Monday, October 14, 2024

Cramming it all in


How many times have I traveled to the UK with a scarf, gloves and fleece beanie hat in my packed bag, never to wear any of them? Seems that leaving them behind this year was a big mistake. I really could have used a scarf, and I checked in nearly every charity shop I passed once the weather turned, but never found one I liked. And it was also a mistake, albeit a lesser one, to bring three short-sleeved t-shirts and a pair of capris that I wore only a couple of times.

And speaking of the turn in the weather, what happened to autumn? My first ten days here were warm and sunny; ever since then it's been cold, usually rainy, with occasional sunny (but not warm) days. The weather went from September to November in a nanosecond. Now, the conkers have all dropped and the leaves are beginning to turn, mostly to brown with occasional yellow and a rare hint of orange. I hear that I'm missing stunning autumn colours back in New England -- hope there's a bit left for me to see when I get home. I am, however, seeing lots of pumpkins around as Halloween appears to have caught on in Britain. 

This past week I made a concerted effort to fit in more cultural activities and to make an organized route for myself each day in order to do so. I worked in a lot, but no, I never made it to the Monet or Van Gogh exhibitions. I began the week with nearly a clean slate without a definite plan, but the days quickly filled up. The advantage of planning only a day or two at a time is that I was able to work in a number of things that popped up in my inbox during the week. The disadvantage was that I spent a lot of time in the evening or early morning figuring out how the next day would shape up. 

Monday was an exception, however. Weeks ago I had booked an early-bird ticket to see Silk Roads at the British Museum -- one of the autumn Must See exhibitions -- and I ended up spending well over two hours there. I, like many westerners apparently, thought there was one Silk Road between Asia and Europe, with trade stops along the route. Well, that's where I would be wrong. There are in fact many, many different Silk Roads, along which goods, animals and humans were bought and sold for centuries. I know next to nothing about most ancient cultures (my art survey course started with the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans -- we didn't learn about Asia or Africa) and so I found the exhibition fascinating and eye-opening. I was astounded by the array of objects from each of the cultures along the routes. Actually being there to experience the exhibition, however, was utter frustration. It was way too crowded, dark (understandable given the valuable objects, but it made for hard viewing) and the other people did my head in. Is it because I'm short and small that people (men, primarily) think it's acceptable to lean over me and breathe on my head? Why did the man standing near me carry his coat draped over his arm so that it obscured the thigh-high object descriptions along the way? That coat, along with the backpacks that several men and women were wearing, belonged in the cloak room. And what's with the man pushing grannie in a wheelchair who kept ramming her feet or her chair into my shins? Consequently, it was hard for me to take many photos, but there are plenty on the BM website linked above. 

After being spit out of the exhibition, I worked my way to the little-known toilet that I found by accident last year. It's on the fourth floor just off the north stairwell and there's no signage to lead you there. Then descending the north stairs, I was out the back door (less crowded than the Great Russell Street side) onto Montague Place and and a short walk from the Waitrose & Partners at the Brunswick Centre where the sushi counter sells Forgotten Ends. These are cups of the end bits of sushi rolls, often full of salmon along with rice and veg. The price has risen from £2.05 in 2023 to £2.45 in 2024, but this is still the best healthy, value-for-money lunch around. I took my Forgotten Ends to Queen Square, perhaps the quietest of the public Bloomsbury squares, and sat on a bench to eat it.  Afterwards, I got a pastel de nata from the very nice street vendor at the south end of the square (I've been there often). 

I thought I'd go to the nearby October Gallery in Old Gloucester Street, which I'd visited a few weeks back, to see the new exhibition, but the door was locked. I had forgotten that it was Monday! As it was turning out to be a reasonably nice day, I kept walking west across Bloomsbury toward Holborn, hoping to see the temporary exhibition in a space in Shaftsbury Avenue that Bow Arts had mounted as part of Frieze. You guessed it -- also closed on Monday. 

Not knowing what to do with myself, and realizing that I was right next to the Phoenix Garden, I headed there to clear my head and get some peace. I hadn't been to the Phoenix Garden in years -- since my last visit it was under threat of closure and then went through a wonderful community-supported clean-up and refurb. Through the work of countless volunteers, the space that was once rather seedy has been turned into a lovely urban oasis. I cheerfully wandered about, taking photos here and there and stopping to sit on a bench. A bloke (another American) saw me taking pix and told me that one of the benches appears in the movie Last Christmas, which I confessed to not having seen. What I didn't tell him is that nearby Denmark Street was the fictional home of C.B. Strike and seen often in the series.

