We decided to visit the National Art and National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square so walked to the local tube station which in fact only took about 10 minutes in the brilliant sunshine, and a chance to see the busy high street. Central line is excellent and fast (though Victoria line is the fastest) and we made it in around 40 minutes with one tube change. We had a glorious time in the current Impressionist exhibition and then trotted off round the corner to the Portrait Gallery and Cafe in the basement. Yummy food and great ambiance.
I love the Portrait Gallery especially the 60s to Present section, and just wished we could have indulged in the current Michael Jackson exhibition but it was a bit expensive to enter. If anyone has been let me know your thoughts about it, maybe we’ll get another chance to visit.
After being fed, we tootled along by tube to Covent Garden as we hadn’t been there for ages, making sure we didn’t use the Piccadilly Line as Covent Garden station was shut! Some walking but we made it. The whole place had quite a few newly built old-style colonnades added with office space over since I was last there but still it shone with its old magic and bustling stalls. An opera singer voicing her arias from below in the main market building, a nice interlude and perfect pitch place acoustics.
Brought back lovely memories for me as I worked in Covent Garden in the mid 1970s first for Conran Associates/Habitat Designs Press Office on Neal Street, before I moved to BBC Publications (Marylebone High St) and then BBC Radio (Charlotte St and Broadcasting House) for more money! Can you imagine I actually timed records for the production schedules of Pete Murray’s Show with 5.5 million listeners daily! Now that’s a thought for you and how audio technology has moved on since then.
The 1970s were great times to be in London, loved it! Colebrooke House, Colebrooke Row behind the Angel tube station, Islington is where I lived! All Georgian terraced houses worth millions now as most converted back to individual dwellings in the 1980s. I shared our first floor flat with Polly Bayliss, my best friend from Lady Bay Infants school in West Bridgford, (she was a packaging/graphic designer) who persuaded me to come to the big city in 1973, so I got the Habitat shop Victoria Centre to promote me to their head office in Covent Garden. And the rest is history!
Headed off down Burleigh Street to the Strand and onwards to Charing Cross station to get home. Once there, we enjoyed the rest of our Indian meal and Shiraz, and watched Netflix. Lovely.
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