London: Tea Time in Wonderland

It may be particularly central, but I tend to avoid charing Cross Tube station. It seems more greyish, more depressing than any of the others… Although I read cineast do prefer it when they need a “modern” station in the background!

I took a different entrance than I usually do and suddenly found this black and white mural. Quite a long one – a hundred meters, inspired by medieval design.

This scene was drawn by David Gentleman to commemorate Eleanor de Castille’s (Edward I’s wife) funeral trip.

What interest? Wait – it’s quite an atypic last journey…

Edward I had business to do in Nottinghamshire. His spouse followed, though at a slower rater as she was feverish. She will not reach th final destination, dying a little before Lincoln. The King arrives in time to listen to her death wishes. He’s heartbroken – 36 years of marriage – she was only 13 when they wedded – 16 children and one of the happiest royal marriages in the British History…

The Queen wanted to lay in Westminster Abbey. 145 miles from there – we are in 1290 and the roads are not so good. She is therefor embalmed for the journey. That implies evisceration… her organs will be buried in Lincoln’s cathedral (and are still there to this day).

The trip back will take 12 days. Inspired by the French King Louis IX’s funeral procession (the only French king to have been cannonised, by the way), he decides to have a cross put up each time they stop for the night – a symbol of his grief and a hope that traveller’s will pray for Eleanor’s soul. Time is short, it will first be a wooden cross, replaced in the following years by sculpted stone ones. All of them must follow three steps: the lower base must show the late queen’s coats of arms, the middle level have statues of Eleanor then finish by a column topped by a cross.

Out of them all (Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham, Westcheap, Charing), only three survived. Note that the last one was in Charing… which name transformed in time in Charing Cross… Unfortunately, it was destroyed during the Civil War, and replaced by an equastrian statue of Charles I (considered as the true center of London). A more intricate copy was built during the Victorian times, just in front of the actual Charing Cross railway station, a street from there.

Following her wishes, her body rests in Westminster Abbey… and her heart in the Blackfriars priory.

And you thought it was just a silly mural, eh?

First – get yourself in the mood with the V&A Renaissance ball on Friday night…

- Try one of Babylone’s Friday night concerts – the restaurant is famous for its roof gardens (if you go there by daylight, look out for the pink flamingos who live there. Yep, real ones. )

- More of a dancing queen? Go to the Abbaworld exhibition! Or @ Proud Camden for spendid pics of rock’n'roll animals, Elvis or Blondie.

Or make it an arty week-end:

- Use your imagination at Visible Invisible…

- Marvel @ ingeniosity @ 1001 inventions….

- Add a pinch of exotism…

- and a little rainbow at the Tate…

Nostalgic? try the photo exhibition @ Kenwood house instead, on lost London. Or dream of other lands with these projections of the Arctic on the Hayward Gallery external walls…

You can also participate to this strange project to recycle works of art…

Much prefer a quiet week-end with the kids? Try the free workshop sessions @ the Somerset house or take them for a bit of Dr Seuss rhyming! Even better? Go and find some dinosaurs…

You’ll find me @ the Saacthi for their new Indian exhibition (and possibly getting some cornbread mix from the nearby Partridges and there’s a Saturday morning market there too) and at Jen’s cafe for a bubble tea.

What about your best plans for the week-end?

As a teenager, I hated museum. You had to pay for the ticket, walk through white cold corridors covered with works of arts and tiny lables, spend a reasonable time given the price the had paid and felt you had to lear something in the process. Boring! I compensated with exhibitions for which I could at least choose a theme I liked.

England changed all this for me. In London, the main big museums are free. I started by going there before meeting friends if I was too early, strolling through them happily. Take the pressure off and it is immediately more enjoyable. You spend a few minutes there or a few hours. Great for kids too as they are welcomed and encouraged -  games, art trolleys, even workshop. And of course, if your toddlers decides it’s not a museum day, no guilt in leaving the place after 10mn only. My daughter learnt to walk in the large corridors of the V&A museum: she was delighted with so much space, we caught a glimpse of culture on the way.

