Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: London

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Victoria and Albert Museum (Figures From Bristol High Cross)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Victoria and Albert Museum (Figures From Bristol High Cross)

    These are two of those random items at a museum, in this case the Victoria and Albert Museum, that might not look overly exciting at first glance, but they have a rather exotic heritage. Well, sort of. They date to around 1400 and were part of the Bristol High Cross, located in the heart of the city. Unfortunately, it was so central that it got in the way of traffic and so in 1733 it was taken down, in a forerunner to many similar decisions from councils in the centuries that followed.

    So, after the council faffed about with the bits of their High Cross for a few years, it was moved to College Green in 1736. And here it is above, located near to Bristol Cathedral, well out of everyone’s way. Then people complained again, it was in the way of how they wanted to promenade around the area, so they took it down in 1762 and shoved the bits in the cloisters of the Cathedral.

    Then, an overly generous Cutts Barton, the then Dean of Bristol, gave the city’s entire High Cross to the banker Henry Hoare II for his country estate at Stourhead. I’m not convinced that this was for the many and not the few, but there we go. A century later, the Victorians wanted to get their High Cross put back in Bristol, but it was now thought to be too badly damaged. After much faffing about, there is now a replica in Bristol which has been moved on numerous occasions to deal with the latest wave of complaints.

    Until 1980, all of Bristol’s High Cross still remained at Stourhead, now a National Trust property. This is when the four statues were sent to the Victoria and Albert Museum, although the rest of the cross is still there. And here they are today, likely representing four Kings who it’s thought might be King John, King Henry III, King Edward I and King Edward III.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Victoria and Albert Museum (Reliquary Diptych)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Victoria and Albert Museum (Reliquary Diptych)

    This rather lovely item (or, to be precise, two items as it’s two halves of a folding reliquary and has two catalogue numbers) is in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum. And, whilst I’m wittering on, I’m very impressed at the level of information about this item (and I’m hoping many others) on their web-site, there are tens of paragraphs of information about these reliquaries and far more than I can ever really understand.

    I like reliquaries, especially personal ones which would have been deeply important to their owners, although this was likely made for a monastery. This one is thought to have been made in Spoleto, a town nearby to Perugia in Italy, in the 1320s. Some of the relics are still in the recessed area, although others are missing or have moved about. It’s not entirely clear who each item was associated with, but there are a few bone fragments.

    There’s lots of provenance for this item, something I’m nearly always intrigued by, I quite like how ownership of items has worked out over time. It was owned by Serafino Tordelli (1787-1864) who was a collector of items who lived in Spoleto, and it was purchased by the dealer Giuseppe Baslini (1817-1877) after Tordelli’s death. The museum then purchased the reliquaries for £4 (£250 in today’s money according to the National Archives) on 17 July 1868.

    The number of faked relics reached the point in the medieval period that there were more body parts for some saints than the individual had limbs for. Many of relics were destroyed during the Reformation and there’s no evidence for many relics at all, other than hearsay. But, at the time it was a personal connection which would have been important and the destruction of so many relics during the Reformation must have caused some considerable distress.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Victoria and Albert Museum

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Victoria and Albert Museum

    I can’t remember the last time that I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, it certainly isn’t in the last few years. I’ve also never quite understood what the collections policy of the museum is and what they focus on, although I think it’s primarily decorative items that aren’t covered by other national museums.

    The museum opened in 1852 as the Museum of Manufactures, something of a legacy from the Great Exhibition of 1851. The museum was renamed as the South Kensington Museum, moved to its current location in 1857 and was renamed again as the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1899.

    The V&A is is one of the best rated museums in the world on review sites and I couldn’t find anything negative about my four hour visit there today. The staff at the entrance were welcoming, the security guard was friendly, the signage was clear, the web-site is detailed, everything worked as it should. The collections are enormous, I hadn’t realised that there were seven miles of exhibits should they somehow be stretched out.

    Anyway, lots more individual posts on certain exhibits to follow, but below are some photos from the interior. One thing that might be apparent is that it wasn’t exactly packed with other visitors. Despite spending four hours at the museum, I didn’t get to see everything, this is somewhere that needs multiple visits to properly understand.

  • London – Croydon (Borough of) – Numbers 2-8 Church Road

    London – Croydon (Borough of) – Numbers 2-8 Church Road

    Located near to Croydon Minster (the one with the paving slabs made out of gravestones) I thought that these looked rather beautiful in the otherwise urban environment of the town. From a time where design and heritage was given at least some thought, these are actually from the late nineteenth century and have some nice bits of decorative work.

