Saturday, May 26, 2018

London 2018: Earl's Court Dining, High Tea at Rubens Hotel

Our first trip to London in 2000 was not a culinary triumph as we had quite a difficult time finding anything more than a mediocre meal from the limited choices of English pubs or low-end Indian restaurants that were available at that time.  The one exception was the fabulous fish and chips that we devoured at the since-defunct High Tide Fish and Chips.  In our attempt to find an “authentic English dining experience”, we were directed to a place that I not-so-fondly remember as the “soup kitchen”.  We were seated with other people in a booth that held four on each side and had to get up in the middle of our meal to let out the people seated on the inside, and then were required to shuffle over into the inside positions ourselves so that more people could join us.  We ordered some sort of platter consisting of a meat, vegetables and mashed potato and within less than a couple of minutes, received what can only be described as a TV dinner, and one that was not even heated up properly since my peas and carrots were still cold.  Given our lack of success dining in London on our first visit, we did not have terribly high expectations on this return trip.

Things have really changed in the intervening two decades.  There is much more variety in terms of types and ethnicity of food available, and the concept of “high-end” dining in London is no longer an oxymoron.  Just in our neighbourhood of Earlscourt where we stayed during our trip, we passed by Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Italian, French, Indian,  Lebanese, Afro-Portuguese and Moroccan eateries to name a few.   We were even just a short walk away from several very good restaurants and iconic coffee bars.

Harwood Arms is a laid-back gastropub with an upscale, modern British menu that warranted a Michelin star rating.  We started by sharing a handmade venison scotch egg and then each ordered the two course Sunday roast special.  Rich’s first course selection consisted of Wye Valley asparagus with a soft-boiled pheasant egg, duck ham, juniper cream and hazelnuts.  My first course was an absolutely amazing bright green wild garlic soup with brandy, accompanied by a piece of crispy hake collar with chunks of fish to use as the “crouton”.   The main course was a platter containing slices of 45-day aged sirloin of Hereford beef, cooked to a perfectly pink medium rare, served with a horseradish cream and smoked bone-marrow gravy.  The hollow base of two gigantic Yorkshire puddings contained small shreds of beef and a bit of gravy.  Accompanying the meat was an array of crispy roast potatoes, baked root vegetables, steamed broccolini, and battered cauliflower cheese croquettes.  This was indeed a meal worthy of a Michelin Star.

Directly across the street from our apartment was a new restaurant that had opened fairly recently and which we could see from our living room window.  Although I cannot pronounce it, The Gojk Restaurant and Lounge is a fabulous European-fusion restaurant that focuses on “sourcing the best quality seasonal produce available, applying the most modern conservation, cooking and regeneration techniques”.  The food was so good that we ate there twice, once for dinner and once for lunch.  We arrived for dinner on what turned out to be the restaurant’s special “Premium Meats Week” where they were offering specialty meats including a Galician aged beef filet steak and aged beef top loin.  As we sat down, we were offered delicious bowl of various types of olives marinated in Mediterranean herbs and citrus as an amuse-bouche.  We ordered the salmon gravlax infused with Lapsang Souchong tea, gin, tonic and a horseradish mascarpone cream, topped with sweet pomegranate seeds and served with rye bread.  This was so delicious that we ordered it again when we returned for lunch, and Rich was able to get the recipe for making it from the very friendly chef.  We also tried two types of croquettes—one filled with broccoli and stilton cheese and the other with monkfish and shrimp.

For our mains, Rich chose the French duck breast from Brittany while I ordered the British venison sirloin steak.  Both dishes came with mashed potato, crispy seasonal vegetables and a cabbage slaw, as well as a choice of 3 different sauces—cloves and roses, mushroom or red berries.  We could not decide so the waiter graciously offered us a sampling of each.  For dessert, we shared a dark chocolate mousse made with dark Guanaja chocolate and Tonka beans and topped with red and blue berries.  To top it all off, we were offered some delicious chocolate truffles to end the meal.  Everything was heavenly and while Gojk doesn’t currently have a Michelin Star, in my opinion, it deserves one.

For lunch, we chose the 2 course set menu for £15, which was a great deal considering what we were served.  The appetizer was a choice between salad, gazpacho soup or grilled scallops with cauliflower and potato cream with coriander oil balsamic vinaigrette.  Obviously we chose the scallops which seemed like such a step up from the other two choices.  There were two choices of mains and we ordered one of each.  I picked the cod loin with piquillo pepper sauce, roast potato and grilled vegetables while Rich had the venison burger with cassava chips and greens.  His burger came again with 3 sauces of ketchup, mustard and aioli.  We decided not to go for the 3-course meal which included a dessert of violette panna cotta for an extra £5, since I am not fond of panna cotta.  To our surprise, we received a wonderful end of meal treat which consisted of two chocolate truffles and two mini ice cream bars, which was much more to my taste in terms of sweets.  How lucky we were to have this amazing restaurant located so close to our accommodations and to be able to eat there twice!

Open in 1954 as a coffeehouse and cultural hotspot, the Troubadour became a West-End institution where musicians such as Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Charlie Watts, Sammy Davis Jr, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Elvis Costello performed.  The establishment changed hands several times with each new owner preserving its artistic and intellectual roots.  In 2002, the two adjoining buildings were purchased and the Troubadour expanded into a bar/restaurant on the top floor and a performance space for live music in the basement.   There are free jazz nights on Mondays, Tuesdays and Sundays at 8pm and featured performers on the other nights that charge a cover fee (usually between £6 to £10).

Since the Troubadour was only a half block from our apartment, we decided that we would stop by one night to have a drink and listen to some music.  The act that was most appealing to me was the Spanish guitarist Filo Vals so we picked the night that he was playing.  He was preceded by two opening acts, Euro-pop singer ANA and the alternative rock group Atlantic Machine.  We had a good table and view for the first two acts but by the time Filo Vals came on stage, a crowd of people filled the platform in front of him, blocking our view.  I stood on the table to get a glimpse of him and take a few photos but after that, we settled for just listening to him play and sing.  It was so late by the time he started that we did not want to stay for the entire set but I liked the few songs that we heard him perform. 

Looking out the window of our rental apartment, we could see the Sunday morning Farmer’s Market being set up down the block in the local schoolyard.  Checking it out, we found a good variety of fresh breads, baked goods,  fruits and vegetables, organic meats and baked goods including savoury pies, rolls and quiches.  We bought some sausage, asparagus, lettuce, strawberries and a loaf of bread, as well as a couple of quiches and a Thai green curry pita wrap to eat for dinner at home over the next few evenings.   One stall was grilling sausages, hot dogs, bacon and hamburgers and offered a sandwich with sausage, bacon and grilled onions which we picked up for breakfast.  Our favourite purchase from the market was a bottle of fresh pressed apple juice (as opposed to apple cider) which was so delicious that we immediately returned to get a second bottle and went back the next week for a third one!

