Master Jonjon Tourist Videos

WHO SHOULD GO. If you like secret exhibition - it’s so well-hid not even a poster you’ll be seeing outside. ROYAL SOCIETY “Fiery Earth: The Volcano and the Royal Society” - official video review LOCATION. St. James. Nearest station: Charing Cross. As you exit the station onto the Strand, walk southwest across the traffic circle. Continue at the opposite side and along The Mall. As you get past the Institute of Contemporary Arts, go right and up the stairs. Keep heading southwest along Carlton House Terrace. The Royal Society will be to your left in a minute. Clip: ROYAL SOCIETY “Fiery Earth: The Volcano and the Royal Society” - official video review WHAT TO SEE. Go down two floors and you’ll be seeing “Fiery Earth”. An expedition to Krakatoa, the Indonesian island whose eruption in 1883 has stirred up studies and reports from the RS. From documentations on air pressure waves to sunset glows to poems and books and its Subsequent Phenomena. Side discuss...

WHO SHOULD GO. Those who like the big word “interdisciplinarity”. And really into contemporary art, not minding a little bit of cliche as expenses in keeping an engaging discussion. LOCATION. Closest station: London Bridge. Do not go to the north exit - you’ll be walking a long deal there. Get to the one that opens up to the train and bus stations, and walk south getting down the escalator besides the Shard. As you marvel at the hotel rooms you’ll never be in - ding ding ding - you’re stepping on St Thomas Street, and the gallery is now opposite and to your right, inside KCL’s campus. SCIENCE GALLERY “On Edge: Living in an Age of Anxiety” IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE. A rag-clothed tent (clip) acts as a gathering place for coping and taking action. Clip: SCIENCE GALLERY “On Edge: Living in an Age of Anxiety” NEW CURATING STYLE. Now you can start from either end of the gallery, unlike its previous exhibitions. No direction / “starting point” whatsoever. Tha...

WHO SHOULD VISIT. If you like the Norman conquests. If you like royal history. Or to see the queen’s crown. LOCATION. Nearest tube station: Tower Hill. Exit the station and you’ll see these giant walls across the street. And you know what - start walking. Entrance and ticketing office at the tower’s western wall. Inside the White Tower, TOWER OF LONDON FREE TOUR. Walk freely but if you see a beefeater guide, stop and listen. MAIN ATTRACTIONS. 1. In the middle of the whole thing you’ll see the White Tower - the oldest tower of London following the Norman conquest. Built 1078. (This is the second tower built by the Normans, after the Colchester Castle built only a few years earlier. Fun fact: Colchester was the original “capital” of Roman England.) The tower is now home to the museum of armouries. 2. Chapel - located to the west of the Crown Jewels’ entrance. 3. Northern wall - a series of random exhibitions. Like an explication on exotic showoff animals li...

You'll also find the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Museum on its first floor. THE HOUSE. This is a heritage house fitted with a regiment museum upstairs. Built late 1660s. GROUND FLOOR. The house’s history is squashed into two display boards and an audio track. You’ll find these besides the main entrance. If you’re curious enough, you’ll find an inconspicuous corridor besides the boards. It leads to a recreated Victorian classroom and another room with a collection of toys. FIRST FLOOR. Here you’ll find the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Museum. Heroic tales and personal life stories. Very local history. The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Museum, ST. JOHN'S HOUSE (Warwick) - official video review LOCATION. A seven minute walk from Warwick Station. Exit the station and walk south along Station Road. Turn right into A429 and walk all along - the house is right across the street. Clip: ST. JOHN'S HOUSE (Warwick) - official video review FUN FACT. “Fu...

Also known as "Warwickshire Museum". This is the  museum to go to if you want to know the county's history and culture. WHAT TO SEE. 1. An ambitious narrative from Jurassic dino’s to a series of animal specimens not necessarily related to Warwick. Some donated from friends afar. (Regional museums like to stretch back history way too much. Which means mammoths, lithic tools,or even geological periods: ☞  Redbridge Museum ☞  Slough Museum ☞  Kingston Museum ☞  Spelthorne Museum ) MARKET HALL MUSEUM (Warwick), showing the Sheldon Tapestry at the back 2. The most impressive artefact here -  the Sheldon Tapestry (photo). A map commissioned in 1580, you'll be seeing a marvellous level of details on Warwickshire's landscape. Not to be missed. Clip: MARKET HALL MUSEUM (Warwick) LOCATION. The Market Hall Museum is a mere three-minute walk from Warwick Bus Station. Get off the bus and walk north along Market Street. The museum ...

