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Martin & Luschka
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Ham House and Gardens, Richmond
I spent most of today walking around Richmond with my friend Gloria. Our initial intention was to visit Ham House, but unfortunately it was closed for the winter. We spent about an hour strolling around the gardens, and had delicious scones and clotted creams at the Orangery Cafe.
Ham House, like most of the other palaces and stately homes that line the river Thames, belongs to a different time in history. It was built in 1610 for Sir Thomas Vavasour who was the Knight Marshal to James 1. When he died the house passed to a succession of owners, ending up with Elizabeth Countess of Dysart and her second husband John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, in order to reflect their status in Charles II's Restoration court. It housed their apparently amazing collection of fine art, textiles and furniture, much of which remains in the house today. The house itself was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1948, where restoration work has been done on the garden to return it to its 17th century layout.
The garden itself is an outdoorsman's dream - from the large open meadow to the Fountain Garden, the Plats (eight squares of lawn with pathways between them), cherry garden, wilderness (a maze of different flowers) and the Kitchen Garden's. Although empty now in the middle of winter, the garden is generally the main supply for the Orangery's kitchen.
Gloria and I enjoyed the outdoor cafe area, soaking up the gentle rays of sunshine and lavishing clotted cream on delicious scones to replenish our systems from all the walking!
Ham House Gardens would definitely be worth another visit in the summer, when the flowers and trees can portray it in its blooming splendour.
A mile walk along the Thames and back to Richmond Station and so another Saturday was well spent in London!
Cost: £3.30 each entrance to the gardens
£6.90 on hot drinks and scones with jam and cream for two
£2.20 for out of prepaid zone travel.
FOR MORE PICTURES CLICK HERE
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Croydon Museum - Frames of Mind
One of our New Years Resolutions this year is to explore London as much as we can and to do it as cheaply as we can.
Most things are fairly accessible in London's myriad of underground and overground trains, comprehensive bus network and further out, the trams. Most Londoners have Oyster cards - a prepaid travel card which either gives the travel unlimited options (paid monthly) or heavily reduced fees (topped up as needed). So, as Martin has a monthly Oyster and I have a prepaid, travel costs don't generally feature too heavily in our spending on days out, but there really is no such thing as a free day out in London. We are working on it though... maybe not free, but we're getting pretty close!
Today we hopped on the 486 bus to West Croydon. We sat right at the front on the top level reading our books for the 50 minute journey with the sun shining through the window. The reason I mention this otherwise mundane fact is that it was a rare moment of warmth in this winter - you know how the car warms up when the sun bakes your skin through the window - it was kind of like that. A warm and vit D enriched bus ride. Lovely. :o) (Southern hemispherians just can't understand!)
We arrived in Croydon and spent part of the afternoon walking around the much maligned Croydon high street looking at deals and doing window shopping. I did see and photograph some unexpectedly beautiful old buildings, fixtures, and chimneys on our hour long stroll from the bus stop to the Clock Tower.
Croydon doesn't have a great reputation, and is definitely not known as the cultural capital of the South, but the aim for our afternoon mission was the Croydon Clocktower. Built as the third Town Hall of the town of Croydon in 1895, today it houses the Croydon Museum and art galleries, a cinema, library, Tourist Information Centre, the Braithwaite Hall and the Clocktower Café.
One of the art galleries are currently exhibiting a show called "Frames of Mind" - a collection of art works from patients at the Bethlem Royal Hospital. BRH is one of the hospitals that fall under the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) umbrella, and I work for SLaM, so when I saw the poster I was very interested. A part of the exhibition was also the history of Bethlem (which has been around in some form or other since 1247, although it only started serving as a hospital for the mentally ill in 1357.)
There were about 50 artworks on display, done by patients of the hospital with a range of illnesses over the past 150 years. There was also an audio recording by a patient who used to live in Cane Hill hospital who now lives in community care, and he was explaining the difference in care. Something I found unsettling and disturbing is that mental health patients have only had 'rights' since about the 50s and it's only since about the 70's that asylum 'guards' have become registered Mental Health Nurses. In fact, it was only in 1984 that the MH hospitals in London became care facilities until then they had been asylums, little more than prisons or workhouses. There were some dreadful stories - a man kept in restraints so that he could only stand or lie down on his back for nine - fourteen years (the records are unclear). He was finally released when MP's visited him and felt that the restraints were unnecessary. He died of tuberculosis soon after. Earlier than that, in the 1800's wealthy ladies used to visit the asylum to be entertained by the 'lunatics'. How horrific!! Thank God the hospital governors put an end to that! There was a book of records where a matron for the hospital kept the records of a 22 year old man who had been born with epilepsy was admitted to the facility. The entries his warden made refer to him in such terms as "idiot.still epileptic. violent." "Two fits this week. Idiot is destructive and epileptic." The young man died 3 years after his admission.
