It's all about the weather

The cold weather that began last Sunday continued into the beginning of the week. Suddenly, we had gone from sunny days in the high 70s or low 80s F to chilly temps that didn't make it out of the 50s in the daytime. Fortunately, each day got a bit warmer and brighter, and by the end of the week things were feeling much more seasonal. Apparently, this is the driest May for the past 60 years in Britain. I know that's not good for plants, but for me it's a welcome change from the wet and gloom that I experienced here last autumn. The wisteria is now past its peek, replaced by lilacs, and other new blooms appear daily. One afternoon I emerged from the Belsize Park tube station to see all the chestnut trees along Haverstock Hill had suddenly blossomed, some with white spikes of flowers and others with pink-red ones. 

On Monday, the sun struggled to peek out from behind the cloud cover and rain threatened most of the day. Despite the gloominess, I set out for Little Venice to catch a bit of the final day of the Canalway Cavalcade, a rondezvous of narrow boats in the basin where the Grand Union Canal and Regent's Canal meet. The last time I'd been to this event was in 2004 -- it hasn't changed much. There are boats decked out in bunting, food and craft vendors, music (not when I was there, however), and kids' activities. I did catch the tail end of the boat handling competition, seeing the winning boat make some tricky maneuvers in the basin. The winner was Iquitos (on the left in the photo below), with steerer Mike Moore, a previous winner. Since it wasn't exactly a cheery way to spend the morning, I headed to the nearby Cllfton Nurseries to mooch around, looking at plants, pots, and knicknacks and using their toilet. 

I next headed to the Southbank in search of a cheap lunch and a vantage point for the VE 80 (the 80th anniversary of VE Day) flypass. I bought a mediocre salad at Waitrose, found a sheltered place to eat, and then wandered to the base of the Oxo Tower where other people were clustering to get a good sight of the planes, including the RAF Red Arrows, as they came up the Thames before turning to fly over The Mall and Buckingham Palace, releasing red, white and blue smoke. It was over in a blink of an eye, but I managed a decent shot. The rain started just as soon as the flypass was over.

Without a plan for the rest of the afternoon, I stopped in at Bankside Gallery to see an impressive exhibition of prints. I had hopes that I could rock up at Tate Modern and get a ticket to see the Do Ho Suh exhibition that afternoon, but those hopes were dashed. The exhibition had just opened to big crowds and much acclaim. I couldn't get a ticket that would have me out in time to meet friends for drinks near London Bridge at 5 pm. So I drifted through the various permanent galleries, visited the Tanks to see the small Giacometti sculptures, welcomed Louise Bourgeois's Maman back to the Tate, ate a brownie in the caff, and pottered around in one of the gift shops until it was time to walk to The Horseshoe Inn for a good time with mates, conversation and beer. 

Tuesday was another day spent partially with Betsy and Jim, my friends from home, along with their friends Polly and John who had come down from York for a few days. At Polly's suggestion -- and a great one it was -- we booked tickets to see the exhibition of paintings and drawings by Mexican artist Velasco at the National Gallery. I'd never heard of him before and thoroughly enjoyed this rare opportunity to see his work. He painted Mexican landscapes at about the same time that Frederic Leighton was doing the oil sketches I'd seen the week before. It was interesting to see that both Velasco and Leighton did plein air sketches of landscapes that they later incorporated into fully realized paintings. 

After lunch in the crypt cafe in St Martin in the Fields, we parted company and I pushed westward to the White Cube Mason's Yard. The current gallery exhibition is of Antony Gormley's lead sculptures, done early in his career and precursors to his cast iron bodies. Follow the link for more photos and a whole bunch of word salad on the gallery's webpage. I got a laff out of seeing that there were as many invigilators as sculptures in the gallery. 

I wrapped up my Tuesday activities with an evening tour of Shoreditch Town Hall as part of the second annual Hackney History Festival (a whole array of talks, walks and tours over two weeks). Like many town halls across greater London, this one was made redundant when the 28 former metropolitan boroughs were amalgamated into the current 12 metropolitan boroughs (of a grand total of 32 boroughs in greater London) of today. Several town halls have found new lives as arts, events and culture spaces. This tour was totally fantastic! We saw all the major rooms as well as various nooks and crannies of the basement (I think several people on the tour thought the basement was the best part). My favourite part of the building was the Assembly Hall, which has seen use for music hall performances, tea dances, discos, boxing, and will soon be a venue for South by Southwest when it comes to London this summer. You can read more of the fascinating history, see a timeline, and learn how the motto of Shoreditch council ("More light, more power") is incorporated into various aspects of the building. Kudos to Susannah Bramwell, Cultural Programme Manager, for giving us such a fascinating tour. 

