Tag: Days out in London

A Day Out in London – The Cartier Exhibition at the V & A

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If you enjoy looking at beautiful jewellery then the Cartier Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum is a must see. It is showing until Sunday 26th November, tickets are around £25 each. I love the V & A, it is such beautiful building and it is especially lovely in the warmer months when you can sit outdoors and have a coffee or lunch.

It was in 1847 that Louis-François Cartier took over his master’s workshop in  Paris and later passed it on to his son, Alfred. His three grandsons, Louis, Pierre and Jacques really made Cartier the spectacular success that it remains today. Cartier must surely be the most glamorous jewellers on the planet and the go-to for real Royalty and the silver screen variety.

The exhibition was heaving with visitors and we had to queue the whole way round. There are some boards up detailing some of the Cartier family history. It did make me laugh that some women (nearly all the visitors seemed to be women) were speaking loudly about their own jewellery and the trials they had faced getting it insured, it was definitely an opportunity for a bit of one-upmanship! The first display we came to was full of diamond brooches, one of them was particularly beautiful, so delicate that it appeared to be made of lace rather than diamonds. See my cover photo.

I always associate Cartier with timepieces and my favourite items included in this exhibition were the gorgeous clocks. I could just picture them being on the desk in some elegant study. There were also display cases full of watches, notably their most famous Tank style.

There is a whole sparkling room devoted to tiaras, most of them commissioned for brides. All are dripping in diamonds, some are very ornate and some very simple. There are cards detailing which lucky woman wore each piece and at which occasion.

One of the bracelets featured The Star of The South Diamond Bracelet (pictured on the left below) is set with a diamond reportedly found in 1853 in Brazil by an enslaved woman. As a reward she was granted her freedom and a pension, what a sad story. It is so sparkly that it proved impossible to photograph clearly. The sapphires featured in the middle photo below are 311 and 478 carats, mined in Sri Lanka The necklace was sole to King Ferdinand of Romania as a gift for his wife, Queen Marie.

Cartier is known as ‘the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers’. A great deal of the jewellery displayed is owned by the British Royal family but a lot was also on loan from wealthy families from the Middle East. The Duchess of Windsor has an entire cabinet devoted to pieces she owns. Imagine having the means to commission anything that takes your fancy. Although I enjoyed looking at all the fabulous pieces it was a little disappointing that there weren’t more photographs on display of it actually being worn. There was a screen showing short clips from films such as High Society and Sunset Boulevard but I would have liked to have seen how the jewellery was worn and styled, especially the wedding tiaras.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art at The Saatchi Gallery

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This was my first visit to The Saatchi Gallery. I travelled there by train then Tube, getting off at Sloane Square, it is about a two minute walk from the station. The Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art exhibition is jam-packed and full of surprises, over five hundred pieces are included. The first exhibits include Primavera by Sandro Botticelli and Irises by Van Gough but the poor lighting did rather fail to do them justice but this improves after the first room . The exhibition features photography, sculpture, book and record artwork, cinema, painting etc. There are wallpaper and textile samples by Sanderson and William Morris and etchings by Elizabeth Blackadder. There is also a large print of Wordsworth’s I wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

My cover photo features the real show-stopper, La Fleur Morte, by Rebecca Louise Law. Over one hundred thousand dried flowers and seeds strung together on copper wire to form a stunningly beautiful cascading installation. To me it looked like something out of a book of fairy tales. It was worth visiting this exhibition for this enormous piece alone. I cannot imagine the logistics of transporting and displaying such a delicate work of art and the dedication required to complete such a time consuming masterpiece.

In a room featuring photographs and sculptures, which felt a little bare, there was a quirky sculpture by Joanne Grogan, Best Chair. This was was one of my favourite pieces, made of wood and ceramic. In the same room there was displayed a large, mesmerising, mechanical flower sculpture, The Machinery of Enchantment (2025) by William Darrell made with a 3D printer.

Pieces by fashion icons Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood are on display as is exquisite flower-themed jewellery by Buccellati. An elegant wedding dress by Daniel Roseberry for Schiaparelli was the star of the fashion section. There are black and white prints of people covered in botanical tattoos drawn freehand by Daniel The Gardener, There are a few Andy Warhol pieces and three silver flower display sculptures on pedestals by Ann Carrington which, upon closer inspection, are ingeniously made of cutlery.

In the room featuring music, film and literature there were glass displays of books with flowers featured on the covers and record covers galore. The Cure, Joyce Carol Oates, Prince, the list of authors and musicians using floral imagery to represent their work is endless. A scene from the film Midsomer by director Aster plays. I haven’t seen the film but a beautiful young girl covered in flowers is featured and she looks terrified, like some sort of sacrificial offering.

