What I Did On My Holidays - the V&A

[curiouswombat]

On the Tuesday that D-d and I were in London, we went to the Churchill War Rooms for about 3 or 4 hours, even though they reckoned it took about 2! Then we had a brief lunch in St James's Park, before walking across Horse-guards Parade to visit The Banqueting House. D-d wanted to visit it in particular because of her love of the Stuarts - Charles 1st was beheaded there. In fact we were both equally fascinated by the actors who were 'rehearsing for a court masque' - D-d had a chance to have quite a chat with one of them - a slightly surreal conversation where he was in character - and she fell into the role of one of the household of Lady Stanley which she portrayed in Labyrinth last month! I was mainly a fascinated onlooker...

However, I did not use my camera inside the war-rooms or the Banqueting House - I somehow never got around to it!

Here, though, is a picture of St James's Park -



That is about 5 or 10 minutes from the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and so on - a really lovely, quiet, space for everyone. On those rocks are some pelicans. We heard a couple arguing about whether they could possibly be real - he was convinced they were ornaments - even though they were flapping their wings...

We ate in Bill's in St Martin's Courtyard, in Covent Garden. As neither of us had come across this chain before it was something new for us; we were really pleased to see naked burgers on the menu - and were both rather sad that it was a bit early for us and we didn't have room for pudding! Early - because we then went to the theatre to see Matilda - which was wonderful.

Wednesday we went to The Wallace Collection - and, again, I left my camera in my bag. Excellent though - totally recommend it. I can confirm that The Laughing Cavalier is neither laughing nor a cavalier - but he has some rather nice clothing. We'd also recommend their courtyard cafe!

Thursday, and D-d was back home, and I went to the V&A. This time I took the camera out of my bag...




I hope bojojoti is not too busy to read this - as I saw this and thought of her -




...the David Chihuly glass installation in the main entrance.

I arrived in good time for an introductory tour led by one of the volunteers. He was a retired architect, and gave us some really interesting insights into some of the materials used in the exhibits themselves, and also into how space was utilised to form new galleries blending old and new architecture. I would guess that an introductory tour with a different guide would have had a different slant - and so it would be worth doing them on almost every visit!

My pictures are a little eclectic...

This is an example of producing 'carved' decoration for so much less - the introduction of glazed terracotta in the fifteenth century;



What I loved most about it was how very real, and individual, those little faces were -




And how about this - it is the frontage of the upper two floors of a house built in 1600, which managed to survive the Great Fire, slowly became covered, and ended up as part of a public house. When it was being demolished in 1890 someone recognised that it might be interesting...



It is mounted at the height it would have been when in situ.

And here is a door - just because I like it - I wonder what would have been behind it?



And a wonderful staircase, now fitted back into a corner as it was originally -




Our guide explained that the Victorians and their equivalents throughout Europe realised that if they took casts of each others great pieces they could display even more history than if they kept everything to themselves. And the V&A have some large galleries devoted to these - except that these 'Cast Courts' are being renovated. However he had special permission to give us a peak - and this doorway(?) at the far side took my eye - so this is taken in poor light with a lot of zoom, and is slightly out of focus. But I like it anyway -



I had a break for lunch (I recommend the wraps - and the scones) - and took this picture to show those who don't know the V&A, what you can do, on a nice day, in the courtyard -




After lunch I went up a level or two - and realised that although that cast court was closed it was still possible to see the middle of the cast of Trajan's Column as you walked along an upper gallery -



Can you imagine the work that must have been involved making a full size copy of Trajan's column?

And isn't this wonderful?



All the faces are, again, so very real - it is really quite modern looking.


It dates from 1500.

Now from a totally different gallery, a Jacobean ladies jacket in its separate pieces -



From the costume galleries - a Shiaparelli evening coat, just because it makes me smile -



I saw an awful lot more fascinating things - but some simply don't photograph well, and sometimes I just forgot.

And finally - this picture is taken back in the entrance hall - but on a higher level -






And that, folks, is the last of the holiday posts...

Comments

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

What lovely pictured. All of them. (Although, I want to insert a whale underneath the fountain in picture of St James's Park.)
The adoration of the magi, is fantastic. Amazing to think that it is 15th century.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

(Although, I want to insert a whale underneath the fountain in picture of St James's Park.)

Oh yes - I hadn't thought of it before - but you are so right!

I love that terracotta adoration of the magi - it is amazing how much the faces look as if we might just know the people.