The list (number six)

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

• 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

Tour round BBC Broadcasting House

Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tours/details/details_bh.shtml

Today I went on a tour around BBC Broadcasting House. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me.

To go on a tour you have to book in advance so I already had my £4.40 student ticket with me when I set off. I arrived just before my 2.10pm tour and was told to take a seat with the other people in the group. I sat in the plush waiting area and started to look through the BBC in-house magazine: Ariel. One particularly interesting story was by a novelist trying to encourage the BBC to do more to promote science. He said "I know only a tiny bit of science and nobody holds it against me... Maybe they should". Well... I hold it against you. But anyway...

At the start time for the tour we were welcomed by our two tour guides: Sarah and Adrian. They checked us off a list and then got us to write our names on a sheet of paper "in case there is an evacuation". We were then taken back outside by Adrian and stood on the steps of All Souls Church to face the Broadcasting House building.

He ran through the history of the nice art-deco building from it's official opening in 1932 to the present redevelopment. Above the main entrance stands a prominent statue of Ariel and Prospero from the Shakespeare play the Tempest:This was sculpted by Eric Gill (who also made the typeface for the current BBC logo: Gill Sans) and there were suggestions that it was really depicting God and Son. The sculptor apparently told people that there was a secret in the work that would not be discovered until the building was knocked down. Well, too bad for him but during some restoration work they put a camera behind the statue of Prospero and found a hidden carving of a woman's face. Weird.The building has been likened to a top hat (with the rim being the pavement) or a ship sailing down Regent Street.

We finished looking at the outside and then went back to reception. Here we got to see the original octagonal BBC logo made as a mosaic in the floor. Originally the BBC stood for British Broadcasting Company before it became British Broadcasting Corporation. I'm not too clear on the difference. We then set off through security, to the toilets and then on our way...

First stop was the Radio Theatre. This sits in the centre of the building with offices wrapped around its outside. In the past few years it's been renovated to make it more accessible. This involved raising the floor by about 2 metres. We all sat in theatre-style seats and looked at the stage which had a few plain chairs on it. Everywhere microphones and speakers hung from the ceiling. We were told that most radio shows are pre-recorded now and a lot of them are recorded in the Radio Theatre. We saw a photo of the theatre being used as a bomb shelter during World War II - with men and women separated by a big curtain at night time. The building was actually hit by a bomb in WWII during a news announcement...

The next stop was by the (renovated but original) lifts. Here we saw a huge tapestry that had been given to the BBC by France to honour the BBC for it's help to the French resistance. We then visited the plush Council Chamber where all the BBC's decisions are made.

We then took the stairs up to some recording studios. This was my first time inside a recording studio and I was impressed. Although it wasn't as flashy as I'd imagined (if anything it was a bit cramped when all our group was in there) it looked like it was used by people who know how to do their job well. The walls were designed to avoid reverberating sounds and there were synchronised clocks everywhere you looked so people can announce the correct time-check on air. The studio we were in is where "Woman's Hour" and "You and Yours" are recorded. We visited another recording studio (where "Poetry Please" is recorded) before arriving at a bigger studio that had a piano and "enough space for a small orchestra".

We then went to the top of the building and out onto a little roof terrace. This was really nice and had a fantastic view. We were told about how the BBC was in Phase One of the redevelopment of the area. This included, for example, a Persian and Arabic broadcasting building next door. Unfortunately it began to rain so we went back inside and were told in more detail about the "Breathing Sculpture" on the roof:This was made as a memorial to all the journalists and crew that have been killed in war-reporting. The text that spirals down the cone says:

life turns and turns on the crystal glass
breathing in our body

silence is a voice, our voice
silence is a body, our body

life turns and turns on the crystal glass
breathing in our body

I invite you to breathe
I invite you to listen to the silence

We then went down to the most fun part of the tour. Our group got to record a mini radio drama. Six volunteers were chosen to either read parts of a script or do electronic or physical sound-effects (e.g. corks popping or gongs bonging). The story of the drama was about a couple breaking down on a dark country road and walking to a spooky country house for help. The butler ominously welcomes them in, gives them champagne and then says "It's time for dinner... and the dinner is YOU!".

We watched them perform it and then listened to it again. It sounded impressively professional on the played back version - apart from some mix-ups with the sound effects and some badly delivered lines. The star of the show was the "Annoucer/Butler" played by a deep-voiced German man. He sounded very professional and really delivered his lines well.

We then returned to the reception, returned our customer satisfaction forms and departed.

Summary: Very interesting - would recommend to anyone who's ever listened to the BBC radio stations.

