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Holmes and Hats
Monday, April 13th, 2015 01:08 pmSo this weekend just gone we had arranged to meet up with friends Tony and Tracy Lee to wander into town for the last couple of days of the Sherlock Holmes exhibition at the Museum of London.
The day started out cold, wet and windy, so we dressed accordingly, which of course was idiotic given that we had the British climate to contend with. By the time it was clearly far too late to go back and change into something cooler, the rain had gone, the winds dropped and quite a warm sun was shining. Still, much of the morning and early afternoon was indoors, so it wasn’t too much of a handicap.
The exhibition was excellent, if not quite as big as I’d expected. I actually don’t know why I thought it would be bigger, but I did. The displays started off with copies of manuscripts –including Poe’s ‘Murder on the Rue Morgue’, which it transpires was an influence on Conan Doyle – and various early Holmes manuscripts all written in long hand in the tiniest script you could imagine. For some reason I assumed that they would be typewritten, but no each one (by Conan Doyle at least) was written out longhand and with remarkably few alterations. There were copies of first edition collections and the draft cover illustrations for ‘The Strand’.
Further along, the exhibition moved on to cover late Victorian London, which to me was one of the stronger parts of the exhibition. Old maps, old photographs, paintings etc. Good stuff.
Then on to a selection of clothing and other Victorian artefacts – not in themselves directly to do with Holmes, but displayed alongside lithographs and descriptions etc showing how they fit into the world of Holmes (or, I suppose, more accurately how Holmes fitted into that world). This, along with the maps and views of Victorian London, was the bit that appealed to me most.
Finally, on to the bit where snippets of all the TV and movie variants were playing in turn on loop. Very interesting to see how similar Holmes always is visually at least, and how quickly the ‘standard’ version settled down.
Of course, no visit to a museum or exhibition is complete without a visit to the gift shop. So now we have some post cards, a fridge magnet, tea towel and a rubber Sherlock Holmes duck.
I might have acquired a bowler hat. I’m not certain what I am going to do with a bowler hat, but I’ve always kind of wanted one.
Next up, we stopped off at the Lord Raglan pub for lunch. A pint of bitter and a rather large fish and chip meal later, we wobbled down past St Paul’s and over the Millennium Bridge where after some indecision, we wandered down to Borough Market, which appears to be one part of London Tony was unfamiliar with, so we spent some time there, before rocking up to the Market Porter, which is one of the best pubs in the area, for a much-needed pint of Fruli.
Somehow having used up the entire day (or at least afternoon, as we started about midday), we caught the tube back and, seeing the crowds at Stratford, switched to the Central Line. For some reason, we decided to get off at Leytonstone, rather than carry on to Gants Hill. Leytonstone put us within striking distance of the sister-in-law, so Furtle texted her only to find that Alix and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jfs were finishing an early supper in the ‘Olive Tree’ restaurant, which we could se from the bus terminus. So rather than going home, we found ourselves happily boozing in the ‘North Star’ instead.
It was a good day, though I have to say that we were rather tired by the time we got home for our much-delayed and anticipated pizza.
The day started out cold, wet and windy, so we dressed accordingly, which of course was idiotic given that we had the British climate to contend with. By the time it was clearly far too late to go back and change into something cooler, the rain had gone, the winds dropped and quite a warm sun was shining. Still, much of the morning and early afternoon was indoors, so it wasn’t too much of a handicap.
The exhibition was excellent, if not quite as big as I’d expected. I actually don’t know why I thought it would be bigger, but I did. The displays started off with copies of manuscripts –including Poe’s ‘Murder on the Rue Morgue’, which it transpires was an influence on Conan Doyle – and various early Holmes manuscripts all written in long hand in the tiniest script you could imagine. For some reason I assumed that they would be typewritten, but no each one (by Conan Doyle at least) was written out longhand and with remarkably few alterations. There were copies of first edition collections and the draft cover illustrations for ‘The Strand’.
Further along, the exhibition moved on to cover late Victorian London, which to me was one of the stronger parts of the exhibition. Old maps, old photographs, paintings etc. Good stuff.
Then on to a selection of clothing and other Victorian artefacts – not in themselves directly to do with Holmes, but displayed alongside lithographs and descriptions etc showing how they fit into the world of Holmes (or, I suppose, more accurately how Holmes fitted into that world). This, along with the maps and views of Victorian London, was the bit that appealed to me most.
Finally, on to the bit where snippets of all the TV and movie variants were playing in turn on loop. Very interesting to see how similar Holmes always is visually at least, and how quickly the ‘standard’ version settled down.
Of course, no visit to a museum or exhibition is complete without a visit to the gift shop. So now we have some post cards, a fridge magnet, tea towel and a rubber Sherlock Holmes duck.
I might have acquired a bowler hat. I’m not certain what I am going to do with a bowler hat, but I’ve always kind of wanted one.
Next up, we stopped off at the Lord Raglan pub for lunch. A pint of bitter and a rather large fish and chip meal later, we wobbled down past St Paul’s and over the Millennium Bridge where after some indecision, we wandered down to Borough Market, which appears to be one part of London Tony was unfamiliar with, so we spent some time there, before rocking up to the Market Porter, which is one of the best pubs in the area, for a much-needed pint of Fruli.
Somehow having used up the entire day (or at least afternoon, as we started about midday), we caught the tube back and, seeing the crowds at Stratford, switched to the Central Line. For some reason, we decided to get off at Leytonstone, rather than carry on to Gants Hill. Leytonstone put us within striking distance of the sister-in-law, so Furtle texted her only to find that Alix and
jfs were finishing an early supper in the ‘Olive Tree’ restaurant, which we could se from the bus terminus. So rather than going home, we found ourselves happily boozing in the ‘North Star’ instead.It was a good day, though I have to say that we were rather tired by the time we got home for our much-delayed and anticipated pizza.