London Design Museum Friday

During the second half of our trip back to the UK for Christmas, we headed up to London for a couple of days to catch up with some of Luke's friends. Of course, before heading back to Bath again for New Year's Eve, we were sure to find one new thing to do in London (it isn't hard).

We caught the train from Bath up to London on the December 29th, and headed straight across town to Luke's sister Sophie's new flat. Once we were all settled in, it was straight back out again to hang out with a few friends at the Kings Stores pub near Liverpool St. Fun was had.

The following day, after pushing through a teensy little bit of a hangover, we set off for a bit of good ol' fashioned London tourism. Our sights were set on the new Design Museum, but before we went anywhere we stopped in at Wagamama for lunch - Elizabeth's favourite spot to eat that hasn't yet made its way to Toronto.

After a bit of trek on the tube we alighted at Holland Park in West London and wandered down through the foggy park towards the museum. The new Design Museum is much bigger than the old building, and inside there is a massive open atrium, with several floors of free and ticket-only exhibitions. We opted to see the permanent exhibition as well as the temporary Designs of the Year exhibition.

We started with the Designs of the Year exhibition, which included a really diverse set of projects from a range of disciplines, including architecture, graphic design, product design, advertising, engineering and even videogames. Some standout projects included flatpack homes for refugee camps, designed to be sturdy and safe, and a collection of interactive, fold out book covers that were just a lot of fun. Arup, the company that Elizabeth works for, were also nominated for their work designing a building inspection program for Bangladeshi garment factories which aimed to educate workers so that catastrophe could be avoided in the future. Cool stuff.

After a quick coffee break we were on to visit the free permanent exhibition. It was really busy, so we had to line up before going in and the exhibition itself was swarming, but it was worth the wait. The exhibition featured several different zones that looked at the different aspects of design, such as the consumer side, the social impact of design, fashions and trends, the business of design and the evolution of manufacturing and its impact on design as a profession. Lots of fascinating little tidbits of information, though we both particularly enjoyed the manufacturing section. We are engineers at heart.

Leaving the museum we set off on a walk that would take us up all the way to Oxford Circus. Along the way we strolled through a very foggy Hyde Park, before following the road all the way to Oxford Street where we took in the fancy Christmas lights. Once we hit Oxford Street it was slow going, with masses of shoppers bargain hunting in the New Years sales crowding the street. We were glad to then get back on the tube and head back to Sophie's flat. Only for a short while though, because we were back out for another night of drinking with friends!

The following day, New Year's Eve, we caught the train back to Bath and spend the day relaxing with a movie. Our New Year's Eve celebrations involved a Chinese take away, champagne, fireworks on the TV and silly hats. Couldn't have asked for a better one.

We headed back to London the following day to be ready for our flight on Monday. We had one more family meal, and the next day we were on our way back to Toronto. We were very sad to leave again, but were very happy to have caught up with so many people over the course of the ten days. Can't wait for next time!

Here are some more photos of Part II of our Christmas in the UK:

(SLIDESHOW)