The Start of a Very Long Journey
Today there is no football, either for Ipswich or on the television. I do hate these boring International weekends! Especially, now that they don’t play on a Saturday, but on a Friday night.
After reading about Bury and their football for a fiver, I tried to find them on the web and found my local team, Bury Town, who must surely be the only team with Town in their name, who play in a town with a cathedral. In fact how many towns with cathedrals are there, that are not cities.
Bury Town, are playing in the Third Round of the FA Cup today, I think I’ll go! Perhaps then, I’ll follow the team in the cup that beats them and see how far I can get! It will be a long and difficult journey!
I’ll go early, check out the museums for some of the paintings and then have a gluten-free lunch in the new Carluccio’s.
The Brunel Museum
The Brunel Museum is just a short walk from Rotherhithe on the East London Line and is well-signposted from there.
The Brunel Museum
It is a small museum with some good displays about Isambard Brunel and his often forgotten father, Marc. It is well worth the entrance fee of £2.
One of my most favourite books is the biography of Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Exchange at Whitechapel
On Friday morning, I walked from the Raj Hotel in the Essex Road through de Beauvoir Town to Dalston Junction Station to catch the East London Line. It was a pleasant walk through one of the most unusual and pleasant parts of London and I was using the train to go to the Museum of London after a change at Whitechapel to the Hammersmith and City Line for Barbican.
The simple change took me longer than it should, as in the first place, signage from the East London line to the Hammersmith and City wasn’t good, a train indicator board was broken and then I had to wait some time for a train. I did talk to someone on the platform and he was helpful and acknowledged the problem. I hope it improves, as it will become an important link between the Overground and the Underground.
I should say that I’ve used Whitechapel for years and it really isn’t any worse than it was when my granddaughter was born in the London Hospital. I suspect there’s a lot of problems because the interchange is where it is, with pavements and a street market outside and limited space inside.
I would also suspect that as Whitechapel Station is going to be a major interchange on CrossRail, that the problems I encountered will be designed out in the years to come.
Crewe Heritage Centre
One of the few places that are worth seeing in Crewe is the Crewe Heritage Centre, which is a railway museum.
Unfortunately it was closed, despite it being the school holidays. But as it is within walking distance of the station and the football ground, it would be an ideal place to waste a few hours before an away match with Crewe Alexandra.
If I Could Own Just One Painting
I had come to Charing Cross, so that I could go to the National Gallery to see the Acts of Mercy paintings that used to be in the Middlesex Hospital. I’m no art expert, but they have to be seen to be believed. You might think art has no place in hospitals these days, but Addenbrookes has an extensive collection, which I think makes staff and patients feel better. Addenbrookes also marked 800 years of Cambridge University with the unvieling of a mural by Quentin Blake, showing various alumni of the University.
They also say this on their web site.
The arts have the potential to distract, amuse, enlighten and engage patients, staff and visitors. In recent years, a growing body of evidence has been compiled proving the value of the arts in healthcare settings. Earlier this year, this resulted in the Department of Health issuing its first ever review of arts in health which recognised that the arts “are, and should be firmly recognised as being, integral to health, healthcare provision and healthcare environments, including supporting staff”.
It is sad that those paintings from the Middlesex, couldn’t have been found a home in the new hospital on Euston Road.
I also had time to visit my favourite painting and the one above all others, I would own; Whistlejacket by George Stubbs. Noone has ever painted horses like Stubbs, capturing their power, feelings and character so well!
On To Dunwich
After Sizewell, we moved on to Dunwich, a city that disappeared into the North Sea. Read The Lost City of Dunwich by Nicholas Comfort for more details.
These days, Dunwich is just a beach, some ruins and one street with a good pub and a very good museum, that cost just a pound to enter. Surely, it must be one of the best little museums in East Anglia, if not in the whole of the UK. But then Suffolk people don’t do things by halves or wait for large amounts of Government subsidy. They just get on with it and use their own resources to do what is best.
Main Street, Dunwich
The Culture Line
The East London Line has now teamed with ten museums to create The Culture Line.
What a good idea for both Londoners and tourists.
Kittiwakes at the Baltic
Kittiwakes are a bird that normlly nests on cliffs. But they have nested at the Baltic for many years.
Kittiwakes on the Baltic
They may like it, but I don’t think I’d like to raise a family there!
Wonderful Building – Shame About the Contents
One of the places I wanted to see in Newcastle was the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.
It certainly is a magnificent building.
The trouble is the contents. And judging by the lack of visitors in the various galleries, the good people of Tyneside don’t think much of them either.
However the restaurant was good. Or certainly my venison was excellent. And it was gluten-free, of course!
I ate early, but by the time I left, the restaurant was full.
So perhaps if you give people what they want you attract the punters.
The Anonymous Widower 