Tea Time in Wonderland

Posts Tagged ‘Southbank’

Valentine’s week-end!

- How about a very poetic walk?

- To be followed by an excellent hot chocolate…

- Maybe a classical music concerts, candlelit?

- Alternatively, you can try the cinema screening on the National Theatre roof -  bring your blankets, champagne and picnic!

It’s also the Chinese New year – a roaring Tiger year! The official celebrations ave been postponed to next week – love marketing obliging – but you still can…

- Go to the National Portrait Gallery on Saturday. At noon, 14h00 and 16h00 there will be traditional dances, martial art and Chinese legends storytelling…

- or rush to the Museum of London Dockland Museum to taste some lovely tea, see a few screenings and enjoy the paper cutting workshops…

What about kids?

- Take them to the Wetland center to pet farm animals…

- or to the Horniman Museum for the Myths and Monster exhibition!

A few more options:

- Star Trek fans, be on the Millenium Bridge Saturday at 13.00 – preferably with your costume on!

- Pack some bargain at the market…

- Go and marvel at Judi Dench in a Midsummer’s night dream…

- Enjoy winter sports @ Trafalgar -  the Vancouver opening ceremony will be projected on a giant screen, vitual video games proposed and there will even be a giant ice sculpture of the olympic rings…

- Rediscover the fab Imperial Museum of War and enjoy their Ministry of food exhibition – extraordinary war posters like the famous Dig for Victory

- Stop at Lulu Guinness’ pop up shop in Carnaby street and be a fashion victim

Pssst! Don’t forget Shrove Tuesday next week -  head for the famous Spitafield pancake race!

Love fair!

- Gasp in amazement at the Wildlife photographs @ the Natural History Museum. This takes place every year and is a real marvel.

- Learn about forgery in art @ the V&A…

- Get to know the designer stars of the future…

- Into kinetic and robotic? The Kinetica art fair is for you….

- Don’t forget Valentine’s day is coming up! Find a vintage treasure @ this jumble and pearl sale or at this glassblown objects sale… Even more finds at this love fair!

- Or arrange to tour London in a mini-Cooper!

- Fancy a walk and some fresh air? Why not discover the Jewish quarters? Or an Indian food walk?

- Enjoy a day @ Kew Gardens -  as lovely in winter as in summer – and get some exotism in the conservatory presenting collections of colourful orchids and tropical flowers…

- Have teenagers dreaming of making movies? Take them to the BFI Future Film Festival!

- Have a look at the possible sculptures for the Spittafield Market and vote for your favourite…

- Try a restaurant with a difference – dinner and circus show!

You’ll find me wandering through the Russian festival, having a lovely Chelsea Chai @ Yumchaa and enjoying French electro music with Anne B’s concert (thanks to Le Petit Journal). How about you?

Oh, and if you have the time, go and check out this giant ice cube in front of the Tate next week. 3 days only!

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?

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?

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

Another rainy week-end ahead… Smile! Just take your umbrella on an adventure…

Here’s to put you in the mood:

- The Portobello Winter festival starts this wednesdau and will have thematic nights every Wednesday till Xmas

- Don’t forget to get prepared for those Xmas parties and meals: celebrate Thanksgiving!

Feeling better? Here’s for the week-end:

- Head for the new pop-ups before they blow away with the fashion wind… Nes-cafe @ Liberty and the famous Parisian Colette on Brick Lane

- Need your weekly dose of street art? Hoorray! Mutate opens its doors again @ Portobello.

- Even Damien Hirst is back @ the White Cube Gallery. It’s still time to see his No love lost @ the Wallace collection

- Spendid news pictures @ The Royal Festival Hall…

- Alternatively hum Only you @ Proud Chelsea… Great pics of a young Elvis.

- Kids will find happiness in Covent Garden – there will be a real reindeer to pat Saturday afternoon. Parents will probably prefer the amazing jewel exhibition that flashes magic lights under UVs…

You’ll find me @ the Secret Cinema… and having an underground afternoon tea. What’s YOUR program?

A hot chocolate, a new scarf and gloves, and here you go. Plenty to see this week-end to get into the Xmas spirit. Not that you can really escape it!

