Museums and Art Galleries (Second attempt)

Looks like I'm doing well on the museums and art galleries front:

Museums:

• London Transport Museum
• Sherlock Holmes Museum
• Dicken's House Museum
• Maritime Museum, Greenwich
  
• Cutty Sark and Golden Hind
• Bank of England Museum
• Guards Museum in London
  
• HMS Belfast
• Clockmakers' Museum
• Dr. Johnson's House
• Hogarth's House
• Kensington Palace
• The National Archives
• Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising
• Wellcome Collection
• Madame Tussauds
• Science Museum
• Natural History Museum
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• Royal Observatory, Greenwich
• Wellington Arch

Art Galleries:

• Barbican
• White Cube
• Dulwich Picture Gallery
• Guildhall Art Gallery
• National Gallery
• National Portrait Gallery
• Tate Modern
• Tate Britain

The list (number seven)

Here's an updated list with a few items crossed-out:

• Tour round Buckingham Palace
• Go up the BT Tower for the view
  
• Cycle around Richmond park
• Sneak into the fancy hotels - Hilton, Savoy etc
• Go to all the museums in London
• Go to all the major art museums in London
  
• Have a drink in the ice-bar off Regent Street
• Do the sing-along sound of music at the Prince Charles cinema
  
• Watch a film at the Electric cinema in Notting Hill
• Watch a film at a Leicester Square cinema
• Watch an IMAX film near Waterloo
• Go to a casino
• Explore the new O2 centre at the Millennium Dome
• Tour round the BBC TV centre and BBC Broadcasting House
• Watch a live, well-attended debate in Parliament (e.g. Prime Ministers questions)
• Go out for an artsy night out in the east-end.
• Shop at Petticoat Lane market
• Go on the rides at the London dungeons
• Sit in on a Sotheby's auction
• Eat at a traditional pie 'n' mash shop
• Tour round Lord's cricket ground
• Tour round Wembley stadium
• Go to the London wetland centre
• Visit Chelsea Physic Garden
• Get into London fashion week
• Tour around City Hall
• Tour around Tower Bridge
• Go to the tennis at Wimbledon
• See some plays
• Ride home in a rickshaw
• Eat at some famous restaurants
• Visit the hidden-away nature reserve behind St. Pancras station
• Visit a big mosque, big synagogue, other big places of worship
  
• Use an "isolation tank" near London Bridge
• Get a free Hare Krishna vegetarian meal
• Go to the the Jazz Cafe in Camden
• Go to some jazz club I've heard about in Soho
• Eat a meal in one of the touristy Leicester square steak houses
• Tour around Battersea power station
• Explore Heathrow Terminal 5
• Tour round Albert Hall and Albert Memorial
• Tour round Chiswick's Fuller's brewery
• Tour round Wandsworth's Young's Brewery
  
• Eat at the restaurant at the top of Tate Modern
• Visit an exhibition at Earls Court and Kensington Olympia
• Visit a city farm
• Tour round Thames barrier
• Visit a talk at the Royal Geographical Society
• Buy some food from a roadside taxi cafe

Kensington Palace

Website: http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace

Yesterday ABJ and I visited Kensington Palace. As I work nearby I've been past the place hundreds of times but I'd never actually been inside. It turned out that you got a discount of £1 if you booked your tickets online so I booked two £10 student tickets before we set out.

It was a sunny day and we arrived in the busy Kensington Gardens, entered the main approach to the palace and found the ticket desks around the back. We picked up our tickets smoothly and got out audio guide.

Unfortunately the audio guide hand-held wand was quite uncomfortable - there was a big nodule sticking out which you had to hold against your ear. It was just too big to fit inside your ear and just too small to rest your ear against, instead you continually bashed your ear lobe against it as it rattled in circles around your outer ear as you wandered the hallways. Not only that but when each audio entry finished there was no signal - just silence. This led to us holding the wands to our ears in humble uncertainty for 5-10 seconds after each entry. We set off and learned about the ceremonial costumes that young men and women used to wear. The costumes on display were original and some were very impressive - lots of gold embroidery. Some of the more ceremonial aspects seemed very pointless - the worst beinga flattened hat which couldn't even be worn but had to be carried tucked under the arm as a sign of respect to the monarch.

There was a mock-up of a upper-class tailor's showroom where you could inspect the fabrics they used and see colonial uniforms on display. A few more rooms showed original laces and a sewing workshop. It was interesting to learn how immense the effort was to make many of the garments on display - many young women working in terrible conditions to make the finery for the upper-class. ABJ did some arty photography: We were then treated to room after room of dresses that Princess Diana had worn. This seemingly never-ending parade of 80s and 90s dress styles is one of the main attractions to the palace but I found it fairly dull:From this point on, in fact, the exhibits became more and more strange. There was a focus on débutantes - the young upper-class women who were presented to the King and Queen. This included a series of video interviews with the "last debs" - the practise ended in March 1958 so many of the girls presented are still alive:There were lots of old photos of "debs" and "debs delights" (i.e. the men who dated/danced with the debs) but they didn't have very useful captions - no dates or other handy info. The structure of the exhibits became more unusual - the path became non-linear and poorly signposted and the displays of dresses looked more and more like they'd been dreamt up by a exhibition designer left to run wild. There were huge cardboard cutouts of women curtseying, dresses displayed in rooms with mirrors on the walls, a giant 10ft tall fabric wedding cake etc etc.

