FRIDAY EVENINGS AT THE MUSEUM/GALLERY. + supper in nearby restaurant.
A different way to enjoy a Friday evening – a tour of the museum/gallery followed by supper in a nearby restaurant. (tour 6.00-7.30, meal 7.45pm)

  • BRITISH MUSEUM – BURIED TREASURE Highlights of the collection, the impressive Norman Foster Great Court and the Enlightenment Gallery which houses Sir Hans Sloane’s founding ‘cabinet of curiosities’.
  • NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY (newly refurbished) Almost 500 years of portraiture, images of those who have contributed to every aspect of British life. Not always great art, but always fascinating people with intriguing stories. Portraits also cast light not only on the sitters but the artists and the values of the time in which they lived.

FULHAM BISHOP’S PALACE  AND WALLED GARDEN – preceded by riverside walk from Hammermith
A 1 hr. riverside walk from Hammersmith to Fulham to the recently restored Fulham Palace, for 1,300 yrs the ‘country’ residence of the Bishops of London. (£2.00 entry charge). The tour of the Palace concentrates on the garden – with many exotic trees and its 3.5 acre walled garden, but also will include a brief look inside. There is a fascinating small museum (explore on your own) and café serving delicious cakes and light lunches. Ends at the Palace (nr. Putney Bridge).

KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY – VICTORIAN WAY OF DEATH
London’s first great necropolis, posher in its time than Highgate. Dramatic mausolea, famous names (Brunel, Thackeray, WH Smith), colourful characters and peaceful setting. Microcosm of an era when everything was possible.

PETRIE MUSEUM OF EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY (Tues-Sat. pm)
One of the greatest collections of Egyptian artefacts in the world. Petrie was interested in the small objects of everyday ancient Egyptian life. Still partly displayed in Edwardian glass cases, it is a treasure-house of eclectic, obscure, fascinating and beautiful objects.

STEPNEY + VICTORIAN PHILANTHROPY incl. visit Ragged School Museum
(Wed – Sun only – £5.00 entry charge)
A walk (approx 1 ¼ hrs) through Stepney, with its impressive examples of Victorian social housing, designed to give context to a visit to the Ragged School Museum housed in a pair of canal-side warehouses London’s largest Victorian Ragged School, opened by Dr Barnardo in 1877.  We also pass traces of the older Stepney, including a medieval parish church, 18c. merchants’ houses and remnants of the Jewish East End.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE’S HIDDEN TREASURES
UCL founded in 1826 built fascinating collections as early teaching aids. The Grant Museum of Zoology is one of the oldest natural history collections in the country, some still displayed in their ‘1851 Great Exhibition’ cases. The Petrie Museum of Egyptology,  also partly displayed in old-fashioned cases reflects Petrie’s interest in the small objects of everyday life, and is a treasure-house of eclectic objects.  En route we will pass (univ. term time only) the Jeremy Benthams’s bizarre ‘auto-icon’.

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