Festival

A fortnight ago to Hampton Court Palace, for what turned out to be a festival of sorts. Managed to get through to RingGo for car parking without too much trauma, then stopped to admire this curious stretched thistle, flowers visible in front of the white building top left, in the flower bed between the car park and the station. A flower bed maintained, possibly on a voluntary basis, by one of ladies on the Southwestern team.

Google Images turned up lots of stuff, as did straight search, but nothing sprang out as the answer. Even when I tried zooming and artful snipping to highlight the curious leaves down below. I dare say if I flogged through it all, I would get there in the end, but not today. Maybe next time the lady will be there and I can ask her.

Much noise in the station itself, both from the announcement loudspeaker and from passengers. Perhaps they were in competition.

Still no visible action in the vacant lot, although there are some flowering shrubs coming along. I suppose all the property consultants involved need time to process the consultation (noticed towards the end of reference 1) and to get their bills in.

Arrived at the entrance to the Palace to find access denied. There was a literary festival on for which pre-booking and payment was required. Something called the Queen's Reading Room Festival - involving the Way Ahead Group Ltd - to judge by the email receipts which turned up later. Our first thought was that it seemed unlikely that either the present queen or her predecessor were big readers and we retired across the road to regroup at the Coppernose Café: your independent, neighbourhood café - which just happens to have a web address derived from the Mitre Hotel next door. Over refreshment, without checking properly, we decided to give the festival a whirl. Maybe there would be some fringe entertainment. After which we were entertained by a jolly older couple sporting loud T-shirts advertising Dyson, which turned out to really be loud T-shirts advertising the Bath rugby team, due to play a nearby Twickenham that very afternoon.

I think that in this case 'other amusement and recreation activities not elsewhere classified' means ticketing services. Quite a small operation.

Further entertainment in the form of the very substantial tea bag that came with my tea. How would it do on my compost heap?

While BH was pleased to find out all about Old Coppernose and his debased coinage. for which the curious reader is referred to Google. Or failing that, Copilot, who did a serviceable job this afternoon. I wonder if, being a member of the Microsoft family, he had access to my recent viewing history to give him a steer, a helping hand?

Back across the road, where I succeeded in getting £30 removed from my bank account - via Paypal - as I prefer my telephone to know as little as possible about my banking affairs. And on through the gates to find that no-one there had a clue what we had paid for. We're just here to mind the door guv.

But they had done a good job of turning some of their front lawns into one of those wild flower meadows which are all the rage at the moment - and we had done a good job of turning up on a day when it was in full flower.

I took an interest in the cruciform interior of the poppy flowers.

Got inside the Palace to find that all the security people were still only there to guard the doors. No idea what was going on. No programmes being dished out. Eventually we found that what we had paid was just a basic fee to get us entrance to the Palace  - which as subscribers  we had hoped that we had already paid for - and then you paid a further £15 a pop for every celebrity that you wanted to hear. People like Ian Rankin and Mary Beard. Which sounds quite a lot, but it is the same as we used to pay at the Royal Institution for both A and B list celebrities. Flat rate. Quite a few people, quite a lot of them young, had stumped up their £15's on this occasion and were to be found queuing here and there. Festival stalls and other collateral turned out to amount to half a dozen sheds out on the east terrace offering various kinds of street food. After all, you couldn't really call it a festival without street food.

We decided that we could pass on celebrities and settled for enjoying the gardens, much quieter than they would usually be on a summer Saturday. I wondered whether turning off the full-price, regular tourists for a day was really a good plan from their point of view.

This stretch of herbaceous border more or less vanished, apart from some rather ugly outdoor art. I guess in our subsidy-free world, they can't afford the gardeners any more. How long is it since the boss of Hampton Court was some serious heritage or gardening type, rather than the travel & tourism people they probably get in now?

The most recent annual report appears to be that for 2018-2019, to be found at reference 5, not a brilliant bit of transparency and accountability, at which time the chair was one Rupert Gavin  (above) and the chief executive was John Barnes (reference 6 and below).

So it looks as if I was being a bit unfair. Not exactly tweeds, pipe and donnish appearance, but perfectly respectable CVs for all that.

And the privy garden was in its usual fine state. I dare say on a hot day like today, the beech-covered walk would provide cool & welcome shade. Live shade of this sort eating up the heat in a way that the dead shade of tents and such like does not.

We took a sit in the cool and pleasant orchard, underneath the walk. Lightly mowed.

A handsome bed, in a quiet way, next to the flashier of the two sunken gardens. I think it used to be a display of dahlias in the olden days.

Some martins swinging about the Fountain Court, not visible here, no doubt attracted by the flies attracted by the standing water.

A fine foxglove in one of the surviving herbaceous beds.

A fine something else nearby. Suitably snipped, This time Google Images had got enough to go on to give a clear verdict in favour of the plume poppy (Macleaya microcarpa). After a quick poke around, taking in reference 7, I think I agree with him.

The new format rose garden was looking very well on this occasion. Time for another sit on one of the benches provided.

Somewhere along the way we took lunch in the old kitchen. Soup and pie for him, filled bagel for her. All very satisfactory, if a little dear.

While on exit, BH was very pleased to spot someone marching up the drive in full dress (as it were) who looked very like Miriam Margolyes. The sort of person who likes to be recognised. She was very early for her spot, so perhaps she had some prep to do. BH knew all about her; for those like me who do not, there is always reference 8.

A good day. Despite appearances, we got our money's worth.

PS 1: I think the 'azureedge' part of reference 5 is one of the Microsoft Cloud offerings. Another bit of critical national infrastructure shipped off to the US. Unless Microsoft sub it on to Mexico that is. Hopefully part of their package is keeping the almost state-sponsored hackers from Russia at bay, something we do not always quite manage for ourselves.

PS 2: when will Russians come to regret giving themselves over to gangsters - in much the same way as we have given ourselves over to private equity types? Hoods in suits as an old leftie might say.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/tulips-at-hampton-court.html.

Reference 2: https://mitrehamptoncourt.com/food-drink/the-coppernose/.

Reference 3: https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/whats-on/the-queens-reading-room/#gs.aqcdod.

Reference 4: https://thequeensreadingroom.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://hrp-prd.azureedge.net/media/2510/annual-review-2018-19.pdf. 

Reference 6: http://www.jabaarchitect.co.uk/.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macleaya_microcarpa. 

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Margolyes.