Noon on Friday 14th March 2014 found 50 Shropshire Art Society members and friends disembarking in bright Spring sunshine from their coach in Central London’s Russell Square, close to the Mercure Bloomsbury Hotel. For three nights, this would provide a very comfortable and well located base from which to explore the many delights of London.
Soon we were off, heading for old haunts and new experiences.
The South Bank area was popular with many where some made for Tate Modern, the always interesting Bankside Gallery and slightly further from the river The Fashion and Textile Museum. Here there was a stunning display of the collaboration between leading textile manufacturers and artists from Picasso to Warhol. An unexpected delight for some of us was the very bright and welcoming interior of Southwark Cathedral alongside the always buzzing Borough Market. Tate Britain with its ‘Ruin Lust‘ exhibition, the Royal Academy of Arts, ‘Sensing Spaces’ exhibition, the river Shuttle boat, open top buses and of course The National and Portrait Gallery beckoned others, as did the Mall Gallery and other specialist venues.
For those with stamina and not affected by claustrophobia, the block buster ‘The Vikings’ exhibition awaited at the British Museum, just a stone’s throw from our hotel. Theatres, where in one case two members were upgraded to a Box (an SAS first?), concerts and the excitement of walking the famous streets and flashing our Travel Passes on Boris’s buses kept us all entertained for the four days of our visit. Travelling back on Monday evening in a very comfortable Longmynd coach, saw us arrive tired but happy after a very full four days.
Thank you to Alan Townsend for organising such a fabulous weekend away for us all.