Day 13 21 May. Visit to London for witches and what seems like witchcraft

On a day much sunnier than forecast I cycle to town and get the train to London.  Two capitals in one week!  Fewer bicycles and more cars in this one but I still love it.  First stop the courtyard of the cafe at the Courtauld Gallery where I catch up with my old flat mate and chum.  We visit Goya: The Witches and Old Women Album.  This exhibition reunites all of Goya's surviving drawings from the album.  Never intended for public display, this beautiful selection of his delicate and detailed sketches of ageing figures is playful, macabre and fascinating.  Following a traumatic life, the elderley Goya had much to reflect on and many demons to re-visit.  

A pleasant walk in Spring sunshine brings us to Black Sheep Cafe in Charlotte St. 

We stumbled on this by chance in March and have returned for more avocado toast and ginger lemonade. Then to the Royal College of Physicians, Regent's Park.  Likened to a nuclear power station by Prince Charles, this 60s building has always been quite comforting to my unroyal and untrained eye!

Desigend by Denys Lasdun in 1964, it is a Grade 1 listed building. 

 

From here we set off on a Discover Medical London Walk.  We have a quick peek in the Medicinal Garden and vow to return another time. My friend will do the preliminary research.  More on the medical history of London in a future post.  

We walk past Broadcasting House.  On the front of this 1930s building are the statues of Ariel and Prospero from Shakespeare's Tempest.  Ariel is a spirit of the air and thus highly emblematic. The statues are the work of Eric Gill. 

Here is a close up of the statue. 

Gill is a controversial character.  Born in 1882, he was associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, which stood for traditional craftsmanship and anti-industrialisation.  It called for a social reform and was utopian in outlook.  In the 1980s details of his unorthodox, and probably abusive sexual practices emerged making him a highly controversial and complex character.  He was also deeply religious.

After the walk we visit The Wellcome Collection again.  Hot, tired, happy and ready for a cup of tea and piece of cake at the Benugo Cafe on the ground floor.  We had a look round the Institute of Sexology exhibiton.  This covered all the research and surveys that have been undertaken over the last century plus.  It would have been a fascinating experience for me twenty years ago when I worked in the field but these days, to be very honest, I would rather have the cup of tea, as Boy George once said, I believe.  We are, however, very interested in a film from the 80s satirising all the fuss over clause 28.   I hope we have moved on from this type of Tory meddling.