The Friday Afternoon Challenge returns! Today: “What to See in London!"

[CTyankee]

Who, what and where are these?

...and, as always, no cheating is allowed...

1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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6.
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[dlwickham]

1. the last one is Traitor's Gate (?) at the Tower of London

[CTyankee]

3. Good for you! Do you know London well?

[dlwickham]

5. only been once

but did a Thames cruise and went by the Tower

also did a tour of the Tower

[CTyankee]

7. I was staying right by the Tower Bridge. Quite a sight...

Did you hear about the history of this gate? When you were a prisoner at the Tower you were taken to be executed by boat and went from this gate. Kinda grim, huh?

[dlwickham]

30. they couldn't have riff raff walking in through the front door

[pinboy3niner]

2. #4: Andrea Mantegna = The Triumphs of Caesar Trumpeters and Standard-Bearer

Francesco Conzaga commissioned from Mantegna a series of large, square canvases - each more than two and a half meters on a side - representing the Triumphs of Caesar, which Mantegna painted over the course of a decade, from 1485 to 1495. These works hang in a large hall in the Palazzo di San Sebastiano (now the Museo Civico) in Mantua, then in 1627 they passed to the British Royal collection. They suffered terribly over time, and they now look somewhat opaque.

In these paintings we find an assemblage of sophistical antique references, of musical instruments, vases, arms, and standards, with horses and elephants preceding the gilded chariot carrying the victorious Caesar. This cycle of paintings was almost immediately understood as a key work in the history of Italian art, and the paintings have contributed, even more than the Camera degli Sposi, to linking Mantegna's name inextricably with Mantua.

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/mantegna/2/triumphs.html

[CTyankee]

4. Hey there, I thought you'd be the one to get this! Have you seen it or did you just know...

[pinboy3niner]

10. It looked a little familiar

Possibly from being exposed to Mantegna in past Challenges. But I didn't have a guess, so I just searched for a painting of trumpeters in a London museum.

[CTyankee]

16. I didn't do too many Mantegna's in the past, maybe one or two.

This is at Hampton Court. Charles I bought the Triumph of Caesar paintings. They are not in as bad shape as I was led to believe, altho they are obviously paler in color. It's great that they survived here even after Charles I got the axe (literally).

[QC]

6. Top one is John Donne's memorial in St. Paul's.

It survived the fire in Old St. Paul's, where Donne was the dean.

[CTyankee]

8. correct!

Have you been to St. Paul's?

[QC]

9. Yes, as a matter of fact. I went there mostly to visit Mr. Donne. n/t

[CTyankee]

12. It's a wonderful sculpture!

[QC]

14. Yes, it is, if a little creepy to modern eyes.

That's Donne in his burial shroud, a little memento mori.

[CTyankee]

19. Actually, I didn't think it was particularly creepy...a little strange, tho...

[QC]

25. There was a fashion for slightly morbid things at the time,

like a skull on one's desk or death's head jewelry. For the pious, things like that were a reminder that we're all going to die, so we need to think of eternal things. For the less pious, they were a reminder that we're all going to die, so we need to live it up while we can.

I'm guessing the later Donne was more in the former camp, though the sexy poems he wrote when he was young do make me wonder lol.

[dlwickham]

32. it is a bit strange

just looks like he's getting ready to break into a smile

[yardwork]

55. He looks like a lion.

[11 Bravo]

11. Wild-ass guess here ... does #2 have anything to do with Lord Nelson and Trafalgar?

[CTyankee]

13. well, what do you think? See anything funny on that jacket?

[longship]

22. Well, you've conveniently hidden the right sleeve.

So it's difficult to tell if it's Nelson's.



Is that a bullet hole, or wear and tear?

[CTyankee]

28. what happened to Nelson?

[longship]

34. Lost his right arm in one battle, shot and killed in another.

Gotta look it up. It's been a while.

I do know that at Trafalgar he only had one arm, his left one IIRC.

...

Aha! I was right. That's Nelson's coat and the hole is where the musket ball hit him. Must have torn the hell out of his shoulder. Turn of the 19th century medicine in the midst of a battle.

[pinboy3niner]

37. "The musket ball pierced Nelson's coat just below the epaulette."

--Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

As soon as the travelling crate was opened and the shroud of white tissue paper carefully peeled away, it was clear there was damage to the dark blue coat: a hole in the left shoulder, and some of the gold braid on the epaulette torn away. The damage happened more than two centuries ago, and the coat's arrival in France was one of the most unusual days in the history of the National Maritime Museum, in Greenwich, south London, and the Musée de l'Armée, at Les Invalides in Paris.

"I think it's a wonder," said Emelie Robbe, a curator of the Paris museum's new exhibition on Napoleon and Europe. "It is astonishing that it should be here."

The coat, an undress uniform of the Royal Navy, already slightly old fashioned when it was made in the late 18th century, had never left England since 1805, when it came back in a sea chest on the same ship that carried the body of Horatio Nelson preserved in a barrel of brandy. It has now voyaged again, through the Channel tunnel, into the heart of his enemy's empire.

The coat has been viewed as a sacred relic of British history, soaked in blood on the day that saw one of the greatest naval victories, at Trafalgar, over the combined fleets of France and Spain, and the disaster of the death of the vice-admiral. The hole in the shoulder was pierced by the musket ball of a French sniper perched high in the rigging of the Redoubtable.

The sniper's bullet passed through Nelson's chest and lodged near his spine, paralysing him and leaving him drowning slowly in his own blood. Amy Miller, a costume curator at Greenwich who escorted the uniform to Paris to see it safely installed, said the wound would probably be beyond surgery even now but, in 1805, Nelson knew instantly that he was finished. He lived just long enough to learn that the battle was won.

...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/mar/27/nelson-french-uniform-show-paris-trafalgar

[11 Bravo]

36. I know he lost an arm in battle, came back, and was killed in an other battle, but ...

have no clue about the particulars of his wounds. The epaulette tells me I'm looking at one shoulder of the jacket, but I'm unable to extrapolate anything else from the pic. (And I'm a total dilettante on these challenges. I lucked into a Monte Casino answer some time ago and have continued to check in ever since, but you guys are way out of my league!)

[CTyankee]

38. It IS the bullet hole made by the shot that killed Nelson. London Maritime Museum.

The Brits just love it.

[11 Bravo]

43. WOW! Do I get any credit for my wild-ass, uninformed, (yet ultimately correct) guess?

(looks desperately for patting oneself on the back smilie)

[pinboy3niner]

45. I'd say you got it

[CTyankee]

60. Of course! Bravo, bravo...

[longship]

15. That was going to be my wild assed guess, too.

[CTyankee]

61. GMTA!

Most excellent!

[Shrike47]

17. #3 is the British Museum.

Never been there but I'd love to go.

[CTyankee]

20. Who is the "who" involved here?

[reflection]

21. Just went two weeks ago.

Loved it. Strongly recommend.

[CTyankee]

26. we must have been ships that passed in the day/night. I was there the last week of May.

You?

[reflection]

29. May 18th thru the 26th.

Cool.

[CTyankee]

33. I came, you left on the 26th. Wasn't London jumping?

I became good friends with the #15 bus which was often "on diversion" (Britspeak for detour). Loved the Big Red Bus! Got me everywhere practically and the the Tube did the rest. Loved the city, the people and all of its wonderful history.

[reflection]

35. Yes, it was my first visit and it seemed very busy.

I wore out the Tube and the buses also, as well as drove myself around. A little too crowded for me to want to live there though. Loved the architecture and like you said, the people also.

The city seemed a little different the day Drummer Lee Rigby was killed in the street. Not sure, I may have read too much into it, but I noticed that day and the next people were kind of on edge. Which I get.

[CTyankee]

40. The #15 line had some "vintage buses," old ones that had the conductor who called out

each stop with great eclat and a bit of snark. I LOVED getting on those. It was so nice to ride and see the city, its people, the whole big thing which you can't get as much on the Tube. But the Tube was efficient. It was a bit much for the people on our trip who weren't familiar with big city subways. I used to live in NYC so I knew the drill...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. No. 3 is

the British Museum.

No. 5 is the inside of "the Gherkin"?

[CTyankee]

23. OK, who is involved in #3? Also, #5 is not the Gherkin.

[reflection]

24. Looks like it might be The Shard but I'm not sure. n/t

On edit: Tineye is my friend, I got it right.

