Ai Weiwei - a virtual tour of China

Since 2005, No Crowds has been brilliantly supported by the world's most patient Editor. He fixes my spelling, puts up with my inability to keep to a schedule and is good natured about being dragged to 1001 events that might someday produce a post. After we attended the opening of the Ai Weiwei exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, he strongly suggested I write something about it. My reply: well if you feel so strongly about it, you write it. And so, he did

When the NoCrowds blogster wants you to accompany her to a cultural event, the editor refuses at his peril.  Last week we went to the opening of the Ai Weiwei show at the Royal Academy of Arts.  Having braved rush hour traffic and monsoon like rain, I was less than chuffed upon arrival in Piccadilly.

All I had heard about Weiwei was that he was a big deal in artistic dissent.  I thought this is going to be the Chinese “big art” version of Anish Kapoor.  Was I wrong!!  Weiwei, through his montages, takes you on a virtual visit of his country, from the end of the Qing dynasty to the present.  One of his creations is an inverted map of China with a three-legged stool representing Taiwan—powerfully demonstrating the disparity in size between the PRC and its “lost” province.  Another represents the destruction of Chinese cultural heritage to make way for megacities.  He also indicts his government for failing to control corruption, which contributes to a variety of disasters.

In eleven rooms, Weiwei uses different art media to explore the country’s past and present.  Do not be fooled, he is an ardent nationalist who wants China to face up to its glorious past, problematic present and its potential going forward.  His often petty treatment by the Chinese authorities tells us more about their insecurity and unspoken concern that China could be broken up as was the Soviet Union

Until Weiwei, my view of contemporary art was the Impressionists.  They made a big splash disrupting the cosy old boy hold on the Salon in Paris.  Weiwei goes far beyond them impressing us with his use of materials and his commitment to a better China.

Gardens Galore

What better way to experience London than by visiting its garden squares? But most of these spaces are private and not open to the public. Ah, if only one could gain access to these magical places, what a wealth of culture, history and romance would suddenly be accessible to London residents and visitors alike.

Well, thanks to the London Parks & Gardens Trust, you can. For one weekend in June, London throws open its most lovely, fragrant, intimate and historic outside spaces for any one to enjoy. And it’s a great bargain. For 10 pounds a head, you gain access to more than 200 green spaces over the course of 48 hours. Today, we managed to visit 9.

Highlights for us included the three-acre Edwardes Square, that was built between 1811 and 1819 by a Frenchman rumored to be an agent of Napoleon. This oasis of calm between High Street Kensington and Earls Court has meandering paths, a croquet lawn, a rose pergola, and grass tennis court. The full time gardener still lives in the Grecian-style lodge at the entrance.

We also loved visiting the beautiful and serene Islamic garden on the roof of the Ismaili Centre in South Kensington. It’s a little bit of the Alhambra right in the centre of London. And we learned a lot about the Ismailis as well.

In all of the nine gardens we saw today, we were generously welcomed by volunteers who are rightly proud of what they have cherished and preserved. For anyone who loves gardens and loves London, the Open Square Weekend is unmissable so start planning now. Next year’s Open Garden Squares Weekend is 9-10 June 2012. More information available on www.opensquares.org.

The Dress Rehearsal at Westminster Abbey

Last week, I was invited to a dress rehearsal at Westminster Abbey. No, not that dress rehearsal.

The dress rehearsal I was invited to was for In the Beginning, a performance event about the King James Version of the bible that celebrates it’s 400^th anniversary this year. The ever-innovative Bush theatre produced a “tour as theatre” or maybe it was  “theatre as tour” – I couldn’t decide - that took small audience groups on a journey around Westminster Abbey, celebrating both the book and the building. Before you get too excited, this was a one-night-only event that took place on the 24^th of March. Before you get too sad that you missed it, let me point out three things:

First, Westminster Abbey isn’t going anywhere and you can and should visit or revisit this magnificent monument.  This is how the Abbey describes itself on it’s website: Kings, queens, statesmen and soldiers; poets, priests, heroes and villains - the Abbey is a must-see living pageant of British history. I agree. Pity about the entry charge that has now reached an eye watering GBP 16. If you are cheap like me, time your visit for one of the Sunday services that are supposed  to have wonderful music.

Second, the Bush Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush remains a great place to see new and exciting theatre and I highly recommend a visit to see one of their productions. Here’s their website.

Third, events celebrating the King James Version of the bible will take place throughout the year across Britain. Here is a listing of some of those events.

And finally, if, like me, you love a wedding, any wedding, a wander around Westminster Abbey right now is a great way to get excited about the upcoming events of April 29^th. The fact that you will also encounter the resting places of Henry James, Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Rudyard Kipling and Elizabeth I as well as Mary, Queen of Scots, makes it, as they say, a great day out.

Beam Me Aboard, Mrs Reffle

Stardate 1314.5. As Americans flock into cinemas to see the new Star Wars movie, No Crowds headed for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London to check out the Linley Sambourne House. It’s not exactly the Star Ship Enterprise, but a visit to the perfectly preserved Victorian house at 18 Stafford Terrace is also a voyage of discovery, this time of the 1890s, that is equally loveable. It’s life in London, Jim, but not as we know it.

To visit the family home of the celebrated cartoonist Linley Sambourne, who lived at 18 Stafford Terrace from 1875 to 1919, you need to book a guided tour. Two options exist depending on the day and time. Either you go around the house with a “regular” guide or, on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, you can be a guest of the Sambournes and be taken round the house by a member of the family household. In our case, the guide was the housekeeper, Mrs Reffle, who met us at the door in Victorian dress and all in a tizzy as we were not expected, - even though, as the 21st century website recommended, we booked our tour in advance.

But being a gossipy and cheery soul who clearly enjoyed spilling the beans on the family more than seeing to the housework, Mrs Reffle showed us straight in to dining room and proceeded to regale us with the cost of the house (£2,000) and the wall paper (£70) as compared to her annual salary (£25), plus what went on the other evening at Oscar Wilde’s house and the amount of claret and champagne consumed at the previous night's dinner party. With a raised eye brow, Mrs Reffle pointed out the table upon which Mr Sambourne, who had a penchant for taking ‘artistic’ photographs of naked women, posed his models and the more sedate desk where Mrs Sambourne kept the family accounts.

And so it went as we travelled through the five story house. Thanks to the fact that the Sambourne’s were concerned with presenting a fashionable and artistic home and that virtually nothing has been altered in the place since the 1890s, we spent a perfect hour time travelling through the Victorian universe under the guidance and steady hand of Captain Reffle. The children on our “trip” had a splendid time as did the adults.

