Enjoying autumn in London - great exhibitions

Enjoying autumn in London is not just about the beautiful colours in the parks and views along the river Thames but also about the blockbuster exhibitions.  London is famous the world over for its museums and galleries and they host some amazing exhibitions, particularly in autumn.   I've been to a few good ones recently so here they are!

Firstly, just one photo of the great colours in Hyde Park:

Hyde Park colours

Ansel Adams is one of the most famous and influential photographers in the world and his new show at the National Maritime Museum takes his love of water as its theme, Ansel Adams: Photography from the Mountains to the Sea.  These wonderful black and white photos span his whole career starting with a first showing of his first photo, taken at the age of 14!  He was no longer going to school at that age so his parents sent him to the World Fair in San Francisco, where they lived, to see the world and its artists on display. It seems that was time well spent and his first photo, which features a water reflection, was the start of a journey which led to the extraordinary large scale prints of Yosemite that he is most recognised for.  He was a pioneer of both scale and the eye popping detail he achieved in his studio where he printed every shot himself. 

The massive prints are taller than me that's for sure and come from a private collector in Texas who had real problems getting them up to the room for display and had to put them on top of the lift to manoeuvre them through to top floor. I'm sure they looked great there and the procedure had to be reversed to get them out for this exhibition.

We were shown around privately by the curator, Philip Prodger, and were allowed to take a few photos but sadly that's not the case normally.

The man himself

One the right is his 1st photo

These are taller than a person!

Amazing quote

His famous Yosemite photo on the right

The National Maritime Museum is worth spending time in as it's full of wonderful exhibits including the coat that Nelson wore at the Battle of Trafalgar and you can see the hole where the fatal bullet entered - luckily he'd already won the battle!  Outside the museum is my favourite piece from the 4th Plinth art project in Trafalgar Square - Yinka Shonibare's Ship in a Bottle. This witty piece is a 1:30 scale model of Nelson's ship The Victory (good name!) with sails symbolic of African identity, linking Britain's maritime and colonial past. 

Yinka Shonibare's Ship in a Bottle

 In complete contrast, I visited two fashion based exhibitions. The Hollywood Costumes at the Victoria and Albert Museum is one of the best presented shows I have seen in a long time. They use video and computer generated information boards to bring to life a huge number of iconic costumes from Darth Vader to the Adams Family, a Wookie to Dorothy's shoes, from Indiana Jones' outfit including the whip and how it works to Jonny Depp's pirate outfit.There are great case studies of the process which takes a script through to a finished set of costumes in films such as Ocean's Eleven.  No photography is allowed inside so you'll just have to go and enjoy, or read the V&A's own account.

 The other fashion themed exhibition is Chanel The Little Black Jacket at the Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea. They had the great idea of taking the famous Chanel black jacket and getting a range of celebrities and artists to wear it as they wished and it looks completely different on each person. The lighting was a little underpowered and we thought having a jacket for each visitor to try own and take their own photo would have just made the show. However there were some fun shots to see and it's amazing how one garment look so different. You can pick up a free poster and of course buy Karl Lagerfeld's new book featuring all 113 photos!

Sarah Jessica Parker

A wall of little black jackets!

Another take on the jacket.....

 It's a busy time in London - when isn't it!  So I hope to be posted a few shorter blogs very soon.
Bye for now
Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk
@itsyourlondon 

Enjoying autumn in London

As the summer disappears - and what a summer it's been from the celebrations of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee to the success of the Olympics and Paralympics - we are enjoying what autumn brings before winter sets in. So, what's going on in London?

London is busy any time to year and autumn is no exception so here just a few highlights from my diary in the last 2 weeks. 

London Film Festival is in its 56th year and seems to get bigger every time. This year's was full of Tim Burton's Frankenweenie which opened the festival and the Rolling Stones who turned up in force for the premiere of their documentary Crossfire Hurricane ahead of their upcoming sell out concerts in London. The best film winner was however a French film called Rust and Bone, a poetic love story.   I was passing Leicester Square on the night of the Stones opening so here are a few photos to give you an idea of the excitable crowd, the paparazzi and the premiere atmosphere.  Colin Firth arrived as I did and the place erupted with shouts, flash cameras and oohs and aahs! He stopped and chatted to the crowd as well as the press, what a nice man.

Leicester Square Odeon ready for a big night

The lights and the anticipation

This is what happened when Colin Firth arrived!

Continuing the theme of big excitable crowds, the French gathered in London when Johnny Halliday came to town for his first concert in the UK despite his 69 years. He's very much a French thing and the Albert Hall was turned into a French language zone for the night, no one even bothering to ask the way to the toilets in English!  The crowd were adoring and knew every word he sang, desperate to enjoy every moment of the 2 hour show.  We were swept away with the show which was big, loud and hugely good fun. 

Would you believe this is the Royal Albert Hall?

Johnny Halliday - still rocking

Autumn is a great time of year to explore London's wonderful parks and enjoy days out to the countryside near to the capital. One of my favourite parks is Hyde Park, an immense open space in the centre of London well used by locals and visitors alike. It is full of trees which give us lovely autumnal colours -  not quite like the American fall but pretty nonetheless. If you want to get out of town you can take short trips out to the small towns that gather along the banks of the upstream river Thames. At Cookham, just a 45 minute drive from London, you can enjoy delightful autumnal views and even a herd of cows joined in when I was there this weekend. 

The Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park

Hyde Park's trees

Autumn light at Cookham

Beautiful countryside just 45 mins from London

There you have just a sneaky peek at London's autumn and watch out for more next week. 

Bye for now,
Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk
@itsyourlondon  


  

A Winter Wonderland in London this Christmas!

