The Writing, or at least the Drawing, is on the Wall

To London by Train for Banksy - Among Other Things

A few days in London looking after grandchildren in term time always seems like a good idea, with weekday daytimes to explore London and quiet nights with them asleep ready for school the next day. This particular trip coincided with the Banksy Limitless exhibition in South Kensington and we arranged to go there on our last day, a Monday, before we came home.

Things didn't start too well: I'd had surgery two days before on my right hand to try to put an end to the pain and difficulty caused by osteoarthritis at the base of my thumb, but for the time being it was more painful and disabling than the disease had been. I certainly would not - could not - have gone on my own on this mission, but my wife was able to do up my shoelaces and so together we could cope!

So I bought the train tickets just the day before travel, as soon as I was confident that I'd be able to go. I don't think I'll ever quite understand train ticket pricing and after a lot of trial and error finally came up with a pretty decent pair of super off-peak singles through from our local station, Stamford, at 09:56 to London Kings Cross, with a really good change of train at Peterborough. By this time First Class was out of the question (and not being a meal-time we did not need the included catering) and I really expected to have to travel on the slower Thameslink trains, but no: these tickets were for any train and the itinerary given included reserved Standard Class seats with LNER, which I was able to choose. A pair of airline-style seats was perfect: LNER's "Azuma" trains have plenty of legroom even in Standard. Alison was having to handle all the luggage, of course, which we managed to compress into one case for our short stay. We were in London before 11:40, a pretty good journey, smooth and relaxing on both stages, assisted by coffee from the Bike Barista at Peterborough station during the change of train.

Before going to our temporary home in Shepherds Bush, we popped into Fortnum & Mason's branch in St Pancras International station and bought some of the St Pancras Blend tea which we like so much and which is only available in that shop - just in case we did not have an opportunity late in the trip, then we made our way to the Underground, Hammersmith & City Line and settled in for lunch at our son and daughter-in-law's home. Just two days after surgery under general anaesthetic I needed a rest after all that travel and before my young charge arrived from school later in the afternoon!

Short trips that we might normally make on foot were often taken by bus or Underground on this trip and yet we still managed to walk a lot more than we normally do at home: one of the really great things about travelling car-free is that we get plenty of exercise. 

As it happened the children had a "sleepover" at their school on the Friday night (the teachers at that place are absolutely marvellous), and as it happened our friends from Egypt were at their London flat at the time and invited us round to dinner that evening, so having taken the children back to the school after their teatime, bearing sleeping bags and inflatable mattresses, and each with a wheeled suitcase, we were then free and took an Underground train just the two stops to Hammersmith from where we walked to our dinner date. The journey back that night was very similar except for not having to pick up the children! We were later than I'd like to have been but it's hard to tear yourself away from friends you don't often see.

Local Trips by Bus and Underground

When we collected the children at 09:00 the following morning it was straight into their full-on Saturday activities and it fell to me to take the younger one to football practice, normally within walking distance ... but not only was I still having to take things easy but also she had her suitcase (the school had very kindly let us leave the sleeping gear until Monday morning). I had twigged that there was a bus route that would get us quite near the football place and as we approached the stop there was a bus coming, so we boarded and sat near the luggage rack. It was one of those meandering urban routes that is not in a hurry to get to the end of the route but serves a lot of streets on the way and it dropped us right outside the place where we were going and we were ten minutes early and had to wait for the football coach to unlock the gate to the pitch. While my granddaughter enjoyed her football practice (after what had apparently not been a good night's sleep!) I popped home with her suitcase and bought a takeaway coffee on my way back to fetch her. 

I needed a new shaver, my wife some new boots and so we all went to Westfield shopping centre - an easy walk - in the afternoon. The children also looked at clothes there and after consulting their parents on holiday we ended up buying stuff for them, too. They did need things, apparently, but there had been little opportunity to go shopping ...

Sunday involved getting to church in Kensington by Underground train - a new children's group had been started for older children and the senior granddaughter was excited about going to that and not having her little sister with her! With all the  busyness of Saturday we had not yet bought the chicken for Sunday dinner and naively assumed that we'd be able to buy one after church in Kensington High Street ... no, no useful shop was open there before noon. So we went back to Shepherds Bush and bought our food at the Westfield shopping centre instead - and needing a snack lunch because dinner would be rather later, the children introduced to Mr Pretzels where we acquired our snacks, sweet for them (did I need to say that) and savoury for me. Excellent: I must remember this chain and look out for it when I need a light but sustaining meal.

We were early: more people did turn up before the service started!

I think I had seen enough of Westfield by now, and back we went for the children to catch up on homework and the adults to get dinner ready. And all of us to eat it.

The Art at Last!

And so to Monday morning and, for us, the Main Feature, Banksy Limitless! This was at a gallery in Sussex Mansions, just a couple of minutes from South Kensington Underground station. It was easy enough to find the building, which was basically a huge apartment block with shops and cafés on the ground floor, but it took us a few minutes to track down the entrance to the exhibition! (Just as well, as we were a touch early!) We had pre-booked tickets and so went straight in and were fascinated by all there was to see, learning a lot about what Banksy has been doing over the years and what good work he has done with the earnings from his art. I was not at all sure what to expect or how long we should be there, but I would recommend this exhibition to anyone at all interested in street art, in art as political protest, or just in art! Or politics. Or social history. All good stuff. There was a bit about his work in Palestine which is quite moving in the present time.

Travelling Home with the Commuters

And so to home. First of all back to Shepherds Bush to pick up our luggage and say hello and goodbye to our son and daughter-in-law who were now resuming responsibility for their children, and then Undergound to Farringdon where we had a little while to wait for our Thameslink train to Peterborough. This was now the peak travel-home time for commuters and we were taking a train from the heart of the City. It was all very busy and yet almost every train was on time. Very impressive. Trains to Peterborough are half-hourly and connections from there to Stamford are only hourly, so with care we were able to choose a time when a neat connection could be made at Peterborough - otherwise we would probably have taken a private-hire taxi at Peterborough at considerably more expense but worth it in the circumstances. As ever on Thameslink we travelled in "Fake First," the declassified First Class section at the rear of the train. Of course, at peak commuting time there were plenty of other people wise to this dodge but even so we had two seats together and as the stops went by, starting at St Pancras International, this section, like all the train, became less and less full. I must say that with a service entirely run with twelve-coach trains, Thameslink do seem to have overcome the overcrowding that this route used to suffer in the past. 

With wide gangways the train is effectively one huge carriage, allowing easy access to less-busy spaces. By Peterborough there were few enough passengers on board for us to walk forward a few coaches so that when the train stopped we were right opposite the lift, ready to make our way over to platform 7 where our connection would soon arrive for the last stage of the adventure ... well, I say the last stage but there was still one thing to come, dinner. We had nothing planned because we had not know what time we'd be home. A number of alternatives came to mind and we opted for Pizza da Mario, on the way home from the station, provided that they had an indoor table for two, which they did. Monday evening, not too hard! I could not actually eat a pizza with only one hand, but they do some exciting salads, too, and it was a great way to round off the trip, reminding us that although we love London, our home town of Stamford has a lot to offer, too!