[CTyankee]

27. Great, isn't it? It was near to my hotel and I saw it every day while I was there. COOL!

[reflection]

31. Didn't go in, but went by and yes, it was impressive.

I spent about half the time in London and the rest of the time going around the northern area of the countryside - Reedham, Yarmouth, Norwich, et al

[CTyankee]

46. I really don't want folks using Tinyeye...I know it is possible but I had this discussion

a while back about cheating and I felt this reverse "research" wasn't really research like regular Google. Perhaps you weren't familiar with what I meant by "cheating" but it really is.

It's just too easy. At least researching by certain characteristics on Google is actually doing some work on the subject and folks do that. It's fine of course just to look it up to satisfy yourself but please don't use it and then "guess"...

[reflection]

48. The guess was legit

But I hear what you're saying. Apologies.

[CTyankee]

49. Oh, I am sorry. Thank you for clarifying. I know you are new to the Friday Challenge

so I understand. I hope you get what I am aiming at. I want (usually, not today of course) for folks here to talk about art, to stimulate a conversation.

[reflection]

56. No problem whatsoever.

I appreciate the instruction.

[pinboy3niner]

39. Is #6 the Camden Catacombs?

The Camden Catacombs are a system of underground passages in Camden Town underneath part of the Camden markets, constructed in the 19th century, as of 2012[update] owned by Network Rail. They are not true catacombs (repositories for dead bodies), but an underground area originally used as stables for horses and pit ponies working on the railways. The catacombs also included an underground pool for canal boats operating on the nearby Regent's Canal. Not open to visitors due to danger of flooding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden_Catacombs

[CTyankee]

42. No, it was guessed. It's Traitor's Gate at the Tower of London, where the condemned took

their fateful trip from the prison to the execution site! Grim stuff...

but the Camden Catacombs sounds interesting...

[flamingdem]

41. bookmarking for future

anglophiliac trips

[pinboy3niner]

44. #5 looks like The Shard (aka London Bridge Tower)

Last edited Fri Jun 14, 2013, 07:03 PM - Edit history (1)

It was supposed to be completed last year, and would be the tallest building in the UK.

ETA more, from wiki:

The Shard, also referred to as the Shard of Glass,[6][7] Shard London Bridge[8] and formerly London Bridge Tower,[9][10][11] is a 72-storey skyscraper in London. Its construction began in March 2009; it was topped out on 30 March 2012[12] and inaugurated on 5 July 2012.[13] It opened to the public on 1 February 2013.[1][14][15] Standing 309.6 metres (1,016 ft) high,[3] the Shard is the tallest building in the European Union. It is also the second-tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, after the concrete tower at the Emley Moor transmitting station.[16]

The Shard replaced Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office block built on the site in Southwark in 1975. Renzo Piano, the Shard's architect, worked with the architectural firm Broadway Malyan during the planning stage. The glass-clad pyramidal tower has 72 habitable floors, with a viewing gallery and open-air observation deck – the UK's highest – on the 72nd floor, at a height of 244.3 metres (802 ft).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shard

[hedda_foil]

47. #3 is the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court of the British Museum. So she's probably the person.

Amazingly to me is that the modernist looking round building is the original Reading Room, renovated and given that amazing exterior. (The British Library itself has been removed to a separate location.) From Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_II_Great_Court

Queen Elizabeth II Great Court
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coordinates: 51°31?10?N 0°7?37?W


View of the Great Court.

The central quadrangle of the British Museum in London was redeveloped to a design by Foster and Partners, from a 1970s design by Colin St John Wilson,[1] to become the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, commonly referred to simply as the Great Court, during the late 1990s. It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000.


The court has a tessellated glass roof designed by Buro Happold[2] and executed by Waagner-Biro, covering the entire court and surrounds the original circular British Museum Reading Room in the centre, now a museum. It is the largest covered square in Europe.[3] The glass and steel roof is made up of 4,878 unique steel members connected at 1,566 unique nodes and 1,656 pairs of glass windowpanes making up 6,100m2 of glazing;[4] each of a unique shape because of the undulating nature of the roof.

