Tag: London

A Day Out in London – Titanique at The Criterion Theatre

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I had been searching for a show to go and see, I looked through the various “Things To Do In London” websites but wasn’t feeling very inspired and so many tickets are now over two hundred pounds. A friend said she had loved Titanique, showing at The Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. I booked tickets for myself and a friend costing about £110 each. Before heading over to the theatre we had dinner at our favourite Covent Garden restaurant Buns and Buns. It always feels lovely to be in this part of London on a warm evening.

Titanique is a musical spoof of James Cameron’s 1998 blockbuster Titanic based on the fated 1912 maiden voyage where approximately fifteen hundred poor souls lost their lives including my great great uncle, Alfred Maytum who was one of the butchers on board. I am always a bit unsure about the ethics of comedy based on tragedy but I supposed over one hundred years have passed and it was an accident rather that an act of war or something worse.

The gist of the show is that Celine Dion visits a Titanic exhibition and reveals that she was on board. This of course is impossible as she was born in 1968 as the other visitors point out. She insists she was a passenger on the vessel and witness to the romance between Jack and Rose. She then proceeds to enthusiastically sing her greatest hits. The whole premise is, quite frankly, delightfully bonkers. Celine is currently played by Astrid Harris. Harris is much more statuesque than Dion but, facially she looks uncannily similar and the wig designer got the hair spot-on. Harris has an amazing voice and something about the exaggerated, raunchy way she moves just made me laugh so much. My friend and I were probably the only straight people in the audience and the young man next to me was so friendly during the interval asking me what my favourite Celine Dion songs are, what other musicals I have seen etc. He recommended Hades Town. It was his and his boyfriend’s third time of seeing Titanique and they were laughing so much it was really quite infectious.

The iceberg is personified in the show by Ryan Carter. For some inexplicable reason The Iceberg is also Tina Turner with blue hair and Carter belts out “River Deep-Mountain High” in a glittery mini-dress. By this point I really was wondering if I had accidently ingested some psychedelic substance.

My friend didn’t enjoy the show so much describing it as a being pantomime-like and she isn’t really wrong. Rose’s mother was the dame played by Carl Mullaney. After a while it did all just start to feel a bit absurd. There are some genuinely hilarious moments, the mocking of Jack’s drawing skills, Rose’s mother being so broke that she had to shoot pigeons in Trafalgar Square to decorate her hat. The Heart of the Ocean necklace, famously featured in the film, is ridiculously huge in the show and Cal boasts that he bought it at Claire’s Accessories. I see that you can actually buy a copy of this necklace for seven pounds on Amazon!

I can see why Titanique has a cult following a little like The Rocky Horrow Show. I enjoyed it, laughed a lot but once was enough.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – The Banksy Limitless Exhibition

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I didn’t know a great deal about Banksy before visiting this Banksy Limitless exhibition so really was not sure what to expect. It is located near South Kensington tube station, and as luck would have it, a tube strike was announced for the day we had booked our tickets. Fortunately there were still some District line trains running and we managed to squeeze on and arrive on time. The outside of the building did not look very promising and I wondered if we had wasted our £26 ticket price- we hadn’t, the exhibition is amazing and so different to anything I have seen before.

What I did know is that Banksy is a street artist, his artwork tends to be subversive and that he is anonymous . Whenever a new painting of his appears on the side of a building it is reported in the press alongside speculation as to his identity. Apparently the most likely candidate is an artist from Bristol, Robin Gunningham. I had no idea that Banksy had produced such a large and varied volume of work or that he is a prominent social campaigner who actually puts his money where his mouth is (as my mum would say) all of his work is some sort of social commentary . Just this week a statue of a pompous looking man being blinded by a flag has appeared in Waterloo Place. Banksy has claimed responsibility and Westminster council seem thrilled.

Probably the most famous work of Bansky’s is the stencilled graffiti image There Is Always Hope, sometimes referred to as Girl With Balloon. It is worth visiting the exhibition just to find out what happened when this work was sold at Sothebys. There is a variation of this painting on display, a little girl holding a heart shaped buoyancy aid, for the people who drown making illegal crossings across the channel. Banksy has even bought a French lifeboat to help these people. There is a model of passengers sitting on a packed dinghy and a claim that distress calls relating to these crossings are deliberately ignored.