The ice bar off Regent Street

Website: http://www.belowzerolondon.com/icebar

Last night TF and I visited the Absolut Ice Bar on Heddon Street. We both tried to go there a few years ago but were turned away because we hadn't booked in advance. This time we were successful.

Our reserved timeslot was from 9.30pm to 10.10pm. We arrived at the chaotic queue just before 9.30pm and bought two tickets for £12.50 each. We joined a queue/holding area with our fellow drinkers and then - at 9.30 - the bouncers started letting people in.

Before entering you stand in front of a bouncer, they take a fur-lined insulating cape off a hook, raise it above your head and shove it down over you like you're a foot going into a sock. You're then ushered into the Ice Bar...

The "air-lock" is lined with fur and when you emerge into the bar it's like stepping into another world. The air is cold, the light is funky blue, the music throbs and everywhere you look the ice gleams.
Giddy with the novelty of the bar we didn't know what to do. We had a closer look at the ice. All the walls were made from ice, there were "tables" and "seats" made from huge blocks of clear ice (the seats had fur on top) and even the bar was made of ice. Apparently the ice is all transported from the Torne River in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden. It certainly was nice to look at - with natural fissures and air-pockets:Slowly we realised the bar was getting busy. Our tickets entitled us to one drink so we shoved our way to the front and chose some cocktails from the menu:I had a Absolute Red Garnet which was quite nice. The drinks were served in an ice "glass" which became very cold to hold as the 40 minutes went on. Luckily our capes came with a pair of gloves attached on elastic.
As we drank our cocktails we walked around the room and I was a little disappointed that it wasn't as big as I'd imagined. I got the (accurate) impression that the room was just like a big freezer - like a meat locker turned drinking venue.

We took lots of photos of each other posing with the ice and watched everyone else taking lots of photos too. The other 20 or so people were all young and looked like they were out for a big night even though it was a Wednesday.

After a while of trying to look through the walls or chip the drinks glasses into pieces we got a bit bored and cold. We built the finished glasses up into a pyramid:
Extra drinks cost £6 each so we gave them a miss. It turned out that 40 minutes in the ice bar was about the right amount of time - any longer would have been a chore. At 10.10pm we were told to leave and, after having our capes quickly stripped off, we stepped out into the normal world again.

Summary: A magical but expensive experience.

Tour around the Royal Albert Hall

Website: http://www.royalalberthall.com

Today I went on the 10.30am tour around the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington. There are multiple tours everyday but today there were only 2 in the morning because "Cirque du Soleil" was showing in the afternoon.

I've been to quite a few shows at the Albert Hall (including a Cream reunion concert, ballet, the proms, indoor tennis... even my graduation!) so I was looking forward to learning a bit of "insider information".

The tour started promptly at 10.30am. About 15 of us were hanging around Door 12 when we were greeted by Helen who's worked at the Albert Hall for 10 years. She asked everyone if we'd been to the venue before and where we were from. There were people form Australia, Sweden, Germany and, slightly less exotic, Bedford. Helen explained that we were not allowed to take photos and then led us away from the Box Office into the circular corridors on ground level.

Lining the corridors are photos of famous or unusual performances at the Albert Hall and, as she led us up to see the boxes, she explained that sport has been very big in the venue's history. They've had tennis (during the Masters Tennis)basketball, sumo wrestling and even a marathon (In 1909 two athletes tried to run 500 laps of the inner corridor on a bedding of coconut leaves. Neither made it!).

We were led upstairs to sit in the boxes overlooking the stage. Here we had a rest in the chairs and were taught some history of the hall. It was opened in 1871 and was designed to be an amphitheatre with a roof. The roof ended up causing enormous difficulties however because it echoed the sound around the performance space. This was good if a choir was singing but bad if there was a soloist or pianist. People would apparently say "It's good value for money at the Albert Hall - you hear the concert once and then again 2 or 3 seconds later...". The modern solution to these echoing difficulties was put in place in 1969. It involves a host of upsidedown "mushrooms" suspended from the roof: These scatter the sound waves all around the room before they can get to the roof. Any sounds that do get to the roof then bounce back into the mushrooms and are dampened down.

The hall hosts around 360 events every year and has a audience capacity of 4,500 to 6,000 depending on the event.

We then left the boxes we were in an took a sneak peak at the Queen's box. This was bought by Queen Victoria and has a prominent crown displayed above it. It is where royalty sit when they come to an event at the Albert Hall but, when there's no royals attending an event, the box is used by people that work for the Queen (e.g. stable hands at Windsor, secretaries at Buckingham Palace etc). It seems like it's a perk of the job.

