Day out in London

As promised a post about my trip to London last week. I went by coach and the day was bright and sunny so it made for a pleasant journey. Stonehenge looked very cold standing as it does in such a windswept open place. The fields around were still white with snow and along the ditches there were still mounds of snow but in other more sheltered places there was just frost.
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Arriving at Hammersmith I took the underground to Westminster which was buzzing with policemen and from there I crossed the bridge to Lambeth Palace Road and along to the Garden Museum. This is the entrance.
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The museum is housed in an old church - the rediscovery of the tomb of 17th century plant hunters, the John Tradescants, in the churchyard of St Mary-at-Lambeth led John and Rosemary Nicholson to save the church from demolition and found the Museum of Garden History in 1977. In October 2007 a competition for the design of a new interior was organised. The winner, London based architects Dow Jones, devised a free standing timber structure to create a contemporary space, including the first gallery in Britain for exhibitions in garden design.

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For more pictures of this museum pop over to Sharon's blog here as she went back in October when the garden looked so much nicer than it does at this time of the year.

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We had a delicious lunch in the cafe here and a wander round the exhibitions followed by a cup of tea and a cake (we had forgone pudding with our lunch for this) before taking a stroll round the garden which although not at its best was a little peaceful oasis apart from the police and television cameras hovering overhead - this was the day of the student demo just across the river.

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After our cuppa and more chat - the main reason for our outing was to catch up with each other - we wended our way back towards Westminster Bridge via St Thomas's Hospital. We made our way through the hospital - which is enormous and like a small town in its own right with shops and banks etc - so as to see the lovely Doulton tiled murals see here for one of them and on out into the sunshine where this was the view - my friend said that patients can come out here and sit if they wish but needless to say there were no takers on Thursday as it was bitterly cold even though the sun was shining.

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Further along the South Bank on the end of Westminster Bridge we saw this fine fellow guarding the bridge. Further along there was the London Eye - it would have been a fabulous day to take a ride as it was so clear and you'd have been able to see what was happening in Parliament Square too no doubt. I have riden this in July and was lucky to have a fabulous day with views as far as the eye can see.

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Anyway we wandered along and came to a Christmas Market which was fun to explore and it was all fairly quiet - perhaps most people stayed away from the area as they didn't want to get involved in the demos - by the time we reached the last stalls dusk was falling and a cuppa called for which we had in the British Film Institute before making our way to Waterloo where my friends got their train and I took the underground to Hammersmith to get the coach home. A tiring day but such fun and it was good to meet up with old friends again Thanks Steph for permission to use your photos.

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When I got home and saw the television news it was hard to believe that all this had been going on just a stone's throw away from where we had been and the only signs I had noticed were the lack of traffic on the bridge and the fact that the tube didn't stop at Westminster as the station was closed. London is so full of interesting things to do and see and I always come away having seen something advertised that I want to see - whilst waiting for my train I noticed a poster for an exhibition I thought sounded interesting and so now I am planning another trip to the metropolis to see Evolving English at the British Library and another friend has said she'd be interested in this too so more gossip and cups of tea will be called for then! And I also want to see the wonderful costumes in the exhibition titled Daaghliev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes at the V&A before it closes on 9 January - anyone fancy going?!! This is the sort of thing I missed so much living in rural France so there is no stopping me now!!