The exhibition is extensive and entertaining. It did feel a little disjointed at times but I really enjoyed it. If your pockets are deep enough of course some of the pieces are available for purchase. Otherwise the gift shop sells some lovely items.

If you visit this exhibition wearing floral clothing until 20th august you will be admitted for half price although you can’t then book online

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Best CHair by Joanne Grogan, Fashion by Vivienne Westwood, The Machinery of Enchantment (2025) by William Darrell

Arrangement_ 593 by Tony Matelli, Botanical tattoos by Daniel The Gardener and a detail from La Fleur Morte, by Rebecca Louise Law

A Day Out in London – Afternoon Tea at The Langham

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My friend kindly invited me and another mutual, friend out to afternoon tea at The Langham which is a hotel located in Portland Place, a two minute walk from Oxford Circus station. I have only had afternoon tea at a swanky hotel once before, The Savoy about eight years ago, and what I remember was that my sister-in-law politely requested that some of the cakes be put into a box so that she could take them home for her family as she didn’t want to eat any then and there and the waiter refused. So she paid about £125 for a cup of Darjeeling. Afternoon tea at The Langham is slightly less expensive but the bill still came to a hefty £101 per person. Of course you are paying for the location and experience as much as for the tea and sandwiches.

The Langham is a very impressive hotel which opened in 1865. Tea is served in their Palm Court area. It is a stunningly elegant dining room. Dress code is smart casual but there were plenty of people wearing trainers, I suppose people tag on a 3pm tea experience to a morning of site seeing and no one wants to be doing that in formal shoes. I didn’t spot any jeans though. As part of my decluttering project I have decided to try and wear clothes I already own rather than buy anything new and wore some ivory tailored trousers from Mango, a black boucle jacket from H&M and a silk top that I have had forever but only worn once before, from Boden. On my feet I wore some well worn-in ballet flats because I’ve had many a special occasion ruined by .uncomfortable shoes. I was tempted to slip my trainers into a tote bag for the journey home.

My outing didn’t get off to the smoothest start as I could not park anywhere near my local train station. Most of the spots are now restricted to two hours which is ridiculous because who goes in to London and comes back again in that time? After driving around the multi-story car park twice and not finding a single space I rang my friend and manage to catch her before she set out on her own fruitless search for parking. I drove to her house and we rang for a taxi and manage to catch our train.

Once arriving at Oxford Circus via the Bakerloo Line we simply crossed the road and walked a few yards and we were there. I wish I had some pictures but when I sat down in the dining room I realised I couldn’t find my phone. After a second’s panic thinking I’d been robbed or had dropped it in central London I decided that I had probably just left it in my car and, sure enough, that’s exactly what had happened. I managed not to sit there the entire time worrying about it but when we caught the slowest train ever home I did begin to feel a bit jittery.

The Palm Court is stunning. If I go to anything like this again I will be sure not to sit facing the wall because it was impossible to people watch, my favourite thing, from where I was sitting. The walls are decorated with gold coloured ornaments and the chandeliers are beautiful. A pianist played songs from Les Miserable, Wicked and some Billy Joel. It really is the picture of elegance.

The staff at The Langham were far less snooty than at The Savoy. They gave us a warm welcome and explained the menu. I chose Phoenix Honey Orchid tea which was, quite frankly, disgusting. I stuck to water after that. We were brought a platter of finger sandwiches, egg, cream cheese, prawn and Coronation chicken, they were exceptionally delicious. We ate all of them and the lovely, friendly waitress bright some more. Next were the most beautiful small pastries, three for each of us in lemon, coffee and strawberry flavours. The three of us were all sitting there feeling fit to burst when the waitress brought over a little crème brulee creation with a candle in it for my friend. Just as we thought the bill would be arriving we were served warm miniature scones with jam and clotted cream and a gorgeous fruit cake which we had boxed up for my friend’s family. The waitress bought the boxed cake over in a branded gift bag and said she’d popped some extra scones in there too, how lovely. The food was amazing and there was far more of it than I had expected. We waddled back to the Tube. If you are thinking of doing a posh afternoon tea in London then The Langham is the place to go.

For my friend’s birthday gift we bought her a gift set from The White Company in Sea Salt scent. She took that home along with the scones and fruit cake and I think she really had a lovely afternoon, I know I did.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300 ‒1350 at The National Gallery & Marylebone Village

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The Siena exhibition at The National Gallery is breath-taking. If you would like to view some of Europe’s earliest artwork, beautifully displayed, then this is the exhibition for you. It features the work of fourteenth century Italian artists, Duccio, Simone Martini and the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti . When they completed their masterpieces seven hundred years ago did these artists ever imagine that people would still be admiring them so far into the future? The work is all of a religious theme, there are many images of the Virgin Mary with Jesus as a baby and of course countless crucifixion scenes.

