Museum Monday

Monday, October 25th

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Monday mornings are now my favorite because we get to sleep-in until at least 8:30, AND I know I’ll be exploring a new part of London with our Architecture class! Carolyn and I headed out to Harrington about 9:35 so I could hand in my Internship Tutorial paper to the Student Affairs office before class. The lecture this morning was about the revival of Classical architecture in England, and the architects that influenced it. By 11, we were all “at the point of saturation” as our adorable professor put it, so we headed to meet up at the tube for our journey to Embankment. 

Although it was quite chilly, the sun was shining so it made it a bit more bearable. Our first stop was the Somerset House. Since its creation, it has served as a Royal residence, a governmental building, and most recently, as an art gallery and the overall home of art and learning (London Fashion Week was held there this year!). The architecture is stunning, including one of the few completely enclosed squares of London, which for that reason, has been used as a filming site for many movies.

The staircases inside are also gorgeous, and are our Professor’s favorite part of the building. Cantilevered, the undersides of the stone become more and more smooth as you work your way up, emphasizing the importance of hierarchy in British society: a servant would primarily be going up and down the first flight, which are very rough, whereas Nelson would have been using the top levels, which appear almost like smooth plaster. It’s something I definitely wouldn’t have noticed or interpreted on my own, so I was glad to have visited with our class.  We only had about 10 minutes to take in the vast amount of impressionist paintings in the galleries, but we did manage to see a few Picasso’s, Manet’s, and Renoir’s before leaving.

Next, we made our way up the Strand to the Holborn area, where we walked through the LSE campus and Bloomsbury Square before arriving at our final destination: the British Museum. The Museum contains over 7 million objects, and as our Professor bluntly put it, “has a greater showing of classical Greek and Roman antiquities than Greece or Italy.” Our first stop was the Rosetta Stone, something I remember being enthralled with on my last visit many years ago and had been wanting to see again. Last time, it was out in the open on a pedestal and I actually got to touch it! However, now it is totally encased in glass at eye level (probably a smarter idea).

Our Professor primarily wanted us all to see the Elgin Marbles (or the more politically correct name, the Parthenon Marbles), the marble friezes from the Parthenon. The objects are intensely controversial, as Greece has repeatedly asked for them back, claiming Thomas Bruce, the 7^th Earl of Elgin stole them around 1800 and that they should be rightly returned to their home at the Acropolis. England, however, continues to be steadfast in their decision to keep them in the British Museum. They are incredible, and in amazing condition considering they are almost 2,500 years old!

The Millennial project, the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, is also spectacular, and was worked on by our Professor’s husband, who is an architect and partner at Norman Foster & Co. The Great Court is the largest covered square in Europe, the roof of which contains over 1,656 uniquely shaped panes of glass!

Although we could have spent hours browsing the exhibits, Carolyn and I were both starving by 1:30 (per usual) so we set out to find our planned lunch destination: Hummus Bros. Maggie and Ashley have been twice for lunch (raved about it) and we have had our eyes on it for a while, so when we found out we would be ending up just minutes away, it was a done deal. All I can say is good thing there isn’t one near Courtfield or we would be there everyday. Incredible. Carolyn and I both got hummus with warm pitas (you can choose from a myriad of toppings that are poured into kind of a “hummus bowl”) in addition to falafel salad. Even better, it wasn’t expensive at all and kept us full for hours (which you all know is difficult to do!). Although we had already scratched three things off our London bucket-list that day alone, we were ambitious and decided to try for a fourth by visiting the Museum of Natural History before heading back to Courtfield. Unfortunately, it is half-term in London, their fall break of sorts. The schools have three terms, and after each term they have one or two weeks holiday: this week is one of them. AKA hundreds of small children running about wherever you go and a 30 minute queue to get into the Natural History Museum. With the museum being just a five minute walk from our flat, we decided to just call it a day, and attempt to visit when it’s less chaotic.

Before returning to our humble abode, we made a quick stop at Paul for Carolyn’s afternoon treat: a pistachio macaroon and a hot chocolate. Don’t worry, I wasn’t without my chocolate fix: as soon as we returned to our flat  you better believe I ripped into that Norwegian chocolate. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on e-mails, listening to TSwift, and relaxing before I headed to my second of three Internship Tutorial classes at 6:15, which was pretty painless.
Back to work tomorrow… but for the first time my boss will be sitting next to me (yikes).
      Cheers,
      LC.