Archive for January, 2009
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
Art
Many of London’s biggest and best cultural attractions are free to enter, and the number of museums offering free entry is staggering. Donations are often more than welcome, and special exhibits usually cost extra.
Major Museums
British Museum
Imperial War Museum
Museum of London
National Gallery
National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House, and Royal Observatory
National Portrait Gallery
Natural History Museum
Science Museum
Tate Britain
Tate Modern
Victoria & Albert Museum
Smaller Museums & Galleries
Burgh House and the Hampstead Museum
Clown’s Gallery and Museum
Courtauld Permanent Exhibition (Free on Monday only)
Hogarth House
Houses of Parliament
ICA Gallery (£2.50)
Museum of Childhood
Serpentine Gallery
Sir John Soane’s Museum
Theatre Museum
Wallace Collection
Whitechapel Art Gallery
Concerts
St. Paul’s Cathedral, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. George Bloomsbury, and St. James’s Church have regular lunchtime concerts, as does St. George Bloomsbury on Monday, Hyde Park Chapel on Thursday, and St. Giles in the Fields on Friday. There are regular organ recitals at Westminster Abbey.
Of the music colleges, the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall, the Trinity College of Music, and the Royal Opera House have regular recitals; the Trinity College of Music holds recitals at lunchtime on Tuesday.
For contemporary ears, the area outside the National Theatre on the South Bank (known as the Djanogly Concert Pitch) reverberates to live world music weekdays at 6 PM, and on Saturday at 1 PM and 6 PM.
You can catch decent open-mike nights for unsigned acts and singer-songwriters at the River Bar (just south of Tower Bridge) every Wednesday, and Roadhouse (in Covent Garden) every Monday. Blues lovers should not miss the legendary Billy Chong Blues Revue band jam every Monday at the Globe pub in Hackney. The Palm Tree, in Mile End, is another great East End pub that hosts accomplished local jazz players on weekends.
Film, Theater & Opera
If all seats have been sold, the English National Opera sells standing tickets for the back of the Dress and Upper Circles at £10 each. Check at the box office.
Standing tickets with obstructed views for the ballet or the opera at the Royal Opera House start at £7.
Sloane Square’s Royal Court Theatre, one of the U.K.’s best venues for new playwriting, has restricted-view, standing-room-only tickets at the downstairs Jerwood Theatre for 10 pence (yes, £0.10), available one hour before the performance.
The Battersea Arts Club (BAC) has pay-what-you-can night on Tuesdays.
The Prince Charles Cinema in the West End shows weekday movie matinees for £3.50.
Offbeat Experiences
Go to the Public Record Office in Kew or Islington if you have a few hours to kill and want to track down some ancient branch of the family tree. Even if you don’t have any leads, browsing through sheaves of ancient ledgers is great fun.
London has some of the finest parks in the world, and enjoying them won’t cost you a pretty pence. Keen ornithologists can join free bird-watching walks in Hyde Park, while dedicated strollers touched by royal nostalgia can take the 7-mi Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk through Hyde, Green, and St. James’s Parks.
There are free spectacles throughout the year, but one of the most warmly enjoyed is Guy Fawkes’ Night (November 5), when parks throughout the country hold spectacular fireworks displays.
On New Year’s Eve thousands of revelers descend on Trafalgar Square and the South Bank to watch more free fireworks. The Underground usually runs all night, and is free into the new year.
Finally, set aside some time for random wandering. London is a great walking city because so many of its real treasures are untouted: tiny alleyways barely visible on the map, garden squares, churchyards, shop windows, sudden vistas of skyline or park. With comfortable, weatherproof shoes and an umbrella, walking might well become your favorite free activity here.
Affordable Sightseeing
Join real Londoners on the top deck of a double-decker bus. You can use your Zones 1 and 2 Travelcard or buy tickets from machines at the bus stops for the following routes:
Bus 11: King’s Road, Sloane Square, Victoria Station, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, the Strand, Fleet Street, and St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Bus 12: Bayswater, Marble Arch, Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Horse Guards, Whitehall, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Bridge.
