Final Saturday: Roy Does London

I decided to do a couple of things for myself now that the classes are over. I wanted to see the Albert Memorial, so off to Kensington--one of the really high rent districts. The people in these places tend to have lots of money and titles. The first picture is also where a number of foreign embassies are.

Nearby are Kensington gardens, another of the royal parks. The little gold crowns on the gates indicate that.

Big wide paths and people taking it easy--now that's life.

This is the Albert Memorial. Queen Victoria was in mourning over her husband's early death. The mourning dragged on from 1861 until her death in 1901. She had this over-the-top memorial constructed. It's 175 feet high. You can judge the scale by the size of the people, but it's really another case of you have to be there.

The memorial has over 200 separate sculpted figures on it.

The four biggest represent the continents. This is Asia.

Europe

Africa

The Americas

The guy in whose honor all this was done.

The guy on the right was giving rollerblading lessons to the rest of these unstable people. Whatever would Prince Albert have thought?

I met a really nice British couple and got them to take my picture.

Directly across from the Albert Memorial is the Royal Albert Hall--premiere concert venue. The famous series of concerts called the Proms is going on now.

Another of my favorite places, the V&A Museum. That would be the Victoria and Albert--yep, him again.

One of the more impressive Chilhouly (sp?) pieces I've seen.

They have an impressive sculpture collection, including this not entirely flattering tomb sculpture of a couple of defunct aristocrats.

There is an impressive inner quadrangle at the V&A. Wonderful Victorian architecture.

I had lunch here where Jamie and I did two years ago. Pretty nice surroundings, eh? Lots of stuff by William Morris.

I don't think that the kids knew that they were supposed to be impressed by the somber Victorian building.

Nearby is the Brompton Oratory, an incredibly ornate Catholic Church. There was a wedding going on in a side chapel just up there to the right.

And just down the street from the church is Harrod's.

This is the Tate Britain, the cream of the crop of British art. Rooms full of Hogart and Constable and Turner. Pre-Raphaelite painters by the bucketful. And a recreation of the work at William Blake's 1806 art exhibition. I could happily move in. And thus ended my last Saturday in London this trip.

Regent's Park

Regents Park is one of the five huge royal parks in London. They are Crown property but are now used as public parks. this one was a huge royal hunting preserve way back when. It is a beautiful place filled with flowers and lakes and concerts and people just sitting and takinf it all in. This day I got there at about 7 PM and there were loys of people.

So, how nice is this?

Scattered around the edges are some very, very expensive houses that George IV let his pals build. The house may be worth 30-40 million, but the Queen still owns the land they sit on.

Hmmm, I can do flowers like this, can't I?

It's like this all over.

This is part of the Inner Circle, Queen Mary's Garden. It has vast rose gardens.

A Middle Eastern ladies convention.

There's a bit of everything you could want in a garden.

Odds and Ends Around London

What can you say? St. Paul's is impressive inside and out.

A tad unusual--the inside-out building--the Lloyds of London headquarters. They are still the largest insurer of ships in the world.

Ah, home away from home--the Baker Street Tube Station. We look weary, so we must be coming back from a field trip.

The happy folk who got those postcards on the way to you.

Below are some scenes in the general area of Hampstead.

The two below are the Tower of London--definitely not in Hampstead.

When they refer to the Tube as The Underground, they mean it--some are way, way underground.

Just for Jamie's nostalgia collection--the line we often took to get home to King's College.