Working for Williams Commerce and Un.titled means that I get the chance to indulge my love of museums, galleries, historic places, gardens and theatres with our client list. London in particular is a heartland for us and next year I’d like to write up the full walking tour of our client list but it’s Christmas and I want to give anyone in the city some thoughts on where you can visit and what you can buy from some of our great arts & culture sites.
So join me on a day out in London where I try to cram in as many stops as I can from east to west. I have done this sort of thing personally and hit up about 5 venues in a day, if you want to follow in my footsteps I recommend some good walking shoes!
Tower of London
Start your day down by Tower Bridge with a trip to the Tower of London. They’re hosting a Royal Celebration this December so it’s a chance to see historic traditions as well as all the sparkles of the Crown Jewels. Yes, it’s obviously a very touristy destination. But if you haven’t been there before you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the rich history of the site.
Their shop is wonderfully eclectic and covers all of the Historic Royal Palaces (including Hampton Court). If you have money to burn and know any knights in shining armour you can always pick them up a new suit! But equally there’s a nice range of cuddly toys like this raven or some dainty bone china like this teacup.
Somerset House & The Courtauld
If you don’t mind a good walk you can head west along the Thames to Somerset House, it’s about 2 miles with some great scenery along the way. Somerset House is a winter institution with the fabulous ice rink in the courtyard, lots of refreshments so you can take a break with some hot chocolate or a good glass of wine depending on the time of day and your taste.
Within Somerset House is our client The Courtauld – an amazing gallery particularly if you love impressionism. There’s a Monet’s London exhibition ongoing at the moment that’s worth a viewing and the tote bag for the exhibition is a great purchase. Also with it being December I think you can’t go wrong with buying a nice calendar or diary for next year and the shop has a nice mix of these.
You now have the choice of heading north or a bit west to one of the next two stops. Or you can squish both of these into one day if you have the time. Heading north will let you go through Covent Garden which is always worth a trip for some Christmas Shopping (but it will eat up your time).
The British Museum
Heading north to Holborn takes you to the British Museum. For me I love the Great Court as it’s an amazing place to sit with a coffee. If you’re visiting any of the galleries there my recommendation would be to pick a subject and just focus on that as you’ll struggle to see everything at once. I like getting my steps in by heading all the way up to Chinese Ceramics in Room 95 on Level 2. If you’re keen on seeing the Rosetta Stone get there early as it tends to attract the crowds.
The physical shop in the Grenville Room at the museum is my favourite one in any museum – it’s a cornucopia of interesting objects. They do everything from amazing jewellery with a great range of necklaces to some really lovely gifts for children like this cuddly Bastet.
The National Gallery
If, instead of heading north from Somerset House you went further west, you’d get to The National Gallery. Perfect for Christmas as it’s a chance to see our big tree in Trafalgar Square and the steps and terrace at the gallery is a great place to view it from. I love visiting at this time of year as I am fond of snowy paintings (as a colleague observed when we were wandering around one time).
My top 3 snowy paintings:
- Winter Landscape – by Caspar David Friedrich
- Snow at Louveciennes – by Alfred Sisley (not at The National Gallery)
- Snow Scene at Argentuil – by Claude Monet
Moving on to the shopping! There’s some great gifts for art lovers including really good quality watercolour paints, but at a more reasonable price point there’s some nice metallic pencils. And it is a cliche but galleries love their tote bags and I picked this one of Starry Night over the Rhone when I visited the Van Gogh exhibition recently.
Kew Gardens
Grab a tube or train and make your way over towards the west of London and finish your day at the spectacular Kew Gardens. If you can try to be there in the evening for the enchanting light show that is Christmas at Kew when you can see a different side to the gardens. But any time you visit it’s a good place to get in a walk and see some plants, cool greenhouses, and go visit the Hive which is a very cool art installation in the grounds.
The shop at Kew is full of some lovely things. An absolute classic is their range of soaps which smell wonderful (my favourite is Jasmine & Peach). They also do a range of pretty kimonos and gowns from One Hundred Stars which make for a great gift for yourself or anyone you know who likes pretty layers.
Tanya Peasgood 