Sunday 11th September
This year for Open House Festival London I went to:
Two Temple Place
William Waldorf Astor’s neo-gothic estate office on Victoria Embankment. So much woodcarving, so many literary references, a really spectacular interior reflecting the tastes of one of the richest men ever to seek refuge from the USA.
HQS Wellington
Nope. Arrived to find a scrappy bit of paper blowing on the breeze with the message in ballpoint pen “Apologies The ship is closed as a mark of respect Open House would like to apologise”. An unfortunate person was on hand to suggest people went to Two Temple Place instead.
Wandsworth Prison Museum
Located in a large shed in the prison car park rather than in the prison building itself so no issues with security. Open House had mistakenly said that tours inside the prison would be run but as the museum curator explained this would have needed visitors to book and provide ID well in advance, which didn’t happen. The compact museum building contains over 470 exhibits from pictures and uniforms, prisoners’ belongings, and newspaper articles about some of the more well known inmates. A large scale model of the prison dominates the entrance showing the layout of the main buildings. Very interesting and one of those places I’d probably never thought of going to had it not been an Open House venue.
Stationers’ Hall
I hadn’t originally intended to visit this today but had time available having “missed the boat” earlier. This turned out to be a blessing though as this 17th century livery hall is a gem. Appropriately the information hand out was beautifully printed and bound in a stiff card cover, the interior oozes history, and the tea served under the plane tree in the courtyard garden was welcome. Various guild members were selling beautiful bound volumes of prints but my book budget is nearer £9.99 rather than with the decimal point moved two places to the right. Nice to look at though!
That was day one of my Open House adventures for 2022, the next lot would be on the following Saturday and will be covered in the next post.
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