WHAT TO SEE. A ‘local history’ section showing you how the town develops into a spa resort. Key words: entrepreneurial efforts. And superstitions on the water's magical healing property. It all started in the 18th century, with Satchwell starting the chase by building pump rooms and baths. Other industrialists followed suit. Clip: LEAMINGTON SPA MUSEUM & ART GALLERY The next room is a preserved, fully-decorated bath, or a Turkish “cooling room”. Local artist exhibitions are happening in the gallery wing. The exhibits change every two years. LEAMINGTON SPA MUSEUM & ART GALLERY LOCATION. A seven-minute walk from Leamington Spa tran station. As you exit the station, walk north through the pathways and then the Lower Avenue. Turn right into Spencer Street, then left to cross the river. The museum is to your left inside a library. FB chat  - let's talk about your travel. Time is asset: save it for better with a 25-min museum tour . Or find ...

CROWD CONTROL. Our industrious duo returns in the most hidden corner you can find here– third floor, Birmingham Library. In my entire time only an elderly couple has come across my cameras. “Watt in the World: The Life and Legacy of James Watt, 1736-1819” (LIBRARY of BIRMINGHAM) THEMES. Watt and Boulton, the nerd and the salesman. To be sprinkled with their friendly circles and most notably, their philosophical friends from Lunar Society. With a few brushstrokes thrown on Watt’s tragic family background. Boulton’s famous “selling power” quote kicks start the narrative. You'll also find a few other side quests - not as relevant to steam engines (assuming it's what James Watt is all (?) about), but extra details less seen in other Watt attractions (still remember the  Soho House ?). Like what Watt’s son has done to preserve Aston Hall, and which I’m yet to visit some day. Clip: “Watt in the World: The Life and Legacy of James Watt, 1736-1819” (LIBRARY...

HISTORY. The museum was purpose-built to showcase a donation from Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Richards – a huge number of paintings. Opened 1891. Unfortunately many of these paintings were sold in the post-war period. The building was then a council office. WEDNESBURY MUSEUM & ART GALLERY COLLECTION. Works by local artists, a “60s room” (clip; with a copy of Daily Mirror from 1963!), an impressive room for pottery, and toys. The last category includes a Playstation, a Game Boy and a VHS. Feeling old, huh? So a Victorian a-bit-of-everything. (If you’re into these vintage gadgets, try the Portsmouth Museum (for consoles). Or in Europe: Vienna’s Technical Museum or Czech’s Technical Museum in Brno  both have a colossal collection.) Clip: WEDNESBURY MUSEUM & ART GALLERY LOCATION. If you come from Birmingham, the metro (e.g. from Grand Central New Street) is the fastest option. Get off at Wednesbury Great Western Street. Walk northwest to the traffic...

EXHIBITION TYPES. You’ll find a few Constable’s and Henry Moore’s, but besides these the whole four-storey building will be dedicated to temporary exhibitions. CHOICE OF CURATION. Works are gathered according to themes rather than artists. You’ll be surrounded in one room with animals and birds, and another one on religion, or work life, and so on. The New Art Gallery Walsall  GETTING UP. Two tiny staircases bring you to the third and fourth floors. If you can’t really find them (I spent a couple of minutes), the lift is always an option. Clip: The New Art Gallery Walsall  LOCATION. At the end of the Walsall Canal. A two-minute walk if you come from Walsall Station: walk north into Little Station Road and turn right into Marsh Street. The gallery will be to your left. FB chat for free advice on traveling plans. Time is asset: save it for better with 25-min museum tours . Or find yourself in my novel , check out the photo of the day and finish...

