London – Page 4 – My Days Out Blog

Red House, London

National Trust.
The house, rather vaguely signposted, lies near Upton Road in the Bexleyheath area of SE London, near the A207 and Bexleyheath railway station. B11 and other buses run nearby. The building is smaller than I imagined before seeing it – not a mansion but a substantial suburban gentleman’s residence. It’s of interest essentially as the only house built for William Morris, the famous Arts & Crafts movement designer. The architect was Morris’ friend Philip Webb. Few of the original moveable contents remain, but the architecture, windows and some items of decoration are much as built. There is a pleasant and quite large garden, laid out in several sections – itself an innovation at the time. Surprisingly, Morris only lived in the house from 1860-1865, but later owners were sympathetic to his creation. Morris tried to found an artistic community at Red House, but sold it when this failed.
It doesn’t take long to go around the house and gardens – I arrived after 3pm and had seen everything by about 4pm. Fewer than half the rooms are open to the public. On arrival you should note that visitor reception is away from the house, in the old stables hidden behind trees to your left.
Curious facts: Morris disliked industrial production and wanted to re-instate the craft traditions of an earlier era, but his creations, popular with some of the middle classes, were too expensive to be bought by the craft workers he admired. Morris himself was quite well-off – his house cost £4000, which was twice what my parents’ house cost a century later. The house, which originally had murals and wall-hangings and no wallpaper, is now partially papered with Morris & Co designs. When I visited, there was an exhibition about Morris & Co designs in a room downstairs.
And don’t put your stuff on the table in the dining room – the NT don’t like anyone to touch it. This table, designed by Philip Webb, was bought recently for £130,000 !

Nearest railway station is Bexleyheath (3/4 mile) . There is no car park at the house. Recommended parking is at Danson Park leisure facilities – which is no closer than the railway station. Buses run along the A207 nearby. On foot from A207, walk down Upton Rd, which is almost opposite the road from the station.
Done here and looking for something else to do? Danson Park and its historic house (0.8 mile)look really interesting.

Crossness pumping station, London

The Crossness Pumping Station was built by Sir Joseph Bazalgette as part of Victorian London’s urgently needed main sewerage system. It pumps sewage from a low intercepting sewer up to the level of the tidal Thames. The Beam Engine House is a Grade 1 Listed Industrial Building constructed in the Romanesque style and features some of the most spectacular ornamental Victorian cast ironwork to be found today. It also contains the four original pumping engines (although the cylinders were upgraded in 1901), which are possibly the largest remaining rotative beam engines in the world, with 52 ton flywheels and 47 ton beams.

The journey there underlinined the advisability of getting up early if one wants to visit Cross Ness. It was a chapter of delays. I left the house at 7.30 AM, but the first train had a fault so got the next half an hour later, which was late at Euston because of speed restrictions. Got to Abbey Wood station at 10.40am, but found a long queue waiting for the courtesy minibus and could not get on one till over half an hour later. At the site there was a long queue to get into the buildings, then another queue to pick up a hard hat and enter the Pump Engine House, so didn’t get in there till 12.30.
The interior is impressive, with four huge engines in place and accessible from three levels. The octagon of painted ironwork only encloses a small part of the floor area, by the way. One engine is completely restored and running on steam, another in bits and the other two untouched. Some ironwork is re-painted in bright colours, while some sections have been left dull and rusty. The beam floor runs the whole length and width of the building and allows access to all the engine beams and the top of the Octagon. There are views out over the site and the Thames. There isn’t so much to see in the basements asides from some very rusty pipes and some shiny parts of the restored engine, Prince Consort. To one side is the Triple Expansion Engine House, which now is mostly empty. From the Beam Engine floor level and old entrance, it looks like an alarmingly big and deep hole with some rusting pipes and machinery in the bottom. Apparently two old diesel pumps are down there.
I came out after an hour, having seen and tried to photograph everything, and to let someone else in. I had a coffee and roll in the unusually cheap cafe, before visiting the workshop building and the former valve house, and taking some more photos. The brick architecture of the whole complex is quite worth seeing, with its arches and milticoloured bricks.

There are/were a few steaming days in 2011 when the site was open to the public. I visited Cross Ness pumping station on Open House London day, 18 Sept 2011. The engine house is on the far side of the large Thames Water site, 2Km from Abbey Wood railway station. A courtesy minibus is laid on, or you can drive there. Adequate car parking is provided. Watch the website http://www.crossness.org.uk/
Done here and wondering what else you could do? There are some abbey ruins near the railway station, or you could take a B11 bus to the NT’s “Red House” in Bexleyheath.

