Wynmelvin » London

November 2nd, 2009

Russell — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:57:54 +0000

LONDON — I thought I’d go back to the Westminster City Archives this morning but on arrival found that they are closed on Mondays. So as it was such a beautiful day I thought I’d take a flight on the London Eye as last time it was such a drizzly grey day. The ticket also gets you in free to the new London Eye 4D Experience. The wait was longer but well worth it. At first I wondered what all the fuss was about as the film looked like any other—until the seagull flew in from over my shoulder!

After the London Eye it was into the city to do my last minute shopping. There were some very nice things, espcially at Hamley’s, that would be coming back with me if only I had room in the suitcase!

November 1st, 2009

Russell — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:21:14 +0000

LONDON — This morning was wet. The weather is supposed to be clear and dry tomorrow but rain is expected to return on Tuesday. I went to the Natural History Museum this morning and arrived in the rain to discover that they were very busy and that I could expect to be in the queue for up to two hours. As it transpired I only need to wait in the queue and the rain and the occasional gust of wind for about twenty minutes.

Once inside I went and had a look at one of the ticketed special exhibitions: the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year. All of the photographs on display were beautiful and many were exceptional.
Returning to the entrance hall I joined the the queue for the dinosaur gallery—I couldn’t leave without visiting the dinosaurs again. This queue moved slower and so took longer, but after about forty minutes I was renewing my acquaintance with the dinosaurs.

I went back to the National Gallery specifically to enquire about their print on demand service—could you take one home with you or did you have to wait for it to arrive by post? As it turned out it is printed there and then depending on how many are in the queue. So I bought my print and was able to see it being printed out on the A0 printer.

October 31st, 2009

Russell — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:26:23 +0000

LONDON — Today I returned to the British Library. Now that I knew the date of Benjamin Coles’ death, I reasoned that I would be better able to select documents more likely to yield a positive result. I requested five and it was in the last that I viewed that I found what I was looking for. So after four hours of searching I put in a request to have a couple of pages scanned, and I now have to return on Monday afternoon to collect my copy.

Getting around London is a bit fraught this weekend—the last weekend of mid-term break. Not because their are kids everywhere, or the fact that it’s Halloween, but because the London Transport Authority chose this weekend to close three lines completely with partial closures of five others for engineering maintenance. Unfortunately the Circle line is one of those closed completely as I find that is the one I use most often. My London Underground app has certainly paid for itself.

October 30th, 2009

Russell — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:50:00 +0000

LONDON — Today I went to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. I had visited the Gallery on my previous trip to London and enjoyed it so much I just had to return for another look. And it didn’t disappoint. I still can’t get over how bright and vibrant the colours in the paintings are, especially those from the 15th and 16th centuries, when compared to what you see reproduced in books. And the other thing you don’t appreciate from the books are the relative sizes of the paintings. Some are tiny, and others are simply enormous. There is nothing like seeing the original paintings.

There were many memorable paintings but the one that really caught my eye was Two Tax Gatherers by Marinus van Reymerswaele, painted in about 1540. It reminded me of modern illustrations created with vector graphics programs. It impressed me so much I think I might go back and purchase a print.

For the rest of the afternoon I went shopping.

October 29th, 2009

Russell — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:14:49 +0000

LONDON — This morning I went to the London Metropolitan Archives to try and find a reference to Joseph Coles in St Thomas’ Hospital’s patient admission register for 1817. Unfortunately this particular item was classified as not fit for consultation due to bomb damage suffered during the Second World War, but I was able to fill in a form to request conservation. Hopefully it will be available for the next time I visit!

As my visit took all of twenty minutes I decided to head over to the nearby Westminster City Archives and see if I could locate any parish records for Joseph and Benjamin Coles—particularly their marriage records. I looked at the microfilms for the bigger parishes in Westminster at the time but found nothing. I think I’ll go back on Monday and check the smaller parishes. It would be nice to find something.

During mid-afternoon the Archives had a fire alarm drill to see if they could get us all out quickly. Everybody had to descend the five flights of stairs to safety with the loudest fire alarm I’ve had the pleasure to experience! Thankfully it wasn’t too long before we were allowed back in to continue our searching.

October 28th, 2009

Russell — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:03:10 +0000

LONDON — Getting from Bristol to London went a lot smoother than I’d are hope. The walk to the railway station, pushing one suitcase and pulling another, only took ten minutes. I probably got to the station too early but it meant I was able to be one of the first to board the train—and when you’ve got more bags than hands, it helps. One unexpected but pleasant surprise was that though my seat was standard class the coach itself was first class.

Once I was back in London and settled in to the hotel, I went back to the British Museum to see about making a booking for Monday for the Moctezuma exhibition. Instead there was no need to make an advanced booking so I got an immediate ticket and spent the next hour or so viewing exhibits relating to Moctezuma, the last ruler of the Aztecs, and the conquest by the Spanish. There were some very beautiful objects, especially the masks inlaid with turquoise, and an impressive stone eagle with a bowl-shaped cavity in its back to receive sacrificed hearts.

It’s starting to get dark early now. Clocks went back an hour last Sunday morning.