Miss Elaineous

Sunday, 6 May 2018

MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS SIR JOHN SOANE'S MUSEUM...

This was another weird and wonderful find, situated at numbers 12, 13 and 14 Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn, London.

Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was a neo-classical architect, responsible for such imposing buildings as the Bank of England and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, as well as remodelling his three houses and turning them into a co-joining, living museum. He both resided and worked here, as well as using the space to display his significant and ever-growing collection of unusual artefacts.

Incidentally, he is buried- along with his wife, Elizabeth, and John, his eldest son- in the graveyard of St. Pancras Old Church, Camden, home to The Hardy Tree. I have also blogged about this place.

Here is the wondrous Hardy Tree...

Here is the Soane family tomb...

Back to the museum; and the collection is both bizarre and spectacular, including many busts, gargoyles and even the sarcophagus of Egyptian King, Seti I, who was thought to rule from around 1290 or 1294 to 1279 BC.

Before he died, Soane negotiated an Act of Parliament, which allowed his collection to be preserved in exactly the same way it had been displayed in his lifetime.

It was a lovely warm Saturday morning when I entered the museum at not long after 10am. There was no queue, but several people milling around inside.
We had to put our bags into plastic bags, to prevent any accidental knocking of the artefacts, which is fine by me.
I also had to relinquish my drink to the entrance desk, to pick up on the way out, which is also okay.
But, photography was not allowed! This really annoys me! I can understand flash photography being banned, as it might irritate other visitors but COME ON, people like to record their days out. I don't understand why some museums and attractions are so precious about this.

Here's the outside of the museum...

I would have loved to have bought a guidebook, as the items on show are not labelled- as per the instructions of Sir John Soane- but, crowded around the desk was a guide describing the house to two French tourists (I was quite impressed that my pidgin French was able to pick up what she was saying!) Now, I'm all for bi/multilingual guides, but this bird was sooooo loud that I'm sure she could have been heard over in Paris! As the volume was too high, I moved on, through the kitchen and on to the crypt.

Here are some PDFs of what I saw. Statues and part-statues, urns and gargoyles abound...

This place was like a labyrinth with elements of halls of mirrors, and you kept walking back on yourself. It is very important to look up and down, as all the levels are interlinked and you can get a different view of something you walked past five minutes ago.

Here is a fig leaf man...

Looking up from this point...

Whilst walking through this structured maze, I kept coming eyeball to eye hole with a skull on a shelf. I wish I'd had the guidebook to look up who he/ she was, as I can find no details of the skull online and the way I kept ending up next to the skull was disconcerting, to say the least.

Here is the sarcophagus of the Egyptian pharaoh, Seti I.

I have to say, I perhaps rushed this section as some fat arsed, pot bellied cow (no, I wasn't looking in the mirror) behind me kept pulling snot through her pipe and sounded like she was about to hawk onto the floor. As I didn't fancy catching pleurisy or tuberculosis I moved quickly on.

Here is Seti I, looking down from the next level...

The Monk's Parlour was freaky, with stained glass windows and gargoyles standing sentinel on the wall. Here is the door to the room...

In the art gallery, which has moving planes (like cupboard doors lined with paintings- allowing more than one collection to be displayed at intervals) are works by one of my favourite artists, William Hogarth. I always find his satirical depictions of the day highly amusing. A Rake's Progress is a series of eight paintings telling the story of fictional Tom Rakewell.

A Rakes Progress- The Orgy...

We moved upwards to the Breakfast Room, with mirrors on each corner and north/ south/ east/ west labelling...

Oh, how I would have loved to have been able to take my own photos- BIG grrrrrr!

To give you some idea of the nature of the museum, here are some gargoyles that I believe you can buy in their shop. Handsome, aren't they?! It looks like a rougues' gallery of my ex-boyfriends!

There are seven private rooms, all previously used by John Soane, on the top floor. I wasn't allowed to go up there as they're only accessible via a tour. To be fair, a tour was about to start and I really didn't feel like tagging along as, at the time, I didn't know how long the tour lasted, didn't know how much it cost and had already traversed the museum once. Apparently they're an hour long, you have to book, no more than eight people can take part and you have to pay £12.50. I can't comment upon whether it's value for money as I didn't do it.

BUT, here's a suggestion to the museum trustees- why not make entrance to the private rooms available to everyone for a small fee- say two or three quid? As the entrance to the rest of the museum is free, I'm sure most visitors would be happy to pay, and therefore create a lot more revenue than that gained by the accompanied tours.

Here's a bit of what I didn't see; the Model Room, displaying miniatures of Soane's architectural works...

I have to say, I enjoyed my visit but am unsure whether to return and do the private tour. We shall see.