Cross Thames view from Crossness — View from Cross Ness

Corss Ness queue to get in — Queue to get in

Boiler House roof & queue for hard hats — Boiler House - queue for hard hats

Beam Engine House - main floor - octagon — Crossness main floor - Octagon

Prince Consort cylinder tops and pillar detail — Prince Consort cylinder tops

Main Floor - painted arches — Main Floor - arches

Triple Expansion Engine House - from Main Floor — Triple Expansion Engine House

Top of Octagon from Consort & Victoria end — Top of Octagon from Consort

Beam Floor - Prince Consort auxiliary parts — Beam Floor - Prince Consort

Beam Floor - Victoria parts — Beam Floor - Victoria bits

Triple Expansion House basement — Triple Expansion House

Basement A - Prince Consort — Basement A - Consort parts

Basement A - un-restored parts — Basement A

Thames Barrier, Greenwich, London

The Thames Barrier, with its striking stainless steel sails, was an iconic construction project, completed in 1984. It is the second largest movable barrier in the world, and protects central London against tidal flooding. It is raised increasingly often to protect London against high tides.

Besides looking at the barrier itself, visitors can pay a modest fee to go inside a small information centre (Thurs-Sun) which contains an interesting exhibition. When I visited, the viewpoint café above it was shut, but there was a temporary one across the car park. If you go, don’t miss the exhibition. When I lived in London the Barrier was under construction, but I never went to have a look.
Visitors can reach the site by walking to Unity Way from the A206 along a dismal industrial road, or through a small park. There is a pay and display car park on site.

Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London

College, passing car, distant tall buildings — College buildings

The site was planned by Sir Christopher Wren in 1694 and executed by several famous architects of the day as the Hospital, a residence for seamen pensioners. The Hospital closed in 1869 and the Royal Naval College moved in, training naval officers till 1998. Today, some buildings are used by Trinity Laban college and the University of Greenwich.
The Chapel & Painted Hall are open to the public, free of charge.

Painted Hall: The Hall “probably the finest dining hall in the Western World” is decorated with huge paintings by James Thornhill. It was intended as a dining hall for the pensioners, but never used as such, for when finished it was considered too grand and too much of a tourist attraction. The body of Admiral Nelson lay in state here.
Not my taste, but it’s certainly worth visiting if you are in Greenwich.

Chapel: The Chapel was first completed in 1751, gutted by a disastrous fire in 1779 and reopened in 1789. Unlike many churches which are a mixture of styles through the ages, the Chapel is a complete and unaltered neoclassical period piece.
I thought the Chapel had a very attractive interior. Well worth a visit.

The ORNC is part of the Greenwich World Heritage site, along with the National Maritime Museum etc. There is a visitor centre near the Cutty Sark restoration site. The site can be reached by various means of transport, including the river.

Wellington Arch, London

The Wellington Arch stands at Hyde Park Corner, close to Wellington’s Apsley House. On top of it is a great bronze statue, the largest in Britain, depicting the angel of peace descending on the chariot of war. Visitors can go inside the Arch, to view three floors of exhibitions and enjoy views from the balconies near the top.

A visit inside is interesting, and the exhibition explains that the Arch originally was elsewhere and also had a different statue on top.
One can buy a joint ticket for the Wellington Arch and Apsley House. To make a day of it, one can also view the various monumental sculptures nearby, and then walk through the park to the Marble Arch, checking some more old and modern sculpture installations on the way.
You can travel here by tube or bus.

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Formally, the Queen’s House and the Royal Greenwich Observatory are part of the National Maritime Museum. The whole are set in Greenwich Park, in the Greenwich World Heritage area.

Maritime Galleries: It’s difficult to explain what the NMM contains without simply referring you to the website, but besides artefacts ranging from buttons to 10-ton anchors there are themed galleries devoted to such topics as trade or exploration, slavery, warships, etc. There is an increasing amount of interactive stuff, including the facility to collect images on a smartcard and look them up later. For the serious researcher, the Museum has a library and archives. The fusty rows of ship models that I recollect from 2002 have largely been banished.
There is a great deal inside for the interested visitor to see.

Queen’s House: The building itself is of some architectural importance as England’s first Classical building, finished in 1638. It was designed by Inigo Jones. A notable feature is the 40ft x 40ft cubical Great Hall on the northern side. The house was originally built in two halves bridging over a main road, but the middle sections have been partially filled in. It houses the NMM’s painting collection, which has a wider scope than one might expect. Various galleries cover national art, the Royal Hospital School, historic Greenwich, the Tudors, and Dutch marine artists.
The Queens House is well worth a visit if you are interested in art.

Royal Observatory – see separate entry.

