From Modern Art to Prehistoric History with a Bit of Panto

The Tate Modern

plastic large jellyfish art hanging in the gallery of an art museum

orangy brown painted canvas The day is dull and drizzly. We get an earlier start since we are going to two museums and then an adult pantomime tonight.

The first stop is the Tate Modern art gallery. To get there from the tube stop we walk across The Thames on the Millennium Bridge. The metal bridge is very slippery in the rain.

a white square with toy cars neatly parked around the edges

same white space with cars all in disarray around the edges

detail of toy cars crashed into eachother

Ok, I have to admit, I am not a fan of modern art. John is the one who wanted to go to Tate Modern. It is everything I imagined it would be. I just don’t get it. I did want to see the Andy Warhol Marilyn but it is on loan to the Art Gallery of Ontario. I went to that exhibit in August.

The art gallery is in the shell of a former power station and the space is massive. Hanging from the ceiling are giant jelly fish things bobbing up and down. I do a fast walk through the galleries looking at various oddities. John points out a display of two parking lots filled with toy cars. In one lot the cars are all neatly parked. In the other they are crashed into each other. John titles the work: “Before and After Kimberly Drives into a Parking Lot”.

Walking to the London Museum

woman standing on the Millenium Bridge with the dome of St Pauls Cathedral in the background

the outside of a white tudor theatre After the Tate we see the nearby reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. John, Zoe and I went to a play there on one of our other visits to London.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is at the other end. Such a beautiful building.

the ornate classically sculpted arched doorway of the London criminal courts We stop for lunch at Pret a Manger. They have a huge selection of healthy lunch foods for most diets including soups, salads, Buddha bowls and sandwiches..once again I choose the Scottish smoked salmon. Yum.

I check my emails and (yeah!) I get a negative result on the Covid PCR test I took yesterday.

London is incredibly expensive…like $6 CAD for a regular coffee. Ouch.

I love walking around London. Such a gorgeous mix of old and new architecture. I check out St. Paul’s from a number of different vantage points before we head off to find the gold boy statue. This statue was constructed to show the furthest point of the great fire in 1666.

We pass the beautiful criminal courts on Old Bailey Street. This is too good, I need to get John to pose in front of them.

The London Museum

an electric guitar with the neck brocken

Our second museum is The Museum of London. This museum covers London from prehistoric times until modern days. I especially enjoy the exhibits on the Roman period, medieval period, the plague, Tudor period, the Great Fire, the clothing exhibits and the famous smashed guitar from the Clash’s London Calling album. Totally awesome.

It’s getting dark. We pass many inviting pubs on our way to the tube station. I sleep all the way to Kew.

Cinderella Panto

Tonight we are going to a pantomine of Cinderella at a theatre in nearby Richmond. The theatre has a beautiful interior. The play is a slapstick of singing, dancing and acting out the story of a Cinderella with some modern twists and adult content. A famous British dancer and TV celebrity is staring in it.

The costumes are wonderful and it really is hilarious. I love the two ugly step sisters (who are really men) named Beatrice and Eugenie. Should I also add that here is a lot of British humor and references in the play.

An ad for a Cinderella Play