I’ve been enjoying a long Easter vacations: 6 days travelling around the south of Spain, and 4 days in my hometown… So let me tell you about my last interesting day in London: visiting Marylebone.
The outlying village of St Mary-by-the-Bourne was swallowed up in the eighteen century to become a mesh of Georgian streets and houses much of which survives today.
I usually visit this neighbourhood twice a week when I go to the Gym, it is just the one besides Paddington in the east, and I was curious to know what I could find there.
Last Sunday before Easter I decided to walk around it and it was worth it. I started at “the Wallace Collection” that is a national museum in an historic London town house. There are 25 galleries with French 18th century painting, furniture and porcelain with superb Old Master paintings and a world class armoury. In the middle there is the typical dinning room to have the English tea, really nice. I stopped to see “woman with a fan by Velazquez” in the great gallery, the largest room in the house. It was interesting to read about the identity of the woman, who was decided to be French rather than Spanish by experts, due to her neckline. Spanish women haven been always more traditional! The “treasure of the month” was a Bohemian Welcoming Glass dated 1609. ‘Lift me up, drink me up, set me down, fill me again and bring me a good brother again’ was written on its surface. It seems that the tradition of making toast is not new.
But the most special interesting moment in the afternoon was my visit to St Jame’s Church, the “Spanish place”. A Catholic chapel was built in 1791 thanks to the efforts of the chaplain at the Spanish embassy and It become a neo-Gothic church designed in a mixture of English and French Gothic. Inside you can see the Spanish Royal features and thre are even two seats reserved for the royals, denoted by built-in gilt crowns high above the choir stalls. That’s the first Spanish connection with London that I’ve discovered here.
Afterwards, I was walking down Marylebone High Street, much nicer than Oxford Street to see shops although the offer is of course much smaller and I found a very interesting place, a lovely library specialized in travel books, with a galleried hall at the back and a stained glass roof. Even if you had not the intention of buying something, you’ll do because of its super nice atmosphere.
And tomorrow, back to office, I’m really lazy to come back to work, but at least I’ve practiced a little tonight English. Let’s see if I haven’t forgotten to speak tomorrow!.
The outlying village of St Mary-by-the-Bourne was swallowed up in the eighteen century to become a mesh of Georgian streets and houses much of which survives today.
I usually visit this neighbourhood twice a week when I go to the Gym, it is just the one besides Paddington in the east, and I was curious to know what I could find there.
Last Sunday before Easter I decided to walk around it and it was worth it. I started at “the Wallace Collection” that is a national museum in an historic London town house. There are 25 galleries with French 18th century painting, furniture and porcelain with superb Old Master paintings and a world class armoury. In the middle there is the typical dinning room to have the English tea, really nice. I stopped to see “woman with a fan by Velazquez” in the great gallery, the largest room in the house. It was interesting to read about the identity of the woman, who was decided to be French rather than Spanish by experts, due to her neckline. Spanish women haven been always more traditional! The “treasure of the month” was a Bohemian Welcoming Glass dated 1609. ‘Lift me up, drink me up, set me down, fill me again and bring me a good brother again’ was written on its surface. It seems that the tradition of making toast is not new.
But the most special interesting moment in the afternoon was my visit to St Jame’s Church, the “Spanish place”. A Catholic chapel was built in 1791 thanks to the efforts of the chaplain at the Spanish embassy and It become a neo-Gothic church designed in a mixture of English and French Gothic. Inside you can see the Spanish Royal features and thre are even two seats reserved for the royals, denoted by built-in gilt crowns high above the choir stalls. That’s the first Spanish connection with London that I’ve discovered here.
Afterwards, I was walking down Marylebone High Street, much nicer than Oxford Street to see shops although the offer is of course much smaller and I found a very interesting place, a lovely library specialized in travel books, with a galleried hall at the back and a stained glass roof. Even if you had not the intention of buying something, you’ll do because of its super nice atmosphere.
And tomorrow, back to office, I’m really lazy to come back to work, but at least I’ve practiced a little tonight English. Let’s see if I haven’t forgotten to speak tomorrow!.
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