August 18, 19,20 London & Standen

A nice relaxing couple of days in London. We’ve been taking it a bit easy for the past couple of days. Plus, I think I may be able to upload some pictures tonight, depending on the power outlet at the place where I can actually get on the wi-fi.

Yesterday we had a good time doing touristy things. We started out with a trip to Baker Street to visit the Harpsichord Shop (run by the Early Music Shoppe) only to find out that it has gone out of business. They still have three shelves of harpsichord music at the Early Music Shoppe, however, so I had a relatively good time. Dropped a goodly amount of money, too. We went to Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden, and went through the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern, which has, duh, modern art. They do have one room of Impressionist art, no doubt to give people a break from urinals and Brillo boxes masquerading as art.

View from the bridge. Pretty fabulous clouds, right? We also walked across the Jubilee bridge, the Millenium bridge, and some other bridge I don’t know the name of. Went up to St. Paul’s, though it was closed, it’s still quite impressive, even from the outside. I'd like to go on the London Eye, but I doubt that John will be interested. You'd kind of have to like heights for that one.

So our relaxing day wasn’t all that relaxing, since we walked a few miles, I’d say. Finally had some fish and chips. I didn’t like it very much, but it was okay.

Sunday:


Standen, a National Trust property
Today we decided to make the big trip to Standen. It involves an underground, a train, and a taxi or a two-mile walk. We could have walked, but we definitely would have gotten lost, and it was raining by the time we got to East Grinstead, where Standen is. Standen is a house built for a family with 7 children in the village of East Grinstead (which is also the birthplace of L. Ron Hubbard.) This family, the Beale family, was obviously quite wealthy, but you get the feeling of a very happy family in this house. The house was designed by the architect Phillip Webb, who was loosely associated with Morris and Company. Like a number of architects practicing at this time, Webb wanted to have a good deal of input into the decoration of the house, as well as the outsides. Apparently the family was amenable to this idea. There are Morris & Co. wallpapers throughout the house, furniture designed by Morris & Co. and tiles and other ceramic works by De Morgan, who was famous in his time both for his tiles and as an author. Also, there were wall hangings by Burne-Jones, art by Burne Jones, Rosetti and Ford Madox Brown.

The house has some lovely gardens, but in my opinion, nothing so nice as Hidcote. Though, it’s a National Trust property, and they aren’t exactly rolling in money so most of the money goes into keeping the house from falling down.

We’ve made it a short day today. Tomorrow we get to see the Hermitage (Russian) collection at the Courtland gallery, and maybe go over to Paddington Station to get tickets for the Express to Heathrow on Wednesday when we come home. .

The only shopping we have done has been to look through what’s available at the Museum shops on this trip. It’s very freeing to know you can’t bring anything home that can’t be put into your suitcase. So, my friends, you don’t have to clear off any shelf space for szchatkas on this trip.

Since I'm now in a place where I can upload, here's the Ashbee piano we saw at the Cheltenham museum, and the wardrobe painted by Burne Jones and installed in Red House that is now in the Ashmolean museum.