Later in November, I took myself up to Somerset House to take a look at the Stanley Spencer exhibition, which I really enjoyed. It includes all the large scale panels from the Sandham Memorial Chapel, which is currently undergoing conservation. I hadn't realised it, but Stanley Spencer was influenced by Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, and wanted to achieve the same effect of being inside a jewel box, with every inch covered with paintings. The exhibition doesn't include all the paintings, as many of them are murals on the walls; it's only the paintings on canvas, which can be moved. As with most exhibitions, no photos are allowed, but this one is from the poster advertising the exhibition.
It shows the soldiers relaxing, while an officer is attempting to make sense of the map. I enjoyed the exhibition so much, I bought the catalogue, which shows the whole chapel, and convinces me that I must pay it a visit once conservation is over. I'll have a job persuading Paul to go though - he really dislikes Stanley Spencer!
Later in the month, we had a very interesting visit to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, followed by a visit to the Museum's Depot in Acton. The Museum has been re-designed, so it was somewhat different from my last visit, which I must admit was many years ago. We had a very interesting talk on trams first - many European cities rely on them for inexpensive transport, and some British cities are now reinstating them, with varying success. Then we were released to have a look round the galleries which was very interesting and we really needed a lot longer than we had. We'll have to go back again on our own.
There were many old original vehicles, some of which could be entered, and there were lots of school parties doing just that. I really liked the old horse buses, but my best horse bus photo is taken at the Acton Depot.
You can appreciate how close it is to the stage coach, it even looks like a stage coach, with passengers on the roof and the coachman outside.
From the upper galleries you can look down on a lot of the vehicles, and, as you can see, lots of people were taking the opportunity of going inside them.
The wonderful early bus above is obviously a development from the horse bus. The driver is still sitting outside, exposed to the elements, and a lot of passengers sit on the roof, out in the open. The tram next to it is obviously a bit more sheltered, though it still had open platforms.
There were some lovely early train carriages -
this beautiful one is Edwardian.
After lunch, we caught the tube to the Acton Depot, where the Museum keeps more than 370,000 items it doesn't have room for in Covent Garden. Many of them are very large, as you can see.
There are a lot of examples of Tube carriages, of every age from the very earliest, and you can go inside a great many of them, or at least look inside.
This is a very early carriage, and you can see it was used to carry milk churns full of milk to be delivered in the city.
There are also buses from every era.
This is one from around the time of the First World War, I think. You can see that the passengers are a bit more sheltered, but the driver is still out in the open.
There was so much to see and we didn't have time for everything, though we were totally exhausted by 5 o'clock and glad to be going home. We don't have the stamina we used to have!
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