Will and Kate get hitched – Or, a right royal wedding

A party atmosphere dominates London today and it’s been building for weeks. Thousands of visitors from all over the world have descended on the capital to be a part of the royal wedding celebrations.

Yesterday, this was no more apparent than in Green Park in the afternoon (full of freshly arrived people hanging out with their suitcases in the sun) and last night along Whitehall where people were camping out on the pavements. On my way home, I stopped to ask happy campers where they were from: some as far as the USA, others as close as London. Passing Westminster Abbey around 11pm, the red carpet was just starting to be laid out and it felt like something momentous was about to begin.

Last minute preps outside Queenie’s yesterday morning on my walk to work

Media village, Green Park yesterday – Ben Fogle’s back? and another

Laying out the red carpet at Westminster Abbey last night

Every day, I walk to work through Victoria, past Buckingham Palace and across Green Park. When the media village appeared in Green Park a few weeks ago, it disrupted access for pedestrians, and it seemed just that – a disruption. Then, the construction of multi-level studios began directly opposite the palace, and viewing platforms sprang up by the Victoria Memorial, and the anticipation crept in.

It’s been an amazing experience to see my routine daily walk across London so totally transformed for this historic event. By the start of this week, everything had suddenly taken shape: The Mall area was ready for today and even more people than usual have been attracted to Buckingham Palace’s gates. The atmosphere around Westminster Abbey last night was one of excitement. And now the big day is finally here.

07:00 – A bit dehydrated and clumsy, I’m feeling the effects of last night’s drinks after work. Who’s to blame? Oh, me. I prepare a right royal breakfast that includes bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese and a bottle of sparkling rosé.
08:00 – It’s a chilly start to the day and we’re on our way by bus to Marble Arch.
09:00 – On arrival at Speakers’ Corner, people are making their way into Hyde Park – it’s still fairly empty. Souvenir sellers are doing a roaring trade – everyone’s buying flags. There are three 100m² screens in the park and we lay out a picnic blanket in front of the centre screen and bed in. Time for breakfast and a hair of the dog.
10:00 – The park’s filling up quite quickly now. I note the exact position of our picnic blanket and head off to the porta-loos before Prince William is due to make his appearance. On my return, I aim for the centre screen but can’t find our spot now the crowds are pretty dense. Minor panic. I try phoning and texting but no luck*.
I go to the front of the crowds to take in Huw Edwards’ running commentary for ten minutes before going to look again, successfully this time.



11:11 – The sun comes out during the first hymn, changing the weather from cold and grey to sunny and well – proper picnic weather. There’s a relaxed, party atmosphere here in Hyde Park with corks popping all around me. Everyone’s cheering and waving Union Jack flags and having a good time. When the service ends and the wedding bells start ringing on screen, confetti spews over us all in the park.

13:20 – The first public kiss between the Prince and Princess on the balcony at Buckingham Palace (how many millions of people around the world are watching? Could that be the most viewed, most public kiss ever?) followed by the fly-past. We see and hear the Lancaster bombers in the ‘Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’ on-screen over Buckingham Palace first, and then – very excitingly – they do a lap above us, over Hyde Park.

14:00 – Live entertainment is well underway from MIB (they can really sing but are covering cheesey tracks of Stevie Wonder, Lionel Ritchie, Aerosmith, etc). Still, it’d be rude not to shimmy, and Robbie Williams’ Let me entertain you goes down well.
*Texts and voicemail messages start to come through now – the networks have been jammed, unsurprisingly


Dancing in the park on a sunny afternoon

15:00 – Leaving the park on Park Lane, the crowds disperse quickly and – passing Grosvenor Square and the American Embassy – it’s eerily quiet by the time we reach Berkeley Square. It’s suddenly back to busy on Piccadilly, where more crowds are leaving Green Park and queuing to get into the tube station, where I notice that I’m burnt pink from my couple of hours in the sun. What an English rose.

And what a thoroughly wholesome and top day out.

