A Walk In The Park...

After seeing Hadestown, we decided to walk back to our flat, West End through Trafalgar, Waterloo Place, St. James Park, and west to Pimlico. It was our last walk of the campaign.

West End sights

In Waterloo Place, the latest Banksy...placed amid scores
of monuments and statues from the days of Imperialism

Installed on April 29th; we were surely among the first 20
million people to see it; I interpret it as more a statement
about nationalism than imperialism...walking off a cliff,
blinded by the flag...

Monument to Chief Air Marshal Sir Keith Park, leader of
11th Fighter Group, defending London during the Battle of
Britain; much more on him in Auckland...he was a Kiwi

Speaking of imperialism...statue of Sir Colin Campbell,
Lord Clyde, hero in putting down the Indian Mutiny of 1857

Duke of York column; army chief during the Napoleonic
Wars; the monument was paid for by his troops, who each
committed a day's wage to its construction 

Speaking of flags...the Mall, with Buckingham Palace at the end; 
the Trooping of the Colour had occurred just a few days before

Helpful map of St. James' Park

Horse Guards Parade Ground 

One of the more beautifully landscaped of the royal parks

A bit close to the rodeo grounds, perhaps

Still pretty nice

Homage to New Zealand; seemingly

On patrol

The Drinking Boy fountain

55 Broadway, London's original skyscraper, home of St. James tube
station; for years the administrative offices of the Underground

Prom at one of the high schools in Pimlico

Churchill Gardens, site of our flat, is (was) unique when it
was built in the late 1940s, in that it utilized hot water effluent
from the Battersea Power Station (just across the river) for
heating; this is the old hot water reservoir, just a block or so
from our unit in the Keats Building (OK, of interest to Mark
and perhaps a few historians of civil engineering)

 

V&A East

After our visit to the V&A Storehouse, we walked to the V&A East Museum, perhaps best thought of as the Museum's east London outpost, serving that 63% of greater London that is neither white nor of British descent. 

Pedestrian signage along the way

Scenery

Wider view; the V&A East is the tan angular thing, middle right

Among the Olympic stadia; note landscaping

Environs

Statue outside the museum

The collection is quite small and favors the contemporary and
immigrant

Ever wonder what happened to Boris Johnson?

Contemporary ballet costumes

Thus

Cabinet organ, cabinet 1600s, organ 1700s...seemed completely out of place

Having examined the very modest collection, we proceeded on, checking

off yet another once-in-a-lifetime site...not particularly recommended, in

our view, unless you have a lot of time in London or specifically

relevant interests...

V&A East Storehouse

The V&A Storehouse, located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, in Stratford ((not-upon-Avon), a northeast suburb of London), opened in the spring of 2025. It is a massive, purpose-built museum warehouse that also includes facilities for research, education, preservation, and other museum activities. It is perhaps modeled after the Luce Center for the Study of American Art, at the Met in NYC, which also integrates storage with study, preservation, and so on, and which also employs a system whereby one can order up an item (get its QR first) and be able to examine it closely, in person. Both the Luce and the Storehouse are open to the public. For museum-lovers and for V&A-lovers, the Storehouse is a must-see. We were there June 17th.

We took the bus to Tottenham Court Road, then the tube some miles
to Stratford; at least it was the brand-new Elizabeth Line

Adequate signage

Stratford is no sleepy suburb; the Westfield mall where the
station empties is twice the size of the Westfield Mall at Les
Halles in Paris

Part of the Olympic park

Ditto: sculpture/observation tower

It's about a half mile walk from the station/mall to the
Storehouse

Note Lego anti-tank obstacles

One of the two giant warehouses

Stepping off the elevator

Like the V&A itself, it's all a bit overwhelming...

But at every turn, there are things of interest; no interpretive
signage, however...get the QR code, click on it, and, voila!, the
description is there on your phone

You can discern all four floors in this view

Interesting space-saving up-right piano

Paintings everywhere, but in warehouse presentation mode

A double-bass; must have been 8 feet tall

Peering into the second building

Pull-tab purse; we must have missed the pull-tab chain mail vest

Looking down into one of the research/preservation/whatever areas

Kaufman's office--a complete Frank Lloyd Wright room; see below

Thus; click to enlarge; Kaufman's was the great department
store of Pittsburgh; Kaufman's son was a FLW disciple...

Up closer; gorgeous cypress plywood

Spare doll houses

1920s kitchen design from Frankfurt, click...

So where's the microwave?

Perhaps this is not the place to go if you have to have themed or
chronological presentations...

Fashion

Ceiling of a Moorish chapel from Spain

Boots worn by David Bowie; inexplicably, to us, the
Storehouse has a large and high-tech David Bowie collection
and research center...yes, he gave them the money, but why
would they accept it?!