At the architect's part II

So, where were we? Ah yes, the Sir John Soane’s Museum. After having explored the crypt it was time to move up in the house to the first floor. You know I love stairs, right? Well, here comes a whole load of stair pictures.

Because these stairs are pretty special. Lots and lots of amazing details.

And atmosphere. Do you recognise the fella in the recess? Yup, that’s ol’ Billy Shakespeare.

And here’s a little sculpture of Mercury.

Such a handsome staircase/well, don’t you think?

Very much appreciate a blind pull displayed just so.

The South Drawing Room. I had to google what a drawing room is, and it’s a room that was only really used to entertain guests before and after dinner, or a room for the ladies of the household to retire to. Imagine having such a room now! Well I suppose some very fancy people still do. Tell me, would you go all out yellow in a room? Not me. Not a fan of yellow walls at all. Or orange. But red? Yes.

I could’ve stood and stared at this window for ages. The light and the shadows were just perfect.

Soane had to go to court in order to be granted permission to build this loggia, which was originally open (kind of like a balcony), but in the 1830’s he added windows so he gained another metre where he could house more of his collection.

Not all of the original window panes have survived.

One last stair pic, I promise. This one was less flash. Must’ve been for the household staff.

The ceiling of the Breakfast Parlour in no. 12. Can you imagine being so posh that you can choose to have your meals in different rooms? I guess some people still are.

One last round mirror to round things off (see what I did there?). The rug is a reproduction of the the original rug in the Breakfast Parlour Room. Looks so contemporary! I’d very much like one thank you please. Guys, if this is your thing, and you find yourself in London, for Dog’s sake go. It’s such an amazing place, and I’m sure as hell not going to leave it for another decade before I go back.

At the architect's

A couple of days after I went to Kew I booked myself a morning slot at the Sir John Soane Museum (peeps, I’m a bit tired when typing this, so do click on the museum link for the history of Sir John Soane, it’s really interesting, but rather than me rehashing the text into this blogpost you’ll get it straight from the horse’s mouth). I went there over a decade ago with my mum, and I’ve been meaning to go back ever since, but I’m so glad I didn’t get round to it until now. This time I appreciated going there for so many reasons, the main one being that I’m seriously getting into historical houses. The Regency era architect owned and built all three buildings seen here, with the museum being mainly in the middle one at no. 12.

Some of the museum spills over into No. 14, which just looks so damn good with that green door and the darker window frames, don’t you think? Also, this house was built with white bricks. Must’ve looked very different back in the day. I quite like the dirty facade and I’m sure it wouldn’t look as nice all cleaned up.

There is of course now a one way system though the museum, so the first room you enter is the dining room that extends into the library where I stood taking this picture.

Right here in fact. It wasn't this light in this section (I over exposed quite a bit here), but much darker and really cosy.

Like this.

And this. I’d love to have the guts do a whole room in dark red. I just had a look around me in the study where I’m sitting right now thinking ‘Oooooooooh!’, but we had wallpaper put up in here when we moved in eight years ago, so that’s a hard no. Plus I still like the wallpaper. 🙄

In case you wonder which way you're facing.

I continued into The Breakfast Parlour where a guide told me about the room, which in turn led me to not taking many pictures in here, as I couldn’t just ask him to move out of the way. All I can say is that putting yellow glass in the skylights makes for a very cheery little room.

Soane put the yellow glass in so that you could see the details in the reliefs better.

Ok fine, I’ll give you a bit of a background so those of you who didn't click through earlier know what this place is. Basically Soane (1753-1837) became a renowned architect and Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy, and was fortunate enough to be able to take a Grand Tour of Europe (paid for by King George III - who incidentally lived in Kew Palace in my previous post). He was a great collector who also had the astuteness to pick up lots of objects in house clearances from other collectors who had gotten into debt gambling. Like an eBay pro of sorts. The idea was to house all these artefacts in a museum so his students, who were not able to travel around Europe, would be able to see close hand what treasures and styles existed out there. He also stipulated that after his death the museum was to remain open free of charge in all perpetuity.

I guess you could say that he was a bit of a hoarder, a hoarder with exceptional taste. He placed everything so that it all looked both good together and within the space. Maybe seeing all of this stuff is making me feel better about all the stuff in our house…

Terry, the guide sitting down here, told me all sorts of interesting facts about Soane and the museum. So grateful for people like him sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm, and who don’t mind having to repeat themselves day after day.

Looking at this picture now, I’m very confused as to what exactly this nude lady is standing next to. You see it, right?! I have to go back again and have proper look (I actually want to go back again sans camera so I can really pay attention). I mean, maaaaaaybe it’s just an exotic mushroom? I didn’t even see it when I took it. If I had I would’ve asked Terry.

‘Who’s got the remote?’ Ah, this guy. Go on then, turn the telly on.

Looking back through the study, which is sealed off for now, and into the dining room.

More yellow skylights.

Who dat?!

Downstairs in the basement is the Monk’s Parlour. You can’t go in there so I took this through the glass door. If this was my house this is where I’d take my afternoon cuppa, with a book and a fire on the go.

In the crypt looking back towards the stairs I came down. The Monk’s Parlour is through the opening just to the right. I didn’t take many pictures in here as it was so dark, and weirdly I took no pictures of the sarcophagus that sits proudly in the middle of the crypt. Sometimes I surprise myself with how I take pictures, but I guess that I take them according to what I think looks good or interesting, and that I’m not trying to tell an exact story. I basically don’t think when I take them, haha.

Anyway, I digress. From the crypt you can look back up into the Dome, which is the oldest part of the museum, built in 1808-9, as a model/plaster room.