There are over one hundred exhibits including fragments of intricately woven silk, rugs, plaster panels, ivory statuettes, altarpieces. One scene painted by Ducci shows Mary recovering from labour. In many of the artworks she looks sorrowful, already aware of the fate of her baby son. The accompanying narrative displayed next to each exhibit was very informative, I did not know that Mary’s parents were called Anne and Joachim

Many works by Pietro Lorenzetti and his brother Ambrogio are featured. There is diptch that displays Christ’s brith on one side and his crucifixion on the other. There is an enormous crucifix with a sinister skull lying at the bottom. So many exquisite things to see. I am just glad I was not responsible for transporting so may fragile objects.

After the gallery we caught a bus to Marylebone Village and had a light lunch in the French restaurant Aubaine. The bus driver did not speak a word of English and kept playing the wrong announcements so it was rather comical. Marylebone Village consists of coffee shops, restaurants and clothing boutiques such as Sandro, Sezane, Me & Em, and Rizo. Not the very high end designers but you still need a few hundred pounds to buy a dress in most of the stores. We spent some time looking at pretty things in Sezane but neither my friend or I bought anything. Some of the shops had more staff than customers and I wonder how they all keep going. There is a lovely relaxed atmosphere in the village and I will definitely go back and explore a little bit more soon

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – The Frameless Exhibition and Selfridges

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I enjoy a day out in London every couple of months and keep an eye out for interesting new things to see and do. A friend recommended Frameless, an immersive art experience near Marylebone. Perfectly located for a look around Selfridges afterwards. I chose flexible tickets which meant we could arrive at any time of our choosing on a particular day. They cost £37. This was only slightly more expensive than the set time tickets and meant that train delays wouldn’t cause any unnecessary stress. We caught a train just after 9.30am in order to enjoy a whole day in London. When we arrived at Marble Arch station there were whiteboards displaying warnings to commuters not to take their phone out outside the station and announcements blaring through the tannoy saying there had been numerous phone robberies outside the tube that week. What a pity that every city now seems to be full of thieves.

Because we were now paranoid about looking at Google maps on our phones we bumbled around for ten minutes trying to find the location but, in fact, it is a one minute walk from the tube. The exhibition itself is fabulous! Frameless is made up of four huge galleries where forty two works of art are animated and brought to life. There is another gallery near the gift shop exhibiting the work of somebody the staff referred to as an intern but really they are an artist in residence. The friendly lady in the gift shop told me their best selling item are realistic soft toy pigeons, nothing to do with the artwork which made me laugh.

Each gallery is very different. There are seating areas within each one and a lovely café should you wish to break your visit up. Information boards tell visitors what they can expect to find in each room and you can see the order in which the art is screened. The scale of the art works is incredibly impressive and they are projected onto the walls, floor and ceiling. In the first gallery this creates a sensation of moving even when you know you are standing still and made me feel a bit dizzy for a moment. The second gallery we visited “Colour in Motion” displayed works by Monet and Vincent Van Gough and the paintings are formed by swirling brush strokes that gradually come together to make the finished image. There were tiny children in the gallery who were having a whale of a time chasing the brush strokes and even a baby in a sling cooing in wonder. In the “Beyond Reality” gallery The Cyclops by Odilon Redon comes to life and peeks out behind a mountain The Scream by Edvard Munch turns into a nightmarish black hole of a mouth. At this exhibition you can see singers under a lamppost in London, Volcanoes in Pompeii, ships being tossed about on crashing waves, Venetian scenes and all sorts of strange creatures stomping around. The final gallery “The Art of Abstraction” shows work by artists such as Kandinsky and Klint and is perhaps slightly less suitable for young children as it is very dark the art here is displayed in a maze like display of mesh screens. Each gallery has wonderful atmospheric music playing from Spanish guitar to jazz. It really is a true immersive experience. I would recommend Frameless to anybody who is looking for something a little bit different to do.

After lunch we ventured into Selfridges and had a very mediocre lunch in their ground floor café. I used to work near Bond Street and would often enjoy a mooch around this beautiful department store during my lunch break. I would buy pretty stationary or a scarf. It is very different now, just made up of luxury concessions. If you want to purchase Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton etc. you will be in the right place. If you just want a little treat then there is the beauty hall where you can pick up a fancy lip gloss or bottle of fragrance. We looked around one of the Chanel concessions and oohed a little bit at all the beautiful, wildly expensive things. Pale blue seemed to be the colour of the season and everything was trimmed with crystals or pearls. I tried a Bayswater Satchel on in the Mulberry concession but they didn’t have it in the colour I liked and I had just spent the equivalent amount of money on a new computer for work so, sadly, it wasn’t really day for purchasing expensive new leather goods.