Let’s take a rest from Stafford and explore the smaller towns. Walsall. And it’s most unfortunate that the Walsall Museum has closed down and as library staff tells me – for three years now. But instead here is a Leather Museum that’s in every sense the museum of Walsall. Walsall Leather Museum (Walsall) START OF THE STORY. Before you're to enter the gallery the smell of wallets and purses is already filling up your senses. And here’s how the gallery entrance starts its narrative – that Walsall used to be the biggest leather making town in the entire Northern Europe. PERMANENT EXHIBITIONS. Creative use of leather – saddles, key fobs, even outfits for dogs. And they come from a variety of sources from pigs to snakes to anything less imaginable – like ostriches. (Meanwhile a display board tells you that many English traditional surnames get their roots from leather makers – Barker, Skinner, Tanner etc.} Upstairs a staffer will explain how saddles are made an...

What would it be like to bring a ruin to life? And by “ruin” I mean a stone structure without a roof or the upper floors, following a history of multiple misadventures, and once an urgent demolition. And now let’s remember the formula used by Stafford Castle: a bus route from city centre, a car park, a visitor centre with real exhibitions (and not just a money-sucking café disguised in name), and a trail with display boards all along the way showing you its history bit by bit. HERITAGE. The site started off as a timber motte and bailey castle in c. 1090. In 1348 it was mordernized into a keep, which was then largely destroyed by the parliamentarians in 1643. The current stone castle was built in the 1810s in Gothic revival style. STAFFORD CASTLE VIEWING ORDER. Before going straight up to the castle, remember to pay a visit to the visitor centre beside the car park. It has all the background info you’ll need before you’re to see the real thing. You can then fol...

HERITAGE. Built c. 1630 by J. Giffard. The house is most famous for being Charles II’s hiding place in September 1651. He stayed here briefly following his defeat to the parliamentarians in Worcester. He was then to flee to Bristol, Brighton, Shoreham and finally France. In the back of the house you can visit the replacement-replacement-replacement… oak tree, one of his hiding places according to legends. Warning: sheep roaming around tree. BOSCOBEL HOUSE (Staffordshire) HIDING PLACES. You’ll find a total of two “priest holes” around the house. As “priest hunters” operate in the area. These pits, concealed with a false wooden floor, allow Catholic priests to quickly conceal themselves during in-house services. RESTORATION. The garden has been restored to the 1650s with help from an engraving from the period. You can also see that much of the “timber beams” are actually bricks painted black. Only a small portion of the original beams is left. Clip: BOSCOBEL H...

TICKETING. Buy your ticket to the Shugborough Hall from the reception office (next to the car park). It will be needed to the Patrick Lichfield apartments - one of the wings of the hall. Entry time is divided into fifteen-minute intervals. Check your ticket for the time. Do allow another fifteen minute to walk there from the reception. If for any reason you’ve already arrived at the mansion without any tickets, ask the staffer there for help. This saves you from the jogging all the way back to the reception. The main attractions here are the hall (with Patrick Lichfield’s wing separately ticketed), the park farm, and the park itself with a few other buildings of interest. PATRICK LICHFIELD’s APARTMENT. The apartments will bring you back to the sixties with its décor and Paddy’s works all over the place. (It’s inevitable to only live in this wing. The costs of heating and cleaning would be unbearable had he decided to make use of the whole house, which he inherited as one of ...

This is the attraction of the city, located right in the middle of its high street. You’ll get to learn a bit about the city, both gossips and royal history. And it is also very casual. You can just walk in and wander around, no questions asked, no ticketing rituals. The church bells nearby (and they ring a lot, day and night) help give off a more immersive experience as you stroll across these uneven floor and tilted beams. Every room is period themed. So there you have the Civil War room, the Victorian room, and so on. And there’s no attempt in making a chronology out of the room sequence. You’ll have to figure out a visiting order yourself. But if you’re really in need of an introduction to the house first, head all the way to the second floor for the “Castle Room”. Museum of the Staffordshire Yeomanry, ANCIENT HIGH HOUSE (Stafford) CONSERVATION. As with many other restoration houses (most visibly in London: our Pitzhanger Manor or the  Whitehall Historic Hou...