On our last day in London, we booked the “Royal Wedding Afternoon Tea” at the Ruebens Hotel which is located across from Buckingham Palace.  Afternoon tea (sometimes called High Tea) consists of 3 courses of finger foods including bite-sized sandwiches with the crusts cut off, scones with clotted cream and jam, and pastries.  Our tea offered a special menu in honour of the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle which happened a few days earlier.  Because we booked way in advance, we were assigned one of the prime loveseats facing the window with a view of the back of Buckingham Palace.   This was a lovely setting to enjoy our “light lunch” while being serenaded by live piano music.

The Rubens Royal Afternoon Tea cost £39 per person and included all the food that you could eat.  We did not realize originally that we could ask for extra helpings of any of the treats, but there was so much food in the initial offering that we could not handle much more beyond that.  There were five types of mini sandwiches including a Smoked Scottish Salmon and Horseradish Cream Cheese on Beetroot Bread, Coronation Chicken and Toasted Almonds on White Bread, Ham, Cheese and Tomato Chutney on Onion Bread, Egg and Watercress on Basil Bread, and Cucumber and Cream Cheese on Caraway Seeded Bread.  Our favourite was the chicken sandwich so we did each get an extra one of those.  Then came hot scones in both plain and chocolate flavours with a generous helping of clotted cream and strawberry jam.  The pastries were special since they were inspired by the wedding cakes of past royal couples.  There was the Elderflower and lemon cheesecake from Harry and Meghan’s wedding, a traditional fruit cake from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s nuptials, a Plum mousse cake chosen by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and a Chocolate biscuit cake from Will and Kate’s wedding.  The cookie was a “Queen Jammy dodger biscuit” with a jam filling that was a childhood favourite selected in honour of the recent birth of Prince Louis.  We also had special leaf teas to choose from.  I selected the “Royal Jubilee Blend”, a bespoke blend created in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II consisting of two famous black teas—Yunnan and Assam.  Rich selected the “Ruebens Blend”, a sophisticated blend of Indian and Chinese black teas created by Twinings, featuring Assam, Darjeeling and a touch of Smokey Lapsang, producing a tea that is ruby in colour with deep aromas.  

Our elegant and leisurely Royal Afternoon Tea was the perfect finale to a busy three-weeks “Off the Beaten Path” tour of London where we watched 3 plays, took 4 walking tours and included visits to museums, art galleries, a Medieval castle with Art Deco decor inside, canals and multiple neighbourhoods.  We took pride in staying away from the major tourist areas for the most part and therefore were able to experience parts of London that many visitors don't have a chance to.

Friday, May 25, 2018

London 2018: Victoria & Albert Again

The Victoria and Albert Museum is so expansive with so many different galleries to see that there is no way to do it justice in one day (or even several days as we found out).  We decided to allocate one and a half days to the venue that is the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design with over 2.3 million items in its collection.  Our first visit was a half day scouting expedition where we took the Introductory Highlights Tour to get an overview of what we should concentrate on during our return visit.  We also knocked off the British galleries and ate lunch in the stunning Classical Revival style cafeteria space designed by James Gamble and had a cold drink out on the terrace in the beautiful Garden Café.  On our second visit, we dedicated the entire day to tour the galleries, but still would not be able to visit all of them.  Based on our scouting expedition, we had mapped out the areas that we wanted to concentrate on, as well as two special exhibitions that we would pay an additional fee to visit (whereas the rest of the museum was admissible for free).

One of these special exhibits was titled Ocean Liners: Speed and Style, focusing on the design stories of some of the world’s most luxurious Ocean Liners of the 20th century, including the RMS Titanic (White Star Line - 1912), SS Normandie (Compagnie Générale Transatlantique or CGT - 1935-42), RMS Queen Mary (Cunard - 1936-67) and SS Canberra (P&O - 1961-97).  Promotional posters were designed to highlight the sleek, majestic ships, emphasizing the size, speed and elegance.  A sectional model of the RMS Berengaria (circa 1920) illustrated how ocean liners of the time were laid out.  The grand, first-class public rooms occupied the upper-most deck while the first-class dining room with a domed ceiling was situated at the centre, the most stable and comfortable part of the ship.  The Berengaria was originally the German cruise liner SS Imperator (1913) but was allocated to Britain as part of WWI reparations. A poster from the Cunard Line of ships showed the relative space and locations of first, second, third class rooms and dining spaces as well as the baggage and storage areas at the bottom of the vessels.

Shipping companies competing for wealthy passengers, lured them with luxurious interior designs that rivaled high-end hotels and restaurants in terms of opulence and beauty.  Some examples of these interiors on display included the carpet for the first-class lounge of the RMS Aquitania, and decor from the SS France including oak paneling from the communication gallery, two armchairs covered in blue embossed velvet from the first class dining room and a pair of stunning doors from the embarkation hall, with sunburst imagery that referenced the Sun King, Louis XIV.  Items on display from the SS Queen Mary included lovely wool carpets from the first-class state rooms, a rosewood and maple armchair covered with cotton and silk and a maple veneer table with black laquer from the Long Gallery, all reflecting a contemporary style of “restrained modernism”.  The intricately designed wood panel from the promenade deck entrance of the SS Uganda used 35 different types of wood to depict birds of Africa, reflecting the destination to which the ship travelled.   I particularly liked the floral marquetry inlays in the wood panel  from the SS Île de France with the French Art Deco chair in front of it, and the fabulous large-scaled golden laquer panel titled “Les Sports” by Jean Dunand from the first-class smoking room of the SS Normandie featuring men throwing javelins and discuses.  Rich red lacquered side tables and upholstered chairs with floral embroidery complemented the dramatic walls.

More décor on display included a panel from the work “Rape of Europa” by Jean Dupas which was created for the first-class grand salon on the SS Normandie, as part of a glass mural spanning 400 square metres.  Charles Gilbert’s glass panels etched with images of coral reefs decorated the first-class ballroom of the SS United States.  An interesting piece created for the synagogue provided on the Queen Mary was a veneered wood “Torah ark”, an ornamental cabinet used to store Torah scrolls.  Synagogues became more prominent on ocean liners as the number of Jewish travelers increased.  Also found on the Queen Mary is Maurice Lambert’s cast aluminum relief called “Speed and Progress” which is the epitome of Art Deco design. Multiple oil-painted panels for a mural titled “English Pub” by Edward Bawden could be found on the first-class lounge of the SS Oronsay.

Since the Ocean Liners were modeled after high-end hotels, it is not surprising to see staff dressed like bellhops.  Back then, activities on the ships included the typical lounging on deck chairs and swimming, but also boxing, skeet-shooting, shuffle board, fencing, tennis and volleyball.  On most high-end ships, guests showed off their fashions and made prominent, glamorous entrances into first-class dining areas by strutting down dramatic staircases known as “The Grande Descente”.  On the SS Canberra, even the first-class childrens’ play area boasted designer décor including nursery rhyme inspired murals featuring images of Humpty Dumpty, Little Bo Peep and Treasure Island.