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Monday, 30 April 2018

IRIS & RUBY by ROSIE THOMAS

IRIS & RUBY

BY ROSIE THOMAS

THE BLURB:-

A richly textured story of love, loss and the distance between three generations of one family.

The unexpected arrival of her wilful teenage granddaughter, Ruby, brings life and disorder to 82-year-old Iris Black's old house in Cairo. Ruby, driven by her fraught relationship with her own mother to run away from England, is seeking refuge with the grandmother she hasn't seen for years.

An unlikely bond develops between them, as Ruby helps Iris to record her fading memories of the glittering, cosmopolitan Cairo of World War Two, and of her one true love- the enigmatic Captain Xan Molyneux- whom she lost to the ravages of the conflict.

The long-ago love has shaped Iris's life, and, as becomes increasingly apparent, those of her daughter and granddaughter. And it is to affect them all, again, in ways they could not have imagined.

THE REALITY:-

This got pushed to the bottom of the pile as I found the title rather uninspiring, even though flowery Iris and bejewelled Ruby are pretty names. But, after reading the book, I think that to call this novel anything else would be unnecessary and perhaps extravagant, as this book is about relationships- both between mothers and daughters- and, particularly, the new bond between a grandmother and her granddaughter.

This was not a novel without discrepancies- on page 132 it states that Iris's daughter Lesley was born in 1954, but on 382 it mentions that she was born in 1950. Hmm. We are learning this via the character of Iris, who is 82 and finding recalling memories difficult, but this looks like a mistake to me, and not a written example of Iris's forgetfulness.

I loved the theme of memories being compared to a cup on the shelf; one that you can reach for and pull down to enter a period of reminiscence, only sometimes that cup is not there and the memory is lost, if only temporarily.

Cairo during the war made for a very interesting, glittering backdrop to Iris's love affair with Xan Molyneux, which we knew, from the blurb at the back, didn't last as he was killed fighting in the desert. I can empathise with her heartbreak as she lost the man she loved and then lost their child which she was carrying. That part made me cry a river, so this was certainly a novel which touched me. Iris's society friends made for an colourful read too, and I liked that this novel made a comparison of rich and poor Cairo, with Ruby's relationship with Ash giving us a clear view of the latter.

I did enjoy the variety of different personalities displayed in this work and felt that they were all important to the development of the novel, with no one person superfluous to requirements. I've always wanted to visit Eqypt and see the pyramids and a sphinx or two. As a child, I was always fascinated by the Sahara Desert as the atlas my father owned showed a picture of its miles and miles of lonely, undulating sand. As a kid, I wanted to go and live there but, as an adult, I'll settle for a holiday! I did, however find the 'lost in the desert' section of the story a bit drawn out.

Spoiler alert- Iris ends up dying, which is a bit of a shame. It would have been nice to see a bit more of relationship development between herself, Lesley and Ruby. But, hey-ho, a novel has to end up somewhere and I hope Iris was reunited with Xan, the one great love of her life. See, this book obviously touched me as I'm confusing reality with fiction! A good read and I'd like to read more by this author.

Sunday, 22 April 2018

MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS VALENTINES MANSION...

Valentines Mansion is situated in the lovely Valentines Park, Ilford. It is spitting distance from my home, and I've visited on quite a few occasions.

I have also created three YouTube vlogs:

Mansion:-

https://youtu.be/eUVSNzDMfBo

Park, Part 1:-

https://youtu.be/F2rapZHtNrE

Park, Part 2:-

https://youtu.be/CkPTp2sRUvk

Here is the history:-

Valentines Mansion is more than 300 years old.

The house was built in around 1696 for Elizabeth Tillotson and her family, after the death of her husband, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

At that time the new brick house stood in open countryside, several miles from the edge of London.

Valentines has changed hands many times since then. City merchant and banker Robert Surman bought the estate in 1720s and created the walled gardens, dovecote and grottoes.

In the 1760s owner Sir Charles Raymond spent part of his fortune renovating Valentines, giving the house its Georgian appearance.

Sarah Ingleby, the last private resident of Valentines, died in 1906 and the Council acquired the house in 1912. Since then, the mansion has been home to wartime refugees, a hospital, a public health centre, and a council housing department.

After standing empty for 15 years, Valentines has now been restored with Redbridge council and Heritage Lottery funds, and strong community support to create the historic but contemporary venue it is today.

Source:- Valentine's Mansion & Gardens website.

Here is the current entrance, which is not the original entrance to the house. This porte cochère (a covered entrance large enough for vehicles to pass through) was built in the 1810s, by resident Charles Welstead, who lived in the mansion from 1808 to 1838.

