This 24 hour getaway to London started in the new First Class Lounge at Lime Street Station with coffee and nibbles before boarding my train.
I love mini-breaks.
This 24 hour getaway to London started in the new First Class Lounge at Lime Street Station with coffee and nibbles before boarding my train.
Once I arrived in London, I made my way to the Mentone Hotel on Cartwright Gardens and had a quick lie down on the bed before deciding what to do next.
I decided to head in the direction of Trafalgar Square passing Gay's the Word bookshop on my way - a source of much fine reading matter over the years.
I passed two fine examples of brutalist architecture - the Brunswick Centre, a grade II listed residential and shopping centre in Bloomsbury, and Centre Point at the intersection of Charing Cross Road and Oxford Street. Whatever its architectural merits, Centre Point will remain for me a symbol of Mammon's incapacity for empathy. Completed in 1966, the building stood empty in the centre of London until 1975 during an extreme housing crisis in the capital. It was briefly occupied by people protesting homelessness in 1975 while I was a student.
At the National Gallery, I took in an exhibition of works by Joaquín Sorolla, Spain's foremost Impressionist. Entitled Spanish Master of Light, I was treated to vivid seascapes, garden views, beach scenes, portraits, landscapes and genre scenes of Spanish life.
Dappled light through vines. Clouded light strained through the canvas of a sail. A shaft of brazen light burning across the floor of a darkened room. Sorolla is a magnificent craftsman. He's just not quite in the same class as Italy's Divisionists. But I am glad to have seen his work.
In anticipation of my visit to Tate London the following day, I wound my way through the upper galleries of the National to the more modern stuff for a quick peak at their van Gogh's of which the Yellow Chair is a fine example.
I was distraught at this revelation. It's gone. After 40 years or more of eating there, Gaby's has finally closed its door for good.
Boo!! Scandale!!! Where is a boy to eat comfort food of a decent and acceptable standard at a reasonable price in the heart of London. I think St Martin's Crypt is beckoning.
Then off to Covent Garden for a turbulent evening on the high seas with Britten's Billy Budd. I knew Deborah Warner would give us something intelligently lean, spare and focussed. I'd felt that Ivor Bolton would do the music justice. I was sure that a cast which included Jacques Imbrailo as Billy Budd, Toby Spence as Captain Vere and Brindley Sherratt as John Claggart would produce another evening to remember.
And I was right on all counts. Even at the back of the amphitheatre, we were all absolutely drawn into this tale of innocence betrayed and duty redeemed. I am on a roll of sensational opera at present.
These days, travelling in London during even the tail end of the morning rush gives me the screaming abdabs. Goodness only knows how I managed to plunge into the heart of the beast every weekday morning for seven years back in the 90s. Goodness only knows how so many people continue to do it every day.
I'd been looking forward to attending Van Gogh and Britain at Tate Britain but, although I did enjoy the exhibition, I've nevertheless been left with a sense of having been cheated.
For an exhibition which hangs off the name of one very famous artist, the show featured few works produced by him out of the total on show. And that's because Van Gogh is not really the subject of the show. Britain and Van Gogh would have been a better title since the first section is more about the artistic scene in London during the two years Van Gogh lived in Stockwell and the second section is about the influence that Van Gogh had on British artists over the following century.
There were some fabulous works to appreciate nevertheless. Below is a Van Gogh masterpiece spoiled by some idiot standing in front of it.
And this starry, starry night is a joy.
However, the real pleasure of the exhibition came from encountering lesser known artists of considerable if not exceptional talents.
Another train journey and then back on Merseyside. There were a lot of people waiting for the local train home looking worse for wear after events at Anfield last night. Many people, indeed, had not been into work today as a mark of respect. Everyone is very bouyed up by the way that Liverpool came back from a 3-0 deficit against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League Semi-Final to beat them 4-0 and gain a place in the final.
It took one late moment of street-wise, cheeky brilliance to tip the balance.
