This looks familiar

I found this little creature in the Victoria and Albert Museum but he really reminds me of the doorknockers from Labyrinth.

I can just imagine him mumbling

South Kensington Art and Design

A couple of weekends ago I rugged up for a trip to South Kensington to visit one of the excellent museums in that area. I’d been wanting to go to the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum since I’d returned so that was high on the list. The fact it was the last weekend of a small story themed design exhibition named Telling Tales just helped propel me there (as did a quick look at the queues outside the beautiful Natural History Museum).

Before I rushed into the crowded world of weekend gallery attendance I made a worthwhile stop at the South Ken outpost of the Hummingbird Bakery. I sat for a while with a coffee and red velvet cupcake and I highly recommend it. The South Ken branch is marginally quieter than the Notting Hill branch on a Sunday which means you can sit and enjoy your purchases without having queued out the door and down the street beforehand (which I noticed people doing in Notting Hill as that branch is in the market area).

The cake tasted delicious....

Just to really rub it in

I had a wander around as I used to live about 15-20 minutes walk away and spent a bit of time in the area many moons ago. There have been a few changes and Old Brompton Road now consists almost entirely of cafes and restaurants whereas I remember a few more outlet luggage stores. The area around the tube station does seem to be a good place to head if looking for places to eat. I also came across this lovely bookstore in Thurloe St.

Piles of excellent books

Although it’s a discount bookstore, the items they have in stock are top notch and it was quite an effort to leave without weighing myself down with some purchases. And finally I made it to my destination – the actual museum. The V&A is a great place to go if you’re interested in art, design, costuming, textiles, sculpture and pretty much anything else decorative that you could imagine. It’s also free – which is even better.

One of the better entrance shots - still not quite sure what I was aiming for

One of the dining rooms - fancy huh?

entrance to the dining rooms from the internal courtyard

marble initials

light sculpture in the entrance hall

Although I spent a good amount of time wandering around looking at the displays, the V&A is a huge place and I need to make a return visit when the medieval galleries reopen later this year.

Canterbury Tales

Not the most original post title ever but that’s what I’m working with.  I took a day trip to Canterbury for an appointment a while ago and although I’m not moving there, it was a nice day out. The town is lovely and it was interesting to see how it had changed since I visited it briefly nine years ago. I originally went to Canterbury while on a two week (I think) car trip around some of the more southerly parts of Britain with my Grandfather and Canterbury was one of our early stops on the drive from East Anglia.  This time I had a more work oriented reason for my journey but still had a look around.  The weather was really good - here’s what Canterbury looks like.

Royal Museum and Free Library (as per the sign) found on one of the main streets

Main gate of Canterbury Cathedral

This is the main entry point for the Cathedral. I didn’t get the time to visit on my latest trip but have been before and can highly recommend it (especially if you like Cathedrals). The building is stunning and the shrine dedicated to the murdered Thomas Becket is worth a look.  I would like to go again but that will have to wait for another visit.

There was a crooked house...

...and a crooked terrace of houses

The old city walls, now part of a carpark

The Canterbury Tales

And this beauty is the outside of a tourist attraction everyone should visit. It’s The Canterbury Tales - an animatronic rendering of the classic tale for everyone’s enjoyment. Sadly, like the Cathedral, I didn’t get to go in on this visit but I have been before. In fact, on my last visit to the UK I patronised a number of similar exhibits, a sort of oddly smelling, jerkily puppet-like tour of British history. I also visited the Robin Hood Tales in Nottingham because I am all class.  I do recommend it, they put a lot of work into it and they’re always amusing.

punting on the river

And last but not least, I finished the day off with a visit to Tiny Tim’s Tearoom for a delicious cream tea (also highly recommended) before catching the train back to London.

delicious afternoon tea

Comics, Cartoons and the British Museum

On Thursday I ventured out into the rapidly cooling and far too windy weather to visit the British Museum. As it is often possible to do in London, I walked there.  It’s not a particularly short walk from my residence to the Museum but it’s not a long one either.  As I wandered down Tottenham Court Road on my way there, it became obvious that a)wearing tights is a good thing and that b) I was going to spend much of my time outdoors today either holding down my skirt from the gusting wind, or trying to keep my hair out of my eyes so that I could at least see who I was showing far too much of my tights to. Beyond that, it was a lovely day. 

I made a detour early on and spent some time looking around the Cartoon Museum.  This is not a free museum, it’s a small, privately owned enterprise. If you have an interest in comics and cartoons and the history of such art forms in Britain, it’s a good place to spend some time. Their current special exhibition are the works of Rowland Emmett who was a well known British cartoonist and designer/inventor (he designed the fantastical machines in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). The museum also runs drawing, animation, manga and claymation classes for kids and adults. There’s a few comic shops nearby selling all sorts of good stuff. Unlike my visit to Forbidden Planet, I sadly did not manage to leave before acquiring some important reading material from Gosh!. 

