Went to London on a day trip today, for a meeting, which we held here mainly because it’s easy to get to and a nice space. What you see here is the ‘King’s Library’, the King in question being George III: his library now sits as a kind of monumental pedestal n the centre of the building. The new concourse at King’s Cross station is also pretty cool, by the way. With St Pancras between the two this is becoming a decent part of the city.
The new St Pancras station in London, terminus for the Eurostar trains, is definitely the most impressive railway station in Britain and probably ranks among the top 10 in Europe. But for those of us plebs who don’t want to catch the Eurostar, or even the cross-country services north to Sheffield, but the cross-London trains down to the South coast; we are herded down into the basement.
Still, this couple looked kinda cute. And I was only there for five minutes.
I spent a good portion of the middle part of my life avoiding London, but recently I have been visiting more often. It was nice today to be able to walk out of a hotel on quite a pleasant late autumn morning and be exploring Covent Garden before everywhere was open and while it was still fairly quiet. I think it’s too early to have Christmas decorations up anywhere – but I suppose these ones are quite attractive.
I turned 42 yesterday (26/8/11). Douglas Adams famously made that number the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. If this is, then, to be the year in which I discover the meaning of life, perhaps it will be encoded here.
The Museum heaves with people, pressing buttons, touching screens, watching displays in the new, ICT-heavy wings. Meanwhile the fustier old cabinets in the Victorian sections seem neglected. But it’s in them that the history lies, and the interest; Joe likes the mechanical calculators, where you have to turn levers and clank gears to do the sums but the working of the machine is there in front of you. The newer sections, all about climate change and DNA, seem bland. There is a veneer of interactivity to them but it’s still the museum authorities telling us things. What we are shown – what they have chosen to show us – does not change, whatever we might think about it, whatever buttons we press, whomever and whatever we are.
It shouldn’t matter, as long as you are using it to look out onto the world and learn.
Being 42 