Monday, June 17th: Independent Study = Another Shakespeare play!

Monday, June 17, 2019

A few of us splurged on another Shakespeare evening on our non-academic Monday, with a visit to the Bridge Theatre to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. We were not disappointed!

With Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones)! David Moorst as Puck was my favorite, absolutely incredible. But obviously everyone was amazing!

View from in front of the theatre

Bridge Theatre was aptly named, as it's right next to Tower Bridge! We made it over in this area several times throughout the trip for different reasons, but this view at night capped a truly magical evening.

Sunday, June 16th: Brighton

Sunday, June 16, 2019

We spent Sunday in Brighton, where we learned the meaning of a true coastal English day in terms of weather, we got quite the range!

The Royal Pavilion was not what I expected at all on the inside, but was a neat tour to see in contrast to the majority of our visits thusfar. King George IV really diverged from English tradition!

Brighton Pier was stunning, as was the weather while we were down by the sea.

Any trip to Brighton required a stroll through the Lanes, or so I was told. The visual appeal through these winding alleys of shops and restaurants was wonderful.

Saturday, June 15th: St. Paul's Cathedral

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Several of us ventured to St. Paul's Cathedral on our free Saturday. I was floored by the ornate detail and expanse of the architecture, and walked through the entire place scraping my jaw off the floor!

Standing in the middle underneath the dome, each corner between the four apexes of the church had beautiful archways that I felt entirely too far away from to appreciate fully.

Stained glass windows aplenty! There were too many to feel like I got any appreciation of each one, so I caught one image as representation.

The altar was a stunning piece of gold detail upon detail. I felt awkward being able to walk behind and around it.

A plaque for William Blake down in the crypt!

To finish, we of course had to climb the dome for some gorgeous London views. It was an interesting dichotomy of new surrounding old, and my appreciation of the history of this great city grew yet again. The clouds set the mood for a quintessential English day.

Friday, June 14th: Caird Library, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Friday, June 14, 2019

Week 2 wrapped with a cruise down the Thames again, this time to Greenwich and the National Maritime Museum.

Greenwich

National Maritime Museum

Caird Library

We were shown items in the Caird Library and Archive by Susan and Mark - they informed us that Caird was actually not the main depository for admiralty records, as they went instead to the National Archive. Caird's collections include an impressive rare books collection in addition to modern books dating 1851 to the present, as well as periodicals, printed ephemera, and naturally a massive charts, maps, and atlases collection. I was surprised to learn they have approximately 5,000 on-site visitors per year.

Their 2011 renovated space was an interesting contrast to the outward appearance of the Museum and neighboring Old Royal Naval College buildings. Afterwards we were set loose to explore the Maritime Museum and surrounding neighborhood.

Statues, left to right: Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith, Admiral James de Saumarez, 

Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, Captain Sir William Peel

Thursday, June 13th: National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum

Thursday, June 13, 2019


The National Art Library, mainly located inside the Victoria & Albert Museum, was our Thursday stop on the London institutions tour. We met both the Senior Librarian and the Assistant Librarian who took turns showing us around the facilities and showing us some noteworthy materials in their collections. The collection has everything from medieval manuscripts to art and graphic art, fine binding, calligraphy, and trade literature, to name a few. They stressed that their jobs were very much a part of book curation in addition to working the library and serving its users.

After our tour through the Art Library, we were set free to roam the beautiful Victoria & Albert Museum. This was a similar visual overload-type day that I encountered at the British Museum, and for that the V&A is among the more memorable museums we visited. Their attention to universal access was evident everywhere, and I had too much fun designing a book plate at one of the interactive stations in one of the many exhibit galleries.

The silver and stained glass exhibit hall was absolutely gorgeous!

Wednesday, June 12th: King's College London, Maughan Library

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

King's College London

Maughan Library (Strand Campus), as we learned on Wednesday's visit to King's College London, was originally built as public record storage. There is one large archway on the side of the building that serves as the only remaining part of the Medieval building; everything else is Victorian (19th century). The Victorian Gotchic building still relied on gas lighting at the time, so they needed as much natural light as possible when it was being built.

King's College London officially took over the lease of the building now know as the Maughan Library in 1998, and it opened to what we know today in 2002. It maintained many original features, including the structure, doors, and iron gates, but the main areas and central corridor were opened up significantly. The Round Reading Room was modeled after the British Museum Round Reading Room.

The Weston Room used to be the chapel but was rebuilt, and is now used as their exhibit space.

After our visit we found a yummy lunch at the nearby Sherlock Holmes Pub, which includes a hidden gem.

Tuesday, June 11th: British Museum

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

British Museum

Continuing our Tuesday tradition of visiting National institutions, we saw the ever impressive British Museum - and were taken into the Round Reading Room! That doesn't get shown or opened to the public anymore! Once again, we were all in awe. And I was very thankful for joining the field I did. The Museum uses the room for storage now, which is not ideal, but solved their more immediate problem of space for the time being until a more permanent solution is decided upon. We were led around the perimeter to different portions of the collections and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who wanted to work there by the end of the visit.

 

After our tour we were let loose to explore the rest of the Museum on our own, which is absolutely massive. Rather than try and sum up all of it, I'll touch on two of my favorite rooms: the King's Library, and the Parthenon fragments.

The King's Library is a long, beautiful room that houses King George III's collection, donated by George IV. Each corner and spare wall space had glass-fronted bookshelves, and there was a maze of statues and artifacts throughout the middle that George III collected. It was stunning.

Room 18 holds the Parthenon fragments the British Museum has on hand, and again it was a massive room that was overwhelming in itself, which served to illustrate the great expanse the original Parthenon would have taken up. As I lived in Nashville previously, and have been to the full-scale replica located in Centennial Park, I had an idea of how massive the original would have been.