My slightly disastrous trip to London...

During my research, I stumbled upon a Museum in London called 'The Black Museum'. It stated that it had a few objects from the case of John Christie. I automatically started to look whereabouts it was in London. While looking for it, a website said The Museum of London Police was often referred to as The Black museum. So I tracked down The Museum of London Police and found out it was by the Bank tube station, which was also walking distance from London Waterloo. So I set off to London yesterday, bearing in mind the weather at the moment is terrible, luckily I got to Southampton Station dry, this was not how I was to end my day. My train was at 10.30, it didn't arrive at the station until 11.30, setting my whole day an hour behind. I had already found out that the tubes were on strike, but I couldn't see another day in the near future which I hadn't already got something important to do or see at the studios and I didn't want to leave this trip too late in the project. Anyway, arrived at London Waterloo, where I met a friend. Of course, it started pouring down as soon as we stepped outside. So umbrellas at the ready we started our 30 minute walk to our destination. (The umbrellas weren't much use, as the wind was so powerful they were turning inside out every couple of minutes...)

Finally getting to our destination, which turned out to be inside the police station, we asked about the museum. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the tour guide came out to tell us it was closed for the day! Obviously we were rather disappointed, but after explaining I had come all the way from Southampton, he generously opened it up just for us! So he took us through the first door, and asked what my project was about, I explained John Christie. After which he went on to tell me I had got the wrong museum! That this one was about past crimes, but mainly about the police who worked on them. And the museum I wanted was actually closed to the public. I was rather frustrated that after so much effort, my research had let me down! Anyway I got to see the first room of the museum which was filled with historic policing uniforms, badges etc. but I think the tour guide just wanted to head home who can blame him with weather like this! So he showed us out, but not before telling us to try the Museum of London which was just round the corner.

So that's where we headed next. Unfortunately there was nothing about John Christie... But I did get some photos of a few ancient human and animal skulls, posters and items of clothing from that era. Which I thought might be useful as visual aid when drawing. Here are a few of my photos;

After our visit to this Museum, we walked towards Tate Modern, having excess time after our failed museum visit. We took a rather long way round, but I'm glad as we ended up at Borough Market - a lovely food market selling fresh seafood, fruit, veg, cheese. I absolutely love food markets and it did brighten my day up seeing the market and the good busy atmosphere which surround it. After walking round the market, we arrived at Tate Modern, which unfortunately didn't have much on which interested us. Starting to feel quite disheartened (and cold!), we attempted one last stop to the Hayward Gallery which had an exhibition called 'What's the point of it?' by the artist Martin Creed. Being desperate to see something properly as to not waste our journey, we forked out £8.50 - we thought it was a lot, but everything so far had been free so thought why not? His work involved objects placed in certain ways, A4 pages coloured in with felt tip, and walls with different adhesive tapes stuck on it. I wasn't a huge fan. However, thought the irony of the title 'what's the point of it?' with such pointless pieces of work within the exhibition was quite funny. That is, if that's what he was going for? There was one room I loved in this exhibition, however. It was a room filled with thousands of balloons. As you walked in you became instantly static, felt weird and it was definitely a new experience. 

So what have I learnt from my trip to London?

1. Never travel to London when the tubes aren't working and the weather's terrible.
2. Don't always trust what you read on the internet.
3. The Black Museum is not open to the public.

OK, wasn't the most successful research day, but it was nice to get out of Southampton, see some new things, discover new places and get a lot of walking done.