Stop in to look at the finally renovated Canadian consulate. Lots of security and not much open to the public. There is, after the x-ray detection, a photography exhibition. It consists of five very large photographs by Jeff Wall. QActually, we rather like them. But the five totally fill the renovated and reduced gallery space. Would really like to know how and by whom the artists are chosen. And curious about the rest of the building. Presumably housing the services once performed in the Grosvenor Square building, which rumour has it was sold for too little money.
So to the National Portrait Gallery, where there are a number of new portraits, including a large full length portrait of Judy Dench, which we actually have seen before and a painting Of the Duchess of Cambridge. Two interesting exhibitions. One is of the Duke of Wellington in honour of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Portraits and battle scenes and one very early photograph. Also snippets of info, including the rumour that Wellington had affairs with two of Napoleon's mistresses. There's also an exhibition of some of the photographs of Lord Snowden, Anthony Armstrong Jones, former husband of the late Princess Margaret. The most interesting photo is one of Anthony Blunt, former curator of the Queen's picture gallery and Soviet spy, holding up a slide of a painting. Blunt is focused on the slide, but a reflection of the slide, a photograph of a painting, appears on his face, covering his right eye. Very striking and clever.
Then a stop at a highly unusual pub. Ye Olde Mitre, established 1546. Significant renovation from 1782. Entered through a little door in a wall in Hatton Gardens, which opens onto a tiny alley, leading to the old pub, surrounded on all sides by tall, modern city buildings. Claims to have a bit of cherry tree that Elizabeth I danced round. Not impossible. The pub is next to St Ethelreda's, England's second oldest and London's only medieval RC Church. Historically, and still, attached to Ely Diocese in Cambridgeshire. The property was once the London establishment of the Bishop of Ely who had the pub built for the refreshment of his staff. Very civilised.
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