Hammersmith

Weather - Cold, overcast, rainy at midday - Min 3, Max 13. 

The only plans we had when we set out was to visit the Science Museum and keep indoors as much as possible due to another drop in the temperature with the forecast of some rain. When we arrived at the museum at ten o’clock there was quite a queue so we headed to a nearby cafe and indulged in a Portuguese Tart. 

Our favourite part of the science museum was the Clockmakers of London Exhibition which is a collection of watches and clocks and is the oldest collection in the world having been established in 1813 by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. This is an old guild in London.

Amazingly it had John Harrison’s 5th marine timekeeper which changed the navigational world as it was the first to measure longitude accurately. For such a significant piece of history the timepiece looked quite insignificant.

From the Science Museum it was a short walk across the road to the V&A Museum. It was lunch time and we were feeling peckish and headed for the museum’s exquisite cafe. It’s listed as one of the best cafes in London and is the world’s oldest museum cafe. It was built in 1856. The cafe was busy but we were lucky as when we walked in someone was leaving their table. We had tomato and basil soup with a baguette and it hit the spot. 

There is so much to see at the V&A so we selected only a few areas. The one we really enjoyed was the Cast Courts which has three galleries housing copies of sculptures, columns, reliefs and objects from around the world and all are made from casts from the original. Trajan’s Column dominates the main gallery and is in two pieces as the original is 35m tall.

We also recognised the Portico de la Gloria from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela which was the end of our Camino in Spain. It was good to see it close up rather than high on the cathedral. Many of the casts are in better condition than the originals or are now the only one in existence due to destruction in wars.

The funny part was the statue of David. Henk and I can’t remember it being so big when we saw it in Florence. The cast was given to Queen Victoria by an Italian Archduke.  Behind the statue is a glass case with a plaster fig leaf. According to a popular anecdote the fig leaf was made to reduce any embarrassment for Queen Victoria and other royals. The fig was hung on the statue with some hooks when royality visited but has not been in use for quite some time. 

When we left the V&A we could see it had rained quite heavily but it had cleared. We walked passed the elegant Natural History Museum building (we’ll visit it on another day) and made our way to Paddington Station via Hyde Park. 

It was a thirty minute walk. When we arrived at the far end of the park there was a cafe so we indulged in an afternoon tea break. Henk had a double scoop of salted caramel icecream whilst I had yummy pistachio cannoli. 

We arrived home at 4.30pm after leaving at 9.30am so it was another long but enjoyable day. Once again we walked a great deal. We rested before heading out to dinner at 6.00pm. A late sun had emerged and although cold it was a lovely evening. We walked along the Thames esplanade to The Rutland Arms which is a pub located near to The Blue Anchor. Most were eating and drinking outdoors on the picnic tables but we retreated to the cosy River View Room on the first floor and looked over the Thames River and the Hammersmith Bridge. The tide was coming in and there were many rowers as the pub is located next to the Auriol Kensington Rowing Club. 

We were home in time for the ‘1% Club’. We are yet to decide what we are doing tomorrow. It will depend on the weather. 

 

Hammersmith

Weather: Overcast, cold - Min 7, Max 14

It’s seven days since our arrival in London and it seems so much longer. We have seen a lot already and still have two weeks of further exploring.

We woke to a very different day from yesterday as the temperature has dropped considerably. Our planning of going indoors took effect. We decided to visit the National Gallery which overlooks Trafalgar Square in central London. 

On our way to the gallery we passed quite a number of souvenir shops and I bumped into the Queen at one of them.

As we walked across Trafalgar Square towards the gallery a rare patch of blue sky emerged for a brief moment. 

Nelson’s Column dominates the square and the statue of Nelson standing on top looks tiny but he is 5m in size. There is a point in Trafalgar Square that is regarded as the centre of London and all distances from London are measured from this point. 

Entry to the gallery is free and as soon as we entered we were enveloped in warm air and had to quickly take off our coats. We immediately went to the gallery cafe on the ground floor for a coffee before viewing the paintings. The gallery houses so many wonderful paintings. it’s hard to take it all in. It is spacious and has plenty of seats to sit and study the paintings in detail in each of the separate exhibition rooms.

The Impressionism and Post Impressionism paintings were popular with the gallery visitors including us. There were works by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Manet, Pissaro and many others. The large Seurat painting, ‘Bathers at Asnieres’ was amazing to see. I didn’t realise it was so large. I remember studying it for Senior Art as well as many others on display. 

We enjoyed seeing the many British paintings including Constable’s ‘Hay Wain’. 

After two hours we were ‘painted out’ and we couldn’t appreciate it all. We also felt like we were being parboiled and needed to get some fresh air and cool down. We walked to St Martin-in-the-Field which is also in a prominent position overlooking Traflagar Square and sits beside the gallery. 

