Sunday in the Parks & Shakespeare

It was a bright day (not “sunny”, you understand – just “bright”). We set out to spend Sunday in the park with George – and a few thousand others who had the same bright idea.

We walked along the Albert Embankment on the Thames south bank to Westminster bridge.

Vauxhall station
It’s an up-and-coming neighborhood.
“The Special Operations Executive was secretly formed for the purpose of recruiting agents, men and women of many nationalities, who would volunteer to continue the fight for freedom, by performing acts of sabotage in countries occupied by the enemy during the Second World War. This monument is in honour of all the courageous S.O.E. Agents: those who did survive and those who did not survive their perilous missions. Their services were beyond the call of duty. In the pages of history their names are carved with pride.”
Boadicea , who led her people in fighting off the invading Romans c.63 CE – successfully, at first. The historical context on this statue is all wrong, but, hey, she got a statue.

St. James Park

Crowds were thick as we walked through Green Park towards Buckingham Palace. I asked a couple of gents decked out in regimental suits what was going on. “Changing of the guards,” they told us, with the Grenadiers doing today’s honors. Former Grenadiers themselves, they stood duty at the Palace Gates in the early-mid 50’s – one was part of the Coronation Guard. In town for an annual remembrance gathering at the Grenadier barracks round the bend, they shared details of plume colors, button numbers and the proud history of the Grenadiers as the monarch’s personal guards as the Guard trooped past.


Hyde Park

Subway art showing Hyde Park through time

The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea

Pedestrian tunnel passing a construction site

Since we were in the neighborhood, a visit to Harrods food hall seemed in order.

Chocolate sculpture

When Harrods was built in the 1890s, ancient Egypt was all the rage. The fancy handbags room is lined with more-or-less accurate reproductions of smiling sphinxes and tomb images. Hermès in the afterlife?

Shakespeare’ Globe Theater was our evening’s entertainment, beginning with dinner at its swanky restaurant.

The Globe’s neighbor
View from the Globe

Our play was Henry V, delivered by an ensemble cast of about 8 actors changing identity every 2 minutes to cover all 2 dozen+ parts. Like all Globe productions, casting is gender blind. Our Henry V was played with enormous presence by tiny Sarah Amankwah.

Twilight view of the Shard from the bus stop

3 thoughts on “Sunday in the Parks & Shakespeare”

  1. Your photos of the food hall and Old Globe brought back memories. I hope you do other theater – or theatre – too.

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