Train to Waterloo, then up onto the mezzanine to take tea and cake at the Benugo's there. The cake was described as a blackberry tart and turned out to be yet another take on the continental take on our own Bakewell Tart. Rather good.
From there to the beach where they do sand castles, to find just one under construction. A fine array of trowels but no sieves that I could see; perhaps they would contravene local rules in such matters. Short walk along the beach, including testing the echo underneath Blackfriars Bridge, which was not bad. The bridge was wider than the Silver Street Bridge at Cambridge and higher, so the echo, while not bad, had a rather different quality to that of the other place. Doing it from pebbles, glass and bone rather than from a punt might have made a difference too.
On into the Tate, where we savoured the big turbine hall before searching out the box. The image included left gives some idea of the work as seen, but if you don't like it, asking google for 'copper box tate modern' comes up with plenty more. What it does do is show the bit which annoyed me, the use of common-or-garden countersunk screws to fix the various parts of the box together. I would have been much more impressed by invisible joining and invisible joins, which would, I think, have been possible with application of a little metallurgical know-how and of a little burnishing. And if I had been doing it, I think also that I might have included some kind of finishing trim around the top, perhaps in the form of a lid out of which one had cut a seven-eighths size square hole. And assuming that the box was indeed copper, maybe a centimetre thick, we wondered what the scrap value might be.
They might also have done a better job of installing it. As it was, it was just one work among a number, but it would have looked better given a bit more pride of place. Perhaps a room of its own or a big plinth. Or both. But, I suppose to be fair to the Tate, you have to strike a balance between letting everything in and making a big production of the things you do let in.
Thinking of rooms, I should say that I was struck once again at what a good job they have done on the rooms, with the big ones being nicely large, airy, white, well lit and not too full - either of people or of things.
Quite a lot of school parties, some very diverse, and one of which was able to respond cheerfully when poked about where they came from, which turned out to be East Ham.
Lunch at the Albion at reference 2, at the bottom of one of the rather handsome towers at reference 1. Rather unusual menu, but the wine & soup were OK and the fish pie for two that BH & I shared was very good. A mixed fish confection in a white parsley sauce, topped with thinly sliced hard boiled egg and with mashed potato baked on top of that. It might even have been assembled on the premises, even to the point of making the fish confection, given that there was a lot of fish on the menu. I would only fault their including a couple of mussels which I thought out of place. Followed by a substantial slice of fruit cake taken with an entirely satisfactory pudding wine. All in all, a satisfactory first try at what appears to be a small chain.
A quick peek at the memorial to the unknown artist behind the Tate Modern, in or somewhere handy to the appropriately named Holland Street, but we completely failed to grasp the significance of its moving about, moving about which seemed to be restricted to the head when we were there. Read all about it at reference 3.
Over the wobbling bridge to inspect St. Paul's from rather closer quarters. Very impressive it is too from 50 years or so. From there we wandered down to Blackfriars Station, probably down Carter Street, passing sundry old and interesting buildings on the way, including, for example, one which looked as if it might once have been a convent and was now a Youth Hostel of the YHA variety. Not something that I have stayed in for a very long time. We failed to enter either El Vino's or the Blackfriar, both licensed sites of great historic importance, choosing instead to duck into the railway station from where we entrained for Epsom. Scenic views of some of the less salubrious parts of south London.
Reference 1: http://www.neobankside.com/. And despite browsing the very ritzy brochure at http://www.identity-design.co.uk/neo-bankside/, I still don't know what NEO stands for but I do know that you need to have £2m or more to spend if you want to live in one of the flats - in which it seems to be a house rule that you cannot have curtains, so only really suitable for pretty people.
Reference 2: http://albiongrill.co.uk/.
Reference 3: http://mickhartley.typepad.com/blog/2009/09/non-plaudite-modo-pecuniam-jacite.html.
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