April 12 - London

 Apr 12 - London 

A couple of Houses of Parliament tours today, followed by a visit to the Tate Britain art gallery. 


First off to visit the state apartments of the Speaker of the House of Commons.  The   Speaker has had an official residence here since 1800 and it is said to be the grandest of all the buildings in the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament complex). The whole residence is built around a square light well and the corridors have ceilings like a fan vaulted cloister. The rooms have huge great windows with carved oak panelling on the walls and magnificently carved doors.  Along with the rich interiors, the views along the Thames, the marble and brass decorations, it really is majestic here and I would re-visit in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, again, no photos were allowed so the only pictures we got were of the Westminster Hall and the exterior building

Westminster Hall

Between tours today we had a walk along Birdcage Walk to Horse Guards Parade, the square where ‘Trooping the Colour’ takes place.  This is a ceremony performed by the British Army since the 17th century to show the ranks their regiments colours.  Although this doesn’t take place until June you can see the seating is already in place (in red) for the two rehearsals prior to the main event. 

Our visit this afternoon was to see the inner sanctum of the House of Commons and the House of Lords,  Both houses are significantly smaller than I imagined but the architecture in these buildings is just sensational, no wonder it took them over 30 years to build the place. It’s also understandable why it’s UNESCO World Heritage listed. Again no photos, for security reasons apparently, but I would seriously recommend anyone visiting London book a visit here. 

Our last port of call was to the ‘Tate’, and for me it turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment.  I hadn’t been for years and I think this’ll probably be my last.  They have quite a large collection of Turner paintings there but a lot of other stuff that we found a bit ‘ho-hum!’, and yet still others that were just taking the proverbial….. I know I’ve ranted elsewhere on the these pages about ‘modern’ art but seriously ‘Red on Maroon’ and ‘Black on Maroon’, yuk! 🤮😅




Comments

  1. The Wally'sApril 28, 2022 at 12:58 AM

    So this was The Tate, not Tate Modern - you would consider it more of a p155 take! I'm sure

    ReplyDelete

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