Another beautiful and warm day. I headed for Portobello Road in Notting Hill, located in west London. Getting out of the tube at Notting Hill gate, and upon seeing the Victorian styled stucco townhouses on the side streets, I thought to myself, ‘What a lovely neighbourhood to live in!’
It’s clean, upscale, polished and if not rich, definitely well-heeled. Although, that is not how this borough had its humble beginnings. This area was developed to house workers at nearby pig farms and pottery barns, was overcrowded and imporvished, and many lived in tenements. Then the trustafarians and artists moved in during the 80s, and since then, the area has been highly sought after, despite the hefty price tags.
I strolled along the gently meandering Portobello Road. I know the best time to experience market is during the weekends, when it’s heaving with people, especially tourists. And although I can walk and move among a crowd of people, I prefer not to. It’s not my cup of tea to be shoulder to shoulder with strangers and carried along like a swell. Moving among mostly locals, this suited me much better and there was still lots to see: fruit and vegetable stands, stores selling antiques and secondhand items, funky clothing, cafes and of course.
A First-timers Visit to the V+A on Exhibition Road
Next stop was exhibition row, similar to museum mile in New York. Getting off at South Kensington station, one walks in the underground tunnel, which runs along Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Royal Albert Hall and Victoria & Albert Museum. I thought that in 4 hours, I’d be able to selectively see both the V&A and Natural History Museum. What pipe was I smoking?
The V&A was magnificent! Truly blew me away and hands down took the crown off from the top of the Met Museum’s head. I knew I was in for a treat when I walked into the grand atrium and Dale Chihuly’s art piece was strung up from the ceiling over information services, like a chandelier. This artist is amazing!
I had first heard of Chihuly when I was in New York. And when his exhibition, Chihuly at the Garden was being shown outdoors at New York Botanical Gardens, I hopped the A train for that lengthy ride. The man knows how to work with coloured glass, like nobody’s business! Simply spectacular! And this was before I even made it inside.
Yes, all museums set up the same ways with sectioned countries/continents or grouped together in time periods, but with different objets d’arts, and that’s all loverly and nice, but I wanted to see certain somethings different. The fashion exhibition was just okay. Certainly, the Met’s last fashion exhibition took top honours.
I breezed past the Asian permanent collections, appreciatively, and enjoyed the sun at the outdoors John Madejski Garden.
I walked into the cast courts and was stunned speechless. Here was two high ceilinged halls, housing copies of some of the world’s most famous monuments and statues, cast first in plaster, than in iron. There stood before me were Rome’s Trojan’s Column and Spain’s Portico de la Gloria, among many other greats. You can go to the second floor for a bird’s eye view, which overlooks the other hall, where a couple artists currently works on new pieces – what formidable technical achievement!
There was an exhibition called, Collaborators: UK Design for Performance. This exhibit is comprised of costumes, puppets, drawings, photos and miniature models highlighting the collaborative nature of theatre design for operas, plays and musicals. Holy potluck, Batman! Could this be anymore up my alley? Guess that explains why I spent a couple hours in there.
I finished up, dedicating time before closing to viewing the few Pre-Raphaelites’ Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burnes Jones paintings, with muse, Elizabeth Siddall and the sculptures gallery, for in the past few years, I’ve come to love sculptures more than paintings. Perhaps it’s the 3D element of it? Besides, Rodin is always a pleasant way to end the day with.
I was today, awed by such artistic greatness and it stirred in me the continued importance to create and live and think creatively in the world. For it is not life worth living, if it’s without art.
View more photos of my trip on my Flickr album.
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