Our entire group got up early to head to beautiful Greenwich for our day there. Most of us wore full Regency ensembles and took pictures against various period backdrops, including the famous Colonnade at the Royal Naval College (used in numerous costume dramas, including the recent “Little Dorrit,” where it served as the “Cirumlocution Office”).

Fan Museum entrance

Our chief goal this day was to visit the Fan Museum, splitting up into two smaller groups to fit into the two connected Georgian houses that contain the collection.The museum is privately owned and includes fans of all kinds, including ones of carved ivory that defy belief (the detailing is so fine, they look like lace). The history of fan making is clearly illustrated throughout the exhibits, and there is even a fan on display that contains a painted image of a fan “factory” with various workstations showing the steps that went into making a hand-painted silk fan. There were artists’ guilds (begun in Paris) that were dedicated solely to fans. In fact, artists who painted fans were forbidden to paint other works of art for sale or display! To get around this, many would paint a fan-shaped work of art, then fill in the details in the corners so that the painting was technically fan artwork but never cut or folded into an actual fan. There are a few of these framed and on display in the museum. Themes included not only the usual cherubs and classical Greco-Roman scenes but also historical events like royal weddings. One fan in the collection has over 1,500 tiny diamonds set into the ivory guard (the outermost layer of the fan that you see when the fan is folded)! All in all, the amount of work that went into these creations was astonishing. What’s even more amazing is how beautifully they have survived the years of handling (though many were never used but kept as mementos).

Flowers in the front courtyard of the Fan Museum.

COMING SOON: Shots of some of the amazing fans in the museum’s display cases (just waiting on Lindsay to get me the pix in proper format!)

While the morning group was touring the museum, the rest of us visited the Painted Hall at the Royal Naval College (where Lord Nelson was laid out in state after his death in the Battle of Trafalgar). Lindsay took this shot of me in the upper part of the hall:

Here’s a shot of a bunch of us gathered in the Colonnade near the chapel (you see the matching Colonnade of the Painted Hall in the background):

Left to right: Amy, Katrina, Me, Wendy, Cassie, Courtney, Catherine, Abigail, and Ana.

It was a little blustery, so we needed our shawls and Spencers, even though the sun was bright and beautiful. You wouldn’t believe how many times we were stopped by people wanting to know if a film was being shot that day! One large group of Italian tourists exclaimed over our group and asked their guide if we were movie stars. The guide (who alone spoke English out of the group) passed their inquiry along, and when one of our ladies told her we were just shooting pictures in period dress, she responded, “Well, I am going to tell them you are movie stars anyway; it will make them very happy!” We all got a chuckle out of that!

I am sitting in the Colonnade with the Painted Hall visible in the background.

The Queen's House is in the background at the end of the Colonnade.

After touring around the Naval College, we made our way over to the Maritime Museum and Queen’s House, which are basically across the street and through a large park. The layout of the Naval College was designed by Sir Christopher Wren to perfectly frame the Queen’s House and create a  symmetrical view with the river unobstructed from the Queen’s House. You can best appreciate this when you stand in the middle of the grounds between the Painted Hall and the Royal Naval College Chapel and look toward the Queen’s House. A colonnade runs between the Queen’s House and the Maritime Museum, and exactly centered between the two is the Royal Naval Observatory, up on the hill beyond. It’s really striking. In this picture, you see some of our ladies preparing for portraits against the idyllic backdrop of the Royal Naval Observatory and park under the Queen’s House Colonnade. We had gusts of wind to deal with, but the portraits Lindsay took really turned out beautifully. Below is yet another gratuitous pregnancy shot of yours truly taken in the colonnade!

