London Calling! Part 1

By Mary Jo

I've always been an Anglophile. I'm not sure if it's my DNA or all the books I read with British settings and British authors. I remember being surprised in school when a world map showed me the actual location of the British Isles. So far north and so SMALL! But mighty in world history, and in my imagination.

My interest in Britain and British history had a lot to do with living there for over two years in my 20s, when I was the art editor of a start up magazine about third World Development. I lived in Oxford and made brass rubbings in churches and drove a Morris Minor Traveler, a little station wagon with a wooden framed back structure that creaked like a ship at ship at sea when rounding corners. (Once a wheel fell off on a turn. I was told that the king pin broke, which happened regularly on older Morrises. O-kayyyy….)

I've visited Great Britain and Ireland many times since then, most recently last July, which included an RNA conference in Leeds and wonderful to Orkney and Shetland in the far, far north. But it's been a long time since I've been footloose in London 

There are so many, many wonderful things one can do in London: as Johnson said, the man who is tired of London is tired of life. Other Wenches have blogged of London, with Andrea Penrose taking us through Kensington Palace and Nicola Cornick taking us through the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Gallery, a delicious display of old treasures found in the attics of Westminster Abbey.

Anne Gracie also posted about her Georgette Heyer tour, and I'll talk more about that tour on Friday since I took it also.

With such treasures available, what should I see with only a week to play? I've always been interested in British military history.  My next book, Once a Spy, which will be out on September 24th, is set around the fringes of Waterloo so I decided to visit some of the military museums, in which I include Apsley House. home of the Duke of Wellington in his post-military days.

Wellington was a towering figure on 19th century Britain--something of a cross between George Washington and Winston Churchill. He was the "Conqueror of the Conqueror of the World," the man who spearheaded the Allied victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. After his military days, he remained a public figure and had two stints as Prime Minister.

I've always been interested in Wellington, so at Andrea's suggestion I decided to visit his London home, Apsley House. It's an impressive mansion directly opposite Hyde Park Corner in the heart of London--and it's popularly known as #1 London.

The mansion is still in the Wellington family and contains one of Britain's foremost art collections as well as an exhibit of Wellington's years in India early in his career. You've probably all seen this famous Thomas Lawrence portrait of Wellington wearing his field marshal's uniform and with his arms crossed determinedly. It was quite a thrill to see the original hanging over a fireplace!

There are paintings and statues of allies and enemies such as Field Marshal Prince Blucher, commander of the Prussian army that fought beside Wellington's troops. There are also portraits and sculptures of Napoleon. My favorite is the huge statue of Napoleon wearing only a fig leaf.

Carved by the famous sculptor Canova, the Emperor is depicted as Mars the Peacemaker. (Say what??? Someone doesn't know their mythology!) Napoleon did not like the statue, it was ‘too athletic,’ (Which Bonaparte certainly wasn't by then!)

According to the description of the sculpture, "the restored French monarch Louis XVIII had instructed the director of the museum to “make all the paintings with the effigy of Bonaparte disappear from the royal palaces and houses”.

So the British bought the statue and the Prince Regent (later George IV) presented it to Wellington in 1816. "When the statue arrived at Apsley House the only possible location was at the bottom of the grand stair case, the wine cellar beneath the statue had to be strengthened to take the 3 ton weight." It may not say much about Napoleon or Peace, but it is impressive.

Directly across from Apsley House is Wellington Arch, patterned on the Roman triumphal arches. I'd seen it in passing years earlier, but hadn't realized that you can go inside. (I recommend taking the elevator rather than climbing the steps. <G>) There's a very nice video presentation of the Battle of Waterloo. I so enjoyed watching the troop movements that I'd studied for my book that I sat through the video twice. There are great views of central London from the top as well.

Continuing in my military mode, I visited the Guards Museum, which is part of Wellington Barracks a short walk away. The Guards are the personal household troops of the royal family and the museum reflects centuries of their distinguished history. The secret of telling which Guard regiment is which is in the buttons on their tunics.

A mere 500 meters away is Buckingham Palace, the queen's residence. It's a traditional spot for protests, and there were a couple that day. As I ambled by, I heard a chant of "Brexit, no!" though possibly it was "Brexit now!"  Very nice iron work on the gates!

A couple of days later, I visited the Army Museum in Chelsea. Large and recently renovated, it is rich with displays of soldiers, weapons, and the effects of war from distant days right up to Iraq and Afghanistan. Still in my Wellington mode, I was particularly taken by the exhibit of the cloak worn by Wellington at Waterloo. (The uniform coat he wore at Waterloo was listed as being in the Guards museum, but I couldn't find it.)

So those were my London museums! On Friday I'll talk about the more social part of my visit from the delights of Chelsea to visit a splendid Arts and Crafts house and garden in the green fields of Sussex.

What museums would you most like to visit in London? The possibilities are splendid!

Mary Jo

 

Comments

[Sue McCormick]

I have given up the dream of returning to London, but top of my list would be a return to the V&A. We had about 2 hours there, which scarcely scratches the surface.

After spending some REAL time at the Victoria and Albert, any other London musem would have treasures galore. I don't truly know enough to choose.

Thank you for this virtual tour.

[Mary M.]