I had a much better plan for Tuesday. On Monday evening, I booked myself a timed-entry slot for Tate Modern to see Expressionists: Kandinsky, MΓΌnter and the Blue Rider, one of the Big Summer/Autumn Exhibitions. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing these paintings, and found it a much more pleasant viewing experience than the previous day at the British Museum (but for the large group of 12-13 year old kids who were there with a school group, along with two beleaguered-looking young women teachers who had virtually no control over their behaviour). I loved taking in the colour, the style and composition of the paintings, and learning about the connections between this group of artists working in the c. 1910-30 time period in Europe. But for Kandinsky, these were primarily new-to-me artists and I enjoyed discovering them with fresh eyes. 

Before leaving Tate Modern, I looked briefly at the latest installation in the Turbine Hall, but it was dreadful so I won't say any more. 

There was a new exhibition at the Bankside Gallery, where I'd previously seen the exhibition of the 
Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. This one was the group show of the Royal Watercolour Society and was every bit as good. Bankside has become one of my favourite galleries. I always see a couple of prints or paintings I would love to own. Maybe one day. 

I ate my packed lunch (pita & hummus again) on a bench on the Southbank, looking out at the river, and then hopped a bus down towards the Elephant & Castle to see Cable Street at the Southwark Playhouse. I knew the story of the Battle of Cable Street well. In 1936, when hundreds of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists tried to march through the East End, they were repelled through the combined efforts of Jewish and Irish residents, trade unionists and shopkeepers, men, women and children. I don't usually like musicals much, but this one was recommended highly by a friend. I managed to book the second-to-last cheap seat in the house -- it wasn't an obstructed view, and though the leg room was a bit cramped it was fine. To my surprise, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would even though it was about 95% singing and 5% dialogue. It's always good to try new things. Afterwards, I made my way home in the pouring rain.

On Wednesday, I met my friend Simon at the Royal Academy so he could walk me into the Modernism in Ukraine exhibition as the +1 on his member pass (he quickly walked out the exit as he had a ticket to see the Van Gogh exhibition nearby). This was a summer Big Exhibition, about to end. I learned a ton from it about Ukrainian artists working during times of creative expession as well as under Soviet control of style and subject. Although not explicitly referenced, I could see overlaps with the Expressionism exhibition I'd seen the day before. Not crowded, no kids, well-behaved adults -- ideal viewing conditions. 



Simon gave me two suggestions for nearby things to see afterwards and I took them both -- the
Linnean Society in Burlington House (natural history prints, photo of the Society's first women members, and a lovely 18th c. library -- though very musty smelling -- of resources on natural history) and an exhibition at the Stephen Friedman Gallery of paintings by Kehinde Wiley (small, exquisite portraits of African Americans, painted with floral backgrounds and arranged salon style). Afterwards, I ate my packed lunch in St James's Square before pushing on to my next stop.

This one was a bit different, an artist talk that popped up in one of the weekly listings I sub to, so I booked it on the fly. Belongings, an exhibition curated by artist Susan Aldworth, is all about the emigration of her grandparents from northern Italy to Britain in the 1920s and the things she discovered through extensive research into her family history. This struck a chord with me because my grandparents left northern Italy at the same time, destined for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She has taken the white cotton nightdress that her grandmother brought with her from Italy, and accumulated various other pieces of white antique clothing -- christening gowns, slips, collars -- to which a group of talented needlework students from Scotland have added bits of text, including histories and grandmother's recipes. The bits of clothing all hang from the ceiling, like ghosts of a past only fleetingly held and partially remembered. When she spoke about her family history, so much of what she said resonated even though I know next to nothing about my Italian grandparents. I had a nice chat with her after the talk about our similar experiences, including our Italian parents having "lost the language" and no longer being able to speak Italian in their quest for assimilation.

The Belongings exhibition was in the arcade of Bush House, former home of the BBC World Service and now part of King's College. It's a short walk from there to the October Gallery, which I'd tried unsuccessfully/forgetfully to visit on Monday to see the new exhibition. There I headed to see an exhibition called Forest Figures by Alexis Peskine. The pieces were all large portraits, made by hammering nails of different sizes into wood. I really can't describe them well, so just click the link and have a butcher's. 