A section of the exhibit focused on luggage and fashions seen on the ocean liners.  The Louis Vuitton rolling “Desk Trunk” made of canvas, brass, leather, wood and velvet, opens up like a portable dresser with drawers.  Examples of wardrobe included the elegant bright-red evening dress by designer Lucien Lelong which was worn on the SS Normandie by the wife of a shipping magnet, and the green silk Jeanne Lanvin designed glass-beaded flapper dress (named “Salambo) which was worn by American socialite Emilie Grigsby.  There was Maison Goyard luggage owned by King Edward VIII, who travelled frequently between France and America with Wallis Simpson after he abdicated the throne.  A brown woolen Christian Dior day suit was worn by actress Marlene Dietrich on the RMS Queen Mary.  Fashion inspired by specific ocean liners included a leather and metal hand-clutch bag shaped like the SS Normandie and a silk blouse decorated with the words “Queen Mary” in stylized print.

Dining was a very different experience depending on the class of travel in terms of food, service and tableware.  Top chefs from restaurants such as the Ritz and Carlton hotels were hired to prepare meals for first-class passengers, serving items like Beluga caviar, venison steak and wild strawberries.  My favourite example of tableware was the beautiful purple-hued Wedgewood bone china designed by Edward Bawden for the Orient Line.  I was amused but also impressed by the menu for dogs provided on the SS Normandie which included various cuts of meats and vegetables with toasts.  On the SS Oronsay, the children’s tableware was decorated with elephants and monkeys and the children’s menu included games and activities.  The bed from the first-class cabin of the RMS Maurentania was designed to fit perfectly against the curved hull in order to maximize cabin space.  The intricately carved bed included built-in drawers and a fold-out nightstand.  After the pleasure of experiencing all that luxury and opulence, it was a sobering sight to see a fragment of an extremely ornate Rococo-style over-door panel from the first-class lounge of the Titanic, which was found floating on the surface of the Atlantic after the ship’s tragic sinking.

The second special exhibit that we bought tickets for was titled “Fashioned from Nature”.  It explored the complex relationship between fashion and nature, looking at items dating from the 1600s to the current day.  It presents examples of fashionable dress made with unusual natural materials, innovative new fabrics and dyeing processes.  A French silk dress with silver and gilded threads that was worn by a lady of the court in 1760 was coloured with plant dye from brazilwood and redwood trees to obtain the pink and brown tones, as well as lichen and indigo to produce blue shades.  Pineapple fibres were woven into a silk wedding dress, made in Britain in 1828.  A Parisian wool hat from 1885 is decorated with a stuffed starling supplemented with feathers from a goose in order to give the illusion of a larger more exotic species of bird.  An xray of the hat shows the actual skeleton of the starling.  The matching silk and wool walking dress is supported in the bodice by whalebone and the shirt with a horse-hair pad and two factory-made steel half hoops held in place by elastic rubber tape.  Over 5000 wings of the green Indian jewel beetle were used to decorate a cotton dress from 1869.  The feathers from domesticated and farmed ostriches from South Africa were used for clothes and fans in the 1860s.  Birds with iridescent feathers such as peacocks, hummingbirds and honeycreepers from South America were popular for ornamenting dresses, hats and other accessories, as well as being incorporated in jewellery.

A section of the exhibit provides examples of fashion being inspired by nature.  A pair of dresses by the House of Dior were influenced by flowers including a 1956 silk taffeta Montecarlo evening dress decorated with the pattern of roses, and bright purple mohair wool and silk chiffon coat (2010) that  literally turned the model into a large hot-house flower, while the purple Perspex (type of acrylic) hat is formed to look like the cellophane that wraps a bouquet.   A beautiful calf-skin handbag by Gucci (2017) includes silk-screened motifs of two male stag beetles while the clasp resembles a fox.  The “leopard skin” dress by Jean Paul Gaultier (1997) is actually made of taffeta with coloured beads and rhinestones placed to simulate the animal’s spots and claws.  Japanese designer Masaya Kushino’s “Bird-witched shoes” (2014) made of crocodile leather and rooster feathers with the magnificent metal claws, were inspired by drawings of 18th Century bird artist Ito Jakuchu.  Alexander McQueen’s “Plato’s Atlantis” dress (2010) is inspired by world climate change, depicting melting ice caps and submerged lands.  The printed silk georgette “Faberge Imperial Gown” (2016) by Giles Deacon is decorated with the pattern of guillemot eggs which have unusual pointed shapes and varied colours.  Actual eggs on loan from the Natural History Museum were displayed next to the dress as a source of comparison.

While processes used in the 19th Century and earlier caused environmental harm by releasing pollutants into the water supply, the 20th Century took matters to another level.  With the innovations of man-made textiles created from chemically treated organic fibres, synthetically engineered fibres made from by products of oil and coal, overhunting, the reaping of endangered plants and animals, and the migration of manufacturing overseas to countries with low labour costs but little environmental legislation, the impact of the fashion industry on the environment increased exponentially.  On display were various gowns made of synthetic fabrics that were produced with toxic chemicals, insecticides and processes that caused air and water pollution, oil spills and led to bans in the USA.  Other practices now seen as issues included animal cruelty and overhunting of endangered species.  Examples of this included crocodile-skin handbag, an evening cape made from Colobus monkey fur and accessories made with pheasant feathers.  Unlike the Gaultier leopard dress which was made with natural materials, the semi-synthetic fabric viscose rayon used to create the leopard-patterned evening dress (1933) by Busvine was quite harmful the environment.  Viscose rayon is created by converting wood pulp with carbon disulphide.  In addition to water and air pollution, this toxic chemical compound has a noxious smell and could cause nerve damage and heart disease to those exposed to its fumes.

Fashion activism was used in environmental protests against the fashion industry, using designs on T-shirts, jackets and other wardrobe items to convey messages and warnings about toxic production practices and climate change.  Messages included “It’s Getting HOT in here”, “Clean up or die”, “Save the Artic”, “Climate Revolution” and “Who Made My Clothes?”.  In 2013, a project called “Planet Money” followed the production of two t-shirts from the growing, spinning, dyeing of the material, to the construction and printing of the shirt, to the delivery to the stores.  In one example, cotton is grown in the U.S., spun into fabric in Indonesia, dyed, knit and manufactured in Bangladesh and finally the producing and printing of the design of a squirrel with a martini was done back in the U.S. again.  Given all this, how would you answer “Who made my clothes?”  Without visibility into all the steps in the supply chain, the social and environmental impact of each stop is often overlooked.

