My first stop was Lambeth Palace, and the adjoining St. Mary's-at-Lambeth, which is now the Garden Museum. Lambeth Palace is the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and there is no way to take a tour or anything, that I am aware of. In any case, the outside was quite impressive.
As I said, right next to it was the Garden Museum. This may seem like an odd type of museum, but I love that kind of thing. My family has always kept really beautiful gardens, with different kinds of flowers, trees, fruits and vegetables, all artfully arranged. When I was a little kid, I would help out in the gardens picking berries (of which I always ate more than I put in the bowl). So, this was beautifully reminiscent of my childhood for me. The outside of the museum was a graveyard that had been converted into a garden, complete with a sculpted knot garden, and the inside was a converted church. Seeing potted plants on top of old decaying gravestones was quite a juxtaposition. Somehow, though, it looked quite serene. The moss on the graves mixed in well with the new life placed on top. On display were everything from photographs of plants, to different gardening tools, to books about how to make your own preserves. Given that my dad does this, and does it incredibly well, I was quite touched. It is an adorable museum, and is free for students. Best of all- there was almost no one else there. I highly recommend spending an hour or so there at some point.
After that, I walked a little further east to the Imperial War Museum. I knew that this one was larger, and much more popular, and figured that it would probably be cool. I had no idea. There were life-size replicas of planes, tanks, canons and all kinds of large weaponry. Examples of war propaganda posters, gas masks, uniforms and medals were all over the museum in very creative exhibits. I even went through this thing called the Trench Experience, where I had to crawl through holes and tunnels just like men had during WWI. There were noises of bombs and everything. It was fascinating, yet terrifying. I had a great time.
In my true fashion- I had to take a picture of the adorable aviator bear in the gift shop. Teddy bears exist of everything, it seems.
Finally, I went to see Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. It was a short play with orchestra about a man who was a political prisonal in Russia. Rather than being sent to an actual prison, he was sentenced to a mental hospital. His cell mate is an actual lunatic who believes that he is the triangle played and conductor of a large orchestra. The play was moving, and in classic Stoppard style, very intelligent and thought provoking. I liked it. The first photograph is of the Lawrence Olivier statue outside of the theatre. The second is the press photo/ program cover from the National Theatre website, and the third is a shot of the show from The Telegraph.
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