This Queen's box (which is always called the Queen's box even when a king is monarch because it was Queen Victoria who bought it) opened up the whole issue of ownership of seats. To raise money to build the Albert Hall they sold a few hundred seats for £100 each. The lease for these was 999 years (!) and the seats were passed down through families. In the 137 years the Albert Hall's been around a lot of the seats have, however, ended up being bought as investments by companies and banks. They are occasionally sold by closed auction in the Times but prices are high. One couple on the tour said they saw 5 seats sell for £100,000 a few years ago. If you do own a seat you get to go to pretty much any event you like...

We then visited the Royal Retiring Room where royalty come to relax before and after a show. This has portraits of all the leading royals since Queen Victoria. Here we were told that the Albert Hall was built as a memorial to Prince Albert by his widow Queen Victoria. Albert had conceived of turning South Kensington into a centre of culture and science. After his death the plans were followed through and the Royal Albert Hall, Royal College of Art, Imperial College, Royal College of Music, National Geographical Society, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum were built. This vast complex was nicknamed "Albertopolis".

We then climbed up to the "Gallery" - a standing-only viewing area that rings around the top of the auditorium. This is fairly plain now but used to be the social area with paintings on display (hence "the Gallery"). We took a quick look out at the closed-off balcony before descending the stairs again. We'd been asking so many questions we were in danger of making Helen late for her 11.30am tour. She led us back to Door 12 and said goodbye.

The hall used to be powered by steam and the chimney outside is the disused (but listed) steam vent:Summary: Interesting glimpse into the history of the place. Could do with some more "behind-the-scenes" restricted access.

The Guards Museum

Website: http://www.theguardsmuseum.com

Today I visited the museum that inspired this blog. The museum is located next to St. James's Park and, as I arrived, I was expecting a museum about soldiers and warfare. I was partly right.

I bought my cheap £2 student ticket from a softly-spoken grey-haired gentleman who waved me into the museum. I was immediately confronted by huge displays of medals and uniforms:I tried to read the information cards to understand what I was looking at but they assumed a level of background knowledge that I didn't have (e.g. the technical meaning of battalions, colours, decorations etc). As I made my way around the museum I found longer information signs which gave the necessary background.

It turns out that the museum is all about a very particular type of soldier: the Royal Foot Guards. More specifically the five different types of Guards: Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards. I finally understood that these were the same guards as in the "changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace". I think of these as mainly a tourist attraction but the Guard's regiments are proper soldiers too and there are some currently in action in Afghanistan.

The Scots and Coldstream guards were founded in the English civil war (the Scots guards were first assembled in Scotland and then marched for over a month south to London!). These soldiers used pikes to spear enemy cavalry charges. The pikes were long wooden sticks with a metal point on the end which was used to pierce horses and their riders. Rather gruesome was the mention of a "blood rag" which was tied around the stick to "stop blood running down the shaft and making it slippy". Ugh! (The blood rag was later "formalised" to a tassel).

Over the centuries other regiments were added (Grenadier, Irish, Welsh - in that order I think) by various kings and queens. The museum charted the history of the regiments and the different battles they've fought in. The timeline reminded me of the bloody history of Europe - with countries declaring war on each ceaselessly. There were lots of paintings of battles and uniforms through the ages: even including the battles fought in Egypt: Eventually I made it through the extensive rooms to the 20th century where The Great War, World War II and beyond were discussed:I was interested to see their display about the current regiments in action in Afghanistan:This formed an striking contrast to the ceremonial aspects of the uniforms, the "colours", the drumming parades etc. After a quick look around at the photos of the stiff-upper-lipped military leaders, I left.
Summary: A bit too specific for a day out unless you know someone who was in the Guards.

Cycling in Richmond Park

Website: http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond_park

Last Sunday I spent a fun afternoon cycling around Richmond Park with ML and VB. We had spent the morning and early afternoon cycling through suburbia and, after some tea at Morden Hall Park, we cycled to Richmond Park. We visited some very fancy neighbourhoods on the way and passed the mansion where Dwight Eisenhower lived during World War II!

I imagine that cycling around the park is not much fun in the pouring rain but luckily for us the weather was very pleasant. We plotted our route around the park on one of the maps and set off. We planned (like the polite cyclists we are) to stick to the cycling trails that criss-cross the park but, since we'd been cycling for over 2 hours, our first stop was a nice bench. It was there that I read out a letter from ABJ while VB and ML sat down in their matching bike helmets, bike trousers and fluorescent yellow jackets.