Given that the fashion industry is one of the top five polluters of the world, it is somewhat reassuring that some designers and fashion companies seek to follow more ethical methods for design, sourcing of reusable, recycled or sustainable materials and production.  A fabric made from recycled plastic bottles was used in the creation of a Calvin Klein outfit consisting of a bustier, trousers and long train that was worn by actress Emma Watson at the 2016 Met Gala.  A frilly, pink polyester dress was also made from recycled plastics collected from oceans and waterways.  Recycled polyester requires up to 50% less energy to create than new polyester.  The linen jacket and trousers designed by actor John Malkovich are made from flax, which requires no irrigation (relying on rain and ground water) and minimal pesticides.  An animal-free Vegan leather alternative made from the stalks, seeds and skins of grapes during wine production was used by designer Tiziano Guardini to create a full-length gown, belt and purse.  A crocheted jacket and trousers was created with leftover stock yarn and leather pieces that would otherwise be destined for the landfill.  Wearable paper clothing is made from unbleached wood pulp which is then dyed and finished.  The ultimate example of reuse comes from the dress, bag and hat made by reusing or “upcycling” old WWI silk escape maps that helped RAF pilots find their way when stranded in enemy territory.  The accompanying zip-up waterproof jacket is constructed from surplus military parachutes.  Well known fashion brands are using their clout to support environmental initiatives.  J.Crew donated 50% of the retail price of a T-shirt decorated with bees to the “Save the Bees” campaign.  The orange jacket by Patagonia is made from recycled polyester and filled with feathers obtained from a certified cruelty-free farm.  The running shoes by Veja are constructed from sustainably grown organic cotton and wild rubber from Brazil with the proceeds supporting the World Wildlife Fund and the Sky Rainforest Rescue campaign.

In addition to the Fashioned From Nature exhibit, the Victoria and Albert Museum has quite the comprehensive permanent fashion collection in its own right, with wardrobe and accessories dating from the 18th Century through to current day.  Some of my favourite pieces included the 1895 velvet evening coat decorated with floral patterned silk embroidery, the 1926 tennis dress with emerald-green and white patch-work squares by Hepburne Scott and the beautiful 1949 “Butterfly” evening cape made from accordion-pleated rayon ribbons sewn together in a continuous loop that was designed for prima ballerina Ninette de Valois.  There was also the gorgeous 1954 silk satin evening dress by Pierre Balmain that was hand-painted, the evening coat by Elsa Schiaparelli (1937) decorated with pink roses sitting in an embroidered urn that also doubles as a pair of facial profiles looking at each other, and two of dresses from the 1960s made from bonded fibre paper printed with the psychedelic designs popular from that decade.  More current dresses included a 2009 Christopher Kane body-hugging dress made of nylon and elastane with mirror and metal beads that formed an intricate pattern.  This collection gave a good overview of how fashion has changed over the centuries and decades.
The V&A has an entire gallery consisting of two levels devoted to jewellery, with a few pieces dating back to ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, but for the most part focusing on Western jewellery from Medieval Times to the present.  I really liked the pair of Arts and Crafts styled pendants (circa 1900) by husband and wife designers Edith and Nelson Dawson.  My favourite was the beautiful enamel plaque with the motif of a purple tradescantia flower surrounded by gold and silver gilt, with two amethysts and an opal pendant dangling from the bottom.  I also liked the one with the spray of lilies-of-the-valley in the enamel surrounded by a gold frame decorated with pearls and sapphires and a small golden cherub at the top.  Also from the same time frame is the enameled gold pendant depicting a female figure holding her braids that is set with rubies.  A set of small hard-stone carvings of animals and flowers by Carl Faberge included a fabulous snail made of green nephrite jade (late 19th to early 20th century).  Some of the more contemporary pieces are fun and whimsical.  Marjorie Schick’s necklace called “Ring of Fire” (1995) is made of painted papier-mâché, consisting of a circular spiral of brightly coloured red, purple, orange, yellow and blue flame-like forms decorated with a leaf-like chevron pattern.  Norwegian designer Felieke van der Leest is known for her humorous works using plastic animals dressed in crochet clothing.  Her bracelet called “J.Russells” (2008), made of gold, glass, plastic and textile, depicts six Jack Russell terriers dressed in striped football gear standing on their hind legs, who are linked at their shoulders and ankles by gold-link chains.

The furniture section of the museum featured a good selection of items from the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau periods.  Scottish designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s iconic high-backed oak chair (1897-1900) has an oval panel with a cut-out section that resembles a bird in flight.  The high-back shape seems to have influenced Frank Lloyd Wright who created his own version of dining room chairs in 1902 although Wright’s seems more severe in comparison.  Mackintosh also designed the very clever circular table with a small round surface for playing dominoes, lower shelves facing in four directions that are used for holding plates and cups, and four matching rounded chairs that tuck right into the table.  Other lovely examples of Arts and Crafts design include vases, wallpaper, a plate and a lamp.  A gorgeous peacock-shaped wall sconce (1899) by Alexander Fisher is made of steel, bronze, brass and silver with enameled decoration to produce the eyes of the peacock’s tail.  The stylish but functional dining room sideboard by Edward Godwin, made of ebonized mahogany with silver-plated handles and inset panels of Japanese-embossed leather paper, has many drawers, adjustable shelves and a rack fitted to hold a large dish between the two cupboards.

The curiously playful Chair-Bench (2012) seems more like a historic artwork than an actual piece of furniture.  Using ash to create a curved bench, designer Gitta Gschwendtner recreated the backs and legs of six chairs from the V&A’s furniture collection, choosing ones made from different woods and by different techniques.  She mounted the backs and legs onto the bench, but mischievously mismatches them so that different styles were joined together.  There were some interesting examples of more recently designed furniture that morph and change shapes, either taking on a new function or for storage purposes.  As early as 1938, Eileen Gray (who was always ahead of her time) created a prototype for a folding “S-Bend” armchair that folds upward so that the arms tuck inside the back legs.  A small chest  (1995) with two drawers and an open storage compartment made of beechwood and beech veneer by Japanese designer Tomoko Azumi unhinges and spreads out to form a low writing desk that is used while seated on the floor.  The drawers remain upright and intact in both formations.  There were a couple of cool examples of 3-D laser printed furniture.  The “One-Shot Stool” (2006) by Patrick Jouin is made of nylon with plastic joints that allow it to fold into a narrow cylindrical tube.  It is printed whole as one piece using a technique called laser sintering.   The “Fractal Table” (2007), designed by the London collective “Platform Group”, is made of epoxy and resin is also created through 3-D printing.  The designers used mathematical algorithms to create a design which reproduced the fractal growth patterns found in a dragon tree's branching structure.

