ones which would require only a relatively short visit. It turned out to be interesting nonetheless and I'm pleased that you have decided to join us on this trip.

We got off our local train at Stratford, as we do sometimes, and changed onto the Picadilly underground line which is the starting point of the line at this end and, consequently, the train was virtually empty when we got on. I don't think that I have ever seen an underground train this empty.

It didn't stay that way for long and eventually took us to London Bridge Station which is where we wanted to get off. London Bridge Station is, rather obviously, near London Bridge and just south of the River Thames but you didn't know that did you? There's no doubt that you'd get lost if you were on your own so you'd better stay close.

We left London Bridge underground station at the St. Thomas Street entrance and turned left to reach Borough High Street where we turned left again and, after a very short walk, we arrived at our first destination. This is the entrance, on Borough High Street, to the George pub courtyard.

Inside the courtyard we see the only remaining original galleried pub in London dating from the 1600s. There is another 'galleried pub' in St. Catherine's Dock near Tower Hill but that is a reconstruction and not a genuine original.

The timbers aren't very straight now are they? It is now only half the size it originally was as the Victorians demolished half of it to make way for new warehouses. Nice people!

We went back to St. Thomas Street a little past the underground station where we saw this view.

We were looking for a tower. No, no, no not that ghastly Shard thing at the back but the brick tower. Going through the doorway we see another small door over to the left which leads us up a small (very small) spiral stairway.

When we reach the top we are in the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret Museum. This was part of the old St. Thomas Hospital and is the oldest operating theatre in Europe. It is, oddly, found in the roof space of an English Baroque Church. It makes a little more sense when you realise that the wards of the old hospital were built around the church. The Operating Theatre would have been built in the first half of the 19th century when operations were still being carried out without anaesthetics.

The rest of the roof space was used by the St Thomas's Apothecary to store and cure herbs which is all they had in lieu of drugs.


There were a lot of displays relating to medecine and surgery of old including some of the old surgical instruments.

After having had a good look round we went back to Borough High Street and crossed the road to this archway.

Borough Market and Southwark Cathedral are immediate neighbours. There was a small outside market when we were there and although it looks as though the stalls are up against the cathedral they are not on cathedral property.


The covered part of the market is really quite spacious with lots of stalls some of which weren't open when we were there. Our only disappointment here was that it really was too early for lunch.

Traders in the 13th century started the market in Borough High Street although it was then closed by parliament in 1755. However a group of Southwark residents raised £6,000 to buy a patch of land known locally as The Triangle, once the churchyard of St Margaret's, and reopened the market. It has been going ever since and is renowned as a food market.

I should warn you that there are some funny people around.

I'm saying nothing.

We left Borough Market going past Southwark Cathedral and along Clink Street.

At the end of Clink Street we reached the Thames with the Golden Hinde nearby. Along the riverside past Southwark Bridge and the Millenium Bridge.

It wasn't long before we were in sight of the Blackfriars railway bridge. A few years ago it was decided that Blackfriars Station (the overground railway not the underground) needed an upgrade. The problem was that where could a new station be built in such a crowded area? The answer was, of course, that you build it across the river so that the station replaces the bridge and that is what happened.

You can probably see a small part of the road bridge through the nearest arch.

As one can use the normal overground railways in London with a travel card for travelling within the London Zones our travel cards let us through the barrier and into the station. We went up the stairs onto Platform 1.

We are walking from south to north and you'll notice that the railway lines are to our left and on the right instead of the usual wall there is a glass screen. This is the view from Platform 1 looking east through that screen.

Just out of the left of the picture we could see the dome of St. Paul's together with the top part of the two towers. The nearest bridge downriver is the Millenium Bridge but, unfortunately, it does tend to merge into the background.

We went out at the north end of Platform 1 and down into the Underground where we caught a train to South Kensington.

We went into the Victoria and Albert Museum just to have lunch. Amanda didn't enjoy hers as much as she did on the previous visit but mine was nice. Whilst we were sitting at the table I took this picture of the rather ornate Gamble Room in which we were having lunch.

After lunch we took a short cut out via the courtyard which today seemed more like the local swimming pool except that the water is only ankle deep but the children were certainly enjoying it.

We left the museum and headed north along Exhibition Road then turned left into Prince Consort Road. It wasn't long before we caught site of our next locatioon.

You may recognise it as the Albert Hall. Walking round one side of the building we came out opposite the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens and I must say it was an astonishing site with all the gilding glowing in the sunlight.

We walked across Kensington Gardens towards the Round Pond and Kensington Palace. We had no intention of going into the palace but we did have a look at this.

The Sunken Garden in Kensington Palace grounds. The grounds, including this garden, seem to be freely accessible.

We were about ready now to head home so we aimed for Gloucester Road underground station, being the nearest, and we went via some of the backstreets.

Kensington is the sort of place where one sees roads lined with large, grand and very expensive properties.

This means that, as they were built in Victorian times, there would also be some mews nearby where the coach and horse were kept together with the coachman and his family.

So it proved to be.

That was a few of the mews we found and we were now worn out. I hope you enjoyed your trip – we certainly did and now it's time once again to go home.