Another beautiful day—how you’ll doing? I managed to keep busy selling my items on line and around the house stuff. No Hot Vampires, Brad Pitts or Chris Helmsworths showed up–but am watching Limey soldiers all day today–Yesterday it was Katherine Hepburn (it was her birthday you know) But ended the evening with Law & Order. Kisses to all my NASCAR buddies out there as well.
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He’d get my approval and a hand on his knee?
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THIS WEEK WE’RE DOING (DON’T I WISH) LONDON…I THOUGHT TODAY WE’D JUST LOOK AT A RANDOM GROUP OF SITES ABOUT THE CITY THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:
MUSEUMS:
My Favorite is THE MUSEUM OF LONDON http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/ Which gives a history of London from pre-historic times. It has so many items from digs in the city itself and even the Lord Mayors over the top coach (above). See my thing is to see the life and times (old and new) where I’m visiting and this museum meets my interest on this. I love museums but I’d rather see the history out and about whenever I can, especially in a historic place like this—but this is one of the three major exceptions I make in London. If you’re visiting here plan for no less than half a day. Start at the earliest section and work yourself forward. If you are not real familiar with the city this should be the place to come (after Westminster and the Tower if your time is limited)
2nd is The Victoria & Albert http://www.vam.ac.uk/ This is not a must but its certainly fun and has arts (fine and applied) from around the world. If you’re more orientated on the English theme check out the wonderful costumes, tapestries, embroidery and English furniture and architecture. You could spend a couple of days here. Don’t have that time check out what is offered and where and then start with your first priority and work your way down—but don’t hurry this museum is too wonderful to be hurried through. Oh and originally this was the Museum of Ornamental Art but got its present name in 1899 when the new building (the present one) was opened by the Queen (don’t you dare ask which one).
3rd is BRITISH MUSEUM http://www.britishmuseum.org/ This is one of the major museums of the world and you could spend weeks here so again plan a day or at least a half and go online and determine what exactly there is to see. If it’s about Britain try the British and Medieval Antiquities, Prehistoric & Romano-British Antiquities. Want to go a little farther afield they have a wonderful Egyptian collection (that the Egyptians now would very much like back) as well as Greek, Roma and Oriental. You can see the Sutton Hoe Mask, the Rosetta Stone as well as the Elgin Marbles (again a sore point as they were removed from Greece) and King Assurbanipal’s Lion Hunt. I’ve been here a couple of times and have barely scratch the surface of its treasures.
Honorable mentions: National History Museum http://www.nhm.ac.uk/ which has dinosaurs and all manner of flora and fauna but for which my greatest enjoyment is the beautiful architecture of the building itself.
And then there’s places:
Trafalgar Square: http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/arts-culture/trafalgar-square The tour buses go thru here–even Harry Potter was hosted in this wonderful busy center and yet it has so much history. Around the Square you will find:
North side: National Gallery with over 2,000 masterpieces from the 13th century to the present. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/
to the right: St. Martin-in-the–Fields http://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/about/ (who’s name gives you the correct impression that it predates the square and most everything else in this area) and its well worth a visit–it even has a café in the crypt (as well as a center to do brass rubbings, a book store and gallery with a daily craft market to the rear) and is the parish Church for Buckingham Palace and the Admiralty. There are lunchtime concerts here. The church also has a soup kitchen for the homeless where it has been ministering since 1914.
On the South Side is: Charing Cross a road widening on which stands a statue of Charles I (he’s the king beheaded in the Puritan led Civil War). Of more note is a bronze plaque by this spot from which London distances are measured. The place got its name from the cross placed here by Edward I to mark the last halting place of his wife’s funeral cortege–if you look at the map you will see other “Cross” names that mark Eleanore of Castile’s journey from Nottinghamshire to Westminster Abbey.
And while you’re there check out the Corinthian column with Lord Nelson’s statue standing 160 some feet above–the square gets its name and the statue its purpose as a commemoration of his famous Naval victory and the statue shows large reliefs of the Napoleonic wars and is made of bronze melted down from captured cannon.
And now for something entirely different
Sir John Soane’s Museum http://www.soane.org/ is a place I visited my first trip to London. As is my way I planned out my days (one day in town one day on tours to Leeds or Canterbury and the last four day on tour to Wales.) While researching the area I found this Hotel in Lincoln Inn Fields (Holborn and the Strand). Soane was an architect in the late 18 and early 19th century. He designed the Bank of England (which has a museum http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/Pages/museum/visiting/default.aspx I haven’t made it to yet.) The Dulwich Picture Gallery (another I’ve missed which reports to be the oldest art gallery ever http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/ ) as well as this house (he bought two houses and remolded them into one) which was his residence as well as a museum of his wonderful collection of art, sculpture, architectural models etc. The house is unusual, amazing and more than a bit bizarre with is split-level flooring and crammed spaces which results in a labyrinthine. There are lecture tours on the weekends. Oh and the basement has windows overlooking the Monk’s Cloister built in the garden and somewhere in all this is an Egyptian Sarcophagus complete with occupant from the 14 c BC.
Sorry no real plan or reason to this out pouring of my thoughts on London but it does give you a nice cross section of the variety this city has to offer (in this case in a very small scale)
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I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me. Who but a coward would pass his whole life in hamlets; and for ever abandon his faculties to the eating rust of obscurity? -Charlotte Brontë
