Day 4 - Victoria & Albert's, Suzi's House, and "As You Like It" at the Globe!

The station for the V&A Museum

The Tube coming in with the rest of our group.

The station sign for the V&A stop.

Monday, September 14th - This morning we went to the Victoria & Albert Museum. At the museum we met up with Suzi Clark. At first we had some trouble finding Suzi, as we came in through a different entrance from the Tube, while Suzi came through the street entrance. Once we found her we went to the fashion gallery, with a side stop to the Asian Textiles exhibit, which had some lovely gowns on display. Here are some of my favorites from the V&A.

A 1780s gown from the Asian Textiles Exhibit. The fabric is made out of block-printed Indian cotton.

Regency Gown

Another 1780s dress. I love the jacket.

Close-up to the jacket details

Shoe from 1900

 1940s Men Suits

Men's Riding outfit

London Ensemble

Designer: Betty Jackson

From: Autumn/Winter 2005

Suit

Designer: John Cavanagh (1914-2004)

Year: 1963

Beautiful blue floral gown.

 Day Dress

Horrockses

1957

Close-up

Day Dress

About 1912-1914

About the 1840s-1850s.

1965 Suit

1860s Wedding Gown

The V&A Courtyard

A lovely painting I saw at the V&A.

Isn't this dress just darling? The girl looks so sweet and charming!

After lunch at the museum some of us went to Suzi's house to see some of her collection. On the way I was able to see several sites.

 

Aspley House - The First Duke of Wellington's House

The theater were The Phantom of the Opera is playing.

Piccadilly Area

Another picture of the Piccadilly area

Still another one

And another one

Yet, still another one.

While we were at Suzi's house we had some real English scones, clotted cream, jam, and tea. Which was scrumptious! During the trip I have come to love real English scones with clotted cream. Yummy! Sadly, I have no pictures from Suzi's house. :(At her house I did see two Charles Frederick Worth bodices. Ah!!! One of my favorite designers. And I also saw a bunch of lace, stays/corsets, textiles, etc....

At around 5:00PM or so we all headed over the Globe for a performance of As You Like It. Just so you know, this was first exposure to Shakespeare and I LOVED it!!!! The play was great! I wanted to watch it again once it was over. That is how much I like it. Plus, most of us had "Groundlings" tickets, which means standing around the stage - THE best seat in the theater, as the actors would be right by you. In fact, my mom and I and group of friends stood by the side stage stairs and the actors and actresses would walk or run by us. Their skirts brushed us, the men swords would be close to hitting us. You could reach out and touch them! In the wrestling scenes they would be right there in front of us. Ah!!!!  

As we weren't able to take pictures of the play, I did find one online so you could see some of the lovely costumes.

Here are also some of  pictures from that evening.

St. Pauls from the Shakespeare Globe

The Globe stage at night.

~Ashley

"As You Like It" pictures from:  http://static.guim.co.uk/ and http://www.independent.co.uk/

Snapshot of what I have bought so far while in London...

Here is a snapshot of what I have bought so far on the trip. ;-)

Antique lace and trim, vintage silk skirt/tunic, red scarf, cameo necklace and key chain, "The Tudor Tailor", a 1950s London life/fashion book, Janet Arnold book (the one that came out, I believe last fall. Number 4.), rick rack...Fun stuff! 

~Ashley

Day 1 - Tower of London

After we check-in to the hotel and changed our clothes. A group of us went to the Tower of London. It was so neat to see a place I have read so much about, considering I use to think it was just one square or circle tower.

Inside the tower we went on a Yeoman Warder tour, which was lots of fun! Saw the Crown Jewels, several Lady Jane Gray name carvings, the White Tower, ravens, and so much more.

Underground Sign or the Tube at The Tower station

Roman Ruins

Outside of the Tower

You see that small hole? That is were they dropped down rocks and stuff on the enemy that was trying to break into the Tower. Remember in Henty's?

 Arrow Slit (Were Archery's would shoot their arrows).

Inside the Tower

Traitors Gate

White Tower

The Crown Jewels were inside this tower area.

Outside the Tower

This is were the Queens stayed while in prison within the Tower.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into the Tower of London!

~Ashley