“Why, ” said the Dodo, “the best way to explain it is to do it.”
– Lewis Carroll

I have a deep love of British museum placards, they often go for funny.  Once, in the North, my family went to a museum about Roman Britain along Hadrian’s Wall.  There was a skull on showcase there that once belonged to a Celt who had been decapitated by the Roman garrison.  The placard read something to the effect “remains of one of the revolting northern tribes.”  To this day I haven’t figured out if that was meant to be a political or personal description.

“It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I

On our third day in London (my true love gave to me..) we spent most of the day in Southwark before taking in a museum and celebrating our anniversary a couple weeks late with dinner and another show.

We did Borough Market, which everyone really should check out if they get the chance.  It can be a bit touristy, but the quality of goods sold there (to say nothing of the ambiance) is worth it.  You’ll get produce that most places don’t stock (such as cilantro and plain black beans,  necessities in the Small Dog household), plus any number of artisan goods.

Borough Market really can be summed up best in pictures so here’s a few more for you to drool over, minions:

Hungry yet?  So were we.  We grabbed some quick bites and wandered through Southwark along the Thames, past shops, and generally enjoyed ourselves before heading off to the Imperial War Museum and wandering through Lambeth.

This is another freebie, but again, I encourage donations.  The front hall of the museum is a wanna-be soldier’s dream, stuffed with aircraft, artillery, and transports from the major wars of this century.  There are all sorts of rotating exhibits, we took in one that chronicled a single family’s experience with WWII and the blitz, and another about MI5 and MI6 and other secret operatives from the 20th century.  Great stuff!

We rounded off the night with an anniversary dinner at Kopapa in Covent Garden, which is definitely worth a look in if your around for a show.  They have a great pre-theatre menu, but their normal menu is incredibly good.  It’s a small plates restaurant, so you order several dishes and tuck in.  Psst!  Order the Crema Catalana for desert!

For our show we saw The 39 Steps, an comedic adaptation of Hitchcock’s film where 130 speaking roles are performed by only four actors.  Check out the trailer on the site to get a taste of how they managed to pull this off, because it’s absolutely brilliant!  Simple but hilarious special effects, classic British stiff upper lip, puns and allusions to other Hitchcock works, and even a cameo by Hitchcock (wouldn’t you like to know how they manage that!), this is a definite must see.   Hysterically funny!

The show was at the Criterion Theatre, right on Piccadilly Circus itself and just steps away from the tube station.  It was built in the 1870 and is an underground theatre, which during its construction was problematic as theatres of the day were lit by gas and let off toxic fumes.  Luckily electricity showed up in the 1880s.

*All photos mine

“The most wonderful thing in life is to be delirious and the most wonderful kind of delirium is being in love. In the morning mist, hazy and amorous, London was delirious. London squinted as it floated along, milky pink, without caring where it was going.”
― Yevgeny Zamyatin, Islanders And, The Fisher Of Men

We made it out of bed in surprisingly good time and hotfooted it down to Houghton Street to pick up our tickets for the graduation ceremony.  And then, by damn it was time to shop!

We shopped around Leicester Square (more on that later) and Piccadilly, and bought tickets to the shows we wanted to see.  Because if you’re in London, darlings you must see some shows.  Minions failing to do so will be sacked.

We went to the Natural History Museum in Kensington, just down the road from the Victoria and Albert Museum which we decided to skip since we’ve both been there.  The Smithosonian in D.C. is, I think, superior to the NHM but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t stuffed with interesting things.  Some really fantastic fossils in particular!

Currently the main exhibit is Animal Inside Out, which is like the Bodies exhibit that made the tours a few years ago.  Animals are put through a plastination process to show the various functions of the body.  It’s weird enough without being gruesome to keep kids interested, and plenty fascinating for everyone else.  Its not a free exhibit, but since the rest of the museum is, it’s well worth checking out.  Photos not allowed, alas!

After the museum, I took J. to one of my favorite eateries in Kensington, but you’ll have to wait to hear more about that later.  The suspense, kittens!

Our repast devoured we collected our shopping finds and made our way to the West End to see One Man Two Guvnors at the Royal Haymarket Theatre.  This comedy first came to our attention last Autumn when we were getting J. settled for school because the lead role was played by James Corden (who might be J.’s favorite guest star on Dr. Who ever).  Sadly he’s no longer in the role, but Owain Arthur was fantastic!