- Start on Southbank – either with the Slowfood market (jazz themed this time) or the Cologne Xmas market…

- Oxford street launches its market this week as well…

- Want more? Head to Hyde Park for a walk and a big wheel ride with the Winterwonderland…

- Stop @ Covent Garden for the Lacoste experience or simply for the kids to enjoy candlelit stories…

- Head to Victoria station or Westfield to see the Cirque du soleil (and hopefully win free tickets!)…

- See another dimension in Trafalgar square with the ghost forest…

- Take the kids to the London children film festival…

- Want to make them gasp in wonder? Have a walk with them in the Enchanted forest @ Syon Park. Thousands of lights in the trees. £5 per adult, £2 per kids – quite cheap for the thrill…

- Skate at the Somerset House. Have alook at the program: Breakfast @ tiffany’s matinees and DJ evenings!

Hibernate under a cosy duvet? Or fight the weather?

If you belong to the brave category:

- Not to be missed: the Lord’s Mayor show on Saturday. Not Boris, the other one, managing the City. 800 years of tradition! There will be a procession from the City to Westminster (where the Mayor will pledge allegiance to the crown): 6000 people, 202 horses, 24 marching bands… The RAF will fly past, visits will be offered through the capital and the day will finish with fireworks over the Thames at 17.00… For the occasion, shops @ Gabriel’s wharf are offering a few discounts.

- Sunday, Selfridge’s will be playing the Jumble Garage sale card, a giant one, profits going to a charity. Come and find a bargain! Entry is at £5, freee for under 12s. Cash only at the stalls.

- Marmite – Love it ? Hate it? In any case, have a look @ their pop-up shop near Piccadilly. You can even have a crumpet there. I stopped by earlier today, most of their online shop and a few limited edition. Hate the stuff but hell, love the design!

- You’ll find happiness at the Country Living Xmas show – so many stalls with original and unique ideas. I go almost every year and have never tired of it.

- Fancy an afternoon tea? Want it very British but also fashionable? Try the Howard’s – elegance, of course, but how to resist the shortbreads shaped and decorates as the milestones of London? Have a look at the pics!

Sunday, for once, I will not be rushing around the town. I prefer a quiet family afternoon, on the Puppet Barge, to enjoy a festive puppet show in Little Venice…

Now, what about you?

Stations are eternal waiting points.
One stomps their feet, waiting for that damn screen to finally show the platform number, only to have to dash there, olympic-sprint like.
One tries to kill the time while waiting for friends, victimes of the tube or life maze.

Waterloo is my usual one. Touring the shops does not take much of your time. It lacks more elegant cafe, as you could find in St Pancras, smarter lines, a little design, a little gloss. You could got to Southbank and indulge at Giraffe or Foyles but you feel it is a bit too far. Why did you decide to meet here? It seemed logical at the time.

Street art lovers will love going to Leake Street, a tunnel only 5 mn away. Banksy launched his Cans festival there in 2008. It remained one of the rare legal wall for graffers who just make the most of it. A tag will rarely stay more than a few days. Sometimes even hours. Yarnbombing even stopped there for a while. You’ll often see artists in full creation. The atmosphere is completely unreal with, very often, classical music being played by the speakers – don’t ask, the council’s idea to underline the peacefulness and artistic dimension of the place, I guess, and refute the idea, for once, of vandalism.

But if your heart beats for murals, try the Tolsky Century, again 5 mn from the station. I can see you frown, This Polish artist settled in London in 1935 and quickly becomes a war-artist-reporter. He’ll travel all around the world, from India to Arctic via Lybia, China… He has this amazing talent, which I love in Hippolyte Romain to transform a few splashes of paint into a picturesque chronicle.

In 1951, Prince Philip commissions him -  a mural for Busckingham, depicting Elisabeth II’s coronation. This gets him ticking. He first assembles a number vof drawings in a book. In 1974, he sets up his workshop here, under the bridg arches, a few steps away from Waterloo… and starts documenting the century history, his century, in ceiling high paintings. He dies in 1989, still working on it.

You’ll meet Gandhi, Picasso, Martin Luther King, Hitler, Mao, the Black Panthers… The memory of times in motion. I find his characters’ emotions intense. All this for £2. Well, you’ll be the one to be late this time…

Topolsky century
150 Hungerford Arches
Concert Hall Approach
Waterloo
London SE1 8XU

…with a cheese and wine market! A dozen stalls propose cheese from all over the world – and yes, you can taste plenty of those! Or maybe alternate with the wine stands. You’ll also find fab beers (try the Whitstable one!), favoured oils, bread with herbs sprinkled on top…

Doesn’t this make you suddenly feel like having a picnic?

Cheese and Wine festival
Southbank Centre Square
London

Until October 25 18.oo