A Month in London is Hardly Enough Time

On Monday, May 11, after family departed for Nottingham in the morning, I took the Tube to South Kensington to visit museums there. First, I strolled through the 5-acre Evolution Garden at the Natural History Museum, which opened less than 2 years ago, following the path of progression of geology and biota over a 2.7 billion timeline, featuring ancient plant species, British rocks and a bronze diplodocus named Fern. I entered the enormous museum after admiring the gothic architecture on the outside, visiting many galleries in a random manner after looking at objects in the spectacular Hintz Hall.

South Kensington Station entrance

Evolution Garden

Main entrance to the Natural History Musuem

As always, I was particularly impressed with the huge Jurassic marine fossils, many of them discovered by Mary Anning, a woman who made some of the United Kingdom's earliest snd most significant fossil discoveries. She began as a child on the Dorset coast, discovering at the age of 12 the first ichthyosaur skeleton to be scientifically described. A a woman in the Victorian age, she was excluded from membership in the scientific societies despite being well-respected in the field of paleontology internationally.

Pliosaur fossil discovered by Mary Anning

Fossil detail

Part of the fossil exhibit

The rocks and minerals always dazzle me, and I enjoyed spending time in the birds gallery, which includes extinct birds such as the dodo and endangered species from around the world; nests and eggs, some dating to 1883; prints by John James Audubon; and the historic hummingbird cabinet from the 1880s which contains hundreds of specimens mounted as if in nature on branches and twigs, the foliage of which has become dusty and brown. The various species of hummingbirds, for the most part, still display iridescent plumage only slightly dulled by the passage of time. 

Part of the hummingbird cabinet

After a couple hours in the Natural History Museum, I crossed Exhibition Road to enter the beautiful red brick Victoria and Albert Museum. After stopping in the temporary American Photography exhibition, without a plan, I wondered around the galleries, sometimes passing back through rooms I had already visited. Some of the areas I have visited many times before, such as the galleries of sacred silver and stained glass; sculpture; tapestries; jewelry; silver and gold pieces; enamels; casts of ancient sculpture and architecture; and paintings (particularly Constables and Turners). I spent quite a bit of time in a long gallery stretching the length of the Cromwell Road side of the building on the second floor featuring ironwork through the ages. Of course, I cannot go to the V&A without stopping in the cafe, the world's oldest museum restaurant, with the opulently decorated Gamble Room. In addition, I lingered in the always inspiring courtyard.

A section of the Cast Court

Sculpture gallery

 

Glass galleries

Glass displays

Venetian glass

Hereford Screen

Silver

Gold

Stormtrooper costume

Gamble Room

Architectural detail in the courtyard

As I walked back to the South Kensington Station, I took note of the evidence of damage from exploding German bombs dropped over London during WWII. 

Blitz damage to the outside of the V&A

Tuesday, May 12, was a day at the docks, and Matthew came to the boat. He and Peter managed to backup his old phone, although this took hours. We enjoyed lunch and dinner together and played pinochle in the evening. Also, Matthew helped Peter with taking things out of the forepeak. Peter had noticed that we were taking on water and needed to investigate. With access to the depth sounder, he was able to determine that an O-ring was missing. (Oops!)

I stayed up until 1 a.m. that night so that I could participate in the Rodgers family book club meeting, scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT. I was looking forward to chatting with many of my sisters, sisters-in-law and nieces, but, unfortunately, there were only four of us there. However, we had a good discussion about a book we all rated highly, Homeseeking by Karissa Chen, and caught up with each other.

One day not going out while in lovely London was all I could take. So, even though the weather forecast on Wednesday, May 13, was iffy and hail had pelted down from a darkened sky for about 15 minutes in the morning, I took off to wander. I was thinking of the British Museum or perhaps the Tate Modern, which I have not yet visited on this trip. Instead, I found myself again in the area of Temple Church in the heart of the capital's legal district between Fleet Street and the river, an area interspersed with gorgeous gardens and narrow lanes. 

