The weather finally turned on us, getting rainy and cold (30s) but that didn’t stop us from one final day in central London, seeing two old friends (Una and Patti) and visiting old stomping grounds (Covent Garden and surrounds).
The National Portrait Gallery is a favorite and recently remodeled, we’re told. And free! I went to the contemporary portraits (Judy Dench, Maggie Smith, Dua Lipa, the most recent queen Elizabeth…) while dirck headed to the old folks (Shakespeare and Cromwell, Queen Elizabeth #1, Queen Victoria). Then we briefly visited the excellent gift shop. In Covent Garden we happened past a cafe run by Petersham Nursery, which we’ve visited in Richmond so we shared a very salty prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich. Covent Garden has more American chains (shakeshack) and luxury brands but still some interesting stuff including the seven dials market and old favorites (Neal’s Yard cheese, Monmouth coffee.) and I still love the tight little lanes lined with shops, even if they’re too expensive.
In the once decrepit now hip spitalfields neighborhood in the city financial district, I spent most of my time at the Bishopsgate Institute, a quirky old place that is home to the Great Diary Project, although you’d never know it. The signage for the archive highlights the UK’s largest LGBTQIA+ (IA+ ??) collection.
I read some old diaries in a cramped reading room with a handful of other researchers. Una later joined me and found an amazing WW2 diary a woman wrote complete with hand drawn maps of Europe. I was obsessed with the 1980s “Dairy Diaries” which were offered as promotions by the now defunct Milk Marketing board. The entries were dull (rundowns of the often “dull” weather, comings and goings) but the pre-printed material especially the recipes for various cheesy dishes (Kipper soufflé, chicken chaudfroid) were fun to read and a telling look at the diet of that day (or aspirational diet). Dirck wandered around the shops and met as at the pleasant old worldy Market Coffee House for drinks.
Next stop, dinner with Patti in Primrose Hill at Lemonia, a long-standing Greek restaurant, surrounded by a few blocks of attractive shops. (I bought a furry head band at a shelter housing second-hand charity shop and a baguette at a bagel store.)
Now we’re waiting on a British Airways plane to take off – we’re delayed as we wait for luggage to be loaded but the flight is not packed. Dirck and I have row of four seats to ourselves, although we can’t get the antiquated entertainment system to work.
TakeBetsywithyou 