National Gallery and Covent Garden

We walked through a bit more of Fitzrovia en route to the National Gallery, a favorite we visited six or more times last summer. I had resolved to just enjoy it this time and not worry about documenting everything as I normally do. Surprisingly, I was able to adhere to my resolution. Fun to look at the all the Turners, et al., without worrying about composition, distortion, light, glare.... After the National Gallery, we ambled over to Covent Garden before returning back home.

At a nearby art gallery

Really? Together? That must have been fun!

Passing by Chinatown

Seriously, the only picture I took at the National Gallery; we just
wandered to see our many favorites; I know this museum pretty
well, by the way, and found it impossible to follow any of their
"art routes"; it's a maze within a labyrinth within a web; IMHO

Trafalgar

All decked out for the Jubilee, just a day or two away

Still processing this one...a false but interesting
dilemma?

We kept running into this guy and his lady friend;
famous? an actor?

Always a fun place

Liberty Of London

We had big plans for the next day, May 31st, a walk to Oxford Street and beyond to the Liberty department store, and then maybe Covent Garden. But the London forecast failed us: when we emerged from Liberty there were a series of deluges that followed us all the way back to the apartment. FWIW, later in the day I walked over to Marylebone to visit the Cadenhead store there, hoping to find some of the same goodies I have enjoyed in Edinburgh. (We're talking scotch here, single malt, Islays preferably, bottled from the cask in the store, no diluting, no color added, etc.). Another disappointment: Scottish laws forbid bottling the stuff anywhere but in Scotland, as I might have expected. The Cadenhead's in London sells a very limited selection of Cadenhead labels, shipped from Edinburgh or Campbelltown, and all the other single malts you'd find anywhere else. Bummer. But hey, it's London!

It's a fair question why a couple that lives in a camper sometimes, and out of backpacks and carry-ons other times, would be visiting a high-end clothing and homewares store. In the case of Liberty, it's partly the history, the founder's association with Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau artists and designers, notably Morris and Rosetti. In some places, British Art Nouveau is called "Liberty." Another reason is that the merchandise is often innovative or interesting or at least beautiful. Another reason is the store's age and architecture, sort of a Tudor revival built in part out of a couple of old Royal Navy sailing ships. The architecture is often shamed, and certainly doesn't fit the merchandise. According to me. But hey, it's London!

Matching glasses for those who don't want an exact match

Got buttons?

Not all that pricy really

Sure you can serve anything you like in this plate

One of several mug trees

Beautiful carving all over, too

Return To The British Museum, 2022

Our brush with Egyptian Revival Art Deco whetted our appetite for another visit to the British Museum. (Egyptian stuff). However, we'd vowed to look at just those things we missed last summer, namely the classical Greek stuff, ceramics and buildings and sculpture and such. As with our 2021 Bloomsbury apartment, the BM was just a ten minute walk away.

The Nereid Monument, from Xanthos, now Turkey; we were 
there in 2010, and immediately noticed a curiously vacant area in
the agora; aha, we thought, the British Museum has been here

Ultima Cena

Madonna e Bambino; wait, no...

My all-time favorite Greek wine cooler; do not try this at home,
kids; love the commentary below

Another favorite: Hercules and Apollo fighting
over the Delphic Oracle's tripod chair

Floorplan of the British Museum; or possibly
the palace of Minos

I love the very old Cycladic figurines

Alas!

Now we are upstairs examining the friezes from the Temple of
Apollo near Bassei, Greece, late 5th century BCE

Pretty much about the fight between the Lapiths
and the Centaurs (long story, basically a cautionary
tale about not abusing the hospitality shown you);
also fighting between the Greeks and Amazon 
delivery drivers 

Now we are at the center ring, the Elgin Marbles

from the Parthenon, in Athens; I'll spare you all

the literature the BM has promulgated about its

rightful ownership, etc., etc.; the current story is

that the BM is the world's proper custodian of such

treasures, at least the ones it has already in its

possession; it's complicated, sort of, but would be

nice if they'd give just a few back to Greece, maybe

on a trial basis...

Helpful model of the Parthenon before the Turks used it for artillery
practice

One whole wall; mostly a ceremonial procession

More Lapiths and Centaurs

On the pediment, goddesses

Other long wall

My two favorite male gods, Mercury (travel) and Dionysus (wine)

Still more, but enough is enough

Camden Market, 2022

After a day of idling, researching/planning further adventures, blogging, and binge-watching Bridgerton, we decided to head up to Camden Town and the Camden Market, where we had great fun in 2021. Somehow it just wasn't that exciting the second time. It's a year later, almost, and the crowds have returned. Big crowds, and all in COVID-denial. Maybe best to do Camden on a weekday. We looked around a bit, snapped a few pix, and then decided to walk back to our apartment. Awaiting us, en route, was one of the great architectural surprises of this campaign...

I'm still awaiting the Second Coming of the leisure
suit...

Arcade scene

Typical

Ditto

Kangol now into weirdness

Street scene

Imperial foot-long

Gin-infused bubble tea can't be far away

And now the surprise: I bet you've never heard of Egyptian Revival
Art Deco; neither had we; but there it is, the former Carreras Cigarette
Factory, built in the 1920s, when Egyptian and Turkish cigarettes
were all the rage, in some places...think "I'd walk a mile for a Camel"...

Thus; note Egyptian-type imagery

There it is; Carreras went out of business years ago, but the
building was restored in the 1990s

And is now Greater London House...an office building

Greater London House...home for a number of well known firms;
but, ever more interestingly, figures in the BBC mockumentary
W1A, which satirizes BBC management; even more interestingly,
W1A stars Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham to some of you); read
up here and here and you'll know even more about all this than I do