Today I went to Hyde Park for my friend's birthday. It's fast becoming a tradition that he holds some kind of treasury hunt for these events, but not the kind of treasure hunt that involves finding clues. This year we were given polaroid cameras and two lists. We had to take photos of one thing from the first list, combined with one thing from the second list.
We were all split into teams, generally with a mixture of people we knew plus a few new acquaintances. The team I was in had orange sashes and our "secret sign" was a salute. There was a race to get two props, we ended up with a plastic ray-gun and a long black wig. We were given two puzzles, which would give us two more things to photograph on our list, and had an hour and a half to complete everything.
A couple of examples of our work; we combined "An animal or animal statue" with "A BBC documentary" by taking a photo of two of our group with a camera and "microphone" (aka a pen) surrounded by pigeons, ducks and swans. We also had "A willing member of the public" and "Sherlock finds the killer instantly", with me as Sherlock, several team members and two willing members of the public looking shocked, and a baby who was part of our team pointing the ray-gun prop at a pair of shoes (with her Dad's help) as if she had just disintegrated someone.
It was a lovely afternoon coming up with all these ideas and running around the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park to take them all. When I have been to Hyde Park in the past it has only been to see the Winter Wonderland, which takes over most of the park. Now that I've seen it without all of that in the way I think I will have to return again for a proper walk, and with my camera naturally.
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Hyde Park
26 August, 2013
Yesterday I went to the National Trust property Osterley Park to visit their Country Fair weekend. I was a bit apprehensive because in my experience London doesn't manage to get the "countryside vibe" when it tries this kind of thing, but I thought I would give it a shot. I was also tempted by the fact that the posters about it mentioned jousting and the last time I saw that was when I went to the Renaissance Faire in Ohio a few years ago.
The bad news is that it was £6 for entry and honestly I don't think it was worth it. There were three small marquees as the "craft fair" part and they were mostly full of jewellery. Looking at the stall prices on the organiser website, it's pretty obvious that most crafters would have been priced out of featuring right from the start. It seems that nowadays you're not a proper "craft business" if you can't afford £150 for a stall, even over a two day event. In comparison the last time I did a fair back in my home village is was £20 for a day in the craft marquee, and they cover two fields that never seem to be short on sellers.
Last time I went to a country fair was the awesome one hosted at Hatfield House, which I won tickets for. THAT was impressive as it had a wide range of things to see and do, with several events going on at the same time throughout the day, a huge range of places to buy food and quite a lot of charity stalls as well. Osterley Park had a few children's rides and a few food stalls, but nothing out of the ordinary, and public numbers seemed a bit thin on the ground as well.
However despite all this I managed to get some decent photos.
The bad news is that it was £6 for entry and honestly I don't think it was worth it. There were three small marquees as the "craft fair" part and they were mostly full of jewellery. Looking at the stall prices on the organiser website, it's pretty obvious that most crafters would have been priced out of featuring right from the start. It seems that nowadays you're not a proper "craft business" if you can't afford £150 for a stall, even over a two day event. In comparison the last time I did a fair back in my home village is was £20 for a day in the craft marquee, and they cover two fields that never seem to be short on sellers.
Last time I went to a country fair was the awesome one hosted at Hatfield House, which I won tickets for. THAT was impressive as it had a wide range of things to see and do, with several events going on at the same time throughout the day, a huge range of places to buy food and quite a lot of charity stalls as well. Osterley Park had a few children's rides and a few food stalls, but nothing out of the ordinary, and public numbers seemed a bit thin on the ground as well.
However despite all this I managed to get some decent photos.
Osterley Park Hall - Front View
Osterley Park Hall - Front View
This photo is the ceiling on the inside bit between the pillars at the front of the house (I can't think of the proper technical name for it).
"William Wallace", one of the Knights of the Damned
I can't remember the name of this "character" but the rider is a woman, she did a very nifty stunt where she tried to pick up a "peasants head" by dropping down the side off the saddle.
"William Thatcher" and his adversary "Count Adhemar", clearly someone has been watching
"A Knight's Tale" a bit too much.
Overall if it wasn't for the jousting I would have felt that ripped off. I don't think I'll be bothering to go back next year unless there's definitely more stalls and more to see throughout the day.
Have a nice day everyone!
11 August, 2013
Continuing with my theme of visiting places, on Friday I visited The National Gallery with the same person I went to Tate Britain with yesterday. The National Gallery is open late on Fridays, and free to get in, it's also very easy to find as it's right next to Trafalgar Square.
Most of the galleries are on one floor, but grouped to cover a geographical area and a certain number of years, so one area covers paintings from 1500 to 1600, and then it's split in to Florence, Venice, the Netherlands etc etc.
I was quite pleased to see the Holbein is one of the artists on show as I've always like his work, although I have to rely on the descriptions to spot all the hidden symbolism he includes.
We didn't get round the whole thing, but what I saw was very nice so we'll be going back again in the future to finish off the rest of the galleries!
Have a nice day everyone!
Most of the galleries are on one floor, but grouped to cover a geographical area and a certain number of years, so one area covers paintings from 1500 to 1600, and then it's split in to Florence, Venice, the Netherlands etc etc.
Erasmus by Hans Holbein the Younger
I was quite pleased to see the Holbein is one of the artists on show as I've always like his work, although I have to rely on the descriptions to spot all the hidden symbolism he includes.
We didn't get round the whole thing, but what I saw was very nice so we'll be going back again in the future to finish off the rest of the galleries!
Have a nice day everyone!
10 August, 2013
Today I went in to central London to visit the Tate Britain. I'm actually quite tired as it was a longer train-ride than I expected and then I walked along the Southbank as well afterwards, so this post is going to be quite short.
It was very interesting, I'm not a massive fan of art at the best of times but it was interesting to see some of the older things they had there. The Turner Gallery was nice, I hadn't seen much of his work in the past but the person I was with enjoys his art and knew a lot about the other works we were looking at, so for once I didn't wander around feeling like an idiot.