Mary Jo, you've made me wish for one more trip to London. But I have determinedly hung up my passport after my last visit at the end of April. I'm a happy camper, though, because I did get to see the new Queen's Jubilee Galleries in the "attic" of Westminster Abbey. It's a quiet space filled with an array of items associated with Westminster over the centuries, including a wooden effigy of Queen Mary I that clearly shows she had a tumor, not a five-year pregnancy as she'd insisted. One side of the gallery was open to the bustling abbey about four stories below, while on the other side we looked out through leaded windows onto the (surprisingly good natured) demonstrations below. (It was Brexit Day, though the event didn't happen.)

[Karin]

I'd love to go to the V&A Museum. I missed it on my one and only visit to London.

[Mike]

Given your interest in Waterloo and that you visited the National Army Museum, I wonder if Siborne's diorama of the battle is still on display and if so did you see it?

As for other museums the V&A and the BM are always worth a visit but recent excursions to the Science Museum and the Imperial War Museum did not live up to my childhood memories. For the latter I remember wonderful dioramas of WW1 trench systems which seem to have vanished whilst the former had a huge gallery of ship models which has been closed and put into storage (a small act of cultural vandalism). Neither are your current area of interest but both were a great resource for the historically inclined, and as a child I was fascinated by the large scale models of Victorian battleships.

[Andrea Penrose]

Wonderful post, Mary Jo! Wish I could have tagged along! Another fun small military museum is Horse Guards Museum, which is the cavalry museum of the Guards, located in (of course) the imposing Horse Guards building, next to the Admiralty.

There are still working stable and the parade ground for the ceremonial cavalry guarding some of the landmark building. There are also fascinating paintings, weaponry and saddles from the Napoleonic era. Heaven for Regency fans!

[Lillian Marek]

It's like potato chips — I can't pick just one. But on the top of my list for the next time I'm in London (and there MUST be a next time) are Dennis Severs’ House in Spitalfields, Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Wallace Collection, and the Keats House. Smaller places than the National Gallery or the Victoria and Albert, so I can look without developing sensory overload.

[Shannon Arthur]

Strange to see this here today. On Friday, I am leading a group to go to Apsley House and have a discussion about Wellington at lunch nearby. I'm supposed to be reviewing the readings that I assigned. I just am hoping that what they see at the house will spark lots of scintillating conversation because I don't feel like doing much revision tonight.

Since I live a hour from London, there's not many museums left to see that I haven't sampled. I do want to make time for the Tate Modern sometime next winter. Museums are for shorter days. I find myself adding gardens to my travel itineraries this summer. I feel like I'm becoming more shallow to forsake history and knowledge for ephemeral blooms.

[Mary T]

Love this post. I like it when you take us along on your journeys. It's the closest I'll ever get to the real thing.

I love that naked statue of Bonaparte next to the grand staircase. Judging from the many portraits I've seen of him, it's nothing like I would have imagined he would look like without his clothes (smile). What i welcome that is!

[mary jo putney]

Sue, I think one would have to camp in the V&A for a fortnight to do justice to it! It's probably my favorite London museum, but there are so many to choose from.

[mary jo putney]

Mary M., I would have loved to see the Queen's Jubilee Galleries! It sounds extraordinary. I hadn't heard of the effigy of Queen Mary I.

[mary jo putney]

Karin, you just need to visit again. *G*

[mary jo putney]

Mike, I just googled and apparently the Siborne Waterloo is still in the Museum and in the Battle section. I didn't see, it though--there is a lot of museum and I was starting to flag a bit. I would love to have seen the models of Victorian battleships! Those kinds of displays take a lot of space, so I suppose fewer museums want to allocate so much area to something static. A pity.

[mary jo putney]

Andrea, I would love to see the Horse Guards Museum! You can be my guide if we manage to be in London together. *G*

[mary jo putney]

Lillian, so true about the visual overload! Though I wrote about these museums in one post, I didn't visit them so closely together. I did a lot of walking the streets of central London.

[mary jo putney]

Shannon, garden blooms are ephemeral, but wonderful gardens are part of the British DNA and well worth visiting, especially on nice days. I hope the Apsley House discussion goes well--there is so much there that reflects the esteem Wellington was held in by most of the crowned heads of Europe.

[mary jo putney]

LOL! As the emperor said himself, the statue was "too athletic." Even at the peak of his military fitness, I doubt he looked much like that. WHile depicting him as Mars makes sense,--the Peacekeeper??!!!

[Jenny]

Sensory overload warning for the Sir John Soane's museum! I struggle with that place, which is a shame because it's five minutes from my office. There's just *so* much jumbled in there, it troubles my slightly OCD tendencies. His wife's drawing room, upstairs, is a beautiful, uncluttered Regency space which serves a something of a palate cleanser. YMMV.

[Anne Gracie]

Surely that was either tongue-in-cheek, or pandering to Napoleon's vanity.

[Sonya Heaney]

I am so, so jealous that you got to Apsley House. It was closed to tourists forever, and then recently opened. The last time I was in London it was the #1 thing on my list to do (I used to live there, so have been to the main things a million times), but it was closed for restoration.
The best I could do was look at it from the outside!

I guess that's what happens when you travel to places in wintertime!

[mary jo putney]

Well, DARN on not being able to go in during winter restoration! It's well worth visiting. I hope you manage it on your next visit.

[mary jo putney]

Anne, probably the latter. I suppose one could consider destroying a country so thoroughly it can't fight back a form of "peace."