One of my favourite treasures is in the entrance of the National Gallery. Look down, it is at your feet!

Mosaics, yes, from the Russian artist Boris Anrep. Too classical? Look again…

Anrep was lucky to lay down four works along the stairs:

- Labours of life in 1928, reminding us of the constructive and creative nature of man, he said. Engineering, exporing (look for the zebra), farming (in which a pig is being washed), studying (meet the Natural History Museum diploocus!)…

- Pleasures of life in 1929, among which football, cricket, hunting, girls on motorbike, dancing charleston, a Xmas pudding and a mud pie…

- The awakening of the muses in 1933 – the artist used his friends as models. Being part of the fanous Bloomsbury Group, he used Virginia Woolf as the History Muse and Greta Garbo for Melpomene…

- Modern Virtues in 1952 or the intellectual life of 1930ies and 4oies. Again, you’ll find famous people of the time depicted there. Such as Winston Churchill defying a Svastica shaped monster…

You’ll find new details at each visit. Ideal with kids too -  give them a list of objects and actions to find for a few minutes of peace!

And why not learn more about the buildings arounf Trafalgar Square (here and there) and discover this strange tower-lampost…

The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London WC2N 5DN
Free

Snow, icy rain, a ray of sunshine? Just get a hazelnut hot chocolate at the nearest Starbucks and off you go!

- Play the culture card with the latest Van Gogh exhibition…

- Knit yourself a scraf while enjoying a lovely cup of tea…

- dream of a long gone Covent Garden…

- try an afternoon tea – new style…

- Hunt for art deco @ the decorative antique fair…

- Take a garden fan to the potato fair!

- Get your 70ies outfit for the projection of Mamma Mia on a giant screen @ the O2…

- Toast the famous Scottish poet Burns…

- sprinkle with some alternative art…

You’ll find me @ the Underground restaurant Friday evening for curious experiences… What are your plans?

Allergic to technology? The mention of Html leaves you blank-faced?

Try the Decode exhibition @ the V&A. Code lines transform into colourful works of art, recreating themselves constantly in elegant curves… waves reacting to visitors’ movements… You can even have a ghostly picture of yourself projected.

A fab place for kids, really. Many presentations are interactive – like this tree reacting to the wind blowing outside the museum and shedding its leaves of light on the floor – shuffle through them. The best one certainly is this canvass on which you can project splashes of colours just by making your hands dance… Highly enjoyable, whether you’re a two year old od a full grown maestro. Alternatively, play with the 3D model of a city or carress the LED reeds that will light up as you brush past them….

Modern but enchanting – @ £5.90, a lovely occasion to experiment electronic poetry. Ideal with kids. Especially as with this 2 for 1 offer until January 31!

You might as well stop for a cupcake too @ the Hummingbird bakery, close to the tube station. Or maybe you won’t be able to resist Ben’s cookies, with their melting chocolate chips… (just at the exit of the tube station)

Decode
V&A
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL

Until April 11, 2010
£5 / adult

Tottenham Court Road is certainly my favourite Tube station. Busy for sure, but hey, it also shelter 1000 square meters of crazy and colourful mosaics. I never get tired of fixing the geometric shapes, discover a new object each time… Butterflies, masks (many references to the British Museum), saxophons, a heron, a cow, a chicken, a satellite…

This work of art by the Scottish artist Paolozzi (the pioneer of pop art in England) however proves very tricky: how to renovate and modernise the station without destroying them? It took years of work in the early 1980ies and will take as much to take the tiles down…

Had never heard of the guy? You probably already know another of is sculptures though – the giant holding a compass at the entry of the British Library. Why not hunt his other treasures with this Londonist list?

Oh, feeling so lazy these days. But come on, plenty to do!

