Mushroom Street

Photo album, Day 2!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/c4rcexdWnFCPuh5k6

My friend Ahngeli landed this morning, so after she got settled her room we decided to wander the city. Our original plan was to hook up with Sarah, traveling in from a day in Canterbury, but after chatting with the hotel clerk, we decided to visit Portabello Street instead. There’s an open air pop-up market on Saturdays, and since Ahngeli is leaving earlier than I am, we figured it’d be a good start to the day.

We caught the Tube straight there and started down from Notting Hill Gate. At first, there were just a bunch of thrift shops (always cool to visit, though we didn’t find much this time except for less overpriced name brand chic) and a pretty gothic church. After traveling a ways down, though, it got more crowded and the shops turned into houses. Apparently George Orwell lived there! His house wasn’t open, and we were on a timeline anyway, so we didn’t do more than take a quick snapshot.

There were more shops on down a bit, and we found one selling hand painted “Chucks” look-alikes. I’m going back later, once I decide on my design. There was a super cute Ghibli set that caught my eye, but I’m not quite sure if I want both shoes the same theme. Maybe a saying on both and two other images? Thoughts?

DUDE I ALMOST FORGOT. There was a Mad Hatter who’d set up a tea party!! I didn’t have much time to stop, but he seemed happy to hang out and chat with anyone that dropped in to take pictures and visit a moment!

After the brick and mortars, the tents began. On and on down the street they went, rows of closed roads and crowds and crowds of people. Folks were speaking dozens of languages, dressed in everything from t-shirts to suits and dresses and hose, all bundled up against the brisk wind. Maybe I was overheated from the trot down, but I walked the road with my coat off and short sleeves. The wind was a bit chill, but only gusty, so it wasn’t so bad most of the time. I even danced down the cobblestone when we met a street violinist playing “If I Were a Rich Man”!

Have you ever been to the Stone Mountain Highland Games? Or a fandom convention? Shopped in a vendors hall, with tables laid out of a single kind of thing, or even a jumble of things that vaguely go together, or just kitschy touristy things? Blocks and blocks of tables and tents draped in vinyl to keep off the wind, laying out wares and selling for cash. I found a super cute pair of unicorn earrings. I’m still deciding if I’m going to give them to Mom as her souvenir, or keep them for myself. They seem to be made out of a material similar to the insides of oyster shells but actually colored, rather than light play, set in a cameo style with a unicorn and flowers. 5£!

We ended up running out of time to explore more, so headed to the nearest station. We would’ve taken the Tube, but the gates were closed, so we headed to the next station listed on the map. That one, too, was closed, though there was a nice enough woman closing up that gave us bus directions back to Notting Hill Gate. Some Tube stops are down for renovations, I think. By that point I couldn’t walk the near mile through the crowds, so we caught a double decker to meet up with the rest of class at Covent Garden.

Covent Garden, I must tell you now, is not actually a collection of hedgegrows and plants shaped pleasingly to the eye for a good stroll and maybe a visit to a pop-up stall or two around the glade.

No. It is not.

In fact, Covent Garden is a delightful place, full of plenty of shops, with glass everywhere and gabled roofs. There are two major sections (that I could see) before one left the “garden” area and moved to the malls surrounding – a covered market (Julienne’s?) that reminded me of the old slave markets on River Street in Savannah, and the more “posh” storefronts. At one time, the area was less posh, from what I hear, and focused more as a social place with smaller stores of middling cost. Now there’s a row of Coach, etc. We did see a black gent opera singer performing in the courtyard with phenomenal talent, and plenty of folks taking time to sit and enjoy a bite out of the wind. That, from what I’ve read, is more the original feel of the place, and it was lovely.

I think there might be a conservatory up top, but I couldn’t find a way up, and frankly was too hungry to care much. We found a sandwich shop and picked up some for takeaway, then wandered over to the street in front of St Paul’s Church to watch a magic street performer. Or we would have, if the crowds had parted. Instead, we chatted about school and lamented the joys of school loans.

A quick moment to gather the crew, then half of us were off to visit the National Portrait Gallery while the others stayed behind to wander more. If I have time next weekend, I’ll probably go back. I didn’t get much chance to shop the open stall area, and I’d like to, but the Gallery called.

Turns out it’s mostly full of old white guys, really. The top floor is dedicated to the Royals, Tudor and Stuart, and I’ve added a few pictures of the more striking images to today’s album. The next one down was more royals, especially Victoria and Albert. The statue pictured is of the two of them – the caption says “Anglo-Saxon dress” but honestly her dress is fairly late medieval, so of course it’s another Victorianization. Still, the work was gorgeous, the details impressive, and the lighting perfect to make me look the professional photographer for a moment.

Come to think of it, that’s probably my least favorite thing about the Victorian era – the Victorianizations of bygone years. They were especially impressed with mythologizing their past, and it’s obnoxious how much of that has persisted in our current views of the times they Victorianized. If that isn’t a word already, it is now, and here’s my flag to prove it.

The rest of the middle level is dedicated mostly to men of science and war. There were very few people of color, which was striking itself, and few women. George Washington made the cut, though, and there was a bit about “The Struggle For America,” which requires an interpretation my tired mind just can’t verbalize (typalize?) at the moment. Suffice to say I could spend a while discussing the term “Struggle.”

As we went through and down, there were more artists, authors, men of science (Darwin!), and the like. The bottom floor was a half-gallery dedicated to more modern/contemporary pieces. An image of Malala stood beside Dame Judi Dench and two other important guys I forgot the names of. The cool thing about Malala’s portrait is that the image itself is a print, but the writing is her own – it’s one of a pair, and the full story should be in the photo gallery.

Throughout the rest of the half-gallery downstairs, there were more contemporary figures, Princess Diana included, and probably my favorite, an impressionistic portrait of David Bowie. They say the NPG is one of the cleanest places, but I swear it was pretty damn dusty today.

After the NPG we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest. A quick change and a stop at the necessary and we were headed to supper. When we came through probably 20min before, the restaurants were empty, everyone at the pubs watching the Six Nations Rugby match between England and Scotland (they tied, but apparently it was a super intense game). By the time we left the hotel, everyone had apparently tired of beer and moved on to food. We ended up seated at two separate tables in an Italian joint, served by a Mansplaining Italian Gent hell-bent on chatting us up in a loud, confusingly-accented voice. Thanks, dude. The pesto on your cheesy bread was pathetically sub-par, btw. Also, even if you know that “still water” is the non-sparkling kind and order it properly, it’s actually bottled and not “come with the meal free” like in the US. So there’s 4£ in my gullet, I guess. At least it tasted good.

We had initially planned to eat as a class and discuss, you know, class-y stuff over supper, but since we were at opposite ends of the restaurant and couldn’t hear anyway thanks to Mr Mansplainer, we waited until the hotel lobby to chat. Sarah brought up the bit about layering the NPG to reinforce the class hierarchy, and Dionne started a conversation on the clear lack of POC representation there. We chatted for a good bit about those disparities, but we were all exhausted (many having landed that morning and gone straight into adventuring).

Tomorrow, we’re off to Mme Tussaud’s and hopefully a quick look around Baker Street. I’ve forgotten what else, but it’s an early start, so I’ll sign off for the evening. Enjoy the photos! Links to professional sites to come.