Most parts of the complex are free admission, but there is a significant charge for admission to the Observatory, to the annoyance of many visitors who just want to be photographed standing on the Greenwich Meridian.

Kenwood, London

English Heritage.
Kenwood was remodelled by Robert Adam between 1764 and 1779 into a majestic villa for the judge, Lord Mansfield. In 1927 Lord Iveagh bequested Kenwood to the nation, along with a collection of pictures. The Iveagh Bequest includes important paintings by many great artists, including Rembrandt, Vermeer, Turner, Reynolds and Gainsborough. Upstairs is the Suffolk Collection of portraits, notable for the costumes depicted. The Kenwood interiors are also worthy of note.

I didn’t have a lot of time to enjoy Kenwood before it shut but I did manage to look at the pictures, which include some famous and impressive works. Surrounding the house is some pleasant leafy parkland.

Admission to Kenwood is free to all.
Bus 210 stops near Kenwood.
If you are planning a 3-in-1 day visiting Fenton House, 2 Willow Road, and Kenwood, don’t try walking across the Heath – it takes too long for the purpose and it is too difficult to find one’s way. A taxi might be quickest. Or use Bus 210.

Firepower – Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich, London

The Royal Artillery Museum is hosted at the historic Royal Arsenal site beside the Thames at Woolwich. On display are a large number of guns and gun carriages ranging from medieval up to post WWII, together with exhibitions which tell the story of artillery, scientific discoveries made through warfare and human stories of courage and endeavour. The ‘Field of Fire’ audio-visual show puts visitors in the midst of battle as shells whiz overhead and guns roar. A world-class collection of artillery and associated weapons, uniforms, drawings, displays of diaries and medals records some 700 years of world artillery history.

The Royal Arsenal site itself is worth a stroll, with its wide spaces, many elegant listed buildings, and some modern outdoor sculpture. Less happy was the experience of finding Firepower still shut when it was supposed to be open. Right day? Check. Right times? Check. As a last resort I went to enquire at a café attached to the side of the building, and in the process rousted out the receptionist who didn’t seem to know what time of day it was.

The exhibits were interesting, and there was enough to look at to occupy a couple of hours or more. Building 41 with the large objects collection was not open on the date I visited, but it should be when you visit.
I travelled by train, but if you have to drive, there is a pay & display car park nearby at the Plumstead Road entrance. The Thames Barrier is not far away, and can be reached by bus.

Eltham Palace, London

English Heritage.
There was a royal palace on the site, but all that remains is the great hall (much restored) which is incorporated into the 1935 Art Deco mansion. The Courtaulds bought a 99 year lease and demolished some old buildings (mostly not really old or interesting) before building their state-of-the-art Art Deco mansion.

It appears that no expense was spared – it’s big, and the lady liked gold plated bath taps. The Courtaulds only enjoyed their house for about 8 years, before the war and persistent near misses from sundry German munitions caused them to move to Scotland. They never returned, and the house was leased to the Army education service, who used it for half a century. English Heritage have now restored the house to its 1935 appearance, using reproductions where items had disappeared. The principal rooms, with walls and ceilings in Art Deco styles with lots of wood veneer panelling, and some inlaid marquetry pictures, are well worth seeing. There are also extensive gardens, which have been restored to something like the 1930’s appearance (but minus the swimming pool and squash court). Medieval remains can be seen in the grounds. The original 1930’s outbuildings, greenhouses, etc are around the EH car park, outside the ticketed area and a little way off the pedestrian access.

The house and gardens are well worth a visit. Not to be missed if you are a fan of Art Deco style.
I travelled here by train.

Chiswick House and Gardens, London

English Heritage.
This Roman-style Palladian villa was built for the third Earl of Burlington in the 18th century, and designed as a grand pavilion for entertaining friends and displaying art. It is considered an outstanding example of an early Palladian villa in England. Inside, it has some sumptuous interiors in the central hall and upstairs, and a collection of art. The house as seen today is stripped of any service rooms. The original ones were in the old Jacobean house, long demolished, and the replacements, attached at each side, were in use after the house was gifted to the public, but demolished sometime after WWII.
The extensive gardens are also considered of national importance. They contain walkways and vistas, and features such as a long lake, a cascade, a conservatory, walled gardens, Ionic temple, etc.

The house is well worth a visit. Externally it is an attractive building, and inside there are some impressive restored interiors, some fine paintings, and some exhibitions to look at. It is notable that there are no service rooms at all, apart from a cellar. While the surviving part was lived in at one time, it was built as a pavilion. The gardens are vast, and one can tramp around for some time finding fresh things to look at. I travelled by train.