Christmas time in London is great fun with loads of thing to do and see. One of our favourites is Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park so we took some friends who had not been before to enjoy an evening of Christmas cheer.  They couldn't work out what Winter Wonderland was from our description - is it a theme park, is it a Christmas market, it is a food market, is for kids or adults?  Well, it's all of these and it takes up a huge space right in the middle of Hyde Park!

You enter through a massive arch through which you can just see the beginings of the fun fair in the distance.  The first section is made up of several alleyways of Christmas market chalets but the best thing here is the talking and singing moose!  I've attached a video but in case that doesn't work for you, there's a photo as well.  I hope the video runs for you as he is wonderful and one of my highlights.  (If it doesn't download right away, come back to it)

You can linger for ages checking out all the gifts in the chalets of the market section as it is  extensive and tempting. Once through with shopping you are surrounded by food stalls and into the fun fair. There's everything from the old fashioned but beautiful helter skelter and big wheel, to incredibly fast whirling things, all looking very festive, to dreadfully scary rides that were too fast to take a photo of and I have know idea how people were not sick on them but it seemed fun was being had!  The roller coaster was popular, looking a little slower than the super fast rides but still resulted in a good few screams.

There are some traditions about Christmas ghost stories so there was the obligatory haunted house with a huge violin playing skeleton outside. On the cuter side, I loved the snowman, the sweets and the massive balloon

We managed to eat and drink our way round the whole experience, tasting the warming mulled wine and by the time we got to the burgers one friend was so hungry he ordered two, making the stall holder so excited that he shouted for all to hear 'he's going for 2'!  There were stalls full of churros and chocolate, candy floss, any type of grilled sausage and colourful sweets.
We almost went for the ice skating but after a wonderful dry evening, the rain started to come down so we escaped to a nearby pub to keep dry and warm. 

 

We're all going again next year and perhaps someone will be brave enough to try the scary rides but I don't think it will be me!

Bye for now,

Sue

www.itsyourlondon.co.uk

@itsyourlondon

Exploring London - Brixton Village Market

One of the best things about living in London is that there is always something new to see and do. I've lived in London for longer than I care to mention but I can still be delighted by finding a new area to visit.  Last week a group of us went exploring to Brixton Village, south London.
We headed there on a Saturday morning and entered the Village which sits under the railway arches. I didn't know what to expect from the title 'Village' and especially from this entrance.  However, as soon as we walked in, we were greatly entertained by an amazing range of stalls and cafes in an old covered market.

This once run down arcade with an empty unloved corner now houses over 20 new cafes and shops according to Time Out but I'm sure that number has grown massively since their article.  It's a foodie's paradise with great independent cafes and restaurants and food stall groaning with great produce. This link gives you the chance to 'be there' via some videos of the

http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/1543/brixton-village-market-restaurants-and-cafes-guide

We made use of the wonderful array of eateries and tasted the burgers at Honest Burgers which were very good. This tiny cafe with a few tables inside and outside has constant queues outside which are testament to its quality - so we went for take-away.  Simply walking around was fabulous sight seeing and this selection of photos will give you a feel of the place.

What else is there?  Upstairs there are artists' studio and as there was an open day when we went, we could go up and chat with artists about their work from photography, to model making to printing.


Nearby I need to  mention the Ritzy Cinema, a fabulous building, showing great films with a wonderful history. Those of you who read my last blog post will know my love quirky local cinemas. I've not seen a film at the Ritzy so it couldn't make my list. Dating from 1910 it offers 4 screens, bars and restaurants and a lively social centre.




Finally, for music lovers with a good memory, one of the local streets brought about an outbreak of bad singing - remember Eddie Grant's Electric Avenue? Well it's here and was so called because it was the first market street to have electricity in the 1880s.




I'll be going back to Brixton Village Market, that's for sure!

Bye for now
Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk
@itsyourlondon

Hyde Park, a great place on a Sunday morning..

It's summer in London, it's a lovely Sunday morning, my sponsored half marathon is looming so what could be better than a full circuit of Hyde Park? It turned out to be an excellent idea and I zoomed round taking in all the sights in no time.
I saw the work going on to completely reinvigorate Kensington Palace and give it a grand garden entrance; the wonderful formal fountains on the north side of the park; people take a horse ride around the park, those jogging and more unusually those ski-ing! The Horse Guards were returning to their barracks and the Albert Hall and Albert Memorial were looking at their best. The photo in the order listed here and you can see what a wonderful morning it was!

After completing a full circuit I decided to treat myself to a visit to the annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. Each year this fine gallery holds a competition for the best design for its summer outdoor pavilion - this year's competition was won by Peter Zumthor, a Swiss architect, with his design Hortus Conclusus, meaning Enclosed Garden. It has a plain dark exterior with several doors through to an interior garden and cafe via interior dark passageways. The garden is conceived as a peaceful place which is enclosed and protected. The cafe bustle somewhat disturbs the peace but it is an impressive and interesting structure. Here are some photos: of the Serpentine Gallery itself; the Pavilion exterior with people entering and a view taken further back to give more perspective; and, the interior garden.

London has great night life so I should mention a visit to a venue completely new to me - the Bush Hall in west London. As part of the inaugural London Blues Festival Ray Gelato was playing a set here and it was a great night. Ray was born close by but has had a long and illustrious career playing with many bands as well as his own Giants so he can put on a really fun show as the singing and saxophone playing lead man in a band with plenty of good brass. The hall itself is a star - a small ex theatre decorated in a wonderful Victorian music hall style and I'll definitely keep my eyes open for future events there.

Bye for now

Sue

http://www.itsyourlondon.co.uk/

@itsyourlondon