Bus 19: Sloane Square, Knightsbridge, Hyde Park Corner, Green Park, Piccadilly Circus, Shaftsbury Avenue, Oxford Street, Bloomsbury, Islington.
Bus 88: Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tate Britain.
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Saturday, January 24th, 2009
Denver’s House of Windsor hosts an evening presentation of historic English touring destinations by British Tours by Tristan.
Tristan will speak about Great Britain tour destinations while tea and cookies are served by the House of Windsor, located at 1050 South Wadsworth Boulevard, Lakewood, Colorado 80226, 303-936-9029, (http://www.houseofwindsor.net). British Tours by Tristan specializes in custom tours for seniors to locations otherwise inaccessible by larger tour companies. British Tours by Tristan explores quaint fishing villages and hidden away thatched villages of literary history that can only be accessed through small, winding roads flanked by English hedgerows offering glimpses of green rolling pastures and endless fields in full bloom, with tolling bells and church spires jutting from the villages inviting one and all to visit and enjoy. Please join House of Windsor and British Tours by Tristan for an evening of information, including photos and stories about touring the lesser known locals in Great Britain. House of Windsor is open Monday – Friday 10:00am – 5:00pm; Saturday 10:00am – 4:30pm; and closed Sunday. Please look for scheduled dates soon!
Tags: LOOK FOR FUTURE TRAVEL EVENINGS AT THE HOUSE OF WINDSOR!
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Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
London is a work hard and play hard kind of city, so it should come as no surprise that London nightlife activities are abundant. As a global centre of nightlife and entertainment, this city really does know how to let its hair down. There is a scene for everyone on any given night of the week — somewhere in the city of London. 
For high culture, there is a plethora of options from the Royal Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall to hundreds of west-end (and fringe) theatres showing big name shows, packed with celebrities. Cinemas are plentiful, with star-studded premieres happening most weeks. For listings of shows, as well as club nights, concerts, and other events check out the weekly London listings magazine, Time Out.
And of course there are literally thousands of casual London bars and pubs, London restaurant bars/lounges, and clubs all across the city. There is a concentration of these across the West End and Soho, the latter being home to a thriving gay scene. Don’t be surprised if you run into a few famous faces around Soho either. The obvious draw for tourists is around the bright lights of Leicester Square, but if you know where to look, there are equally good, if not better bars outside the centre, around areas such as Shoreditch in the East, Islington in the North, Notting Hill in the West or Clapham in the South.
Traditional old London taverns can be found allover the city, the seventeenth-century George Inn at Borough High Street or The Crown at New Oxford Street are among the most noticeable, but in the bar section there are a lot of alternatives.
Music fans are also very well catered for in London, with most major artists including the city in their tours, as well as hundreds of resident bands, musicians and DJs packing out venues across the city every night. Some of the more famous venues include the Brixton Academy, the Jazz Cafe, and the cavernous Wembley Arena.
And now with new licensing laws, more and more bars and other venues are opening way beyond the traditional 11:00 p.m. curfew. Whatever you are into, you are sure to find it in London’s nightlife scene.
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Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
In 1984 HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales, gave a speech that shook Britain’s architectural community to its foundations. In a speech to the Royal Institute of British Architects, Prince Charles said that a proposed addition to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square looked like “a kind of municipal fire station, complete with the sort of tower that contains the siren…a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved and elegant friend.”
The American architectural critic Nikos Salingaros says the prince was “crucified by the architectural press, and the architectural establishment launched an all-out campaign to discredit him.” By 1998, as the fashion for plainness gave way to more flamboyant structures, Charles wrote about “the brash megalomania which sometimes masquerades as creative design.” Years later the attacks go on, and the Prince for his part returns them tit for tat, sometimes with pithy humor that the press loves to quote. He told London’s urban planners: “You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe. When it knocked down our buildings, it didn’t replace them with anything more offensive than rubble….Around St Paul’s, planning turned out to be the continuation of war by other means.” He accused London’s architects and developers of treating their city “as merely a financial staging post between New York and Tokyo.”by Jim HarganWhile Charles’ flamboyant statements employ a lot of ink, they are only a small part of his architectural philosophy. Indeed, this untrained amateur has developed a coherent and detailed critique of modernist architecture and urban planning that includes an alternative approach to replace it: his famous Ten Principles. Nor has the Prince of Wales been content to issue manifestos; he has put his considerable fortune where his mouth is, founding an architectural institute (The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment) and creating a land development meant to epitomize his theories. That development is Poundbury, in the small Dorset county town of Dorchester.