And here are ladies waiting patiently for their turn to be photographed:

Left to right: Courtney, Molly, Cassie

And here’s Catherine in her stunning ensemble (I had a real case of Spencer envy when I saw the deep midnight blue velvet!):

At the very end of our little photo session, one of the guards from the Queen’s House came to shoo us off, insisting that it was illegal to photograph at this location without prior written permission from the royal household! He said that all locations belonging to the queen are copyrighted and cannot be used in photographs. We explained that we weren’t taking pictures for publication–only for personal use–and he replied that it didn’t matter in the least. We were not allowed to stand in the colonnade and shoot pictures. If we wanted to step out into the grass, we could use it as a backdrop, but we couldn’t physically stand upon it and take pictures! This sounded highly illogical to me, and when I later repeated this story to a native, I was told it was a bunch of poppycock and that no locations “belong to the queen” or are forbidden to photographers. Tourists shoot the Queen’s House every day, just as they do Buckingham Palace and Windsor Palace. She said that perhaps the guard thought we were shooting a commercial or something for publication, in which case we would need permission — but we were definitely within our rights as tourists! We’d already finished at any rate, so we took ourselves off while the guard clucked and tsked.

After a quick lunch, we swapped places with the morning group and toured the Fan Museum. Afterwards, the entire group reconvened in the museum’s beautiful Orangerie, which opens onto a fan-shaped garden to the rear. It was heavenly! At right you see a photo of the room all laid out for us, including beautiful dried rose centerpieces, pink and white linens, and fabulously painted walls and ceilings. It really is an outstanding location. We were joined by Suzi once again, and then our surprise guest, Jema Hewitt of Bridal Originals, shared her amazing portfolio of original creations with us. Jema specializes in bespoke wedding garments for men and women with no two designs alike. Her clients have had everything from medieval to Regency weddings and just about anything in between. Jema designed and made the outfit she wore to our tea as well, including a stunning gold dupioni silk Spencer jacket with Swarovski crystal buttons! The gown beneath was made of a royal blue Indian sari with gold trim.

Enjoying a scrumptious tea...

Sarah looks like she's having a lovely time!

Cari clowns with the table centerpiece... She kept us in stitches the entire tour!

Admiring Jema's work as her portfolio pages go 'round the room...

Elegant Catherine studies a photo...

Becca demonstrates her expertise with a fan...

I'm looking at one of Jema's creations; Karen listens intently...

After an absolutely delicious tea (in which the treats just kept coming until we could hold no more), we all gathered in the garden courtyard for a group photo:

Front row: Lily, Catherine, Jema, Becca, Aylwen, Bethany, Ana, Sarah, Me, Suzette, Ashley, Katrina. Back row: Wendy, Amanda, Cari, Celeste, Kristin, Courtney, Molly, Elizabeth, Cassie, Abbe, Amy, Karen.

And here’s a shot of our lovely photographer, Lindsay:

At last we persuaded Lindsay to get into a group shot with the rest of us, and my wonderful husband took pictures with multiple cameras:

Jack of all trades!

This was an absolutely delightful end to our London tour, and we headed back to our hotel brimful of stories and pictures from the day and the week preceding. It was sad to bid farewell to seven of our group members that night, as they prepared for their early morning flight. Those of us staying on for Bath really missed them during our extension! Next time I’ll share about our trip to bath via Jane Austen’s house in Chawton!

As I mentioned in my last post, Cathy Hay brought a surprise show-and-tell outfit with her to share with the ladies. When she opened her large suitcase and pulled it out, Cassie began fanning herself like she was about to swoon! Turns out she’d been following Cathy’s live journal of the recreation of this stunning outfit, and when Cathy asked for a volunteer model, Cassie immediately waved her hand enthusiastically. Because she was also very close to the same height and build as Cathy, it was a perfect match!

Since we weren’t in a place that had a dressing room, Cassie couldn’t put on the chemise and go quite whole hog, but you can see below that she tried everything else, much to our delight:

First, on goes the flounced petticoat (dripping with gorgeous Nottingham lace)...

Next, the beautiful corset goes 'round the waist...

And Cathy laces it up...

Then the incredible skirt with hand-applied oak leaves over Duchesse satin...

Closer view of the amazing skirt...

On with the bodice...

Closer view (you can see how pleased Cassie is!)

Cathy has fastened the intricate hooks and eyes, and Cassie dons the gloves...

...and buttons them up.

Now Cassie sweeps 'round the room to give us all the complete view...

The ladies all enjoy drooling over details...

Look at that train!

Detail view of the oak leaf motifs -- and, yes, Cathy hand-applied all 420!

We turn up the hem to see the first layer with pleated ruffle beneath...

And the inner layer with oodles of flounce for fullness.

Cassie goes out into the long Orangerie hall for the runway effect. Stunning!