- Admire extraodinary ice sculptures @ Canary Wharf Friday and Saturday…

- Enjoy the V&A newly openedMedieval and Renaissance galleries. You think you’ll just walk through them and end up staying an hour!

- Redecorate your house thanks to the London art Fair…

- Learn about 200 years of North-American rituals and traditions @ the British Museum…

- See something new @ the Saatchi Gallery: Richard Wilson’s new structural art work, 20:50…

- Turn slow movement into art…

- Take the kids to the mime festival…

- try the new pie and mash restaurant in Covent Garden…

- Find a colourful way back home, at nightfall, through Jubilee Park…

- and sleep @ the Natural History Museum! £45 for 5 children 8-11 and 3 adults. A night visit, torch litof the galleries, a film projections, talks about insects… Ideal for adventurers!

You’ll find me instead… cocooning in front of a roaring chimney fire with a mug of cocoa in Cheshire. How about you?

I have a tenderness for this one. Oh, it’s not the atmosphere, the staines windows, the shiny mosaics ot the lovely smell of waxed wood…

It’s more the affection, the smiles, the gratefulness of the hospital friends who have embroidered prayer cushions to thank each department for their help… even the flower shop, the cleaning lady and even one in rememberance of Willaim Gull, a scientist who helped make great progress in his time.

Just have a quick look if you’re near the Borough Market or visit the Old Operating Theatre…

Guy’s chapel

On your right as soon as you step in
Guy’s Hospital
St Thomas’ Street
London
SE1 9RG

Climb the narrow wooden stairs to discover this previous annex of St Thomas Hospital. The first part presents medicinal plants used for treatments and the way they were prepared.

But what a strange place – this is the roof of the english baroque church!

At the time though it proved logical. The hospital was built around the church and the women ward almost touched this side of the building. Before 1822, the patients were operated in their own bed, surrounded but the medical student gathering to learn a new process. No phonic insulation – imagine how high the morale was! It was therefore practical to extend to the church and build a separate operating theatre.

Placed under the roof, it offered natural light. Surprisingly small and basic, this is the oldest in Europe.

Picture it. At the time, there were no anesthaetics. Alcool and opiate were used instead. Chloroform only appeared in 1947… Any surgery had to be pretty quick. No comfort -  single plank of wood. Wood saw on the floor to absorb blood. No heating in winter. Did you know that Keats practised as a surgeon here before dedicating himself to arts and poetry?

Short life though – St Thomas slowly moved towards Lambeth and closes the theatre in 1862. It stays completely forgotten and intact! until 1956… A visit in a long gone London. You will bless modern medicine after this.

St Thomas’ hospital is on the other side of the street. Walk under its arches and say hello to Keat’s statue there. Admirers like to leave a few flowers in his memory. A couple of streets away is the lovely Borough Market with its extraordinary stalls of cheese, pickles, pastries…

The old operating theatre
9a St. Thomas’s St.
London SE1 9RY

£5.80/adult
Tube: London Bridge

Fed up spending your evenings wrapping a mountain of presents in golden gift paper? Chill out!

- Mix your own soda on Thursday…

- Take your kids to the Scoop on Friday to sing Xmas…

- Or play Gay Bingo on Friday at Selfridge’s…

- Munch your way through the slow food market on Southbank or at the Real food market at Covent Garden, more gourmet.

- Have the kids create their own Xmas disguise…

- Or ride in a carriage at Kew Gardens…

- A little flight simulation, guys?

- Or would you prefer a pint and some table football?

- Have a look at the new Sherlock Holmes @ Mme Tussaud (and double the occasion with the Sherlock Holmes museum a few steps away)

- Listen to poetry and short stories in Hyde Park while eating mince pies…

- Grab a glass of mulled wine and listen to Xmas carols @ Covent Garden…

- Stop at St Pancras and see ice sculptures…

- Watch the Chinese Circus and dream…

- Add a little pop street art…

You’ll find me at the All of everything exhibition between two suitcases to be packed…