I finished the day at the Offer Waterman Gallery in Mayfair (very posh) where I saw a retrospective exhibition of Portraits of London by Frank Auerbach. Since the 1950s when Auerbach moved to Camden Town, he has regularly painted the surrounding area -- Mornington Crescent, Primrose Hill, Hampstead Heath, Regent's Park. I'd heard of him but had never seen his paintings before. They are big, thickly painted, abstract yet detailed, reflections on his city and his world. People say that Auerbach, now well into his 90s, can still be seen painting or sketching on the streets near his studio.  


In the evening, I met my friend Jane at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn to see Pins and Needles, a play that looks at the science, politics and human stories of vaccinations. This was the best play of the ones I've seen on this trip -- well written, interestingly staged, thought provoking. 

Thursday
was another day of zig-zagging around to see art. I started the day by taking the tube east to Old Street and walking down Rivington to the Autograph Gallery. Old Street has changed so much in the nearly twenty years that I've been coming to London and I hardly recognize it or know my way around any more.

At Autograph, I saw two photography exhibitions that were due to close within days and I'm so glad I was able to work these in: Ernest Cole: A Lens in Exile and C. Rose Smith: Talking Back to Power. Cole, originally from South Africa where he documented the violence of apartheid, lived and photographed in New York City, primarily in Harlem, in the 1960s and 70s. Smith explores the legacy of slavery and the cotton economy in the American south, in large-format, formal self-portraits in which she wears a starched white cotton shirt and poses amidst the opulence of southern plantation mansions. Both exhibitions were very powerful and once again I was cognizant that I had to come to the UK to see and learn more about my own country. 


I rambled southward through Shoreditch and down Brick Lane in Spitalfields until I reached the Gilbert and George Centre in Heneage Street, where I saw London Pictures, their latest exhibition (though these are older works) comprised of newspaper headline posters, grouped by categories such as money, sex, knives, etc. There was a cluster of women in the gallery, obviously an art appreciation group, with an art ponce (man) who was explaining the works to them in a jumble of word salad and bollocks. 

Northward I walked, stopping in Spital Square to eat my packed lunch before catching the 205 bus westward to the Victoria Miro Gallery in a Wharf Road warehouse between City Basin and Wenlock Basin. I had a ticket to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition there. She's the dot lady. The big draw of this exhibition is the Infinity Mirrored Room (see this video from the website, but beware of the strobe lights), which was very popular when it had been at Tate Modern a while back. I was underwhelmed by the lights and disco ball effect. I did, however, like the colourful dot paintings grouped in the upstairs gallery space, though I could do without the "Every day I pray for love" text painted on many of them. I really hate vacuous text like that. 



Back on the 205 bus, I rode eastward to the Whitechapel Gallery to see political art by Peter Kennard. These posters and illustrations are no doubt well-known to Brits, especially anyone who was politically active or attuned over the past five decades. In the days before Photoshop and graphic design programs, he created powerful photomontages of social commentary that exposed relationships of power, race, war, economics, etc., and rallied people to action.


Getting back to NW3 proved a challenge as the Northern Line going northward was suspended, so what should have been a half hour journey took nearly an hour. But that wasn't the end of my day. After eating a delishious sandwich that I got cheap from a neighbourhood caff using the Too Good to Go app, I walked the short distance to St Mary's Church to hear a talk on humour by author Andrew O'Hagan, part of the Primrose Hill Lecture Series. I enjoyed the talk a lot and will be bumping his latest book Caledonian Road to the top of my reading pile next to my bed at home. 

Sunshine and blue skies returned on Friday! It was a delightful day full of catching up with friends, seeing some more art, and replenishing my store of vitamin D. I started the day by meeting up with my friend Judy at the Serpentine Gallery and pavilion in Kensington Gardens. I always make a point of visiting the temporary pavilion, designed each year by a different architect or designer, that serves as an outdoor gathering and hang-out space. This year's is a star-shaped design, with each point having a different function -- cafe, children's climbing space, book nook, function space, and entry. Clever, but not my favourite pavilion. 


