St. Martin's Tea Rooms - Chichester

 Location: Chichester, West Sussex

After a long sojourn wherein some travelling was the main agenda, there have not been much in the way of posting opportunities. So here is a small one, but without any fitting pictures of the occasion.

On to the main event. The St. Martin's Tea Rooms, situated down a small side-street in medieval Chichester, or that is what it feels like. Nothing is particularly grand about the place, with a rather unassuming exterior from what one could approximate as a large Victorian family house.

Inside, the place does not open up, but guides one in to tea rooms themselves, small, cosy rooms with a single contrast of colours, white walls and ceilings against the dark brown carpet, and wood fittings, and furniture everywhere. It is these colours, alongside the maze-like layout, where stairs appear behind what one thinks is a front door, and rooms round corners opening up spaces to the visitor which defy one's perception of space, and offer an amazing sense of privacy. However this is not without the cost of getting lost, and bumping the head on the many curved walls and low ceilings. The service itself is of a non-invasive character, where after ordering down at a canteen like fixture, the drinks and dishes are served quickly and almost silently by 'Victorian maids' as one is supposed to garner from their uniform.

The food itself is very pricey, and would deter many who would seek quantity over quality. This author considers that an accurate assessment of the venue, but this should not be an insurmountable obstacle. The food is excellent and is well advertised as organic fare. There is not much in quantity, but this should lead one to carefully savour the food and explore the flavours that have been put in to the dishes. Granted what was tried was the Welsh rarebit, and the organic lager, which form the basis of this opinion. Though there is nothing on offer that would not satisfy the taste buds even if it fails to satisfy one in quantity.

It is hard to be objective about this venue, which also has quite some history with the author, but if one was to pick out a few faults, these have been mentioned, and will be summed up:
First, the venue is not suitable to those who approach six foot or more, due to the low ceilings and cramped quarters.
And second, the fare is expensive and of low quantity.
Despite these couple of faults, one is offered the classically Victorian styled tea rooms, with a pervading quiet, and privacy to relax. The food is of excellent taste, and in general makes for a un-ordinary indulgence.

This is all that has been worth noting over the previous weekend, and this week will hopefully bring some new sights, complete with photos of an area by the author himself.

Photos here are courtesy of the home page for this tea room,St. Martin's tea rooms 

British Library - An Introduction

Location: British Library, London

The main building for the library appears as a large modern complex, with walls extending around it on the road sides encapsulating a multi-level courtyard. Upon entering, one gets to glimpse the tops of the St. Pancras Restoration Hotel poking out. To skip ahead, whilst inside the library, a scale model of the building also revealed several floors for archives, which the author estimates to exceed a volume of twice the above ground building.

Unlike previously mentioned sites, this one is not particularly grandiose, and seems to echo the stereotypical English reserve in architectural standards. Inside however proves to be a great improvement, opening up with marble staircases going up to the first floor around an information desk, and rising up behind the initial vista is a large column which proved upon closer inspection to hold rows upon rows of old books, segregated off with glass panes. Even so, there is no real impression of a library, but more like that of a University study building, with its clean and modern appearance.

The first exhibition is directly up on the first floor, and it is a small collection covering the subject of Charles Dickens, and the Victorian fascination with the supernatural. This particularly timely exhibition is to give the visitor a background behind Dickens' famous work A Christmas Carol, and of the variety of activities Dickens' himself indulged in, mesmerism to name one.

The next area on this small tour was a permanent gallery, the Sir John Ritbalt Gallery: Treasures of the British Library. This gallery contained a large variety of texts and illustrations, dating back as far as the 12th century, composed up of texts, sacred religious texts, early colour illustrations from around the world, maps and views, and even music sheets. Even some contemporary works on Shakespeare are part of the gallery, but the music sheets drew a lot of interest, showing printed sheet music from around the Normal Conquest to more well-known works of classical composers such as Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.
Early maps are also of especial notice, for the way that people before had viewed and drawn the world, with this changing in detail over the centuries. Particularly drawing to the attention are the mappaemundi, early flat-Earth based drawn of where many places were, and lastly, a detailed panoramic view of London, before and after the Great Fire of 1666, by Wenceslaus Hollar.

