The Hallowed ground of Lords

Our last day in London the end of a very special holiday, it has been the adventure of a lifetime for us and we have had a lot of fun, and discovered so much about the different places we have stayed and seen and a lot about each other.

We started the day as we have most other days, descending the endless stairs into the underground station at Paddington, we were talking about where we would have our last meal!!! That has been a big part of this journey, sampling the foods, especially in the pubs in England, our favourites were in Oxford. We were considering one last pub meal for tonight.

 Just a few stops from Paddington, we left the train at Baker Street with its obvious links to that famous literary detective, Sherlock Holmes. The underground disperses its crowds onto Marylebone Road where a large bronze Sherlock stands beside the road where he appears to be waiting for a bus! A few metres along the street the verdigris green dome of Madame Tussaud’s stands out like a beacon, aside from the dome I found the building unimpressive, nothing about it enticed us in, the cost was the clincher.

The famous Baker Street station

The tiles that decorate the walls of Baker Street underground station with reference to Sherlock Holmes the ficticious detective that had rooms in Baker Street

Sherlock stands head and shoulders aove the crowd with Madam Tussard's in the background

Who's this bloke waiting for a bus?

the only thing that draws you to the wax works is the green domed roof, to my mind there is nothing else that might entice you to enter it!

Besides we were on a mission to Baker Street, there is a shop there that sells all sorts of card games and associated equipment, Backgammon, Chess, Dominos, Majong and books on all these games. I was after a particular Chess set, they had it, so the long walk down Baker Street was not in vain. The only decision was would it be too heavy to take home? Michael decided to test one by picking up the board with chess pieces on top, oops! It was not steady on the stand, and a few of the chess pieces dived off their board and attacked the pieces on the board below! Unfortunately it was not a sneak attack, it was a full on suicide mission, loud enough to bring the boys from the back room, how embarrassing! We made our purchases and left!

We were on our way to a most important venue, but until we actually got there I didn’t know quite how special this place would prove to be. Our Underground destination was St John’s Wood station. Abbey Road can be reached from this station and we thought if we had time we would try to find it, in the end we didn’t have time, for we were heading to hallowed turf. The tour started at two o’clock and it was only 12.45, so we asked the bloke on the gate if there was a pub nearby where we could have lunch.  “Oh yes my love there’s a pub right next door!’’ Well the ‘pub’ turned out to be Lord’s Tavern, a bit more upmarket than your typical pub but very nice never-the-less.

thank God for the escalators!!

Outside Lord's

Grace's gate, Lords Cricket Ground

The tour starts here, Grace's gate

Lord's Tavern, not your regular English pub

Well fed and rugged up we gathered with a small group of other tourists in the Museum at Lord’s Cricket Ground to wait for the tour to start. There in the museum, in a glass case perched on a plinth, is the tiny terracotta urn that holds The Ashes, symbol of Australia’s and Britain’s ongoing rivalry to be the top cricket team and take the Ashes. The crystal cup that is now the Ashes Trophy was awarded to England last time they won the series is also on display, but the actual Ashes from the burnt bails stays at Lords where it belongs, you might say its spiritual home. The chap who led the tour was a gentle soul who quite obviously loved his job. He explained where we would go and what he would show us and while there would be opportunities to take photos, some areas were sacrosanct and no photos would be allowed there. This explained, he took us into the Pavilion, one area where no photos were permitted anywhere in this building not even from the windows looking out at the ground. We went into the Member’s Gallery first, it is a very large room almost the length of the building, very tastefully decorated and the view over the ground is absolutely amazing. This is where it first struck me that I was truly on hallowed ground, it really is very special and that feeling is palpable. I personally felt a wave of awe that took me by surprise, I like cricket but I’m not a rabid fan, so I was also surprised at how much I understood about the things our guide was talking about.  The member’s gallery or “Long Room” is decorated with portraits of stars from the past. Portraits of Sir Donald Bradman and Douglas Jardine sit there side by side among many other paintings including a painting of Thomas Lord, the namesake of the ground. Lord’s ground today stands on its third site where it has been situated since the early 1800’s. The view over the ground from the Long Room is truly breathtaking and it is through this room that both sides must pass to take the field. We moved from the Long Room through to the bar, situated behind it, this is also impressively hung with cricketing portraits and paintings of past players. The players dressing rooms are on the floor above and we reached the Visitor’s rooms via the broad staircase at one end of the building, the Home side has their rooms up an identical staircase at the opposite end of the building, both sides then enter the Long Room from their respective end for the long walk through the lounging Members to the door in the centre of the room that takes them onto the ground. You can imagine the atmosphere and emotions felt by the players walking through here depending on which team they represented and how the game was proceeding, glory and despair are words that spring to mind! The history continues in the dressing room where there are honour boards recalling the names of bowlers who had taken either 5 or 10 wickets in an innings and batsmen that have scored a century or higher during test matches played at Lord’s, these boards are as interesting for the names that aren’t there as they are for the names that are! The balcony from the dressing room is remarkably small and it is hard to imagine how all the team can fit, I expect this is only an issue when the game is at a climactic point, like when a batsman is sitting on a century or a bowler is on a hat trick or the game is at some other crucial point. But at times like these, personal space is probably not an issue!

