London - Hertford and Bethnal Green

Saturday 30 August 2025

I hadn't seen Keith since we did the final clear out of Dad's house in April, so we were overdue a catch up. I came down from Hertfordshire and Keith and I met at Liverpool Street. Hadn't spotted this old police box before.  I wonder how many tourists surmise that we used to have really thin police officers in those days?

We pottered off eastwards for a coffee at Spitalfields.  Quite liked the graffiti along the way, and I'm sure JC would have loved this photography shop.

I had fun in a park.

We then continued easterly popping into the Museum of Childhood (now Young V&A).  I understand calling the children's museum young, but does that now mean one should rebrand the V&A in Kensington "Middle Aged and/or Old V&A"?  Anyway, it was a trip down memory lane for me when I found the Zimbabwe dollar collection, once the weakest currency in the world with inflation at over 1000%.

Once we'd done our kid stuff, we headed to Victoria Park where we stumbled across a street food market and had the most amazing Ethiopian lunch. They served injera breads, made from gluten free teff flour - so scrumptious.  Then it was farewells and I headed back to Stanstead Abbotts, along with a bevy of merry Spurs supporters heading for a home game in Tottenham. 

Back at Stanstead Abbotts/St Margarets  I clocked my famous aunt at the station, and went and found a benchmark on the local church for Rob.  

It's very pretty, but I admit it's slightly bothering me that there is no apostrophe in St Margarets.

My return chez Gifford coincided with Linda just heading out for a walk, so I joined her.  

Once we'd done our loop, we wandered back to the centre of Stanstead Abbotts to see the meridian obelisks.  I quite liked it until I realised that the cuts through the rock were not aligned in any which way with the cardinal points, although I do believe it's on the Greenwich meridian.

Sunday 31 August 2025

Home today.  Despite the odd bus rail replacement (thanks for the lift Giffords) I made it across London to my Waterloo train. I hopped off at Basingstoke and joined JC as he drove back from Luxembourg.  Nice to catch up with him and share the driving home.  Holiday is over :-(

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.