You can see more clearly how the different floors connect in this watercolour from 1811 (click on the zoom icon and you’ll see it larger). Such an amazing space. It’s so amazing that I’m going to have to show the rest in my next post, because this here is plenty enough for one 😅

Q-Trip part II

So yeah, when the sun wasn’t out it rained pretty heavily, which meant that we’d spend some time in the various buildings at Kew. This fern in the Temperate House was well pretty.

Look at that sky! That sort of sky means business. After the Temperate House we ducked into the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Arts close by.

There was an exhibition on there called ‘Naturally Brilliant Colour’, which sounded really interesting, but in reality was quite underwhelming. It was about pure structural colour, which exists in both plants and animals that have microscopic structures reflecting the sun’s light in a particularly bright way. For the first time ever they’ve managed to recreate structural paint, but the painting painted with it just looked like it had some glitter on it, and I didn’t even deem it picture worthy - it was that bad. Nature does it much better, as you can clearly see here in these butterflies.

We rested our legs on this veranda for a bit (we walked over 15 000 steps again) and agreed that this country needs more of them. Why are they not part of the architectural vernacular here? I’m sure it’s weather related but they kind of make sense; shelter from the rain and shade when it’s sunny. Conservatories are just not as cosy, and besides, it would be so nice to still be outside regardless of the weather.

We tried to figure out if it was something that could be added to my house. YEAH IN MY DREAMS

Next stop - The Palm House. So steamy, so tropical.

It’s funny, apart from the pandemic, long distance travel just isn’t on my radar anymore, so the mere concept of being somewhere where these plants grow naturally is quite strange. I wonder when and if we’ll (as in my family) ever travel that far again.

Some staff not being very busy. Imagine working here! Dream job alert.

Sigh, so pretty. And look, the sun is out again. Best get out.

On our way to the Waterlily House we stopped to look at these goslings that looked freshly baked. They were so ungainly and kept falling over as they tried to walk out on the grass. Awwwww.

Wanted to show D the waterlilies and was so surprised how large the leaves had gotten since I was last there in October.

Apparently they’re strong enough to support the weight of a child. Crazy.

I love the different planting styles in the gardens, from the formal

to the less so.

Seeing this made me very happy. It also made me realise how quickly the past few years have gone. Oomoo would probably just walk past this puddle now rather than through it.

And speaking of years, we found a gum tree that is exactly the same age as Mr Famapa. I took this for him to show him that if he was one he’d be this big now.

This purple relative to cow parsley also caught my eye. Might get some one day. My plant border looks like green cement at the moment; the tulips/daffodils and hyacinths are long gone and the only plants flowering right now are two blood elders. My acanthus, lavender, astrantia and achillea are all budding and getting ready to flower, but in June there really is no colour in our garden. I was all for changing things up a few months ago, but I don’t feel like I have the energy or the headspace to do it right now. There’s always next year, eh? Or maybe it’s a good autumn project?

In the garden behind Kew Palace. Haven’t properly explored it before.

It’s such a beautiful and tranquil walled garden. This laburnum walkway was stunning. You could really imagine royals walking under it with their courtiers gossiping about this and that. We on the other hand were walking around rather quickly, with me panicking about whether the car had been locked-in in the car park or not, as it was really close to closing time. Alas it wasn’t, and we drove home, buzzing from another day out well spent.

Q-Trip part I

When I heard that my friend D hadn’t been to Kew Gardens in 21 years I booked us in for a day there pronto. I mean, that’s just not right. I’ve never experienced it as quiet as the day we went, and we all know why that is. The weather that day was all over the place too, one minute blazing sun and then heavy rain the next, which didn’t deter us as the plan was always to duck indoors when needed.

D saw a group of people carrying in a bench under this tree, which I missed, but we could hear their music playing loudly. We later saw them somewhere else and they looked like they were in a band or something. One of the guys wore a headdress, and there was definitely an otherworldly vibe about them (either that or they were just very stoned). It’s so ironic that I have no pictures of them. Were they just a dream?

Can’t remember what this tree is, but it has obviously evolved a way of defending itself. Ouch.

This greenhouse had lots of plants from Australia in it, which D recognised as she’s been there a couple of times.

Looooove cow parsley aka queen Anne’s lace. The scent reminds me so much of my childhood and how it back then meant that summer and the school holidays were just around the corner.

There’s something about concentric circles that really appeal to me at the moment and I can’t tell you why.

As we were standing on the Sackler bridge (boo hiss) we heard this gal/guy making an awful racket (can geese fly silently? In all my times of swimming in the Ladies Pond and having them fly overhead, they’ve always been honking like mad). Was s/he saying ‘Hey ladies, check this out - I’m gonna blow your miiiiinds!’

Because that’s what s/he did. I’ve never seen a goose up a tree before - have you? We stood and watched for a while wondering what would happen next, but gave up after a few minutes.

Something so strange and very funny kept happening the whole time we were in the gardens. I’d suggest the next place to walk to, look at the map and then get us lost. What the hell was going on? I’ve been to Kew like, I don’t know, at least 15 times and I know it pretty well, but for some reason I just couldn’t get my bearings this time. I guess it might have had something to do with us never sticking to the paths?!

I eventually took D to see my favourite tree, which she immediately recognised as a maritime pine.

Here she is looking at the label just to be doubly sure.

‘Cheers!’ We were surprised to see these in the café where we had lunch and had to try them out. Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers (BEST BEST BEST) and Tea Cakes are the like the best comfort treats there are, but the Caramel Log was not as good. Great packaging though, don’t you think?

Part II coming up!