This was my first ever visit to Tate London on Millbank. I went there to see an exhibition of Lee Miller’s work.
Farnborough Station
As usual I travelled into London from Farnborough Main. The first surprise was that all day car parking had increased to £11.30 -ouch!
I had been delayed by the traffic and missed the 9:17 train but was in plenty of time for the 9:32. Then the surprises started, first a delay till nearly the time of the train after. The reason being a “delayed” train. Then another announcement came that a goods train had broken down before Basingstoke. My train was cancelled, then the next train was cancelled.
There were no fast trains to Portsmouth passing through and a train for Basingstoke sat at the dother platform. Then a goods diesel came through going towards Woking. The 10:16 was announced that it too was delayed. Time for coffee and to try and find a seat somewhere. The 10:16’s delay kept growing and time into london moved from 11:11 at each delay.
Stations after Woking were removed from the delayed journey and the train eventually arrived after 10:30 – nearly an hour after my supposed fast train. Perhaps it was the lack of trains but I finally managed to get an image of the art on a trackside cupboard just after Clapham Junction.
Cab ride
At Waterloo I had less than 10 minutes to get to Tate Modern. As I was unsure of their policy on late arrivals so I took a cab there. I had forgotten just how much fun conversations with a cabbie could be! He wasn’t fussed about such a short journey from Waterloo(£14!!) Short journeys often took him to places where Heathrow trips were needed. We chatted about the goings on in the news about politicians and whether the PM would survive. And would anyone vote Labour again. Then about the ongoing Epstein scandals.
Somehow this lead us onto London Mayors, not repeatable here, and the knowledge that his wife thought Boris was the best! It is a 20mph limit along Millbank. He apologised about going even slower but as he had had 3 points for going along here at 22mph, and after more unrepeatable comments I was at Tate Modern.
The Lee Miller Exhibition
After a desultory bag search I was inside the building and looking for the loo. NO SIGNAGE! I followed the signs to the Lee Miller exhibition and joined the queue – it was now 11:40 having lost another 10 minutes exploring…
This was the last week of the exhibition and should not have been surprised at just busy it was. I had had a thought about taking pictures of fellow visitors studying the photographs. But I soon myself in three deep groups with rotating and contra-rotating circulation. The prints were both large and very small, ordinally from magazines or never seen before, ranging her time as a model to her final love of cooking. This was spread through many different rooms. One room with her images of Nazi concentration camps did have a warning of its graphic content.
I took a few pictures of the images that resonated with me plus the one really famous one of Lee in Hitler’s bath.
The comments on the walls described early developing techniques through to her developing prints in abandoned shops near the front line. Seeing images of the siege of Mont St Michel and the hostages after their release were a reminder of just how close she managed to get to the front.
I spent just under 1.5 hours in the exhibition. I would have liked to have stayed longer but shuffling round dodging rucksacks, waiting for slow caption readers or folks trying to find the right page in the guides but still blocking the image – all took their toll…
Should have gi=one in October when the attendees of the London street workshop had gone.
I wandered around the free galleries until I found Millais’s “Ophelia” and L.S Lowry’s “Coming out of school”
Back to Waterloo
Walking along Millbank I passed the Millbank Tower where in 80s I had meet with the Business Secretary’s private secretary about the European Commission’s competition directorate. Then walking towards me was an MP, Suella Braverman, and I bottled at asking her for a street portrait…
Next I passed Thames House, the home of MI5 and then I was in the Westminster village and went down to the Underground and back to Waterloo.
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