One of the largest collections in the V&A seems to be its massive and comprehensive examples of ceramics that span different time periods, design styles and countries of origin.  There are no less than 11 large galleries full of ceramics that felt never-ending.  A multi-tiered “Flower Pyramid” vase (circa 1690) from Delft, Netherlands is made with tin-glazed earthenware painted in the traditional blue and white decorations that Delftware is known for.  Picasso’s “Mounted Cavalier” (1950) earthenware pitcher is painted in black and brown with scratched details depicting the faces of the man and his mount.  The glazed ceramic sculpture (1830) portraying a tiger mauling to death British army Lieutenant Hugh Monro is said to have inspired the famous Tippoo’s Tiger automaton and organ that is on the V&A’s highlights tour.  A set of Russian Revolutionary porcelain plates from St. Petersburg (1921) depict patriotic imagery in painted enamel including the hammer and sickle and inspirational inscriptions such as “Knowledge makes work easier”.  The juxtaposition of the iconic McDonalds “M” in white porcelain (2007) painted with images of Chinese dragons in underglaze blue, acts as a comment on the flood of global brands coming to China.

There were some pretty designs in tableware including the Art Deco-styled (1930)  'Vogue' shaped bone china coffee pot and cups and saucers featuring the 'Sunray' pattern of black and yellow geometric shapes and the triangular handles.   A porcelain plate, cup and saucer decorated in enamel and gold with circular patterns was originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1922.  Two interestingly shaped teapot-like vessels were the green glazed porcelain (1982) with the handle and tiny spout by Philip Cornelius and the unglazed stoneware “Double cooling towers” teapot (1984) by Richard Notkin.  I liked the bright red “Cornpoppy” flower patterns on the bone china coffee set (1971) made by Wedgewood.  There were also examples of ceramics made to look like other materials, including the very realistic looking “treads of a rubber tire” and the paint-splattered shoes.

In addition to the regular ceramics galleries, one of the rooms featured a special exhibit of the works of Carolein Smith, who typically creates figurative sculptures out of earthenware, often with animal themes.  One such work called “Rascal with Golden Tears” depicts a downcast black and white dog that seems to be crying as gold lustre descends from his eyes while her rat sculpture seems to be holding a string of pearls.  Looking closely, the detail and texture in the “fur” on her animals (all made from clay) is quite incredible.  Smit’s special exhibit was titled “Myth and Mortality” where the figures taking on a more fairytale-like or mythological quality.  Death and decay are a common theme conveyed through renderings of skeletons and flayed bodies which both shock and intrigue.

One of the last displays that we visited was a small glass box containing 16 ceramic poppies from the “Blood Swept Lands and Red Seas” installation by Paul Cummins that graced the Tower of London in 2014 to mark the 100 year anniversary of Britain entering the First World War.  There were 888,246 ceramic poppies planted, each marking a British or Commonwealth military life lost during that war.   While the individual ceramic flowers were beautiful to look at, the true impact of the original installation really became apparent when viewing the photograph of the sea of red poppies installed in front of the Tower of London.  The 16 ceramic poppies on display honour the 16 members of the Victoria and Albert staff who died in the war.

After three visits to the Victoria and Albert over two trips to London, we still have not been able to get through all the different sections of the permanent collection.  Through lack of time and sheer exhaustion, we totally skipped over multiple areas including Asian Art, Architecture, Glass, Theatre and Arts, Lustrous Surfaces, and more.  I guess we will need to return again on our next visit to London and keep knocking off more parts of the museum.  Of course, with the rotating items on display and new special exhibitions, we may never be done!

London 2018: War Museums and Memorials, Soho

During our three week visit in London, my husband Rich and I each made a few compromises to indulge the other in some attractions or activities that only one of us had great interest in.  Rich gamely accompanied me to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, endured watching the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on a big screen at an event hall and spent a day looking at floral displays during the Chelsea in Bloom competition that was a side event to the annual Chelsea Flower Show.  I spent many an hour waiting while he ogled expensive vintage watches in Mayfair and the Portabello Road Market and tagged along as he inspected old airplanes and steam engines at the Science Museum.  The days that we spent visiting War Museums were definitely added as tallies on Rich’s vacation activity scorecard, appealing to the history buff in him.

The Imperial War Museum was founded in 1917 in the Crystal Palace, the location of the Great Exposition.  The museum moved locations several times until 1936 when it was relocated to its current home in the former Belthem Royal (psychiatric) Hospital in Southwark.  Outside the museum sits a pair of 15-inch guns which come from the naval battleships HMS Ramillies and HMS Resolution.  The Imperial War Museum’s collection focuses on artifacts related to war efforts of the British Empire from World War I through to the present day.  It includes items such as uniforms, flags, badges, insignias, personal documents, equipment such as radios, cipher machines, radar, cameras, medical equipment and messaging techniques, weapons and ammunition, war art and vehicles including tanks, aircraft and ships.  There are special galleries devoted to WWI and WWII.  Items on display in the vast atrium included a Reuters Foreign Press truck, a Soviet-designed T34 tank, a WWII British Spitfire fighter plane that was instrumental in the Battle of Britain, a Hawker Harrier Jump Jet that takes off and lands like a helicopter, a V1flying bomb that flies in a horizontal path until it runs out of gas, and a V2 ballistic missile rocket that flies too quickly and too high up to be shot down from the ground.  One disturbing “art piece?” is the remains of a vehicle that was totally demolished by a car bomb in central Baghdad on March 5, 2007.  No one was in the car but 38 people in the vicinity were killed and hundreds injured in the explosion.

The most interesting section of the museum was the one dealing with World War I because it focused not only on military artifacts but also on personal items and correspondence that illustrated the impact that the war had on both the soldiers and their families back home.  War hero Lord Herbert Kitchener was featured in an iconic recruitment poster which later inspired the American’s “Uncle Sam Wants You” recruitment poster.  The poster includes the word “Britons”, an image of Kitchener staring directly ahead and pointing at the viewer, and then the words “Wants You – Join Your Country’s Army”.  His urging inspired a 9-year-old Irish boy to offer his services as a bicycle messenger and prompted a marriage proposal from one of his adoring fans.  There were examples of recruitment posters from other Commonwealth countries including the Canadian Mounted Rifles and the armies of Australia, New Zealand, Bahamas and South Africa.  The sinking of the U.S. Cunard passenger ocean liner RMS Lusitania, as depicted by a moving recruitment poster depicting a drowning mother cradling her baby, angered the Americans and prompted them to finally join in the war.

There were posters and books that highlighted the importance of women working to build arms in munition factories, even though they were paid less and discriminated against by men who resented and felt threatened by their presence.  Other propaganda posters tried to shame seemingly able-bodied men who had not enlisted for the war.  One poster showed soldiers, factory workers, nurses and even boy scouts participating in the war effort, while a leisurely strolling man in a suit is not pulling his weight.  A cartoon shows a “Conscientious Objector” lazily lounging by his fireplace smoking a cigarette while his entire family is fighting or participating in war work.  Then there is the guilty father having to explain to his children what he did (or did not) do in the Great War.  One common shaming tactic was to present an un-enlisted man with a white feather as a symbol of his cowardice.  This practice was the basis of the classic 1939 movie “The Four Feathers”.