Controversially, some of the stone in the court is from France, rather than being Portland Stone from southern England as agreed in the original contract with the masons.
Within the Great Court, there are shops and a café. The court acts as a central linking point for the museum, somewhat like I. M. Pei's Louvre Pyramid in Paris.
Construction [edit]

The central courtyard of the British Museum was occupied by the British Library until 1997 when it moved to St Pancras. At that time the entire courtyard was filled with bookshelves, three stories high (the 'Bookstacks'). To get from one side of the museum to the other visitors had to go round.
Once the Library had moved out, the bookstacks were cleared and the Great Court constructed in this central courtyard. A new 'ground' level was created, a storey higher than the original courtyard, with the space below used to accommodate the Clore Conference Centre and the African galleries (which had been housed at the Museum of Mankind since 1970).


The South Portico was largely rebuilt, with two new lifts incorporated for disabled access to the upper levels of the museum.

A new gridshell glass roof was provided over the entire courtyard to create a covered space at the centre of the museum.

The British Library Reading Room at the centre of the courtyard was retained and refurbished for use as the Museum library and information centre. As the Reading room had no outer wall - the bookstacks coming right up to the back of the reading room shelves - a new outer wall was created to protect the Reading room, to support the new roof and the conceal the ventilation ducts serving the spaces below.


North of the Reading Room there is a block with a museum shop at ground level, a gallery for temporary exhibitions above and a restaurant above that, just below the glass roof.

[CTyankee]

50. Oh, of course. I was just referring to the design in the overall buiding. He is is artist who

made that design in the ceiling!

[CTyankee]

59. great! Actually, I had Sir Norman Foster in mind as the "who." But your research is richer

than mine! What gold you uncovered! Thanks for that!

Renzo Piano is responsible for The Shard, BTW, folks...

[dorkzilla]

51. I know all of them except the painting (haven't read any of the other answers)

#1 is the statue in St. Paul's (can't remember the guy's name)
#2 is Admiral Nelson's jacket
#3 is the British Museum
#4 is ???
#5 is The Shard in Bermondsey
#6 is Traitors Gate

Do I win a trip to London???

For the record, I am a flaming Anglophile so....

[CTyankee]

52. pretty good but...there is #4...

However, I'd give you a really big discount on a trip to London...

[dorkzilla]

53. I can't see that City too often.

I love London, particularly the history of it (as well as England in general). There have been times in my life when I would go there 3 or 4 times a year just on a whim. I get up very early in the morning, then walk all over the place. I come back to my hotel exhausted and happy.

Thanks for this! Looking at the pictures brought back some happy memories.

[CTyankee]

54. so glad to hear that, what a great world city it is!

I loved my walks, even tho it killed my back and I came back in pretty bad shape (my own fault, not being remedied).

[Hekate]

57. I was just in London May 4-11, less 2 days flying. Saw almost none of this.

A local theater company sponsored a tour with plays, so we saw 4 plays (and Helen Mirren and Judy Dench!) went on the Tube a lot, and had several high speed walking tours. It was a wonderful experience, and left my friend and I longing for more. It's a long way from SoCal, but I am sure there must be a way to make it happen. She wants to see 221B Baker Street, and I want to see the museums.

Maybe then I will recognize your art and architecture at a glance!

[CTyankee]

58. Then you probably went to the National Gallery! An easily navigated world class art museum!

I'm in physical therapy for my back now (turns out I have spinal arthritis). I developed a "strategy" for walking while there, i.e., resting often off my feet, and made it through, seeing some of the greatest art in western civilization. Fabulous.

[Hekate]

62. Alas, no! We got to see the procession for the opening of Parliament, Tower of London, Windsor...

... Castle, Westminster Cathedral (which was packed elbow to elbow with tourists), and other interesting sights such as the place where the Olympics were held (it's a big redevelopment area, so Londoners are justifiably proud of its progress), and we rode the "narrow boats," but there just was no time to see the National Gallery, British Museum, or the Victoria and Albert Museum. Or any quaint old book shops.

We did see The Tempest at the Old Globe, and Peter & Alice with Judi Dench, The Audience with Helen Mirren, and One Man, Two Guvnors, an adaptation of an 18th century Italian farce. The farce was wildly popular in London, but didn't excite me that much. Everything else was superb. If only we had been able to see Maggie Smith as well, it would have been my personal Trifecta of grandes dame of the theatre.

I really want to go back, now that I've been.

[CTyankee]

63. Lucky you to see all of the great theatre! I just LOVE Dench, Mirren and Smith!

I actually ran into Judi Dench in Vancouver once...I heard that amazing voice and turned around and was face to face with her!