After being greeted in a modern glassy entrance, throw away all hope. You’ll now to enter the actual gallery - a window-barred church, reek of moulds and dampness as if we’re back in the underground factories or the dungeons we’ve been so used to. The more you’re to realize it being a futuristic space station, the more you’re to take a sniff to a past of a future of a semi-functional, hard-wired, mystical, information, system. “Plastique Fantastique: Mars Year Zero” DILSTON GALLERY (Southwark Park, London) The fantastique tells the acrid tale of an imaginary survival set with imaginary metaphors involving imaginary golems and dragons. The two ends of the space are fitted with robots speaking with an eccentric grammatical system. As you can see, they’re really annoying. The cracking concrete and loveless panels add an extra layer of thematic décor to our dystopia. Clip: “Plastique Fantastique: Mars Year Zero” DILSTON GALLERY (Southwark Park, London) LOCATION....

LOCATION. This is the gallery of Southwark Park, marked simply as “Art Gallery” in the park’s maps. (Not to be confused with the neglected family child, “Dilston Gallery”.) Nearest station: Surrey Quays. As you exit the station, walk along Lower Road westbound for a minute and look for the entrance to the park. Get in and keep walking westward. Just as you're about to reach the only lake in the middle of the park, you’ll see the Lake Gallery on your right hand side. If you find yourself turning south with running tracks beside you – wrong way. “Re: A Bermondsey Artists’ Group Exhibition”, LAKE GALLERY (Southwark Park, London) EXHIBITION INFO. Get the booklet from the reception. It has all the captions you need. The works are numbered. “Re: A Bermondsey Artists’ Group Exhibition”, LAKE GALLERY (Southwark Park, London) NON-FORGETTABLES. Hilarious work: a couple attacked by a tapir and a fox and so on when nature takes its turn and “fights back”. (clip) Als...

The Pitzhanger comes with big names. It was designed by John Soane for his family, that is before he was to return to his city home in Holborn (now another museum in his name). If you find the dark corridors and the hoarding-level of stuff in “Sir John Soane’s Museum” too claustrophobic, the Pitzhanger is rather the opposite – much of its treasure is long stripped (or sold off, a tragic story) from its supposed location. Imagine here more of an explication of Soane as an architect and a family, home-building man. (No one would wonder but still. When he bought the place he changed the “s” into the sassier “z”.) PITZHANGER MANOR (London) You’re find yourself celebrating a man’s intellect and artistic inputs from all around the globe as you walk through painted marble and wood panels and books and work desks. But as you enter his master bedroom – abruptly and to point of being marginally comical – the curator is to throw in a darker narrative. The house was eventuall...

It has been more than three years since I’ve been to Ealing. And while the Broadway could satisfy a crave for brand-name shopping all year long, attraction-wise the surrounding area is lacking something more representative of its local vibes (and significance). The closest you’ll get and if you’re willing to go south, would be the Gunnersbury Park Museum , which covers a broader area than its name suggests. And including Ealing. But how about something more local? It is this recently restored Pitzhanger that really fills this gap for a need of local heritage. More on the house’s history next time – let’s just focus on the art gallery for now. “Memory Palace: Es Devin” PITZHANGER GALLERY (London) LOCATION. The fastest way to reach the gallery is by train – especially if you’re from anywhere but West London. A ride from Paddington to Ealing Broadway will cost you ten minutes. After that, walk southwest and through the Broadway / High Street. Keep walking for about ten...

LOCATION. Located in the middle of two tube stations and beside a noisy flyover, the nunnery is not an easy catch at all. Nearest station: Bow Road. A nine-minute walk eastbound along A11 will take you to the gallery. If you come with the DLR, the Bow Church Station is even closer. “2019 Bow Open Show” NUNNERY GALLERY (London) THE VENUE. The gallery is run by Bow Arts, a charity aiming to promote artists from the area and providing support for them (including studio space and accommodation). BACKGROUND. Nineteen artists have been selected by curator Carey Young with all works theme linked to “our current political moment”. Clip: “2019 Bow Open Show” NUNNERY GALLERY (London) MY FAV. HK Kim’s Soon, Life will become more Interesting , in which traditional Korean wood colouring is to be tested with contemporary themes. Fitted with hilarious / horrifying puns here and there. (And I love how one of the works is priced at an unbelievable £1,000,000 with procee...