Then, having reluctantly returned the ensemble, she thanks Cathy. Oh, what fun!

Thank you, thank you to Cathy Hay for coming down all the way from Nottingham to share with our group and let us all handle her “Holy Grail outfit.” She asked how many of us have these–the one amazing costume we want to accomplish before we die. Lots of hands up around the room! And we all left inspired to tackle those dream projects.

After our delicious lunch at the Orangerie, we headed out into the pouring rain for the Museum of London, where we were able to spend an hour at a private study table with costume curator Hilary Davidson, seeing extant garments up close. Unfortunately, only private study photographs were allowed — nothing I am permitted to post! Only wish you could have been there to see the 1780s gown of hand-embroidered and tamboured India muslin, the 1820 pelisse, a doll’s Regency stays, a to-die-for Edwardian tea gown, and more!

Next time I’ll share about our Wednesday in Greenwich!

All right, I am going to try to play catch-up now! We woke up to a very rainy, soggy day in London town on Tuesday. Fortunately, our plans were all indoors with Kensington Palace and the Museum of London, so the ladies grabbed their umbrellas and headed out. I’d walked so much the day before that I stayed in for the morning. All these lovely photos are from Lindsay.

Late 18-teens portrait in the entrance room of Kensington Palace

This is a dress from "The Last Debutantes" exhibit, which showcases gowns, shoes, gloves, and more donated by the last debutantes to be presented to the queen in the 1950s.

Another lovely gown from The Last Debutantes. This exhibit had film exhibits showing how to make a proper courtesy to a sovereign, how to dance (including steps marked on the floor), and how a proper royal table would have been set.

Ceiling of the great reception room.

Cradle used by Princess Victoria (who grew up in Kensington Palace).

Princess Victoria's bedroom...

The King's Gallery, which is hung with royal portraits.

Court dress worn by a gentleman in the 18th or early 19th century. (Court dress stayed the same for a looooong time -- very formal.)

Close-up of pocket to show the embroidery detail...

Breathtaking court gown shot with silver threads...

And the back view...

Close-up of the stomacher

Sleeve front detail

Detail of back of sleeve...

The ladies all had a fantastic time going through the palace with Suzi. In the meantime, I had arrived at Kensington’s Orangery to greet our surprise luncheon guest, the talented Cathy Hay of Your Wardrobe Unlock’d! Cathy brought along an amazing goody to share with us that involved another dress-up model demonstration, but I will share that in the next post, as I have SO many photos! You can see my pictures of the Orangery in an earlier post, but here are a couple more of our group gathering for a delicious lunch:

Rebecca, Bethany, Suzette, and Ashley...

Me talking with Cathy and Suzi

And a photo of our first course:

Smoked salmon with cabbage and mandarin oranges -- delicious!

Well, next time I’ll share the beautiful dress-up photos from Kensington and tell you about our time in the Museum of London’s fashion collection. For now, I must retire so I’ll be ready to head out to church in Bradford-upon-Avon in the morning!

Lindsay is still formatting photos for me (bless her!), so I’m going to share some snaps I took today in the High Street Kensington area. I absolutely love to get off the main thoroughfares and just “poke” around to see what I can find. There’s a tiny alleyway called Kensington Church Walk that you’d miss if you sneezed, but it is well worth finding. It’s right off the main High Street and meanders back in such a way that all the busy hustle and bustle of the busy street is completely hushed. Around the first corner you find this beautiful church:

There is a beautiful gated garden all around this church with a quiet, shaded courtyard filled with roses. I didn’t manage to snap that, as there was a police van temporarily parked in front of the gate–rats. So I wended my way around the church and up a tiny alley filled with shops. At the end was this adorable house, the upper balcony just packed with flowers:

I turned to the left and followed the street down to the next alleyway, where I discovered a hidden garden (public access, but you’d never know it was there unless you stumbled upon it like I did!):

This spot was so quiet you'd never believe you were in the middle of a metropolis.

I finally turned down a “Mews” (which is where stables of horses and carriages were kept in prior centuries):

It really was a delightful way to eat up an hour’s time before lunch today. I had hoped to stumble into an antique bookstore that used to be here, but I never found it. I lunched on caprese salad and mushroom soup instead, then headed back to our hotel. Lovely!

