Stowe House

This long straight drive approaches Stowe House and gardens from Buckingham, passing through this 60 foot Corinthian Arch

You still use the driveway to approach the house but it no longer takes you through the arch. The Stowe estate began as the home to the Temple family from 1590.

The house was completely rebuilt in the early 1700s and has been redesigned over the years. The frontage is 916 feet long.

In 1922 Stowe School saved the building from demolition. The school is an Independent boys and girls boarding school with over 700 pupils.


The school is open to visitors  especially during the school holidays so I was fortunate to have a look around. This is the main library.

State Music Room

The domed ceiling in the Great Hall.

 



















The dining room.

One of the most interesting things on display were these items found during building works which mainly consisted of a stash of biscuit and sweet wrappers.

Walking back through the gardens here are some of the many temples and monuments.This is the Gothic Temple  








Temple of Concord and Victory

                            The Queen's temple

                                                      Temple of Ancient Virtue

Captain Grenville's Column

Bald looking sheep.

It is such a beautiful place, no wonder it is one of the National Trust's most popular estates to visit.

Stowe gardens

The landscape gardens at Stowe in Buckinghamshire are full of ornamental lakes, wooded valleys and over 40 monument temples. It was taken over by the National Trust in 1989 and is one of their most popular gardens. Here are a few reflections from my visit there this week.

A noon dial

 On the next station in my series Above the Underground I came across a noon dial on the side of the London Stock Exchange. Find out more about it here

Wimbledon

This year I was lucky enough to get two tickets in the ballot. Other than camping out overnight to queue for tickets the ballot is the main way of obtaining a ticket. So on Thursday I was there clutching my ticket for Court 1. In the ballot you have no choice of day or court you either accept or decline what is offered. You only need a ticket for Centre, No 1 and No 2 courts. All the other courts are on a first come first served basis.


Started the day having a look on the other courts where play started at 11am.

Then off to Court 1 to see Dimitrov v Simon which was an exciting game to watch. Couldn't hang around though as Murray was playing on Centre Court. No ticket for that court so the next best thing is to watch it on the large screen from Henman Hill.

Great atmosphere and the perfect place to wear my birthday present from my Granddaughter.

After Murray's match we managed to pick up a couple of charity tickets for centre court. These are tickets that have been handed in as the owners leave to go home. They are resold for a nominal sum and that money goes to charity. So we were able to see the match between Konta  (UK) v Bouchard (Canada).

It was a great day but time to join the thousands of people making their way to the station

The station had been decorated with artificial grass and hanging baskets and had a very festive feel. The underground trains were running every couple of minutes back into London so I needn't have worried about waiting for hours to try and get home. It was very well organised making it a perfect ending to a very enjoyable day.

Tate Modern extension

The Bankside power station, which is now the Tate Modern Art Gallery, has had a recent extension to the building. 

Reflections abound in local shops.

The brickwork of the extension is a work of art.

There is a viewing gallery which gives a 360deg view of London.

This is my favourite view which shows the Millennium Bridge between St Paul's Cathedral and the disused chimney of the power station.

Away from the river the view looks over at a new development of apartments. In fact you have a great view into the apartments.

If you want one there are still a few available from £5.95m. Imagine paying all that money to live in a human zoo.










Details here if you're keen