My Kind of Last Day in London

Saturday, July 31, 2010
London

Because I will be tied up with a work-related assignment on Sunday (World Anglo-Indian Day will see me at the mela in Croydon), I considered Saturday my last day in London and decided to do all the things I most love to do when I am in the city.

One leisurely breakfast of Michael's oatmeal later, I was on the bus headed to the National Portrait Gallery where I hoped to meet the Copyright Officer to discuss the possibility of using a particular Cliff Richard photograph that I'd seen at the 'Beatles to Bowie' exhibition in Norwich in my proposed book. Only I ought to have realized that the person concerned would not be around on a Saturday. I used their museum's data base to try to identify the photograph by John Pratt and find its 'call number'--only to find out (as I had suspected) that being owned by a private collector, it is not in the museum's possession. I raced to the book shop in the basement hoping to get my hands on a catalogue of the exhibition that might have provided more details of provenance but they were all sold out--again, as I had expected, as the catalogue was extremely popular and just flew off the shelves. Disappointed, I left the premises, intending to initiate email correspondence with the copyright officer.

It was time to get next-door to the National Gallery, another one of my favorite places in London, where I discovered that a Highlights Tour was about to begin in the Sainsbury Wing in two minutes. I flew off across Trafalgar Square and with just minutes to spare to drop off my bag joined a Michael Williams, Free Lance Lecturer, on his tour. We started off with the 12th century Coronation of Mary by Lorenzo Monaco in the Medieval section where I learned about the use of beaten gold sheets and stamping techniques to produce uniform 'patterns', then made our way through paintings by Rubens' (Minerva Protects Pax from Mars--Peace and War)--the only one that we can be sure was done entirely by his hands and not his vast workshop of assistants; Canaletto's Venice: The Feast Day of St. Roch (in which he takes liberties with scale and geography (and I had always thought his work was most remarkable for its accuracy); Velasquez's Portrait of King Philip IV of Spain and one more painting, but I am blanking out right now. As usual, I came away from the tour marveling at how much I had learned but also a trifle impatient that the guides at the National Gallery spent so much time at a single painting (sometimes as long as 20 minutes). We, at the Metropolitan in New York, have a strict rule--no more than 5 minutes at each work and a total of 10 works on every tour.

Of course, I could not leave the National without visiting some of my favorite works--Pieter de Hooch's Courtyard of a House in Delft, for instance, a clutch of Vermeers and Constable's Hay Wain--and I did manage to see a good special exhibit on 'Fakes' which featured some extraordinary works including a couple by Sandro Botticelli. I was tempted to stay on for Michael's next tour at 2. 30 pm, but I had too much to accomplish, so off I went to the bus stop, across Trafalgar Square again, this time to Whitehall to ride the No. 11 (which I always think is the cheapest bus tour of London) to get to Chelsea.

The King's Road is one of my favorite parts of the city and one I know well from former visits to London. I was tempted again to alight at Pimlico to poke around in the upscale interior design stores of the Queen's nephew,Viscount Linley (called 'Linley') and Joanna Wood but made the decision to stay the course and get off at Sloan Square where my exploration on foot began at the Saturday food market. The King's Road has some of my favorite shops (India Jane, for instance)--though the Antiques Center seems to have closed down. But I did get into M&S and Waitrose to pick up some more food (Fruity Flapjack Biscuits and Darjeeling Tea) and then I scoured the thrift shops in the area looking for treasures. Really tired, I rode the bus back to Paul's Patisserie for my favorite treats--Almond Croissants and Hot Chocolate--before I took the bus home to Amen Corner.

I had time for just a 10 minute lie-down before I had to get dressed to leave for the dinner party at my former neighbors' Tim and Barbara's, who'd asked us to arrive at 7. 00pm. We were fashionably late but as the rest of our guests hadn't yet arrived, had the chance to catch up. Tim in a trained chef and it is always a treat to partake of one of his meals--Bolinger Champagne and nibbles for starters was followed by Chicken Consomme, Roast Lamb with Roast Potatoes, a Green Bean and Mushroom Casserole (was that the Martha Stewart recipe I'd sent him at Thanksgiving?)and Carrots followed by a superb Prune Parfait for dessert. There were cheese and biscuits and coffee and chocolates to follow and I felt very stuffed indeed.

Apart from the meal, the best part of the evening was the chance to meet Elizabeth (with whom I've been corresponding through Twitter) and her husband Andrew. What a joy to see her finally! They'd traveled all the way from Bristol and made delightful dinner guests. Together with Cynthia and Michael, we made a merry lot and after some photographs, it was time to say Au Revoir!

I walked back home with the Colcloughs laughing over the silliest things before I sank into bed unable to believe that my days in London are coming to a swift end.