More royal wedding info:
~ Official Royal Wedding website
~ GLA info on royal wedding screening at Hyde Park

More photos:
~ Monarchy’s Official Royal Wedding photos
~ GLA’s royal wedding photos
~ A right royal picnic slideshow
~ Royal wedding photos

Hyde Park video-clips:
1. Crowds gather in Hyde Park – 10am
2. First sight of the bride’s dress by Sarah Burton
3. It’s not just the crowd that’s buzzing – interference
4. Patriotism in the Park – loadsa flag-waving
5. Hyde Park’s sing-along to God Save the Queen
6. Signing marriage registers at Westminster Abbey
7. Confetti fountains
8. Hyde Park Sreening – Along The Mall
9. First public kiss + fly-past
10. Dancing in the park on a sunny afternoon

What’s British about The British Museum?

As far as I can tell, The British Museum is inappropriately named.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo contains Egyptian antiquities. The Swiss Museum in Zurich features objects and art representing the history of Switzerland in the 18th and 19th centuries. The German Museum displays the cultural history of German-speaking central Europe. The British Library – once part of The British Museum – holds millions of books, newspapers, patents and recordings, and its exhibitions and events feature works of British writers and artists.

After wandering through exhibitions of Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt at The British Museum, I’ve yet to see anything British. All I’ve seen seems to be what our British ancestors brought back from other nations and – I haven’t figured out why yet – it makes me feel slightly uneasy and very confused.

Traditionally, museums were a place where artefacts of the world could be shared with ordinary people who did not have the means to travel. Take the Horniman Museum for example – Horniman, a Victorian tea trader brought artefacts from his travels to south east London to share with the public so they could learn about the world; whereas now, travel and education is available to all.

So what am I expecting? Exhibits through the ages from Stone Henge to feudal England to the industrial revolution and Victorian age (Britain’s most prominent era in world history)? Maybe items from royal palaces and great buildings and architecture? Some kind of homage to Tim Berners Lee and major 20th century inventions? Any artefacts of cultural and human value in Britain’s history, really.

I wonder what visitors to the UK make of The British Museum and if they expect to experience British history here. Today, it’s fun and engaging to learn about a place and its history by visiting it and experiencing it first-hand. I’m fortunate enough to have been to Egypt to see the pyramids and Egyptian Museum, to Greece to see the Acropolis, to India to see the Taj Mahal, to Rome, to China, etc.

The Africa, New Zealand and Japan sections interest me most. Perhaps in part because I haven’t been to those places and they’re very intriguing to me. While the artefacts of the world seen here are fascinating, I’m disappointed that my expectations were so wrong.

I’m pleased to see a sign explaining why parts of the Parthenon on the Acropolis are here, despite their real heritage being that of the Greeks: the Parthenon was destroyed when the city was under siege by the Venetians in the 17th Century; Lord Elgin, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire was passionate about Greek culture and transported some of the sculptures and ruins to Britain. “Elgin’s removal of the sculptures from the ruins has always been a matter for discussion, but one thing is certain – his actions spared them further damage by vandalism, weathering and pollution… The sculptures from the Parthenon in the British Museum and other European museums cannot for conservation reasons be returned to the temple.” It’s reassuring to know that without their rescue and transportation to Britain by Elgin, they would not have survived.

In the Enlightenment room, a sign says: “When the British Museum was founded it was a place not only of learning but also of wonder. This gallery focuses on the museum’s early collections, recreating that first sense of amazement and exploring some of the ways that people in Britain viewed their world and its past.”

This goes some way to answer my question but if there’s nothing British in The British Museum, would it be more appropriately named Britain’s World Museum?

Tree of Life – made by four Mozambican artists from decommissioned weapons

More:
~ British Museum website
~ Tree of Life

Electric Dreams – justifying the BBC license fee

We had to re-tune our TVs in the UK 30th September (some technical preparations ready for the digital switchover) and I can no longer get channels on the ITV and Channel 4 multiplexes.