Well, our day in Greenwich yesterday was so full that we just came back and collapsed, sleeping in this morning. So I obviously didn’t do any blogging. I did manage to go through photos with Lindsay, but she hasn’t had a chance to convert them from “raw” format to JPEG, so you’ll just have to wait to see all the yummy pictures from Kensington Palace and the Museum of London!

However, I did snap a few things with my own little camera, so here is a taste just to hold you over:

The famous sunken garden behind Kensington Palace (you see the palace in the background)

Another view of the garden, which was dormant when I was here in March...

Some of our ladies seated for luncheon in the palace Orangery -- a beautiful, window-filled hall with high ceilings.

This is the sculpture in the center of our private end room, which was circular and let us all see each other during lunch.

Finally, here’s a little peek into what we did yesterday in Greenwich. This is a group of us in the Painted Hall at the Royal Naval College:

Snapping pictures of one another in full costume!

Yes, the majority of us spent the entire day in full costume (mostly Regency with a couple of Romantic and Edwardian thrown in for good measure!). We used the Royal Naval College as our backdrop for some stunning portraits Lindsay took of the ladies. When I share some pictures later, you should recognize the colonnade and chapel of the RNC, as they have been used in a large number of BBC costume dramas (including the recent “Little Dorrit”).

I promise to do my best to get pictures up tonight! I’m spending the morning relaxing while my husband and son go to the British Museum and Parliament. Several other ladies have popped off to the Tower. We bade farewell to seven of our ladies last night, and my husband saw them off this morning at 5:30 a.m., bless him! The rest of us will miss them when we head on to Bath tomorrow!

Admiring tiny ivory carvings in the sculpture gallery above the medieval plaster cast gallery.

We had an absolutely wonderful morning at the Victoria & Albert Museum, right here in South Kensington. We had a bit of trouble finding my friend, costumier Suzi Clarke, as we came in from the tube tunnel rather than Cromwell Road, so we took a little side detour into the sculpture gallery. Once we managed to find Suzi, we immediately launched into the costuming-focused displays. Instead of going straight into the fashion gallery, though, we took a side detour into the Asian Textiles exhibit, which had several gorgeous gowns made of India muslin and block printed Indian cotton:

A 1780s gown with tabbed bodice over petticoat -- made of scrumptious block-printed Indian cotton.

Close-up view of the tabs...

Yet another block-printed 1780s gown, this one with a simpler pointed front (the front closes with pins, which go into the stays and don't stick the wearer!).

Close-up of the bodice front...

Side view to show the back silhouette...

Detail of the wonderful printed cotton...

Regency gown of tamboured India muslin

Close-up of the tambouring on the bodice...

And sleeve detail -- look at that design!

Here is the "sister" dress to the first two block-printed gowns. This one has a jacket with tabbed front and flounce around the hips.

Close-up of the tabs crossing over the plain stomacher...

Sleeve detail (I tell you, folks, we were all drooling buckets by now! )

We moved on into the main fashion gallery, where Suzi and I took a seat in the center. Everyone else enjoyed wandering through the exhibit, photographing and sketching. Several came back to our central point with questions, which called for Suzi’s expert analysis and years of costuming wisdom — what a treat to have such a fantastic guide! Lindsay continued to shoot photos as we talked. She apologizes for the dimness of some of these, but lighting is deliberately kept low to prevent fading of the fabrics, so getting clear shots is a bit of a challenge.

Painted silk saque-back gown ca. 1770s...

Detail of the back...

Embroidered silk--this one a jacket over a skirt and petticoat...

A set of stays from the 1780s. I love the tabbed waistline on these.

We next attempted to get up into the Textile Room, which is buried in a far back corner of the third floor. The V&A is almost as confusing to navigate as the British Museum because of staircases that only go to every other floor with “half floors” in between in many places. We managed to get from two to four but couldn’t find our way to three without going through the British Galleries. However, these are some of my absolute favorite galleries to visit (one on the second floor and one on the fourth). I highly recommend them if you visit the V&A, as they are filled with beautiful portraits, furniture, and, yes, many historical garments (including James II’s wedding suit!). We tried our best to hurry through to the Textile Room, but it was like herding reluctant cats to get 24 people all heading in one direction! I didn’t mind. I know how distracting these galleries are, and there is so much to photograph (to see pictures of what’s here, check my posts from 2006).