Our next port of call was the “tennis court” yes folks you heard right. The tennis court is an oddly shaped court that vaguely resembles a squash court but more closely resembles a little enclosed medieval courtyard which is probably closer to its original roots. The game that is played here is known as Royal Tennis though proponents refer to it simply as Real Tennis. Apparently it is the original game from which all other racquet and ball games have sprung and elements of these more modern games can be seen in Royal Tennis. Interesting to note that the current World Champion is an Aussie from Tasmania! Still no Photos allowed, damn it!

We moved out and into the stands, our vantage point here was the middle of the ground directly opposite the clock tower where the weather vane atop the tower depicts Old Father Time with its references to the Grim Reaper. Our guide pointed out the slope of the ground, which is around a two metre difference and is visible only because the fence in front of the pavilion shows the drop by its height difference from one end to the other, the ground, however looks flat and even, the slope is not obvious.

Father Time (or is it the Grim Reaper) removing the bails at the end of play, perched atop the clock tower at Lord's cricket ground

The Pavillion, you can see the slope of the ground as it drops from right to left. The ground itself is flat despite the drop

The futuristic Media Centre, sits comfortably facing the historic Pavillion at the opposite end of the ground

Lord's is an impressive ground

the square in the centre of the ground, the pitch is located within this area

The high rise appartments around Lord's get a good view of the ground from the upper levels

 To our right the Pavilion is a grand old Victorian building that sits comfortably facing the space age building that it faces at the other end of the ground, this building is the Media Centre. Architecturally poles apart the two buildings both hold their own in this setting, joined in purpose by the understated simplicity of the stands that link them.

The Media Centre has its own controversial story, designed by Future Systems Ltd. When the plans were presented for tender, the construction industry rejected it as being impossible to build and no firm would take it on. Eventually the challenge was taken up by a boatbuilding firm and the resulting structure is an example of modern structural engineering that has won awards for its innovative design, it truly is an amazing building. The building accommodates over 100 print media staff with access to phone and internet to each work station. There are separate rooms on a mezzanine level for radio and television broadcasters. The back of the Centre houses the bar and restaurant with a large window that overlooks the “Nursery” a ground used for practice and many local matches are played here, there is more to its story than just as a cradle that nurtures young cricketers, in fact in the late 1800’s it had been a nursery rowing flowers and fruit and was purchased by the MCC and converted into a practice area for cricket.

the clock tower and stands

The lights in their lowered position, when in use they swing around and extend up to double their stored height

Inside the Media Centre, the mezzanine is available for TV and radio broadcasters

The print media have great facilities and the best views from their modern perch in the Media Centre

What a view!!!