One of Britain’s most pleasant market towns, Dorchester sits in the middle of Dorset’s famed Hardy Country, a
compact oval barely larger than 2 square miles that contains 16,000 people. A densely packed High Street, built along a Roman road, forms its center, framed by the lovely little River Frome on its north and an 18th-century tree-lined parade on its south. Deeply rural lands surround Dorchester on all sides, comprising a rolling landscape made famous by the 19th-century novelist Thomas Hardy: thatched villages, narrow lanes, walled fields, grassy moors, Celtic hill forts and Roman ruins. Not remarkably, tourism is Dorchester’s largest employer after government and health services. It is certainly urban with its tiny area and large population, but no one would describe it as a city, and it is by no means a high-growth center.
Like other British towns, planning regulations have long kept Dorchester from sprawling out into the countryside. Up until 1990, planners had kept Dorchester confined to a bit more than 1 square mile; there was only one major tract that qualified for new development, a farm on the western edge of town, and that was firmly locked up as part of the Duchy of Cornwall. As it happens, Prince Charles is the Duke of Cornwall. In 1991 Charles decided to open this Poundbury Farm tract to development — his way. Dorchester’s new subdivision of Poundbury was to follow the Prince’s Principles and show that new development could be as graceful, attractive and livable as older neighborhoods. Fifteen years later, the results are remarkable.
Neither the Prince nor his opponents are operating in a vacuum; a rich and complex history has led to their confrontation at Poundbury. Before Roman times, the native Celtic Britons lived in dispersed farmsteads, “protected” by a ruling class that lived in earth-banked hilltop forts; the largest surviving hill fort, Maiden Castle, is less than a mile from Poundbury. The hill forts emptied with the end of the Roman occupation, to be replaced with carefully planned civitates, walled towns eventually built of stone, where the old ruling class now donned togas and met in the Roman baths; everyone else continued to live in dispersed farmsteads. The Saxon conquest of Britain (ad 450 to 600) destroyed Roman civilization and town planning, while the rural population remained dispersed. Then, around 880, King Alfred the Great established a new phase of carefully planned urban development with his system of burghs, walled towns that provided protection from raiders, planned crop management and markets for goods. Dorchester was one of the original burghs behind its stone Roman walls, and burgh-like villages surround it to this day.
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Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
The National Theatre’s repertory productions continue to be the best around. A guest production from Sheffield, Brassed Off, plays until 17th June, and a classic Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, finishes 20th June to make way for a new production of a grand old favourite on 6th July–Oklahoma! If it is as popular as previous American musicals by the NT it will be a sell-out. It plays non-stop until 5th September. In the Lyttelton there are final performances of
Shakespeare’s Othello until 13th June, and a 300-year-old comedy, The London Cuckolds, plays through July. A new production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie starts previews from 19th June with Fiona Shaw. Several new plays occupy the experimental Cottesloe. Tel: 0171 928 2252.
Patrick Marber’s saucy and louche comedy Closer is at the Lyric (tel: 0171 494 5045) through June, after a season at the National. It’s a very contemporary play about two couples, and it’s very funny–but be warned, it’s also very rude!
Alan Ayckbourn is as prolific a playwright as Neil Simon, and he keeps batting them out. His latest is Things We Do for Love, playing at the Gielgud, tel: 0171 494 5065. Barbara (Jane Asher) is a brittle landlady. Nikki (in a wonderfully fresh performance from Serena Evans) trusts her too well and gets crushed in the process.