Inside the galleries, we saw two exhibitions. Lauren Halsey's installation in the south gallery called "emajendat" is a fantastical creation of a "funk garden" full of images and iconography associated with the neighbourhood in South Central Los Angeles where her family has lived for generations. Bright, colourful, imaginative, fun but also social commentary, it mixes past, present and future into an entire environment. So much to look at! 


In the north gallery, we saw/heard The Call, a collaboration between artists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst. This incorporated sound (singing), artificial intelligence and installation. I don't think I really understood what it was all about. Afterwards, we walked around Kensington Gardens to look at a new mural by Dr Esther Mahlangu and sculptures by Yayoi Kusama (the pumpkin photo at the top of this post) and Gerhard Richter and then had lunch at a great little caff in Bayswater called Sheila's that I had pinned in Google Maps years ago as a "want to go" spot. 

My afternoon meetup was back in NW3 at Camden Art Centre with friends Simon and Barbara. We first had a look at the new installation of rather zanny art called I Am The Last Woman Object by Nicola L., comprised mostly of soft sculpture bodies and body parts. The purple "fur room" was particularly kooky. Our heads spinning a bit from all this wacky stuff, we retired to the caff for tea and cake and a good long natter. 




I decided to cut myself some slack over the weekend and not push to do too much. On Saturday morning, I walked to and from Parliament Hill Farmers' Market (30 minutes each way) at the base of Hampstead Heath to purchase one last loaf of walnut & raisin bread and an olive stick. I thanked the baker for keeping me happy in bread during my stay here. I'm really going to miss those tasty carbs when I'm back home. 

In the afternoon, I took the tube (big mistake -- crowded due to closures on other lines) to South Kensington and headed towards Chelsea, hoping for a nice stroll through posh, quiet streets with posh, private gardens. Along the way I popped into the newly-opened Royal Society of Sculptors where I saw two rather meh installations, Assembly: Abraham Cruzvillegas and Celeste. But the building has been nicely refurbed and the loo is superb.

Turning southward towards the King's Road, I was peacefully enjoying my ramble away from people and traffic when it started to sprinkle and then really rain. Stupid me, seeing no rain in the forecast, went out only in a cardigan and fleece vest. Fortunately, the streets are tree-lined and London planes have nice big leaves that prevent much of the downpour from reaching the pavement. I soon reached the King's Road and nipped into a temporary gallery space to see the annual exhibition by the Wapping Group of Artists, one of the oldest continous, amateur, plein air painting groups in the country. Some of the work was really very nice and I enjoyed seeing the various artists' takes on riverside scenes. I didn't buy anything.

The number 19 bus stopped right outside the gallery, so I hopped on board and rode to Denmark Street, arriving to find that the rain had stopped. Two blocks away was the site of the Bow Arts Frieze sculpture installation called Take a Seat that I'd tried to see on Monday. It was weird, kind of funny, but mostly strange. 


A few blocks onward, I caught the number 68 to Upper Woborn Place, where the bus stopped right across from St Pancras New Church. The Crypt Gallery in the church had a retrospective exhibition of wire sculptures by David Begbie. From there, the number 1 bus took me back to Belsize Park for a long, hot bath and dinner.

And Sunday was even slower. In the morning, I walked up to Burgh House in Hampstead where I saw two very good exhibitions by women, one a painter and the other a photographer. The exhibitions here are always by artists with connections to Hampstead or are about Hampstead scenes and people. I saw About Women: Photographs by Dorothy Bohm and Marie-Louise von Motesiczky: (in)Visible Women, both of which I enjoyed, particularly the photography. 

After a quick lunch back at my gaff, I headed off for the Southbank. My first stop was Borough Market -- I was on a mission (successful) to procure something from a specific trader there for someone back home. 



A couple blocks away is the Menier Chocolate Factory, a small theatre where I saw The Cabinet Minister (a farce, slow first act but better in the second). 

And that, dear readers, wraps up another week in the Big Smoke. It's all downhill from here.