The windows in the bar and dining area of the Media Centre look over the 'Nursery'

The 'Nursery' sits behind the Media Centre and acts as warm up and practice grounds for test matches as well as hosting county cricket matches

Near the end of the tour the clouds were gathering, the sign warns would-be invaders that this is hallowed turf available only to those who have business on the other side of the sign.

a plane flew overhead leaving its trail like a silver chalk mark in the sky

Under the stands, banners recognise extraordinary feats from past matches

An older part of the ground with seating stands above

This sign tickled our funnybones!!

We had to have a photo here

Heading back to the station along the boundary fence of the ground

Our tour took almost two hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was really pleased that we had spent our last day in this, the home of cricket. It really was a privilege to be able to go into areas that are usually not open to the public and to hear some wonderful stories about the game and the characters that have graced the game through its history. Our walk back to the station took us past a house that was indistinguishable from its neighbours apart from the plaque on the wall that proclaimed one of its former inhabitants had been  Madame Tussaud. History meets you at every turn in this country and you start to realise how young Australia is in terms of man made history, buildings and recorded history and the like.

An unremarkable house that doesn't stand out from its neigbours until you read the plaque on the wall

the plaque gives the house an importance that isn't at first recognised

 this photo is taken from about one third of the way down the quite steep escalator at st John's Wood underground

Note the last blue instruction, we found this hilarious and could just picture someone with a large dog in arms trying to negotiate the escalator in rush hour!!!!

 Home on the train to pack our bags, and hope that everything will clear customs and that our excess baggage won’t cost the earth! Then out for our last meal, for me Scampi and for Michael Beef and Ale Pie at the Sawyers Arms.   We count ourselves very lucky indeed to have had the opportunity to have seen and experienced so much these past weeks, the memories a precious bounty that we will always treasure.

Trafalgar Square and The National Gallery

The underground took us straight to Trafalgar Square, we ascended the subway steps gazing up at Nelson atop his column with the beautiful bronze lions guarding this monument.  The sun was shining the sky was a beautiful shade of blue and the fountains were working! It seems that they are the first fountains we have seen in action, I expect they shut them down when it’s snowing or icy.

Stepping out of the Underground, this was our first view of Nelson's Column

One of four stately Lions that guard Nelson's Column

View across Trafalgar Square to the National Gallery

Water spouts from sea creatures at each end of the fountain in Trafalgar Square

 

The central water spout in the fountain

 Up closer to the National Gallery there is a giant ship in a bottle that stands on top of a tall stone pillar. It as a sculptural interpretation of Nelson’s ship, HMS Victory, it links the formation of the British Empire with Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar and multiculturalism in Britain today, honouring Britain’s diverse cultures and acknowledging the strengths they bring to forging the country as it is today.

Up the stairs to the National Gallery, where the people are standing is now a pedestrian space but I remembered it as a road separating the Square from the Gallery

That's Michael at the base of  Yinka Shonibare's sculpture 'Nelson's Ship in a Bottle'

St Martin In The Fields, from Trafalgar Square

 I had been in London in 1999 with Mum on our way to visit the Falkland Islands to see my sister Heather and I remember the road running all the way around Trafalgar Square.  I was surprised to see that where I had expected a road to be, there was now no road and pedestrians had direct access to the National Gallery across a broad paved area up some steps from the Square. There was a young man with music playing from a large boom box while he did elegant, slow movements that were a cross between Tai Chi, Interpretive Dance and magicians moves, he used a crystal ball as the focus and he balanced and moved this ball between hands and his arms moving it with such grace and apparent magic. It was quite a spectacle and he attracted a crowd of onlookers mesmerised by his movements and control over this little gem of a ball that appeared to move to his command.

This bloke had the crowd mesmerised

The National Gallery was strictly no photos, so we wandered around the galleries we had chosen to view, realising by this time that we needed to make choices as we would not fit everything in. I wanted to see the 19^th and early 20^th century galleries, I knew there was at least one Michelangelo and at least one Leonado Da Vinci in the collection but didn’t know what they were. It was lovely to see Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Cézanne, Pissaro and I really was drawn to Suerat’s “Bathers” it was larger than I had expected and had a luminosity about it that draws you toward it. I think in that group of paintings I was surprised to find that it was the one that had most impact on me.