More art, more Hackney was my theme for Wednesday. Good weather had returned! The art part began with a strenuous uphill walk to the Camden Art Centre, about 20 minutes from my gaff through lovely streets of NW3, where I saw an exhibition of Richard Wright, with works from 30 years of his career. This Turner Prize winner is another British artist who is new to me. The pieces are abstract, primarily geometric, meticulously painted and rather eye-hurty. One of the young women (probably an art student) who was invigilating told me that she could only look at the paintings for a limited amount of time before they made her head spin. 

After eating my packed lunch in the Centre's garden, I hopped on the overground (now the Mildmay and Windrush lines) to get to Shoreditch High Street. From there, I mooched around, looked at streetart and popped into several galleries -- Hales Gallery, Kate MacGarry Gallery, and the Autograph Gallery -- on my way up to Hoxton (another part of Hackney) for another building tour. 

Hoxton Hall was built at about the same time as nearby Shoreditch Town Hall, and also used as a music hall then and an events space now, but there the similarities end. It was purpose-built for a music hall promoter, who then sold it to another promoter, and saw a short life for this purpose. The small, galleried theatre was often filled to the rafters with people in all states of behaviour and inebriation, and it lost its license to operate as a music hall only 8 years after it opened. It was then purchased by the Blue Ribbon Army Gospel Temperance Movement, followed by a group of Quakers (it's still owned by Quakers today) and put to use for more uplifting purposes -- as a temperance hall, for the Girls Guild For Good Life, and in the later part of the 20th century for a variety of arts activities for children and youth. Like Shoreditch Town Hall, it is currently a Grade II listed performance space and will be a venue for South by Southwest next month. Both halls are registered charities and get no support from the government (or the Quakers). 

I was back on Southern Railway on Thursday, this time for a day trip to Lewes. Faithful readers of my blog will remember that I went to Lewes by car last year with friends, stopping first at Charleston, country home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, to see the garden there before touring the cottage and gardens of Virginia and Leonard Woolf at Monks House nearby. This time I was on my own, headed for Charleston in Lewes, a cultural space which is showing Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour. The exhibition is very extensive, with works from her entire lifespan -- mostly paintings, but a few textiles, ceramics and covers she designed for her sister Virginia's books. I do enjoy her use of form and colour, but with over 100 works on display it got to have a bit of a samey quality to it. Many, many paintings of flowers. I was disappointed that none of the famous women dinner service she designed was included in the exhibition. It had gone on display in Milton Keynes soon after I flew home last autumn. But despite these complaints, as well as the dreadful lighting in the gallery, I enjoyed the exhibition and was glad I made time for it as I saw things I'll probably not have another chance to view. 

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the town, through the lovely Southover Grange Gardens (my packed lunch eaten on a bench there) and up and down the steep lanes of the old town, looking at the architecture, peering over walls into people's back gardens, and shopping at the indoor Lewes Flea Market. I bought a sterling and turquoise pendant necklace for 16 quid. The weather was perfect and I thoroughly enjoyed roaming around taking photos. 

Friday was a day for more art -- some I thought was great and some not so much -- and a bit of World War II history. I met my friend Judy at the Barbican Gallery for the first show of the day, Noah Davis, a painter of huge talent who sadly died at the age of 32 from a rare form of cancer. Once again, I had to come to Britain to learn about a painter of African descent from my own country. His skill as a painter and his vision of bringing art to all communities were remarkable and this retrospective exhibition really struck a chord in London. I heard of people going to see it multiple times. If it ever comes to a city near you, buy a ticket immediately. In the meantime, click on the link above, see some of the paintings and watch the short trailer video. 

