Kiwi Roaming

We have been to two shows in London now, one when we first arrived and the other when we returned from our wee trip north. Paul and Karen enjoy shows but they do make for a long day from Milton Keynes and mean we don’t get home until midnight at least. Making the most of our time Steve and I took a train into London for the day opting to meet them at the theatre for the second show so first up more London.

Kings Cross St Pancreas – I love the precinct around these two stations so we alighted our train at Euston and walked the 10 mins there. The allotments behind the British Library are being demolished which is sad but progress. And there are sooooo many more apartment blocks than when we were last here 6 years ago. I was hungry so we made a beeline for Leon my favourite food in London. The construct of Leon is healthier fast food and while it’s not as good since selling to a larger company (even I admit this) it’s still fab and they sell Karma Cola products. Lucky Steve he also got Leon for dinner that evening before the show cause we were rushing and need to eat.

Brick Lane – Steve hadn’t been to Brick Lane and I must say it’s changed massively in 35 years. No longer just the fabulous curry houses it’s now a vintage shopping, street art hub. We’d just missed the Yellow Brick Road celebrations but there were a few Christmas decorations up instead. We headed for Banksy’s car first then to Rough Trade – where we didn’t spend as long as I had expected but both thought it was an awesome store (with more than records) albeit packed with shoppers.

After a good wander in the Brick Lane precinct we decided to hop on a bus out East and go to the V&A’s new East Storehouse at Olympic Park. We hadn’t been to the Olympic Park precinct so it was cool to see this small pocket of it all, the arenas all looming on the landscape. The bus ride was great as well.

V&A East Storehouse – this working store for the Victoria and Albert museum(s) is a really great concept as it means the public can see a larger selection of the artefacts held by the V&A without the extra cost or faffing of putting them into full displays. It’s free and there is nothing you can buy there other than the cafe where we enjoyed a lemon drink and slice of cake. The locker system is awesome and they ask you to put your coats in there too.

To enter you go immediately up a flight of stairs. From the public spaces you can see workrooms below where the curation staff work which is interesting. On the first floor there is also a glass floor so you can see a full sized ancient gate pillaged by the brits below the glass. There are information boards everywhere as you walk around the displays and I read the one which talks about the British Museums Act of 1963 which prevents museums from returning any stolen or contested artefacts to their countries of origin – a nice way of explaining why they have kept all this stuff.

Imogen had been here in September so warned about the lack of individual item information available, sticking with the concept of the storehouse, some items have QR codes but not all. We also didn’t know about the Bowie exhibition which while free you had to have pre-booked a ticket, so we missed out on this but there was heaps to see without that. A lovely afternoon activity.

Back to the Future – Onto the bus in the dark about 5pm it was a slow journey back to Leister Square where we met Paul and Karen for our show hence the Leon for dinner (lucky me). Back to the Future the musical is on at the Adelphi Theatre which is one of the older theatres and our seats were right up “in the gods” where everyone had their big coats bundled on their laps. I couldn’t really conceive of what this might be like as a musical but it was very cleverly done with great use of movement to demonstrate time travel.

It was however a long show and we had a very late train so left before the end of the cast all came back for clapping. The train was chocker so we were standing the whole way to Milton Keynes and it wasn’t comfortable but all part of the experience.

Starlight Express – the other musical Paul and Karen had organised for us to see was when we first arrived in the UK. We drove into Wembley where the Wembley Park Theatre is located. The whole precinct has changed since we were last here in 2018 for Coldplay, loads more apartment buildings and shops / restaurants. The theatre itself is set up for the unique show where all the staff are on roller skates so there are ramps for them to move around the audience areas.

Andrew Lloyd-Webber designed this musical as a way to engage children in musical theatre and was inspired by the Thomas the Tank Engine world. For a kids show and a musical if was quite engaging and fun to watch. The cast did an amazing job of keeping the children in the audience engaged too.