London part 3

Jean joined us here in London to keep Leslie company while Liesel and I went off to do our own thing. On the first tube train, I finished reading a book I’ve been struggling with for a very long time. It’s by an author I greatly admire, but this particular novel was, I thought, far too long, the language was, to me, often not natural, and I found it hard to know what was going on. But it has received great reviews so I guess we just weren’t a good match on this occasion. But I feel it would be mean to say which book it was.

From King’s Cross Station we walked north towards the venue for a special event.

So what was this special event? Here’s a clue.

Yes, today was our David Bowie Day. And here at the Lightroom, we watched David Bowie: You’re Not Alone. As the blurb says, the show invites us to step inside the creative mind of an icon, through film, photography and audio. Showcasing a wealth of material from the David Bowie Archive in New York City, this audio-visual spectacle transports audiences back in time to experience Bowie up close and celebrate the enduring power of songwriting and creativity.

We were surrounded by photos, footage from concerts, some of which I’d enjoyed myself. Yes, I looked for myself amongst the audience, but I didn’t see me, or anyone I was with. Don’t miss this epic multimedia spectacle at Lightroom, which runs until October 10th.

The show lasted about an hour, I sang along, listened again to some of David’s interviews, cringed at Russell Harty’s interview, and was reminded again why I am such a big fan. As well as the music, he was such an interesting person.

We admired the redevelopment of the area and ate lunch in one of its top end restaurants, Pret a Manger.

By Victoria Line and Mildmay Line (formerly London Overground), we travelled to Stratford. The shopping centre was, as usual, very busy, and we walked through to the old Olympic Park. Our destination was the V&A East Storeroom, a recent addition to the Victoria and Albert suite of venues. The main attraction for us (mostly me) today was The David Bowie Centre. There are 90,000 artefacts from David’s own archives, many of which are on display.

The walk from Stratford station was longer than anticipated so it was good to arrive and sit down with a coffee. Ten minutes later, we would have had to join the queue outside in the drizzle. Sometimes we are dead lucky with our timing.

It’s called a Storeroom for a reason. It is literally a storeroom full of old furniture, pictures and a million other things. Exhibits isn’t quite the right word here, since they’re not really on display.

But there are some humorous captions too, whether intentional or not, I don’t know.

So, a million objects on display, and yet after queueing for the toilet, you can only imagine the disappointment on finding there was no loo paper.  This has to be one of my worst phobias, certainly in the top two.

We’re up on the second floor and we’re watching the queuers in front. We joined the line for the David Bowie Centre just a little bit beyond the sign that said not to queue beyond this point. I suppose it’s good that such a place is so popular, but we would have liked a wee bit more space.

I didn’t count the box folders safely stored on the shelves, but there were a few that we could examine, left out for us on the table. It was interesting to see some of the paperwork, images and behind-the-scenes pictures form Labyrinth. A film whose premier I was happy to see along with my wife Sarah and my sister Pauline. And that’s forty years ago now.

Here are early hand-written lyrics for the song Right which appears on the album Young Americans. We can only imagine what was going through his head at the time, but the end result is a wonderful, well-crafted song, featuring David Sanborn on alto saxophone, Carlos Alomar on Guitar, Mike Garson on clavinet plus Luther Vandross, Ava Cherry and Geoff MacCormack (David’s old schoolfriend) on backing vocals.

We wandered around the storeroom some more before leaving. Not fancying the walk back to Stratford, we decided to catch a bus to… well, we didn’t know… anywhere. In the end, we enjoyed a nice ride to London Bridge. Hackney’s a fascinating place, we passed by Mare Street (where my Dad’s Uncle Charlie lived), Bethnal Green, Brick Lane (where we’ve had bagels on a previous visit), Commercial Street (near where Sarah used to live) and The Monument (which Liesel had only asked about just a couple of days earlier).

Whinge of the day. Why can’t restaurants put their menus on a website that I can browse and even search? Why do we have to download a PDF which is much harder to read on a phone? Grrr.

London Bridge to Temple by tube then a walk to Thai Square on the Strand for a delightful meal. The light rain persisted but we dodged it when we walked to the Peacock Theatre. Not for a David Bowie-themed entertainment but a Japanese Drumming group called Yamato. I was so glad they put up this warning.

I think we would have been disappointed if it wasn’t loud! But it was fun, rhythmic and at times, incredibly funny. They really did play with joy, passion, stamina and strength.

Jean insisted that Liesel and I go out for breakfast so we walked to a lovely little place in Ealing called ‘The Moon & Maybe’.

‘The Moon & Maybe’: that’s a strange name, isn’t it? But the veggie breakfast was delicious. Glad we left when we did, as a family of about twelve were settling in. I wasn’t quick enough to shoot the bunnies, but it was quite cute to see them being taken for a walk on leads. One was picked up as soon as a dog appeared. That reminds me of the old Ricky Gervais line. What one item would you save if your house caught fire? One of the twins.

When a bee pooped on Liesel’s hand, I couldn’t convince her it was honey.

Back at the ranch, Jean packed and we all traipsed off to Euston Station. I was too slow at Gloucester Road station to take a picture of the gigantic waterlily sculptures on the disused platform.

Then, at Embankment station when we changed from the District Line to the Northern Line, we heard the original ‘Mind the Gap’ announcement by Oswald Laurence. It’s played for his widow Margaret, who travels via Embankment whenever possible just to hear her husband’s voice again. The announcements have been standardised across the rest of the network. I found it quite moving, on this day especially, since it was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sarah’s death and of course that memory kept popping into my head.

Jean caught the train back to Manchester while Liesel, Leslie and I walked through the old University College area, past the Bloomsbury Theatre (where Sarah and I saw Tasmin Archer all those years ago).

We crossed over Tottenham Court Road and strolled on to The Carpenters Arms. Here we met Liesel’s cousin, Andi. Unfortunately, Steve was working today over in Richmond, where they live.

The pub seemed familiar, and after seeing the roof terrace, I knew I’d been here before, just a couple of times, when I worked at the University of Westminster. Sunday roast was the order of the day, nut roast for me of course. Again, no photo of the family, sorry.

We walked to Fitzroy Square, a very peaceful place right in the heart of the city.

After returning to our riding school in Ealing, we sat around and yakked for a while. After Andi left to go home, I think both Liesel and I felt comfortable enough to relax, have a lie down even! It had been an exciting but exhausting week in what will probably always be my favourite city.