After a room where you could practice walking in a straight line with a book on your head, learn how to reply to a party invitation, how to curtsey etc, there was a room with authentic nik-nacks from the good old days (e.g. "I bought these bras in Paris" etc).

We then transitioned from debs to the history of the palace and were treated to a long series of dark wood-panelled rooms with lavish tapestries and paintings. One featured a "fat Venus" and was the cause of a dispute about displaying such a grotesque painting:
There was a chance to see the view over the gardens from inside (rather than my usual view from the gardens looking in): We toured the long line of similar rooms and marvelled at the fancy furniture. One room had a "wind dial" - a device that displayed the prevailing wind direction through a connection to a weather vane on the roof:
We were impressed by a "lantern" in the ceiling of one room/floor of another which we decided we should have in our house one day...At length our tour ended in the busy perfumed gift shop. We took a last look at the impressive but hidden gardens:and were then on our way.

Summary: To expensive for such a poorly put together tour.

Vauxhall City Farm

Website: http://www.vauxhallcityfarm.org

Yesterday ABJ and I visited Vauxhall City Farm. This was the nearest city farm to where we live but was still a long tube ride away. When we finally arrived at Vauxhall we were greeted by a corridor of vandalised bikes, a collection of "Murder" signs and a crowd of drunks wandering the streets. We picked our way through the decay and followed the signs to the farm.

The farm was tucked away on a side street and we were welcomed by the cockerel crowing. The first definite evidence that we'd arrived at the farm was the two cows in a field next to the local park:We then realised where to go and went in the main gate. Immediately we peered in the first room and saw some fat rabbits and cute guinea pigs.It was soon clear to me that this was going to be the main part of the visit - cooing over cute animals. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I think I read somewhere that some city farms do pony rides...

The next sight was a pen filled with moulting chickens. These were running around trying to clear out their plumage. This led to some ridiculous looking birds with feathers all down their legs:We then found ourselves in the Eco-garden which had a pond and a hut built from old tyres.
When we returned to the chicken area we were alarmed to see a chicken lying on the floor looking like it was dead. It lay on its side, still and lifeless. Very concerned for its well-being I went to tell one of the farm helpers. I spoke to a man supervising the construction of some bird-houses for local children and was told to speak to another helper. This one also looked very grave and walked with me to the chicken. He picked it up carefully and placed it on a plank of wood. "Oh she's alrigh'. She were sunbathing that's all!" It was fine. How embarrassing.

We retreated back to the main gate area and continued to explore the rest of the farm. There were plenty of stables with guinea pigs, ferrets, ducks and chicks crawling through the straw bedding. In addition to these typical farm animals we were surprised by how many pigeons there were. In each room there were loads of pigeons pecking through the straw and feeding in the food bowls. I guess they put the "city" in "city farm".

Opposite these stables were some larger animals including sheep:pigs,and massive noisy ducks:
We also saw a llama that looked just as lifeless as the chicken we saw earlier. But we'd learnt our lesson. It looked dead but was really just sunbathing (don't worry - we saw it walking around later on):Beyond the larger animals and ducks (including some funny-looking tufted-head ducks) was the Community Garden which grew corn, tomatoes and lots of other things. ABJ tried to make friends with the local cat but we found it hard to get any acknowledgement from it:We peered into the private allotments nearby and then returned the way we had come back to the main gate. On the way we saw another llama that needed a hair-cut:and made a donation "down the cow's bum" to help them continue their good work:Summary: Good fun and inspiring to know there's people out there to help look after the variety of animals that end up in the farm (e.g. from "saved from the slaughter-house" to "left by the farm gates").

Chelsea Physic Garden

Website: http://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

Today ABJ and I visited the Chelsea Physic Garden. We'd tried to go once before but had ended up mistakenly in the "Royal Hospital Chelsea" down the road. This time we were successful.

The entry fee for students is a mere £5 for which you get two information sheets, a map, hand-held audio-guide and the opportunity to follow a guided tour around the gardens. We decided to skip the guided tour and rely on the audio-guide instead to aid our visit to the 3.8 acre site:We found a bench near the centre of the gardens, sat and read the information sheets and then keyed in "1" and "Play" on our audio wands. It turns out the garden was founded in 1673 by a group of apothecaries who wanted to grow plants for use in their medicines as well as teach their apprentices how to care for the plants they needed. In the course of history the site was acquired by Dr Hans Sloane (after whom Sloane Square is named) and the rent for the site was fixed forever at £5 (which is still paid to an Earl of Somewhere).