London has more than its fair share of excellent time-travelling tourist attractions; Dennis Severs House, the Old Operating Theatre and the Ben Franklin House come immediately to mind, but as good as they are, I have never seen a group of tourists turn themselves over to an experience with quite the same enthusiasm as at Linley Sambourne House. This is tourism with a twist and the combination of the perfectly preserved house and tour guiding theatrics is an absolute winner. Go Saturday and Sunday afternoon and give Mrs Reffle out best.

The Linley Sambourne House
18 Stafford Terrace
London
Tel: 0207 602 3316
Email: museums@rbkc.gov.uk

Photo courtesy of the Linley Sambourne House

The Old Lady's in Danger - Again

Wild speculation. Cataclysmic losses. A gullible mob demanding vengeance. Wall Street 2008? Nope, London 1720. Here’s another one. “I cannot repay you.” Bernie Madoff to his investors. Nope, King Charles II addressing his bankers.

I learned all of this yesterday at the wonderful Bank of England Museum in the City of London. I avoided this place for the last decade, thinking that the story of the Bank “from its foundation in 1694 to its role today as the nation’s central bank” couldn’t be very exciting.

Well, I was wrong. First, there was the South Sea bubble mentioned above where everyone lost their shirt, company directors were arrested and the Chancellor of the Exchequer expelled from Parliament. Then there was the mob’s attack on the bank during the riots of 1780, where the bank was protected by a military guard that was only abolished in 1973. And then there’s that business about the raising of a Volunteer Corp from the Banks’ staff to defend the institution against a French invasion, not to mention being bombed during the Blitz and nationalised in 1946. Phew, it starts to put things into perspective. Over the centuries there have been plenty of crashes, financial meltdowns and public hysteria. We’re not the first and we won’t be the last.

In addition to presenting the history of the Bank, the museum provides several excellent interactive exhibits explaining inflation and other aspects of banking and monetary policy. The exhibits do a good job of communicating complex concepts in ways that are easy to understand and the museum is perfect for students and young adults, although I doubt they will jump for joy when you say, “Hey kids, today we’re going to the Museum of the Bank of England.” Take them anyway because this museum is a real winner. It’s topical, it’s not crowded and best of all during these hard times, admission, the brochure and the audio guide are all free.

Bank of England Museum
Entrance in Bartholomew Lane
London EC2R 8AH


Open Monday to Friday
10:00am - 5:00pm
Closed weekends, Public & Bank Holidays

Tel: 020 7601 5545
Email: museum@bankofengland.co.uk
www.bankofengland.co.uk/museum

Image: Political Ravishment, the old Lady's in danger. James Gillray, 1797

Ditch the Lonely Planet and Follow Samuel Pepys

I don’t use my London guidebooks anymore. I’ve found a better compass.

It was the story which ran in the London Sunday Times, Hot gossip as Pepys and Austen go blogging, which gave me the idea. By using http://www.pepysdiary.com/ ,which is an internet presentation of the diaries of Samuel Pepys, the renowned 17th century diarist who lived in London, I would, in the parlance of Twitter, follow Pepys.

Every day I receive an email describing what Pepys got up to on the same day in London 300 years ago. Sometimes it’s exciting stuff involving plague, fire and the execution of a king but sometimes it’s about shopping for gloves or philandering at a public house. Some days he’s at the Guildhall on business or Covent Garden for pleasure. Regardless of what Pepys was up to, he lived life large in 17th century London and following Pepys today is tons of fun.

For example, on March 12, 1665 Pepys did much business in the Royal Exchange, so on March 12, 2009, I went too.

Whereas Pepys would have conducted his affairs in a building which served as the centre of commerce for the City of London, I found a shopping mall filled with some of the world’s most expensive stores such as Bulgari, Tiffany and Hermes. The restaurants were mostly full but the stores were almost entirely empty. I had a pleasant wander around. They have fantastic loos and an unexpected statue of Abraham Lincoln in one of the entrances. I admired the diamonds and the watches, I swooned over the scarves but got in to trouble with the security guard for taking pictures. Like Pepys, who saw plenty of political, social and financial upheaval in his time, I couldn’t help thinking that in its present form this Bonfire of the Vanities monument to ueber-consumption couldn’t be long for this world. So thank you, Samuel Pepys for my instructive afternoon in the dying days of City excess and as Pepys wrote on the day three hundred years before, “and so home to supper and to bed.”

Portrait of Samuel Pepys by J. Hayls, 1666

Hats Off to the V&A

I nearly got fired for a love of hats.

It all started with Lilly Dache, a French-born American-based milliner who dressed the great and the good in post war America. Lilly Dache designed hats for Audrey Hepburn, Carole Lombard and my grandmother. I know this because I inherited some of those Dache hats. I’ve hauled those hats all over the world. I love them.

But back to almost getting fired. It was in the days when I was selling computers door-to-door. As usual, I was behind quota. It was the end of the month and I was desperately scrounging around for someone to buy my stuff.

And then, I walked by this divine little hat shop. Oh my God, just look at those hats, so special. So fabulous. I looked up. The name on the store front was ‘Suzanne Dache’. Could she possibly be related to THE Lilly Dache? I’m now hyperventilating. OK, I have to go in and ask. She was and I spent the rest of the afternoon on a critical day at the end of the month trying on hats.

If you feel this way about hats, run, fly, drive – do whatever it takes to get to the hat exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London. Curated by Stephen Jones, who has designed hats for everyone from Princess Diana to Beyonce, this show has more than 300 amazing hats including the hats from the film “My Fair Lady”, hats made by Balenciaga, hats made for Queen Victoria and Boy George and of course, hats made by the late, great Lilly Dache.

If you love hats, you really have to see this show. Even the little hats you can buy and make yourself in the gift shop are awesome. I’ll be going back again and again.

Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones will be at the V&A until May 31, 2009

Photo Credit: Conde Nast

The Maltese Falcon Trumps the Da Vinci Code at St John's Gate

Tired of the Da Vinci Code? Me too. All that stuff about Jesus and Mary Magdalene getting it on. Oh please.

So if you don’t want to join the trekkies doing the Temple Church/Kings College/Westminster Abbey tour of London but are still fascinated by the story of warrior monks who set off from London to defend the faith, head instead to St John’s Gate in Clerkenwell. There you will find the museum of the Order of St John, a British Order of Chivalry inspired by the Knights Hospitalliers, a religious order similar to the Knights Templar, who fought and provided medical care during the Crusades and later become the rulers of Rhodes and Malta.

The best time to visit the museum is on Tuesday, Fridays and Saturdays at either 11am or 2:30 when guided tours of St John’s Gate and Grand Priory Church are on offer. Otherwise, you can show yourself around the galleries which contain medical, religious and military artefacts as well an exhibition explaining the work of St John Ambulance, the modern first aid charity which traces its roots back to the work of the Hospitalliers in 11th century Jerusalem.

