What to do in the doldrums between Christmas and New Year – Museum of London

Friday, 29 December, 2017

Right after Christmas, it’s nice to have some sensible eating days before the New Year’s Eve celebrations – whatever they may be this year. So we’ve been having our customary plates of raw vegetables, cheese, and hummus. This is a staple throughout the year. One of us will think of having dinner and proclaim it to be raw veggie day, and it’s always a roaring hit even it occasionally becomes dinner for company! (We snuck in some pakora from Ambala, lest we feel too healthy!)

Raw veggies

Yesterday, Thursday, Krish announced that we should go to the Museum of London to see the performance of The Christmas Carol. It sounded like a great idea. The sun had finally started to shine, no rain in sight, and it’s one bus the whole way.

There’s only one lane in each direction but we were in the doldrums and things moved along pretty quickly. We went from the flat land of Dalston towards the increasingly high rise area around the Barbican. As you get closer, there’s one of my favourite views from the top deck of a bus (third photo)

Exodus from Hackney along Balls Pond Road
Exodus from Hackney along Balls Pond Road
Roseberry Avenue
Roseberry Avenue

The Barbican, opened in 1982 to replace slum dwellings, is brutalist architecture at its best, having been voted London’s ugliest building. Its mass is pretty stunning.  It actually is on multi levels with numerous entrances from ground level, with staircases and walkways to join the whole. There is a theatre and exhibit spaces, and various community areas contained within this estate. Walking around here can get very interesting as long as you don’t get lost along the way.  From a distance there are two tall buildings, from close up it’s a more practical hive of flats.

The Barbican from the walkways
The Barbican from the walkways

But today we weren’t lingering. Maybe I’ll take more photos another day. Continue reading “What to do in the doldrums between Christmas and New Year – Museum of London”