London in bloom

 

The flowers around Covent Garden were looking amazing yesterday. Maybe all the rain we have had of late does have its benefits.

Ever hopeful deckchairs awaiting bottoms to take their place to watch the large screen which will show matches from Wimbledon.

Sewing machine museum

 When I visited Tooting Bec for my 'Above the Underground' challenge, I came across this museum. I'd never heard of a sewing machine museum before. Anyway it is only open for a couple of hours on the first Saturday of the month. So last Saturday as I was in the area I decided to have a look.

It turned out to be far more interesting than I expected. 

There were loads of machines everywhere. All neatly labelled. Many types I recognised from my youth but others I wouldn't even know they were sewing machines.

Ruston had started a small business in the 1900s repairing and selling sewing machines. He kept any unusual machines or ones that had an interesting story. Eventually these machines were put on display in his shop. This is the original frontage of his first shop

This one was owned by Queen Victoria. I doubt she ever used it except as a plaything.

 

It is this museum that has provided sewing machines for historical dramas and films including Downton Abbey. It also sourced all the sewing machines for the 'All Saints' shop  window displays. It is free to visit the museum and there is a very interesting talk and tour included.

Moth

 Spotted this moth on a window.  It is the Buff-tip moth (had to look it up). I've  never seen one before and never likely to if it stays on its favourite branch of a silver birch tree.

Posters from the Underground

 These days I just can't resist anything with a connection to the Underground. So when I saw a notice in the Metro newspaper about a small exhibition of Underground posters before going up for sale, then I knew I had to search them out. The posters were on display at Lyon and Turnbull London auction house in Connaught Place. 

Throughout the 1920s, at least two new posters were issued annually advertising the Zoo. This exhibition features a private collection of original London zoo posters from 1913 to 1933 (with the exception of the war years). The London Underground collaborated with some of the most talented artists to create eye catching posters that transformed the underground into an art space.

It wasn't easy to photograph the posters as there were handbags on display in front of some of them. After all this was an auction house and not an art gallery. I was just pleased to be able to see them. 

What is interesting about these zoo posters is that none of the underground stations are that close to the zoo.  A bus ride would be needed to complete the journey.

Sunny at last

Today I went for a walk through four of London's Royal Parks: St James's park, Green park. Hyde  park and Kensington Palace gardens. I am leading a walk for the U3A in a couple of weeks and I just needed to check out the route. Usually my walks are guided walks pointing out buildings and places of interest but this one will just be a walk to enjoy one another's company and the beautiful parks. I only took a couple of photos but I thought you might like to see that the rain has finally stopped and summer has arrived.

The Italian garden in Hyde Park.

Kensington Palace sunken garden.

Kensington Palace in the background.

Not all areas have formal flower beds. In a number of areas they have left the grass to grow so as to encourage insects and other wildlife. I ended up walking 7 miles so I'll need to rethink the route as we usually limit the walks to 5 miles.

Grenfell Tower anniversary

 Grenfell Tower was a 24 storey residential tower block in North Kensington which was destroyed by fire on the 14th June 2017. 72 people died in that fire including the artist Khadija  Saye (1992-2017) who lived and worked in the family home on the 20th floor. In 2017 she was chosen to exhibit her work at the Venice Biennale art festival. 

This large mural on the walls of the Tate Britain is by Chris Ofili who had met Saye in Venice. It is entitled Requiem 2023. I thought it would be appropriate to post these photos of the mural this week. I have included information about the work

The fire spread too quickly for people to escape from the tower. Due to flammable cladding that had been added to the outside of the building, the fire from one flat which should have been contained was able to spread via the outside cladding. To my knowledge no one has yet been held responsible for this tragedy.  Meanwhile arguments are ongoing about who should pay for the removal of cladding from other tower blocks.