What this quirky small museum lacks in size it makes up with lots of interesting information about the Order. We loved the medicinal jars which were made from the earth of St Paul’s cave, also considered a good snake bite remedy at the time. There are some very fine altar pieces and a wonderful model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. We learned that Swedish mid-summer began as St John’s Day and that we can thank the Hospitallers for the herbal remedy St John’s Wort.

In addition to the galleries, there is a small but good gift shop. As befits a first aid charity, there are also large, spotless toilets. Admission is free although a donation of £5 is asked for the guided tours. On the day we were there, we had this wonderful little museum all to ourselves.

The Museum of the Order of St John
St John’s Gate
St John’s Lande
Clerkenwell London EC1M 4DA
Tel: 020 7324 4074
www.sja.org.uk/museum/

Photo Credit : Wikipedia

London at Christmas

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.”
“Maybe Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more!”

Dr. Seuss

What’s the best thing to do in London at Christmas? That’s a tough question since there are so many wonderful Christmas-related events: the Carol services (we’re off to one tonight), the ice skating, the pantomimes. Despite the stiff competition, if we had to choose one single thing to do in London at Christmas time, it would be to pay a visit to the Christmas exhibition at the Geffrye Museum on Kingsland Road in Shoreditch.

Every year for the past 19 years, this magical small museum of English interiors decorates its 12 period rooms in the festive style of the season, providing a wealth of information about the development of English Christmas customs. It’s a great way to learn about Christmas traditions and we never fail to come home without some new decorating ideas. But the thing we really love about the Geffrye at Christmas is how it makes us feel.

We always find it strangely calming, and at the same time inspiring, to observe these past celebrations. We’re transported back in time, theirs and ours, and instead of thinking about what we have to do to get ready for Christmas, we think about England’s Christmas memories and our own.

It’s a rich experience but, as is the case throughout the year, admission to the museum is free and we always think how nice it is, particularly at Christmas, to have a warm hearted and authentic experience without having to open one's wallet. The Geffrye does have a good small gift shop with tasteful decorations and books about Christmas, if you do want to spend some money.

If you are hungry and want a warm hearted and authentic dining experience that also won’t cost an arm and a leg, head out the door of the Geffrye, turn left and walk for a couple of minutes along Kingsland Road to the Mien Tay Vietnamese restaurant. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside you’ll find some of the best tasting food, nicest people and cheapest prices in all of London. For example, an enormous pho (a rice noodle soup with beef that is a complete meal), one of the best we’ve had in a long time, was a reasonable £5.50.

We were there recently following a visit to the Christmas exhibition with old friends from out-of-town. We were all completely taken by the charming staff and delicious, beautifully presented food. Being interested in food, we asked many questions and were rewarded with a master class in Vietnamese ingredients and techniques. At the end of our meal, we were presented with a special cake wishing us luck, happiness and prosperity forever.

Oddly enough, that cake pretty much captured our seasonal visit to the Geffrye Museum. It’s not often that we return from a Christmas event feeling lucky to be alive, happy to be together and prosperous in our relationships but such was the case this year and that is why the Christmas exhibition at the Geffrye museum will always be at the very top of our Christmas "must see" list.

The Geffrye Museum
Kingland Road
London E2 8EA
Tel 0207 739 9893
http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/

Open Tuesday – Saturday 10 am – 5 pm
Sundays and Bank Holiday 12 – 5 pm
Admission Free

The exhibition Christmas Past runs from Tuesday, November 25 through Sunday, January 4th.


Mien Tay Vietnamese Cuisine
122 Kingsland Road
London E2 8DP
Tel: 0207 729 3074

The Wellcome Collection

Idle hands are the work of the devil. Ask any parent.

If you find yourself in London this winter, either as a resident or a visitor, a great way to entertain your children without entry fees or crowds is to head for the Wellcome Collection on the Euston Road.

The Wellcome Collection is a museum about the human condition as seen through the prism of medicine, the body and art. Well, that’s how grown-ups see it. Children will see it as a very cool place to look at weird and wonderful stuff such as artificial limbs, fake eyeballs, diagnostic dolls, amputation saws and male anti-masturbation devices.

This treasure trove of artefacts once belonged to Henry Wellcome, a boy from America’s Wild West who ended his days as a great philanthropist and knight of the British Empire. The museum also brings medicine forward since the time of Henry Wellcome’s death in 1936, with galleries that focus on current issues such as genomes, new ways at looking at our bodies and modern maladies such as obesity.

There are frequent special exhibitions, and a free Young Explorers Pack which helps children engage in the experience. The Wellcome Library, including 2.5 million books, manuscripts, archives, films and pictures on the history of medicine, serves as a great reminder to our kids that there is more to human understanding than can be found by a quick search on Google.

From a NoCrowds perspective, this place is a real winner. Particularly on the weekends, when the Science and Natural History Museums in South Kensington are heaving and unbearably crowded, the Wellcome Collection, by contrast, offers a superb experience for families where you have the peace and space to enjoy it. It’s easy to get there, being just around the corner from the Euston Station, and there is a pleasant café if your brood becomes peckish as well as a gift shop for the ubiquitous, “If you behave, I’ll get you a nice treat at the gift shop.”

Wellcome Collection
183 Euston Raod
Tel: 0207 611 2222
Email: info@wellcomecollection.org
http://www.wellcomecolletion.org/

Galleries open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00. Sunday at 11:00. Library closed on Sunday.

Photo courtesy of the Wellcome Collection webite.

The British Library - Five Stars and No Crowds

London is blessed with five star attractions such as the British Museum and the National Gallery, so much so, that visitors really are spoiled for choice. Unfortunately, major attractions often come with major liabilities such as long lines and high costs. For years, NoCrowds has been singing the praises of undervalued institutions, arguing that the overall experience was better with the little guys than the superstars. After yesterday’s visit to the British Library, we are happy to report that this national treasure offers the best of both worlds, the collections of a superstar and the experience of a hidden gem.

The British Library has been around since 1753, founded as part of the British Museum, to preserve the collections “for Public Use, to all Posterity.” By the middle of the 20th century, the library had badly outgrown the world famous Reading Room where Karl Marx wrote Das Capital and planning began for a new library which, after lengthy setbacks, opened in 1998. It is, according to the Harvard University’s LibraryNotes, “the only major public building to be built in Great Britain in the 20th century. No other project, since the building of St Paul’s Cathedral …took so long to construct or was surrounded by so much controversy.” Like St Paul’s, the British Library is now considered an architectural triumph and on that basis alone, is worth a visit.