I still maintain that a lot of modern art is pretentious rubbish though :P
Have a nice evening everyone!
It was very interesting, I'm not a massive fan of art at the best of times but it was interesting to see some of the older things they had there. The Turner Gallery was nice, I hadn't seen much of his work in the past but the person I was with enjoys his art and knew a lot about the other works we were looking at, so for once I didn't wander around feeling like an idiot.
I still maintain that a lot of modern art is pretentious rubbish though :P
Have a nice evening everyone!
06 July, 2013
As I mentioned in yesterday's post about Greenwich Park, I visited various bits of London during my week off. On Thursday me and my friend paid a trip to Chelsea Physic Garden.
The garden was founded in the 17th century as a way for apothecary apprentices to learn how to identify medicinal plants. It has various beds with particular themes, and the signs in front of the plants tell you the english and latin names and where the plants are normally found. A lot of them also tell you what ailments they were used to treat, but as my friend pointed out, it would have been interesting to find out if extracts from these plants are still used to treat the same problems in the modern world.
It was very interesting to see the various plants, although my friend kept laughing at the number of flowers I stuck my nose in. There were also a collection of poisonous plants, which were mostly confined to one bed with large red "Poisonous" labels around it.
After the walk around the garden we stopped for tea on the patio, which gave us a lovely view across the garden in the sunshine.
We walked from Sloane Square tube station to the garden, which also took us past the Royal Chelsea Hospital, where the Chelsea Pensioners live. It's a nice area to go for a stroll, the Garden is near the river so if you can also go for a walk along the Thames.
If you're in the Chelsea area then you really should take a look at this small green space.
The garden was founded in the 17th century as a way for apothecary apprentices to learn how to identify medicinal plants. It has various beds with particular themes, and the signs in front of the plants tell you the english and latin names and where the plants are normally found. A lot of them also tell you what ailments they were used to treat, but as my friend pointed out, it would have been interesting to find out if extracts from these plants are still used to treat the same problems in the modern world.
It was very interesting to see the various plants, although my friend kept laughing at the number of flowers I stuck my nose in. There were also a collection of poisonous plants, which were mostly confined to one bed with large red "Poisonous" labels around it.
After the walk around the garden we stopped for tea on the patio, which gave us a lovely view across the garden in the sunshine.
We walked from Sloane Square tube station to the garden, which also took us past the Royal Chelsea Hospital, where the Chelsea Pensioners live. It's a nice area to go for a stroll, the Garden is near the river so if you can also go for a walk along the Thames.
If you're in the Chelsea area then you really should take a look at this small green space.
05 July, 2013
I've had this week off work and as part of it I've been visiting various bits of London with a friend.
One of those bits was Greenwich Park. It's a place I've wanted to visit for quite a while, although I can honestly tell you that if you think you can walk from "North Greenwich" (where The O2 is) to Greenwich proper, then you will be in for a bit of a surprise XD Still, it was an adventure.
Greenwich itself is very pretty, you can see the Cutty Sark, newly restored after being gutted by fire a few years ago. There's also a pretty impressive church, some very quaint shops and the Royal Naval College buildings.
You can also see the Observatory at the top of the hill in Greenwich Park. The park itself is lovely, with lots of trees and paths you can wander along. My camera is still out of action, but there's lots of photos on Flickr, which is where I found the one above.
Have a nice evening everyone!
One of those bits was Greenwich Park. It's a place I've wanted to visit for quite a while, although I can honestly tell you that if you think you can walk from "North Greenwich" (where The O2 is) to Greenwich proper, then you will be in for a bit of a surprise XD Still, it was an adventure.
Greenwich itself is very pretty, you can see the Cutty Sark, newly restored after being gutted by fire a few years ago. There's also a pretty impressive church, some very quaint shops and the Royal Naval College buildings.
You can also see the Observatory at the top of the hill in Greenwich Park. The park itself is lovely, with lots of trees and paths you can wander along. My camera is still out of action, but there's lots of photos on Flickr, which is where I found the one above.
Have a nice evening everyone!
30 June, 2013
Today in 1894 one of my favourite London landmarks opened, Tower Bridge!
When I was a little girl my Mum once persuaded my Dad to drive back from a visit to my grandparents in Dorset via central London so I could see some of the things that I'd only seen on the TV before.
This little detour included Tower Bridge, although I can't remember if we saw it up with a boat going underneath (I was only 4 and my memory is decent but not brilliant).
So happy birthday to Tower Bridge! One of London's loveliest landmarks.
Have a nice day!
When I was a little girl my Mum once persuaded my Dad to drive back from a visit to my grandparents in Dorset via central London so I could see some of the things that I'd only seen on the TV before.
This little detour included Tower Bridge, although I can't remember if we saw it up with a boat going underneath (I was only 4 and my memory is decent but not brilliant).
Tower Bridge at Night by blueskyjunction
So happy birthday to Tower Bridge! One of London's loveliest landmarks.
Have a nice day!
21 April, 2013
Happy Sunday everyone! Following on from my London Marathon post yesterday I spotted a Twitter link to a story about the first man to run the London Marathon with Motor Neurone Disease. This guy, Mark Maddox, is absolutely amazing, since his diagnosis with MND back in 2010 he has run the Liverpool Marathon and skydived, and today he's running in the London Marathon. GO MARK GO!
Yesterday I took advantage of the sunshine to visit the Foundling Museum near Russell Square in north London. It was Britain's first home for abandoned children, founded at a time when Britain had a high infant mortality rate and women were blamed for daring to get pregnant out of wedlock, regardless of whether or not the circumstances had included her consent.
It was created by a man named Thomas Coram, who campaigned for a Royal Charter to create a hospital for abandoned children. He was eventually granted the Charter by King George II. A house in Hatton Garden was used as a temporary hospital when it first opened, while the proper hospital was built in Bloombury in the middle of the 1740's. The charity had several famous men as governors and supporters over the years, including the artist William Hogarth and the musician George Frederic Handel. Hogarth donated several paintings to the museum, which opened as the world's first public art gallery, while Handel allowed a concert performance of Messiah in order to help raise funds.