Hail at St. Katherine Docks

Small garden in the Temple area

Temple Church

Like the Chapel Royal in the Tower of London and other churches in palaces and castles in the United Kingdom, the Temple Church is a royal peculiar, which means that it is a parish exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocese and the province in which it lies and subject to the direct jurisdiction of the monarch. Indeed, it does seem peculiar.

The Church was built by the Knights Templar. It has two parts, the Round and the Chancel. The original part, the Round Church, was consecrated in 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem; it was designed to resemble the holiest place in the Crusaders' world, the circular Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The rectangular section adjoining it is the chancel, which was built a half a century later. Among other purposes, the church was originally used for Templar initiation ceremonies in which vows of piety, chastity, poverty and obedience were said. Temple Church is now jointly owned by the Inner Temple and Middle Temple Inns of Court. 

Round Church and chancel

Chancel of Temple Church

Round Church

What next, I thought, after leaving the church. Checking Google Maps, I saw I was within easy walking distance of Sir John Soane's Museum, which Mike had mentioned a few days earlier, so I walked in that direction. A voluminous slate-gray cloud loomed in the west, and the sunshine was soon replaced by pounding hail that ricocheted off the ground and benches, smarting on the skin that was exposed. I took shelter for a while in Lincoln's Inn Field behind a gate post and under a spreading plane tree, which was mostly ineffective, so I hustled along to the museum, where there was a queue for entrance. The man at thee end of the line shared the umbrella that the museum had provided. The wait was only about 15 minutes. 

Hailstorm from my hiding place

Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was the preeminent architect of the Regency era; a professor of architecture at the Roayl Academy; and a dedicated collector, along with his wife, of paintings, sculpture, architectural fragments, drawing and furniture. As a student, he was awarded the Royal Academy's Gold Medal for Architecture which awarded him funds for a Grand Tour of Europe. His travels among the ruins of ancient Greece and Rome inspired his lifelong interest in Classical art and architecture.

When he was appointed a professor, he began to re-purpose his home at Lincoln's Inn Fields as a museum and workspace for his students. During his lifetime, Soane expanded his original home on the north side of Lincoln's Inn Fields by purchasing two adjoining properties. He demolished the three 17th-century houses and built new ones to his own specifications, designing both the exteriors and the interiors, as was common then.

His home became a museum before he died. In 1833, he negotiated a private Act of Parliament to preserve his house and collection, exactly as it was arranged at the time of his death, in perpetuity and to keep it open to the public for free for inspiration and education. Soane pursued this act in order to disinherit his younger, profligate son George, whom Sir John detested. (His elder son John died in 1823.) George had dismayed him by repeatedly accumulating debts, refusing to engage in a trade, and marrying a woman against his parents' wishes. Even worse, George attacked his father's reputation as an architect in two articles, published anonymously, in 1815. This disgraceful and disrespectful action on George's part had a deleterious effect on Sir John's wife Eliza, who was already suffering from ill health, and she died two months after the articles were published. Sir John blamed his son and never forgave him.

The museum exhibits some of the architectural features for which Soane was famous, including ingenious natural lighting using concealed skylights, lanterns, and yellow-tinted glass to provide a warm, glowing ambiance; convex mirrors and mirrored panels to multiply the light and provide a sense of more space; and shallow or pendentive domes (round domes with pointed corners resting on square bases) that seem to float above the rooms. Some of the rooms are living quarters while others were especially built to exhibit some of the collection. 

The first room to visit is the Library-Dining Room. The largest room in the house, it is painted vibrantly in Pompeian red and is furnished with mahogany tables and bookcases as well as chairs upholstered in burgundy-colored leather. Decorations include ancient Greek vases and other classical pieces. The books in the glass-covered bookcases (part of his collection of more than 7,000) include novels as well as such as volumes on cooking, travel, volcanoes and the history of magic.

Library-Dining Room

The Breakfast Room is entered through an arched doorway. The walls of this small room are covered with artwork, including brightly hued prints of frescoes from the Villa Negroni in Rome, which was being excavated during Soane's Grand Tour. A prime example of his use of a lantern in a shallow dome is found in this room.