As impressive as the building is, what NoCrowds found even more inspiring was the celebration of human creativity as recorded in the books, manuscripts, maps, and music scores on display. Over the course of a morning at the British Library, and without giving a media mogul a single penny, we saw the original specimens of what can only be described as mankind’s greatest hits: the Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible, the Lindisfarne Gospels, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, the Beowulf manuscript, Shakespeare’s First Folio and much, much more. From the audio archive, we had the thrilling experience of hearing Virginia Woolf talk about the art of writing, James Joyce read from Ulysses and Alice B Toklas describe the day she met Gertrude Stein. We shared these treasures with only a handful of visitors and it was an awesome moment to realise we could savour our experience of the Magna Carta in a room all to ourselves. For our money, cultural tourism doesn’t get better than this.

While the exhibition galleries are an oasis of calm, the rest of the Library is a beehive of activity filled with all kinds of people working on laptops in every possible nook and cranny. We loved the energy of it all and the feeling that the British Library is a thriving contemporary institution. While looking at the long line of 21st century applicants queuing for their readers passes, we wondered if any of them might also change the course of history like former pass holders Marx, Lenin and Ghandi.

At the end of our visit, we paused for a while and just watched the comings and goings. The thought that all these people felt the need to consult the 150 million plus items covering thousands of years of history from all cultures and civilisations, filled us with optimism about mankind’s infinite quest for knowledge. For a moving and memorable experience that is easy on the purse and good for the soul, the British Library is hard to beat.

The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB

www.bl.uk/everyone
Tel: 44 (0)20 7387 0626

Opening times (public areas)
Monday – Friday, 9:30 to 18:00 (until 20:00 on Tuesday)
Saturday 9:30 to 17:00
Sunday and public holidays 11:00 -17:00

Free Admission

London's Imperial War Museum

Yesterday began in a bad way with filthy weather, domestic disasters and a general sense that we were in a rut and everyone else wasn’t. At times like this, NoCrowds’ favourite trick is to bunk off and be a tourist for a day. Even if we only have a lunch hour to spare, going to see anything that takes us outside our own problems can often help save the day.

But we were feeling way too sorry for ourselves to be consoled by mere art and architecture, no matter how inspiring. And then it came to us that the perfect way to bask in our misery was to visit the one museum in London for which we have no affection – the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth.

When our sons were small, they loved going there. As you can imagine, the little action men loved the big guns, big planes and big armoured vehicles, oblivious to the fact that the museum’s brief was to cover all aspects of modern conflict with equal time for friend, foe, combatant and civilian.

What we took away from those visits so many years ago was that this was a very dangerous museum, dangerous in the sense that it was so even handed and so well done, that at some level, war seemed an inevitable part of the human condition. We didn’t like that idea then and we don’t like it now so charging over to Lambeth like a ‘just give peace a chance’ reincarnation of John Lennon seemed a cathartic and reasonable thing to do.

Now the first thing to know about the Imperial War Museum is that it is housed in a grand building, formerly the Bethlem Royal Hospital which, for centuries, was the major lunatic asylum for London, more commonly known as “Bedlam”. Well, how appropriate is that, we thought as we read the background material on the way to the site. The fact that enormous guns from the HMS Ramillies and HMS Resolution guard the entrance and that lots of men were milling around the guns enthusiastically taking pictures only seemed to wind this old peacenik up even more.

Once inside, we bypassed the Large Exhibits Hall containing the most important weapons and vehicles in the collection (and most of the boys and men) heading straight for the “My Boy Jack” exhibition (until February 24) which chronicles the relationship between Rudyard Kipling and his only son who died in the Battle of Loos in 1915. What makes the story so poignant is that Kipling’s son, who was practically blind, would never have been allowed to fight were it not for his world famous father who marshalled all his influence to gain his son a commission. The exhibit contains original documents and material used to make the television drama by the same name which starred Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame. Both the film and the exhibition are extremely moving and to be recommended.

From there we tackled the First and Second World War Galleries which are extensive and, we hate to say it, superbly done which include a walk through recreation of a WWI trench complete with “special sound, lighting and smell effects”. We had to battle our way through “The Children’s War”, which tells the story of WWII through the eyes of Britain’s children which was packed to the gills with modern day British school children who, surprisingly, seemed quite interested in these remote childhoods of air raids, evacuations and ration cards. At this point, we began to suspect that we were going to have to write something more than just “this is a place with big toys for big boys” review. Nevertheless, there was tons more to see before we passed judgement.

On the second floor, we spent a long time in the Art Galleries which contain a good collection of modern British paintings exploring the theme of war. In the same room as John Singer Sargent’s famous painting “Gassed” there is a new work by the artist, Steve McQueen, “Queen and Country” commemorating the British service men and women who have lost their lives in the Iraq conflict. Sadly, this exhibit is a work in progress and will continue until British forces leave Iraq.

On the same floor, there currently is a fascinating temporary exhibit (until March 30th) entitled “Weapons of Mass Communications” which uses posters to explore the relationship between advertising, publicity and government propaganda. Unlike the rest of the museum this exhibit was populated by hip media types, some with quite amazing hair, who seemed to be looking for new ideas.

On the fourth and fifth floor of the Imperial War Museum visitors will find two exhibitions on the Holocaust and Crimes against Humanity. As you can imagine, these exhibits are difficult to visit and even more difficult to adequately describe. In any case, we advise that you leave them for last. We found them informative and very, very sobering. Many of the visitors left comments in the guestbook that they had found this Holocaust Exhibition to be more powerful than either of the museums dedicated to the subject in Washington and Berlin. We also thought that the specially commissioned film on genocide and ethnic violence in Armenia, Nazi occupied Europe, Cambodia, East Timor, Rwanda and elsewhere should be compulsory viewing for anyone trying to gain a better understanding of conflict in the 21st century.

Following these two exhibitions, we decided it was time to call it a day. Once again, we went away convinced that this museum does too good a job of articulating what to us is so inexplicable. Despite all mankind has learned and despite all human achievement, in the words of Helmuth von Moltke “War is also part of God’s creation.”

The Imperial War Museum London
Lambeth Road
London SE1
Tel: 0207 416 5320
mail@iwm.org.uk

Open daily from 10 to 6
Free admission

Mummies, Dodos and a Dead Philosopher

How would you like a peek at the world’s oldest gynaecological papyrus? What about a long extinct dodo? Care to commune with a dead philosopher? All this and more is waiting for the intrepid visitor to the collections of University College London with a free afternoon and a sense of adventure.

University College London (UCL) was founded 180 years ago to provide higher education to anyone not served by Oxford and Cambridge, which in those days meant anyone who was not male, prosperous and a member of the Church of England. Over the years, the UCL has amassed more than half a million artefacts and specimens. Much of this material is available to the public and all the collections are free of charge. NoCrowds spent an afternoon at UCL recently and now ranks the collections as one of the top undervalued attractions for visitors to London.