The hospital was given a government grant, under the condition that it would accept every infant brought to it's doors. The hospital was overwhelmed, along with women who had borne illegitimate children there were also women whose husbands had left to fight in one of England's numerous wars at the time. The men weren't paid until they came home and it often meant that they wives were left in poverty back home, they couldn't afford another mouth to feed and so placed their children under the protection of the hospital in the hopes that when their husbands returned they would be able to reclaim their children.
After 1801 the practise changed and the rules were tighter, children would be admitted if the mother showed that the father had abandoned her and that this was her only child. It was believed that if she gave up her child the mother could then "rehabilitate" herself in the eyes of society by returning to respectable employment, something that would be impossible if she had a baby to care for.
If you visit the museum at the moment you can visit the current exhibition in the basement, which focuses on the tokens left by the mothers of the children. These were used as a way to identify the child should the mother or father return to claim them, as part of her petition to get her child back the woman would need to describe what token she had left with it. The tokens were sealed up in the admission packets of the children, if the child was reclaimed then the packet was opened and if the mother's description matched the token then she could be reunited. I must admit it was difficult to work out which was more heartbreaking, the number of children that were never reclaimed, or the number of stories that seemed to end with the parents coming back for their child only to find it had died in the intervening years. The children themselves never knew who their parents were, their names were changed when they entered the hospital and if no one came to claim them then their records were never opened, they were never given the tokens their mothers had left them. This was probably done to give the children a "clean slate", no one would know if they were illegitimate or not, but at the same time severing all links with their past seems rather harsh in the light of the modern world.
There were some happy endings though, some mothers were married and were able to come back with their husbands to claim their child. The babies were nursed by women in the countryside before being brought into the city and some of these nurses bonded with their charges to the point where they "adopted" them (there was no formal adoption process back then). Some of the children maintained their links to the Foundling Hospital for the rest of their lives, the father of the artist Emma Brownlow was a Foundling and he became Secretary and Treasurer of the Hospital, dedicating his life's work to the running and administration of the hospital.
If you are ever near Russell Square then I would highly recommend a visit to this museum. It's a few minutes walk away from Russell Square station, entrance is £7.50 (£8.25 if you're a British taxpayer and happy to pay the GiftAid price) for adults and free for children under 16. You visit this museum and then head on over to the British Museum for a good day out!
Have a nice day everyone!
Yesterday I took advantage of the sunshine to visit the Foundling Museum near Russell Square in north London. It was Britain's first home for abandoned children, founded at a time when Britain had a high infant mortality rate and women were blamed for daring to get pregnant out of wedlock, regardless of whether or not the circumstances had included her consent.
The Foundling Museum by me!
It was created by a man named Thomas Coram, who campaigned for a Royal Charter to create a hospital for abandoned children. He was eventually granted the Charter by King George II. A house in Hatton Garden was used as a temporary hospital when it first opened, while the proper hospital was built in Bloombury in the middle of the 1740's. The charity had several famous men as governors and supporters over the years, including the artist William Hogarth and the musician George Frederic Handel. Hogarth donated several paintings to the museum, which opened as the world's first public art gallery, while Handel allowed a concert performance of Messiah in order to help raise funds.
The hospital was given a government grant, under the condition that it would accept every infant brought to it's doors. The hospital was overwhelmed, along with women who had borne illegitimate children there were also women whose husbands had left to fight in one of England's numerous wars at the time. The men weren't paid until they came home and it often meant that they wives were left in poverty back home, they couldn't afford another mouth to feed and so placed their children under the protection of the hospital in the hopes that when their husbands returned they would be able to reclaim their children.
After 1801 the practise changed and the rules were tighter, children would be admitted if the mother showed that the father had abandoned her and that this was her only child. It was believed that if she gave up her child the mother could then "rehabilitate" herself in the eyes of society by returning to respectable employment, something that would be impossible if she had a baby to care for.
Thomas Coram's statue by me!
If you visit the museum at the moment you can visit the current exhibition in the basement, which focuses on the tokens left by the mothers of the children. These were used as a way to identify the child should the mother or father return to claim them, as part of her petition to get her child back the woman would need to describe what token she had left with it. The tokens were sealed up in the admission packets of the children, if the child was reclaimed then the packet was opened and if the mother's description matched the token then she could be reunited. I must admit it was difficult to work out which was more heartbreaking, the number of children that were never reclaimed, or the number of stories that seemed to end with the parents coming back for their child only to find it had died in the intervening years. The children themselves never knew who their parents were, their names were changed when they entered the hospital and if no one came to claim them then their records were never opened, they were never given the tokens their mothers had left them. This was probably done to give the children a "clean slate", no one would know if they were illegitimate or not, but at the same time severing all links with their past seems rather harsh in the light of the modern world.
There were some happy endings though, some mothers were married and were able to come back with their husbands to claim their child. The babies were nursed by women in the countryside before being brought into the city and some of these nurses bonded with their charges to the point where they "adopted" them (there was no formal adoption process back then). Some of the children maintained their links to the Foundling Hospital for the rest of their lives, the father of the artist Emma Brownlow was a Foundling and he became Secretary and Treasurer of the Hospital, dedicating his life's work to the running and administration of the hospital.
If you are ever near Russell Square then I would highly recommend a visit to this museum. It's a few minutes walk away from Russell Square station, entrance is £7.50 (£8.25 if you're a British taxpayer and happy to pay the GiftAid price) for adults and free for children under 16. You visit this museum and then head on over to the British Museum for a good day out!
Have a nice day everyone!
03 April, 2013
16 March, 2013
Hopefully you remember that when I went to Westminster Abbey I stopped off at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, also called the V&A.