Stats:

Monday:
£8.50 Silk Roads (early bird price)
£2.45 Forgotten Ends
£1.80 pastel de nata
£17.95 groceries & wine
19.226 steps
7.93 miles

Tuesday:
£11 Expressionism exhibition (50% off with Art Pass)
Bankside Gallery - free
£25 ticket to theatre 
£1.70 tofu
 steps

Wednesday:
Ukrainian exhibition - free (Simon's guest)
Kehinde Wilde exhibition - free
Belongings talk & exhibition - free
October Gallery - free
Frank Auerbach exhibition - free
£3.85 groceries
£1 brownie
79 p Fisherman's Friend
£13 drinks at theatre bar (Jane bought the tix, so I bought the drinks)
26,072 steps
10.71 miles

Thursday:
Autograph Gallery - free
Gilbert & George Centre - free
Yayoi Kusama at Victoria Miro - free
Whitechapel Gallery - free
£3.99 Too Good to Go order
£11.55 Andrew O'Hagan talk
£5.50 wine & snack at talk
20,062 steps
8.28 miles

Friday:
£19.10 groceries
Serpentine Gallery - free
Camden Art Centre - free
22,165 steps
9.34 miles

Saturday:
£5.40 farmers' market
£1 pastel de nata
Royal Society of Sculptors - free
Wapping Group exhibition - free
Bow Arts Take a Seat - free
Crypt Gallery - free
22,973 steps
9.51 miles

Sunday:
Burgh House - free
£ gift from Borough Market
£25 theatre ticket
15,849 steps
6.58 miles

Tuesday, October 08, 2024

Half-way Point

This past Monday I hit the mid point of my London visit. On the one hand, it feels like I've done a lot, but on the other hand I think I've been faffing around too much, moving more slowly and not packing all that I have done on previous trips. I've been seeing mostly small exhibitions, going to quiet venues and attending things that would never figure on the radar of a London tourist. This is all good and just as I like it, but I'm now feeling I need to be more organized and get myself to a few of the Big Autumn Exhibitions and other Must Sees before I leave.

I'm starting to get a bit concerned about how much I'm spending. The price of admission (even with my Art Pass giving me 50% off) to many exhibitions has definitely risen since last year, as has the cost of food. Fruit, veg and most staples in the grocery stores are still cheaper than in the US, but I've been filling myself up with a lot of carbs -- my favourite breads and savory pies from the farmers' markets, pastel de nata, cake and ale -- and those purchases are adding up. In past years, I primarily spent cash (I would take a wad of notes out of the magic money machine soon after arrival and dole it out to myself throughout my stay). Now, I seem to be pre-booking most of my tickets online and using my credit card much more often since so many places are card only. It makes it too tempting to buy that piece of cake or pastry when I pass a bakery or caff. I shall aim to get this under control.

Weather this past week has continued to be crap, with a couple of nice exceptions. When it rains, I try to fill my days darting from venue to venue by tube or bus to stay dry. On the odd days that the sun reemerges, I've headed out the door for random rambles. I've had a really nice balance of meeting up with friends to attend something together and doing things on my own. Read on for the details.

Monday -- The combination of rain and limited Monday options sent me off for a large chunk of the day to Tate Britain, where I saw two of the Big Things -- Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 and this year's Turner Prize shortlist. The women artist exhibition did what it says on the tin -- it introduced me to dozens of professional women artists who are little known, very accomplished and who broke through barriers in training and exhibiting. Many of them received a lot of acclaim during their time but have since slipped into relative obscurity. This exhibition, and the recent initiatives to make the public offerings of museums and galleries more representational of the entire spectrum of the population, might result in our ability to see more of the works of women artists. I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition. After downing my hummus and pita sandwich in a quiet corner of the museum caff, I pushed on to see the four artists on the shortlist for the Turner Prize. This was the third time I've seen the Turner Prize exhibition. It's always a mixed bag and I usually like one or two of the artists while the others leave me scratching my head. I was impressed by the work of Pio Abad and Claudette Johnson



My day ended with drinks at the
Magdala Tavern up near South End Green in Hampstead with one of my AirBnB hosts. I hadn't been there in years (it was closed and under threat of being converted to flats for a while) and was very happy to see that the pub is comfortable, cheery and seemingly doing well. And on Mondays, pints are only £3.50! It was lovely to spend time with Renata and chat about art, theatre and books. 

Tuesday -- More rain and misery. For some reason I had a really hard time structuring this day and ended up zig zagging around. I started the day by taking the tube to Piccadilly Circus (I love that station -- the architecture is fab and every exit has clear signage). I dodged the raindrops and scooted into the Royal Academy to see Frederic Leighton's painting Flaming June, on loan from a museum in Puerto Rico and not seen in London since it was first exhibited at the RA in 1896. I usually don't go in for this type of Victorian painting, but orange is my favourite colour and the painting is lovely, all dreamy and gauzy. 