Breakfast Room

Behind the Breakfast Room is the Dome Area, where Soane first began the museum. It features true antiquities as well as hundreds of plaster casts of classical architectural details, attached to the walls and affixed to the railings, surrounding a rectangular opening that showcases the alabaster sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti I (died 1279 BC) in the Sepulchral Chamber in the level below. (It is said that Soane purchased it after the British Museum declined to do so.) The piece is covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs and encased in glass.

Dome Area

Full size cast of Apollo Belvedere

Looking down at Seti I's sarcophagus

Detail of hieroglyphs

Perhaps the most fascinating of all the rooms is the Picture Room, which Soane constructed in 1824 when he was aged 71, in direct rivalry to the newly established National Gallery. The thirteen by twelve foot Picture Room is spatially efficient and intimate in feel. On the walls are 38 paintings--but there is more! Three of the deep olive-colored wooden walls are actually hinged panels that can be opened to reveal even more masterpieces hung on the opposing sides of the panels. In total, there are 118 paintings exhibited. One of the walls, when opened, also reveals a view across an open space to a large stained-glass window made from salvaged fragments from the medieval Palace of Westminster and a view below of the Monk's Parlour, which Soane created as an imaginative evocation of the Middle Ages where he sometimes entertained guests at tea time.

Picture Room

Picture Room with panels opened

Looking down into the Monk's Parlour

Monk's Parlour

The Painting Room exhibits some of the museums most valuable artworks, including three Venetian scenes by Canaletto; two famous series of paintings by the English painter William Hogarth, The Humours of an Election and A Rake's Progress; and works by JMW Turner and British painters who were contemporaries of Soane.

Although the Soane Museum is not large, it is easy to become captivated by the thousands of details and objects, so I stayed for more than an hour. When I emerged, the sun was shining again. Just before entering the Embankment Station to return to St. Katherine Docks, I noticed and then explored an elevated sculpture garden with modern and colorful works on display.

Fountain in the Artists' Garden

Two ceramic pieces cast underground

Artists' Garden 

Back on the boat, Peter and I had dinner and then went to the Milton Court Theatre at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for a jazz concert which was presented in three parts. The first two were performed by separate jazz choirs, both of which were phenomenal. After the second intermission, the highlight of the night took place, featuring seven student vocalists singing along with Scott Stroman, who developed the jazz curriculum at Guildhall over four decades ago, and one of the programs famous alumni, Cleveland Watkiss. It was like nothing we had ever heard before. The music was innovative and seemed spontaneous but was, indeed, carefully structured and meticulously rehearsed so that the rhythm and sound were smooth and interwoven to perfection. 

Thursday and Friday (May 14-15), I stayed on the boat. It was a bit dreary on Thursday with intermittent rain and small hail. I ventured out to deliver a book to Liz's flat and strolled along Spirit Quay to see the cygnets. They are still with their parents but are growing quickly. Three of them now are more white but the others still look like gray fluff. I stopped at Waitrose for a few groceries, even though I noticed the sky was looking ominous again and the air pressure had changed. When I emerged from the store with three bags of groceries, the rain mixed with hail had begun, but it's London, so I just made a dash for the docks. Because of the weather, I decided not to go to a concert at Guildhall, so the day passed with no cultural activities.

Swans and cygnets (plus mallards and pigeon)

Friday I stayed on board to help Peter, who was tackling sorting through and storing stuff that was in boxes in the shower. Now the shower is a shower again and the bathroom is clean, but the parts and projects were scattered yesterday evening in the saloon and our cabin. It all was mostly back in boxes in the saloon by bedtime. Meanwhile, I stuck around and really contributed nothing to the effort since I don't know what the stuff is or how to organize it. 

Stuff on the bed

Stuff in the saloon

No stuff in the bathroom!

A fellow Ocean Cruising Club member who, with his wife, lives on their boat here at St. Katherine Docks, came by in the afternoon to share information about places to visit along the coast of Belgium and the Netherlands. He and his wife also travel in Tanzania every year, so he and Peter shared information about Peter's country of birth. 

Now, I simply must go out in the blustery weather and see some sights here while avoiding two major rallies in the streets of London.