I haven’t quite decided yet whether this is such a bad thing as it’s eliminated scrolling through a lot of – shall we say ‘rubbish’ – channels that I can live without. I know I can live without TV anyway; I did so for eight months before deciding to buy my current digital TV, in 2007. It’s a computer and the web I can’t live without.

Last night, I got hooked on BBC4; first A Poet’s Guide to Britain on Sylvia Plath who took inspiration, like the Bronte’s, from the moors around Haworth. This interested me as, when I lived in North Yorkshire, I used to love driving over to Haworth to visit the desolate wild moors and experiment with my old Pentax K1000. Later on, there was my all time hero, David Attenborough on Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life.

Seventies Wallpaper – in fashion again?


But the most outstanding programme in a long while was Electric Dreams. A family of two parents and four children ‘went back’ to 1970: their home’s contents and décor, and they themselves, were kitted out as it would’ve been in 1970. Then, with each passing day, they would fast-forward a year and a new item of technology or a new product was introduced. So, six days later they were in 1975 and had a ‘new’ domestic freezer and teas-maid set.

Ok, it was reality TV but this was more of a social documentary on the evolution of technology and domestic appliances and how we interact with them (emerging consumerism) than cheesy reality TV.

I grew up in the 1970s and watched in nostalgic amusement, fondly reminded of my parents’ black and white TV and restricted viewing hours, electrical powercuts, chopper (and chipper) bicycles, space hoppers, brown patterned furnishings and curtains (my parents had a long-haired chocolate brown carpet in the living room and dining room!), our beloved and well-used Dynatron record player and my mother’s laborious twin tub washing machine, not to mention the introduction of Casio pocket calculators and the naughty words you could type in numbers, like 80085.

Family in St Annes

One bit that touched home for me was when it snowed heavily and the father struggled in to work, 1970s style. He was the only one who made it into the office as everyone else was working via VPN from home (which he couldn’t) and had received an early morning email advising employees not to struggle in. Growing up on a village street, we lived opposite the person responsible for roads and snow ploughs at the local borough council. Suffice to say our street was always cleared of snow, promptly. Still, a massive effort was made not to allow the weather to disrupt your routine.

Remembering those experiences so vividly, it’s hard to imagine what it was like without instant communication tools, or even the person I was (how I behaved?) 30+ years ago. It really was a different age.

I felt for the son who started off embracing the retro challenge – he liked the touchability of music in vinyl record format as opposed to digital downloads but it all went wrong quickly for him, when he was late home from town one evening. Ordinarily, he would’ve texted his mother but in his 1970s life, he took a chance and didn’t keep her informed of his movements and arrived home late. He was in trouble with his worried mother and was sent to his room (devoid of its PC and contemporary devices) without supper.

Many children in the 1970s did paper rounds to earn their pocket money, though I didn’t start mine – a much-coveted evening round – until around 1980. In Electric Dreams, the son got up in the early morning darkness to deliver newspapers around the neighbourhood on his chopper, before school; a 1970s trend that has since declined as parents in the 2000s are less inclined to allow children out on their own.

For the most part, 1970s children went out to play, independently. There was undeniably a certain naivety (perhaps too soon after the sexually liberating swinging sixties?) and unawareness of paedophilia and child abuse then. But claims that the streets are less safe today are – in my opinion – unfounded. We’re now more aware and consequently, more protective.

So it was good to see the family spending evenings together, watching their black and white TV, listening to records and playing games like buckaroo! I watched with a perma-grin, fondly remembering experiences and things I archived a long time ago in my old fashioned memory. And, while I’m on tenterhooks for the next episode set in the 1980s – my beloved New Romantic teenage era – I wouldn’t swap this day in 2009 for any day of old. Not when Gary Numan’s just released a 30th anniversary edition of his 1979 revolutionary album, The Pleasure Principle (pioneer of electronic music) all digitally re-mastered with previously unreleased extras. That’s progress.

