Back to Britain, Part 7
Tate
Britain, Riverwalk along Thames
June
10-25, 2003 (Updated Dec. 4, 2003)
By
Lewis Nolan
Return
To Nolan Travels Home Page
June 16, 2003, Monday – In London
Our good fortune with the
weather continues. Another glorious day is unfolding, with sunny skies and a
predicted high of 83 degrees. We were also lucky 17 years ago, unlike some of
our friends whose stays in London were marked by the famous fog and drizzle.
All the walking yesterday
has caught up with me. Despite wearing sturdy, leather shoes made by Rockport
and cushioned with Dr. Scholl’s Insoles (made by my former employer,
Schering-Plough), my feet are sore and I have shin splints. I feel tired and
crummy. That is a sure sign I’ve pushed myself too hard and am on the verge of
getting sick. So I decided to laze around
this morning in our flat at the Dolphin Square, napping and writing in my trip
journal.
Betty did our laundry in
the hotel’s coin-operated facility. She got in just ahead of several,
professional rugby players who were in London for a tournament.
After takeout lunch from
the hotel deli, we strolled about a mile down the Riverwalk, a wide promenade
along the Thames, to the Tate Britain. Along the way we admired the very
expensive condo buildings facing the river. The government had wisely secured
the right-of-way at the edge of the riverbank so the public has free access to
the same views as do the wealthy condo owners. The tree-lined Riverwalk has
inviting, wrought-iron benches here and there. It also has decorative lampposts
and hanging flower baskets made of
wrought iron in the Victorian style. The sidewalk follows the gentle, winding
course of the riverbank. The high-rise condo buildings screen out much of the
traffic noise from the busy streets so that strollers have a quiet place of
beauty and peace only a few steps away from London’s traffic.
Plantings of shrubs on
condo porches and lots of potted flowers testify to the respect the English
have for nature’s beauty. We saw no graffiti, broken glass or piles of litter
that mar so many public areas back home. The British government must be strict
on vandals. Discreet signs warn that the law prohibits “verminous and filthily
offensive people” f rom using the benches. So London, too, must also have
problems with street people.
 |
| Lewis on Riverwalk along Thames |
| Click Colored Type to Enlarge Photo |
Tate Britain is a gigantic
art gallery in the heart of London. It has one of the finest collections of
British artwork in the world, specializing in art related to the history of
Britain from the 16th Century to the present day. Admission is free
but voluntary donations are encouraged. Fodor’s Citypack London guidebook ranks
it No. 11 in the Top 25 Attractions.
Sugar baron Henry Tate
paid for the main building of granite and marble that takes up most of a block.
He donated his collection of Victorian-era paintings to the art museum named in
his honor. It opened in 1897. Its national collections of British and
international art have overflowed into a second building, called Tate Modern.
It is across the river. Tate Modern’s collection and exhibitions are not
limited to British artwork. It displays paintings and sculpture by Monet,
Matisse, Picasso and other international artists. The Tate also operates
smaller branches in Liverpool and in St. Ives on the Cornish coast, where we
are headed later in the week. The Tate is funded both publicly and privately.
According to Fodor, Tate
Britain is distinguished for its portraits by Van Dyck, Hogarth, Gainsborough
and Reynolds; illustrations by Blake; landscapes by Constable and its
incomparable collection of 300 oil paintings by J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851).
Our favorite was the work
of Turner, who is considered by some art historians to be Britain’s greatest
painter. Several galleries are devoted to his work and are loosely arranged
according to theme. One deals with landscapes, another with Biblical and
another with neo-classical “story” paintings. The galleries I found most
compelling are those that display Turner’s magnificent depictions of the great
land and sea battles of the Napoleonic Wars.
 |
| Betty at entrance to Tate Britain |
| Click Colored Type to Enlarge Photo |
A friendly and competent
docent introduced us to the work of the late Barbara Hepworth, one of the
seminal forces in the development of modern art. She alerted us to what proved
to be a grand exhibition of Hepworth’s paintings and sculpture on display at
the Tate St. Ives.
The Tate has a decent gift
shop. But compared to the all-out merchandising in shops at the Louvre in
Paris, the Metropolitan in New York and the National Gallery in Washington, it
appeared to us that the Tate has certainly missed an opportunity.
We enjoyed strolling back
down the Riverwalk to the Dolphin Square, where we relaxed for a while before
walking back toward Victoria Station to the Sea Fresh Restaurant. We had an
excellent fish-and-chips dinner, for £8.95 each. Included were mountains of
French fries. We visited with three American women at an adjacent table who had
also heard about the great food and moderate prices (hard to find in Central
London). They had made the mistake of arriving in London at 7:30 a.m., on the
overnight flight from Chicago. Of course their hotel room wasn’t ready. The
women were exhausted from spending their first day in London on their feet. But
they had made the most of their day and
seen quite a few sights.
I confess to a harboring a
certain element of smarty-pants satisfaction that came from arranging for our
travel on a later overnight flight (from Atlanta) with an 11:30 a.m. arrival.
By the time we had collected our luggage, rode the Gatwick Express train to
Victoria Station and caught a black cab to the Dolphin Square, our room was
ready for check-in.
Until the upheaval in the
airline industry that cancelled many flights following the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001, British Airways offered an even better flight schedule. It had
one flight, we were told by a British businessman who bemoaned its
cancellation, that departed Boston at 7 a.m. and arrived in London at 6 p.m.
local time.
Continue With Next Trip
Installment / Return To Nolan
Travels Home Page