24/06/07: Apsley House and Wellington Arch

Apsley House was one of the few places around London where my free-entry card could be used. So, having discovered the hard way that I’m probably claustrophobic (the hard way encompassing my having to run out of a tube train because I couldn’t breathe only to find that the underground itself was not enough, and on top of that, that I couldn’t actually face the lifts, so having to run as fast as I could up 177 steps – It’s 177 even though the sign says 175 steps – at Russell Square Station and then the 193 steps at Covent Garden) I took a nice long walk from Tavistock Square to Apsley House today, which is at Hyde Park Corner. Hyde Park looked fairly ugly from the outside. There were panels up everywhere, overgrown grass and slushy gravel; so I walked along the outside perimeter of it rather than through it.

You can read about the history of Apsley House here. It’s basically famous because it’s the first Duke of Wellington’s House. It was certainly a grand old place. And I took some shots willy nilly until a couple of security guards chased me down to let me know in very slow, loud and clear English complete with missing articles and some pidgin sign language that there were ‘No photos allowed in here’.

There were some very handsome paintings in Apsely House, including ones by Correggio and van Dyck. The opulence that surrounded the place was a little overwhelming, especially walking through the ‘China Room’ where the fine china were housed. There were gold gilded dinnerware that commemorated every aspect of this man’s life. Quite scary actually. There were soup tureens there big enough for me to bathe in. And that’d be big even if I wasn’t that small! The detail and intricacies engraved and painted on some of these pieces of dinnerware were certainly awe inspiring. There was a tiny part of my artsy soul that cringed at the thought of someone smearing their boar’s head pie gravy and cutting roast fowl and tongue dinners all over a painting I had laboured for hours over.

I visited Wellington Arch, which was informative, but the wow-factor was missing somewhat. The view offered from the top of the arch left something to be desired, and the walk around the statues memorialising him in the garden made me somewhat uneasy. There was finally one statue that made some sense amongst all the hero-worshipping sculptures. An unknown soldier laying down, his trench-coat covering his shattered body, revealing only a small portion of his face. This is war. These are the people who need to be remembered. Mind you, this should not in any way take away from Wellington his achievements. From all that I’ve read about him, the man was a good and great man. But surely in amongst all those statutes, there’s room for the faceless soldiers?

A walk home in the rain through Hyde Park revealed that the panels that had been put up were there because Aerosmith was playing. There were scalpers everywhere. It was amazing that they were so blatantly yelling out to anyone and everyone who was passing buy ‘Buy or sell! Aerosmith tickets to buy or sell!’. A good day was had, but I did go back to my dorm room feeling a little… dunno. Disenchanted. Details are listed with the photos here.