Hampton Court Palace

At Hampton Court Palace we got caught up in a re-enactment of the case against Thomas Culpeper and Henry VIII's Queen Catherine Howard, and (believe it or not!!) Joan was chosen to act as one of the questioners against Culpeper. That's me in the centre, seated, as a member of the King's court. I had to ask: "Master Culpeper, My Lord the Duke of Norfok informs us that he has received report that you have been with the Queen five or six times in secret and suspect places, among others at Lincoln, where you were closetted together five or six hours. Is this true?" The act involved a number of members of the audience, including children, who did a great job. Of course, the result was that Queen Catherine, Thomas Culpeper, and Lady Rochford were all put to death, and the re-enactment made it all seem very real.

The Great Hall is the largest room in Hampton Court Palace, built in the 1530s for Henry VIII, but restored in the 1840s. It is 32 metres long, 12 metres wide, 18 metres high, an has a musician's gallery at one end.

The hammer-beam ceiling is most impressive, and the wood is decorated in red, blue and gold paint.

Thomas Culpeper at left, Lady Rochford (Mary, the widowed sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn), with a court guard at right, watched by the audience who were playing the parts of members of the King's court.

Samples of some of the golden plate that made up King Henry VIII's dinner ware.

One of the laneways at Hampton Court Palace, leading from a courtyard towards the kitchens.

Two cooks turning the spit to roast joints of beef in the 500 year old kitchens that at that time produced 1500 meals per day for Henry's court members and their staffs and guests. These actors told us that this is the oldest cooking apparatus still being used in England, exactly as it was in the 1500s.

Joan is walking from one passageway in the old palace into another leading to the network of great kitchens where massive amounts of food were prepared daily to feed the vast numbers of courtiers.

Gary took this image of part of the wine cellars next to the kitchens at Hampton Court Palace.

A group of musicians in the courtyard  played instruments that were common in England during the 1500s.

Gary took this photograph from a window of the palace, looking over one small part of the magnificent gardens at Hampton Court Palace. In one section there is a maze, that Andy easily defeated by finding his way through without coming to a dead end.

150 years after Henry VIII the palace was owned by William III (William of Orange, the Dutch prince who married Mary II of England). Mary and William were joint monarchs, and made great changes to parts of Hampton Court Palace, through Christopher Wren's designs of baroque-style apartments.

A courtyard surrounded by the oldest surviving buildings of Hampton Court Palace, dating from about 1514 when Thomas Wolsey purchased Hampton Court when it was just a manor house built after about 1494. Wolsey gained great power and wealth as King Henry VIII's indispensable administrator, and was made a cardinal. He made the whole complex into a luxurious palace.

Gary photographed Joan walking in the long covered gallery that allowed King William III and his Queen Mary II to walk during rainy weather, and was also used as an orangery.

The Great Fountain Garden was formerly part of Henry VIII's hunting park, but became an elaborate formal garden with yet trees and holly globes, gravelled avenues and thirteen fountains.

Gary's great hope of photographing an expanse of spring flowers was realised at Hampton Court Palace.

Daffodils, jonquils and bluebells make a beautiful splash of colour in the area of the gardens known as 'The Wilderness'.

Jonquils growing freely under the trees in 'The Wilderness'.

Springtime blossoms starting to appear on the trees throughout 'The Wilderness'.

MGM Studio: Harry Potter

The wonderful old decrepit bridge at Hogwarts was a real buzz to walk across, thinking of the actors and their thrilling adventures.

Prosthetics by the hundreds, of weird creatures and others (such as Hagrid), were demonstrated as staff painted and added hair, etc.  Warwick Davis (Professor Filius Fitwick), in his distinctive and hilarious manner, demonstrated on a massive screen how the animatronics works to make them appear alive. This was my third most enjoyable aspect of "The Making of Harry Potter".

And this was my second most enjoyable aspect of "Harry" - a walk down Diagon Alley. The attention to detail by the creators of the sets has to be seen to be believed.

Joan and Andy are standing outside the Potter family's cottage, where Harry was born, and where his mother and father were murdered. This building was inspired by a 14th century Grade 1 listed cottage in Lavenham, Suffolk.

This is part of Diagon Alley, and the set was also used for Hogsmeade village scenes.

The attention to detail of all the buildings, and every little element of them, both outside and inside, keeps you looking and looking and looking - the interest is all-consuming.

This is the architectural drawing of shopfronts in Diagon Alley, from which the streetscape was created. The artists who imagined, drew, made and brought to reality this street are highly talented and committed to making sure that every little aspect was convincing and real - it works!

This model occupies a whole, huge room, with a ramp going all the way around the top and down to the lower level. There are touch screens every few metres to allow viewers to home in on different aspects, and particularly to view the entire building process as it was created.

This was the last, and the very best (for me), of all that we saw today at "The Making of Harry Potter".  Anyone who comes to London would have a great experience by going to see it. It doesn't matter whether you are interested in Harry Potter or not, it is the creativity, the digital film-making techniques, the artistry, the electronic wizardry, that I found to be the most exciting and breath-taking aspects of the whole presentation. The staff who made the masks for goblins and other strange creatures, the hippogriff 'Buckbeak', the phoenix, etc., and devised the body that made Robbie Coltrane into the half-giant Hagrid performed miracles, really. Most impressive, indeed!