After viewing the inside of the church we went down to the crypt for lunch. As well as the cafe it also has a gift shop, a book shop and a brass rubbing centre. We decided to give brass rubbing a go and chose a design from the many on display. It was harder than we thought and it took some time pressing the metallic wax crayons hard enough on the thick paper to see the design. I gave up but Henk pressed so hard for so long to finish the piece that his index fingerprint didn’t work on his phone when he tried to access it. 

We called it a day and as we passed Trafalgar Square there was a small ‘Free Iran’ demonstration. At the same time thousands attended an antisemitism rally outside Downing St. One of those attending caught the same train as us and was going home with his placard.

For the first time we saw a police presence at the railway station. At Hammersmith Station we called into Tesco Express to do some grocery shopping for dinner as we wanted to avoid going out into the cold in the evening. 

Today was a far more laid-back day and we have so much more to see. 

 

Hammersmith

Weather - Sunny - Min 8, Max 21

We had a planned and an unplanned day and a very unplanned day! We left at 9.30am and arrived home at 4.30pm. We had to have a wee nap when we got back to the flat.

Our planned part of the day was to go to Notting Hill and see the Portabello Road Markets. On our way to the station we passed people lined up to see the semi-final of ‘Britains Got Talent’ being filmed at the Apollo Theatre in Hammersmith. They were early as the semi-finals didn’t start until 4.30pm. The finals will also be held there. 

We took the Hammersmith City Line to get to Notting Hill and it was only five stops to get there. We passed the Grenfell Tower the site of a tragic fire killing more than 70 people. It is covered in protective wrap and is being demolished. Just before entering Portabello Road we came across a tribute of clay hearts on a wall with a poignant poem as a tribute to the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

On our arrival at 10.00am the Portabello Road Markets were already busy and had a lot of energy. There was a mixture of locals and tourists walking the long one kilometre road with its many stalls. Saturday is the busiest and main market day for antiques and it is also the day when all five sections of the market are open with stalls of second hand goods, fruit and vegetables, household essentials, new and vintage clothing and so much more.

We first walked through the food area with a wide range of fruit and vegetables and baked goods. Like the Borough Markets there are no seating places so people eat as they browse. We settled on some baked goods from this stall. Henk chose a cinnamon bun and I settled on a Red Leister Cheese Straw.  

Behind the stalls are little shops also specialising in goods such as artisan bread, material, clothing and jewellery. The cafes are where the seats can be found and we were lucky and  chose a cafe which had a spare table to have a coffee and tea.

The antiques were the next section and this included china, frames, cutlery and a lot of silver. Some were still setting up their stalls and with the amount of goods we could see it could take quite some time.

The market is well known for the 1999 film ‘Notting Hill’ with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts and I was keen to see the blue travel bookshop. The sign outside the shop said it was never a bookshop and only the exterior was used for filming. Nevertheless there were many people like me wanting to take a photo of the gift shop. It was difficult as there was a stall close to the front on the footpath.

After two hours at the markets we decided to visit Little Venice which is the junction of three canals. We couldn’t believe how close it was to Paddington where we have stayed many times. Little Venice includes the Grand Union Canal which we have been on with a narrowboat many years ago. During the thirty minute walk along the tow path we passed many  moored narrow boats. It is quite an affluent area and Little Venice was the home of Robert Browning. 

Little Venice is known for its waterside cafes and restaurants. We decided to have lunch at the aptly named Waterside Cafe which is a narrowboat converted into a kitchen, indoor and outdoor cafe. As it was such a lovely day we chose to sit outside and watch all the boats coming and going.

After lunch at one o’clock we decided to take the train to Camden Markets and had to change trains once to get there. On arrival we found that there was a signalling problem. We didn’t realise that it would affect us until later.

The Camden Markets are completely different from the Portabello Road Markets. They have a more side show alley feel about them and we could have got a tattoo, body piecing and tattoo removal all in one afternoon! 

At the end of the market road was the Hampstead Road Lock and we were keen to see a narrowboat go through the lock. A tourist boat obliged us and it slowly rose as the water filled the lock. 

It was a glorious afternoon and it seemed everyone was making the most of the warmer, sunny weather sitting outside the pubs and cafes.

Before heading back we each indulged in an icecream which were made into fancy roses. They were very creamy and delicious. 

Whilst eating our ice creams Henk looked at the train timetable and we then learned of the consequences of the signalling problem on the Northern Line. The Camden Station was out of action and we had to walk 25mins to Euston Square to catch the train on a different line back to Hammersmith. It was a warm walk but it was flat so it was easy going. 

After a long day we didn’t feel like eating out to eat so we called into Tesco Express at the Hammersmith railway station and chose a pre-prepared meal for the microwave. There was quite an array from which to choose so I’m guessing they are popular. We chose a curry one and we both thought it wasn’t bad at all. 

So another great day of touring with great weather. Tomorrow looks like it might be a cloudy and cooler day.