Text and photos by JOANNE ZAPANTA-ANDRADA
Forever known as the quintessential nation of literature and royalty, England has long cast a romantic spell on the rest of the world. Having spent my entire life reading Shakespeare, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, I could not think of a better place to spend my birthday than in the Land of Hope and Glory.
As we had every intention of spending the week visiting museums and gardens, my husband, Noel, and I booked at The Rembrandt, a lovely, quaint boutique hotel situated in the heart of South Kensington and Knightsbridge. In terms of location, The Rembrandt’s address comes second to none as it is ensconced right across the Victoria and Albert Museum, diagonally across the Museum of Natural History and is a few minutes walk to Kensington and Hyde Parks, Kensington Palace, Harrods and Harvey Nichols.
After checking in and unpacking, the wonderful Anglo adventure began!
(Burberry building)
Hearts and culture
Known as the world’s largest museum of design and decorative arts, the Victoria & Albert Museum was founded in 1852 and boasts in its arsenal an impressive permanent collection of over 4.5 million prized objects.
Like most museums in the country, entrance to the establishment is free. This rule does not apply to special/privately funded exhibits such as Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty retrospective that was, during my visit, on an extended run.
Best known by moviegoers for its prominence in the movie Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, The Natural History Museum, meanwhile, is every budding scientist’s paradise. Impressive in its terracotta-tiled architecture, the museum is also known as the cathedral of nature and is divided into five main collections: paleontology, zoology, botany, entomology and mineralogy.
Children and adults alike are always delighted to see the famous “Dippy,†a 26-meter plaster skeleton of a diplodocus (which sadly will be replaced in 2017 by a genuine skeleton of a blue whale). Authentic skeletons of various dinosaurs, as well as several of the over 80 million permanent items, are on display in the museum.
A little off Trafalgar Square stands The National Portrait Gallery, a massive art repository that has the distinction of being the first portrait gallery in the world. It also features a wide collection of portraits of famous British people.
(The National Gallery)
It was Philip Henry Stanhope, the fifth Earl of Stanhope, who advocated for the creation of a national portrait gallery in the House of Lords during the Victorian era. Of great interest to this writer is the BP (British Petroleum) National Portrait Award, a portrait painting contest (open to artists around the world) that is regarded by many as the portraiture equivalent of the Academy Awards. Private exhibits have also been held in the gallery.
In July of this year, the Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon exhibit was sponsored by the Bernard Lee Schwartz Foundation, the Audrey Hepburn Exhibition Supporters Group, Midge and Simon Palley, the Audrey Hepburn Estate/Luca Dotti & Sean Hepburn Ferrer. Fans of the actress/humanitarian were treated to original photographs chronicling her early years as a ballet dancer, her rise to fame in the silver screen and her later calling as a champion for children and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
London’s famous West End is a theatergoer’s paradise; it is also a go-to place for shopping aficionados with deep pockets.
West End’s Oxford Street, for instance, is Europe’s longest shopping street and spans 1.5 miles, while Bond Street is home to a prestigious roster of high-end brands such as Armani, Cartier, Bulgari, Chanel and Louis Vuitton. Noel and I, meanwhile, had a quiet dinner and strolled along Saville Row (the Mecca of bespoke men’s tailoring) before entering the Prince of Wales Theater to watch the absolutely hilarious Matt Stone and Trey Parker musical The Book of Mormon.
Let me be your royal
About a 15-minute walk from The Museum of Natural History rests Kensington Palace, home to the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Duke and Duchess of Kent and the Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. The palace has recently become the official residence of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (a.k.a. Wills and Kate).
(Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace)
Kensington Palace was home to Princess Diana from 1981 to 1997 and was the birthplace of Queen Victoria in 1819. Beside the palace is the Sunken Garden, a beautiful blending of flora and water. The garden was built in 1908 and was modeled after Hampton Court Palace garden.
The palace boasts of 30 acres of land, most of which have been turned into parks and gardens for tourists and locals to enjoy. It is in this park that the golden statue of the Albert Memorial is situated, overlooking Royal Albert Hall. The gardens teem with hundreds of visitors every day. One is filled with the sight of joggers, bikers, students, mothers and children on play dates and senior citizens enjoying nature.
(Royal Albert Hall)
Fridays and Saturdays are the best days of the week to visit Notting Hill.
Notting Hill is most famous for (other than the Julia Roberts-Hugh Grant blockbuster) its street commerce along Portobello Road. Bargain hunters may spend an entire day buying antique and pre-owned knick-knacks, clothes, house décor, fruit, vegetables and pastries. Food lovers will also find many eating places in the kilometer-long street. In August, tourists swarm the area to participate in the Notting Hill Carnival, a three day event led by the Afro-Carribean community members.
Bampton and Highclere Castle (a.k.a. Downton Abbey)
Okay folks: full disclosure. I am a Downton Abbey (D.A.) fan and have been infected by the Downton bug since the series started in 2010. Do you know how Elvis Presley fans trek to Graceland? Well, Highclere Castle is my Graceland.
(Highclere Castle)
As expected, the Downton Abbey tour was filled with women who avidly watched the show, as well as their long-suffering husbands (mine included) who loved their spouses enough to endure a day in the world of Julian Fellows (creator and producer of the show).
The tour coach took us initially to Bampton, a sleepy town in Oxfordshire that has gone from never-heard-of-it address to superstar location thanks to D.A. Bampton is the shooting location of Downton Abbey’s fictional town of Ripon. It is at the Bampton Library where the exterior of the Crawley Hospital is filmed.
Churchgate House, a few steps away from the library, is where Isobel Crawley is suppose to have lived. The TV show notwithstanding, Bampton has much to be proud of in the way of history as it was a prominent area during the Saxon and Medieval Periods.
About 20 steps from Churchgate House is the well preserved 12th century church of St. Mary of the Virgin, which in Downton’s world is better known as St. Michael’s and All Angels Church. It is here where Lady Edith gets dumped at the altar, where Lavinia is laid to rest and where Lady Mary and Matthew Crawley wed.
A little less than an hour from Bampton is Highclere Castle, the real star of the British television series. The castle’s stunning exterior and interior has been a favorite of many filmmakers. Before the Downton craze, it had been the filming location of the Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie show Jeeves and Wooster, as well as Stanley Kubrick’s Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman starrer Eyes Wide Shut.
The Jacobethan-styled castle has long been part of the Herbert family estate. The current owner is George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon and his wife Jayne. Visitors are allowed in the castle and are asked to walk through the rooms provided they do not cross the cordoned-off areas. Every room (bursting with color, texture and the air of antiquity) looked exactly as it was in the TV series; it’s just smaller.
Another notable feature of Highclere is the King Tut museum (the 5th Earl of Carnarvon and famous archaeologist Howard Carter discovered King Tut’s tomb in 1922). By late afternoon, visitors could relax in Highclere’s beautiful gardens and enjoy tea and scones in the estate’s indoor and outdoor eating areas.
(Joanne Zapanta-Andrada at Highclere’s secret garden)
There were many more sights to see in England but we were pressed for time. As a result, we had to leave off many attractions. Back home, my choice of sights was met with curious looks and comments by family members. As my mom would exclaim, “You did not go to the Tower of London? Why not?â€
I do have every intention of coming back to this country that continuously seeks to strive for modernity while honoring its rich cultural past. I won’t miss out on the other sights Mom. I promise.
