Museum of the Home & Carols by Candlelight

Last Sunday, I was vaguely thinking of heading to see Carnaby Street's Christmas lights.. but then London Social & Cultural Meetups were off to the Museum of the Home, followed by carols by candlelight at Westminster Chapel. So I booked for that.

Really had to drag myself out of bed, after the night before.. The fastest way to the Museum of the Home was to take the Tube to Old Street, and walk from there - so that's what I did. On what turned out to be a really foggy day! I messaged them when I got there - but, as I was to discover, they were already inside. So, when I hadn't got a response after a couple of minutes, I headed in too - still no sign. The receptionist told me which way to go - so off I went! The tour starts downstairs - with a whole heap of photographs of contemporary dwellings. Each room is dedicated to a different theme, but all aim to give an idea of what people's homes are like, and what they were like in the past.

This cabinet has a secret compartment, guarded by the knight at the centre - the piece was commissioned by a wealthy lady for her husband, in the 1930s:

Like Saturday, I primarily photographed what I found interesting:

such as this ration card for furniture!

A feminist version of a Peter and Jane book:

Unfortunately, I had no mobile reception downstairs, so missed the group trying to get a hold of me! I did finally catch up to them at what turned out to be the end of the ground floor exhibit - they'd come in the wrong way, so by that stage, I'd actually seen more of the exhibit than they had! Bless 'em, they hung around for all that time, not wanting to miss me.. Hallelujah to catch them at last!

Back on the ground floor, there was an interesting exhibit on home tech:

That's an Amstrad, just like my first computer! And beside it is an Alexa, which we could only get to answer very particular questions..

After that, the ground floor exhibit is mostly reconstructions of period rooms, with explanations. So here, we have an olden times Midwinter feast:

The sitting room of a family, just returned from a frost fair:

A Hanukkah feast for a 17th century Sephardic Jewish family (no menorah, though!) - note the preponderance of fried food, which is deliberate, apparently, being representative of the Miracle of the Oil:

This family is prepping boxes for the servants - for Boxing Day!

And we got some idea of the attitudes of yesteryear!

And here's a 12th night feast:

Continuing to the other part of the ground floor exhibit, we saw recreations of living rooms through the ages. Quite an interesting museum - although someone remarked that seeing the older items, which she remembered from years ago, just made her feel old! We also noted that there were no displays of bathrooms or kitchens.. but on the plus side, the interactive exhibits give the kids plenty to do! and the adults would enjoy some, too. They've put a lot of work into those. This museum is free - worth a look, if you're in the area. Unfortunately, the cafe is closed indefinitely..

So we headed down the main road till we found somewhere that looked ok for a drink - stopped into a place called Zeleha. Where I got a cold drink - would have gone for hot chocolate, but my tummy was still feeling sensitive, so I decided not to risk it. Good soundtrack there.

When they threw us out at 4, we wended our way slowly to the carol service - got the Tube to Leicester Square and walked from there. Only to realise.. oops, we'd mistaken the time it was to start! It had already started, so we hurried along there. Not that I think we really missed much - this was one of those religious services that include carols, as opposed to an actual carol concert. Religion lite, happily.

Question - why are carols generally pitched so high? Hurts my throat! Question #2 - why did the organist increase the volume for each verse of Hark the Herald Angels Sing? By the last verse, we couldn't hear anything else! It was nice, though, in general - and we got chocolates on the way in!

They were serving free mulled wine and mince pies afterwards - but neither is something I'm keen on. Anyway, for that evening, CT advertised tickets for Love Factually - a kind of rewriting of one of the relationships in that classic Christmas romcom, Love Actually. Sadly, all their tickets were gone - but I got a full-price ticket from the venue. It sounded good. Showing at 2Northdown. I was hungry though, so reasoned, if I left now, I'd have time to eat in O' Neill's beforehand! If they had room..

For once, they did, and I was well fed. While I was inside though..

Whereupon, I made the executive decision to skip the comedy show - it was too damn cold, I'd been to enough today, and nobody was waiting to meet me there. Plus, I had other stuff to do. So, I went straight home from there. In what was, by now, a winter wonderland:

Glad I stayed in, frankly. Still, I didn't get a chance to blog - the film list had to be redone. For more on that - and ongoing - see the next instalment!