London - V&A heaven (x2) and a mini exhibition on maps

Wednesday 27 August 2025

Maggie is a V&A volunteer and was keen to show me the new V&A Storehouse, V&A East, out at Stratford.  Oh my word - what an amazing place! It's a treasure trove all some of the 'spares' of the V&A collection.  Some are too big for the South Kensington museum, such as the columns from Agra, whilst others are duplicates/triplicates.

A giraffe piano and a row of busts that look as if they are in straitjackets from trying to escape. 

There is a display showcasing an ornate ceiling from a palace in Torrijos, an example of Islamic art in medieval Spain (circa 1490).  It is all the more interesting as you can see both the interior and exterior, showing the construction of the room.

Another large item was the front cloth, 10 m x 11 m, that Prince Alexander Schervashidze painted in just 24 hours for the travelling dance company Ballets Russes. 'Two women running along the beach", 1922, set the scene for the musical comedy Le Train bleu.  Apparently Picasso was so impressed that he signed the work himself.

We sauntered back through the lovely Stratford area, which greatly benefitted from the 2012 Olympics development.  I've re-visited other post-Olympic parks which have certainly become white elephants.  Apparently Arcelor Mittal Orbit, the red twisted sculpture, now has the world's largest tunnel slide on it: now that I want to do!

I'd mistakenly left a few things at Caitlin's and, as her new office wasn't too far away, we swung down to meet her to collect my stuff.  8 Bishopsgate is pretty fancy and has a bar on Level 26 which we popped up for a drink and to admire the view.  

Thursday 28 August 2025

I went free range today leaving Maggie and Keith to their own devices (or was it the other way around)?  I started at the Textile and Design Museum, just east of Guys Hospital.  It was the first time I'd been there since Mum's cochlear implant so it was nice to explore the area outside of the hospital canteen and wards.

It's not a huge museum, and I wasn't quite sure of the flow of it, but I enjoyed a slow meander.

This is a sampler of 3! (3 factorial) - I didn't quite get this one but I do know that numbers certainly make patterns.

I was quite taken by Lynn Setterington who uses running stitches to create some beautiful memories.

I then walked across the Thames to Maughan Library, part of King's College London. Maughan Library held the Public Records Office until 1998, when it moved to Kew, but I was drawn there because of their map exhibition, 'From streets to stars, 500 years of maps'.   You can see by the security bars over the doors how secure the records used to be kept.

Being a free and small exhibition, it didn't take too long to go around, but I can never tire of seeing any sort of map (or two).   This is a Ptolemy map copy from around 13/14th century (?) and a revised map of a John Stow 1598 map released in 1633.

I was particularly interested in the Gertrude Bell letter they had as she was influential in the definition of the Middle East after the partition to the Ottoman Empire.  Sorry, no map accompanied the letter.

 

I then happily meandered back westwards down Oxford Street towards the Marble Arch

and the Joy of Life foundain in Hyde Park, and Hyde Park corner.  According to Strava, I walked over 11 km today pottering around London - happy days :-)

Friday 29 August 2025

Maggie treated me to the Cartier exhibition at V&A South Kensington today - she's a member so can take a willing accomplice in for free.  Blimey, what a load of bling!  

Some really beautiful stuff there, although I'm far more of a classic necklace/tiara woman (hark at me) than some of the broaches and necklaces based on animal designs.

Then it was up to Liverpool Street for a train to St Margaret's - Linda and Rob time now.

London - Greenwich and Kew

I hadn't had a decent catch up in London for a long time so it was high time I caught up with everyone...

Saturday 23 August 2025

The train to London was reasonable despite being evicted at Basingstoke station.  I know it so well I was advising people which platform to grab a coffee on.  I met a super lovely lady from Wiltshire and after a few hours on the train we were great friends!  I plonked myself on Caitlin in her new pad in Stockwell and post lunch we had a stroll up to Clapham Common, popped into some shops, and started our slow catch up.

Sunday 24 August 2025

Today Caitlin and I walked to Battersea and hopped on the Uber to Greenwich.  What fun.  Caitlin made me play "guess the name of the bridge" as we passed under each one (I managed a 50% success rate) and I always enjoy being afloat.

Greenwich was busy, as to be expected on a sunny Sunday in August.  We ascended to the observatory to check the meridian was still there (yup).  

We coincided with the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival and watched a few of the events, notably Weight(Less) a triad of acrobats exploring weight and the Elephant and the Drummer.  We would have liked to have seen Ephiphytes, high wire, but that would have meant too much hanging around (if you'll excuse the pun).

We took the DLR home and realised we'd walked a lot of km today.

Monday 25 August 2025

We did Adams admin today and helped Caitlin buy a table, rug and various accessories for a home delivery.  Later we had another stroll to Clapham to see the geese again, have a cocktail then join a long queue for posh ice cream.

Tuesday 26 August 2025

Today I caught up with Mum's brother and sister, Mike and Maureen, and we had a great day strolling around Kew.  Actually, we spent the first hour or so in the cafe as it was raining - but it was wonderful to spend time chatting.  

Unfortunatley Kew is under Heathrow's flight path for landing so we had to have conversations in bursts of one minute 45 sections, allowing an airbus to pass for 15 seconds, and then pick up where we were.

A lovely stroll around indeed.  I headed back to Caitlin's to collect my suitcase before moving on to stay with Maggie (Dad's sister).  However, I got on the wrong train at Kew and ended up heading up the Mildmay Line.  I switched at Willesden Junction but it was certainly a long way round from Kew to Stockwell.  Below is a rough map of my tube travel this day - pink is Stockwell to Kew, blue is Kew to Stockwell (the wrong way) then green is Stockwell to Northfields.  A well travelled day.

Hartland Peninsular

Friday 01 August 2025

We often plan a weekend away to celebrate a birthday (OK, in my case, it's often 'travel to Vietnam' or 'celebrate in Chicago') and for JC's birthday he chose North Devon as his treat.  It was intentionally nearby as we'd been in Cardiff the weekend before and were also busy the weekend after. 

So, after work, we drove to Hartland.  I don't think I've been to this village - it's super charming and local, exemplified by us immediately getting stuck behind the tractor erecting bunting for the village carnival the following week.  I did discover two benchmarks - a flush bracket and a cut mark, beautifully painted.

Eager to try out his newly acquired drone, we went down to Black Rock for a picture or two. 

Saturday 02 August 2025

Today was photography day with intermittent walking ;-)  We parked at Hartland Quay and walked down to Speke's Mill.  The waterfall wasn't amazing due to lack of rain, we then strolled down to Docton Mill for coffee before heading north towards Hartland Point.

En route to Hartland Point we passed through Stoke which, unexpectedly, had a church open day.  Stoke Church has the highest (or second highest?)  bell tower in Devon with a heavy bell at 17 cwt. We were invited up into the bell tower for a ringing session which was fun. 

We turned west at Hartland Point.

I love this part of the coast path - such amazing geology.

And JC took some fun aerial shots.

We walked around to Hartland Quay and, after supper in the pub, went down to the beach to take sunset shots.   This is a great rock pooling beach and it makes watching the tide come in more interesting as the water rushes into the small pools. 

Sunday 03 August 2025

Popped into Arlington Court on our way back as we were in the vicinity.  We enjoyed a good hike around the estate, losing our signage at one stage and having to hop over a gate or two.  However, it's always nice to stretch those legs. But we never did make it to their carriage museum.