I then popped into the tiny gallery called Air Contemporary in nearby Ham Yard to see an exhibition of knitted, sequinned sea creatures called Fishy Business by Kate Jenkins. This was so fun! I absolutely loved all the fish and crustatians and wanted to take one home with me (alas, I did not buy anything).



Knowing that the rain would put a damper on my ability to eat in a park, I left the house that morning without a packed lunch. I thought about having a sandwich or soup at the caff in the RA (everything looked delish!) but decided to push on to the City, where I was meant to be in the afternoon, to have lunch in one of the church caffs. Turned out that I fortuitously exited the Mansion House station to find myself right opposite the entrance to Host, a caff in St Mary Aldermary. But unfortunately, though it wasn't yet one o'clock, they had run out of soup. I stayed however, and had an over-priced, underwhelming focaccia sandwich. Next time, I'll eat at the RA caff.

In the afternoon, I met up with Jen for another of the Guildhall Library free talks, this one called A Narrow Escape, about the explosion of a narrow boat hauling gun powder along the Regent's Canal in 1874. The explosion happened right under the Maclesfield Bridge, and hence it is now known as the Blow Up Bridge. After the talk, we went to the Guildhall Art Museum because Jen wanted me to see an exhibition called Kaleidoscope/London by the artist Anne Desmet. I was blown away by the intricacy and beauty of her prints and collages. 

Back in Belsize Park, after a quick supper, I went to the Hampstead Theatre down the street to see Bellringers in the downstairs black box. This play had been performed recently at the Edinburgh Fringe and was brought to the Hampstead with enhanced sets and staging. It's a two hander -- funny, touching, creepy -- set in an unspecified time that could be past, present or a dystopican future. It had me thoroughly engaged and on the edge of my seat. 


Wednesday -- Another day of off-and-on rain that saw me constantly on the go. It started out with a fantastic tour of Union Chapel in Islington, the place I'd recently been at for the Tide Lines gig. But unlike when I was there for the show, the building was empty but for our little tour group and we saw the fascinating interior from all angles. The chapel has always been a Nonconformist place of worship (and still is today) and has seen a lot -- a SRO congregation when it opened in the 1870s, significant bomb damage in World War Two, repairs and reopening only to find a diminishing congregation in the post-war years. In the 1980s (I might be wrong about the dates), facing financial doom, the church began renting itself out for music gigs and has never looked back. The acoustics are fantastic, sightlines very good, and how many churches can boast having an on-site bar? Fun fact: there's a wee bit of Plymouth Rock in the church, donated by the Pilgrim Society of Massachusetts in 1883.



The rain held off long enough for me to eat my hummus and pita sandwich in Canonbury Square, where I was visited by a very handsome local tabby cat named Tommy. It's a lovely, quiet square that's had a major facelift since I last ate my lunch here in 2008. Clearly the local gardeners are taking good care of it. 

After lunch, I dropped into the Estorick Collection to see an exhibition by the Italian artist Antonio Calderara that I found interesting. I liked the earlier, more representational works more than the later abstract ones. 


Rain was threatening again, so back on the tube I went, to ride one stop north to Finsbury Park. Destination: Shop from Crisis, the shop that benefits the homelessness charity Crisis. It was featured in the novel Preloved by Lauren Bravo, a quick read which I enjoyed and then passed around to my friends at Cancer Connection Thrift Shop where I volunteer. This was the second Shop from Crisis I'd visited on this trip (the other one was up the Archway, where I bought a pair of trousers that I love and have been wearing almost constantly). Both shops are primarily focused on clothing, with rack after rack loosely organized by item type (the hangers clearly denote the size, so that's a good thing, and they don't group things by colour family, which I find maddening). Neither store had much in the way of household items or media. Good music was playing in both shops, and the Finsbury Park one even has a very small cafe inside. I chatted a bit with one of the employees (coincidentally also from Massachusetts) who works there four days per week and loves it. There was definitely a good vibe -- if it wasn't so far off the beaten track (or tube line) from my patch, I'd say I would go back again. 