It was sobering to see the displays dealing with food rationing during the war.  Posters urged people to “Help the Fleet” by saving wheat and eating less bread.  There were examples of reduced sizes of plates and bowls from both the British and German sides that were used to control rationed portions.  Rich placed his hand in front of the “war dishes” for perspective to show how small the servings would have been.  The German rationing system issued coupons to be redeemed for various groceries.  The soldiers fared slightly better in terms of portions, when supplies could actually get to them in the war zone.  Troops carried emergency “iron rations” consisting of army biscuits, a tin of “bully beef”, tea and sugar that would last 1-2 days in case they were under attack.  The biscuits were so hard that they could not be bitten into without first soaking them or smashing them with a rifle butt.  Instead of eating them, some used the biscuits to create war souvenirs.  Another poster reminded civilians that merchant seamen were risking their lives to bring food to Britain, so no morsel should be wasted.  There were models of ships that were painted with the “Dazzle” stripes that helped to camouflage the vessels and confuse enemy submarines trying to target them.

It was enlightening to see some personal items of the British soldiers who fought in WWI.  Rich was particularly excited to see a trench watch, a military watch with a cover like a pocket watch but more practical since it was worn as a wrist watch.   There were examples of trinkets and tokens that superstitious soldiers carried around as good luck charms to keep them safe in battle.  Of particular interest were items belonging to soldiers who had been captured as prisoners-of-war.  While waiting for release after the war ended, the men leisurely passed the time by writing journals and letters that occasionally included sketches, playing sports such as tennis, cricket and boxing, making war souvenirs out of scraps, gambling with cards or dice and playing records on a phonograph.  Sergeant Arthur Harden entertained the troops with his ventriloquist doll “Douglas”, possibly named after General Douglas Haig.  It was considered the duty of Allied prisoners of war to try to escape.  One display showed “escape aids” that were sent by British Intelligence to Captain Jack Shaw, hidden in food parcels sent from his mother.  Included was a map of the area around the POW camp hidden in a brush and wire cutters and compasses hidden in a “tin of meat”.

There were some unique British and German military equipment on display. The British used a hand-painted sniper robe with colours chosen to allow a soldier to blend into his lair of earth and rubbish, and a camouflage tree that was actually a hidden observation post based on a real tree found in no-man’s land.  A replica tree with a steel core, a small seat and a sight-hole was created to replace the real tree at night, and an observer could crawl into the hidden space and watch the German lines.  The heavy, water-cooled British Vickers machine gun required 6 to 8 men to operate it—one to feed ammunition, one to fire and the rest to carry the weapon, ammunition and spare parts.  The display in the museum showed the wide arc and range of gunfire achieved by the weapon.  Hanging from the ceiling was an example of an observation car or “spy basket” that was lowered below cloud level from a German Zeppelin airship.  The car contained an observer with a telephone who helped navigate the airship and aim the bombs.  The French 75 Howitzer gun was one of the first rapid-firing artillery pieces and inspired a cocktail to be named after it (consisting of champagne, gin, lemon juice and syrup).

Poignant war art included a large mural by Walter Bayes depicting civilians (mostly women and children) taking cover in the Elephant and Castle tube station in Southwark during a London air raid.  A painting by official war artist Paul Nash depicts men of the 63rd Royal Naval Division resting in a trench while a sentry keeps watch using a mirror attached to his bayonet.  War memorabilia included a figurine of naval minister Winston Churchill, a wooden figure mocking German field marshal Paul von Hindenburg by depicting him as an old man with gout, Churchill tank-shaped money boxes encouraging the public to save, and Toby jug steins shaped in the forms of  allied commanders French General Ferdinand Foch, British Field Marshal Douglas Haig and US General John Pershing.

World War II displays were split into two sections with one dedicated to military equipment and the second to the Holocaust.  We did not have time to visit both so since we had seen many Holocaust-related exhibits on a previous trip to Amsterdam, we opted for the military equipment.  Italian “human torpedoes” were used to attack British ships, using two-man diver-propelled vehicles to go under harbour defences and place warheads beneath targeted vessels.  The British Avro Lancaster, a four-engine heavy-bomber, was used to bomb German factories, railways and other key targets.  The aircraft on display at the Imperial War Museum was nicknamed “Old Fred – The Fox” by its crew and enumerated the number of operations that it flew by markers on the side of the plane.  The Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter, nicknamed “the Zero by the Allies” was designed to fly off aircraft carriers and was well-armed, fast and light with an aluminum-alloy hull. A decaying wreck of the Zero that was badly damaged in combat was found on Taroa Island (formerly a Japanese airbase) 50 years after the end of WWII and is now on display in the museum.  The American Sherman M4A4 tank, named after General William Sherman, was used by the British during the final years of the war to help liberate Europe from Nazi control.  It was reliable, relatively cheap to produce and available in large quantities.

The German BMW-designed R75 motorcycle and sidecar with the 750cc engine was armed with a machine gun and allowed advanced scouts to travel off-road at great speeds.  By contrast, the Welbike motorcycle was the smallest bike ever used by the British armed forces.  Compact and lightweight, it could fit into airborne CLE Canisters carried by plane and would be dropped by parachute onto landing sites.  Unfortunately the difference in weight between the parachutist and the motorcycle often meant that they landed some distance apart, thus defeating the purpose of the vehicle.  An interesting Nazi symbol of power was a bronze sculpture of a German eagle clutching a swastika in its talons.  This was captured from the Reich Chancellery when Soviet soldiers attacked it, the same afternoon that Hitler committed suicide in his bunker underneath the building.  As part of the civilian war effort, many women worked in munitions factories and kept their hair tucked under scarves.  Those who could afford them might wear colourful silk scarves by Jacqmar of London that depicted patriotic propaganda slogans and images.  Steel helmets and armbands were issued to indicate who you were and what your function was.  Roles included the Women’s Voluntary Service, Firewatchers, Air Raid Precautions or the Home Guard.  John Higgins, commander of Landing Craft Tank 157 which carried tanks to the beaches, was given a flag made by a friend’s mother out of an old black-out curtain depicting a pirate skull and crossbones and a insolent, defiant slogan "Shit or Bust".  The crew loved it and took on the motto as their own.