The much-acclaimed production of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband is now at the Albery until mid-July. Tel: 0171 369 1730. As well as those cunning quips and gilded aphorisms, it has all the glitter of the belle époque in its exotic costumes and sets, allied with ultimately stylish English acting.
If you like wonderfully sung, full bodied songs (’Old Man River’, ‘My Bill’, ‘Cotton Blossom’, and more) then a West End revival of a classic American musical will be for you. Showboat, paddling along the river with all the romantic trappings, has sailed into the Prince Edward, tel: 0171 447 5400.
The best news for London theatre is that the Peter Hall Company repertory project has been re-launched. This bold new idea involves a large band of actors working in plays presented in rotation. That way you may see several shows in a week with actors in contrasting roles. Currently playing are Moliere’s Le Misanthrope, a shimmering view of 17th-century Paris, and Shaw’s Major Barbara. There is some inspired casting–Elaine Paige as the flighty Celimene, for example. The company now has a vast space to work with in the Piccadilly (tel: 0171 369 1734). Ask for special bargain offers the box office.
At the Apollo Hammersmith that queer old codger Doctor Dolittle (Phillip Schofield) is prancing around with a lot of odd animals. Characters from the much-loved books of Hugh Lofting, were created for this show by Jim Henson. It previews from 29th June, incorporating a lobby full of Lofting’s loony creatures before you even reach your seat!
In Late Joys at The Players’ Theatre (tel: 0171 839 1134), an all-join-in crowd sings along with the show at this traditional theatre-and-restaurant under Charing Cross Station.
The English National Opera’s exciting opera season continues with productions of Carmen and Falstaff until 4th July at London’s Coliseum. ENO productions are often fullly staged and sung in English. Note that operas change nightly, so check ahead. Tel: 0171 632 8300. It might pay to check for bargain seats at the Coliseum.
The peripatetic Royal Ballet has been wandering around London since the Opera House was closed for repairs, but you can catch up with it at the London Coliseum from 7th July to 1st August. Several big ballets such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty will be trotted out, as well as programmes of divertissements, including a new work by Christopher Wheeldon.
The English National Ballet is at the Royal Albert Hall from 18th to 30th June. This vast Victorian edifice is a theatrical sight in itself. Circular, with an arena stage, it wouldn’t normally seem natural for ballet (aside from the old quip that it’s so vast you get it twice) but re-staged and with a cast of more than 100, Romeo and Juilet should be quite something. The stars are international–Tamara Rojo who dances Juliet on the opening night is from Montreal and trained in Madrid, her Romeo, Roberto Bolle, is an elegant Italian. Tel: 0171 632 8300.
Last but not least, check the lobbies of the Festival Hall for free shows in summer–art, dance, cabaret, music, there is a lot going on and you can have lunch or a drink as you participate.
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Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
The centrepiece of next year’s Homecoming will be a gathering of the clans to be held in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park in July 2009.
The organisers of the event expect it to be the biggest of its type. However, as The Scotsman’s photographs of the famous 1951 Gathering show, it will have to go some distance to fulfil this expectation.
Taking place between 16 and 19 August, the 1951 Gathering was organised as part of the Festival of Britain and brought together clansmen from all parts of the world. The event was the first official gathering since 1822, including as it did the “March of the Thousand Pipers” through the city centre and the biggest ever Highland Ball, which had 1,200 guests.
It was one of the first events to be televised around the world and was seen by 50 million people on cinema newsreels and television.
At the time, The Scotsman wrote of the gathering in Murrayfield for the Highland Games and world pipe band contest: “Its appeal was greatest for those who had personal connection with the score or so clans officially represented.
“But even to the stranger its splendour might bring to mind the history-book accounts of the sixteenth-century ‘field of the cloth of gold’ at Calais.
“The great banner of the chiefs and their clans floated proudly above the tents, ranged facing each other round a great square, or were planted at their entrance. Each tent bore a name famous in Scottish history, and the various clans vied with each other in their displays.”
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