Cartoon Museum

I finally got to the other Museum in the afternoon and it was, as usual, packed with people. There were tour groups everywhere.  But, it is to be expected in such a place so I gritted my teeth and got on with having a gander. I visted the Museum a few times when I was last here and even managed to have a look not long after they unveiled the Great Court. In the end, I spent a few hours there but the Museum really takes more than one visit if you want to see it in any detail.  So, I’ve had a look at the ground floor and will have to make another trip for the first floor because after a couple of hours of  looking and wandering, my feet were sore and it wasn’t that far off closing time. Here’s a few pictures of some things I did see.

Museum entrance

Great Court and roof

Totem pole in Great Court

massive Egyptian sculpture

African cast bronze sculpture

Weekend of markets

The weekend is the best time to enjoy some of London’s markets, so I decided to visit two different parts of London and sample their markets this weekend. This first post is about my visit on Saturday to Borough market and the Southbank.  The weather is still holding here, for the most part, but the temperature has dropped a few degrees.  Saturday was a lovely sunny day to be wandering around Borough and Southwark.  I caught the tube to London Bridge station and from there headed to Southwark Cathedral just down the street.  It is a beautiful Cathedral and although it has a long history, I know it as the starting place for the pilgrims in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. 

Southwark Cathedral

from another angle

Right next door is Borough market. It’s all about food. If you want to know where to get a an Ostrich burger – Borough market is your place.  And these trips to the markets would be cheap sightseeing days, if I didn’t buy so many snacks…(not that I eat Ostrich burgers).

Borough Market

It was actually more crowded than it looks. The market was packed full of people, many of whom brought wheelie suitcases to fill up with food.  In fact, many people here (tourists mostly I’m assuming) seem to shop with suitcases.  Doesn’t matter if it’s Piccadilly or Regent Streets, Borough or Shoreditch markets.  I don’t know why you would want to buy that much stuff (although groceries make a bit more sense) and I find them annoying because they are dragged really slowly in everyone’s (my) way.

I also visited The Clink Museum which is nearby. It’s a privately owned museum documenting life in the early prison called The Clink that existed in the area for hundreds of years.  While it was an ok way to spend half an hour, I wouldn’t recommend making a special trip. It wasn’t the best put together display I’ve seen recently and some areas had signs that were just laminated and tacked up on the wall (including a blurry picture of puppies printed off a computer entitled The Police Animal section – and that was it, just the picture). Clearly at some point there was money put it into researching and creating the displays but it’s beginning to look a little worn around the edges.

The Globe Theatre

On my way from Borough market to the Tate Modern I walked past the Globe Theatre. I wandered in to pick up some info about tours and shows (which run till early October), so will definitely be going back another day to check it out some more. And here’s the Tate Modern. I know it’s fashionable to be in love with this place but I am a much bigger fan of the Tate Britain (which is currently running a William Blake exhibition I want to go see).

Tate Modern

 

Tate Modern main hall

The Tate Modern is housed in an old electricity station and it’s a fantastic space. One of the entrances is to the top of the picture and the galleries are to the right.  Housed on multiple levels, you’d think they would be tiny considering how much open space there is here, but they’re not.  It’s room after room of modern art exhibitions. And it also has some great views across the Thames looking towards the city.  Here’s a photo I took through one of the windows of the Millennium Bridge and St Paul’s.

view from Tate

Up next is a trip to the east end to visit the Spitalfields and Brick Lane markets in Shoreditch.

A trip down memory lane…

…or more accurately, Kings Road Chelsea.  It was a fine and sunny Saturday here and I’d been wanting to revisit some of my old haunts. My first trip to the UK was about 8/9 years ago now and I spent six months living and working in a pub on Kings Road Chelsea. It’s a posh area, no denying that, so in some ways I kind of lucked out when I got that job.

But that old saying to do with never really being able to go home again started to ring true. As I wandered down the road I spotted some old shops and buildings, some new ones in place of those I remembered and I looked for a few that I couldn’t find anymore. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve been here but it was a strange sort of day and I’ve been left with mixed feelings about my trip down memory lane.

I started my journey on the tube mid morning and decided that I would walk down Kings Road from Sloane Square station because it was a walk I had done so many times before.

Sloane Square station

The first good surprise was the Duke of York’s HQ which was just a building site when I last saw it.  Now it is home to a small weekend market full of delicious food (the Jamaican jerk chicken pastry and pasteis de nata – Portuguese custard tart – that I had were soooo good).  There is also a free Saatchi gallery with a display of modern American art.  I took a small detour off Kings Road to the National Army Museum (which is free). Despite living in in the area I had never been there before and it’s worth a look especially if you’re into Empire or military history, or even if you just have a thing for military uniforms and guns.