LOCATION. The Bodiam Castle is in the middle of nowhere. The only public transport you’ll get is this bus 349, running between The Moor and Hastings. Get off at the “Castle Inn” station and the entrance is right next door. It will be a two-hour wait if you miss it so read the schedule carefully before any rash decision. BODIAM CASTLE (Sussex) THE TOUR. There are two tours per day, and it’s worth the time. Gather at the bridge just beside the moat. You’ll be brought around the entire ground floor, stopping at where each of the rooms is used to be – imagination required, as the wooden first floor has long been demolished. And the kitchen, and its fireplaces, and the main hall supposedly with a minstrels gallery on its side. Many of the towers are still intact though, so go up for the best view after the tour. An introductory film is being played again and again in one of the dungeons. To watch it before anything else, go left after you enter through the main entran...

LOCATION. Nearest Overground station: Hoxton or Cambridge Health, with the farm right in the middle. If you’re walking from Cambridge Heath, step west along Hackney Road for around seven minutes. The farm will be on your right inside Haggerston Park. If you’re coming from Hoxton, can also consider visiting the  Geffrye Museum of the Home . It’s closed at the moment for renovation; official website shows an expected opening in Spring 2020. LONDON’S FARM SCENE. If you’re interested in animals but got stuck inside M25, there are many city farms / mini zoos that might satisfy your needs. The Vauxhall City Farm is obviously very conveniently located, while Isle of Doggers can also consider the Mudchute Farm . The latter has the added benefit of a splendid view of Canary Wharf buildings behind the pigs and geese. And they both got llamas. I’ll reserve the Hanwell Zoo , which is in the middle of a forest, to those who’s willing to get lost for thirty minutes through woods and...

WHAT IS IT?   An “exhibition about exhibition” you may say, the Open Studio a temporary showcase on how V&A Museum of Childhood is about to change. With 150 years of history, this space on the top floor has been giving us sneak peeks on these proposed moves for a few years. And now there's finally something more concrete, with actual ideas to test with. "Open Studio" V&A MUSEUM of CHILDHOOD (London)  Main room.  Here you're presented with three curation approaches and a brief introduction of the team behind each approach. And to give comments. Glass room.   The next room is more intense. You’ll see these human beings performing a very common ritual, over and over again. "Meetings". Through staring through these glass windows, not only could you imagine what it’s like to be a curator, but you’ll also realize that the windows are pretty thick. You won’t hear a word. "Open Studio" V&A MUSEUM of CHILDHOOD (London)  ...

WHY VISIT? Suggested year of completion: 1150. You can imagine how impressive this number is – in putting the chapel into the Grade I club, and into the same history as those momentous attractions like St. Helen’s Bishopsgate (also twelfth century) or Westminster Abbey (built 1060s). (Jonjon’s warm reminder - Nearly all of Westminster Abbey are newer-builds from thirteenth century onward. You’ll more likely find the earlier, Anglo-Saxon structures in the basements e.g. the Pyx Chamber . Which you can visit with a National Art Pass. Or a ticket.) What do you expect from an M$ Paint rendition? St. MARY the VIRGIN LITTLE ILFORD (London)  LOCATION. Nearest tube station: East Ham. Get the 147 bus from East Ham bus station, northbound. It will be a one-minute walk from Little Ilford School’s bus station. CURATION.   Detailed description of every art work can be found on the radiators. To up another notch, the reception offers these fifteen-page leaflets t...

Watch out for the Open House weekend (September). For every year the station will open only for these two days! Use your imagination to reconstruct ROYAL DOCKS IMPOUNDING STATION (London) LOCATION. Nearest DLR station: Gallions Reach. As you get down from the platform, walk south and turn left into Atlantis Avenue. Turn right into Gallions Road to walk past all these middle-classed new-builds. By the time you’ve reached the docks you’ll have noticed this somewhat out of place bricked house to your left. BACKGROUND. - The station maintains the water level in the dock by exchanging water with the Thames on the other side. - It can pump a macho 7150 litres per second! - Only a couple of hours of pumping is required on any day. (Let’s spare time and effort: All info from the display boards is duplicated with the leaflets you get at the entrance.) Messenger me for free advice on traveling plans. Time is asset: save it for better with 25-min museum tours . Or...