In the past I've only stopped by the V&A very briefly, mainly while visiting the London Family History Center or visiting for a clue as part of a friend's scavenger hunt. I must admit that I wasn't fully prepared for how big it is, I normally go in via Exhibition Road but this time I went to the main front doors along Cromwell Gardens (I think that's the name of the road).
I took a right and came into a lovely large gallery with a high ceiling and a small fountain in the middle. The combination of the ceiling, the fountain and the gorgeous marble statuary scattered around made me feel as if I was in the garden of an Italian Rennaissance villa, it was a stunning effect and one that you really can't appreciate unless you visit. There's even two small balconies on the floor above, with the front covered with more marble carvings like a proper villa balcony.
After wandering around various other galleries, including one full of gorgeous Chinese artefacts and a Japanese one with some very pretty kimonos I stumbled across the central courtyard (also known as the John Madejski Garden) with a currently dry fountain in the middle. What I was most amazed by was the ornate brickwork and mosaics along wth tops of the windows. It's a hidden artwork in itself, from the outside of the building you picture the whole building as have a rather plain facade with bits of statuary here and there, but then you find this lovely red brickwork instead.
The door on the other side was carved with pictures of various leaders of various fields, and the top had this marble carving of two men with the words "Better it is to get wisdom than gold".
The leader in the field of sculpture is none other than Michael Angelo, and of course he had his own space on the door.
I only managed to get around half of the ground floor as my legs were very tired and refusing to carry me further, so once I went back inside I followed the final gallery down to the door at Exhibition Road and started to head home. But before I got to the station I paused to take one last photo of the monument that always strikes me whenever I visit this little corner of London.
Bomb damage. During the Second World War the V&A was hit by several bombs dropped by German planes. A lot of the various collections had been stored safely in various places around England, including some pieces stored in an underground station that the V&A shared with the British Museum. But two bombs exploded in Exhibition Road itself, causing a lot of damage to the facade of the building and destroying the glass roof. While the damage looks awful, and while the bombs themselves blew out all the windows and doors, the craters are not actually structurally unsound. At the time it was decided to not repair the damage since it was not actually harming the building, and after the war the damage was kept like this as a memorial.
In 1985 a carving was included further along the wall which reads; "The damage to these walls is the result of enemy bombing during the Blitz of the Second World War 1939 - 1945 and is left as a memorial to the enduring values of this great museum in a time of conflict". To me I like it because it's a reminder of what happened to London. Most of the city was repaired when the war was over, but occasionally you'll find things like that remind you of what the city went through. The V&A holds many beautiful artefacts from history, I find it very fitting that it also holds one of the ugly sides of history too.
Have a nice day everyone!
In the past I've only stopped by the V&A very briefly, mainly while visiting the London Family History Center or visiting for a clue as part of a friend's scavenger hunt. I must admit that I wasn't fully prepared for how big it is, I normally go in via Exhibition Road but this time I went to the main front doors along Cromwell Gardens (I think that's the name of the road).
I took a right and came into a lovely large gallery with a high ceiling and a small fountain in the middle. The combination of the ceiling, the fountain and the gorgeous marble statuary scattered around made me feel as if I was in the garden of an Italian Rennaissance villa, it was a stunning effect and one that you really can't appreciate unless you visit. There's even two small balconies on the floor above, with the front covered with more marble carvings like a proper villa balcony.
After wandering around various other galleries, including one full of gorgeous Chinese artefacts and a Japanese one with some very pretty kimonos I stumbled across the central courtyard (also known as the John Madejski Garden) with a currently dry fountain in the middle. What I was most amazed by was the ornate brickwork and mosaics along wth tops of the windows. It's a hidden artwork in itself, from the outside of the building you picture the whole building as have a rather plain facade with bits of statuary here and there, but then you find this lovely red brickwork instead.
The door on the other side was carved with pictures of various leaders of various fields, and the top had this marble carving of two men with the words "Better it is to get wisdom than gold".
The leader in the field of sculpture is none other than Michael Angelo, and of course he had his own space on the door.
I only managed to get around half of the ground floor as my legs were very tired and refusing to carry me further, so once I went back inside I followed the final gallery down to the door at Exhibition Road and started to head home. But before I got to the station I paused to take one last photo of the monument that always strikes me whenever I visit this little corner of London.
Bomb damage. During the Second World War the V&A was hit by several bombs dropped by German planes. A lot of the various collections had been stored safely in various places around England, including some pieces stored in an underground station that the V&A shared with the British Museum. But two bombs exploded in Exhibition Road itself, causing a lot of damage to the facade of the building and destroying the glass roof. While the damage looks awful, and while the bombs themselves blew out all the windows and doors, the craters are not actually structurally unsound. At the time it was decided to not repair the damage since it was not actually harming the building, and after the war the damage was kept like this as a memorial.
In 1985 a carving was included further along the wall which reads; "The damage to these walls is the result of enemy bombing during the Blitz of the Second World War 1939 - 1945 and is left as a memorial to the enduring values of this great museum in a time of conflict". To me I like it because it's a reminder of what happened to London. Most of the city was repaired when the war was over, but occasionally you'll find things like that remind you of what the city went through. The V&A holds many beautiful artefacts from history, I find it very fitting that it also holds one of the ugly sides of history too.
Have a nice day everyone!
03 March, 2013
After weeks of my plans being foiled by illness and chocolate deliveries I finally decided to take Friday off work and put in motion my long-term goal to visit Westminster Abbey.
I've wanted to visit the Abbey for years, but somehow never got round to it. When I was a little girl my parents used to take me to London to see the museums and places like the Tower of London, but again the Abbey never really featured. So since I've now been living in London for nearly two years I decided that this year is the year to start visiting all that the city has to offer!
The main entrance is the Great North Door, which actually looks quite small from the outside. There's a security guard doing bag checks, and while there was a bit of a queue it moved quite quickly. Once your bag has been checked you can go through one of two doors to pay for your ticket, luckily for me I was there quite early in the morning, 10:30 (it opens at 9:30), and a lot of the tourists in front of me had London Pass cards so they were through very quickly. My ticket was £18, and before I knew it I was through the main doors being greeted by a friendly gentleman who gave me a map and pointed me in the right direction.
