Viva the evolution!

London has continued to evolve since our return to Sydney. Many projects that were underway or on the drawing board have since been completed. This includes the opening of the Crossrail link, now known as the Elizabeth Line, The London Shard, and the recent multi-billion-dollar redevelopment of Battersea Power Station (which includes two brand new Tube stations and tunnels).

On Sunday, while Garry caught up on end-of-month bookkeeping, I took the tube into town to visit an exhibition centre I’d only recently discovered. In the east wing of Guildhall, the city’s old town hall is the London Centre. The centre is home to three detailed scale models of London in a setup that’s reminiscent of the extraordinary display found inside the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center.

The London Centre’s display includes a model covering the area between Wembley Stadium and London City Airport, plus a more detailed model of developments in the City of London and a second covering a comprehensive revitalization of the Royal Docks and London City Airport that’s only just begun. Each model depicts every building constructed in London, plus those with planning approval that have yet to be built.

Once I’d had my fill of scale model wonderment, I walked to Bank Station to revisit the forecourt of the Bank of England. From here I caught the tube down to Battersea Power Station. This last-minute side trip was well worth the effort. The redevelopment of this derelict industrial complex on the banks of the Thames is nothing short of extraordinary. It only opened in October last year, so it's still very much the hottest venue in town.

Its two turbine halls have been transformed into a massive indoor, upmarket shopping centre filled with designer brand boutiques and an array of restaurants and eateries. It even features a champagne bar where empty flutes await you at the table of your choice. The centre also includes an elevator ride that takes you up one of the preserved chimneys. Unfortunately, the ride queue was snaking across its mezzanine entrance and out an entry gate. It’s clearly something you need to book well in advance.

Later that evening, Garry and I ventured back into town to enjoy a session at Top Secret, a comedy club in Covent Garden. The venue had been recommended by a comedian performing on our cruise ship last month. The two acts we saw were both hilarious although the Master of Ceremonies came close to upstaging everyone.

A few nights earlier, we also got our fill of West End entertainment for another year. Months ago we booked tickets to see Backstairs Billy at the Duke of York’s Theatre in Covent Garden. The play is set entirely in Clarence House and tells the story of a 24 year partnership between The Queen Mother and her private secretary, William Tallon. Tallon’s formal title was Page of the Backstairs in Clarence House, hence the play’s title.  The play was a hoot. I also loved the theatre's ornate ceiling rose.

Working those sights

Every year we travel to Europe to meet up with incumbent suppliers and prospective brands for our company. Our standard itinerary includes a week in London attending the British Toy Fair followed by a week in Nuremberg attending Spielwarenmesse, the toy industry’s largest international trade show.

While in the UK we meet two of our top five brands before they go to Nuremberg, thus freeing up time for other meetings in Germany. The British show also gives us an inside edge on new and emerging brands before they exhibit at Spielwarenmesse. Over the years this strategy has resulted in us nabbing two impressive brands ahead of the competition, Bigjigs Toys, and HEADU.

This year, while in London, we also met with the UK-based investor behind our new third-party logistics warehouse in Sydney. Scott Sully was our first meeting in London. We joined him for a light breakfast a few hours after we arrived in the UK. Traditionally, we’ve based ourselves in an apartment in Soho for the week. However, this year all of our prior haunts were charging insane rates, so we ultimately opted for a refurbished apartment near Edgware Road Station in Marylebone.

This location allowed us to explore parts of London we hadn’t seen since leaving the city in 2010. While in the UK we had to buy a suitcase to carry toy samples back to Sydney. On a whim, we decided to take advantage of some good weather and combine our shopping expedition with a walk from Marble Arch, through Hyde Park, and past Kensington Palace, before stopping to buy a suitcase at TK Maxx on Kensington High Street.

We eventually walked more than 5 km, stopping briefly to view the Albert Memorial and Albert Hall, before stopping at Kensington Palace to view the Princess Diana Memorial Garden and the recently unveiled statue of Diana surrounded by children. While the gardens were bare for winter, this meant that we enjoyed a relatively private viewing of the statue, as tourists were few and far between.

The following day, Australia Day, was spent exploring a few new sights and sounds in the City of London. This included a visit to the recently opened Horizon 22 observation deck which delivers an impressive uninterrupted view of the Thames, including The London Shard. We also took time out to enjoy the immersive Vincent Van Gogh Experience in Spitalfields, before making our way back to Monument Station via Spitalfields Market and the stunning Victorian Leadenhall Market.

The Van Gogh Experience was something different. The event wasn't showing any original works by the artist. Instead, the venue delivered a range of immersive, and interactive, experiences that explored the essence of his art. Without a doubt, the highlight for both of us was a virtual reality fly-through of his most famous pieces. It was simply mind-blowing to put on a VR headset and then wander through his bedroom at Arles or through the wheat fields as crows flew by.

The 360 projection room was equally impressive, Using technology to recreate animated displays of his masterpieces you’re immersed directly in the paintings themselves, looking up at The Starry Night and watching the stars dance around the room in Van Gogh’s iconic style.

Later that evening we caught up for dinner with our good friend Martin at the highly acclaimed Argentine restaurant, Zoilo. It was a wonderful evening reliving old memories and catching up on events since our last meal in January 2023.

