Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
standard for political cartooning, and onto the works of modern satirists, including
Steve Bell and Gerald Scarfe.
35 Little Russell St., WC1.
&
020/7580-8155.
www.cartoonmuseum.org. Admission £5.50 adults, £4
seniors, £3 students, free for children 17 and under. Tues-Sat 10:30am-5:30pm; Sun noon-5:30pm.
Tube: Tottenham Court Rd. or Holborn.
Charles Dickens Museum
MUSEUM This is the great novelist's only sur-
viving London address. Although he lived here for just a few years, from 1837 until
1840, this most prolific of authors still found the time to churn out several clas-
sics, including
Nicholas Nickleby
,
Oliver Twist
,
Pickwick Papers
,
The Old Curiosity
Shop,
and
Barnaby Rudge
. Revamped and expanded to celebrate the bicentenary
of Dickens' birth in 2012, the museum's reconstructed interiors contain his study,
manuscripts, and personal effects. On Wednesday afternoons you can, under care-
ful supervision, handle some of his possessions and even write with his (presum-
ably reinforced) quill pen.
48 Doughty St., WC1.
&
020/7405-2127.
www.dickensmuseum.com. Admission £6 adults, £4.50 stu-
dents and seniors, £3 children, £15 family ticket. Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 11am-5pm. Tube: Russell Sq.,
Chancery Lane, or Holborn.
Courtauld Gallery
GALLERY Like a mini-National Gallery, the Courtauld is
one of the capital's finest small art museums. It holds an intense collection of works,
covering all periods from the Renaissance to the 20th century, although the focus is
very much on
Impressionism
and
Post-Impressionism
with works by Monet,
Renoir, Gaugin, Van Gogh (including his
Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear
), and Manet
(it holds his final painting,
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
). The Kandinskys on the top
floor are also well worth seeking out.
Insider tip:
If money is a bit tight, try to visit
on Monday morning when entry is free (until 2pm); if you stick around there's also a
free lecture about the collection at 1:15pm.
Somerset House, Strand, WC2.
&
020/7872-0220.
www.courtauld.ac.uk. Admission £6 adults, £4.50
seniors and international students, free for children 17 and under, UK students, and for all Mon till 2pm.
Daily 10am-6pm. Tube: Covent Garden, Temple, or Waterloo.
Green Park
PARK This most basic of London's great Royal Parks has an
almost zen-like simplicity to it. There are no statues, water features, or adventure
playgrounds here, just acres of rolling green lawns and tall trees—plus, in summer,
scores of local workers sunning their lunch hour away either on the grass or on the
stripy
deckchairs
(£1.50) that are the park's only formal facility. In spring the park's
color scheme broadens slightly, when hosts of bright yellow daffodils pop into bloom.
Piccadilly, SW1.
&
020/7930-1793.
www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/green_park. Free admission. Open
24 hours. Tube: Green Park.
Handel House Museum
HISTORIC HOME Two musicians, separated by a
couple of hundred years, and with profoundly different approaches to their art—
albeit both hugely influential in their own way—made their homes on Brook Street,
in the heart of Mayfair. The first was George Frederic Handel (1685-1759), the
German composer who moved to Britain aged 25 and settled at this address in 1723.
He remained here for the rest of his life, creating the scores for many of his most
famous works, including the Messiah and Music for Royal Fireworks. He was fol-
lowed in 1968 by the American guitarist,
Jimi Hendrix,
who lived (some of the time)
next door at number 23 with his English girlfriend until his death in 1970.
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