Bethany's Year in London: April 2010

V&A and Regents Park

The V&A has an exhibition on of Princess Grace's clothes. It opened a couple of weeks ago so I went over this morning to try to get in. They had already sold out for the day by 10:30!! Oh, well, it's on until September and you can book ahead so another day, perhaps. The day wasn't a total loss-went through the new medieval and Renaissance galleries at the V&A-opened last year. Then as it was a nice day, went over to Regent's Park to see if their roses were out-not yet, but most of the other flowers were. I prefer Regent's Park to the other Royal Parks as it's usually not so overrun with dumb tourists!!!

Florentine sculpture-no comment on how it ended up in the UK!

Altarpiece

Hard to tell, but she's chopping off his head

They've arranged it to look like an Italian courtyard

Heron in Regent's Park

Flowers near the entrance

More flowers

Garden near the Open Air Theatre

Waterfall-manmade, of course

Looking towards the Boating Lake

The Boating Lake

Bonking London

I actually went on this walk last weekend but kept putting it off. "Bonking" London wasn't about crazy people but about sex!! Specifically the sex trade-at one point in the 1700s, one in sixth Londoners was a prostitute. Not a walk for Grandma Harkness!!

The Theatre Royal Haymarket-prostitutes used to walk the stalls during the interval plying their trades

A Horseguard- they were frequent customers

The flowers in St James Park-in the 1700 and 1800s, this was "the place" for sex

An Adult store in Soho-district known for "adult" entertainment

Soho Bookshop-one in a chain of six adult bookshops in Soho-not a very big area

Nothing to do with sex-just a display in a shop window near my house

Witches, Kensington Gardens and other misc photos

On Sunday, I did a walk about witches and magic in London, really funny and interesting, so a couple of pictures from that. It's been pretty nice all week so I went to Kensington Gardens and thought I would post those photos too.

The pyramid steeple of St George's Bloomsbury-one of six churches designed by Nicolas Hawksmoor which form a line in the shape of the Eye of Horus-a magic symbol

Window display from the Atlantis Bookshop-the oldest occult bookshop in London, opened in 1920

Nothing to do with witches, (that anyone knows of), Apsley House, former home of the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon

Wellington Arch

Some of the gardens looking towards Kensington Palace

The rest are flowers from Kensington Gardens

Keats in Hampstead

On Saturday, I did a tour about the poet John Keats in Hampstead-we went around the different places he lived, etc. It was a nice day so Hampstead was looking even better than normal, but still on a hill so lots of going up and down!

A square just off Hampstead High Street

The Keats House as seen through the front garden-was actually the house of a friend of his but he boarded here until he went to Rome where he died.

The Wells Tavern-he and his brother had rooms here-still a working pub

The Burgh House-friends of Keats lived here

Nothing to do with Keats-this is 3 Willow Road, supposedly one of the best examples of Modernist architecture in the UK. I think it's hideous but to each their own.

Allegedly these were the gates that were once in front of Newgate Prison-how they ended up in posh Hampstead, no one knows!

London Zoo

Today I finally went to the London Zoo. It is right in the middle of London in Regent's Park-it's been there since the 1800s. It's a great zoo, they're really creative with their space like the National Zoo-although the London Zoo costs 18 quid to get in!! It rained for awhile but it thinned all the kiddies out!!