Chelsea Old Town Hall steps

These steps lead out of the registry area of the Old Town Hall which a lovely, venerable structure on the road.  It must have seen the most amazing variety of weddings in its time. I remember passing by on my way to the supermarket seeing South Asian weddings with heaps of guests and decorated taxis, people doing the traditional white dress thing and of course the couple who wore matching black leather just to mention a few.  They must still have ceremonies here, as there’s still confetti on the steps.

Chelsea Old Church

This is the Chelsea Old Church (though clearly some of the structure is new) which back in the day was the Church of Sir Thomas More, whose statue can be found nearby. My roommate at the pub and I, while a wee bit tipsy on Christmas Eve, decided at the last minute to run down the road from the pub (a couple of blocks away) to attend midnight mass here with it’s posh demographic. I’d never seen anybody wear a purple velvet suit and matching top hat to Church before, and I haven’t since. The fact I rarely go to Church services is irrelevant.

This is no longer the poky old bookstore from whom I procured obscure books

not The Man in the Moon

This smart looking wine bar/bar used to be a black clad, boarded up edifice know as The Man in the Moon. The story went that one night some gang of football supporters (possibly Chelsea fans) were kicked out of our pub and proceeded on down the street to the next likely looking boozer – The Man in the Moon – where they proceeded to wreak havoc and ripped out a number of the bar fittings. Hence its closure at the time.

not The Water Rat

And this lovely pastel palace, if I have the right building, used to be The Water Rat. This is where some of our regulars went when they wanted a livelier night out. It was the scene of a couple of stabbings during my time in the area. Suffice to say, this is not how it looked then.

And then there’s my old place - The Cadogan Arms Tavern – on the corner of Kings Road and Old Church Street.

Cadogan Arms Tavern

It’s undergone more than one makeover since I worked here and I think it even closed for a little while. It doesn’t appear to be owned by a brewery anymore but by a company that runs … gastropubs.  I didn’t take any pictures of the inside because it’s not the Cadogan Arms I lived in. It’s rather swish with pressed metal ceilings and dark leather couches, not too sure about the stuffed animal heads on the wall.  It’s a tidier (non smoking) space but it doesn’t have the comfy well worn feel it used to. The pub was a good middle of the road for local workers. It wasn’t so upmarket as those closer to the Square but didn’t have knifings either. Blokes who worked in the loading docks in the Conran outpost Bluebird used drink here, as well as a couple of picture framers from the shop across the street. The bar here now may have stools but it doesn’t have that regular boozer feeling.  We also used to get a lot of the local Art college students, and they might still be around but the customers I saw today didn’t reflect its former diverse charms. It was a little unsettling and, I can admit, upsetting to be somewhere so familiar yet so alien.  My pub may have been a bit rundown about the edges but it was the focal point of my existence on this road, in this city, but it’s not really there anymore.

Because someone else thinks it’s walking distance…

So my first proper sightseeing was today.  And I’ve got to say that because something is theoretically within walking distance (according to my Geckos travel itinerary) doesn’t mean you should walk there.  Ho Chi Minh City is not made for pedestrians.  It’s a city with about three million motorbikes, not mention numerous cars, trucks and buses all of which can run you over rather effectively.  So that lovely sight you may wish to see could be about the same distance away as your regular morning walk, but that doesn’t take into account the multitudinous number of times you have to dice with traffic to cross both small and scarily large roads (sorry mum I know you don’t really want to know).  So I learned a valuable lesson today about walking long distances in hot, sunny, traffic riddled conditions : )  Oh and I’ve got to mention that just because you’re on the footpath, doesn’t mean the motorbikes aren’t on the footpath with you.

Today I visited the War Remnants Museum.  They’ve put together a very good display about Vietnam and the war.  There are lots of excellent photos, some of which are quite confronting.  If you don’t know a lot about the war, then this is the place to see how damaging and traumatic an experience it was for all sides.  I also visited the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City.  It was quite good but nowhere near as interesting as the War Remnants Museum.  There were displays about HCMC through the years including the protests against American intervention in Vietnam.  Then I was a bit museumed (yes it is a word) out, so headed back to the area my hotel is in to recover from the heat and sensory overload.  I’m thinking of tackling the Reunification Palace tomorrow during my travels.

I’m really enjoying my time here so far (short though it has been) and I can’t wait to start seeing the rest of the country over the next few weeks. But it’s dinner time now and I’m starving, so I’m off to scope out what’s available round here.