They have free headsets so you can listen to a commentary as you go around, however I decided to not bother. On reflection I probably should have taken one, there's far more to see than I had expected and I got a little disorientated by the multiple memorials and little side rooms so that, on occasion, I had no idea what I was actually looking at. I was expecting a few more labels and things as I went around, but obviously these are limited as you don't want to attach too many things to the very old brickwork. You can't take photos inside the Abbey, so sadly my camera stayed in my bag. But if I'd had a camera I probably would have ended up even more lost as there is a LOT that you could photograph given half a chance.
After getting around the whole building, pausing regularly to stare up at the ceiling and wonder at the skill required to build something so elaborate and beautiful, I emerged in the Cloisters and went to the Abbey Museum. This is a very small area, but nice and warm after the rest of the building, which houses various effigies of some of the deceased buried in the main part of the Abbey. The effigies were carried at the funerals and then set up near the tombs of the dead, and were often dressed in specially made robes for the occasion. Again, photos aren't allowed here.
By this point I was pretty cold, the weather in England was still pretty chilly this week and I had forgotten to bring a scarf with me, so I went to the Abbey's cafe and had a seriously delicious bacon sandwich and a pot of tea. If you are ever near this cafe then you really have to go and try the bacon sandwich, it was made with fresh sourdough bread and had a decent number of bacon rashers in it!
I finished my trip by wandering all around the outside taking lots of photos, which are the ones I'm using in this post. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be carvings of saints or virtues or demons, some of which were hard to photograph properly and some which were closer to ground level and easier to snap. I also wandered up to the Houses of Parliament and got a few shots of Big Ben, but the Abbey ones have come out better.
In general I had a very nice time, but I would definitely recommend going on a weekday rather than a Saturday. There were a lot of tourists using the audio guides, which then caused bunching in various areas as they were stopping in groups to look at various monuments being discussed, and they proceeded to frown at me as I tried to edge past. I suspect it would be far busier on Saturday, especially as the opening times are limited to 1:30, and in the afternoon on a weekday as well. If you're going to go, then do it on a weekday and get there nice and early so you can avoid some of the groups. Probably the only problem I had was that it felt more like a museum than a church, especially since you have to go around in a specific, set direction. But it's nice to see it because it's amazing at how old it is, and contains the tombs of some of England's most well-known monarchs.
Have a nice day everyone!
I've wanted to visit the Abbey for years, but somehow never got round to it. When I was a little girl my parents used to take me to London to see the museums and places like the Tower of London, but again the Abbey never really featured. So since I've now been living in London for nearly two years I decided that this year is the year to start visiting all that the city has to offer!
The main entrance is the Great North Door, which actually looks quite small from the outside. There's a security guard doing bag checks, and while there was a bit of a queue it moved quite quickly. Once your bag has been checked you can go through one of two doors to pay for your ticket, luckily for me I was there quite early in the morning, 10:30 (it opens at 9:30), and a lot of the tourists in front of me had London Pass cards so they were through very quickly. My ticket was £18, and before I knew it I was through the main doors being greeted by a friendly gentleman who gave me a map and pointed me in the right direction.
They have free headsets so you can listen to a commentary as you go around, however I decided to not bother. On reflection I probably should have taken one, there's far more to see than I had expected and I got a little disorientated by the multiple memorials and little side rooms so that, on occasion, I had no idea what I was actually looking at. I was expecting a few more labels and things as I went around, but obviously these are limited as you don't want to attach too many things to the very old brickwork. You can't take photos inside the Abbey, so sadly my camera stayed in my bag. But if I'd had a camera I probably would have ended up even more lost as there is a LOT that you could photograph given half a chance.
After getting around the whole building, pausing regularly to stare up at the ceiling and wonder at the skill required to build something so elaborate and beautiful, I emerged in the Cloisters and went to the Abbey Museum. This is a very small area, but nice and warm after the rest of the building, which houses various effigies of some of the deceased buried in the main part of the Abbey. The effigies were carried at the funerals and then set up near the tombs of the dead, and were often dressed in specially made robes for the occasion. Again, photos aren't allowed here.
By this point I was pretty cold, the weather in England was still pretty chilly this week and I had forgotten to bring a scarf with me, so I went to the Abbey's cafe and had a seriously delicious bacon sandwich and a pot of tea. If you are ever near this cafe then you really have to go and try the bacon sandwich, it was made with fresh sourdough bread and had a decent number of bacon rashers in it!
I finished my trip by wandering all around the outside taking lots of photos, which are the ones I'm using in this post. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be carvings of saints or virtues or demons, some of which were hard to photograph properly and some which were closer to ground level and easier to snap. I also wandered up to the Houses of Parliament and got a few shots of Big Ben, but the Abbey ones have come out better.
In general I had a very nice time, but I would definitely recommend going on a weekday rather than a Saturday. There were a lot of tourists using the audio guides, which then caused bunching in various areas as they were stopping in groups to look at various monuments being discussed, and they proceeded to frown at me as I tried to edge past. I suspect it would be far busier on Saturday, especially as the opening times are limited to 1:30, and in the afternoon on a weekday as well. If you're going to go, then do it on a weekday and get there nice and early so you can avoid some of the groups. Probably the only problem I had was that it felt more like a museum than a church, especially since you have to go around in a specific, set direction. But it's nice to see it because it's amazing at how old it is, and contains the tombs of some of England's most well-known monarchs.
Have a nice day everyone!
02 September, 2012
A few months ago I saw a picture of a dilapidated church covered in vines and trees. This kind of picture isn't too unusual in the countryside, where tiny Parish churches have been abandoned as the community has moved on (on occasion the community has literally moved on, to another location, so the church spire will be the only thing left), but I was surprised to find out that this church was in London!