Historian Roy Porter has called the Bethlem Hospital "a symbol for man's inhumanity to man, for callousness and cruelty." Fortunately, as someone who now works with the people who work with these service users (we don't call them idiots anymore!) I can not vouch enough for how things have changed - the care and compassion that some health care assistants and nurses show is phenomenal and whenever I've been on a ward or a residential unit I am amazed at the work these people do.
I guess what's frighting is how many people who were inmates in the asylum are still in the system and as Martin said, how many wardens are now nurses! As long as they've changed with the system, they would really be interesting people to talk to!
One interesting fact and a non important claim to fame is that the word "bedlam" is actually a direct derivative from the various names of Bethlem, including Bethlehem and Bedlam.
Another interesting fact is that before BRH moved to its current location in Beckenham from it's previous location which is today Liverpool Street Station.
It really was a great exhibit, and if you'd like to be moved, touched and inspired I recommend you visit before the end of January 2009.
Museum of Croydon
Cost of this day out: £4.95! (drinks and bus fare!)
Most things are fairly accessible in London's myriad of underground and overground trains, comprehensive bus network and further out, the trams. Most Londoners have Oyster cards - a prepaid travel card which either gives the travel unlimited options (paid monthly) or heavily reduced fees (topped up as needed). So, as Martin has a monthly Oyster and I have a prepaid, travel costs don't generally feature too heavily in our spending on days out, but there really is no such thing as a free day out in London. We are working on it though... maybe not free, but we're getting pretty close!
Today we hopped on the 486 bus to West Croydon. We sat right at the front on the top level reading our books for the 50 minute journey with the sun shining through the window. The reason I mention this otherwise mundane fact is that it was a rare moment of warmth in this winter - you know how the car warms up when the sun bakes your skin through the window - it was kind of like that. A warm and vit D enriched bus ride. Lovely. :o) (Southern hemispherians just can't understand!)
We arrived in Croydon and spent part of the afternoon walking around the much maligned Croydon high street looking at deals and doing window shopping. I did see and photograph some unexpectedly beautiful old buildings, fixtures, and chimneys on our hour long stroll from the bus stop to the Clock Tower.
Croydon doesn't have a great reputation, and is definitely not known as the cultural capital of the South, but the aim for our afternoon mission was the Croydon Clocktower. Built as the third Town Hall of the town of Croydon in 1895, today it houses the Croydon Museum and art galleries, a cinema, library, Tourist Information Centre, the Braithwaite Hall and the Clocktower Café.
One of the art galleries are currently exhibiting a show called "Frames of Mind" - a collection of art works from patients at the Bethlem Royal Hospital. BRH is one of the hospitals that fall under the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) umbrella, and I work for SLaM, so when I saw the poster I was very interested. A part of the exhibition was also the history of Bethlem (which has been around in some form or other since 1247, although it only started serving as a hospital for the mentally ill in 1357.)
There were about 50 artworks on display, done by patients of the hospital with a range of illnesses over the past 150 years. There was also an audio recording by a patient who used to live in Cane Hill hospital who now lives in community care, and he was explaining the difference in care. Something I found unsettling and disturbing is that mental health patients have only had 'rights' since about the 50s and it's only since about the 70's that asylum 'guards' have become registered Mental Health Nurses. In fact, it was only in 1984 that the MH hospitals in London became care facilities until then they had been asylums, little more than prisons or workhouses. There were some dreadful stories - a man kept in restraints so that he could only stand or lie down on his back for nine - fourteen years (the records are unclear). He was finally released when MP's visited him and felt that the restraints were unnecessary. He died of tuberculosis soon after. Earlier than that, in the 1800's wealthy ladies used to visit the asylum to be entertained by the 'lunatics'. How horrific!! Thank God the hospital governors put an end to that! There was a book of records where a matron for the hospital kept the records of a 22 year old man who had been born with epilepsy was admitted to the facility. The entries his warden made refer to him in such terms as "idiot.still epileptic. violent." "Two fits this week. Idiot is destructive and epileptic." The young man died 3 years after his admission.
