Tag Archives: London

April 14, 2013

London Transport Museum Depot – We Love Steam!

We’re huge fans of the London Transport Museum so when we heard they had an open weekend at their depot we bought family tickets for today. The last time we went we didn’t have children so I was interested to see how our visit compared.

Happily we all had a great day out.

This year they’re celebrating the 150th anniversary of the underground and we had the chance to see the newly restored Metropolitan Line Steam Locomotive No. 1 and the Metropolitan Jubilee Carriage 353 which was originally built in 1898 and is one of the oldest working underground carriages.

We queued for a ride on a steam train from the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales and a ride on the Acton Miniature Railway. The toddler enjoyed everything from the model displays to the Lego representation of Baker Street in 1863. There were also some great family activities but by the time we got to them we were just too tired to enjoy them, a day in the sunshine clearly took its toll!

I loved the huge drawers of Johnston type

as well as the racks and racks of destination boards and tube signs. The toddler was happy to run up and down therv aisles whilst I looked for a tube sign for our new station which sadly I couldn’t find. I consoled myself with a huge line plan of the Metropolitan line – the first purchase for our new house.

The official website for the London Transport Museum can be found here.

William Morris Gallery Walthamstow

A friend told me about the William Morris Gallery and Lloyd Park in Walthamstow, not far from us. Perfect (i.e. dry) weather was forecast this morning so we headed there. The building was beautiful and behind was a hidden gem, a huge public park with formal gardens, a moat, children’s park, cafe and much more.

First of all we let the children (and daddy) run around the park. They loved it, everything was new and shiny and they had fun on the slides, trampoline, swings, slide and sand pit. The shiny paths were perfect for scooting along and there was even space for the toddler to play with his radio controlled car.

When we thought we had tired them out we headed inside the gallery which has recently been refurbished with a cafe and temporary exhibition space added. The downstairs told the story of William Morris and was full of beautiful exhibits. In my old life I was a curator so was excited to see how the item were displayed. I thought it was stunning and was able to read a lot of the captions as the toddler was kept occupied by the interactive elements of the exhibition.

The gallery was seamlessly designed to be completely adult and child-friendly. The toddler practically ran around trying to find each touch screen or dressing up box.

He tried brass rubbing, making a stained glass window, holding a puppet show and building a wooden cathedral. He sat in chairs listening to oral history interviews and did funny things on sofas. In one room we were approached by one of the volunteers and I thought she was going to tell us off for being noisy but she just wanted to tell us something!

I love taking the children to museums and galleries but it’s not often we feel totally relaxed and able to enjoy ourselves. ~~I would~~ we all would definitely recommend the William Morris Gallery!

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Filed under days out, Local Review, London, playing

Tagged as days out, Local Review, London, playing

April 8, 2013

How to make an embroidered pegboard

I love cross stitch and I love trying different things so when I saw an embroidered pegboard on Pinterest I knew I had to try it. I bought a large piece of pegboard (also known as perforated hardboard) from my local wood shop, gave it a light sand then a couple of coats of white undercoat. I wanted it to look a little rough so I didn’t try too hard.

When it had dried I embroidered big letters using the brightest tapestry wool I could find.