We did finally make it up to the Textile Room, where frame after frame of fabric, embroidery, lace, and such awaits the eager student of fashion. Here are just a couple of things we pulled from the upright files:

Embroidered 18th-century stomacher

And here's another one...

You could spend absolute days in here, poring over beautifully preserved examples from the 1600s onward. But we began to run short on time, as half our group was headed to Suzi’s after lunch to view her private collection! So we all gathered for a delicious luncheon in the V&A Cafe’, which is one of the finest museum cafes anywhere with hot and cold dishes prepared by expert chefs. Some of our ladies continued to explore exhibits, while those going to Suzi’s headed to the tube.

Suzi's delicious tea spread, ready for our ladies!

Suzi shows off one of her Worth bodices.

And here's another beautiful one in turquoise silk...

And a Victorian bodice...

I’m speeding through highlights only in this post. We have hundreds upon hundreds of photos from yesterday! Wish I could share them all, but it’s just hit midnight here, and we’re heading to Greenwich at 8:15am to the Fan Museum! I’ll post about today’s fun tomorrow night.

Here are two final photos from yesterday — these of some of our ladies waiting in line at the Globe Theater for the evening performance of “As You Like It.”

Carilyn, Cassie, and Amanda, hamming it up and having fun.

Two mother-daughter pairs and one of our Aussies...

All but three of us opted for “Groundlings” tickets, which means standing room right around the stage — really the best view in the house. Being rather pregnant myself, I opted for a seat in the second tier right at the railing, renting a cushion to sit upon! We thoroughly enjoyed the play, complete with spectacular costuming as usual. Wish I could share photos, but no photography is allowed during performances. You’ll just have to come over here and get to the Globe yourself!

See you tomorrow!

We had a very leisurely Sunday, enjoying a late-ish breakfast before 18 of us attended the 11 o’clock service at the Metropolitan Tabernacle (home to the famous 19th-century “prince of preachers,” Charles Spurgeon). We were able to meet our dear friends who live in Dulwich and meet others we’d hoped to say “hello” to while in London, which was lovely. We had a light lunch, then I took a nap before we met up with several other ladies to go to the Royal Academy of Arts, which had a special exhibit of Pre-Raphaelite artist William Waterhouse’s paintings on display only through Sunday. Unfortunately, we arrived to find a two-hour line to wait for tickets!  We debated the merits of having one person stand in line to wait for tickets but finally decided we just wouldn’t have time enough to tour the exhibit.

The windows are painted F&M's signature robin's egg blue, which is also used for their boxes and bags and exclusive items.

We thought about heading back uphill towards the National Portrait Gallery, but the call of Fortnum & Mason just across the street lured us in for tea time and delighted browsing. If you’ve never heard of the famous F&M, then you are really missing one of London’s high points. This is the most elegant, refined department store around, complete with richly detailed wood paneling, crystal chandeliers, mirrored elevators, and seven theme restaurants. Not to be missed!

This is the confectionary hall, which is wall-to-wall sweets, teas, and coffees!

We made our way upstairs to The Parlor, which serves ice cream, coffee, and afternoon tea. Here is a selection of tempting photographs to show you what various members of our group enjoyed!

Two scones, clotted cream, strawberry preserves, and Darjeeling - yummy!

Three scoops of sorbet in a cut-glass bowl with a biscuit on top!

Mochacinno with whipped cream and toffee sauce with a miniature ice cream cone on the side. Decadence!

Enjoying good conversation at our table...

And someone captures our photographer for the memory book...

After a wonderfully refreshing time of conversation and good teatime food, we all browsed through the bookstore on the third floor (picking up more than a few wonderful books and stationery items!). Then we headed up to Piccadilly Circus to catch our tube back to the hotel. After a light supper, a bunch of us gals capped off the evening with a pedicure party–too much fun! Here you see Courtney giving me glamorous, glittery toenails (I call them my “Ruby Slipper” toenails!). We talked about what costumes we plan to wear Wednesday for our day in Greenwich, and several ladies shows theirs off. It was a great ending to a super day. Next time I’ll tell you about our Monday with Suzi at the V&A!