Electric Dreams is TV at its best: no adverts, just 60 minutes of thought provoking, well produced BBC entertainment. For programmes like this, the annual BBC license fee is well-deserved.

More:
~ Electric Dreams – BBC page
~ Children of the Revolution – Guardian article

Treasures of the British Library

I was in the King’s Cross area earlier so incorporated a visit to the UK’s national library, The British Library, in my day.

In the Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library, you can see Lewis Carrol’s original manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, early town-planning maps proposed for New York, a Beatles exhibit containing original lyrics (one by John, scribbled on the back of his son Julian’s first birthday card), photos and memorabilia, Captain Scott’s final diary entry, Shakespeare’s First Folio, Handel’s original score of Messiah, the Magna Carta and the Gutenberg Bible (one of the first printed books) among other historic scripts.

It’s worth making a special visit to see this gallery at any time, but definitely so if you’ve a couple of hours to kill in the King’s Cross area. Admission to the Sir John Ritblat Gallery is free.

More:
~ British Library website

All’s well that’s Arundel

My parents are taking a break in the West Sussex area at the mo, so I caught the train to Arundel yesterday to meet them. It’s only 80 mins from Clapham Junction and costs £20 for a day return ticket. I thought this was great value. And it’s a really interesting place to visit: it’s a historic town with a fascinating (honestly!) Norman castle and other attractions, set in the countryside, with fine dining and drinking places to lure you, too.

See my photos here.

With Norman origins dating from 1067, Arundel Castle is one of England’s longest inhabited country houses and is home to the Dukes of Norfolk, who also fulfil the hereditary office of Earl Marshal of England, responsible for arranging coronations and funerals for heads of state. Closely connected with the royal family, traces of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s visit of 1846 are still very apparent, including the bed that took two years to ‘make’.

The castle’s 130 feet long Baron’s Hall was used in the film-set for The Young Victoria, representing a nineteenth century Windsor Castle banquet hall. Arundel Castle has served as a filming location for many films and TV productions including The Madness of King George, Henry VIII and Victoria and Albert, given the inability to film in palaces where royalty live.

It’s in immaculate condition for an ancient castle too; different parts have been re-developed or re-built over the centuries. A climb to the Norman Keep exposes you to the elements and offers spectacular views over the West Sussex countryside, while the ante library and library rooms are, surprisingly, the most awe-inspiring. The ante library contains black lacquer furniture bearing the most exquisite, oriental designs from the 1700s. The library, from around 1800, houses ten thousand books including a late fourteenth century Nuremberg Bible. An important Gothic room, its red, pink and gold patterned carpet is a replica of that made for Queen Victoria’s 1846 visit, in her favourite colours. It may not catch on at Ikea but it doesn’t look out of place today.

Unintelligible life

“An evening of sophistication, glamour and high spirits” was how the promotional material described Intelligent Life’s readers evening that took place last night. With cognac tasting from Martell thrown in, it seemed only reasonable to join in the magazine’s second anniversary celebrations.

Sophistication: that was the location – the luxurious Grosvenor House on Park Lane. Now a Marriott hotel and recently refurbished, the Grosvenor Estate’s origins date back to 1667. Highlights of the 300+ year history were on display to peruse. And, very pleasingly, the book Grosvenor House – The Inheritance + The People formed part of the farewell goody-bag.

Glamour: could that have been the celebrities attending the M&M Awards in The Great Room (someone saw Theo Paphitis in Reception)? No, the glamour came from the sazerac cocktails expertly made by Nick Wykes of IP Bartenders, an entrepreneurial ‘cocktail consultancy’ whose services include innovative bartender training and cocktail events. A big hand to the people who came up with that idea and for executing it so successfully!