On Oxford Street there were lots of rather aggressive elderly women beggars from overseas, something I hadn’t encountered before anywhere but Italy. I wonder where they all go at the end of the day. The sight of so many homeless people lining the pavements is very sad and I suppose fewer passer bys give them money now as we are largely a cashless society.

We popped into a couple of shops on Oxford Street, Zara and Uniqlo, but this was a Saturday and the crowds were ridiculous. I know some people find beautiful things in Zara but I don’t find the quality to be very good. Uniqlo is brilliant for basics like T shirts and my son likes their crew neck jumpers. I was tempted by one of their popular sling bags but, after seeing the Chanel delights, they didn’t hold much quite so much appeal. After half an hour or so we headed back to the Tube and managed to travel home without being robbed.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

My Daughter’s 21st Birthday – We visit The London Dungeon

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My daughter had been debating what to do for her 21st birthday. We had already been to see the Mean Girls Musical a couple of weeks beforehand. She had been planning on going back to university but many of her friends were on work placement or studying for their exams. In the end she decided to stay at home and celebrate with her friends after their exams were finished. She still didn’t seem very enthusiastic about doing anything in particular, we debated going to Madame Tussauds or The Natural History Museum but on the end decided on The London Dungeon. I booked tickets on the day which were £35 each. We had been a couple of times before, about a decade ago so we knew what to expect.

We travelled to Waterloo East and then it is a five minute walk to the dungeon which overlooks the river, you can’t really miss it. The nearest Tube is Waterloo. There weren’t many visitors to The Dungeon at 11am on a Wednesday morning, there seemed to be more staff than guests but we were greeted enthusiastically by staff wearing various medieval costumes, a silent monk was particularly creepy. There are plenty of photo opportunities in the entrance but after that point you have to turn your phone off. The staff do corner you to take some “official” photos, pictures of you in the stocks or about to have your head lopped off with an axe and you can view and purchase these photos before leaving. The Dungeons are manned by actors, all very young, who take visitors on a tour of some of the horrors of London. It had changed somewhat since my last visit and I was disappointed to see the boat ride had been removed, that was my favourite part. A room dedicated to the witch trials had been added and this was probably the most frightening spectacle. I had previously taken my children and some friends for their tenth birthdays but I think the witch performance would be too scary for many ten year olds.

The first character we met was a court jester who dramatically told us a little bit about what to expect and then we were taken into a pitch back lift called The Descent and the tour began. We found ourselves in a courtroom where a batty judge sat in session. One of the other visitors was placed in the dock and some silly charges ready out, it was all very funny. A long list of crimes punishable by death in 1622 was displayed on the wall, pickpocketing and animal theft included. We are then led to a medieval torture chamber, again a guest or two are singled out to participate but it is all very light-hearted.

The actress playing Mrs Lovett in the Sweeney Todd section was absolutely superb and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself. She stood behind a counter ladened with dubious looking meat pies. Guests are then escorted into a room full of barbers chairs and asked to sit down. It is enough to make your scalp crawl. There is a strong comedic element to some of the exhibits, particularly the courtroom and the pie shop. Others are strictly horror inducing such as the section on Jack the Ripper and the Witches. Be prepared to find yourself in pitch black rooms at various points during the tour, not knowing who or what is going to appear right in front of you. There are also a lot of strobe lighting effects.

The London Dungeons are genuinley quite educational in places, especially the plague section and guests stop here, sit down and are treated to an autopsy of a plague victim. Prepare to be splattered by the totally incompetent physician!

There is a confusing mirror maze and then the guests find themselves in a Whitechapel set where we meet a lady of the night, terrified that she will be The Ripper’s next victim, we then going into a pub for another genuinely terrifying spectacle. Now I come to think about it, I do remember many squeals in this part when I visited a decade ago with a gaggle of ten year old girls. Maybe not the obvious choice of venue but they did all have a fantastic time.

After making the rounds of all the exhibits the dungeons predictably ends in a small gift shop where you can buy the usual stuff, key rings, pencils and T shirts etc. There is also a bar before the exit where you can rest before heading back out into 2025.

I think The London Dungeon is brilliant fun and a great way to spend a couple of hours in London. It’s probably suitable for most children of twelve and older. The London Eye is right outside and you can buy a multi-ticket including the Dungeon, The London Eye and Madame Tussauds and make a real day of it.

Thank you for reading

Samantha