British Museum and shopping

Busy day planned for today. We took a cab to the Intercontinental Hotel where the Media Conference was being held for Candice to register etc and she will get copy of all the sessions she will miss. I enjoyed a quiet coffee there then we met up and went off to the British Museum.

The King and President Emmanuel Macron from France had visited the Museum yesterday to view ‘The Bayeux Tapestry’ which is on loan from France and installed ready for a long running exhibition which unfortunately doesn’t open until next week. The 70 metre long tapestry depicts events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. This was the last time England was successfully invaded and is the year from which the modern monarchy dates itself. The tapestry is a precious historical record but also a remarkable work of art.

Couple of highlights we did see were the Tudor Heart Pendant and the Rosetta Stone. We probably liked the Egyptian section overall.

The Tudor Heart Pendant was found near Birmingham by a metal detectorist in Warwickshire in December 2019. He reported it to The Portable Antiques Scheme which records archeological objects found by members of the public and enables museums to acquire such objects. The pendant was recently acquired by the Museum and in addition to government funding and major benefactor’s contributions, the public raised a lot of the funds required (£3.5 million) to keep it in Britain. It is clearly a public favourite as it was a very crowded exhibit.

The Pendant is a rare, early 16th-century, 24-carat gold jewel linked to King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The front of the pendant features an entwined red and white Tudor rose. The reverse shows the initials ‘H’ and ‘K’ with a French inscription meaning ‘all yours’. It is attached to a 75 link chain with an enamelled clasp shaped like a hand coming from a cloud. It is believed to have been made around 1518.

The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 by soldiers in Napoleon’s invading army at the port city of Rashid (Rosetta). (On the Mediterranean at the top of Egypt.)
The Rosetta Stone carries an inscription in different languages which helped decipher ancient scripts. The fragment we saw was originally part of a larger stone slab and recorded a priestly decree issued on 27 March, 196 BC.
The ancient texts were copied and circulated internationally and, within twenty-three years, the hieroglyphic script had been deciphered.

We left the Museum in search of shops and lunch. We were close to where Candice worked in the late 1990’s so revisited her old stomping ground. 22 Stukeley Street was the office of Burkitt-DDB Media. I was even shown the lunch bar where she bought the tuna sandwich that gave her a massive allergic reaction!

Had a wrap in a normal lunch bar and really enjoyed it after all our fine dining yesterday.

I bought some new Sketchers to use as indoor shoes as the apartment is quite large for walking about barefoot. Candice bought a new tie for Kevin to wear to the races amongst a few other items then back to the BnB to freshen up and change for afternoon tea (dinner for us) at The Goring and our west-end show, Phantom of the Opera.Read more