London Town

Midsummer 2016

An owl, then rain. Soft green grass swaying in the breeze and an abundance of flowers; wild roses, buttercups, foxgloves and daisies. Young boys running through the greenness, trailing plastic union jack kites.

Out walking in rural Hertfordshire, through fields of wheat and oats, past old dark brick farmhouses and long low-slung black barns, over stiles and through kissing gates, pheasants rising up from hedgerows as we pass. Grand manor houses and the remains of medieval follies. A musician playing his sax in an underpass between two rural pathways. Four reckless Romani boys in a pony-driven cart, trying to race cars in the traffic-clogged main road of Potters Bar.

Our generous host family (Geoff, Grace, Fern & Finn) introduce us to St Albans, an old Roman town and place of medieval pilgrimages (St Alban was the first English martyr). It boasts the only existing medieval town belfry in England. The original bell, named for the Archangel Gabriel sounds F-natural and weighs one ton. We wander down Fishpool Street, a long narrow, ‘Jane Austenish’ street of lovingly maintained houses dating from the 16th century, all timbered with overhanging upper stories and high doorsteps. 

A visit to Eltham Palace, boyhood home of Henry VIII, coincides with a medieval festival. There’s falconry, archery in the now moss-green moat and jousting in the tiltyard, where France is victorious over England. Eltham Palace was rebuilt as an art deco mansion by the Courtaulds in the 1930s. Stephen Courtauld gave his wife Virginia a lemur as a wedding present. The lemur, purchased from Harrods, had its own room on the upper floor with a bamboo ladder to the downstairs flower room.

 

In London, we gravitate towards the museums. The wunderkammer eccentricity of the architect Sir John Soane’s house. An extensive retrospective of Paul Strand’s striking photographs at the V&A. The Painters’ Paintings exhibition at the National Gallery that explores the connections between painters and the paintings they purchase, including the private acquisitions of Matisse, Degas and Lucian Freud whose collection includes a profoundly beautiful Corot portrait that is hung alongside a striking self-portrait of Freud in his late 70s. 

We take advantage of the free tours of the collections at the V&A, the National Gallery and the Tate Modern, vast now with its new eleven-level Switch Station Hall. Its raw, austere, industrial aesthetic has been acclaimed and pilloried. The 10th-floor terrace offers 360-degree views of the city and of the interiors of the nearby Neo Bankside apartments, ‘an inadvertent art installation’ noted the Observer’s architecture critic.

We make a day trip to Margate, where Turner painted the sea and the sky, to visit a friend and explore the shoreline, the old town and the Turner Contemporary gallery. Once a seaside playground for Londoners, Margate fell on hard times on the rising tide of cheap airfares and holiday packages to mini Britians in the south of Spain and the Canary Islands. Now it’s been reclaimed by hipsters, attracted by the sea, the space and the affordable housing. The rusting, salt-encrusted fishermen’s wharf is home to quirky small bars and cafes and the place to be in the late afternoon. Soaking up the warmth, watching a thunderstorm build in the sky and enjoying the company of Jo and her family over a vino or two.

 

Politically, the talk is all about the Brexit referendum on whether the UK should remain a member of, or leave, the European Union. London, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the young vote to remain. The majority vote to leave the EU by 52% to 48%. Some of the Leave voters lament the unintended consequences of their action. They didn’t necessarily want to leave the EU; rather they wanted the government to hear their howl of rage at feeling cut adrift and left behind by rapid economic change. 

The Guardian is full of intelligent analysis on the far-reaching repercussions of the referendum results. The key politicians that led the campaign to leave walk away from the nightmare of their making. Somewhat fittingly, the day after the vote we see a performance of Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. A potent, powerful performance, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.