After we'd cooled off we hopped back on our bikes and set off again. We kept to the edge of the park and, according to ML at least, cycled right past Andrew Marr who was out jogging. We eventually turned towards the centre of the park and set off on a cycle trail. I was disappointed to see that the "true cyclists" (men who have thighs like tree trunks and ride carbon-fibre bikes) cycled on the road amongst the cars rather than on the paths amongst the toddlers.

We slowly made out way into the middle of the park and enjoyed the scenery. We saw people flying kites and riding horses (though not at the same time):
We saw a huge herd of young deer:We saw opportunities for arty photos:
After the exploration we were all really tired and free-wheeled down into Richmond for some beer, food and a film.

Summary: Worth a trip round on a bike even if you do have to stay away from the more exciting areas. Credit goes to ML for suggesting we go there and to VB for taking the photos.

London Wetland Centre

Websites:
http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/wetlandcentre
http://www.londonwetlandcentre.co.uk

I've wanted to visit the London Wetland Centre for years. It's a massive expanse of "wetland" conservation area located next to the river Thames in west London. Today ABJ and I finally gave it a visit.

Arriving at about 2pm we bought our £6 student tickets at the entrance and set off into the courtyard. Immediately we were greeted by a friendly woman who orientated us on the map and explained the different areas of the wetland. There are two main sides to the site: one has endangered species and one does not.

We began with the endangered species side. This started with "World Wetlands" and was home to wetlands and birds from all around the world. The wetlands included Asian rice paddies, North American pine forests, Islands, Arctic Tundra etc. The different areas are fenced off from each other so the birds can't go between them (presumably the birds wings are clipped!).

The first stop, Artic Tundra, was one of the liveliest wetlands because there were so many different types of birds and no fence to keep them off the paths. The ducks and birds all squarked and flapped their wings at each other and at us. We watched different types of birds sticking together in close groups - each group trying to dominate the others.
Dotted throughout the center there were also lots of bird-photographers with enormous zoom lenses:The birds in the centre included an impressive variety of species. There were "red-breasted geese", "black swans", "chiloe wigeons" and hundreds of others I can't remember the names of:
I can identify this one... a Black Swan:Some "Red-crested Pochards":The wetlands certainly lived up to their name. There were paths passing between the rushes and lakes. The place was very well sign-posted and each area had a different name and welcoming illustrations:Dotted around the centre were also lots of hides. From inside you could watch the birds without them knowing:There were lots of signs saying "Please keep quiet in the hides. Birds have ears too." ABJ and I didn't have any binoculars so the hides unfortunately didn't offer us the chance to get spectacularly close to any of the birds.

We spent a long time enjoying the different areas, the hides and the birds before eventually returning to the courtyard where we began.

Here we tried out the "Discovery centre" which, along with an informative display in one of the hides, educated us about what a wetland is and why they're important. The definition of a wetland is very wide (e.g it includes the Thames estuary as well as coral reefs) but an important thing, apparently, is that the water is less than 6ft deep. The Discovery centre had a fun walk-through display in which you walked through different environments and had to decide if they counted as wetlands (e.g. a coral reef, a flooded forest etc). Unsurprisingly perhaps most of the environments were wetlands.

After the walk-through there was a very fun display about what wetlands do and why they're important. The display was set up like an old-fashioned fairground with games and shows. To give you an idea there was one game called "Shoot your poo":
The aim of the game was to get small plastic balls (i.e. your poo) into holes by firing them through air guns. This illustrated the powerful way in which wetlands can process waste.

Another game involves firing water guns into pipes to illustrate that life needs water. There was a game whose opening premise was "You're a planning officer". Not very inspiring but it made a good point. You had to decide how to build flood defences and where to build houses on a scaled down model. The model had a mountain at one end and a flood plain at the other and periodically the mountain would be heavily rained on and a wall of water would deluge the flood plains. There were lego bricks available to build defences to save the foam houses. Very eduational.

After ABJ thought I'd had enough of the games we continued on our way to the other side of the centre - the non-endangered species side. This was good although less spectacular - mainly because it seemed the birds on this side didn't have their wings clipped (since they were non-endangered). That meant the birds had flown away and a lot fewer were on display in the lakes and marshes.

We journeyed on and visited a few more hides, watched a few birds flying around, watched a few jumbo jets flying overhead towards Heathrow airport. Dusk fell and we were tired from all our walking. We visited the gift shop and bought a few things to support the centre. To get back home we decided to take the number 283 bus, a.k.a "the Duck Bus". This left conveniently from a stop at the centre and off we went.

Summary: Well worth a visit. The birds at the centre change at different times of the year so it's worth going again during a different season.