High spirits: they were borne of the endless flow of champagne cocktails, individually prepared cocktails and cognac ‘crus’ tasting session led by Martell, and really did lead to some unintelligible life…

Notting Hill carnival 2009

Party time!
Thousands of vibrant costumes dance through the streets; an elaborate blend of green, red, blue and yellow masquerading to competing sounds of pan, calypso, soca, and sound systems. Scantily-clad dancers in plumed head-gear keep smiles in tact while being hugged and mobbed by crowds of revellers in endless photo-shoots. Along the 3.5 mile route, barbequed jerk chicken wafts through the party atmosphere as enterprising folk set up street stalls to sell rice and peas, cans of Red Stripe, whistles and horns.

Am I in the Caribbean? No, this is Notting Hill Carnival, Europe’s largest street festival held every summer in west London. At the 2009 carnival on 31st August over 400,000 visitors joined the main procession featuring dozens of decorated floats and thousands of performing artists.

History
A festival for everyone – of socially and ethnically diverse backgrounds – that pulls all Londoners and visitors together in one big street party, its origins stem from Trinidad. Following immigration to London and tough conditions in the 1950s, Afro-Caribbeans sought a means to celebrate musical traditions and cultures together, and – influenced by the Trinidad Carnival of 1833 celebrating the abolition of slavery – held the first carnival in west London in 1964. Its goal was two-fold: to uplift spirits and encourage all Londoners to free-expression in the street and embrace Caribbean culture. Still continuing the tradition of dressing up in costumes or mas (masquerade) it is estimated that over a million hours are put into creating the flamboyant outfits for the Notting Hill Carnival every year.

Togetherness
Streets are tightly packed but – in the spirit of togetherness – people help each other out to move along with the dancing, cacophonous, flow. A strong police presence blends into the background leaving party-goers to enjoy the festivities in the hot, summer sun.

My forehead burns in temperatures reaching almost 30°C – I’ve forgotten my sun-cream. Is this really London? Or the Caribbean?

Clear Cut Entertainment

More:
~ Notting Hill Carnival photos

~ This entry featured in the Turks & Caicos Weekly News:

Notting Hill Carnival Feature Sep2009

Click on the “fullscreen” icon (bottom right of article) to read in full view

RAA Summer Exhibition 2009

I visited the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition 2009 for a second time today, with other London School of Journalism students.

The 2009 exhibition features around 1,200 works in all styles, forms and media, including – for the first time – film. This year’s theme is Making Space which has been belittled by some critics. But just how would you label the world’s largest open-submission exhibition with works of established and unknown artists, comprising paintings, prints, sculptures, architectural models and creations, photography, digital art and film? Now in its 241st year, this is the most diverse Summer Exhibition ever.

Stepping into the gallery on a hot summer’s day, the light, bright, white coolness serves to calm, and Anselm Kiefer’s serene, snowy forest scene in mixed media (through 3-D branches) sets the mood. In contrast to the spacious, thoughtfully laid-out main rooms, the Small Weston Room – crammed with Mick Rooney’s collection of almost 300 pieces – has the intimacy of a packed pub on a Friday night. Dancing around each other to get close to the pieces (including a deserted Woolworths shop-front, a sign of the times) serves to engage in passing conversation and comment with others.

This year’s highlights include Basil Beattie’s No Known Way (which gives the sense of a road-trip, seen through a windscreen with several views as snapshots in time); Ann Winder-Boyle’s The Dealer (a man and boy exchanging something at night in the style of a Rupert Bear children’s illustration); Richard Wilson’s Joint’s Jumping (Battersea Power Station outlined in orange neon at a displaced angle giving an impression, when lit at night, of leaning); Richard Wilson’s film showcase (19 film-works shown on a tilted, ripped-out room wall) and top-of-the-bill Tracey Emin’s touchingly simple Space Monkey (a bemused-looking, space-suited monkey stepping forward into space).

 

Emin’s Space Monkey – we have lift off

 
More:
~ British culture + arts – more blogposts by ‘LardButty’ Lou
~ Royal Academy of Arts website
~ SE 2009 review on The Guardian