I finally have all the photos formatted so I can share our days with you! Here are some shots from Friday’s kick-off to the tour so you can see how we started out. First off, this is Nigel, our wonderful tour guide, who met us at Heathrow and took us on a two-hour narrated coach ride all over London, telling stories around every corner and pointing down practically every alleyway:

After 28 years on the London police force, he should know this town like the back of his hand! He’s also a great history buff and thoroughly loves England. It was a fantastic time. We stepped off the bus at several spots for photo ops, including the Albert Memorial in Kensington Park, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Gaping at the Albert Memorial from across the street (for a photo of the memorial itself, see my blog posts from March.)

Nigel gives us all the details on Buckingham Palace (the queen wasn't home today!).

We had the most fantastic weather for photos....

And here we are at St. Paul's, enjoying its beautiful front ("Feed the Birds," anyone?)

Our group started out chipper and talkative, but jet lag started to hit hard toward the end, and we were ready to check into our hotel, the Millennium Gloucester in South Kensington. We deliberately left Friday afternoon free so that our ladies could unpack, settle in, or hit some sightseeing spots of their choice. A bunch went to the Tower of London together. My husband and son went to St. Paul’s to hear the boys’ choir while I stayed back to unpack and take care of the rest of our check-in process (including getting Internet hookup–so important!).  We grabbed some yummy Portuguese food for supper from a place around the corner from our hotel, then crashed for the night.

Our group sits enthralled as Kitty gives us the history of the original Globe and this amazing reproduction.

Saturday morning we enjoyed a delicious full English breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant before gathering to head to Shakespeare’s Globe for our group tour. With this many Jane Austen fans in one place, you can imagine the kick we got out of having a guide named “Kitty.” She was an absolutely lovely lady who obviously has a passion for Shakespeare and for the theater itself. She led us through all the levels of the Globe so we could see the stage from all angles, explaining who would have sat where and why and showing us the incredible artistry that went into recreating the entire theater authentically. Workmen built the timbered structure entirely by hand, using tools from the time period (some of which had to be made especially for the Globe project). All of the beams are fastened together with wooden pegs, and the walls are of lathe and plaster.

A view of the stage from the yard.

The stage from the topmost level, right under the thatched roof.

After a 40-minute tour through the theater, we stepped into the Globe Exhibition museum, which includes artifacts from the time period, plus a glorious gallery of costume!

One of several gents' outfits on display...

A mannequin in shift, corset, and Spanish farthingale.

Here is what’s most amazing about the productions staged at the Globe: For period plays, all of the costumes are made entirely by hand, using only materials that would have been available in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. All of the lace is hand-made, and all trimmings are created from originals in museum collections around Britain. So being able to view these outfits up close with no glass to interfere was nothing short of heavenly! Lindsay took all these gorgeous pictures so you can see the level of detail. It’s astonishing that so much work goes into outfits that will be worn on the stage and seen from a distance. Seeing them up close is a revelation.

Another fabulous gent's costume...

The hand-starched lace on the ruff was amazing, and the fabric was reproduced from an orginal garment in a London museum.

Two costumes were behind glass because of the intricacy of their workmanship. This photo shows a gentleman’s costume that was created by a donor for the Globe Exhibition:

This gown defies belief — from the custom-woven fabrics to the hand-made lace ruff, it is just mind-bogglingly intricate:

Notice the size of the wheel farthingale beneath the skirt. It's all about status....

And here's the back view...

After we finished the exhibition tour, Kitty let us know there would be a costume demonstration at 12:30 and 1:30, dressing a volunteer from the crowd in “Ophelia’s” costume from the most recent production of “Hamlet.” Part of us opted to go to lunch and catch the 1:30, but those who had other plans for the afternoon went to the 12:30. Here’s Courtney dressed in Ophelia’s shift, taking her turn as model. We didn’t get any other pictures from the first demonstration, but you’ll get to see Lindsay go through it in my next post!

