Day #3 in London: Visiting Queen Vic’s house, seeing my favourite painting, and a lovely south wharf walkies
This morning got off to a lovely start, even though I probably didn’t get enough sleep. Unfortunately 7.5 hours just doesn’t cut it for more than a couple days in a row, and with jetlag just wearing off, it kind of caught up to me a bit today. Unfortunately again I didn’t have time for a rot day- honestly won’t have time for one of those for the next month or so- so we had to just push through for the day. And we had some fun things planned!
Starting around 9am we left the house and took the Elizabeth line over to Hyde Park where we walked from there to Kensington Palace, best known as the location where Queen Victoria grew up, although I believe Princess Diana lived there for some time too. The Palace itself wasn’t quite as grand as I expected. Maybe that was naïve considering we were in the middle of the city, there wasn’t exactly heaps of room for a crazy mansion, but it wasn’t really what I thought of when I imagined a ‘royal palace.’ I really appreciated that Kensington was still an active residence today, so only portions of the palace were presentable to the public. I think we only saw about a quarter of the rooms, but I didn’t mind. I think it actually helped and added an extra layer to the experience, knowing that it still hosted royals regularly. It kept it current and relevant, whereas other royal locations I’ve visited to previously do feel like they’d been left in the past.
Although some rooms had been restored, the free audio guide took a different approach to the tour- it encouraged you to position yourself in the shoes of whichever monarch was being discussed whether that was Queen Caroline in the dining room discovering her husband died or Queen Victoria at the age of 17 meeting her cousin and soon-to-be husband Albert for the first time. Whilst at first I was underwhelmed by the lack of lavish on the property, I came to appreciate how intimate and authentic the experience was; it truly felt like walking through someone’s home. If anything, calling it a Palace is a bit deceiving.
We spent about an hour and a half in the Palace before heading out to check out the gardens. Unluckily for us it was at that exact moment the weather couldn’t hold out much longer. Instead of wondering through the grounds, we took shelter in an archway system covered by centuries-old vines, which ended up leading us to a memorial statue of Princess Diana with Prince William and Harry. We read it was unveiled in 2021 on the date which would have been her 60th birthday. It was such a beautiful scene.
Heading from there we realised we were pretty close to the Churchill Arms, an old pub in Kensington which, in summer, is covered with flowers on its exterior. The pub itself and the walk to it was absolutely stunning, Kensington being one of the most affluent areas of the city. Oddly enough the pub served Thai food, which was an unexpected but lovely surprise. After braving the wind and rain, a green curry and pad see ew was very much necessary.
After a bit of time to dry off and recharge, we headed towards Notting Hill to check out the Portobello Road Markets. Unfortunately this was around 1:30pm, and the area was absolutely packed. We still got to have a good look around, but Dad isn’t always in the best mood around crowds so I kept tabs on the vibes and was happy to leave after an hour or so. I did find a gorgeous 1950s antique watch, which I’ll need to get sized and a new battery, but it was a great find. There were also a couple of shops selling quilted jackets, and though they were cute I didn’t find any I was definitely wanting to purchase. I’m planning on coming back early in the morning when I’m in London by myself a little later in the month to have a better look. I was still happy we got to see the area, if at least for the pretty Notting Hill townhouses.
Just in the nick of time we hopped back on the tube and headed back into Trafalgar Square to visit the National Gallery. Honestly I wasn’t looking forward to this spot on the itinerary very much; I’m not known to be a big fan of art galleries, but I knew Dad wanted to and we had an afternoon free, so I went along. We did end up seeing the majority of all the rooms in under 2 hours, which for my Dad in a gallery, is pretty good. Of the 60 or so rooms that we went through, only 2 or 3 really piqued my interest. Most of the exhibitions were Renaissance or Baroque pieces from Italy, the Netherlands or France. Honestly after one room, the rest start to look the same. It was refreshing to finally find the corner for the Impressionists, this section I had an absolute ball in. Give me a couple of rooms of Van Gogh and Monet, I’ll be happy for ages.
Other than these rooms, the other piece I couldn’t believe was there was The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, which I had seen so often on the art nerd side of Tiktok, and became quite fascinated with her story. I actually had no idea the original piece was at the National Gallery; I just turned a corner and there it was! Honestly, I was taken a back. It was a lot larger than I thought it would be, the scene overwhelmed the wall and was quite confronting, even though I had seen copies so many times. The real thing hit a lot harder. I adore how Lady Jane is portrayed in this piece. You can really tell how much the artist (Paul Delaroche) respected and empathised with her demise. So much art of this period is unsavourily devoid of emotion. This piece couldn’t be further from that. It warmed my soul to see so many people discover the piece for the first time and react the same way I did when I first saw it. There was always a considerable crowd of people around, and very limited phones in the air. That’s how I knew people were truly taking it in. There’s something about photographing the painting that did feel a bit like an invasion, a betrayal. The scene being so intimate, it felt trivial to post about it (although hypocritically I did).
Finishing up at the Gallery we found a pub a couple streets back from Trafalgar Square and bought drinks whilst the soccer started. Only staying for 20 or so minutes of the first half, we soon lost interest and walked from there across London Bridge to South Wharf. If anyone comes to London in July I really would recommend South Wharf as an area to explore. There were so many food vans, bars, restaurants, theatres, pubs, buskers and shows. Everyone was outside enjoying the reasonably good weather and it was a lovely atmosphere. Eventually we tubed it back towards where we are staying and had dinner at a local steakhouse restaurant, which was both lovely and tasty.
More plans tomorrow that I can’t wait to share, but for now, goodnight!
Currently MIA,
Lauren x