Jack The Ripper Tour, Whitechapel

Just as we arrived to start our Jack the Ripper tour at 7.30pm on Sunday night, near Aldgate East station, down came the rain. It had been sunny when we left Pimlico, so did we have brollies? No. Well, it only lasted half an hour, and then cleared up, having created an appropriate atmosphere for a Jack the Ripper tour.

Our tour leader was actually named Jack! (Well, John, really). He had a good loud voice, a great sense of humour, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Jack the Ripper mystery. Listening intently are Andy and Joan, carrying a plastic bag of books on the subject that we had just bought at a nearby shop.

Here's The Bell pub, that figured in the Ripper story. We walked from point to point, gathering around to hear Jack tell us anecdotes relating to the overall saga, along with his own views about possible culprits.

As we stood in front of the tall iron gates of Christ Church, Whitechapel, suddenly another character from 1888 joined us, a senior police officer (dressed appropriately), who engaged Jack in a conversation about a letter that Jack the Ripper had sent to the police department. Very nicely done.

Despite this part of London (Spitalfields, Whitechapel, all that area behind Liverpool Street station) having new glass and metal tall new office blocks built on much of it, there is an amazing amount that is just as it would have been back in 1888 when most of the inhabitants were impoverished, and social conditions were very poor and overcrowded into slums.

Jack used an optical projection device to show pictures of what the streetscape was like in the past as we sheltered beneath a modern building, as he told of the gruesome murder that occurred there in September 1888. We are in St James' Passage near Mitre Square in this image, close by the sites of murders committed by Jack the Ripper.

Andy can be seen following the walking tour along Mitre Street, a cobbled laneway, with the modern landmark, the 'Gherkin' at 30 St Mary Axe (Aldgate) towering above. Shortly after, we headed for home to read our books we'd bought: "Jack the Ripper, the Whitechapel Murderer", by Terry Lynch, and "Jack the Ripper - Catch me when you can".

2 May 2016

Today we visited the Natural History Museum and saw the spectacular exhibition called 'Otherworlds - Vision of our Solar System'.  The photography was created by Micheal Benson, using data from NASA and other data collected by exploratory satellites.  The exhibition in London finishes in mid April, and then moves to Vienna.  We were extremely fortunate to have the experience of seeing it.  The exhibition was described as capturing the exploration and discovery of the solar system featuring geological formations on planets.


Andy outside the Natural History Museum before joining the long queue to enter.  As it was a Saturday and the weather was a delightful warm early Spring day there were large numbers of families out enjoying the weekend.

The intricacy of the brickwork and the delicate range of colours let alone the architectural features makes standing in a queue a delight as one has the time to study the exterior in detail.  The inside is just as stunning.

Mars with the Milky Way in the background.
Eclipse of the Sun by Earth

Planetary landscapes

A Warming Comet

Rings of Saturn

Ice sheathed Europa

Gary and Joan and Andy are just about to head off for dinner at "Grumbles" in Pimlico, after a busy day.

We caught the number 24 bus from Belgrave Road to Tottenham Court Road station, a short walk from the British Museum. Up to the third floor we went, passing through lots of artefacts about Roman Britain, until we got to rooms 61-65, to see the Egyptian mummies and all the extras. It amazes me that in Melbourne we have ONE mummy, named Tjeby, yet in London there are soooo many of them, with all sorts of extra supporting displays that explain the ancient Egyptian obsession with death.
We looked at a small exhibition of hoards of coins found by farmers and workers over the years, like the more than 17,000 silver Roman coins found in Beau Street, Bath by archaeologists in 2007. And then we sat outside and ate the delicious sandwiches Gary had made for us from gammon ham and Wiltshire cheddar, followed by waffles and coffee.
After lunch we caught a nearby bus to the London Guildhall, in the very heart of old London at Cheapside (cheap is a Saxon word for market), with street names including Milk, Wood, Honey, etc., that remind us of the 12th century onwards importance of the area. Under the Guildhall is the Roman amphitheatre ruins discovered by archaeologists in 1987, brilliantly presented and interpreted, and extremely interesting.
And to think that these wonderful museums are free entry!

London Day 3

We travelled on the Emirates Airline cable cars from North Greenwich, over the Thames River to the north, and then back again. What a view! And all the history of the Isle of Dogs, and the old sailing ship docks, spread out before us.

Andy and I were photographed by Gary just before we entered the cable car embarkation building. We used our Oyster cards and paid a bit extra, which included the airline museum entry.

The journey across the river took eight minutes each way. We had a car to ourselves.

Gary took a photograph of the O2 building, the millenium dome, from the cable car.

Beyond the O2 building we could see the Gerkhin, the Shard, and other modern architecture.

In the foyer of the O2 building, this was one of the features displayed.

In the forecourt of the O2 building, this amazing sculpture soars to the sky.

At London Bridge Gary photographed the Shard building right next to the London Bridge station.