The view from the entrance, overlooking the charming Gardener's Cottage Cafe, which sits behind the Dovecote. The Dovecote dates from c.1740-1760, and once contained domesticated doves and pigeons.

The view over to the far corner of Valentines Park...

It's a little known fact that The Great Vine at Hampton Court Palace was propagated from a cutting taken from Valentines Mansion's Kitchen Garden.

Here it is, taken last September on a day trip to Surrey, looking slightly bald. I think we visited just after harvesting.

It's maybe marginally better known that the 2011 series of The Great British Bake Off, and some charity versions of the show, were filmed in the mansion grounds. I stumbled across the tents by accident one hot day, whilst having a walk in the park. I recognised Sue Perkins standing inside, by one of the contestant's work benches. It was also the first day that I ever went inside the mansion. About a week or so later, I watched the show on TV. At the end, in the small tent, Mary Berry and Paul can't-keep-it-in-his-pants Hollywood were doing their summing up, deciding who to evict from the show and who to crown Star Baker, when I saw a flash of purple and black that I recognised as myself walking past! Have I been on television besides this? No, and I've no desire to, either. Even when I'm a famous novelist, I'll keep TV interviews to a minimum, as I'm a private person.

People often ask me, “Have you seen many famous people in London?” and my answer is no, because I neither go looking for- or notice- them. Fame and celebrity don't impress me.

Back to the mansion, and the tour starts with a look into the Kitchen. It dates back to c.1810, when it was built to connect the Scullery with the main house. Before that this room would once have been separate, due to the risk of fire.

It has been recreated to look like it did in days gone by.

The cooking range...

Pots 'n' pans...

The skillet, with irons warming on the range behind...

A trio of dressers, and the Kitchen is bright and airy, with essential high walls and ceilings to keep this bustling room cool.

Through to the Scullery, and this is where messy work- such as clothes washing and peeling vegetables- would have taken place.

Washing implements- my nan owned stuff like this!

Sacks of (plastic, but lifelike!) vegetables...

Behind the door sits the bread oven...

Stored foodstuffs and the scullery and dairy date from 1809. Before that this single storey building was an orangery.

The Pantry, and lavish items would have been stored here; such as wine, glazed fruits and meat.

Only the butler would have possessed a key to this cupboard...

Shelf of jars...

Through to the Dairy Wing, and more lifelike foodstuffs. Oh, and what looks like my SuperDean's hand!

This area would have been a cool room...

Thou shall have a fishy, on a little dishy...

Of course, what you don't see is often as interesting as what you do... Behind this curtain was an old-fashioned butler's sink...

Into the main part of the mansion, and here's the oak staircase with barley twist spindles. The beautiful stained glass Regency window dates from the Welstead improvements.

In silhouette, from the bottom looking up...

...and the top looking down...

Close-up...

These were once the servants' stairs, going up to the highest floor. It was closed off but I have been up there before, to an artists in residence day...

Going down...

Here are some photos of the mansion's rooms, both downstairs and upstairs. Generally speaking, everything looked quite bare. They did once have a bedroom open to the public but that's now closed. It does look like you can hold functions in some of the rooms.

This room was once the main entrance to the house...

Tables and dummies in the Holcombe Room, named after Charles Holcombe, who moved into Valentines Mansion around 1840.

Holcombe Room dummy...

A cute and elegant table in the Regency Parlour, which was once the Ingleby's bedroom.

The history of the house, with SuperDean in the way, as usual...

I thought this display of keys was quirky...

There are some interesting fireplaces in the mansion...

A couple of mirrors, with a vain old tart posing in them! As seems to be the case whenever I'm taking selfies, I'm in my favourite pink outfit!

Someone tryin' to steal my thunder...

My favourite photographs of this visit consisted of views over the picturesque Valentines Park...

Urban views...

The painted glass in the Drawing Room, overlooking the balcony...

We left the house and ventured towards the cottage. They do nice cream teas in here...

This was once the Kitchen Garden (site of the vine which provided the cutting for the Great Vine at Hampton Court Palace.)

You pass this cute cottage window on the way...

Nature reserve...

Tweetie-pies...

There used to be a sundial on this podium, but it's been removed.

Walled Garden views...

This part is the Old English Garden...

I liked these but have no idea what they are, as I'm not a botanist (or green fingered, for that matter). Hyacinths, maybe?

The view over the Long Water as you leave the Walled Garden. I believe the small hump to the centre of the photo (which is barely visible) on the other side of the lake is a wishing well. It's called Jacob's Well.

Looking in the other direction, towards the Head of Canal Grotto...

An original snug and a poser, surrounded by modern bricks. It's known as the Alcove Seat, and this whole area was restored around 2006, using lottery funding.