Wednesday, November 7, 2012

18 Stafford Terrace

Saturday began as a sunny day with a nip in the air.  It was also the first time that I cursed London's tube system.  With the Circle line closed, disruptions on the District line and the lift out of order at Gloucester Road, it was a good thing I heeded the advice given on the Transport for London website to allow forty minutes to get to my destination.  Rachel, Mary and I had a date to meet at Linley Sambourne's house just off of Kensington High Street for a tour at 11:15 am.  Having grabbed a cup of tea from a cafe around the corner I spied Mary making her way towards the house.  With smiles and a hug we fell straight into a chat about the Hollywood Costume exhibit at the V&A that we had each been to the evening before.  After a bit of a wait we were ushered as part of a group into a room for a short film about Sambourne and his family, Rachel snuck in just as things were getting started - tube disruption delays had claimed another customer.

I love visiting houses and this one, says the website, '...is recognized as one of the best surviving examples of a late Victorian middle-class home in the UK.'  This rich and cosy house, absolutely dripping with decoration over almost every square inch looks to be the quintessential Victorian abode of my imagination and so lived in that its owners may have simply stepped out to take the air.  Chairs and footstools surround occasional tables, plates line rails near the wallpapered ceiling and one room even had four clocks.  Pen and ink drawings, many by Sambourne himself, lined the walls end to end and three rows high - the group laughed when told that the expensive William Morris wallpaper wasn't wasted behind any of the prints.  My favourite feature was the gorgeous stained glass windows that adorn the south windows, catching the sun.  While Sambourne was busy spending the money he earned as an artist and illustrator for Punch magazine, his wife Marion was busy keeping exact accounts of the household budget and reigning in expenditures.  I can only imagine that husband and wife would have been shocked speechless to learn that their £2,000 investment from 1875 is now worth over £6,000,000.

 
After the tour it was time for refreshments so Mary suggested The Muffin Man.  Warm and cosy, Mary and I filled up on teacakes and cake while Rachel sensibly had a hearty bowl of yummy-looking carrot soup.  How many cups of tea did we go through, I wonder?  This was my second get-together with Mary and Rachel so we talked about everyday things as though we got together all the time.  Don't I wish!  The lovely and very busy Rachel had a train to catch (only the Eurostar) bound for Paris with her friend, Naomi.  So it was up to Mary and me to close out the afternoon.  We strolled our way through Kensington Gardens and Portobello Road, stopping to look at any bookshops we passed by, even the famous Notting Hill Bookshop from the movie with Hugh Grant.  Chatting as we spied the wares on offer at what must have been a hundred stalls a moment of dread rose within me.  All that tea meant a loo break was needed and soon!  Mary pointed me in the direction of a nearby cafe and so dire was the need I neither realized, or cared, that I had whipped into the gents by mistake...oh well.  So my tiara slips every now and then, whatever.

Thanks so much for a wonderful afternoon, Rachel and Mary...you're lovely!

   Mosaic tiling in front of a townhouse on Gower Street, Bloomsbury

7 comments:

  1. Sounds lovely but I feel I should apologise for the London tube system -- even though I don't live in England any more I visit quite often and am often caught out by closures at the weekends which is infuriating. As for Stafford Terrace -- I've never been to this house but the name of the road rings a bell and I think some friends of my parents lived there when I was a child. Wish I'd been around to meet you too -- perhaps one day?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I felt so sorry for two gentlemen waiting for a broken lift at Gloucester Road, each with two suitcases. Hopefully staff helped them make their way up the 87 steps, at least it wasn't Russell Square with its almost 200 steps!

      Oh Harriet, perhaps I should have hopped on the ferry from Dover. You're in France, is that right? The next time there is a trip in the offing I'll work out a date that everyone can hopefully make and we'll have a get-together. I would really like that.

      Delete
  2. If only you lived near enough so we could do it more often, Darlene. I feel as if you should be living down the road so we could meet for a coffee while we're doing our shopping! And I'm so glad you got me to visit the house again. We take for granted what's on our doorsteps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would be ringing you up all the time, Mary! I am so glad you sent me that message to meet up last year, we were meant to be friends. Speaking of taking things for granted...there was a nice man from Holland on our plane going to Toronto (I'll talk to anyone, honestly) who was hoping to visit Niagara Falls. I take that for granted, we're all guilty.

      Back to my Cinderella duties...

      Delete
  3. Oh, Darlene, I remember standing beside Niagara Falls and - I know this sounds stupid -but I was just astounded by that sheer volume of water ...
    If only I'd known you. It was an icy cold day, up to my knees in snow and I'd have loved some company for a cup of hot chocolate.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wasn't it just the loveliest day? I so enjoyed the house but I enjoyed seeing you (and Mary!) so much more. I wish you lived closer, Darlene! And what a find the muffin man was...I'll be going back there for a cheap lunch next time I'm in Kensington!
    I've been loving your travelogues...time is short to comment these days but I'm always reading. I never realised there was a castle at Dover - I want to see those passages!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It definitely was! During long hours of shelving books at the library, dealing with cranky customers or scrubbing goodness knows what off of the countertop at home...I think back on such days, Rachel! Although, thank goodness you weren't around when I spied that EM Delafield on Charing Cross Road...there might have been a tussle for it. You have a longer reach so I would have been the big loser! Next time there is a gathering of we 'Bloggers without Borders' we'll have to spend more time chatting.
      Oh, and who knows, perhaps your school will have a trip out to Dover Castle and you could ride along as a chaperone..you would really enjoy it there!

      Delete