As well as being a talented artist Banksy is a master of puns. There is a huge painting on display of apes in the House of Commons called Devolved Parliament. A picture of Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz is captioned “I don’t think we’re on canvas anymore…” His take on Disney land, a whole theme park installation is titled Dismaland. The cover photo shows a huge Little Mermaid display. Inside there is a killer whale with its trainer holding a hoop for it to dive through into a tiny blow-up paddling pool.

There is so much to see at this exhibition including details of his collaboration with Blur for their Think Tank album artwork . There is a whole mock up of a Tube station named Prakadilly Circus complete with advertisements. One features a photo of Mother Theresa with the caption “I learnt a valuable lesson from this woman, moisturise every day”. There is a piece of art titled Napalm showing the iconic 1972 image of nine year old Vietnamese girl Phan Thi Kim Phúc, terribly burned, running naked with her arms out at her side. In Banksy’s work she is flanked by Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse who both look horrifyingly cheerful.

This has been one of the most interesting and entertaining exhibitions I have visited. I don’t see how anyone can fail to enjoy it.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – The Gianni Versace Exhibition at the Arches, London Bridge

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The Gianni Versace Exhibition is showing at The London Arches until 1st March so you will need to be quick if you wish to see it. I highly recommend that you do. The Arches are about a two minute walk from the Tooley Street exit of London Bridge Station. Entry was £27.50. My only warning is that you will inevitably leave feeling dowdy. I remember that I was in Switzerland when new of Gianni Versace’s tragic murder broke in 1997, it is one of those events you don’t forget. The story was later made into a critically acclaimed drama, The Assassination of Gianni Versace. This exhibition is a retrospective of his 1980s and 90s collections.

What an absolutely spectacular exhibition this is, jam packed with stunningly beautiful pieces. There are over four hundred and fifty garments on display and visitors can get right up close to them, almost nothing is behind glass. This surprised me as the Medusa motif buttons used are so beautiful I wondered if they have a problem with people snipping them off as souvenirs. I had read that this happens in Chanel boutiques. As you walk in, the first display is a selection of men’s silk shirts, many featuring Versace’s iconic Greek Key design (see my cover photo). There is an information card for every garment, accessory and object. At this stage in the exhibition Elton John’s voice is played through the speaker as he tells about his friendship and working relationship with Versace. Next there is a black mesh dress, a little leather bandeau dress and some stunningly jewelled slingback heels. One of my favourite garments was a leather jacket with a jewelled cross on the back.

There are rooms with red carpet and maybe twenty mannequins all wearing bedazzled creations, it is almost as if you need sunglasses. A velvet gold and black brocade suit which is absolutely timeless, gowns galore, swimming costumes with silk robes. In one room you can see the Princess Diana display with slightly more demure jackets and skirts and a crocodile handbag. Of course Diana had the perfect figure for the evening dresses she is pictured wearing . “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me” is playing, sung by Elton John and George Michael and the outfits they are wearing at the concert are on display.

One display does look a little like a 1960s East End wholesalers window with bell bottom trousers paired with floral silk tops.

Of course it was Versace’s safety pin dress that catapulted Elizabeth Hurley’s career into the stratosphere. The dress itself isn’t featured but there are is a short film of her wearing it arriving at the Four Weddings and a Funeral premier with Hugh Grant and some other photos are on display of her looking amazing wearing various Versace creations. I seem to remember her upstaging one poor bride by turning up at a wedding in a Versace gown, slit to the hip, leopard print knickers on full display.

Back in the 1990s I subscribed to Vogue and of course the cover always featured a supermodel, Helena, Christy, Naomi, Linda or Cindy. Who needs surnames? Nowadays very few of us buy physical magazines and actresses and influencers seem to have taken the place of the model. I had forgotten just how other-worldly beautiful these women were, and most of them still are. Helena Christensen features in the film playing at then end of the exhibition, all dark lips and black corsetry. Stephanie Seymour with bouncy hair and huge earrings. Naomi Campbell strutting like Queen of the world, Kate Moss looking impossibly young and grinning from ear to ear.

There are a few nods to Versace’s other endeavours, his line of furniture, perfume and home accessories (there is a black lacquer side table oddly placed by itself next to a display of dresses) a but this retrospective is really all about the fashion. I had in the past thought his style rather gaudy but, close up, everything was just beautiful and it made me long to be young, beautiful and rich because surely that’s who these creations are meant for.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – The David Hockney Exhibition at Annely Juda Fine Art

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I am writing this on the 31st of January but, honestly, it feels more like the 60th of the month. I haven’t had the best start to 2026 with a health scare, which I suspect was brought on my my HRT . I have made the decision to go cold turkey and stop taking it. Anyway, I went for a scan and all seems to be well so that is a weight off my mind.

