A CULTURAL DAY IN THE CAPITAL

Piccadilly, 1967

F R I D A Y,  2 1  J U L Y

Wore my Scallywags dress and flip-flops, and got the train to Waterloo. Waited about ten minutes watching pigeons until Lucy arrived.

London today was more like Paris  – every other person was French! Really it is staggering - you can tell them a mile off. The girls have longer skirts than here, ribbed jumpers tucked in, smart shoes, smart bags, and dark hair tied at the back like Mlle Tronchard’s. The boys have corduroy trousers, smart jumpers and tanned faces, and they're all thin. 

First we visited some modern jewellery shops in Maddox Street and saw some super rings -  some of them had stones 1½” long! Then went to an exhibition of marine paintings – rather good. The skies and seas were always painted worse than the ships. Next went to a Fine Arts place where we saw millions of paintings and drawings. Terrible smell in there of polish – made us choke! At last found the exhibition of Henry Moore. I think his things are good, especially the sculptures in wood. What got us was the names he gave the sculptures but it was fun puzzling them out.

By then we were starving so we decided to have lunch in a Lyons at Piccadilly Circus. I got a steak pie and an eccles cake. In the station we got a quarter of a pound of cherries each. Then we went to Hyde Park to eat them but unfortunately we couldn’t find Speakers Corner.

“Next we went to Trafalgar Square. Full of French, needless to say. ”

So we pretended we were French by going “voila, eh bien, voila, eh bien…” – it was hilarious. Then, when we were in the National Gallery, this chap came up and said, “vous parlez francais?" It was so embarrassing admitting we were English. Saw lots of paintings including famous ones - Turners, Van Goghs, Renoirs, Saurats, Rembrandts. Then went back to Waterloo and said our fond farewells.

After supper we drove down to the boat, stopping at Gran's on the way. 

The Beatles are No. 1!