It was uproariously funny, a classic British sort of comedy mixed coerced audience participation, continual breaking of the fourth wall in hilarious ways, a live band, and screaming laughter all around.  See it if you get the chance, our sides hurt coming out of the theatre!

The Haymarket Theatre is the third oldest theatre still operating in London, and has been around since 1720, though the current building and location date from the 1820s. It’s also responsible for introducing the matinee performance. Making tickets cheaper since 1873!

There are lots of ticketing sales booths, particularly around Leicester Square, but they aren’t always the best places to get tickets.  Often the theatres offer student discounts, and like I said matinee tickets are a fabulous way to see a show for less (and to leave your evenings free for other shows, dining, or general goofing off).  There are also a plethora of websites that do pop up deals (here’s a good one).  Bottom line, to see a show in London, do your research.  Know what you’re interested in seeing and shop around in person (seriously, take the time to compare prices at the theatres, sales booths, etc.) and online.

*I read a biography of Mary Anning and her work recently, which is why I got all geeky about seeing her collection gallery.  Check it out, it’s an easy and interesting read:  The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World

“I don’t know what London’s coming to — the higher the buildings the lower the morals.”
― Noël Coward, Collected Sketches and Lyrics

This week the Small Dog team brings you tales of travel, tips for tourists, personal recommendations, show reviews, and lots of pictures of food from our sojourn in London.  Today, our first day in town:

We arrived in the morning and determined to stay up all day, all the better to get on a new sleep cycle, my dear.  Luckily, J. lived just off the Piccadilly Line, which conveniently runs all the way to Heathrow airport, so when we arrived we just hopped on the tube.  After dropping everything off at his place, we jumped back on and headed into central London.

And I managed to take pictures, kittens!  No one is more surprised than me (although looking through them I’m realizing how many more I should have taken).  I’ll never be a photographer.

Our first stop was the Soane Museum which is mere minutes away from LSE and is just one of the hundreds of small, less well known museums in the city.  The entire thing is the private collection of Sir John Soane – one of those glorious Englishmen who stockpiled things that interested him!  Pictures were prohibited, alas, but if you’re ever in town, go and see it.  It’s completely free (but I encourage you to donate any spare change in your pockets to it’s maintenance, as it survives entirely on such charity and government grants), and they only let in small parties at a time.

The whole thing is a magnificent hodgepodge of antiquities: busts, chunks of Grecian reliefs, medieval figurines, the pure alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I, Hogarth’s original Rake’s Progress paintings, and (most hilariously of all), a mausoleum to his wife’s dog with the inscription, “Alas, poor Fanny!”

Our next stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral since J. had never been there.  There’s been a church on this site for over a thousand years, and this is only the latest incarnation.  Courtesy of Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire, it’s massive.  At J.’s insistence, we climbed to the top of thing (heavily jet lagged, please recall), going up more stairs and through narrow passages than I could count.  If you’re up to the physical challenge, it’s well worth the views – both of the surrounding city, and to the cathedral floor several hundred feet below.  J. smacked his head on a few low Restorationist ceilings, clearly not meant for six foot tourists, but other than that, no casualties.

The views are incredible.  You can take in all the major tourist traps in one go if you walk all the way around the top of the dome:

After climbing the heights, we sunk to the depths and went through the crypts, which are equally interesting for any history nerd.  Both Wellington and Nelson are buried there, as well as many other great British figures.

St. Paul’s isn’t free if you’re doing the tourist bit: it’s £15 for an adult and £5 for a child (although if any of you are going to be in town for the summer, the Olympics seem to be causing a rate lowering!), but it’s well worth the money.  You get an audio/video guide with lots of information on the art, history, construction, and cool stories about the cathedral’s past.  It’s got Queen Victoria, surviving the London Blitz, and up through Charles and Di’s marriage, if that’s your cup of tea.  There are frequent guest performances from choirs that perform during the tourist hours free of charge, one was there when we were visiting, so we plunked down in some seats and enjoyed the show.

If you’d like to go for free, they don’t charge admission for worship services and you can enjoy Evensong for free as well, but you won’t get to wander around the church or see the sights when it’s functioning in its ecclesiastical capacities.  Which is as it should be, quite frankly.

After that, thoroughly exhausted, we stumbled home and collapsed into a single person bed – which made sleeping a ridiculous complicated affair, but hey, we like cuddling.

*The sarcophagus of Seti I at Sir John Soane’s Museum, Illustrated London News, 1864 (obtained from Wikipedia).
** All other photos are my own