South Ken Bonding

i heart kensington

Over the Christmas break, I found myself watching 2009 period drama film ‘ The Young Victoria’ which is based on the life of Queen Victoria in, as the title suggests, her younger years. As with any film or book based on real life events, I became engrossed in the storyline, googling as I watched, eager to learn more about what happened in her life, and in particular with regard to the ‘will-they, won’t-they’ storyline between her and Prince Albert. Much to the viewer’s satisfaction, the couple did marry both in the film and in real life.

Fast forward 2 weeks. ‘What’s the V&A?’ I asked Nina, as we made our way from Victoria station towards South Kensington. ‘The Victoria and Albert Museum’, she answered. Cool, I thought, a whole museum dedicated to this fascinating period in history, what a treat.

Or not.

It turns out the V&A is rather a museum of art and design, ‘the world’s greatest’ infact. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when hearing the description. I’ve never been that into art, and would definitely never make a point of visiting art galleries on city visits. However, three-visits-in-two-weeks later, I’ve perhaps had a change of heart. On my second visit, I went to a fashion exhibition, as referred to in the previous post. As we were waiting for the coach to arrive to take us back to the castle, I overheard one of the students saying ‘Imagine coming to the V&A and only seeing the fashion exhibition, I don’t want to be one of those people’. Ummm. I sheepishly looked away. Sure I might not be that into art, but I am in the world’s greatest art and design museum, I should probably take more of a look.

Nina must have sensed this lack of exploration in my life as I found myself back at the museum one week later with a different group of students. Determined not to be one of ‘those people’ I set about finding something to satisfy my curiousity. I didn’t have to try too hard. Two of the biggest exhibition spaces are dedicated to Britain, covering the periods 1500-1900, displaying the clothing, furniture, implements used in those times. So maybe I couldn’t read more about Queen Victoria’s life but I could see how she and others like her lived. That’s pretty cool, I thought. And it was. I wandered round for a couple of hours, and was thoroughly entertained. I recommend.

the V&A

what were they thinking when they made this chair?

it’s ok. charles rennie mackintosh is here. it must be a good museum.

V&A isn’t the only highlight of South Kensington though. And incase I was feeling hard done by, there are even more Victoria&Albert related sites too. North of the museum, in Kensington gardens, you can see the Albert Memorial, built to commemorate the death of Prince Albert in 1861. Opposite the Memorial stands the Royal Albert Hall. Ah yes, suddenly all these names make sense.

The Royal Albert Hall

the Albert Memorial

The V&A, alongside the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, make up a pretty solid museum base in South Kensington. It’s generally a very wealthy area as exemplified by the beautiful buildings and cafés which one finds themselves walking past constantly. Oh, and Harrods is down the road.

Other lesser known CatMac highlights include the Kensington branch of American store Whole Foods Market which is one of those places where you can pick ‘n’ mix from a variety of fresh, organic food outlets; and a branch of Japanese store Uniqlo, which unlike in Japan, is extremely difficult to access in the UK. Basically #lovinglife #lovinglondon, but more specifically, #lovingkensington

lunchin’ kensington style