London Ramblings

I have just returned from 4 weeks 'living' in London. I say 'living' advisedly as we swapped our apartment in Fitzroy for one in Putney Bridge so I did feel like I was at 'home'. This was a HomeLink swap and comes with the trappings and life styles of the respective exchangers. 

I walked the local neighbourhood, daily crossing Putney Bridge to do the shopping and wandered the Thames Path admiring the river, the elm trees and the parkland. I watched rowers train no doubt for the oldest challenge in the world, the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race which commenced in 1829. I signed up to the local chain supermarket and received a free copy of the Guardian daily.The Eight Bells pub established in 1829 was the place to relax with a glass of wine early evenings and provided an opportunity to watch Chelsea defeat Manchester United. The pub was happy!

I spent New Year's Eve at the Boathouse Restaurant on the banks of the Thames with close friends along with most of Putney who crammed the bar downstairs. I foot tapped 'The Commitments' musical in the West End on New Year's Day and was absorbed by a poignant production of '12 Angry Men', the 1957 drama with a line up of familiar faces including Martin Shaw and Robert Vaughan. 

I wandered the spacious Saatchi Gallery with its myriad of rooms where paintings and sculptures are given space to show off and viewers the space to get lost in the works. I gazed from atop a room full of sump oil and was taken by its reflective appeal! And speaking of space, I enjoyed and admired the works of many of the artists in the Tait Modern with its soaring walls and art. Space however was at a premium in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert, the Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery. The Serpentine Gallery provided a nice walk in Hyde Park but not much else.

Rather like Oxford and Regent Streets those places were a buzz with tourists. Shoppers from around the world, if accents are a measure, turn shops into cosmopolitan markets with trestle tables of disturbed fashion.  Speaking of markets, Camden Market and environs was shoulder to shoulder and the fashion and bric a brac was as I remember in the 70's. Portobello Road market had similar nostalgic flashes as does Camden where we lived back in the early 70s. This long and at times winding market peels off into alleys and side streets moving from tourist trap to local fare near its end. Wall to wall people turn out on a Saturday to take in the sites and sounds. A Sunday afternoon in London's oldest live music pub was an opportunity to consume the obligatory pint of cider as a keyboard player provided a relaxed venue with his medley.

Riding the London buses on the top deck criss-crossing the City provided the bird’s eye view of the high streets and their neighbourhoods that in aggregate make London. Bussing also provided an opportunity to experience the uncanny and surgical skill of bus drivers.

The Imaginarium, designed by Rem Koolhaas, at Selfridges in Oxford Street was the venue for the Festival of the Imagination. Rolf Sachs, conceptual artist and designer spoke on his creative process touching on his past, present and future works end imagination.

A visit to the Drawing Room, a not for profit focusing on the art and experience of drawing and located in South London, was an opportunity to hear a presentation by Dryden Goodwin and attend an exhibition opening. Later in our stay we visited the C4RD (Centre for Recent Drawing) exhibition opening by a Norwegian artist, Anders Sletvold Moe. He is a most accomplished artist and his work was a fine example of site specific art.

A side trip to Spittlefields Market provided a good / bad example of an over-the-top refurbishment of a heritage market. Nearby Brick Lane, renowned for its graffiti art, had little to offer Melbournians! The Institute of Contemporary Art featured the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2013 event and was vague and confused. A bus ride to Canary Wharf was the highlight! Canary Wharf makes no claim other than to be 'a feat of civic transformation in the heart of London'. Canary Wharf is not just a place, it is a company. 

And when in London why not visit Paris. A 2 hour Eurostar train ticket landed us at Gare de Nord and the chance to visit the Museum of Modern Art and an exhibition by Chinese artist, Zeng Fanzhi plus visit the Hotel de Ville and an exhibition titled ‘for the love of Paris’ by photographer, Brassai.

On the news front and being an avid BBC Radio 4 buff, the floods saturated significant parts of the country and the media. They are said to be the worst in 20 years. The Secretary for the Environment, a climate sceptic, has had some explaining to do in the House of Commons given the reduction in funding for flood mitigation measures. Ironically he is on record as welcoming climate change given that in his words it would deliver warmer winters! He obviously forgot about the rain!

The Thames Barriers were raised nine times in 2 weeks to protect 200 billion pounds of assets. Many thousands suffered flood damage, 7 died and power outages enraged. The Conservative Government was trailing in the polls and PM Cameron will need less rain and less pain if he is to be successful at the election in April 2015. 

There is 6 degrees separation when it comes to the issues that are centre stage in the media, immigration, fracking, climate change and extreme weather and institutional child abuse. The Government is taking a conservative and often a reactionary view on all 3 due the right wing members of the Conservative Party who hold sway over their more liberal members. The Liberal Democrats who are in coalition seem to be caught in a policy blind spot. I suspect their leader, Nick Clegg likes the mantel of Deputy PM! 

And Labor leader Miliband seeks to take the centre away from the Conservatives. His challenge is to seek favour with the Liberal Democrats given the likelihood of a coalition government following the election in April 2015. Conciliatory words are coming from the mouths of Labor spokespersons daily. 

The only shining light on the political scene is George Monbiot in The Guardian whose commentary takes a razor sharp view on current issues and calls political parties to account for their often deceit but certainly incompetence.