London Lives

An early(ish)  jaunt to the LSE to hear a lecture delivered as part of their Reading London event (Cities Programme). The event covered literature, social history and architecture in an attempt to ‘read’ and describe London.

The discussion covered land ownership in Bloomsbury, Christopher Wren (of course!) and how the metropolis has managed to develop, rather than sticking to any major plan. Along the way, we learnt about Wren’s great plan for London (it was all going to be so neat and orderly, apparently; I think London’s organic and somewhat haphazard development has been to its great credit. Imagine all those nooks and crannies being neatly ironed out and not being, well, nooks and crannies any more..). We also discovered that Peter Pan is set in Bloomsbury because Roget (of the Thesaurus)  once lived there and provided many a guiding light.

And then there was the news that the British Museum has some hidden doors in it (well, imagine if the dear BM didn’t hold such secrets). I have noted the locations of these and shall do some discreet prodding of walls next time I’m in there. Hope I don’t get thrown out.

Well, we were Extremely Well Behaved yesterday morning. After a Saturday evening of Prosecco, wine and excellent home-cooked (by me!) food, we ambled to the British Museum for a few hours of culture.

There was no particular plan as we walked in the morning sunshine. A gorgeous day as we slipped along Sicilian Avenue and towards the Museum. We spent some time in the Mexico rooms and then quite a while in the in the China, India and SE Asia galleries. I’m certain I’ve not been to these before. Fabulous Buddhas, beautiful snuff boxes, wonderful Shivas and mandalas. We mooched around the shop and made plans to come and see the Aztec exhibition.

To Lamb’s Conduit Street, one of my favourite streets in London. This excellent short film at Monocle gives a very nice flavour of the street. The street cuts across Great Ormond Street, with its famous children’s hospital. The other end of GOS is short and shady with a calm and silent row of Georgian houses. In Lamb’s Conduit Street, we spent a nice afternoon in one of our favourite Italians in town. Sea bass and lovely vegetables for me, lobster and spaghetti for my pal.

On our way back to the Tube, we stopped at a mosaic shop in a side road, because they have eccentric designs in the windows. This time, there was a mosaic of Vladimir Putin in the window. Very strange.

In a street near my home, someone has pinned a notice to the rose bush in their front garden: “DON’T take these roses. They are cursed! You will have ten years bad sex if you do.” Heh. People are hilarious. Someone was coming out of the house as I was reading the notice, which was a tad unfortunate. She looked slightly awkward, which made me think she hadn’t written the notice. Funny, though.