England Trip: London

 "Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."— Samuel Johnson

The day after Lyme Park, we said goodbye to my family (who flew home out of Manchester) and took a train down to London. J and I have been excited to go to London for several years. This is one of the cities where we fell in love, even though I was in Provo while J did a study abroad in London. Back then, J often would think about the things around the city that he wanted to show me. It has been ten years since I visited London on my own study abroad (before I met J), so we were both excited to go back. We were also excited to show Sam this city, too.

London has wonderful museums and most of them are free. I already wrote a post on my art history blog about a lot of the art that I discovered on this trip. Here are the places we visited and the things that we did:

I had an art history friend tell me that the John Soane Museum has a charming "horror vacui" feel about it, and I could definitely see what my friend meant when we went inside. I really loved the charm and quirkiness of this building and its eclectic collection, though. This was one of the most memorable spaces that we visited in London. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but you can get a sense of the space from this drawing in this "Illustrated London News" from 1864. Pictures are also available here, here, and here. I kind of regret that I didn't buy this reversible bag in the gift shop, since the calm exterior of the building belies the busy and cluttered nature of the interior (see detail of bag here).

We saw the London Eye, the House of Commons and Big Ben as we walked along the Thames

 We visited St. Paul's Cathedral and got to hear a choir sing at a Mattins service

The Millenial Bridge between St. Paul's and the Tate Modern was closed because a Marvel movie was being filmed. We could see the helicopter swooping down from the sky and a huge group of extras running across the bridge. By the time we walked an alternate route across the Thames and I was able to take this picture from a balcony at the Tate Modern, though, the bridge was open again.

I teased J that he must have subconsciously chosen to wear maroon on the day that he knew that he would get to see his beloved Seagram Murals.

Part of Dan Flavin's untitled 1987 installation at the Tate Modern

Enjoying scones and biscuits in the V&A courtyard

Sam really loved the fantastic pirate ship at the Princess Diana Playground in Hyde Park

We visited 27 Palace Court, the place where J lived during his study abroad. This is one of the places where we fell in love, even though we weren't together. The picture is fuzzy because Sam took it with my phone.

We let Sam choose a copy of a Mr. Men book at a bookstore near where J used to live. When we were dating, J mailed me copies of Little Miss Somersault and Mr. Quiet that he bought at this same bookstore. I like to think that we can build our collection of Mr. Men books from continual visits to this bookstore. Here, Sam is reading his new book while riding on the Tube.

 Inside the Wallace Collection

Sam loved the armory in the Wallace Collection. We didn't even know that an armory was there, so it was a special surprise to find so many neat sets of armor and old weapons.

J in the Design Museum, standing by an example of the signs used in British freeways

We squeezed in a trip to the National Gallery to see the Vermeer exhibition. We got to see a few things from the permanent collection, but we didn't have time to see everything.

We went and saw the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical which just came out this summer. The show was playing in the historic Drury Lane Theatre. This theatre was home to the London premieres of several hit musicals like Oklahoma (1946), South Pacific (1951) and My Fair Lady (1976). Sam was so excited to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; he would enthusiastically clap his hands between every scene. We sat on the very back row. Sam had to use three booster seats in order to have an unobstructed view of the stage.

Sam loved all of the pictures of dogs in the Tate Britain. This was his seventh museum that he visited, but he stayed entertained because there were paintings with dogs in almost every single gallery.

Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea, 1871. Tate Britain

Arthur Melville, The Blue Night, Venice, 1897. Tate Britain

One of the highlights of the trip to London was visiting with my cousin, Zillah. She joined us for dinner twice, and also went to the Tate Britain and British Museum with us. Zillah has been living in England for almost a year, doing research and work for her PhD. She took us on a double decker bus through the city, which Sam loved.

Our flat was located near Paddington Square, so it only seemed appropriate to take this picture and introduce Sam to the Paddington Bear books.

The ceiling of the British Museum commons area

The Parthenon Marbles! Visiting this gallery and seeing Ashurbanipal's lion hunt reliefs were two of the highlights of my visit here. Sam was getting really tired by the time we made it to this gallery, however...

 ...and he soon fell dead asleep in my arms. After visiting eight museums in just about three-and-a-half days, I'm not surprised that he was tired.

A London squeeeeeze!

I feel like we got to see and do a lot in London, and I'm glad about the choices we made in how to spend our time. That being said, there still were things that I wish we were able to do - like visit the William Morris House and go back to the National Gallery to see the The Arnolfini Portrait. I can understand why Samuel Johnson felt like people were unwilling to leave London (see quote at beginning of post). It really is a great city.