The first stop on our self-guided tour was the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. After navigating a building site, signing-in with security and dodging a student here and there, we made our way up a flight of stairs and through a study area to emerge into a gloomy room filled with crowded cabinets. It took a while for our modern sensibilities to click into this old fashioned way of displaying antiquities, not to mention the run-down state of the facilities, but half way around the first room we were hooked.

What makes the Petrie so interesting is the way the “stuff” of daily life in the Nile Valley sit alongside some of the greatest finds of Egyptian archaeology. Funny drawing on small chips of limestone, think of scratch paper, can be found near a fragment of Egypt’s oldest calendar. The museum includes both the world’s oldest dress and the world’s largest collection of Roman period mummy portraits. Despite the fact that only a portion of the 80,000 objects are on display and that the facilities are atmospheric but decidedly shabby, we were nevertheless able to imagine daily life in Egypt in a new and exciting way.

While the quality of the Petrie collection compares favourably with the Cairo and British Museums, unlike those immensely popular institutions, the Petrie was completely empty for the duration of our hour-long visit. Plans are underway to move the collection to purpose built galleries in a new University building which will do much to improve the Petrie’s profile and accessibility so if you want to see mummies without kiddies, get over to the Petrie sooner as opposed to later.

After the Petrie, we backtracked through the building site, around the corner and into the Grant Museum of Zoology. It’s the kind of place that if you hate asking people for directions, you’ll probably never find it. Go on and ask because you really don’t want to miss this Victorian time capsule. Crammed into a space not much bigger than your kitchen, the Grant is a crazy, Noah’s Ark collection of pickled, preserved and mounted creatures. Weird looking lungfish that can breathe air, a huge elephant’s heart, rare dodo bones and approximately 55,000 specimens all vie for your attention.

The last remaining zoological museum in London, over the years the place has been flooded, bombed and threatened with closure but on the day of our visit, a class of art students were intently working on drawing specimens and it added to the experience that the museum was still being used for research and teaching. In fact, we were the only tourists there which meant the volunteer guide was delighted to explain everything to us in colourful detail.

Saving the best for last, after the Grant Museum we headed for UCL’s main building where the weird and wonderfully preserved body of Jeremy Bentham sits in a cabinet prominently displayed in the main hall. The philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, one of UCL’s spiritual founders best known as the father of utilitarianism, had stipulated in his will that his body be preserved for posterity. In 1852, the glass fronted cabinet with Bentham’s “auto-icon” (his terminology) was donated to UCL.

Many stories surround what UCL describes as its “most famous possession”. One story goes that Bentham is regularly wheeled in to attend meetings of the College Council and that his attendance is always recorded as “present but not voting”. Another version of the story claims that Bentham does vote in cases where the Council vote is split, in which case, Bentham invariably votes for the motion. Another legend states that King’s College London stole the head and used it as a football. The truth of the matter is that Kings did steal the head but returned it after a ransom of £10 had been paid to the charity, Shelter. After the incident, the head was moved to the college’s vault. Are these stories true? We hope so. In any event, we now are of the opinion that no university worth attending should be without a dead spiritual founder in the front hall. In a word, awesome!

For London visitors with big appetites for the unusual and undiscovered, the collections of University College London deliver on so many levels. They’re fun, free, atmospheric, uncrowded and perfect for anyone of any age. Get there quick before the rest of the world figures it out.

Useful Addresses

Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
UCL Malet Place
London, WC1e 6BT
Tues-Fri 1-5pm & Sat 10-1pm
Tel: 020 7679 2884
Fax: 020 7679 2886
Email: petrie.museum@ucl.ac.uk
http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/

Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy
Darwin Building, ground floor
UCL Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
Mon-Fri 1-5pm
Tel: 020 7679 2647
Fax: 020 7679 7096
Zoology.museum@ucl.ac.uk
www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/zoology

Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon
UCL South Cloisters
Mon-Fri 7:30-6pm

Photo of Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon courtesy of the UCL Bentham Project website.

The Last Chance Museum

NoCrowds is always on the prowl for London’s undervalued treasures. Some of our favourites include Dennis Severs’ House, the Sir John Soane’s Museum and the Old Operating Theatre. These are places where you can have a big experiences, as judged by their uniqueness, without big crowds. Yesterday, we found another, the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art in Bloomsbury but you are going to have to really hurry if you want to see this wonderful small museum. On December 21, 2007, the Percival David Foundation museum will close forever and the finest collection of Chinese ceramics outside China will be put into storage. According to the notice tacked to the museum’s entrance, the collection will be “unavailable for 2008” while a new wing is built to house the objects at the British Museum. Having some experience with British builders and completion dates, we don’t expect to see this collection any time soon.

There are lots of reasons why you want to hurry and see the Percival David Foundation museum before it closes. For a start, the ceramics, many of which belonged to Chinese emperors, are exceptionally beautiful and you can learn a lot about Chinese history and culture as you work your way through the cabinets of rare objects dating from the 9th to the 18th century. To get a taste for how exquisite these ceramics are, click here.

More importantly, this may be the last chance to see this world class collection in blissful solitude in a peaceful house on a romantic square in a part of London favoured by the writers, artists and intellectuals of the Bloomsbury Group. When we visited the museum yesterday afternoon for over an hour, we counted only two other visitors. We even enjoyed the “its all over” atmosphere conveyed by the friendly staff and the shaggy condition of the building. In an age of blockbuster art shows and all the discomfort that goes with them, it was wonderful to see a blockbuster collection in a calm setting. At the end of our visit, we stepped out onto leafy Gordon Square, dogging the students hurrying to class at University College London while admiring the houses next door that had once belonged to John Maynard Keynes, Virginia Wolf, Clive Bell and Lytton Strachey.

If and when this collection reappears at the British Museum, (and we can find absolutely nothing about the plans or arrangements on either the British Museum or Percival David websites, which makes us suspicious) you will probably have to fight for a timed ticket and wait in line to see such extraordinary objects. I am basing this assertion on the current hullabaloo to get in to see the The First Emperor – China’s Terracotta Army and when one considers the countless number of Emperors who ate, drank, worshiped and admired the 1,700 objects in the Percival David collection, our advice is to go now and beat the crowds.

Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art
53 Gordon Square
London, WC1H OPD
Tel: 44 (0)207 387 3909
www.pdfmuseum.org.uk

Opening times
Monday – Friday 10:00 – 12:30 and 1:30 – 5:00
Admission Free

Image of Yuan Dynasty Temple Vase (1351) from Percival David Foundation website

Freedom Schooner Amistad

I come from a family of talented sailors but inherited none of their ability or love of the sea. Still, when Jeff asked if I wanted to visit the Freedom Schooner Amistad when it was docked in London as part of its 2007-2008 Amistad Freedom Tour, I jumped at the chance.

