Open House

This weekend is Open House London, a celebration of architecture, when many buildings not usually open to the public open their doors for free to visitors.

We had a last minute change of plan today. We were intending to visit one site (in Kingston) in the afternoon and were looking for somewhere to visit on the way.  We read about the Royal School of Needlework, which now occupies a couple of former "grace and favour" apartments in Hampton Court Palace. We decided to stop by there, and ended spending the whole day at Hampton Court.

We had a guided tour through the Needlework School which proved to be surprisingly (to me) interesting.  The school describes itself as the international centre of excellence for the art of hand embroidery and some of the work they do is certainly mighty impressive. Their past work includes coronation regalia for several Kings and our current Queen, embroidered new stage curtains forthe Royal Opera House in London, an album cover for Paul McCartney and hand embroidering bespoke lace on to the wedding dress of Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge plus many other smaller pieces of work.

After visiting the rooms occupied by the school (not normally accessible to the public) we spent some time wandering around the large and glorious gardens of Hampton Court Palace. They were full of colour with a large variety of flowers in full bloom.  The lawns were a rich, luscious green with virtually no weeds or moss (not that I'm jealous).  My blip shows one of the less colourful parts of the gardens, but an interesting bridge over a decorative canal, and wrought iron gates at the edge of the Great Fountain Garden leading to a magnificent, long, tree-lined avenue through Home Park.

Although it was a very damp, dull day, we still had a great time.