St Dunstan's in the East was originally built in Anglo-Saxon times, so a church has been on that spot for a very, very long time. Unfortunately it hasn't been a lucky church. Along with many others it was a victim of the Great Fire of London in 1666 and became one of the projects of Sir Christopher Wren, who is famous for rebuilding St Paul's Cathedral but who actually dealt with the rebuilding just over 50 churches in London. St Dunstan's wasn't rebuilt from scratch, it was simply patched up and given a Wren-designed spire, and then rebuilt properly in the 1800's.
However it only stood for a few hundred years before the Blitz of the second world war led to it being damaged again. Post-war it was decided that the church would not be rebuilt, and in 1967 it was turned into a public garden!
When I realised this church was in London I decided I had to go and see it, and so last weekend I packed up my camera and a book and headed from Kew Gardens out to Monument station (you gotta love the District Line). Monument is one of the stations in "The City", the financial district of London. Normally it's insanely busy and you have to dodge stockbrokers as well as tourists, but on Sunday it was blissfully quiet apart from a few people stopping to gawp at Monument itself (it's a big tower that commemorates the Great Fire).
Remember when I said my camera meant I would start putting up my own pictures? Well that's what'll be in this post! That's the entrance to the church, it's a bit difficult to find as you go down a tiny side-street and practically stumble on it. But it's very peaceful and very green!
On my way to St Dunstan's I came across another church, I didn't go in but I did get a snapshot.
I wish those bollards weren't in the way, but if I moved closer to get them out then I ended up losing the sense of the narrow street. Personally this is my favourite photo of the whole day, the Italian flags outside the restaurant and the fact that there's actual sunlight suggests you're in Italy rather than London.
I was getting a headache by this point, mostly caused by the underground journey, so I went to a nearby Caffe Nero for a drink and a tasty snack!
With caffeine and sugar in me I felt much better, and since the rain was still holding off and it was warm without being hot I decided to see how far I could walk. I set off down Eastcheap and simply walked until my legs wore out. I kept finding churches for some reason, I don't know if God was expecting me to pop in for a visit but I always feel weird wandering into a church on my own, so I popped my head round a few doors and then left. There was one very big door I didn't pop in to though, mostly because I want to go back one day and have a proper look!
Yes it's St Paul's Cathedral! Excuse the road sign but it's difficult to get a decent photo of the blasted thing as it's surrounded by busy roads, and frankly I was simply relieved that I hadn't over-exposed the sky, which is my biggest problem with these kinds of shots.
I have no idea what Bracken House is but I had to take a photo of the "clock" over the doorway simply for the zodiac signs! It looks even more beautiful when you're right in front of it.
For a year of my life I walked past this station once a week as I headed to Kings for a lecture as part of my MA. Strand Station is an abandoned underground station that is now regularly used for films. During the second world war it was used during the Blitz to store art from museums and art galleries that were at risk of being bombed.
And at this point I was started to get a bit tired, so I walked on a bit further and then cut down a road to the river and walked along until I found Embankment station and decided it was time to call it a day.
If you're ever in London and full of energy then walking from Monument down to the Strand is ridiculously easy and takes in a lot of well-known areas, along with St Paul's you also end up going down Fleet Street, where the newspapers used to be, and go past The Old Bailey, and if you carry on further than I did you'll end up at Charing Cross near Trafalgar Square. Plus there's lots of places along the way where you can stop for a drink and a sandwich.
Have a good week everyone!
St Dunstan's in the East was originally built in Anglo-Saxon times, so a church has been on that spot for a very, very long time. Unfortunately it hasn't been a lucky church. Along with many others it was a victim of the Great Fire of London in 1666 and became one of the projects of Sir Christopher Wren, who is famous for rebuilding St Paul's Cathedral but who actually dealt with the rebuilding just over 50 churches in London. St Dunstan's wasn't rebuilt from scratch, it was simply patched up and given a Wren-designed spire, and then rebuilt properly in the 1800's.
However it only stood for a few hundred years before the Blitz of the second world war led to it being damaged again. Post-war it was decided that the church would not be rebuilt, and in 1967 it was turned into a public garden!
When I realised this church was in London I decided I had to go and see it, and so last weekend I packed up my camera and a book and headed from Kew Gardens out to Monument station (you gotta love the District Line). Monument is one of the stations in "The City", the financial district of London. Normally it's insanely busy and you have to dodge stockbrokers as well as tourists, but on Sunday it was blissfully quiet apart from a few people stopping to gawp at Monument itself (it's a big tower that commemorates the Great Fire).
St Dunstan's in the East
Remember when I said my camera meant I would start putting up my own pictures? Well that's what'll be in this post! That's the entrance to the church, it's a bit difficult to find as you go down a tiny side-street and practically stumble on it. But it's very peaceful and very green!
On my way to St Dunstan's I came across another church, I didn't go in but I did get a snapshot.
Random Church
I wish those bollards weren't in the way, but if I moved closer to get them out then I ended up losing the sense of the narrow street. Personally this is my favourite photo of the whole day, the Italian flags outside the restaurant and the fact that there's actual sunlight suggests you're in Italy rather than London.
I was getting a headache by this point, mostly caused by the underground journey, so I went to a nearby Caffe Nero for a drink and a tasty snack!
Tea and Syrup Waffles
With caffeine and sugar in me I felt much better, and since the rain was still holding off and it was warm without being hot I decided to see how far I could walk. I set off down Eastcheap and simply walked until my legs wore out. I kept finding churches for some reason, I don't know if God was expecting me to pop in for a visit but I always feel weird wandering into a church on my own, so I popped my head round a few doors and then left. There was one very big door I didn't pop in to though, mostly because I want to go back one day and have a proper look!
St Paul's Cathedral
Yes it's St Paul's Cathedral! Excuse the road sign but it's difficult to get a decent photo of the blasted thing as it's surrounded by busy roads, and frankly I was simply relieved that I hadn't over-exposed the sky, which is my biggest problem with these kinds of shots.
