If you fancy a trip to Mars, the Design Museum in London will take you there! Their current exhibition ‘Moving to Mars’ has an extraordinary wall projection of the Mars surface where you can immerse yourself in the red planet. Here I am… Continue reading
Scandals with the royals are nothing new and the George IV exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery gives us a peek into his life showing us his good points and what made him popular and a figure of fun. He was famous and unpopular because of his extravagant lifestyle, his womanising and drinking but his collecting habit has left us with an extraordinary legacy, some of which is on display in this exhibition. Continue reading
There’s rare and there is the only surviving item! Elizabeth 1 is such a famous part of our history that I assumed we had many examples of her gowns tucked away in the royal collections. But it seems that is not the case and her finery has been lost in the centuries since her death in 1603, until something happened! The Bacton Altar cloth, which has just gone on display in Hampton Court Palace, may just be the missing piece of history.
There’s moon stuff everywhere as we mark 50 years since humans first stepped on its surface. I’ve watched the documentaries and read the articles so it was time to head on one of the top exhibitions in London celebrating this moment. The National Maritime Museum’s The Moon caught my eye for its claim to be ‘the UK’s biggest exhibition dedicated to our celestial neighbour’! Continue reading
Cindy Sherman’s major show at the National Portrait Gallery looks back at her long career at the peak of world photography. She is most well known for taking pictures of herself but this is not a world of selfies as she creates a wide range of personas using herself as the model, many of which are unrecognisable as the same person. This show covers her 40 year career with examples from each of her major series of work. Continue reading
The annual opening of the Serpentine Pavilion is a real sign that we are properly into the London summer, even if the weather is not always as warm as we’d like.
Each year a new architect is chosen to bring their vision of a temporary pavilion to the site next to the original Serpentine Gallery. This competition has been going since 2000 when the first winner was Zaha Hadid and it has grown into a showcase for emerging talent from around the world. Continue reading
Kensington Palace has spruced up the rooms where Princess Victoria grew up to mark the 200th anniversary of her birth. Alongside these permanent rooms is a temporary exhibition Victoria: Woman and Crown which examines her role as matriarch and monarch. Victoria spent her formative years at Kensington Palace and became Queen here before moving the short distance to Buckingham Palace, the first sovereign to live there. Continue reading
Who doesn’t love a sneak preview? It was a late night opening at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and most visitors were enjoying the very loud and upbeat band playing in the main entrance. However, I was there to use my members only entry to the reopened Cast Courts and as I flashed my card at the entrance, I found I had them to myself – what a treat. Continue reading
Painted portraits or photographic portraits – is one medium better than the other for capturing a person, is there more skill in the painting or the photograph? I was pondering these questions as I approached the National Portrait Gallery to view the annual Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. Earlier in the year I had enjoyed their exhibition of painted portraits and here’s my blog about it so you can compare the two: BP Portrait Award. I had really enjoyed many of those pieces still remembered them so was slightly apprehensive that I would not be as impressed, a little unfair I know, but there it is! Continue reading
London has so many museums and galleries, from the world-famous ones such as British Museum and Natural History Museum, V&A and National Gallery through to fascinating smaller and niche ones such Sir John Soane’s, Denis Severs, The Fan Museum and the Museum of Brands and Packaging – and so many more… However, we do love a new opening so we were excited to hear that after a couple of years of preparations, the Science Gallery was finally ready to visit. Continue reading