Friday, November 3, 2023

London: Walking is Free!

Hello friends! The next few posts will be about places I visited during reading week: London, the Lake District, and Cambridge. I started my trip with a day and a half in London. I planned to go to the Lake District, and it was simpler to get the train from London Euston. This time, I wanted to visit Tate Britain to see their collection of original Pre-Raphaelite works in person. I walked past many famous sites on the way to the art museum. I hadn't booked a place anywhere, but walking is free!

Long queue at The National Gallery

Trafalgar Square

Sunny day!

Scotland Yard, I think?

Big Ben

A Distant Westminster Abbey

At Tate Britain I spent time in the Pre-Raphaelite room and in the neighbouring gallery with the larger-sized works. There are no ropes or barriers, so a near-sighted person like me can stand inches from them! Art on display included: Ophelia, Christ in the House of His Parents, and The Veil of Rest by John Everett Millais; Jesus Washing Peter's Feet by Ford Madox Brown; The Awakening Conscience, Claudio and Isabella, and Our English Coasts by William Holman Hunt; Sancta Lilias and Rosa Triplex by Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Frieze of Eight Women Gathering Apples, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, and The Golden Stairs by Edward Burne-Jones; The Room in Which Shakespeare Was Born and The Death of Chatterton by Henry Wallis; Past and Present, No. 1  by Augusts Leopold Egg; photography by Julia Margaret Cameron; Figure of Guinevere by William Morris; and a honeysuckle embroidery done by Jane Morris, William Morris, and Jenny Morris. 

Tate Britain

A little context

Original original Millais!

More Millais

Ford Madox Brown

Rossetti

Burne-Jones

Cameron and Morris

Textile worked by Morris, his wife, Jane, and daughter, Jenny

After the museum, I headed towards Hyde Park. I decided to walk through Kensington Gardens to see the Peter Pan statue. 

Buckingham Palace

Wellington Arch

Hyde Park

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

The next morning I had enough time to visit the British Library and get some reading in before catching my train. I arrived around opening time and waited in this queue to get inside! I hadn't made a reservation in any of the reading rooms, but looked at the treasures and read a book (from a different library!) that I had with me. 

Queueing at the British Library


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