Bracken House
I have no idea what Bracken House is but I had to take a photo of the "clock" over the doorway simply for the zodiac signs! It looks even more beautiful when you're right in front of it.
Strand Station
For a year of my life I walked past this station once a week as I headed to Kings for a lecture as part of my MA. Strand Station is an abandoned underground station that is now regularly used for films. During the second world war it was used during the Blitz to store art from museums and art galleries that were at risk of being bombed.
And at this point I was started to get a bit tired, so I walked on a bit further and then cut down a road to the river and walked along until I found Embankment station and decided it was time to call it a day.
If you're ever in London and full of energy then walking from Monument down to the Strand is ridiculously easy and takes in a lot of well-known areas, along with St Paul's you also end up going down Fleet Street, where the newspapers used to be, and go past The Old Bailey, and if you carry on further than I did you'll end up at Charing Cross near Trafalgar Square. Plus there's lots of places along the way where you can stop for a drink and a sandwich.
Have a good week everyone!
24 April, 2012
Last year, when I had only been living in London for a few weeks, I went to see the London Marathon with a bunch of people supporting the Motor Neurone Disease Association. Some of my readers may remember this charity from the sponsored walk I did back in August, for those that don't know the MNDA is my favourite charity and I do what I can to help out when possible.
Last weekend was the Marathon again and so I donned one of my MND Association t-shirts and headed to Limehouse in the docklands to cheer loudly for all the runners and then cheer extra loudly for the MNDA runners. I clapped so hard that my hands hurt on Monday, cheered so loudly that my throat was still sore on Monday, and the supporter group also had a DJ with them so I was still a little deaf on Monday as well. But it was well worth it and if any of the MNDA runners are reading this I want you to know I am in total awe of you. I can barely run 26 yards let alone 26 miles.
Hence also why this post is on a Tuesday instead of a Sunday, by the time I got back to my flat I was a bit too dazed to write anything.
The MND Association's colours are blue and orange, and so to celebrate my favourite charity and the amazing people that work for it, support it, and fundraise for it by running a marathon, I bring to you some blue and orange items!
Have a good week everyone!
Last weekend was the Marathon again and so I donned one of my MND Association t-shirts and headed to Limehouse in the docklands to cheer loudly for all the runners and then cheer extra loudly for the MNDA runners. I clapped so hard that my hands hurt on Monday, cheered so loudly that my throat was still sore on Monday, and the supporter group also had a DJ with them so I was still a little deaf on Monday as well. But it was well worth it and if any of the MNDA runners are reading this I want you to know I am in total awe of you. I can barely run 26 yards let alone 26 miles.
Hence also why this post is on a Tuesday instead of a Sunday, by the time I got back to my flat I was a bit too dazed to write anything.
The MND Association's colours are blue and orange, and so to celebrate my favourite charity and the amazing people that work for it, support it, and fundraise for it by running a marathon, I bring to you some blue and orange items!
Blue and Orange Wedding by JulianaWJewelry
ZigZag Lap Quilt by becauseimme
Feather Fascinator by MaddieLus
Blue and Orange Necklace by Karismabykarajewelry
Have a good week everyone!
05 February, 2012
My first year living in London and I've been lucky enough to get some snow! My main worry about leaving Hertfordshire was that I would miss one of the best bits of winter, the village I grew up in gets snow and in previous years me and my siblings have had a lot of fun building snowmen in the garden but London is always a little bit warmer than the rest of the country so snow isn't that common.
I will confess to staring at the weather forecast all week waiting for the good news. Then on Friday afternoon everyone was announcing that it was meant to snow this weekend. On the one hand I was incredibly excited and on the other I was very worried that it would miss us and hit the rest of the country, my luck has been terrible recently so I expected lack of snow to follow suit.
Imagine my excitement last night then when a few flakes fell, and then a few more, and then the snow started properly. I was bouncing between my bed and the window on a regular basis to see the progress of it settling. I even slept with my curtains open last night so I could occasionally lift my head up and see the snow falling, although this didn't work very well as I'm short-sighted and don't sleep with my glasses on so every time I tried it all I could see the orange blur of the streetlights XD
When I woke up this morning it was already starting to melt, so I downed two cups of tea and ate a biscuit, pulled on a multitude of layers, grabbed two cameras and went to Kew Gardens. I took quite a lot of photos with my Dad's old Canon Digital Rebel and two with my aging pocket Nikon, the Canon ones are in RAW and will need to wait until I get a new PC before I can edit them, the Nikon ones are simply awful quality so I won't be posting them up on here. However regardless of photos the actual Gardens were beautiful covered in snow.
I also ended up going to Marks & Spencer to buy a scarf as I don't have one and since the cold is due to hang around a while longer I figured I should get one, and then I also ended up buy 2 cheese scones XD
I've already had chicken soup and a lovely fresh roll and more tea, this afternoon will feature baking some cookies and then I'm doing roast beef for my dinner tonight!
Have a lovely weekend everyone and if you've got snow, have fun with it!
I will confess to staring at the weather forecast all week waiting for the good news. Then on Friday afternoon everyone was announcing that it was meant to snow this weekend. On the one hand I was incredibly excited and on the other I was very worried that it would miss us and hit the rest of the country, my luck has been terrible recently so I expected lack of snow to follow suit.
Imagine my excitement last night then when a few flakes fell, and then a few more, and then the snow started properly. I was bouncing between my bed and the window on a regular basis to see the progress of it settling. I even slept with my curtains open last night so I could occasionally lift my head up and see the snow falling, although this didn't work very well as I'm short-sighted and don't sleep with my glasses on so every time I tried it all I could see the orange blur of the streetlights XD
When I woke up this morning it was already starting to melt, so I downed two cups of tea and ate a biscuit, pulled on a multitude of layers, grabbed two cameras and went to Kew Gardens. I took quite a lot of photos with my Dad's old Canon Digital Rebel and two with my aging pocket Nikon, the Canon ones are in RAW and will need to wait until I get a new PC before I can edit them, the Nikon ones are simply awful quality so I won't be posting them up on here. However regardless of photos the actual Gardens were beautiful covered in snow.