The long history means that many important plants were introduced to Britain first in the Chelsea Physic Garden. The garden went through lots of ups and downs and in 1983 was threatened with closure. This forced them to set up a charity to run it and open the gardens to the public.

We watched the mixture of local residents who were there for the tranquillity and tourists who were there for the history. All the tourists sat listening to their audio-guides (us included) while the locals reclined in their benches looking snooty - compare left and right here:We set off from our bench and walked to the Pond Rockery. This was the oldest rockery in Europe and a listed "building". Amongst the rocks were volcanic basalt brought back as ballast by explorers from Iceland as well as masonry from the Tower of London:
It was an excellent rockery.

We then wandered the planted beds and saw rare plants and vegetables. Apparently it's now no longer possible to by 90% of the seed varieties you could buy at the start of the 20th century. That doesn't sound good does it? This area of the garden was part of their attempt to preserve these unusual varieties of onions, potatoes etc.

In our walking we came across the oldest outdoor olive tree in Britain (which still gives a good harvest of green olives every year - these must be picked before the pigeons eat them):
We then entered the glasshouses to the north of the gardens. Here we saw lots of tropical plants:
including vanilla:and chillis:After passing the Poison Plot where they keep all the poisonous (but sometimes medicinally useful) plants we found ourselves at the cafe. It served tea and homemade cakes and was packed by posh Chelsea people:We had a quick look at some carnivourous plants:and some really impressive plants that have evolved to camouflage themselves like pebbles:
Next stop was the Cool Fernery (that's its actual name by the way):and some secluded walks through the undergrowth. We arrived at a big gate that led out to the Thames Embankment which is "used only for Royalty and manure":Next we saw the giant compost heaps: the study centre (complete with a "which plants grow best on roofs" experiment):
and the garden's beehives: They sell honey from the bees which is in such demand it's limited to 1 jar per person.

We stopped for a while at Fortune's Tank Pond and watched the wildlife (including the other visitors) before going out through the shop and buying a Purple Basil plant on the way.

Summary: A great day out in good weather.

Thames Flood Barrier

Website: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/38353.aspx

Yesterday I went on an adventure with ABJ to the Thames Flood Barrier. I visited Thames Barrier Park on the north of the river a few years ago and have always wanted to come back and find out more about it. Since I've mainly lived in west London and the barrier is in east London I've never got around to it. Until yesterday...

We got the train from Charing Cross to Charlton station and then, AtoZ in hand, headed for the river. We found the Thames Path and got out first glimpse of the futuristic looking barrier: We approached and arrived at an ominous tunnel that went underneath through the barrier before we found outselves next to a map of the Thames river. The map showed all the towns the river past through as well as all the bridges that cross it:We continued on through a pleasant picnic area/playground to the Information Centre. There was a nice view of the barrier and across the river to the Tate&Lyle sugar factory:
We bought our inexpensive tickets at the cafe and then went downstairs to learn about why the barrier was built and how it works. It turns out that under very specific (fairly rare) circumstances London is at risk of flooding due to a freakishly high water level on the Thames:To ensure that London is safe from flooding the Thames Barrier was built. Its construction lasted 8 years in the 1970s and 80s and we watched a retro documentary about how they built it. It was an impressively epic project that required precision engineering and complicated constructions. Each tower of the barrier is based on a deep foundation of concrete that was dug into man-made holes in the riverbed.

When the barrier is activated a curved barrier is raised from the riverbed and held up against the incoming tide:
This (impressively) keeps the normal tidal level upstream while keeping the unusually high tides "safely downstream". When the barrier is up the nice picnic area and playground outside becomes flooded.We learnt about how floods happen and how bad the flood was in 1953 which spurred people to build good flood defenses. There was a fun "Countdown to Closure" panel where you could listen to the kinds of conversations that go back and forth between the managers of the barrier and the MET office etc during the 48 hours prior to closing the barrier.

Somewhat disconcertingly the final information panels explained how climate change might still put London at risk of flooding over the next 100 years (despite the best efforts of the existing barrier!).

We eventually finished at the information centre and, since it was a nice sunny day, decided to walk to Thames Barrier Park on the north side. This involved following the Thames Path to the free Woolwich ferry and then continuing on the north side to the park. On the way there was lots of opportunity for arty photos:
We passed a Chinese cash'n'carry:
and came close to the imposingly massive Tate&Lyle sugar factory:before finally arriving at the excellent Barrier Park: This well-maintained park offered some more good views of the barrier from the other side and was full of people relaxing in the sun. After our hours of walking, however, we decided to head home on the DLR:
Summary: An interesting day out that finally taught me how the Thames Barrier works!