Before anyone asks, it has not gone unnoticed by myself that the majority of the words in the title of this entry fails spell checker. But that’s how they are all spelled…so Microsoft can just deal with it.
Today I headed off to the Drury Lane Theater for another tour of this amazing building. I say another, because I went on a tour last year. I would go again next week if they didn’t think I was a crazy person. I mean, I am a crazy person, but I don’t need the British to know that. This theater is amazing, and I will try not to rehash things I mentioned last year…I have a whole new set of amazing details.
The Drury Lane Theater is the oldest theater that has been in continual use in the world. It was first constructed in 1631, and although there have been four different theater buildings since then, the foundations and underground tunnels are the same. What happened to the 3 other theater buildings? Well, one burnt down. One sank into the swamp. And then the third one burnt down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp. Just kidding! The first one burnt down, the second one was torn down to make a bigger one, which then burnt down 18 years later. I’m not sure where I got that thing about the swamp from…
There are over 500 different ghosts that have been said to haunt the theater. The most notable one for me is a man dressed in a shabby grey suit. According to the tour, over 1,000 people have seen him. He is always sitting up in the upper stalls, and only on matinees. The legend is that if you see him, then it’s good luck for the production. Again, just according to the tour, but the entire cast of Miss Saigon saw him during their curtain call all at once…and many of them screamed. After curtain call he always floats off into the same spot in the wall. Nobody knows who he is…but when they were doing renovations to the building, they found a skeleton in the walls wearing a tattered grey suit with a knife in his chest…in the EXACT same spot the ghost flies into. Again…I know it sounds like an episode of Scooby-Doo…but over 1,000 people have seen him (many at the same time)…and the skeleton is real. So you make the call on that.
That’s just one of the many, many great things about the Drury Lane Theater. You could tour the place 100 times and hear different stories everytime.
From there I went to the Victoria and Albert museum. Once again, this was not what I was expecting at all. I thought it was a museum of graphic design. I have no idea what gave me that idea (maybe it’s that their website says they are London’s foremost museum of graphic design). In reality, it was similar to the British Museum, with lots of artifacts from the Renaissance period, as well as furniture and clothing from the 1700’s and 1800’s. They also had a cool exhibit on fashion over the decades (and I do mean decades). I took some pictures of clothes from the 1940s and 1960s…but they had displays for every decade dating back to the 1890’s. Its crazy how much not only fashion, but the world, has changed in just 150 years. 100 years from now people might be saying “you mean…he wrote a blog? Like on a computer!?!?! I’m SO glad we have these internet chips in our heads!”
The Victoria and Albert museum is huge…and will take anyone about 4 hours to go through. A must see when going is the “Ox head on a tree trunk with a human brain.” Yes, you heard that right. Check it out in the pictures…it’s pretty unforgettable…just not sure if that’s in a good way or not. And, they also win the award for tackiest gift shop ever. Their gift shop is huge, but the majority of the items are key chains and tote bags that say “V&A” on them. Wow. That’s great. There is almost nothing of material about the contents of the museum…so I guess you’ll have to come and see it for yourself! And while you’re at it….take the Drury Lane theater tour!
-Jeff.
Aug 6th, 2018
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