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.
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| 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!
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| It was Big wigs everywhere in Lincoln's Inn Fields |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 |
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| One of the Turners exhibited. Turner was a friend of Soane's. |
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| 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.
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| It looks like Charles Dickens also walked these streets! |
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| Law courts of London |
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| 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!
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| River stones from the riverbed of the Thames. Note flintstone rock shining black! |
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| Foraging near Blackfriars Bridge |
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Joan Miro - Painting 1927 |
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| Picasso - Head of a Woman 1924 |
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| Nina Vatolina - Fascism |
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| Andy Warhol - Marilyn Diptych 1962 |
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| Robert Delaunay - Endless Rhythm 1934 |
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| From the Tate Modern balcony |
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| Street entertainers |
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| Police telephone - piece of history! |
What a great day!
