My day started at the National Gallery. The exhibition I wanted to see was called Monet and Architecture. It was the double page spread in The Times of 31st March that encouraged me to go. The architecture bit was a theme for the day. There were 77 paintings on display, my how this artist was prolific. However, the first rooms were basically typical Monet landscapes with the odd house or church in the distance. A clifftop scene included just the roof of a cottage. Even a water-lily pond put in an appearance.
There were some paintings that I liked where buildings were prominent: "Houses at Zaandam", "The Church at Vetheuil" and "View of Bordighera" where Monet captures the sun on the resort. The paintings of Antibes show how many times Monet painted the same scene from different angles. What an advertisement for the Mediterranean they are.
However when I reached Room 4, I was stunned by "The Quai du Louvre", a non impressionist painting from a balcony in Paris.The detail and precision was outstanding.
There followed some great paintings, the famous "Thames below Westminster", "Pont Neuf", "The Boulevard des Capucines" and "View of Rouen". There is a free booklet for the exhibition which tells the story of every piece and it was interesting to learn that for the last of these works Monet "painted 11 canvasses of the busy river and it's environs".
I was less enthused with the six paintings of London. They all seemed to be pictured in dense fog, so quite disappointing! The final room contained nine paintings of Venice, again not to my taste. What impressed me most of all was the free booklet that described each painting with an introduction to each of the seven rooms. It made it all worthwhile.
It was late afternoon when I headed to my next stop, to explore the new developments around Paddington Basin. I had downloaded and printed off an explorer's map from The Paddington Partnership.
Coming out of Paddington Station, I joined the Grand Union Canal with the developments around Sheldon Square in the distance.
Some of the office blocks that surround the square included bars, cafes and restaurants on the ground floor that were beginning to get busy.
I headed up Kingdom Street in the Paddington Central district that has Pergola at the far end. See https://pergolalondon.com/paddington-central/
Back to the canal where the cafe and restaurant barges were filling up., I then made my way along the canal to Little Venice.
Here were shot scenes for recent films "Paddington 2" and "Finding Your Feet".
On the bridge I could just see where the canal turns left towards Regent's Park.
Back to Sheldon Square for refreshments in Pret A Manger with views from my table across the square.
I walked back past the station and further down the basin is Merchant Square.
And the Rolling Bridge, one of the new bridges built during the development.
Time was pressing on and I needed to get to my final stop, The Bridge Theatre. However it actually took me forty minutes to get to the undergound platform, take three different lines and walk from London Bridge Underground to the theatre. It is so close to Tower Bridge as seen in the following impression.
I was impressed with the new building (my reference to architecture once more), the internal layout being particularly fine. My seat was in the middle of Gallery 1 which is three rows at the back of the stalls. I had a wonderful view.
My review of My Name is Lucy Barton is on a separate post.
It was only just getting dark as I left the theatre and there were wonderful views of the city and The Shard.
Not so wonderful was the journey home. I arrived at Euston to find the concourse packed and trains delayed or cancelled due to an incident at Watford Junction, my destination. I was advised to take the Overgound service that was unaffected, the one that takes 50 minutes stopping at every station (instead of the usual 17 minutes) on it's way to Watford.
When I finally arrived there, the number of flashing blue lights near the station meant something was serious. But nothing could have spoiled such a brilliant day.
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