London Cultural Attractions

            Last week we looked some of London’s most famous historical sites. Today we’ll shift our focus to examine some of the city’s cultural landmarks.

Trafalgar Square 

National Gallery: Located in Trafalgar Square under the shadow of Nelson’s Column, the National Gallery plays host to some 2,300 paintings from the mid-13^th century to 1900. It is the third most visited museum in England behind the British Museum and the Tate Modern. The Museum has a collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works from a wide range of artists including Georges Seurat, Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent Van Gogh. The Gallery holds Van Gogh’s famed Sunflowers painting (pictured below). The National Gallery also boasts an impressive range of Renaissance and early modern art including Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks and original works by Raphael, Titian, Albrecht Durer, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. The Gallery’s resume is impressive, but on a visit, we’d recommend getting an audio guide, that way you don’t get lost starring at too many Portraits of a Young Man or different versions of the Annunciation of Christ. Too many of those paintings run together and by the time you get to the Impressionists, you just want to get off your feet rather than appreciate one of Van Gogh’s masterpieces.  

Tate Modern:  The Tate Modern picks up where the National Gallery left off with works from approximately 1900 to the present. This museum blends modern and postmodern art with the works of post-impressionists. The Tate Museums—there are four in total—boast a collection of over 70,000 pieces of artwork (only a small number are on display at any given time). Unlike the National Gallery, the Tate Modern also features photography, art installations, and even video exhibitions. The Tate Modern, opened in 2000 at the site of a former power station, hosts a number of works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Henri Matisse. Its more modern works can be a bit hit or miss. One room contains various sized hand sewn burlap sacks meant to represent eggs. Another contains an artist’s interpretation of a goat—a wagon with a hammer placed on top of it. On the other hand, one artist’s interpretation of a series of cell phone images taken of the deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is striking in their simple use of color.

Exterior of Shakespeare's Globe 

Shakespeare’s Globe: The Globe Theater in its two iterations housed the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the theatrical company that performed the plays of William Shakespeare. The first Globe Theater lasted from 1599-1613 until a cannon shot ignited the thatched roof and burned the building to the ground. The second Globe Theater stood from 1614 through 1644 when it was torn down by Puritans who had banned public theater performances. In 1997, thanks to the work of Sam Wanamaker, an American actor, the newly rebuilt Shakespeare’s Globe opened on the banks of the Thames less than a thousand feet from its original location.  The modern theater was constructed based on historical and archeological evidence of the two previous structures. The open air theater is the only building in London allowed to have a thatched roof (thatched roofs had been banned following the disastrous fire of 1666). It can hold 1,400 spectators, some on historically accurate backless benches while the rest stand in the pit of the theater. The Globe hosts productions of Shakespeare’s plays without the benefit of any modern technology. There is no additional lighting, sound amplification, or even the use of sets. Surrounding the theater is a small museum dedicated to the history of the theater in Shakespeare’s time and the efforts to rebuild the Globe. Some 96% of all of the available tickets for the shows at the theater are sold to the public, the highest such rate in London.

The Stage 

West End Theater: London’s West End is only rivaled by New York City’s Broadway in terms of importance to the theater industry. Collectively, the London’s theater district of about forty different venues is primarily located in the West End of the city (hence the name). These theaters draw in tourists and locals alike by offering the latest plays and musicals as well as long running classics. Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera have been running in the West End since 1985 and 1986 respectively. Currently more recent hits like Wicked and Book of Mormon are in the midst of lengthy West End runs. Cheap tickets are easily available at the London Theatre Ticket Booth in Leicester Square.  On our recent visit, we had the chance to see both Les Miserables and Book of Mormon. Even after thirty years, Les Miserables was an emotionally effective story of the redemption of Jean Valjean and his relentless pursuit by Javert, a determined police inspector. Book of Mormon, on the other hand, was a hilariously vulgar send up of the Mormon Church and religion in general. By blending traditional Broadway forms with its absurd lyrics, the musical pays tribute to the history of musical theater while satirizing it at the same time. If you don’t mind laughing your head off (and at a lot of vulgar subject matter), then see Book of Mormon if you have the chance.