The art of appreciation in London
Alison Dayani discovers London’s art collections are second to none as she samples a weekend of high culture.
New York may have its Museum of Modern Art and Madrid its Museo Reina Sofía but as a ‘stay-cationer’ I went back to the drawing board and discovered London had a much bigger palette of work on offer.
Britain’s Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery are just as much national treasures as anything cities like Madrid or New York have to offer.
And there is no better time to discover Saatchi’s vibrant art collection as we are all about to take a stake in it. For art collector Charles Saatchi is to donate to the British public more than 200 works and his gallery in Chelsea, which is to become the Museum of Contemporary Art for London.
Close to Sloane Square tube station, the Saatchi Gallery is easy enough to find in the King’s Road in Chelsea.
High profile British exhibits from Tracey Emin’s My Bed and Jake and Dinos Chapman’s Tragic Anatomies, featuring mutated mannequins in a garden, are not as pretty as a picture, but just as profound. They are artworks that sometimes pose more questions than answers, but provide a day with a real difference.
My husband Mike and I then moved on to a renaissance work. But this was not Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci, but the luxurious haven of the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel in the shadow of Holborn tube station.
Its white stone walls and courtyard are impressive enough but the grandeur of the interior is breathtaking.
Friendly staff, marble bathrooms and spacious rooms with high ceilings are a far cry from most cramped London accommodation and add a touch of extravagance to a stay in the capital.
The hotel is just a five-minute walk from Covent Garden and its bustling bars, restaurants and theatres if you want to catch a show.
A short walk from the hotel in the other direction takes you to the steps of the British Museum and its array of world class treasures.
After starting the day with a sumptuous breakfast in Chancery Court, we headed off early to the lively Borough Market on the South Bank. For those Masterchef fans out there, it is the market contestants visit for ingredients, and, winding around the many stalls, it is easy to see why. Cheeses, fruits, seafood – everything is on offer in a vibrant atmosphere.