    There we go, something positive about Croydon.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Ibis Styles Kensington (Seventh Visit)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Ibis Styles Kensington (Seventh Visit)

    There has long not been much point my writing up my repeated visits to this hotel for anyone else, the duplication is rather high to say the least. But, since I’m writing this to remind me where I’ve been, I shall happily indulge myself.

    For the first time I’ve been given a room that I’ve had before, which was an upgrade to a larger double room. Spotlessly clean and with a window that opens to ensure ventilation. I like that. Incidentally, the hotel had a heap of heaters near to reception, so I’m probably the only guest that decided the room could be just that bit cooler. The only fault with the room was the one that was there weeks ago, the light on the table doesn’t work. But, I battled on without such luxury and decadence.

    The free welcome drink, my standard choice…..

    The breakfast hasn’t changed much over the last few months, it’s probably not going to satisfy some, but it’s perfectly sufficient as a little snack and I like their coffee. It’s hard for me to find fault, especially taking into account that this room cost under £25 per night, even before reward points are taken into account.

    So, not much else to add to my previous visits, but this is an excellent value for money option and just a short walk away from Earl’s Court railway station.

  • London – Croydon (Borough of) – Former Swan & Sugar Loaf

    London – Croydon (Borough of) – Former Swan & Sugar Loaf

    This is a rather beautiful building in South Croydon, built as a pub and hotel in 1896. It was built on the site of another pub and was clearly the pride of Page & Overton, the local brewery. It stopped being used as a pub in 2010 and it was soon taken over by squatters, with concerns that it might be attacked during the Croydon Riots of 2011. Fortunately, the building survived and there were plans to turn it into a pub or restaurant after a restoration. Unfortunately, the restoration was ultimately carried out by Tesco, so the property is now used as a supermarket. Lovely as it is that the building survives, the historic interior has been lost and I can’t truthfully say that Tesco has been entirely sympathetic to the former pub.

  • London – Croydon (Borough of) – Trams

    London – Croydon (Borough of) – Trams

    I’ve never before used the tram service to Croydon, so this was a new experience. The network has 39 stops along 17 miles of track, connecting into the London Underground network at Wimbledon, where I caught the tram from. There are two main different trams on the network, the 23 trams of the older Bombardier CR4000 style and the 12 newer Croydon Stadler Variobahn variety. The above is the latter, and thus the newer model.

    The tram service wasn’t overly busy at Wimbledon, although it got busier towards Croydon. It was generally easy to use, although I forgot that it wasn’t the DLR and I tapped in when arriving in Croydon, which isn’t actually necessary. There is also a procedure in Wimbledon to tap in so that the system knows that the passenger used a tram and not a train.

    The service was comfortable and the journey was smooth, it’s a shame that more cities around the country can’t afford tram networks such as this. Norwich would perhaps be very well suited to such a network, although I can’t imagine how the initial funding would ever be reached. Although Norwich did have a tram system in the past, it’s very much now for larger cities only, in the UK at least.

    A tragedy took place on 9 November 2016, which became news across the world, when a driver managed to overturn a tram, killing seven people. It’s hard to imagine just how a driver could do this, but it was confirmed that it was his error that caused the incident, in what was the first tram crash in the UK since 1959 which led the death of a tram passenger. An inquest into the derailment was meant to start in October 2020, but it has now been delayed until next year.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Holland Park (Walking Man)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Holland Park (Walking Man)

    This must be quite a scary thing to stumble across in the dark, although, I suspect Holland Park isn’t open at night which does avoid that dilemma….. It’s an artwork by Sean Henry and a text about the artist’s sculptures in this series (and he’s created numerous different versions within the theme) notes:

    “His figurative sculptures are self–contained, often pensive, and preoccupied by their inner imaginings and on occasion verge on melancholic representations of our human existence.”

    There was meant to be an exhibition by Henry on this month in London, although the current crisis means it has been cancelled or postponed. There’s an interesting on-line version though at https://experience.osbornesamuel.com/waiting-for-the-sun/virtual-tour/.

