It's Intermission Time, Folks!

We're back home in Winter Garden, still outfitting our apartment, entertaining visiting family and friends,
planning our next adventures...but it's never intermission time at Artifices....

British Out-Takes, 2026, III

At the V&A...linguistic change is so interesting...we had
to ask a docent whether there was a dragon behind the
"hoarding"...turns out hoarding is just "boarding"...a 
wooden barrier

 

Strolling through Belgravia one day...the topiary announcing a 
pretty nice shop..."luxury goods"

One of three windows at an antique camera shop near Victoria Station

So much going on in this shot...

Turn signals embedded in the headlights

Still processing this

Fellow tourists

After hours at the Horse Guards

Poetry stand ..."on any topic...pay what you want"...there now are designated 
buskers' stations at Trafalgar

Sic transit, Gloria...having been replaced in yonder fountain, the old,
worn griffins are now awaiting their fate... The Regent's Park

Nearby sculpture in a business complex

Show curtain look on Oxford Street

Standard British public service

Dressed for Oxford Street

A few blocks from our flat

As an MP, he could walk to work; moved on after he got
the job at the Admiralty

Fellow bus rider..got off at the Churchill 
War Rooms

New signage at the V&A Storehouse...replacing the 
conventional...

Dawn of our last full day...see you again, London!

Victoria and Albert Museum, III

For our last full touring day in London, June 21st, we chose to visit the V&A once more. Although the museum is international in scope, we wanted to focus on the historic Brit bits, much, but not all of which, we have seen before. Closure in some sense. I'll just post pix that, I'm pretty sure, I have not posted before.

Interesting how differently the US and the UK approach such issues currently

Three-fer of Charles I...head shots...

Late Medieval copy of The Golden Legend, compiled by
Jacobus de Voragine, in the mid-1250s, on which much
Christian lore and maybe even some doctrine are based;
prior to the 1500s, it saw more editions than the Bible,
and was regularly translated into the vernacular; define
"hagiography"...

Joris Hufnagel, Nonesuch Palace from the South, 1568; the earliest
and most detailed depiction of Henry VIII's grandest palace; first
known landscape water-color in England

Gift items from the court of Henry VIII

Himself, by an unknown Anglo-Flemish painter; one
can appreciate how it was that the younger Holbein
revolutionized portraiture...

Torrigiani's (painted) terra cotta bust of Henry VII;
students of this blog will recall that Torrigiani was the guy
that busted Michaelangelo's nose

Stairwell landing...

Moving right along, we are now admiring works by
Glasgow favorite Charles Rennie Mackintosh

And William Morris

Penelope, designed by Sir Edward Coley Burnes-Jones,
realized in stained glass by the Morris company; we're
always on the lookout for Penelopes

Draperies by Morris, who spend much time studying in
the V&A (back when it was just the South Kensington)

Chest painted by Morris

More stained glass by Morris' company; we have enjoyed
the full windows he designed for Winchester Cathedral

Asparagus, anyone?

Charles Sargeant Jagger, Cathal and the Woodfolk, 1914,
bronze relief on oak frame; Cathal was an Irish folk hero

Cabinet, Bruce James Talbert, 1878, classical themes...won grand prize
at the Paris International Exposition, 1878

Exhibition cabinet, design by Alexandre Eugene Prignot,
manufactured by Jackson and Graham, London, 1855;
another prize winner

Paxson's sketch for the Crystal Palace of 1851

A page from Chippendale's Director catalog, 1754

Drawing Room Entry, Northumberland House, 1775;
very Pompeiian, non?

And thousands and thousands of more precious wonders...next time...

British Food And Drinks, II

Some years ago, we fell under the influence of Marks and Spencer's "dine in" meal deals--those take- home semi-prepared meals...appetizer, main, side, dessert, maybe even a bottle of wine, for two, any cuisine you can think of--and it has seriously affected our dining-out proclivities in London. The M&S idea has spread to the main grocery chains, and thus you can find meal deals at Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, and our favorite, Sainsbury's, and more. We'll go out to a restaurant for a special occasion, or to accommodate a museum or show or great house visit. But, generally, the Peking duck meal, the pork ribs (three different sauce options), the Indian sampler, etc., that you can fix in 30 minutes in your own kitchen, enjoy quietly, and affordably, and healthily, kept us from the restaurant scene. (Never mind that restaurants are nearly always a crap shoot, noise often above 90dB precluding conversation, obnoxious and repugnant fellow diners, never the best choice for healthy food, ridiculously over-priced...). So our restaurant visits in London were quite limited. The one good thing about Brexit is that it forced Marks and Spencer to close their stores in Paris! No meal deals there.

Global warming

Bought several boxes for Penelope, then ate them ourselves...

Strawberries and cream

A little harder to replicate at home

There was a Sainsbury's near our Churchill Gardens flat...but we
never missed an M&S on our outings

But of course

Alas, we missed it

The Hundred Years' War continues

Part of a "free from" aisle (free from sugar, gluten, etc.)

Not locally sourced?!

Goes right well with the chicken tikka wrap at McDo's

At the Seven Dials Tower Street food hall (West End, sort of);
self serve

British food used to be the butt of jokes...but now there's no more
diverse and interesting food city in the world than London...well,
maybe DC...

The conveyor belt restaurant craze continues to grow...starting with
sushi, I conjecture, now expanding to cheese...the Pick and Cheese 
marque is opening soon in NYC, I've read

Nothing but spritzes...talk about a niche...

The Seven Dials Tower