I don’t know about you but my natural inclination when someone proposes something worthy and politically correct is to head for the hills but this year a remarkable number of events commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Act of Parliament which abolished the slave trade throughout the British Empire have taken place up and down the country including several at my church in London where Granville Sharp, one of the founders of the Abolitionist Movement is buried. I thought, “if the story of the Amistad is half as absorbing as that of Granville Sharp and the early Abolitionists, then it will be worth trucking out to Canary Wharf, a thriving 21st century megalopolis of global financial institutions, to see this reconstructed 19th century schooner.

The Freedom Schooner Amistad was originally conceived by Warren Q Marr II, former editor of the NAACP’s The Crisis magazine. Inspired by Operation Sail, the 1976 parade of tall ships, Marr believed that by telling the story of the Amistad Incident of 1839, where 53 African captives fought for freedom not only on the seas but ultimately in the United States Supreme Court, the floating exhibit would help build understanding amongst people of diverse backgrounds.

A tall order for a tall ship but thanks to the charisma and communication skills of the remarkable William D. Pinkney, the first Master of the Amistad, who spoke to us during our visit, the message of freedom, justice and the triumph of the human spirit were memorably delivered. In a tour de force of connecting with his audience, which included British aristocrats, American diplomats and the usual assortment of bankers and lawyers, this former Revlon marketing executive gave a powerful demonstration of universal human themes by going off on a “rif” about mothers which Bill told us he uses in every port around the world, claiming “everybody gets it and it works every time”.

The London visit of the Amistad is part of a 18 month, 14,000 mile voyage which will include stops in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sierra Leone, the Caribbean, Bermuda and the east coast of the United States. My recommendation if you live near any of the ports where the Amistad will call, go, see this unique floating classroom, but most importantly, find Bill Pinkney and get him to tell you the “true” story of the Amistad.

Photo courtesy of the Freedom Schooner Amistad website copyright 2007 Wojtek (Voytec) Wolowski

Ham House and the Petersham Nurseries

There’s something about vintage civil war sites that makes for good tourism. This realisation came to me last Sunday when we visited Ham House near Richmond upon Thames with my cousins from North Carolina. These are the very same cousins who had recently taken us to Bentonville, the last major battle of the American Civil War and so I felt we owed them a good outing. Coincidentally, but unwittingly, we ended up taking them to a mansion that had played a major role in the English Civil War which got me thinking about civil war tourism and why these sites are unusually interesting.

We really hadn’t planned for civil war reciprocity. All we were trying to do was show our guests something that the average London tourist never finds that would not tie us up in London’s diabolical traffic. We ran through the options closer to home -
Osterley, Syon, Kew and Kenwood, but we had been to all of them recently and we were up for a change.

“What about Ham House near Richmond? It’s not far and we haven’t been there in years. We can see the house and gardens and walk along the river towpath. Let’s see if we can get a table at the ‘oh-so-fashionable’ Petersham Nurseries restaurant and make a day of it.”

Our well made plan came a cropper early on when we ran into the diabolical traffic we had been hoping to avoid and Jeff and I commenced our usual heated discussion about choice of routes and who chose the wrong route. We spend a lot of time in London doing that. The cousins thought it was pretty funny.

But we finally reached Ham House which is an outstanding 17th century mansion located on the bank of the Thames River run by the National Trust, a worthy charitable organisation that was formed in 1895 to look after places of historic interest for the benefit of the nation. As a rule, you can count on National Trust properties to deliver a quality experience and Ham was no exception.

Ham House was built in 1610 and was acquired in 1626 by William Murray who served as “whipping boy” to the future King Charles I. It seems odd today, but at the time, given the concept of the divine right of Kings, you couldn’t exactly spank God’s future representative on earth when he was naughty. Needless to say, Murray and the Prince became close friends and Murray prospered, undertaking major programs of lavish refurbishments throughout the house, much of which remains intact today.

Following the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642, Murray was rewarded for his loyalty by being made the first Earl of Dysart. After his death in 1655, the title passed to his eldest daughter who has been described as a beautiful, ambitious and greedy political schemer who spied on behalf of the exiled King. She also had a penchant for extravagant paintings, furniture and textiles and much of what she acquired can also be seen today.

After exploring the house we wandered around the elegant 17th century gardens and watched a short film which helped bring to life the role of the house and its occupants in the Civil War and Restoration. We saw no evidence on our visit, but Ham House is reputed to be one of the most haunted houses in Britain and much is made of this at Halloween when special ghost tours of the house are given. What we did see, which will be of interest to my relatives who live in Carteret County in North Carolina, were lots of paintings of members of the Carteret family because the eldest daughter of Lord Carteret, later the Earl of Granville and one of the Lord Proprietors of North Carolina married the 4th Earl of Dysart. Between the civil war and North Carolina connections, we were definitely on a roll.

Afterwards, we headed towards Richmond along the Thames River towpath looking for lunch. Jeff had tried to book a table at the Petersham Nursery Restaurant but on a Sunday in fine weather, or any Sunday for that matter, you can forget it unless you book well in advance. Knowing that there was also a teahouse in the garden centre where we could get something light, and determined to see what all the fuss was about, we were on our way. The walk from Ham to the Petersham Nursery takes about 15 minutes through some of the most beautiful and arcadian landscape to be found in greater London. Tucked away behind Petersham Meadows is a very trendy garden center and an even trendier restaurant. Just as I was telling my cousins about all the famous people who live in Richmond ( like Mick Jagger and Peter Townsend), the actor Richard Grant strolls by. It’s that kind of place.

And so is the Petersham Nurseries where Skye Gyngell, the stunningly beautiful, Australian, former drug addict, chef featured in Vogue Magazine prepares very expensive lunches in the middle of a ramshackle garden centre. Upon arrival we bagged one of the mismatched tables and joined the queue for the self-service teahouse. I know I sound like I didn’t love the experience, but I did. We had soup (delicious), cake (freshly baked and also delicious) and tea ( from leaves not bags) and eating in the middle of a fashionable garden centre filled with beautiful English people and their dogs is lots of fun. I highly recommend this place for tea and if you don’t mind being overcharged, I’ll bet the lunches are good too. In any event, my cousins were quite sure they had seen something that was well outside the realm of tick-the-box tourism and we all judged the day a big success.

Useful Addresses

Ham House
Ham Street
Ham (near Richmond-upon-Thames)
TW10 7RS
Tel: 0208 940 1950
The house is open from 31 March to 28 October. The gardens are open year-round.

Petersham Nurseries
Off Petersham Road
Richmond, Surrey
TW10 7AG
Tel: 0208 940 5230
Fax: 0208 605 3447
info@petershamnurseries.com

The Tea House is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10:00 to 4:30, Sunday and Monday from 11:00 to 4:30.