I hustled my tail from the Barbican to the London Archives, where I'd booked a free ticket for one of their document viewing sessions, this one on World War II in London. For these events, the curators bring out photos and various documents that are not normally on display and they give you an opportunity to walk around the tables to view/read them. I'd seen British Pathé newsreels about the volunteer firefighters who kept St Paul's from burning to the ground during the Blitz, but didn't know much else about the vast number of ordinary citizens who volunteered in London as part of the war effort. I learned about the ambulance drivers and ARP (Air Raid Precautions) volunteers, especially the women -- initially excluded from these roles -- who provided so much civilian support. 

I bought a proper sandwich from a deli, ate it in Myddleton Square Garden, and then faffed around in Islington for a bit. Next I got on the canal towpath and walked to the Victoria Miro Gallery in Wharf Road, where I saw Ian Hamilton Finlay: Fragments. It was about shapes, forms and lettering. I didn't really get it at all, possibly because I was tired or perhaps because it didn't make any sense to me.

Saturday was more of the Hackney History Festival. I heard two fabulous talks in the Round Chapel. In the morning, it was Nigel Smith's talk "Tales from Hackney's Memory Palaces", in which he recounted stories of some of the 60+ cinemas that once dotted Hackney. Nigel's website has more info about him, his walking tours and cinema history. With two hours to kill until the next talk I'd booked, I had a little walk with my friend Lesley, ate yet another pita and hummus sandwich on yet another park bench (Clapton Square Garden), and wandered the nearby streets on my own for a bit since this is an area I don't know at all. The afternoon talk was right up my alley -- "Look Up, Look Down: Spotting local history everywhere" from Amir Dotan, a Stoke Newington Historian. With much enthusiasm and wit, he encouraged us to look up and down all those things I love so much -- coal hole covers, boundary markers, plaques, rain hoppers, boot scrapers and street signs. Amir's website is a treasure trove of stuff about his projects, walks, events, etc. 

My week ended with two great guided walks on Sunday. In the morning, I did a walk I'd had on my list for years but had never worked into my itinerary -- the free Artists' Houses walk from Leighton House in Holland Park. Our guide John, who has lived locally his entire life, was so knowledgable about the architecture and artists who lived and worked in the Victorian studio-homes in the area. The walk covered only a small amount of territory but John filled it with a multitude of stories and much humour. 

I then got on the tube and made my way to Bloomsbury for the afternoon walk, gobbling a meal deal sandwich that I bought at Waitrose in the Brunswick Centre (alas, they were out of Forgotten Ends at the sushi counter) in Brunswick Square. This walk was about the life of Thomas Coram, founder in 1739 of the Foundling Hospital, an institution that provided shelter and care to children whose parents were unable to do so. Although I know a lot about the Foundling Hospital itself (after numerous visits to the Foundling Museum, listening to podcasts and reading about it), it seems I didn't know much about the man himself. Louise Choo, a qualified Camden walking tour guide who also guides in the Foundling Museum, took us around Bloomsbury and down through Clerkenwell to learn of significant places to Thomas Coram and his associates, including Coram's final resting place in St Andrew's Church Holborn.

 

That's my second dispatch, done and dusted. Please subscribe ("Follow"), leave a comment, and come back for more in a week or so to read about what I've been getting up to next. More warm and sunny days in the forecast!

Stats:

Monday:
£3.50 salad
£5.25 brownie
20,940 steps
8.59 miles

Tuesday:
£7 Velasco exhibition (half price with Art Pass)
£6.95 lunch
£13.48 groceries
£4 Shoreditch Town Hall tour
20,963 steps
8.69 miles

Wednesday:
£3 cookie
£8 bottle of wine
16,964 steps
6.96 miles

Thursday:
£14.79 train to Lewes
£6.25 Vanessa Bell exhibition (half price with Art Pass)
£1.50 pain au raisin for train journey to Lewes
£3.90 almond bakewell slice
£3.50 wine for return train journey

£16 pendant at flea market
16,644 steps
6.83 miles

Friday:
£9 Noah Davis exhibition (half price with Art Pass)
£4.50 sandwich
19,930 steps
8.19 miles

Saturday:
£11.40 farmers' market
£2.70 pastel de nata
£4 beer
£1.90 Daily Star
18,507 steps
7.84 miles

Sunday:
£2.60 sandwich
£10 Thomas Coram walk
£8.92 groceries
20,133 steps
8.26 miles