I visited the David Hockney Exhibition at Annely Juda Fine Art which is showing until the end of February. The gallery is located near Hanover Square. I took the Tube to Bond Street and then it’s just under a ten minute walk. The gallery is inside a handsome Georgian townhouse. Admission is free. Upstairs there is the “Moon Room” which shows fifteen paintings composed on an iPad. Each painting depicts a countryside scene illuminated by moonlight, there is a particularly gorgeous painting featuring a Christmas tree festooned with brightly coloured bulbs. They ae stunningly beautiful and luminous and were created in Hockney’s studio in Normandy, France. The walls of the gallery are painted in a deep midnight blue which perfectly sets off the artwork.

The paintings in the exhibition are absolutely brand new, the eighty eight year old artist is still producing amazing art although some of the brush work looks a little shaky. Downstairs in the gallery there are hugely colourful room scenes featuring mixed media where the perspective is intentionally “off”. The subject matter, chairs and flowers are of course completely conventional but nothing else about these works is. There are a series of portraits including a self portrait of Hockney in a wheelchair.

After the gallery my friend and I had lunch in the nearby John Lewis which was pretty awful. We then looked in a couple of shops in Oxford Street. I went into Stradivarius where I unnecessarily added to my stripy shirt collection. In this store there are a couple of security guards but I could find no actual shop assistants. The checkouts are self serve and you even have to remove your own security tags. Those jobs, traditionally filled by young people are all being done by technology. Who is going to employ humans who require paid holiday, national insurance contributions and pensions when machines can do the job? As the parent of young adults, it is very worrying.

The weather in London was abysmal, raining and freezing cold but it was a nice to have a change of scenery and to see my friend. When I got home I saw that my snowdrops had made an appearance, they never fail to remind me that winter is almost behind us for another year

Thank you for reading

Samantha

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

Six, The Musical and Dinner in Covent Garden

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I had been hearing such good things from friends about Six The Musical so I decided to go and see it for myself. The show is on at the Vaudeville Theatre in the Strand. I paid approximately £130 for two tickets for a Saturday evening performance. We were seated in the upper circle, the seats couldn’t really have been better.

We caught the train from our local station to Charing Cross and then had a mooch around Covent Garden. Most of the shops were closed but there was still an buzzing atmosphere with , street performers such as contortionists, magicians and musicians. We went to Buns and Buns and had a steak dinner with a large glass of wine which was delicious.

The first, and only negative, thing I will say about Six is that it is unnecessarily loud, so loud in fact I did actually worry about damaging my hearing when it started. The show was written in 2017 by Cambridge University students Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss and was first performed by the university’s musical theatre group at the Edinborough Fringe Festival. Six is the tale of Henry the Eighth’s six wives, all told through song and dance. It has a similar fast-paced, high-energy vibe to Hamilton. The performers playing the wives enter the stage wearing various sexy interpretations of Tudor costume. All the musicians are women too, it is definitely a Girl Power show.

Each “wife” sings a number summarising how she met Henry and what fate befell her. Some of the tales are extremely sad. Tickets to Six would be a great gift idea for anyone studying history and I learned some facts that I hadn’t known before. Ann of Cleves was chosen by Henry after he saw a portrait of her by the German artist Hans Holbein. When Henry saw Ann in the flesh he declared she was ugly and their marriage was eventually annulled. She was luckier than Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard though who famously lost their heads. Ann of Cleve’s musical number is very night-clubbish and there is a strong element of fun and humour throughout the whole musical. There is strobe lighting at a number of points in the show. My favourite performance was from Thao Therese Nguyen, the actress playing Anne Boleyn who somehow managed to stand out on a stage crowded with female talent.

Unusually, the show lasts for about an hour an a quarter, there is no interval. To be honest, I wish more productions were like this. I imagine the theatre loses a lot of revenue though as theatre-goers aren’t buying drinks in their bar or purchasing merchandise. We had sped through some really interesting herstory, pardon the pun, and were back home by 9.30am. A pretty perfect evening.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

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