For Café bookings
Tel: 020 8605 3627
café@petershamnurseries.com

Photo courtesy of Vogue magazine

Harry Potter and the Garden of Secrets

It’s not often that NoCrowds get a chance to ride the Harry Potter tidal wave. Put “Harry Potter Tours” into Google and you will find over 10,000 entries, everything from Harry Potter’s South of England Tour to the Harry Potter Tour to London for the Release of Book Seven. What an industry! But not one of those tours mentioned the fact that you can visit a screaming mandrake plant, yes, the one featured in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, in a 17th century walled garden in the centre of London.

Founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries for the study of medicinal plants, the Chelsea Physic Garden is London’s oldest botanic garden and one of the best kept secrets in town. Historians, crime writers, gardeners, doctors, film buffs and newt catching kids will all love this four acre site between Royal Hospital Road and the River Thames, not far off the Kings Road

From the weird mandrake plant that actually resembles an ugly screaming baby to deadly nightshade (or “belladonna” because Venetian ladies would use it to dilate their pupils) to the Pacific yew tree used to make the cancer treatment “Taxol”, every plant has a tale to tell. There’s the story of the cotton plants sent from the Garden to the new colony of Georgia in America and the tea plants which were smuggled out of China by the Scottish botanist, Robert Fortune to start up India’s tea business.

On a recent visit with a “twenty something” visiting American, we chose to go on one of the Garden’s guided tours which is included in the price of a ticket. It was led by David, a gentleman straight out of central casting, who somehow managed to educate and entertain an eclectic group of visiting lady gardeners, new age herbalists and us. His descriptions of some of the effects of plant poisons were particularly vivid. When we finished our tour, my young friend remarked, “I loved it. My Grandmother would REALLY have loved it.

If you are travelling with young children, this garden is a wonderful haven in a built-up part of the city where children can run around, go pond dipping for bugs and newts and get something nice to eat at the café. In a Charles Adams moment, I really enjoyed the numerous posted warnings about the hazards posed by the poisonous plants, the bees and the ponds which none of the happy children nor their parents seemed to notice.

All in all, I can think of no better break from the upmarket, but not very interesting, shops of the Kings Road (it’s the same stuff you can get at the upmarket outlets at home) then an hour spent in the Chelsea Physics Garden. It is amazing how many things in our medicine cabinet have a link to this bucolic and historic place and you will be further amazed by the role plants play in our heritage and our lives. If you are looking for a place to eat after your visit, head for Foxtrot Oscar next door. Everyone who has ever eaten there, except me, seems to have been seated next to Prince William and they make a great burger.

Chelsea Physic Gardens
Swan Walk
London SW£ 4HS
Tel: 020 7352 5646
enquiries@chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

Closest Tube station: Sloane Square

The Garden is open April – October
Wednesdays, 12pm-dusk or 9pm whichever is earlier
Thursdays and Fridays, 12-5pm
Sundays, Bank Holidays and Good Friday, 12-6pm
Admission Charges
£7.00 for adults and senior citizens£4.00 for students*, unemployed people* and children (5-15 years old)*

More Medical Museums

Museums are boring. Boring. BORING.

How many times have I heard that? How often have I countered with, “But this museum is great … different … you’ll like it … trust me.”

Well, here I go again.

London’s twenty-one Health and Medicine museums are great, different, you’ll like them, trust me. I never would have thought it. Math and Science are not my thing, but the doubleganger and I had such a blast the last time we visited medical museums, we thought we would have another go. And so, we visited two more this week. We saw an exhibit on enemas, an original copy of Handel’s Messiah, tons of tumours, a Holbein, some syphilitic brains, some Hogarths, the skeleton of an Irish giant and films of modern keyhole surgery. Along the way, we encountered exhibits covering philanthropy, anatomy, biology, musicology, pathology, architecture, surgery, and art history. We saw a heart wrenching collection of mothers’ tokens left with abandoned babies (think of Oliver Twist) and a collection of medical specimens that is a virtual Noah’s Ark of our insides. We had a fine, entertaining day. In fact, we hadn’t had this much fun since the last time we did a tour of London’s medical museums.

The Foundling Museum

Our first port of call was the Foundling Museum on Brunswick Square in Bloomsbury on the former site of the Foundling Hospital, Britain’s first home for abandoned children. Back in the 1720’s, when babies littered the streets of London, Thomas Coram, a childless ship’s captain decided to do something about it and began a tireless campaign to establish a home for abandoned children. The techniques pioneered by Coram and the Foundling Hospital have become the playbook of modern philanthropy. George Frideric Handel performed fund raising concerts in the Chapel regularly (think of Live Aid) and William Hogarth persuaded the great artists of the day to donate work to the cause which could be viewed by the fashionable and wealthy who had come to inspect the children. In fact, it became so fashionable to attend fund raising events at the Hospital that at one Ladies Breakfast, the windows had to be nailed shut to prevent the ladies from sneaking in.

There are three reasons to visit this museum. First, it has a small but very good art collection with wonderful Hogarths, Gainsboroughs and Reynolds combined with several spectacular interiors from the original Hospital. Second, there is a strong collection of Handel memorabilia including an original copy of Handel’s Messiah which he left to the Hospital in his will. Most importantly, the exhibition “Coram’s Children” which focuses on the lives of the orphans who passed through the Hospital will touch your heart: the little bits of ribbon, jewellery and coins left by the mothers but never given to the children, the Infirmary Book entry “in a dying condition”, the orphans who sent back photos of themselves to the Hospital because it was the only family they ever knew. “Coram’s Children” is powerful social history, simultaneously depressing and uplifting and a very good thing for today’s children to see. The novel, The Coram Boy, by Jamila Gavin also brings the story to life for young readers (Eloise loved it) as well as the stage adaptation which has had two sell out runs at the National Theatre.

The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons

From the Foundling Museum we walked over to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London’s largest square and home to one of four surviving Inns of Court as well as the Sir John Soanes Museum and the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.

The Hunterian Museum began as the private collection of the surgeon John Hunter (1728-1793) and was originally displayed in a private museum in Hunter’s house on Leicester Square. Today you enter the museum through the imposing portico of the Royal College of Surgeons where you are given a badge and directed to head up the stairs. We did not, choosing instead to wander around the ground floor where we came across Holbein’s painting of Henry VIII giving the Charter to the Barber-Surgeons. We also came across a weirdly entertaining exhibit on enemas and a bronze and marble Victorian monument holding the remains of Dr and Mrs Percy Macloghlin (well, no one knows for sure whose ashes are in there as Mrs Macloghlin is rumoured to have had an affair with the sculptor which may have affected her original intent).