Following the major galleries devoted to the two World Wars, a single section covered all subsequent wars up to the current day, including the Cold War with the Soviets and the Nuclear Arms Race. Nicknamed “Little Boy” and “Fat Man”, the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 are the only nuclear weapons ever deployed in war.  The devastation and loss of life was so horrific that the threat of a nuclear attack has since then acted as a deterrent from any further use.  One of the five casings made for the “Little Boy” bomb has been placed at the centre of the Imperial War Museum, representing the “ultimate symbol of political power .. but also absolute fear and horror”.   Nearby, a hand-operated siren formed part of the equipment in one of the 11,000 local warning posts that would raise alerts in the event of a nuclear attack.  A 1963 poster from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), depicting a a mushroom cloud exploding from the top of a skull, was considered so disturbing and controversial that it was banned from being displayed in the London Underground.  Even more explicit is the 1966 sculpture called “Beach Girl” which covered a disfigured shop window mannequin with cinders and black paint to vividly illustrate the impact of a nuclear bomb explosion.  The burnt body missing part of her arm and leg left little to the imagination.  A tiled mosaic of Saddam Hussein was dismantled by British soldiers after he was ousted from power.  Britain’s prime minister Tony Blair was one of the few allies that endorsed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 but his position was not supported by all, as shown by the protest poster with the slogan “Make Tea, Not War”, showing Blair ridiculously wearing a tea cup as he holds a rifle.

Shortly after WWI, a war of independence followed by a bitter civil war split most of Ireland from the United Kingdom, leaving only the area now known as “Northern Ireland”.   Turmoil and “The Troubles” continued to plague Northern Ireland for many decades as Protestant British Loyalists battled Catholic self-identified Irish Unionists.  In 1994, Belfast-born artist John Kindness created an art piece called the “Sectarian Armour” which highlights these issues.  One side of the front of the armour depicts Loyalist imagery and symbols while the other side represents the Irish Republic.  On the back is a funeral scene where the coffin straddles both sides and is carried by members of each faction.  In 1982 during the Falkland War between Britain and Argentina, artist Linda Kitson was sent with the troops to be the official documenter of the campaign.  She was issued a camouflage uniform and given an air-sea rescue container to keep her drawings dry.  Kitson wrote a note indicating that if anything was to happen to her, it was imperative to save her portfolio of around 400 drawings.  During the Korean war, the Chinese hung propaganda posters from the barbed wire in front of British trenches depicting dead soldiers whose efforts are lining the pockets of a fat Uncle Sam hoarding war profits, with the slogan “You Die For Him”.  A mangled, twisted and burnt remnant of a steel window frame lifted from the ruins of the North Tower of the World Trade Centre acts as a somber reminder of the tragedy of September 11, 2001 terrorist attack (aka 9/11).  On a lighter note, in 1956 during a battle over control of the Suez Canal, an Egyptian field kitchen was captured, much to the delight of the British soldiers who were able to use it to fry up potato crisps (a.k.a. french fries).

Located below what is now the Treasury building in Westminister, the Churchill War Rooms is an underground complex that served as the secret command centre for the British government throughout WWII and allowed for centralized discussion and decision-making between the Chiefs of Staffs of the armed forces.  Converting the basement of a public building, the War Rooms covered 3 acres and accommodated up to 528 Cabinet members and supporting staff.  Following the war, a museum was added to this complex containing more artifacts from that time, plus the restoration of the suite of rooms used by Churchill, his wife and close associates.  This complex was of particular interest to us after watching a re-creation of it in the movie “The Darkest Hour”.  We had also recently visited the Diefenbunker in Ottawa, which was Canada’s version of an underground facility built during the Cold War of the late 1950s to early 1960s.  Unlike the Churchill War Rooms, the Diefenbunker was never occupied during war time and Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker never actually set foot in it.  So it was even more fascinating for us to tour a complex that actually was used during a war.

One of the first sights that we encountered was an original German 500-pound bomb like the ones that had been dropped on London during the Blitz.  Since the War Rooms were situated in converted office space and not specially designed or built as a bunker, there was no real protection against such weapons.  Finally in December 1940, several months into the Blitz, a protective layer of concrete 1-3 metres thick and reinforced by steel girders was inserted above the War Cabinet Room to give it some protection.  Part of this concrete slab has been exposed for viewing.  It was never certain that the slab would have held up under a direct hit from a bomb, but luckily, very few bombs were dropped in this area and the building never suffered a direct bomb strike.  The War Cabinet Room is where Winston Churchill met with his Defence Committee, ministers, advisers, and military Chiefs of Staff.  The room is laid out to show how it would have looked before the 5pm meeting of the War Cabinet that took place on October 15, 1940.  Even the clock on the wall has been set to 5pm.  To guard against surprise invasions from parachuting German soldiers, armed Royal Marines were positioned inside and outside the War Room door and rifles were hung on the walls that could be easily accessed in case of an attack.

The Chiefs of Staff had their own large conference room where they could strategize before meeting with the Prime Minister.  The walls of the meeting room were covered with maps and on one of them, someone had drawn a caricature of Adolf Hitler.  Much of the disseminated military information was gleaned through data coming from the Map Room, where military personnel tracked military operations on all fronts.  A team of officers would sift through military intelligence and arrange for it to be plotted on maps. One map tracked the devastating advance of German Forces into Russia in 1941-2 and their eventual retreat years later.  Another map tracked the movement and daily positions of Allied convoys around the world.  One officer recalled how heart-wrenching it was each time he had to remove the cardboard symbol of a ship that had been destroyed by the Germans.  A daily intelligence bulletin would be prepared with the bare facts of the war situation to be shared each morning with the prime minister, chiefs of staff and the King.

While most of the personnel stayed in dormitories, we saw the private bedrooms of some of Churchill’s military officers and senior ministers including his Aide de Camp, Military Advisor and even his personal Detectives. The modest rooms consisted of a military cot, dresser, mirror and wash basin, desk and chair with lamp and possibly a telephone, a side table and some guest chairs. Winston Churchill’s own bedroom/office was obviously larger with the walls covered with maps and a real bed with box-spring, mattress,  bedspread, and a chamber pot sitting at the foot of the bed.  On his desk were multiple telephones and BBC broadcasting equipment so that he could make wartime broadcasts to the country.  It was interesting to see the bedroom for Churchill’s wife Clementine, which was a bit more feminine with the pink bedspread and rose-patterned armchair.  The mere existence of this room was notable when compared to the Canadian Diefenbunker which did not accommodate the spouses or family members of any personnel, not even for the Prime Minister.  Because of this, John Diefenbaker famously vowed that in case of war, he would not stay in the bunker but would remain above ground with his wife.  As it turns out, The British Prime Minister and his wife actually spent very few nights in their Cabinet War Room bedrooms, preferring to sleep at 10 Downing Street or in a suite of rooms directly above the Cabinet War Rooms, known as No.10 Annexe.

Continuing on, we toured the Churchill's dining room, kitchen, and some communications rooms.  There was a secret transatlantic telephone room with a code-scrambling encrypted telephone that allowed Churchill to speak securely with American President Roosevelt in Washington.  The former broom closet was disguised as Churchill’s private lavatory to discourage eavesdropping.  We also saw rooms for the typing pool, switchboard operators and a BBC broadcasting equipment room.  From the perspective of historical significance, it was quite incredible to be able to tour this secret underground compound "from whence Churchill led the war”.

