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.