There were still a few hours to kill before I had to be in Islington for a late afternoon talk. I consulted my map and figured out that the best place for me to while away the time out of the rain would be the Museum of the Home in Hoxton. This is a free museum that I've visited many times, first in 2004 when all it had was a row of rooms full of period furniture, set up as living rooms through the years. In the past five years or so, they've really made an effort to become more relevant and inclusive, now having installations of real homes of a wide variety of types of people who live in the Hoxton/Bethnal Green area -- families of Caribbean and South Asian origin, LGBTQ folks, young hipsters, etc. Downstairs, they've opened up some small displays with photos, audio and video depicting various aspects of faith, gardens, children caring for adults, missing people, etc.

I was so wrapped up in looking at the real homes that I almost forgot to catch the bus to Islington. There, I went to another free talk put on by the London Archives, this time by Angela Buckley about her book The Bermondsey Murder. It was an engaging talk, full of all the stuff I love: social class history, crime, forensics, the police force. Another book to add to my ever-growing list of things to read. 

Thursday -- Since I'd really pushed myself to my limits the day before, I cut myself a bit of slack on Thursday. The day -- another grey and gloomy one, but no rain yet -- started with the every-other-week walk with the Primrose Hill Community Association walking group. Since the pandemic and lockdowns, they've been meeting on Thursdays on the corner of Primrose Hill Road and Regent's Park Road to walk in either park, initially a socially-distanced ramble for their allotted one hour of outdoor activity during lockdown, and now a more loosely structured walk for 1.5 hours, sometimes with a theme and sometimes not. For this week's walk, we headed quickly to Regent's Park where we were met by a lovely young man named Charlie who is one of the Royal Parks engagement officers. His background is entomology and he took us on an insect walk, telling us things about the types of insects found in the park, their habitat, what the Royal Parks are doing to promote biodiversity and all that. I learned that over 90% of life on earth is comprised of insects! I'm always in awe at the amount of green space in London and the efforts to educate the public about creatures, habitat and sustainability within the parks. Maybe next year I'll go on one of the bat walks. 

I took the bus over to Lisson Grove to catch two exhibitions at the Lisson Grove Gallery (it's actually two gallery spaces, very near to each other, but this is the first I twigged that). The exhibitions were Yu Hong: Islands of the Mind (lovely paintings though a bit scarey) and Dexter Dalwood: English Painting (colourful, more abstract). I like this particular gallery and have seen some interesting things here.



Continuing somewhat aimlessly, I took the tube to Embankment and walked towards Somerset House. I hadn't seen anything in my news feed or email about a new Artists' Garden sculpture installation on the top of the Temple tube station, but I decided to walk by to see what was there. As luck would have it, I caught the first day of the new installation. This year it's a group effort, with some pieces more engaging than others. It's an often overlooked place that used to have a bad reputation as a derelict hang out, so it's nice to see that the space has been reclaimed and put to creative use. And most of the artists are women. 

Last, I went into the Courtauld Gallery (free gallery entry with my Art Pass) to see the Vanessa Bell exhibition before it closed. Turns out it was really more a display than an exhibition, with the better paintings being over at the Garden Museum in their exhibition about the Bloomsbury Group. Though the place was heaving with punters, there weren't a lot of them looking at the Vanessa Bell works --  they were all at the Courtauld for the blockbuster Monet exhibition. It looked to me that there were a lot of women who dragged their husbands, to some degree reluctantly, to see the show. After looking at the Vanessa Bell stuff, I beat a hasty retreat. I had a big day coming up and needed a good night's rest. 

Friday -- Up and out the door early. I headed to Sydenham to meet up with friends David and Janie for a day trip to Lewes. For the past several years, they've taken me on a car journey -- somewhere not easy for me to have gotten by train -- to see some sights, explore the countryside, soak up some history, and enjoy each other's company. Our first stop was Charleston House, the home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant on the outskirts of Lewes. The gardens are free to walk around (although in the decline of autumn, there was still some colour and the gardens are really beautiful), so we did that and skipped the house. 


Pushing on, our next destination was Monk's House, the home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf. This is a National Trust property -- David and Janie are NT members, and I had scored myself an autumn freebie to one NT property again this year. What a great place! The house is just as it was when Virginia and Leonard lived there (he outlived her by many years) and the gardens have been restored as he, the more avid gardener, would have had them (he left copious notes). It was so much fun to roam around in the house and the property. The weather was perfect for our packed lunch, which we ate in the churchyard next to Monk's House looking out at the South Downs. 







