We’re back in London after our trip to Turkey and what better to do than something really Central London-y? Someone on a local group had shared an invite for a “quiet hour” session at the Wallace Collection and I’d booked straight away. Eva loves dogs and dislikes noisy crowds so this seemed perfect.
Of course, Eva deciding to go for a sleepover the night before was not so perfect but I extracted her at 7am and somehow we got to Oxford Street before 9am. It was so early that I felt like I should be doing a 9-6 shift at Clarks. Eva wasn’t keen on this idea and I don’t blame her – it is Back to School after all and that was always crazy.
I haven’t been to the Wallace Collection before but had heard of it thanks to many confused people who turned up at the Wellcome Collection when I worked there. If you’re similarly unfamiliar, then just walk down Oxford Street, hang a right at the Disney Store and follow Marylebone Lane all the way up to Manchester Square.
There are some interesting things to look at on the way, like this floral building:
We arrived just in time for the first musical storytelling session of the day and were ushered through the building to the newish gallery downstairs. As it was a SEN session, there was a quiet space on offer for anyone who needed it but, as it was, we were fine – it was all very calm anyway so no time out required.
The actual exhibition is quite small but there’s lots to see. We wandered around a bit before the storytelling started and I was very pleased with myself for dressing to match one of the paintings:
The storytelling was very interactive and I think Eva was a bit too sleepover-tired to interact much. She enjoyed pretending to be a dachshund in this room though:
I mean, give that girl any excuse to bark rather than talk and she’ll take it. After the storytelling, we worked our way backwards through the rooms as we’d skimmed over the “Royal Dogs” section. Luckily Summer wasn’t with us as she’d have something to say re lack of corgis but there were many regal spaniels, some of which were sketched by Queen Victoria herself. Apparently Queen Vic also thought this painting was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen. I can’t argue:
Much as I love the doggos, it’s the parrot that really makes this painting for me.
After we’d seen every dog in the place – and read every sign – we went to the model making workshop where Eva made a cute little Schnauzer out of plasticine:
I tried to make a dog as well but Eva tells me it looked like “a scaly duck from Hell”. The green eyes only made it more demonic-looking, not less apparently.
Eva then made a wire and plaster model of a dog with some help from the staff who were running the workshop. Everyone we met was so nice and they really took time to make sure the model was working – right up to sending us home with a few extra sheets of plaster in case we needed to patch the dog up.
I think it worked OK and even survived the trip home, wrapped in some paper towels and a Pret bag.
We also bumped into some friends at this point, which was lovely. And not overly surprising, given they’re on the same LBWF SEN networks as we are.
Before we left, we made a whistlestop tour through the rest of the collection. There were a few rooms of armour on the ground floor, which I think Roo would enjoy:
And the upstairs rooms were beautifully decorated and full of paintings which toned with the very ornate wallpaper.
I might take the English Class students there at some point because it’s a very English place to look around and I think they’d appreciate it. If only my favourite Americans were still around…
So a fun morning out, especially for my little canid-enthusiast. It’s well worth going to see and spending some time in the rest of the house as well.
“Portraits of Dogs” is on until 15th October. Click here for tickets and more info.