All the displays had descriptions beside them, to give the visitor a description and also explanation of each display item, and these serve as a great accompaniment to the illustrations. A room off the side of the gallery gives a view of the famous Magna Carta,  a landmark civil rights document detailing 63 statutes, signed and officiated by the Great Seal in 1215 during the years of King John and his submission to Pope Innocent III. Through tax and power abuses, the barons of the time got together to create a liberties document, and require the King to sign it, thus, according to the Wikipedia article:

...was the first document forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges.

To conclude, this was a small overview of the British Library, and future visits would have to be based on articles of interest within the reading rooms, which are not open during Sundays.

Images are courtesy of a variety of sources from Google images. Information was from the British Library website.

National Gallery - Great Britain 1750 - 1850

Location: National Gallery, London

The National Gallery is by its own an imposing building, situated at the North end of Trafalgar square, and instead of blending in the background, stands out proudly as a great example of Neo-Classical architecture.
Inside is no less impressive, but also very confusing. It would take more than one visit to get a good idea of the layout, consisting of lots of rooms of a wide variety of sizes from large halls to small side-rooms. This overview is not a general one, but rather focused on a single room in this instance.

Continuing with the Romanticism theme from the last gallery (Tate Britain exhibition), this room contained paintings by a number of Romantic artists, including the previous two famous artists: J.M.W. Turner, and John Constable.

The room itself is nicely decorated, with blue patterned walls extending upwards to gold-coloured coving, above which are small arched alcoves bordered in maroon and gold, and finally to a large rectangular ceiling filled with lots of square panes of etched glass. The image below was taken from the virtual tour of the National Gallery:

To begin with, in no particular order than by artist, John Constable's paintings covered more or less a third of the display, with the most preferred pieces being Salisbury Cathedral from the meadows, The Cenotaph to the memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and lastly, Hay Wain. The former two are both dark pieces but beautiful views:

Continuing onward, Thomas Gainsborough had an extensive collection here too, with Cornard wood, near Sudbury, Suffolk and Mrs Siddons, a very famous actress of the time.

Moving on, other interesting pieces worth looking over are Henry Raeburn's The Archers, Pompeo Giolamo Batoni's Humphrey Morice, and William Hogarth's The Graham children, which in the description noted that the youngest had died before the painting was completed. Though amongst these stands out two amazingly detailed pieces, one being a life-size painting of WhistleJacket, a race horse, by George Stubbs.

The next was An Experiment on a bird in an Air Pump, by Joseph Wright of Derby. This piece is particularly noticed by visitors to the room as it shows exceptional detail in the paintwork, and the realism in the faces of the girls standing by the table. Even the use of candlelight for the central piece creates an appealing contrast between the illuminated experiment set-pieces, and the dark surrounds.

Lastly then, J.M.W. Turner also makes an appearance as well, with almost as many fine pieces as Constable, though they are all of a maritime nature. There are a few worth noting here, from the dramatic scenes of Dutch boats in a gale and Calais Pier, to the much calmer and brighter pieces, Ulysses deriding Polyphemus and The Fighting Temaire.

Conclusion, this is a small part of the immense National Gallery, and as with all posts of this blog, serve as a small introduction to what is available.
Images have been yanked from the National Gallery website.

British Museum - China and the Far East

Location: British Museum, London

This section of the museum starts with a corridor lined on either side by Jade artifacts dating over almost the entirety of Chinese history, going as far back as the Neolithic period 5000BC. From there, many of the artifacts consist of ornamental pieces of jewelry, blades, and congs, whose usage has so far not been found. Later pieces, dating up to as recent as the early 20th century include more intricate designs, such as engraved plaques of various shapes depicting scenes.
The corridor opens out on to a large hall, where the rest of the artifacts are displayed, stretching from China, through to artifacts from Tibet, Burma, India and the whole of the South and East Asia. The current part itself opens up with a collection of ceramic and bronze statues of Buddha from China and the Far-East, some glazed in bright colours, others plain. Further in leads one to the famous white porcelain bowls and vessels, glazed in blue patterns of animals and flowers, some depicting scenes of farmers and other people in their centers.

