Let Loose In London.

October half-term could have been spent wallowing in self-pity as I couldn't afford to fly out to New York with the rest of the group. But instead of wasting a week, I consulted my bank account and decided I could afford to push the boat out and make it to London without bankrupting myself. I'd just like to say thankyou to Megabus for having such affordable prices alongside adequate comfort. Anyway, me and Daniel (another unfortunately broke soul) scheduled a three day trip full of educational visits to museums, exhibitions, and a whole load of other suitably touristy things. It just so happens, that an artist of huge influential power who i've talked about in previous post's and presentations, works in the centre of Soho. After speaking with the mighty Scott Move about visitng the studio, picking his brain and pestering him for advice he arranged to see both me and Dan on the last day of our visit. So now our trip ticked all the boxes; cheap, cheerful, contact with the industry, educational basis and a high chance of returning in one piece.

I hadn't realised until now that i'd taken nearing on three hundred photographs of taxidermied creatures, non-descript buildings and norwegian bikers in dark bars...amongst these gems i've filtered the more important snaps to give you a taste of our hectic three day mission into the wilderness of London town.



Admiring the architecture. Cromwell Road, London.

 

Upon arrival, we realised the down-side of catching the cheapest bus humanly possible. The drop-off point was in the middle of bleeding no-where so we were instantaneously lost. Thank god for google maps, and obviously, common sense. By the time we'd reached London Victoria it'd started to sink in that visiting the capital city during one of the most popular school breaks of the year wasn't the gretest idea in the book. After fighting our way through crowds of frustrated parents and screaming children we purchased tube tickets so we could begin our day of sightseeing...we purchased the wrong tickets. Anyway, skipping forwards an hour or so we find ourselves outside destination numero uno on the treasure trail, the Natural History Museum. However, the victory dance was short-lived as we then had to join the end of a forty minute que whilst attempting to make the most of my time spent stood outside some of London's most impressive Victorian architecture. Originally opened in 1881 the designs had been altered several times between the years of 1862 to '81 and transformed, ironically, from London's ugliest building into the distinctive structure we know today. From competition winner Captain Francis Fowkes' deliberately Renaissance blueprints into aspiring young architect, Alfred Waterhouses' German Romanesque final designs. Educating myself about this impressive building passed the time and helped to distract myself from the fact me and Dan were being stared, pointed and probably laughed at by a school of small children. They must have thought we'd escaped from the satanic cult section of the museum judging from their wide eyes as they pointed at our piercings like we had horns growing from our noses. Ten more minutes of avoiding disgruntled parents and we entered the breath-taking entrance hall surrounded by high spires and it's huge facade. Inspired by the Basalt Columns in Western Scotland the grand Entrance boasts a vast array of rounded arches, sweeping staircases and a purposeful contrast between stone, glass and bare iron.



Left to right: Laughing owl in glass case of emotion, night at the museum, skinny whales.

 

Gathered over almost four hundred years, the life and earth science collections contain over seven hundred million specimens, well over a day's entertainment. We were there approximately four hours and managed to get round the whole museum skimming over the intensely catergorised rock section and the part where 'kids get to press buttons and see stuff light up'. I took a stupid amount of photographs so have edited the most relevent images that I plan to use as primary research and first hand observation in the future.

Left to right: perfectly plaiced skeleton, mickey moose and a grumpy Fennec Fox.

A cloud of bats.

The whole day was a really momentous experience, I never realised just how exciting looking at dead animals and rock's could be but I ended up learning more in those few hourse than I had in months and came away with reams of first hand photographs to draw more accurately from.

Left to right: Pinky and the brain, 'ant you ever seen a deeno-saur and the hunter and the hunted.

Day one, complete. Day two was a slightly different matter as I pulled my usual trick of sleeping in, but thanks to some slick navigation and google maps managed to make it to the second port of call on our adventure, the Hunterian Museum. Based in the Royal College of Surgeons, this bicentenary exhibition of incredibly detailed human anatomy and pathology is tucked out of the way just off Lincoln's Inn Fields. Boasting an incredible variety of morbid curiosities, floating in jars or housed in the floor to cieling glass cases, I would strongly reccomend the Hunterian for anyone with a strong stomach and curious personality.

Hunterian Gallery, taken from;
http://odditiesoflondon.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/hunterian-museum-royal-college-of.html

The self-taught, 18th Century Surgeon, John Hunter is the man responsible for the preservation of all these unusual artifacts. It has been rumoured that he hired a whole host of 'body-snatchers' to illegally excavate cadavers for practice in developing skills and discovering new-fangled procedures.

A selection of categorised animal fetuses.

A selection of, um, brains.

Everything from sections of whale skull, antlers, dissected insects, human brain matter, diseased organs, a 'giant's' skeleton, a surinam toad caught mid-birthing process and preserved to insanely detailed paintings and perfectly correct models, can be found in this magnificent gallery. No photography was permitted inside the buildings so the photographs above were found on the blogspot given or the Royal College of Surgeons website stated previously. The hour we spent looming over sections of rotten lung and severed feet was one of my personal highlights of the whole trip, which sounds scarily morbid but honestly, you don't get the chance to come nose to nose with a two hundred year old brain every day.

Late into our second day we did the usual touristical escapde with camera's at the ready, surfing the tube and seeing some of London's most sought after Landmarks...including a couple of Camden's most luxuriously creative taverns such as Our Black Heart, notorious for housing some of London's most sought after musical advertisements and artwork, Brew Dog with it's cleaner, more up-market approach to brewery come watering hole and lastly, onto Crobar in the heart of Soho.

Moving swiftly over the part where I 'accidentally' (not drunkenly, i hasten to add..) got on the wrong tube and almost had to spend the night begging in Camden town, i'll start on the most important part of journey. Our third and final day, meeting Scott Move at The Circle tattoo studio in Soho.

I'll continue my experience and advice sourced from Scott in a new blog post to highlight 'Contact With Industry' seperately.