The Tempest is my favorite Shakespearean play, along with Lear. I would have adored it. And I am fascinated by the subject of The Audience...would have loved that too, I'm sure.

I had to decide between the V and A and the National Gallery and that was tough. I think another trip is in order. I'd love to visit both Tates on the Damien Hirst designed polka dotted boat that takes you on the Thames between the two. My daughter said I should have gone on The Eye but I am super afraid of heights. I did see the Gloriana as it was docked right near our hotel at the Tower. It was truly in its glory. I think they were going to use it at the Queen's 60th anniversary on the throne ceremony a few days after I left. They were also getting ready to bury whatever was left of Richard III (his bones recently were found underneath a parking garage!).

Were you there during the Olympics?

[Hekate]

64. The Olympics was all cleared away, and I was rather puzzled as to why we were bussed out there...

I mean, why was this mall being bragged on? We have malls in So Cal, and friends who insisted I see the ones they live next to (Northridge and San Diego) were quite right to refer to them as a cultural artifact of jaw-dropping proportions, but it's not my thing.

Our guide that day finally explained how crucial the redevelopment process has been to the area. When the committee (or whoever) in London decided to bid for the Olympics and got it, they began a huge and well-mapped-out process, beginning with demolishing disused factories, analyzing the contaminated soil, cleaning the soil of contaminants, and building the stadia and "Olympic Village" with an eye to how they would be used afterward. From a distance we could see some of the exterior deconstruction of the stadia -- i.e. they won't need the immense lighting systems and camera hookups any more -- and were told that the Village is all condominiums and the kitchens (not needed by Olympians) are now being installed. The area is now connected to the rest of the city in a way it was not before (transportation? roads? the Tube? not clear), and the immense and shiny new mall is a wonderful new asset to the surrounding residents, who had not had easy access to these stores before.

So yes, I now understand why the guide was so keen on it. But I really wanted to see Art. Next time I will.

As for The Audience -- our leader thoughtfully gave us a kind of cheat sheet in advance, with a short paragraph on each of the PMs. But so much of it depends on knowing who they are, and clearly the audience "knew" them as soon as the actors walked on (gait, posture) and spoke (tone, verbal mannerisms). The Brits clearly just loved it. I did too, and recommend it, but I know I was missing half the joke. Mirren is amazing.

[CTyankee]

66. Thanks for the thoughtful post. Of course it is an interesting and a complicated issue at hand.

These things are not easy.

I hope I'll be well enough to go back and see so much I missed. I was in denial of my spinal issues when I was there and now I have been forced to take care of them! Perhaps I can get stronger and go back to the U.K. and do some of the things I wanted to do.

Thank you for your information. It was wonderful for me...

[RebelOne]

65. I have been to London twice

and my favorite spot to visit is Harrod's. It is a fairy land of anything you could ever hope to buy.

[CTyankee]

67. Strangely, I have no interest in Harrod's. I consume one thing in Europe and that is its culture.

That is the "fairy land" that I want and in Britain, in the museums, it is free and open every day....I couldn't ask for a better bargain than that, could I?

[JCMach1]

68. Just remember don't go there for the culinary delights

...London (and UK) is still a black hole for food...

[CTyankee]

69. Actually, we had some very nice ethnic restaurants very close to our hotel.

We had Turkish food twice for dinner (not as good as my local Turkish restaurants but the cuisine is fabulous nonetheless), French and Italian, all very good. I had fish and chips in a pub one night and it was fine (I don't drink beer or ale so I guess it wasn't really "authentic&quot . London is delightfully diverse so you can get almost anything you want. I'd prefer the choices in London to the choices in some large American cities.

[JCMach1]

70. I have spent too much time in London and UK and I can only identify 1 meal that rose

above ordinary... many were just plain

Compared to most of the rest of the world

With the exception of desserts... there some good sweets here and there.

The food thing is shocking because they have good ingredients. Cooking for myself and family, I made some awesome meals in UK.

Also (as with hotels in London), caveat emptor when you use tools like Trip Advisor. Just lower you expectations overall and then be surprised when things turn out okay.

[CTyankee]

71. Well, I don't mean to say that London is comparable to Paris, Brussels or Rome, where I

have had some wonderful food. But it's there some places...