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!

London Duck Tour

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

Today I went on the London Duck Tour. Tickets have to be booked weeks in advance so, thanks to VB, we were booked in to go today. We turned up early at the official bus stop near Waterloo station:We were soon seated on the bright yellow duck bus. Although the seating was a bit cramped everyone was in high spirits - they were all excited about the unusual tour that awaited them.

The tour was due to start at 1pm so at the appointed time a man climbed on the bus, walked to the front and introduced himself: "Hello, I am Ivan, being your tour leader today. I from my Ukrainian republic. Thank you, please." We all looked disappointed that the tour guide was unable to speak English properly but then he sat down and said "Hi, I'm Nick!" in a fluent English accent.

After a few introductory "Where is everyone from!?" questions, we were on our way. We first learnt that the Borough of Lambeth was named after "the place where lambs birth". We then set off towards Westminster and passed a big protest: The tour guide cracked a lot of good jokes about Big Ben and Boudicca. I was impressed with his knowledge of the different statues on display in Parliament Square and Whitehall.

We passed up through Trafalgar Square: and then drove along Pall Mall (named, apparently, after an old-fashioned croquet-like game called Palle Maille). We were told about the weird things inside all the grand buildings we passed (e.g. a big swimming pool in one of them where the Queen would go swimming). Up next to Piccadilly we passed the Ritz hotel. Apparently Charlie Chaplin once worked here but was fired after sliding down a bannister...

Past Green Park we learnt it was built on a leper cemetery (which is why it's green - the gardeners didn't want to dig down to make any flower beds!). Past Wellington Arch:We went down past Buckingham Palace and through to the river again. We crossed Vauxhall Bridge and approached the imposing MI6 building. This was the unexpected river-entry point. We pulled into a little road just next to MI6 and our road driver got off and our "waterman" got on. Without further delay we were moving forward, speeding down the ramp to the Thames and SPLASH! we floated down into the water:Luckily the water didn't come in through the windows. We chugged along the Thames towards the Houses of Parliament and kept a pace with two canoers: While on the river our tour guide told us some facts and figures about the river (e.g. how many fish species are there, it's history, it's name (from an old Latin word for "dark" since it's so muddy)). It was fun to see the sights from waterlevel and the river-facing decorations:Unfortunately we didn't go any further down than the Houses of Parliament before turning around and leaving the river where we entered. We were soon back on the road and heading back towards where we started. We learnt that the Kinks song "Waterloo Sunset" was written while Ray Davies was recovering in St Thomas' Hospital.

During the ride we attracted a lot of attention from the general public due to our flamboyant vehicle:There was also a few opportunities for some arty photos:
Summary: It's fun to do a tour of the city you live in - even more so in a duck boat. I enjoyed the trip - especially because of the lively jokes from the tour guide.

The Barbican

Website: http://www.barbican.org.uk

Last weekend I spent Saturday evening and Sunday day at the "Do Something Different..." weekend at the Barbican Centre.

I've been to the Barbican once before to see the play A Disappearing Number (well worth seeing) but it's a place that's intrigued me for a long time. It's a strange maze-like place that I've wanted to explore before but never had a chance to.

On Saturday night VB and LT met up after getting lost a few times in the Barbican surroundings. We were there for an evening of "playing games and other fun social events". Our first stop was the East London Cycling Machine:This involved peddaling on a tandem bike while watching a slide show of the creator's trips round east London. The trip I saw went past the Thames flood barrier to some marshes further east. The trip VB and LT did involved a watching the creators eat a full English breakfast... This machine served as a warm up in both body and mind: after it I was a bit exhausted but interested in what other activities there were.

We then went to make wire sculptures:before getting some pens and paper and settling down to play "Paper Telephone". This was a fun game although I think the 5 hours we spent playing it was a little too much...

We left the Barbican after all the events were over and returned at 10.30am on Sunday. This time we'd booked tickets for some of the events and, while we waited for the first one to start, we explored a little bit. We discovered an indoor jungle:The first event of the day was "Make it and race it" which involve creating a balloon-powered vehicle and trying to drive it the furthest distance possible. It was run by two enthusatic people - an artist and an architect. They mistook us for either architects or design students rather than the hodgepodge collection of people we were really. It was very fun making the cars and although my ambitious design for a trio of frictionless wheels didn't work (at all!) it was entertaining to use the glue guns and watch everyone else's designs take form.

After about 2 hours of this we were all exhausted and in need of some lunch. We went to the tasty but expensive cafe on the ground floor to refuel.

The next stop was a huge butterfly chandelier. Everywhere around the chandelier was a sea of babies, cardboard, glitter, pencils, glue sticks, scissors etc etc:
We found a quiet corner and made three butterflies before queuing for ages to get some string to hang them up. My butterfly had a net which contained a caught human:The next stop was a "Family Film Truck" - a lorry with its interior converted into a cinema:
Here we watched a hit-and-miss collection of 6 short children's films. The first one was the best - a silhouette film by Lotte Reiniger called "The Caliph Stork".

We finished the day by listening to "The Big Ukelele Bash" - a rabble of parents and children who had learnt to play "Singing in the Rain" on ukeleles. This was a little disappointing since almost all the children just held their instruments without playing them...After that we were so exhausted from playing all day that we left.

Things I learnt about the Barbican

• It has cinemas and art galleries.
• It was designed to be "like the future".
• It's got a hidden "indoor jungle".
• They hold events like this where they're very generous with their craft materials...

A selection of the architectureSummary: The weekend of (main free!) events was fun and I'll have to keep an eye on other things the Barbican has to offer.