In the rooms that displayed the 16^th century paintings, we were both fascinated by Holbein’s “The Ambassadors” where a large distorted skull sits at the front of the painting and appears as a blob to view it as a skull you have to stand to the right of the painting and view across the painting and the skull seems to float in the foreground, no longer distorted. Michelangelo’s unfinished painting “The Entombment” was exciting as it clearly showed how the painting was constructed and built up, the way the colours were layered to create depth and shadows. There was a large sketch by Da Vinci, unusual because these were usually done as cartoons or patterns for paintings and were then pricked around the outline to guide the painter or his apprentices in reproducing the image on the painted surface, this one it seems was never destined for that purpose and it survives as a very beautiful rendered drawing.

In one of the 16^th century rooms there were 4 large paintings by an artist who I was unfamiliar with, Joachim Beuckelaer  I think he was Dutch. The paintings were a series called “The four Elements” and used everyday market scenes to represent the four elements there were biblical stories from the New Testament in the background of each painting and it became a challenge to find the biblical reference in each painting. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/floorplans/level-2/room-11  for those interested this is the link, you can click on the individual paintings for added information. Michael and I spent some time with tis series of paintings.

 We had lunch in the gallery before heading to Regent Street to find the Liberty store, it is housed in beautiful old Tudor buildings and is famous for the Liberty print fabrics and home furnishings. It was very expensive but I chose three pieces of fine cotton Tana Lawn fabric that I really liked and bought just half a metre of each,(at 19.95 pound per metre this was all I could justify) this beautiful strong fine cotton was originally sourced in the Sudan in the 1920’s when it was first produced. We looked but didn’t buy anything else even though it was tempting, the furnishing fabrics are stunning, with some very traditional prints, some very beautiful William Morris prints were available there. Oh how I would have loved just half a metre of a clutch of fabrics from this department but I’m not even sure they sold metreage here I think you chose your fabric and they made it to measure. I couldn’t afford it anyway but it’s nice to dream!!

Liberty Store just off Regent Street

Liberty

The display windows and facade at Liberty

the Liberty crest

this weather vane sits atop the Liberty Store

 We wandered out and down a bit to Carnaby Street, an area rather than a single street and no longer as swinging as it had been in its heyday but still some fascinating shops, one in particular a very snazzy shoe shop and the camera was snapping away to show my girls at home and at school!

Me in Carnaby Street!!!

Shop front in Carnaby Street

Sports shoe shop, there are some racy looking running shoes in this place.

This shoe shop was just fantastic

Check out the wild boots on the right of this photo

These spotted shoes caught my eye

Mural above the Hugo Boss store on the corner of Broadwick and Carnaby Streets

Next we strolled down to Piccadilly Circus where I was finally able to snap a picture or two of the elusive Eros who stands there to tempt photo-happy tourists on the top of the double decker on The Big Bus tours as they whizz by too quickly to get a steady clear shot!! Aha you little bugger, I finally got you!! The light was fading and the light show was starting up so was able to get a photo of that too, though I had to wait, camera paused for the Piccadilly Circus Underground sign to appear among the illuminated ads. It took about 5 minutes and flashed on and off fairly quickly but I was ready!!!

Approaching Piccadilly Circus from Regent Street

At last I captured an image of the elusive Eros

and I wasn't about to let him escape easily!

Just one more shot! 

Nelson's Column and the Houses of Parliament from Piccadilly Circus

The famous advertising screen illuminations with Eros standing guard on the right

I stood with camera poised until the Piccadilly Circus underground sign flashed up on the screen, after about 5 minutes my arms were aching so much I was just about to give up, so glad I didn't!

Home on the underground two happy campers stopped off at a local restaurant/take away called Ya Halu for mixed grill Lebanese style. It was an absolute feast, lamb and chicken cubes tossed in spices and char grilled and minced spiced lamb shaped into a skinless sausage shape and grilled and grilled whole garlic cloves, served with Lebanese style couscous and a clean fresh beautifully dressed salad with yogurt based dipping sauce and another, slightly-too-spicey-for-us dipping sauce, that we tried but left all else was really good. We went home well fed and content.