We then headed into Lewes, a medieval town perched on a hillside next to the River Ouse. It's got all the good stuff for a mooch -- cobbled streets, interesting Georgian and Victorian shop fronts, a few half-timbered buildings, a castle above the town centre. And it has a brewery -- Harvey's is based here and the ale couldn't have been fresher. We had pints at the John Harvey Tavern before heading back to London. 

Saturday -- I woke up without a plan, other than to walk up to the Parliament Hill Farmers' Market for a loaf of raisin & walnut rye bread. I'm obsessed with this bread and have to eat mass quantities of it while I'm in London as I can't find anything like it at home. On my way back to my gaff -- still without a plan -- I stopped at the Isokon Gallery to look at this year's display (photos of the construction of the Isokon). Back in the flat, I made lunch, consulted the weather report (it looked good!) and a destination revealed itself to me: Barking! Another new-to-me area ripe for exploration. 

I could have gone straight to Barking on the GOBLIN (Gospel Oak to Barking Line on the overground, soon to be renamed the Suffragette Line) but I opted to go first to Bow to see an exhibition called In the Footsteps of the East London Group at the Nunnery Gallery. I'm so glad I did this as the exhibition was fab. It's a mixture of paintings from the 1920s and 30s (when the East London Group was akin to the Camden Town Group -- Walter Sickert taught painting classes to working class people in East London) and contemporary paintings, often of the same or similar scenes. The exhibition will go down as one of the highlights of this year's trip.






Onward to Barking. With a heritage trail map in hand and some idea of what I might find having watched a video, I ambled around for a couple of hours. I found the ruins of the abbey (ruled by powerful nuns for hundreds of years), a church and churchyard, a lamp post where various trade union and suffragist groups would gather, an Edward VIII post box (very rare! he's the one who abdicated) in North Street, a piece of public art by Grayson Perry behind a locked railing, an interesting town square with lots of modern towers, and the newly-opened women's museum. I didn't get a chance to walk much along the River Roding (a tidal river that connects with the Thames) and I never found several mosaic murals that are in various places around town (except for the ones at the base of the famous lamp post, which I did find). As with my exploration of Ealing Broadway and Gunnersbury, I'm thinking a return visit might be in order. I took the GOBLIN back to Gospel Oak and caught the C11 bus to home.



Sunday -- Grey skies returned and rain threated. I wasn't feeling very energetic, so I took the tube to Baker Street and walked the few blocks to the Marylebone Farmers' Market where I can buy the Sires Hill Bakery pies I so love. One side of the sky looked like blue might be poking through, but the other side had some grey rolling in. Putting my bet on the blue skies, I walked from the farmers' market into Regent's Park where I hoped to finally go around and photograph the Frieze sculptures. I got a bit waylayed by Queen Mary's Garden, which still had roses blooming this late into the autumn. Finally, I took snaps of the sculptures and just as I was finishing up, the rain came down. I took shelter under a tree (Regent's Park has plenty of those) and waited it out, then walked home to my flat exhausted. Laundry and blog writing awaited me. 






Stats:

Monday
£17 Tate Britain (50% off with Art Pass)
£2.60 cookie
15,178 steps
6.22 miles

Tuesday
£7.95 sandwich
£1.15 pastel de nata
£10 theatre ticket
Royal Academy - free to see Flaming June
17,278 steps
7.13 miles

Wednesday
£14.74 veg, bread & wine
£11.25 Union Chapel tour
£4 Estorick Collection
Talk at London Archives - free
Museum of the Home - free
18,990 steps
8.16 miles

Thursday
£4.20 cake
95p Fisherman's Friend
Courtauld Gallery -- free with Art Pass
19,660 steps
8.07 miles

Friday
70p bananas
Charleston House gardens - free
Monk's House - NT autumn freebie
15,412 steps
6.32 miles

Saturday
£7.70 farmers' market
£1 protein bar
Isokon Gallery - free
Nunnery Gallery - free
Women's Museum - free
23,552 steps
9.78 miles

Sunday
£8.30 farmers' market
£1.16 pain au raisin
£
£
£
19,304 steps
7.98 miles