From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: George Michaelson To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] Things to do in London When You're 9con-ing Message-Id: <20040429081728.53728fda@dhcppc1> In-Reply-To: <1083168140.26799.444.camel@zevon> References: <1083168140.26799.444.camel@zevon> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:17:28 +1000 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 7096aa3c-eacd-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 Sir John Soanes house museum. It has the most eclectic collection of ephemeral architectural remains around. Wonderful! The Horniman Museum. fascinating collection of musical instruments. (The V&A is also a good bet) The reading room of the British Museum is now no longer a library but is at last available to non-ticket holders to see inside. Greenwich is fab. the Harrison chronometers are well worth a look. The Science Museum has the babbage engine and the modern reconstructions and a differential analyser made of meccano. Hendon Air Museum has a Lancaster Bomber. Brick Lane Markets. Everything on sale. including your own kidneys. Camden Lock markets. Kentish Town may still have a very nice Moroccan Restaurant called 'le petit prince' which does its own merguez. Go to the houses of parliment before they build the glass screen across the visitors gallery. The London Underground Museum, and the Post Museum are small but good. Go up St Pauls Cathedral dome. whispering gallery! (huge and works) Also has the tomb of Nelson in the crypt. Also fab view from cupola. Also the London Fire Memorial is worth a climb. (its a shame that he blitz got rid of both Gin Lane, and Grope-cunt street) The best view of the London Skyline is from Primrose Hill, which is near to Camden Lock. Richmond and Kew are fab. Kew House has a very good museum, you can see the Pagoda. The modern HotHouses are ok, but the Paxton original with the giant waterlily is the best. UCL has a museum of Archeology (Flinders Petrie worked there) which has historical weights and measures for the numerically minded. (like ancient egyptian ones) Oh, the V&A costume collection is also fab. The Elgin Marbles in the British Museum. Also a room of Netsuke! Bookshops down Shaftsbury Avenue. Very good Army & Navy surplus store between Euston and Kings Cross. Speakers Corner has the new Memorial to the aussies who died in the wars. And the Barrie memorial for peter pan fanatics. Roman London is on display at the Barbican, both physically, and recreated in the museum as is the fire of london. Greys Inn is fun to walk through. The Courtauld Institute is now down at Kings College. It has a lovely small collection of Art. (anthony blunt, who worked there, specialized in the Poussin collection which is down at the Dulwich Gallery, also lovely) Sir John Soane did the wall alongside the Bank of England. Hawksmoor did a church near by. The Natural History Musuem and the Geology Museum are worth it, but don't try and do them AND the V&A AND the Science Museum in one day. The Science Museum has been ruined by too many re-re-re-organizations. But its still worth a go. (quite apart from the babbage stuff) Windsor Castle is within decent Travelling distance. Clerkenwell has secondhand books on sale from barrows early in the morning. Near the old Communist Party publishing house. BlackFriars Bridge is the scene of one of the worlds first electricity generating systems for public distribution outside of the edison plants in the USA. Walking around is good. -George