    With regards to the above artwork in Holland Park, Henry notes:

    “The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea have joined forces with the Friends of Holland Park this month to purchase Sean Henry’s final cast of ‘Walking Man’ 1998 for permanent installation in the beautiful grounds of Holland Park, West London. A privately owned version of the sculpture had been on loan to the Royal Borough from 2000 until recently, and the new sculpture will stand in the same location, close to the famous Kyoto Gardens.”

    I’m not sure I entirely understand it, but I like the concept and where the artist can go with it. A nice choice by the council.

  • London – Newham (Borough of) – ExCel Centre Holiday Inn Express

    London – Newham (Borough of) – ExCel Centre Holiday Inn Express

    Conveniently located near to the Royal Albert DLR station, I picked this hotel as there was an offer on points which I thought I’d take advantage of. The check-in was efficient and the Government’s slightly onerous rules were explained by a helpful member of staff. Normally there is an offer of a welcome drink or bonus points, but they were just giving extra points which seemed reasonable enough given the current Tier 2 situation.

    The room, all clean and well presented. However, I wasn’t that keen on the whole arrangement as this is one of those hermetically sealed hotels with no opening windows. That was coupled with a decision made by the hotel to set the temperature to that similar to that of a furnace in full operation. Making that worse was that the air conditioning was very basic, so customers can’t set it (there was a panel on the wall, more as a placebo effect as the hotel is all heated or cooled to the same temperature). It’s just a decision to do things on the cheap by IHG and it means I won’t stay here again. As an aside, I’d heard about a travel writer saying the best thing to do was to soak a towel in cold water and put under your feet or head, and that worked rather well. But it’s hardly ideal.

    I risked going down to breakfast at the “very busy, queues are highly likely” time. Although it makes me wonder why the hotel hasn’t changed the capacity to deal with that, but that’s a different matter for when the hospitality industry recovers.

    Here’s the very busy breakfast area.

    And the queues.

    There was a full English breakfast option available, but I opted for a bacon butty which was of a perfectly good quality. The drinks options were coffee, tea, pre-packaged juices and the like, but given the challenging times at the moment, this was all sufficient. Incidentally, the staff members were making a huge effort to explain the breakfast arrangements, take orders and engage with customers.

    So, if the hotel hadn’t skimped on its air conditioning arrangements then I might come here again as the staffing was on point and everything seemed clean and professionally run. For those who don’t mind warmer rooms, it’s probably all quite unproblematic as a hotel though.

  • London – Hackney (Borough of) – Shoreditch – Goose Island (Fourth Visit)

    London – Hackney (Borough of) – Shoreditch – Goose Island (Fourth Visit)

    I perhaps need to stop coming here, but this bar is a constant delight to me. I won’t repeat all the stuff I’ve mentioned in my previous three visits (all of which I’ve written up, to ensure people can be surprised and delighted with my ramblings). I booked a table for tonight, and they dealt with that helpfully by e-mail, although I didn’t really need to book as it was very quiet. I was offered a choice of table (as in pretty much any table in the entire place), but I sat at the rear bit for the first time, next to some of their brewing equipment.

    Some more of the decor…. The service was, as ever, engaging, knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. For a central London bar to be this consistently reliable is an achievement in my admittedly slightly irrelevant opinion.

    In London, and in other Tier 2 areas, it’s essential to order a substantial meal with any alcoholic drink. So, I ordered buttermilk chicken strips and they were delightful, a light coating which was soft and not overly crunchy, with tender chicken. The BBQ sauce added flavour and richness, the spring onions some extra texture. The staff member explained that they’ve reprinted the menu to show which dishes are classed as substantial meals and it’s evident they’re staying firmly within the rules and the spirit of the rules. They don’t class chips as a substantial meal.

    But, putting the food to one side, I’d had my eye on one beer all day, which was the Big Trouble in Little Gateshead from The River Brew Co. up in Gateshead. The reviews were very positive on Untappd, although I was nervous about a 14% stout, as too much alcohol can be just too rich and hide any flavours. This one was decadence in a glass, and I shall do my flowery words again which likely go too far. But, there were different flavours, an initial creamy taste, rich in body, but with sweet afternotes and that ABV didn’t hide anything. It remained a powerful drink though, one that allowed me to sip it for the best part of an hour. All a third of a pint of it. Perhaps I need to get out more.

    As a bonus, the drink was £5 for a third of a pint. To my delight though, Amex have started to operate another Shop Small, so I got £5 off the bill. So, thank you very much Amex for funding this rather beautiful stout. And Goose Island didn’t disappoint me at all. I think I might go back. Again.