LOCATION. Nearest station: Temple. As you exit the station, walk north into Arundel Street. Go till its very end and turn right into the Strand. In a minute you’d have walked past St. Clement Danes’ Church and the Royal Courts of Justice would be on the other side. ROYAL COURTS of JUSTICE (London)  OPEN HOUSE. While you can come another day for the court cases, the annual Open House weekend (September) offers something more fun – court case re-enactments, much like what we’ve seen in Nottingham’s National Justice Museum . You also get to play one of the characters if you wish, the witnesses, judge, defendant, jury members etc. Clip: ROYAL COURTS of JUSTICE (London)  In the rest of your time there’s no direction whatsoever as to what to do. Unlike the stringent government departments we’ve visited , here the courts have more of a pigeon-let-free policy. Imagine roaming free and through any door unlocked. Do check out the mini exhibitions on the...

The institute is open for visit in the Open House weekend (September). LOCATION. Closest station: Westminster. As you leave the station, walk away from the river and turn right into Parliament Street. Keep walking for four minutes and the building is to your right. ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE for DEFENCE & SECURITY STUDIES (London) CONFUSION. Not to be confused with Banqueting House (a ticketed mansion just next door). The RUSI is instead an 1895 extension to the house. Designed by Aston Webb (1859-1930). Grade II*-listed. Clip: ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE for DEFENCE & SECURITY STUDIES (London) THE ATTRACTIVE’S. ☞The staircase ☞Library (photo) ☞And on the first floor meeting room there’s this wooden Victorian toilet – the kind with a circle on a rectangular board. It flushes. I’ve tested it. Messenger me for free advice on traveling plans. Time is asset: save it for better with 25-min museum tours . Or find yourself in my novel , c...

This is one of the government departments that open during the Open House weekend (September). That means you only have one chance per year. LOCATION. Nearest station: Westminster. As you exit the station, walk away from the river and turn right immediately into Parliament Street. Take your first left into Great George Street and FCO’s entrance is right in the middle. Clip: FOREIGN & COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (London) WHAT’S INSIDE. Imagine a building so spacious that people can chill everywhere. This can happen at the in-house Costa, but basically also anywhere with seats. As you get to the atrium (photo) you’ll find a number of exhibitions on FCO’s efforts in diversity and war involvements. The rest of the building is conveniently squashed into a one-route journey, leading you through meeting rooms and tapestries as if you’re walking through Kensington Palace . You can get a glimpse of 10 Downing Street at the exit hall. The atrium at the FOREIGN & COMMO...

LOCATION. Closest station: Westminster. Exit the station and walk west until you reach the boundaries of St. Jame’s Park. There, turn right into Horse Guards Road and you’ll see the entrance in thirty seconds. People looking at display boards: HM TREASURY (London) OPENING TIMES. The office opens in the Open House weekend. So sadly, you’ve got one chance per year. The courtyard: HM TREASURY (London) CURATING STRUCTURE. The whole experience is roped into one single-way route. As you walk along the first lobby, boards after boards you’ll be enlightened with detailed history of previous office locations and renovation nuances. The journey ends in a grand “amphitheatre” courtyard, where a floor sign prompts you to make noises in the middle for the echo. (Now head to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office right opposite.) Messenger me for free advice on traveling plans: CHAT Time is asset: save it for better with 25-min museum tours . Or find yourself i...

This is Wellcome’s new permanent exhibition, the redesigned gallery “Being Human”. LOCATION. Nearest station: Euston Square. Exit the station, turn right and walk for forty-five seconds. THEMES? EXAMPLES? The genre and medium are extremely diverse. You can expect most of the exhibits are artistic interpretations or on the social consequences of technology. And latest advancements. Here are some of them that interest me: - Home DIY kits for genome experiments - iPhone-compatible gene sequencer - Junk food. Video footage of “Flooding McDonald’s” (Superflex 2019) is pretty gimmicky. - Vaccine scare "Being Human" WELLCOME COLLECTION WHAT’S NEW? The curating choice follows the recent trends for scientific institutes to “get science to dialogue with arts”. (If you have leftover appetites for showcases like these, there’s plenty of options in London alone – try the Science Gallery or Francis Crick Institute . The Faraday Museum also has tiny corrido...