After quite a long pause in such, I went for a visit to Tate Britain last week to see an exhibition of work celebrating 70 years of Caribbean-British art. And, it being cold and overcast, much pondering about it was best to walk or ride from Vauxhall station to the gallery. Eventually I settled on ride, pulling a Bullingdon from the stand across the footbridge, treading it down Albert Embankment, across Lambeth Bridge, and parking up just before the Tate. A bit of a long way round, but it avoided cycle lane complications at Vauxhall Bridge and was a good bit quicker than walking.
An overnight growth of sheds in the exclusive car park outside Epsom Station. No workmen and certainly no work to be seen. The chap in the ticket office had been given no notice of any such activity and had no idea what might be going on. Let's hope they don't damage the honey locusts (Gleditsia triacanthos) last noticed at reference 2.
Moving on, had to wait on the way down Albert Embankment for a waste disposal lorry to reverse out of the alley next to the spook's building in yellow. The cheerful traffic marshal declined to comment on the nature of the waste being disposed of.
The exhibition was not, in the event, crowded. The usual pensioner and chattering classes crew, some young people and some blacks. A very mixed media show. Plus lots of black and white photos and arty videos. Some anger. Some joy. Some more or less conventional, mainstream art.
Nicely put together, with plenty of light and space and the first thing that caught my eye was a display of rather phallic bottles. At least, that is how they seemed to me.
I committed the solecism of touching the art and getting a few bongs out of one of the drums. Clever how you can get more than one tone out of any one drum. Quite a good tone too. And in the event, I was not jumped by a trusty.
A video plus voice installation by Alberta Whittle (of reference 3) caught my eye. I was also rather impressed by the quality of the equipment used.
Something more conventional.
Something even more conventional, in the sense that I would never have guessed that it was the work of someone from Guyana, the late Denis Williams of reference 4. I thought it rather good.
The story from the Tate. From where I associate this morning to the sort of thing that wine shops that fancy themselves say about their wines. All that stuff about notes of citrus with just a hint of kerosene. Or was it cinnamon.
I was rather taken with a dark drawing - 1983, untitled, pastel and gouache on paper - by Claudette Johnson of reference 5, but my snap was rather spoiled by lots of reflections, so the one offered above was turned up by Bing: 'Striking new painting by Claudette Johnson acquired for Rugby Art Gallery and Museum'. Gouache being a medium that has been around for centuries: an opaque, organic, water based paint which comes in tubes.
Out to a rather bizarre installation in what used to be the main sculpture hall, very noisy both aurally and visually. Very blue. To the casual glance, something to do with war. A something which did not do enough for me to stop and investigate further, preferring to leave and pull my next Bullingdon for Borough.
Rather to my surprise, I found my way to Borough quite easily, taking in what used to be the Lambeth Walk public house on the way, long since upgraded to something which now looks closed and is surrounded by new development. Which is not the scene turned up by Street View at all, so someone else I need to check again. A place first noticed ten years ago at reference 6. Younger readers may not know that the 'Lambeth Walk' was once a popular dance, as explained at reference 7.
Lots of coaches parked up outside the Imperial War Museum.
Parked up near the junction of the A2 and the A3. The A3 being a road which also passes not far from where we live in Epsom, I must find out where exactly it ends in London, presumably somewhere in or on the fringes of the City.
Bought what I intended at the Italian grocery first noticed at reference 8, that is to say three packs of sausages and two bottles of golden anniversary wine.
From there to the street food operation opposite, in the margins of the firmly shut church, where I was able to buy a huge portion of meat paella for £6.50. Wasn't able to manage more than half of it, so the other half was carried home to have warmed up a day or so later. No ill effects, I am pleased to be able to say. Followed by some rather good dumplings made in some left over beef gravy that BH had to hand.
From there to the Trinity, just past the tube station. Once an old fashioned boozer, now somewhat upgraded. The odd festive party in the back bar, but quiet enough out front. Where the woolly pully of the barmaid matched the pink sleeves of the beer taps. Now a Fullers house.
While Borough tube station had not been upgraded, with the snap above being taken on the stairs down to the platforms - the bench provided for those running out of puff on the way up.
On the platform, I half expected to see mice or worse, but in the event nothing at all.
Back at Epsom, a young lady who was late for her care work joined me in my taxi. Eventually we worked out that what she wanted was the Bluebird agency in Benheim Road, rather than the care home in Longmead Road. All a bit flustered, but she was suitably grateful. Leaving the driver and I wondering how far she was going to be expected to commute for her £10 an hour. Maybe one day we will state paying care workers decent wages.
Closed the proceedings with a little something at TB. Inside on this occasion, from a seat where I was able to admire the bar at which I had spent many hours in the past. Not allowed to stand at the bar any more, and in any event quiet, but not otherwise empty on this occasion.
PS 1: regarding the A3, the answer is that having swallowed up the A2 at Borough, it run across London Bridge, up King William Street and terminates where it meets the A10 outside Monument tube station (orange blob). The site of the Roman forum in the snap below? The A10 being, as it happens, a road that I knew well before I knew the A3. The A4 doesn't make it to the City at all, being swallowed up by the A40 on Holborn. The A5 starts at Marble Arch, well to the west. Things go a bit to pot after that, with the A6 not making it to London at all. While Wikipedia rather falls down on the A1, which gmaps suggests runs down to London Wall (purple blob). Being known to me a little way to the north as Goswell Road, which I used to cross on my way to St. Luke's, where the lunchtime programmes have yet to recover from the plague.
PS 2: wondering about the square marked top left in the first wall snap above, I went to the source blog (reference 9) where I find it to be Cripplegate Fort. Handy for control of access to the all important road to the north, now the A1.
PS 3: proof-reading at reference 9 on about a par with my own. '... In 60 or 61 AD, Boudicca led a revolt that caught the Romans off guard. Her forces sacked Rome and did quite a bit of damage before being crushed...'.
References
Reference 1: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/life-between-islands.
Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/10/a-new-church.html.
Reference 3: https://www.albertawhittle.com/.
Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Williams.
Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudette_Johnson.
Reference 6: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=chocolate+lollipop.
Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lambeth_Walk.
Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/11/facts-not-opinions.html.
Reference 9: http://stevewagner68.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html. Does the 'archive' bit mean that the blogger/blogspot people do something with inactive blogs?
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