A large museum documents the history and career of Winston Churchill and the political climate during the war years, as well as displaying photos and artifacts from the Cabinet War Rooms.  Black and white archival photographs show personnel in action during the war, including the Royal Guards standing guard, the Prime minister’s chef preparing a meal and the operators manning their switchboards.  Churchill hated noise distractions so his secretaries used Remington “Noiseless” typewriters imported from the U.S. and a sign warned that “THERE IS TO BE NO WHISTLING OR UNNECESSARY NOISE IN THIS PASSAGE”.  Gas masks were on hand in the event of a gas attack and a warning system was in place where a rattle, whistle or siren would indicate an attack while a hand bell would sound the “all clear”.  Being underground for so long, staff were given light treatments with portable sunlamps to prevent vitamin D deficiencies.  Staff passes (that resembled driver's licences) were required to access the War Rooms.  Underground, there were only portable chemical toilets such as the one on display.  Flush toilets were only available upstairs at ground level.  There was an example of an Enigma Encoding Machine used to crack German codes.

We got a glimpse into Churchill’s childhood with a photo of Winston as a baby including a lock of his naturally curly brown hair, an oil painting of him at age 4, another photo of the precocious 7-year-old in a top hat and tails at boarding school where he proclaimed to be unhappy, lonely and quite the handful, and a photo at age 15 accompanied by his mother and his beloved younger brother Jack.  There were images of Churchill during his early army days in the British Army where he served in Cuba, India and Sudan and became a well-known war correspondent.  During the beginning of the Boer War in 1899, Churchill traveled to South Africa as a journalist and was captured and taken as a prisoner of war.  His daring escape from captivity made him a war hero.  He wrote an article for the Morning Post documenting “The Story of My Escape” which included climbing a wall of the prison, walking to the train yards and hopping a train of out town, hiding under some coal sacks.  After much more walking, hiding on various trains and rationing his food and water, Churchill finally made it to safety.

Pro-Churchill propaganda posters, cartoons and other artworks highlighted his toughness, bulldog tenacity and determination as well as his gift for the inspirational speeches and turns of phrases.  Beverly Nichols of the Daily Telegraph aptly noted that “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle”.  Several posters reflected a few of his famous lines such as “Never was so much owed by so many to so few” and “Let us go forward together”.  For Winston’s 80th birthday, a water-coloured cartoon was created by political caricaturist David Low which depicted Churchill at various stages of his life, from infant to soldier to politician, all toasting his eventful life.  Amusingly, even the images in the paintings on the wall are toasting Churchill.

Churchill had his share of negative propaganda posters as well.  These included ones created in earlier days by the same cartoonist David Low, who spent many decades creating scathing critiques of Churchill.  A cartoon called “Winston’s Bag” from 1920 called out Churchill’s past mistakes as First Lord of the Admiralty including blunders in Russia, Gallipoli and Antwerp.  Having spent an entire career mocking Churchill, when Low finally created the 80th birthday tribute piece, he signed it “From your old castigator”.  Churchill was also attacked by German propaganda cartoons during the first World War which tried to depict him as weak, foolish and inept.  The attacks against him by the Nazis and Japanese in the second World War were even more vicious as they accused him of starving, bombing and murdering civilians.

There was so much to see at the Churchill War Rooms and as with other attractions that we visited during this trip, we did not allow enough time to see it all.  We had only allocated a few hours at the end of an already busy day so we were already tired before we even started.   In retrospect, the War Rooms really require the larger part of a day to do it justice.

Located on the Victoria Embankment along the Thames River just North of the Churchill War Rooms, the Battle of Britain Monument is a magnificent bronze frieze by sculptor Paul Day, depicting scenes from WWII and particularly, the famous battle which saw the Allied air forces led by the British RAF Fighter Command successfully defend attacks from the German Luftwaffe between July to October 1940.  Some say that this first major defeat of Germany in WWII marked a crucial turning point in the war.  The monument consists of two long relief panels facing in opposite directions, with one side commemorating the achievement of the Air Force, while the other side depicts acts of self sacrifice and heroism from the British people as a whole.  Bronzed plaques depicting the names and ranks of the airmen who participated in the battle are mounted on the sides of the monument.  The Battle of Britain Monument was inaugurated in 2005.  We were first made aware of it in 2006 when a few of the ceramic casts of some of the scenes were on display at the Gardiner Ceramics Museum in Toronto.  Just from those few brief figures, we could tell that this would be something special and we made a note of adding a visit to this monument to the list of things we wanted to do whenever we returned to London.  Our appetite was further whetted in 2013 when we stumbled upon a Paul Day exhibition in the ArtClub Gallery in Paris.  From the Battle of Britain memorial, it was a short walk north to get to Soho.

Soho has been one of the main entertainment districts since the 19th Century, hosting a mix of shopping, dining, live theatre and nightlife.  Once of the most famous landmarks is the Windmill Theatre, best known in the 1930s for its “tableau vivant” shows featuring nude performers posing perfectly still while representing static scenes.  By remaining motionless like statues, the “Windmill Girls” were exempted from obscenity laws.  The Windmill held the distinction of remaining open throughout World War II, surviving the German blitz while providing respite and entertainment for troops.  That incarnation of the Windmill closed in 1964 and was repurposed as a cinema and then a Wild West revue, and now a table-dancing strip club called The Windmill International, in some respect, returning to its roots.  As we wandered around Soho, we spotted the Art Nouveau features on the façade of the gallery Art of Diplomacy, and walked through a covered lane way, with interesting street art and ads on the walls, that led to the pedestrian street Walker’s Court.
 
But our main reason for touring Soho was to visit a pair of chocolate shops including a branch of the Italian chocolatier SAID which originated in Rome and is known for its hot chocolate.  Their rich, chocolatey regular hot chocolate comes in  dark, milk or gianduja (hazelnut) flavours.  Even more special is the SAID Mocha, which consists of special blend coffee roasted in Italy mixed with dark, milk and white chocolate and served in chocolate dipped cups where the three shades of chocolate drip over the cup and onto the saucer.  We tried a gianduja hot chocolate and a SAID mocha and both were so good that we decided to bring a hot chocolate mix home with us.  Our second stop was to Paul A. Young Fine Chocolates where we bought a small box of truffles that included flavours such as “Duck a l’orange caramel”, Pimm’s Cup, Coffee and Walnut Cake, and Orange Crunch with rice crisps.  We also bought a sea-salt and caramelized chocolate brownies.  On the way home, we passed the restaurant “Duck & Waffle” which delighted us since we were familiar with the concept of chicken and waffles but had never heard of duck and waffles.  In addition to the signature dish with duck config leg, fried duck egg and mustard maple syrup for the waffles, the menu had items like duck fat fries, duck burger, fried duck tongue and duck salad.  Too bad we already had dinner plans and didn’t have an opportunity to try this.