ANOTHER LONDON STOPOVER

LONDON & WESTMINSTER - APRIL 2006

After Budapest, we made a short stopover in London; always a nice place to go. We started with a visit to the LONDON MUSEUM!


"ROMANS - It seems that on this precise spot, by the Thames, all started with the Romans, at least in cultural terms..."


"MAYOR'S CARRIAGE - At a certain point in time the Roman chariots gave birth to these kind of coaches"


"HAND PUPPETS (or glove puppets) made the delights of many young (or older) human beings..."


"AMAZING (?) were also some personages in the late 20th century"


"ST. GILES CRIPPLEGATE (built in 1550 on the site of a previous Norman church and named for the patron saint of cripples) managed to survive the Great Fire of 1666 but was badly damaged by a bomb during World War II (only the tower survived). Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier here in 1620, and the poet John Milton was buried here in 1674"


"THE GHERKIN - According to Wikipedia, "The gherkin name first appeared in The Guardian newspaper in 1996, referring to [the] highly unorthodox layout, and this was enthusiastically adopted by other media and the public. Due to the current building's somewhat phallic appearance, other inventive names have also been used for the building, including the Erotic gherkin, the Towering Innuendo, and the Crystal Phallus"


"SEAGULL - There are always some seagulls along the Thames, probably because they can drink both fresh and salt water"


"MARBLE ARCH"


"SPEAKER'S CORNER, more than 33 years later"



"THE ITALIAN GARDENS in Kensington Gardens were commissioned by Queen Victoria"


"PETER PAN - «The boy who wouldn't grow up» has a statue in Kensington Gardens"


"PHYSICAL ENERGY by George Frederick Watts was placed in Kensington Gardens one hundred years ago and is one of three castings; the other two are in Cape Town, and in Zimbabwe"



"EROS IN PICADILLY"


"GIELGUD - Arthur Miller's «The Crucible» was playing at the Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. A great play with great performers"


"CHEZ VICTOR - In the 1970s, it was a nice bistro in London, with interesting information at the entrance: «Le Patron mange ici». Later, it turned Biagio Chez Victor and it seems that the service was horrible... It's now closed for refurbishment!"


"THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS was showing a magnificent exhibition devoted to the artistic riches of the reigns of three Emperors - Kangxi (1662—1722), Yongzheng (1723—35) and Qianlong (1736—95) -, the most powerful rulers of China’s last dynasty: the Qing"