Next in the exhibit, is a display case containing a collection of bronze artifacts, blades and coins. Detailing them is the history behind the coinage, how their size and shapes differed between different states, and not only over time. Following them, a large area of the hallway is taken up with the display of various jugs, bowls and vessels made up of a variety of materials, starting initially with lacquer, which was a widely used, naturally occurring plastic drawn from the lac tree, to ceramic and porcelain vessel, glazed in different colours, many in bright colours.
Past the vessels, the artifacts on display get a lot more interesting, starting off with pottery miniatures of a courtyard house from the Ming dynasty. These intricate models are plain in colour, without anyy these is a large display case containing a set of large porcelain glazed figurines for tombs. Coloured in sombre reds, greens, and browns, the figures come as pairs of a type of creature, starting with dragons, followed by warriors, then next come a pair that resemble priests or noblemen, ahead of a pair of horses, and last are the camels.
Other collections on display are a variety of bronze mirrors faded by time, a sword with a lacquer scabbard, pommel, and even guard. There is a section on bronze artifacts, with a case dedicated to the objects used in war, from swords, blades, axe and spearheads, arrowheads, many decorated with patterns. Many other artifacts include vessels of different types, but also of note is a case of bronze bells, of a style and decoration unlike those of the western world.
This leads nicely on to the last display worth noting, a display case containing small sculptures of scenes and landscapes, mountains and villages, some containing people, trees, and animals. All the ones on display were made of a different material, of jade, turquoise, white porcelain, glazed stoneware, and even bamboo root.

This concludes a glimpse in to a small section of the British Museum. The author will continue to visit, and bring back some more overviews of other sections of this large and varied museum of human history, dating back to it's roots, and covering almost every part of the globe.

Images again yanked from the British Museum main website

Romantics exhibition, Tate Britain

Location: Tate Britain Gallery, London

So for an entrance, this has begun with motivation provided by a much needed dose of art.

The Tate Britain, situated along the riverfront of the Thames south from the Houses of Parliament, has on this visit a free exhibition, the Romantics. The Romantics is a collection of paintings and sketches by artists such as J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, and Henry Wallis, to name a few. The bulk of the exhibition are landscape and scene paintings, capturing dramatic views of the world.
One of the first major paintings near the entrance that captures the attention is John Crome's Slate Quarries, which despite the title subject inspires a degree of awe from the mountains in the background, captured beautifully in sombre colours, with clouds noticed to glide over their slopes.

Facing it, an eye-catching scene of the Battle of Trafalgar by Turner. Turner is by far the most dominant featured artist of the exhibition, with a variety of paintings by the artist, capturing landscapes, sea battles, classical scenes, all highlighting his life in the Navy as complementing that of his as a painter.
However deviating from the Navy and landscapes, are his classical scenes, the use of strong bright colour in Regulus, and the warm summer hues of The Bay of Baiae, with Apollo and the Sibyl.
However there is a wide range of other notable works by artists, such as The Reconciliation of Helen and Paris after his Defeat by Menelaus by Richard Westall, a carefully rendered scene with soft velvet features for the main characters.

Lastly, the second most featured artist, John Constable, also caught my eye in a few of his works, almost all of which were landscapes. Though seemingly not as creative or varied as Turner, he had some works that are really worth taking in, one very good example of this is Sketch for 'Hadleigh Castle'.

To conclude, a really good exhibition, and worth the visit if one has not. Though the Tate Britain boasts far more works on display, and other exhibitions, this one should be seriously considered, not least as it is free entry. Much and more would have been said of this if the author had a notepad to scribble down some notes.

Images yanked from the Tate Britain website.