Historian Roy Porter has called the Bethlem Hospital "a symbol for man's inhumanity to man, for callousness and cruelty." Fortunately, as someone who now works with the people who work with these service users (we don't call them idiots anymore!) I can not vouch enough for how things have changed - the care and compassion that some health care assistants and nurses show is phenomenal and whenever I've been on a ward or a residential unit I am amazed at the work these people do.
I guess what's frighting is how many people who were inmates in the asylum are still in the system and as Martin said, how many wardens are now nurses! As long as they've changed with the system, they would really be interesting people to talk to!
One interesting fact and a non important claim to fame is that the word "bedlam" is actually a direct derivative from the various names of Bethlem, including Bethlehem and Bedlam.
Another interesting fact is that before BRH moved to its current location in Beckenham from it's previous location which is today Liverpool Street Station.
It really was a great exhibit, and if you'd like to be moved, touched and inspired I recommend you visit before the end of January 2009.
Museum of Croydon
Cost of this day out: £4.95! (drinks and bus fare!)
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Matthew Bourne's Edward Scissorhands at Sadler's Well
One of the best things about living in London is the opportunity to discover a world of plays, musicals, ballets, exhibitions and every other cultural endeavour your heart could desire.
Tonight we went to Sadler's Wells in Finsbury to see Matthew Bourne's production of Edward Scissorhands. Although I had really wanted to see the show based on the previews on the website http://www.edwardscissorhands.co.uk, I wasn't prepared for how...magical....the performance was going to be.
From the use of lights on material to create rain and snow, to the interactive, lit up, stunningly crafted sets of homes, a cemetery, the rising and setting sun, a backyard barbecue, and town Christmas party, to name a few, the costumes were beautifully representative of 1950's America, puffy party dresses, dodgy running gear and pigtailed children who's mothers wave them off to school, to the dancing sculpted shrubs, nothing was half done, or in any way short of fantastic.
The orchestra was in a league of it's own with a score reminiscent of the movie, hitting the right emotional pitches all the way, Cheery suburbanism, passion, excitement, danger and hauntingly beautiful in places, it could stand alone as piece of art on its own.
The most striking performance of the night, in my opinion, was that of Noi Tolmer in the role of Kim Boggs - not only did she perform the role of a teen girl in the exhilarating fashion that leads you to remembering your own first kiss, and with a smile that reached to the back of the room when she realised she was in love with Edward, but she was also the best dancer on the stage. It's with good reason that Matthew Bourne has had her starring in a number of his productions.
The final act ends in splendour with 'snow' falling on the stage and across the audience and the lengthy applause ascertained that I was not the only one to enjoy this fantastic show.
My only question now is whether there are any tickets left for the last week of this production, 'cause I could happily go and see it again!
Tonight we went to Sadler's Wells in Finsbury to see Matthew Bourne's production of Edward Scissorhands. Although I had really wanted to see the show based on the previews on the website http://www.edwardscissorhands.co.uk, I wasn't prepared for how...magical....the performance was going to be.
From the use of lights on material to create rain and snow, to the interactive, lit up, stunningly crafted sets of homes, a cemetery, the rising and setting sun, a backyard barbecue, and town Christmas party, to name a few, the costumes were beautifully representative of 1950's America, puffy party dresses, dodgy running gear and pigtailed children who's mothers wave them off to school, to the dancing sculpted shrubs, nothing was half done, or in any way short of fantastic.
The orchestra was in a league of it's own with a score reminiscent of the movie, hitting the right emotional pitches all the way, Cheery suburbanism, passion, excitement, danger and hauntingly beautiful in places, it could stand alone as piece of art on its own.
The most striking performance of the night, in my opinion, was that of Noi Tolmer in the role of Kim Boggs - not only did she perform the role of a teen girl in the exhilarating fashion that leads you to remembering your own first kiss, and with a smile that reached to the back of the room when she realised she was in love with Edward, but she was also the best dancer on the stage. It's with good reason that Matthew Bourne has had her starring in a number of his productions.
The final act ends in splendour with 'snow' falling on the stage and across the audience and the lengthy applause ascertained that I was not the only one to enjoy this fantastic show.
My only question now is whether there are any tickets left for the last week of this production, 'cause I could happily go and see it again!
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