Sounds like an awesome day.It’s New Year’s Chicken today isn’t it? Not Christmas?
Happy Whatever anyway
We walked miles in London yesterday. It wasn’t a photogenic trip however and cameras were mostly banned.
We started at Sir John Soane’s museum in Holborn He was an architect 200 years ago and collected “antiquities”. Free to visit, the house is mad - every surface is covered.
Lady Soane must have been a very tolerant woman. Sir John “I just bought the sarcophagus of Seti I. I’m going to have to knock a hole in the wall to get it in. And I’m going to take the floor out of the back parlour so it can go in the basement. But don’t worry, a balcony will nice there...”
Then we got the tube to Kensington and we to the house of Victorian artist Frederic Leighton Built for him, as a studio as well as a home, the house is very light. Downstairs is done out in Moorish tiles and Eastern woodwork - all very Moroccan - complete with a pool and lounge seating.
We then went to 18 Stafford Terrace the home of Victorian cartoonist Linley Sambourne, ancestor of Lord Snowdon who married the Queen’s sister Princess Margaret. The interior remains unchanged since his death and is the classic, cluttered, dark interior you imagine of properties of that time.
Then it was back on the tube to Cannon Street in the City of London to see the Roman Mithraeum - a temple to Mithras under the new Bloomberg offices. Free to visit, but must be booked in advance.
Photos allowed at last!
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Finally, back on the tube to Euston, to see the Treasures Gallery of the British Library. So many documents from 3rd century scriptures via original scores from composers through the ages, including Beatles lyrics written on the back of an envelope, to the Magna Carta. Absolutely fascinating and completely free to see!
It was a long day. But we really enjoyed it!
