Homes and antiques

Recently, the Medievalist came a-visiting from Glasgow so we went touristy. 

The Geffrye Museum was a serious highlight. I am a fan of the history of domestic objects, architecture and the home, as you know. The museum was free entry so we hired audio guides, like the history geeks we are. The estimated visit time was one hour, we managed to stay for three - with a break for lunch in the beautiful cafe, all glass and organically entwined metal stems. Oh, and a rather expensive trip to the bookshop, where we both were tempted by this, possibly because we both want to be Lucy Worsley or maybe just have her job and her wardrobe. 

My favourites:

The Aesthetic, for its reaction to Victorian stuffiness and standardised ways of being. Check out the blue-and-white china and the oriental influences.

The Arts and Crafts, for the Morris-inspired natural forms and delicious restful colours. Love that stained glass in the entryway.

And, of course, the Mid-Century, for the multi-purpose family-oriented rooms, the sleek wooden forms and the cleanliness of the design aesthetic,

We also took in our favourite bits of the British Museum, the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval galleries, so for the Medievalist's benefit, here are some splendid thirteenth century tiles:

Oh, and we visited the cultural monolith that is Westfield Stratford City, for the Olympic site viewing platform on the third floor of John Lewis ...

Such fun being a tourist in your own city, once in a while.

Come back soon, Medievalist, there are lots more on my touristic to-do list!

Exploring, under cloudless skies

On Saturday, we took a stroll - yes, under cloudless skies and in the baking heat.  We started on the Docklands Light Rail, at Pudding Mill Lane, to view the Olympic site works:



All very exciting - lots of beautiful blue cornflowers and poppies growing wild amid the rubble and the chain link fences, while massive cranes and diggers rumbled by shifting earth and men in fluorescent jackets wandered about, looking busy and important.





There's fab centre there, the ViewTube, made out of old shipping containers, with a cafe called the Container Cafe: you can sit on the terrace, sipping cappucino as the Olympic park unrolls before your very eyes. It was great - it really made it come home to us that London 2012 is really happening, and right in our backyard too. I started to believe the hype then and there, and got a bit excited about the Olympics coming to London. I certainly feel a tiny bit more sympathetic to weekend Tube closures for Olympics/Crossrail related shenanigans.

Feeling inspired to explore further, we followed our noses along the canal, and discovered lots of very lived-on barges and lots of this:



And stumbled across this wonderful retro branding on a building that used to be a peanut factory and is now luxury loft-style living:



Hot and thirsty after all that, we wandered across Victoria Park - pausing only to admire the roses at a sweet little garden centre called Growing Concerns - to sip cold pints of lager in the garden of The Britannia, where children and dogs frolicked while owers drank.

A summer day in London. Splendid.

A rose by any other name ...

Leyton was first recorded in c.1050 as Lugetune, a name which derives from the river Lea (itself Celtic in origin, meaning "the sparkling river") and the Old English word 'tun', meaning farm. Leytonstone was first recorded as Leyton atte Stone, in 1370, indicating that the place is between Leyton and the High Stone, the boundary mark.

Fascinating!

And I love imagining the scrubby, down-at-heel high street with it's death chicken takeaways and pound shops as a sprawling medieval farm by a rushing river, perched between civilisation and the boundary of the wild ancient forest - although admittedly it's currently rather a stretch to imagine this shopping-trolley-strangled reach of the River Lea as "sparkling", perhaps the 2012 Olympics development will restore it to it's former glory.

Geekily, I have been reading up on local place names in this ace book ... total goldmine!