Another Treasure House

Today we did something we almost never do. We drove someplace in London. I never think of using a car when I am plotting out these local trips, but today's destination looked so difficult I said to Bob, "Let's use the car." He always grimaces a bit, because he has to do the driving. (Have I mentioned that I have never driven in this country since I moved here.) And I understand his lack of enthusiasm because this city was never designed for cars, and modern day traffic planners have made such a hash of setting lights and crossings, and adding parking lanes and bus lanes, and now bike lanes to streets that can barely accommodate two cars going in opposite directions without one stopping and letting the other squeeze by (the infamous "rat runs"). Yet somehow the natives think none of this is a problem and seem to blithely drive nearly everywhere. So today we drove to Wimbledon Common, a distance of 12 miles according to Google mapping, and it hardly took us more than an hour to get there.

We met Susan and Cato at the Windmill on Wimbledon Common for a picnic lunch of Nigella's Cornish Pasties prepared by Susan. We brought the wine and the brownies bought at the River Festival yesterday.

Then we walked along the Capital Ring path to Kingston-on-Thames for the real destination of the day, another one of those tiny gems in an odd corner of London discovered by Susan who booked us in for a tour this afternoon, on the one weekend a month the house is open to the public.

Dora Gordine was a Latvian sculptor, trained in Paris, who married an English aristocrat Richard Hare, a younger son of the Earl of Listowel, and together they designed a house around studio and exhibition space for Dora's bronze sculpture and paintings, and for Richard's collection of Russian art. They called the house by the portmanteau Dorich House, and Dora lived there from 1936 until she died in 1992 as she approached her centenary. The House is now owned by Kingston University, who have lovingly restored the rooms to the elegant level of Dora and Richard's original design.

I'm afraid my photography was off today, and my photos really do not do justice to the house.

The exterior which is much nicer than this photo indicates

Dora's Bronzes on display in the Gallery

More wonderful Gallery windows

The elegant dining room

With sliding moon doors

An original Bloomsbury fabric curtain

Susan and Cato (antiqued on i-photo) coveting (along with everyone else) the fabulous roof garden

We walked back to Wimbledon Common and went to the Windmill Museum which was also a fascinating little place filled with models of English windmills, and exhibits on traditional English milling.

Then it was a drive home which only took about 90 minutes to do the full 12 miles.