The Ordinary versus the Extraordinary – A year of travelling with three children: 7 July 2015 - Discovering who John Soane was and visiting his house plus the Tate Modern and a bit more!

As we only have a few days left in London and there is a great possibility of a tube strike on Thursday, we decided to have a day in which we would use the the tube today to make the most of our time here.

Love finding statues of famous folk all over the place!

In a passing remark, one of the parishioners at Greenleaf had mentioned John Soane's House which led me to research who he was and what was significant about his house. I was especially curious as he had mentioned that when he visited the house it felt sort of "spooky". John Soane (1753 - 1837) was the architect who designed the Bank of England and was a professor of architecture at the Royal Academy. He left his home and collection of art works to the nation to become a museum with the instruction that it be left as it was. His sons were understandably a little upset! His home was a work of art in itself!

It was Big wigs everywhere in Lincoln's Inn Fields

Lincoln's Inn - built with the same grandeur as a church would be.

We travelled to Holborn tube station and from there it is a short walk to Lincoln's Inn Fields which is supposedly the largest public square in London. It is in very "fashionable" part of the city which includes Lincoln's Inn where many barristers have their chambers: it really did seem to be the heart of the law with many dark suited men and a car park full of Jaguars and other highly priced cars.

Just to mention a bit of gruesome history, Lincoln's Inn Fields was also the site, in 1683, of the public beheading of Lord William Russell after he was implicated an attempted assassination of King Charles II. Further to the actual gruesome act of beheading, the executioner made four attempts before his head was severed from his body and it is said that after the first stroke: "Russell looked up and said to him "You dog, did I give you 10 guineas to use me so inhumanely?". (Wikipedia). Horrible history indeed.

John Soane's house museum - Lincoln's Inn Fields

John Soane's house is a wonder to behold! He was an avid collector of relics from antiquity and has amongst other items, an Egyptian sarcophagus, a wooden mummy case, many statues, reliefs and paintings by Turner, Rubens and Hogarth. Photography was not permitted. There were museum attendants in every cramped room but they were so informative and knowledgeable that we spent way longer there than anticipated.

Reliefs and statues packed into small rooms - a real cornucopia

One attendant explained that Soane had designed the new Houses of Parliament but there was no money at that time to build his designs. Later, when Big Ben and surrounding buildings were built, it was too late to use Soane's designs as he had died 20 years earlier. One of Soane's assistants, Gandy, drew many of Soane's designs and the beautiful architectural drawings are on display. His work was respected and prolific.

No photography allowed so this is a photographed postcard! The painting room - Note Canaletto. side panels are huge doors which open to reveal another whole wall of paintings

One of the Turners exhibited. Turner was a friend of Soane's.

Photograph of the painting of Soane's designs!

Much as I loved the cramped little rooms chock full of relics, it was the Painting Room which delighted me the most. The attendant there was most informative and engaging. Soane, in order to display his acquired paintings, had installed huge internal doors which could be opened or closed with additional layers of paintings on them. A series of 4 paintings depicting The Election Series inspired by the Oxfordshire contest in 1754 by William Hogarth gave a pictorial and political commentary on this corrupt event - "a darkly comic view of the corruption". My favourite of all was William Hogarth's 8 paintings of The Rake's Progress which told the story of Tom, a gambler and philanderer, who finally lost his second fortune, and ended up in a madhouse suffering from syphillis.

It looks like Charles Dickens also walked these streets!

Law courts of London

Church like buildings!

We walked through the back streets heading for the Thames and as we wandered past the London School of Economics stopped for a very nice and hot cappuccino (at student friendly prices!) and our picnic lunch.

When we got to the banks of the Thames, we noticed that the river level was really low and found some steps to walk down to the "beach". Among the pebbles and rocks on the riverbed were lots of flint rocks which of course fascinated Luke!

River stones from the riverbed of the Thames. Note flintstone rock shining black!

Foraging near Blackfriars Bridge

The Thames being a tidal river has a huge variance in her water levels.

Tim decided to run home after this but he had enjoyed the exploring we had done. Annika had stayed home as she wasn't interested in the plan of the day although I do think she would have had at least some enjoyment!

Outside the Tate Modern

Luke, Karl and I walked to the Tate Modern, which to be honest, I thought would bore me after a room or two but while Karl explored, Luke and I actually really enjoyed many of the exhibits. There were several video presentations which we really loved including one about oil dissolving a stack of sugar cubes and another about a group of blind painters. We saw paintings by Picasso, Dali and Kandinsky. The Tate Modern is housed in the former Bankside Power station which lends itself to great space and excellent airy exhibition rooms. Highly recommended.