Lex and Robyn - Life as it happens

Wednesday 20^th August LONDON!

We slept well in our little flat in Chelsea Cloisters – having the fan on kept the air moving, and drowned out any noises there might have been from apartments above or beside us.

It was a bit of a slow start to the morning as we were deciding what to do today, then Lex discovered we could get into a guided tour at the Houses of Parliament at 9.40, so he started the process of buying them online. I was looking at London’s Theatre Week – Glen had sent me a link to lots of heavily discounted productions. I discovered that Martin Shaw (Judge John Deed, The Professionals, Inspector George Gently) is currently in A Man for all Seasons, and tickets started as low as 15 pounds! Glen is coming down this weekend, so we decided to go to that. We had to get out the door in a matter of minutes to make the tour, so while Lex was getting ready, I bought the tickets online. Only to have heart failure when the confirmation email arrived….for the 5^th September! When we will be back in Australia. Buy tickets in careless haste, repent at leisure.

Anyway, we had to race out for a very brisk walk to South Kensington Station, which is actually closer to us than Sloane Square. From there it was only a couple of stops to Westminster, and we walked into the entrance right on time at 9.20. We had to go through a lot of security, and there were police everywhere. But we were in the Great Hall ten minutes before our tour started, so had time to go to the toilet and have a good look around (and take the requisite tourist shots!) The Great Hall is the only surviving part of the original medieval palace, which was built first by Edward the Confessor in the early 1100s. It was the major home of English royalty up until Henry VIII. His son Edward VI gave it to Parliament as an official meeting place in the mid-1500s. In the 1830s, all of the palace was destroyed by a terrible fire, except for the Great Hall. So, most of what you see today is Victorian.

Big Ben and red double decker buses.....you know you're in London!

Lots of police on patrol near the Houses of Parliament. That's the back of Westminster Abbey on the right.

The Great Hall - only remaining part of the medieval palace.

Lex fancied a seat in the Commons -

While I thought the title of Baroness Robyn sounded pretty good!

Our tour leader was Melissa, and she was just great. She made the ninety minutes of the tour go very fast with just the right mix of history and interesting facts. Unfortunately, photography isn’t allowed in most of the rooms and chambers, so we’ve bought the guidebook to remember it by. But we got taken in the steps of royalty – the robing rooms where the Queen and now the King put on their robes before the opening of Parliament, and walked the same path they do to address Parliament in the House of Lords. We saw both chambers – the Lords and the Commons, and a lot of other areas, such as the rooms where they vote. It was a fantastic tour and we thoroughly enjoyed it all – I can absolutely recommend it to anyone visiting London. It’s not cheap, at 28 pounds each, but a wonderful thing to do.

Melissa on the right; looking back towards the Great Hall

Absolutely amazing decorations and statuary throughout.

Once we’d finished, we walked back across the road to outside Westminster Abbey, and paused to admire it and soak in the London vibes (along with several thousand other tourists!) We were looking for lunch, so went over to the Methodist Hall, where we’d eaten a few times in 2014. Inexpensive lunches are hard to find in London, and they had a wonderful downstairs café that was cheap and tasty. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to have survived the pandemic, but they do have a little upstairs café, so we had a quick lunch there, and headed home via St James’s Station. We are really so close to everything here! The weather has turned on us somewhat – it is quite cool today, with a very chilly breeze blowing. Not the summery day we’d envisaged.

Westminster Abbey. You can see Big Ben in the background.

The column on the left is the Crimea and Indian Mutiny memorial.

Once home, I put on a load of washing, then took a deep breath, got onto my computer and had an online chat with the good people at London Theatre. I explained my massive stuff up, and miracle of miracles, they gave me a voucher for the same amount! So, we are now going to the theatre this Saturday night, which was the original plan. When I went in to rebook, I discovered that the calendar page somehow defaults to the September dates, so if you’re not carefully checking, you click on the wrong day. A lesson I have learned!

Massively relieved, I hung out the washing around the flat, washed my hair and started the blog. Lex had a nap, with orders to wake him at 3 if he hadn’t surfaced. This proved unnecessary, as at two minutes to three, a massive alarm system went off! It stopped fairly quickly, luckily. I poked my head around the door, and the cleaners two doors down were going about their business, so I decided it must be a regular check, perhaps. Anyway, Lex was now very awake, so we got organised to go back to the V&A for a while. Being so close, we can just pop in and out whenever we’ve got a few spare hours. We’ve been trying to go a different way each time, to see the different streets. Today we’ve discovered Pelham Crescent (gorgeous Regency buildings) and Ovington Square. There’s a lot of these ‘squares’ in the more affluent parts of London; the rich people who built them had their town houses all facing a lovely common garden (which seem to mostly be private and do not encourage visitors.) We also passed Daphne’s restaurant, and of course thought of my Mum – but we won’t be eating there. Main meals appear to be around the 50 pound mark!

Pelham Crescent - I kept expecting to see Nigella popping out her front door!

Ovington Square houses and gardens - so pretty!

The front entrance of the V&A, in Thurlow Place

We had an hour or so at the V&A – I spent most of my time in the English rooms – Tudor to Victorian. Some amazing history in there. Lex looked at design from China and Japan and ceramics.

I just loved the fashion exhibits - this dress is circa 1785

Completely unexpectedly, we have Andrew Sach's 'Manuel' costume from Fawlty Towers!

And the award for the most awful shoes goes to Dudley, 3rd Baron North, circa 1630!

Lex liked this ceramic camel - Tang Dynasty, circa 700AD

We met up at 4.30, and I decided to come home via Sainsbury’s and get something for tea. I enjoyed wandering past the Kensington shops and the immaculately made-up women (mostly middle eastern, from what I could see) who were shopping in them. I turned down a side street and realised that was where their drivers were all waiting for them, sipping their coffees in or next to the Audis, BMWs etc. Apparently, this is how the other half live!

Very expensive Kensington shops

Someone's little run-around. Yes, that's gold!

Lex set off on a walk to Kensington Gardens, which is not far away. He passed the Royal Albert Hall, the Albert Memorial and enjoyed his walk in the gardens, getting home a bit after 6.