SWCP Day 69: London

/ alliwanders

A short sightseeing day, just a trip to the V&A Museum and a walk back through Hyde Park.

Tip: it’s easy to access the V&A via a tunnel from the Tube. I was early so took the nearby exit from same tunnel to a lovely park outside the Natural History Museum next door

As soon as I entered I had the epiphany that I’m more of a painting lover than interested in furnishings or objects.  I find museums a bit overwhelming, all that “stuff”.

Really? OTT for me

I kept to the Medieval floors, I do like this period, then discovered the Cast Courts on my way to the cafe.  Obviously travel was a lot more arduous and expensive in the Victorian Age so those clever buggers brought the world to London by making plaster casts of the great monuments and sculptures and replicating them at home!

From 1200, their expressions of compassion and suffering are exceptional for the time. Not common to see emotion till later
Limoges Becket Casket showing the murder of the Archbishop, circa 1180. Thought to be the earliest surviving such box
Good ole Henry VIII
Trajan’s Column from Rome (in 2 halves) and lots and lots of other casts all crammed in higgledy piggledy
Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard the Lionheart – copies of effigies from the 1200’s. The fact they were copied has preserved details that were lost on the originals in WWII and from vandalism.
Yup, that’s an exact replica of Michaelangelo’s David!

The V&A’s Cafe is a hot vloggers Must See. Specifically the Gamble, Poynter and Morris Rooms. Not only the world’s first museum restaurant, they are masterpieces of design in their own right.

And the beautiful courtyard

And a long walk back to my hotel. My knee is bothering me again so I picked up supplies for Afternoon Tea and dinner and I’ll stay in and enjoy my last night of British television.