London Day II
We are staying in the Kensington area, which means the Kensington museums are all within walking distance, which is great. I’ve previously visited many other museums in London, but not the Kensington ones.
The Natural History Museum had massive queues, so we headed to the Victoria & Albert Museum. They claim to be the world’s great museum of art and design, and I reckon they well could be.
The museum is huge. We barely did half a floor in two and a half hours – and there are six floors. They have a collection of 4.5 million items and 145 galleries!! And no admission charges!
Samson slaying a Philistine
The Ascension of Mary
St Peter
That little dog like creature that St Michael is standing on, is actually Satan in dragon form.
I love this tapestry from around 1425. The bears look so happy despite it being a bear and boar hunt.
Moses
A plaster cast of the famous “David’ by Michelangelo.
A plaster cast of the tomb of Richard I, or Richard the Lionheart, at the Abbey of Fontevrault.
In the centre of the museum, is this lovely park and pond with a cafe.
I rate this museum as a must do. The only problem is you need a week just to get around it.
July 28th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Wow.
Though, it couldn’t be the “Ascension of Mary” – it would have to be the “Assumption of Mary”.
[DPF: Probably. I took photos of some of the descriptions, but not of that oen, so was going off memory]
July 28th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
“And no admission charges!”
it’s all because of
that socialist overlord
kenneth livingstone
July 28th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
“That little dog like creature that St Michael is standing on, is actually Satan in dragon form.”
Is it? Oh my.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
The Natural History Museum has one of the best dinosaur sections in the world. Shouldn’t be missed.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
I’m staying in the Kensington area at the moment too….. May bump into you stumbling out of one of the local pubs……
July 29th, 2010 at 2:45 am
Sorry Haiku Dave, nothing to do with Red Ken – been a policy for years in London.
July 29th, 2010 at 3:06 am
you’re quite right, but it
was a policy brought in
by commie labour
http://www.museumsassociation.org/publications/8120
July 29th, 2010 at 8:14 am
So was putting shit modern “art” works on the plinth at Trafalgar Square instead of the intended equestrian work Dave.
As it is they left collectively shit their nappies about having Keith Park there for 6 months when without him there when he was needed chances are they wouldn’t have any say in what went there.
Probably Adolf on a horse.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:03 am
If you look closely at Moses’ head, you’ll see he has small horns. This is because of a mistranslation in the Latin bible that should say when Moses came down from Mt Sinai his head was shining, but they used a Latin word that means “horned” instead of “shining”.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Excellent pics of the artworks David. Was it your choice to not use the flash or a directive from museum?. Hopefully the former.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
My choice – I find the flash never works well in these places due to reflections
July 30th, 2010 at 2:36 am
DPF, You can shortcut the queues at the Natural History Museum for 6 quid, by buying tickets to one of the exhibitions. I went to the Deep Sea Exhibition, really neat – some bloody ugly critters living way down there.
6 quid for the Butterfly exhibition, (wasn’t at all interested in that one) or 8 quid for the Deep Sea.