After the Holbein, the enemas and the Macloghlins, we headed upstairs to the Hunterian. Wow, what an entrance, which consists of a dazzling atrium filled with floor to ceiling glass display cases holding over 3,000 specimens of animal and human anatomy and pathology. Needless to say, the pathological peculiarities were the most interesting, showing the anatomical impact of such diseases as tuberculosis, rabies, typhus and syphilis. Tumours, hernias, amputated stumps, two tailed lizards and Egyptian mummies all vied for our attention. Along with the specimens, and some stomach turning films of modern surgery, there is a small but worthwhile collection of paintings which include two terrific Stubbs depictions of a white rhino and a yak as well as engaging portraits of a perfectly formed aristocratic Polish dwarf and Chang and Eng, the co-joined twins from Siam.

Afterwards, being short on time, we retired to a convenient but uninteresting place for something to eat and a quick review of the day. We both agreed that once again, medical museums had exceeded our expectations offering so much more than you would think given that the topic is related to “boring” old science (my words, not Kate’s) but this is healthcare in its widest sense, encompassing a fascinating range of subjects. So fascinating, in fact, that we even agreed to go on with our romp through London’s medical museums. Four down, seventeen to go. Watch this space.

Useful Addresses

Foundling Museum
40 Brunswick Square
London WC1N 1AZ
Tel: 0207 841 3600
enquiries@foundlingmuseum.org.uk

Open Tuesday to Saturday 10:00-6:00, Sunday 12:00-6:00
Tube: Russell Square

Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
35-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London WC2A 3PE
Tel: 0207 869 6560
museums@rcseng.ac.uk
Open Tuesday to Saturday 10:00-5:00
Closed public holidays and College closure days
Tube: Holborn

Photo of painting of Captain Coram by William Hogarth

London's Museums of Health and Medicine

One of the books I enjoy browsing when I want to avoid writing is Mark Fisher’s Britain’s Best Museums and Galleries. During a recent romp through Fischer’s section on London, I was struck by how many London museums focus on medical and health related topics. Further investigations lead me to the website, London’s Museums of Health and Medicine, which provides information about visiting the twenty-one, that’s right, twenty-one medical museums and health-related collections that can be found in this city. I know medicine makes for big business but who would have thought it could also be big entertainment. I immediately called the doppelganger, who comes from a prominent medical family. “How about a day out visiting medical museums?” Most folks would have politely declined. Game as ever, the other Kate was in, and we were on.

We began the morning at the Florence Nightingale Museum on the site of St Thomas’ Hospital in Lambeth. I really wasn’t terribly interested in Ms. Nightingale or her story but the museum was open at the right time on the right day in an easy part of town to meet Kate. This was our first piece of good fortune because the Florence Nightingale Museum was wonderful. It’s a small but well thought out place which tells a powerful story about a formidable and enigmatic woman who changed the course of medical history.

For a little longer than an hour, we were equally fascinated and inspired by what Florence Nightingale had achieved and how she went about it. Starting life as a cosseted daughter of a wealthy Victorian family she went on (with considerable resistance from family and friends) to become a national heroine and life long campaigner for hospital reform and the promotion of the nursing profession.

In addition to the well thought out displays, there is an interesting film on her life which runs for 20 minutes which brings the whole story together. Florence Nightingale’s life is a great tale and this museum tells it well. All in all, our medical museum marathon was off to a good start.

After the Florence Nightingale experience, we headed for the attic of an 18th century church near London Bridge which is the home of the Old Operating Theatre, Museum and Herb Garret. I had heard about this place for years and it sounded completely weird and wonderful. From the moment we began to climb the 32 winding and treacherous stairs to emerge into a gift shop that was a combination of Aladdin’s Cave and my son’s room at University, I knew we had hit pay dirt. Here was another atmospheric London destination, up there with Dennis Severs House, 19 Princelet Street and the John Soanes Museum, all examples of places where the past comes to life.

The story goes like this. The Church of St Thomas Apostle was, in one form or another, the parish church of St Thomas’s Hospital from 1215 to 1862 when the hospital packed up and moved to Lambeth to make way for a railway line. Left behind in the attic of the church were Britain’s oldest operating theatre and an herb apothecary. It is a complex story how an operating theatre ended up in a church attic but suffice it to say, operations in those days relied on a good source of natural light and the church attic was both well lit and convenient as it stood on the same level as the female ward of the hospital. After St. Thomas’s Hospital moved, the theatre remained hidden and largely forgotten until the site was rediscovered in the 1950s.

What the visitor experiences today is a totally gruesome and riveting reminder of how far medicine has come since the days of the old operating theatre when patients were blindfolded, gagged and tied to what looked like a kitchen table with a box of sawdust underneath to catch the blood. Many of the surgical instruments from the time looked like props from a horror movie. Specimens taken from patients, such as huge kidney stones, rotten lungs and gigantic tape worms add to the fun. This place tells it "like it was" without softening or modifying the story for modern sensibilities. I thought it was fabulous but to make sure I was not the only one who found this museum nauseatingly sublime, I spent a long time leafing through the guest book. Most of the comments read something like

“Disgusting, creepy, revolting, fascinating, I loved it.”

The doppelganger liked it too and bought lots of postcards of toe amputations to send to MD relatives. If you have children, they'll love it.

After such a brilliant morning, there was nothing left to do but to go and have a bang-up lunch two minutes down the road at the Tapas Brindisa in Borough Market. We were lucky to get a table and with a no reservations policy, that can be said of everyone in the place. We started with a perfect plate of Iberica de Bellota charcuterie consisting of ham and sausages from the famous Iberian acorn fed pig. We then moved on to squid with aioli, chorizo, clams and ham and cheese with honey. The focus at Brindisa is on ingredients which are excellent. The atmosphere is crowded, noisy and fun. Prices are typical for London which means expensive, especially for tapas. Lunch will set you back approximately £20 per person.

After lunch we took the decision to end on a high and head home. Two museums down, nineteen to go. Watch this space.

Florence Nightingale Museum
St Thomas’ Hospital
2 Lambeth Palace Road
London SE1 7EW
Tel: 0207 620 0374
Fax: 0207 928 1760
http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 10 – 5, Weekends and Bank Holiday 10 to 4:30
£5.80 for an adult/£16 for a family

Old Operating Theatre, Museum and Herb Garret
9a St Thomas’s Street
London SE1 9RY
Tel: 0207 188 2679
http://www.thegarrret.org.uk/

Opening hours
Monday to Sunday 10:30-5
Closed 15 December to 5 January
£5.25 for an adult/$12.95 for a family

Tapas Brindisa
Borough Market
18-20 Southwark Street
Tel: 020 7357 8880

Hours
Monday to Saturday 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM
On Friday there is a Spanish Breakfast starting at 9