My small group moved on to the Imperial War Museum after the Globe. This wasn’t just a stop for my son (who absolutely loved it!) but for me, as I wanted to see the Children’s War exhibit, which covered the history of London during the bombings in WWII and had heart-breaking stories of evacuee children who did not see their parents for anywhere from two to five years. The photos below show mannequins wearing clothing donated by these (now grown up) children, many of whom saved their identity tags, the toys they took in their pockets when they left home, and letters they wrote home to their parents:

The horrors to which these children were exposed were unimaginable.

The most fascinating part of this exhibit is a two-storey “home front” house with fully-furnished and decorated rooms. Here is a series of photos I shot while walking through the house. You can see period furniture and wallpapers. The windows are not mullioned windows but are taped in that pattern — they had to tape the windows for safety during bomb raids. Rather than utilitarian “Xs”, they created the look of leaded glass!

The family room, with a dress in progress on the mannequin.

The tiny kitchen...

There were a lot of posters and advertisements encouraging women to recycle and mend clothing, reuse as many items as possible, and use up every scrap of food. There is a similar exhibit in the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, but I enjoyed this one more, as the rooms are not behind plexiglass, and you can really see things in detail. The gift shop had a wide array of vintage reprints from this time period, as you can see from this shot I took of one shelf — lots of books on fashion, hairstyle, makeup, food, and more.

Halfway through the museum, I took a tea break to put my feet up, enjoying this lovely Victoria Sponge with clotted cream and strawberry preserves, plus a pot of Earl Grey tea. Yum!

We decided to hit the famous Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Shop for supper, but the directions I got from the Internet took us into a quiet residential side street in Chelsea — nowhere close to where we needed to be! We finally broke down and hailed a cab, which took us to the opposite side of town off Fleet Street (closer to the theater district). Lesson learned — don’t trust website directions implicitly; double-check them! But it was well worth the drive, as this is London’s oldest pub, rebuilt in 1667 after the Great Fire. The restaurant upstairs was filled to capacity, so we ducked our heads to get down the narrow staircase and ordered directly from the bar. Let me tell you that this is one of the best-kept secrets in Great Britain. If you want to save 50% off your supper bill, order directly from the bar. You can get take-away food or eat it at a small pub table. The atmosphere was delightful, as you can see in the shot below. We enjoyed cottage pie, steak pie, and fresh salad greens with home-made vinaigrette. Everything was delicious and very inexpensive, especially for London.

We walked ourselves back to the St. Paul’s Underground, where Lindsay snapped these beautiful photos:

Yes, that deep indigo really is the color of the sky we saw last night!

This is Temple Bar, the old western entrance gate to London which was later moved over by St. Paul's. It has a very spooky appearance at night!

After settling back into our room, we had a knock at the door and found several ladies out in the hall ready for a gab fest. With group members going in all different directions yesterday, it was really fun to hear where they’d been and what they’d found. Several ladies hit the Portobello Antiques Market and snagged great bargins. Others brought back gorgeous pashmina shawls at a stunning bargain-basement price. It was delightful to see all the treasures. We were joined by still more ladies over the next couple of hours and sat up until far too late talking, swapping sewing stories, and laughing. This is the most wonderful, congenial group you can imagine — just like a party of sisters. We all wish you were here!

More tomorrow…!

Well, I had every intention of blogging all about yesterday and today this evening, but it’s 1 a.m. London time, and I’ve just had the most delightful gab-fest in my room with half a dozen other gals, so I’ll have to blog tomorrow night.

I downloaded wonderful Friday photos from Lindsay’s camera, but they’re in the wrong format, so I can’t even give you a sneak peek. So sorry to keep you in suspense! We have had a complete blast, and I look forward to sharing in detail ASAP. In the meantime, here’s a fun shot to tide you over — this one from our tour of Shakespeare’s Globe, where Lindsay got pulled for the costume demonstration, dressing in “Ophelia’s” 100% authentic outfit from the shift out:

Wish you were here! I promise longer “postcards” very soon!

Warmly,

Jennie

The weather is glorious, South Kensington is lovely, and we’re all determined to stay up and beat jet lag! I’ll post pictures later when I’ve found all my cords to download the camera. It’s been a fun morning, and the afternoon promises to be a delight as well. Tomorrow we go to Shakespeare’s Globe! I look forward to sharing all the fun details as we leap into our itinerary.