Portsmouth

In all the years we lived in London we never made it to Portsmouth, the historical home base of the British Royal Navy. As a result, we decided to set things right with a weekend stop there after completing a business meeting in Kent. I booked us into a Holiday Inn Express located on the edge of the redeveloped Gunwharf Quays. This was our base for two nights before we began making our way back to London for a week of trade show meetings. 

We spent most of Sunday exploring the Portsmouth Historic Dockyards. This included a visit to the Mary Rose Museum, a guided tour of Lord Nelson’s HMS Victory, and a self-guided tour of the Warrior, the UK's first ironclad, steam-powered warship. Without realizing it, we’d scheduled our tour of the dockyards in chronological order. As a result, it was fascinating to see how naval military technology advanced from Henry VIII’s Tudor era, through to the Victorian era. I was surprised to see cast-iron cannons were still a feature of warships as late as 1863.

Much like at Battle, on board the Victory, we had an opportunity to stand at the exact spot marked by a bronze plaque where Nelson was mortally wounded during the Battle of Trafalgar. Equally memorable was the experience below deck. We learned that the sailors lived on the gun deck among the cannons.  At night they slung hammocks over the cannon barrels, while during the day they dined and played board games at tables and benches that hung from the ceiling in between each cannon carriage. Let's just say it was a far cry from the comfortable cruise ship cabin we'd enjoyed earlier this month.

The Mary Rose was a real treat. At the time of its construction in 1511, it was the most advanced warship of its time. It quickly became the flagship of Henry VIII's rapidly expanding navy. It was substantially rebuilt in 1536, transforming an impressive ship of 500 tons into one of 700 tons. On 19 July 1545, during the Battle of Solent, near the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, the Mary Rose suddenly heeled (leaned) heavily to her starboard (right) side. Water rushed in through the ship's open gunports and it quickly sank.

The boat sat covered in silt until it was rediscovered by fishermen in 1836. After a brief, largely unsuccessful salvage mission, the boat's location was soon forgotten until it was located again in 1965. Finally, in the spring of 1982, the remaining third of the boat's hull was raised intact from the seabed. 

Thirty years of preservation work followed before the vessel you see today was finally unveiled for public viewing. The museum does a superb job of displaying the hull and the thousands of artifacts recovered from the seabed. This includes massive cast-iron cannons and the personal effects of several seamen including ship's cook and carpenter.

Constructing a warship of the size of the Mary Rose was a major undertaking, requiring vast quantities of high-quality material. For a state-of-the-art warship, these materials were primarily oak. According to Wikipedia, the total amount of timber needed for the construction can only be roughly calculated as only about one-third of the ship still exists. One estimate calculates that about 600 mostly large oaks were used, representing about 16 hectares (40 acres) of woodland.

This technology stood in stark contrast to the Royal Navy’s latest additions, its two recently commissioned Elizabethan aircraft carriers. We were lucky enough to see both the Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth in port. While neither vessel was open to the public, it was surprising how close we could view them through a nearby dockland fence.

We then finished our afternoon with a quick trip up the Spinnaker Tower to take in a dramatic view of Portsmouth Harbour and the surrounding coast. This included a superb, unimpeded view of the Navy’s aircraft carriers. During our visit, we got to see the regular Hovercraft service speeding across the Solent towards Southsea, as well as take in the many defensive structures erected over the centuries around the harbour.

Unfortunately, due to poor weather, the Historic Dockyard's transfer boat to Gosport wasn't operating.  As a result, we never got to visit the Royal Navy's highly-rated submarine museum. I'd also hoped to visit the Hovercraft Museum near Gosport.  However, this was closed for its mid-winter break. I guess this means we've got a great excuse to return to Portsmouth at some future point.

The following morning, after checking out, we took a quick detour to the Southsea Hoverport to watch the Isle of Wight Hovercraft glide up the beach, then spent an hour or so exploring the nearby World War Two D-Day Museum. The museum includes access to Landing Craft LCT 7074, a lovingly restored landing craft that took part in the D-Day invasion. The atmosphere on board was hard to describe. For a brief moment, thanks to the craft’s high side walls and their sound muffling effect, I swear we could viscerally feel the energy and tension of this historic day.

Next to the museum is the Legacy Gallery. This is home to the Overlord Embroidery commissioned in 1968 to remember those who took part in D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. The Overlord Embroidery tells the story of this extraordinary battle in 34 extraordinary hand-stitched panels that collectively extend a total length of 83 metres. Some of these panels were truly breathtaking in their design.

A business meeting we’d scheduled in Dunsfold was canceled shortly before we flew out. As a result, we found ourselves with additional free time on Monday. Garry and I decided to spend an evening visiting my cousin Hilary and Michael, her new husband. We were both stunned by the comprehensive “Grand Design” style renovation they’ve recently completed. The old Fernhurst property was barely recognizable. The following morning, we took them for breakfast at Cowdray Farm Shop & Café in Midhurst.

The drive back to London was uneventful. We also secured an early check-in at our Airbnb apartment. This meant we could return our rental car and drop off our bags before venturing into Olympia for our first working day on the floor of the British Toy Fair. Dinner that night was a business affair. We dined with the supplier who’d canceled our Dunsfold meeting the day before.