Tuesday 25th September 2012 – 27th meeting of 2012

We met at Charing Cross and then proceeded to Embankment Underground station to catch train to South Kensington.

We started with usual coffee and chat in William Morris tea rooms with money changing hands for future fixtures. We decided that our later Christmas lunch would be held at one of our houses with everyone contributing something to share.

We joined the Medieval and Renaissance (300-1600) tour. Our guide took us to the gallery showing artifacts from the end of Renaissance first and then worked back.

In this gallery we looked at stonework with heads, sculptures and memorials, much coming from villas in Italy. The black and white flooring in this gallery had been found under 1960s covering.

The other artifacts we viewed ranged from an early sock, it was shaped for a flip-flop sandal, carvings on a wall plaque, early embroidery on a priests cape, Syrian enamelled glass vase and a tapestry.

The guide gave much too much detail for each item and generally lost the attention of most of us very quickly, as we have short attention spans! Also she covered a lot of what we had seen before. 

Not one of our best days especially as the previous tour we did here was very good.  We decided if we do another tour it should be of a different era.  These tours are free, as is the Museum, but it is not always possible to know in advance what the subject matter will be.