I also ended up going to Marks & Spencer to buy a scarf as I don't have one and since the cold is due to hang around a while longer I figured I should get one, and then I also ended up buy 2 cheese scones XD
I've already had chicken soup and a lovely fresh roll and more tea, this afternoon will feature baking some cookies and then I'm doing roast beef for my dinner tonight!
Have a lovely weekend everyone and if you've got snow, have fun with it!
10 January, 2012
Just before last Easter I packed up most of my life (about 20% of it stayed in the old stables at my parent's home) and moved to south west London. I rent a small room in a small flat. There's a small kitchen, a small bathroom, no living room because it's used as a storage room instead, and three housemates in two other bedrooms. It's actually quite nice, I have my own space (which I love) but if I need company there's generally always someone in the kitchen I can talk to.
It also means that things can't go missing in the flat. It's too small for you to lose something (although I do occasionally misplace one of my QPR mugs at the back of a cupboard). Sooner or later something will be found. And in my case I'm constantly losing track of my socks. It's rather embarrassing actually, I rarely wear matching socks simply because the other half of a pair will wander off somewhere (generally to the bottom of my laundry basket).
This evening this happened;
Housemate Mon- Biiiiibliophile?
Me- Yeeeeees?
Suddenly it came through my open door, flying through the air with all the grace and aerodynamics of something foot-shaped made of cotton and elastic. It hit the floor like a the lightest potato known to man, and sat there accusingly as if to say "why did you leave me in the storage room? Aren't I good enough for your feet?"
Housemate Mon- Hehehehehe.
It also means that things can't go missing in the flat. It's too small for you to lose something (although I do occasionally misplace one of my QPR mugs at the back of a cupboard). Sooner or later something will be found. And in my case I'm constantly losing track of my socks. It's rather embarrassing actually, I rarely wear matching socks simply because the other half of a pair will wander off somewhere (generally to the bottom of my laundry basket).
This evening this happened;
Housemate Mon- Biiiiibliophile?
Me- Yeeeeees?
Suddenly it came through my open door, flying through the air with all the grace and aerodynamics of something foot-shaped made of cotton and elastic. It hit the floor like a the lightest potato known to man, and sat there accusingly as if to say "why did you leave me in the storage room? Aren't I good enough for your feet?"
Housemate Mon- Hehehehehe.
19 June, 2011
Yesterday was an event I’ve been looking forward to for weeks! The Kew Fete. I’m a big fan of fairs and fetes, most of them are focused on the local community so it’s quite interesting to see which small businesses are around in your area that you may not have realised existed!
Unfortunately it rained in the morning while I was there, but this is England and it’s summer so I pretty much expected it.
Along with stalls hosted by both businesses and charities there were also some traditional fairground rides!
Tibidabo Carousel by bomobob
I love carousels, but I’m 25 years old and I think it would have looked very odd if I had gone on it all on my own. And sadly my family were in Cornwall this week so I couldn’t persuade them to visit me and go to the fair as well (I could have dragged my sisters on easily).
Since I couldn’t splurge my money on rides I decided to fill up my stomach instead!
Crepe Divine by LipSmackinCreations
One thing I’ve been craving recently is crepes, French pancakes. Not quite like the one above (which also looks delicious) but simply filled with sugar. You can imagine my delight when I found a stall making them fresh!
I also had a delicious homemade burger from the stand run by “The Naked Turtle” (and ended up walking down to Richmond feeling like I might explode if I ate much else).
Candy Floss Lip Balm by morganstreet
And then finally I bought a bag of candy floss, which I am currently eating (well, letting it melt on my tongue) as I write this.
Overall I had a lovely day. Obviously the appearance of sunshine in the morning would have been good but frankly I was walking around on my own so even that wouldn’t have kept me out much longer. Everyone there was very friendly, while I was waiting for my crepe to be made (by the company Opera Ice Cream) I had a nice chat with the owner’s wife, who’s an opera singer, and a gentleman passing by told me he’d had a crepe last year and it had been “brilliant”. And he was right, it was seriously delicious, if you ever see this stall at a fete, fair or market around London I really can’t recommend them highly enough!
I’m now desperately Googling to find more similar events in London XD
Have a nice day!
30 May, 2011
It's another Bank Holiday weekend! Sadly no Royal Wedding accompanying it so it was only 3 days off rather than 4 (I think we've been spoiled by that this year XD), but it's still nice to have a Monday off work.
So I went home (aka back to my parent's place) for a few days. Which meant that they brought me back to Kew yesterday (Sunday) and since they were here we decided to make a little trip to Kew Gardens.
And as it turns out, there's several people on Etsy who have been to the Gardens and received a bit of inspiration from them!
Clearly they're not the only ones, we saw several photographers and at least one artist (complete with paint and multiple sketchbooks) as we were wandering around, although potential visitors need to be aware that Kew does not allow "commercial photography" without prior consent.
It's a lovely place to visit, there's more information on their website. If you're in London (namely south-west London, it's a bit of a trek from the center) then check it out!
So I went home (aka back to my parent's place) for a few days. Which meant that they brought me back to Kew yesterday (Sunday) and since they were here we decided to make a little trip to Kew Gardens.
And as it turns out, there's several people on Etsy who have been to the Gardens and received a bit of inspiration from them!
Kew Garden Gates by lindabutterfly
Palm House Kew by FlaxInk
Palm House at Sunset by 4artssake
Clearly they're not the only ones, we saw several photographers and at least one artist (complete with paint and multiple sketchbooks) as we were wandering around, although potential visitors need to be aware that Kew does not allow "commercial photography" without prior consent.
It's a lovely place to visit, there's more information on their website. If you're in London (namely south-west London, it's a bit of a trek from the center) then check it out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
