In Britain These Days

Crowning St. Edmundsbury and Portsmouth Harbour

LONDON’S AVENUE OF STARS

Britain’s answer to Hollywood’s Walk of Fame is being created in London’s Covent Garden. One hundred stars of stage, screen and TV are being immortalized on the Avenue of Stars to celebrate 50 years of ITV (Independent Television). The first 18 recipients, which include Peter Sellers, Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, Nicole Kidman, John Cleese and the Rolling Stones, are already enshrined by silver stars in the walkway. More names honoring the greatest British and Commonwealth show business stars of the last half-century will be added each year to the pavement outside St. Paul’s, the “Actors’ Church,” in the Covent Garden piazza. Web site: www.itv.com

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After 50 years, the lantern tower of St. Edmundsbury Cathedral is at last complete.[/caption]

CROWN JEWEL FOR BURY ST. EDMUNDS

England’s newest cathedral tower rises 150 feet above the ancient English city of Bury St. Edmunds. After 50 years of work, St. Edmundsbury Cathedral’s Gothic-style lantern tower is complete. Named Millennium Tower, it was built using medieval methods and materials, and is regarded second in splendor only to Canterbury’s famous Bell Harry Tower. When funds for enlarging the cathedral ran out 25 years ago, the base of the tower was left as an ugly concrete stump. Its completion gives Bury St. Edmunds a worthy successor to the medieval Abbey of St. Edmund—shrine of the 9th-century Saxon king of East Anglia—which was destroyed by fire in 1347. Suffolk’s only cathedral city, Bury St. Edmunds has reason to be proud. Web site: www.stedscathedral.co.uk

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Comic giant John Cleese is one of the original honorees on Covent Garden’s Avenue of the Stars.[/caption]

FLYING SCOTSMAN IN YORK

A new permanent exhibition at the National Railway Museum in York opens this spring dedicated to the legendary Flying Scotsman steam locomotive. The exhibition tells the story behind the world’s most famous steam locomotive and the prestigious East Coast rail service from King’s Cross to Edinburgh that made its name. The acclaimed locomotive was purchased for the national collection in 2004. Now, its history comes to life with personal stories of people linked to the locomotive, a 1930s buffet dining car and rare film footage along the Flying Scotsman route from all periods of the 82-year-old locomotive’s life. As the largest railway museum in the world, it is no surprise that rail enthusiasts consider York a place of pilgrimage. Web site: www.nmsi.ac.uk

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The world-famous Flying Scotsman finds a new home at the National Railway Museum in York.[/caption]

SPEAKING FOR THE FARMER

Ever since he had a small garden plot for growing tomatoes at Buckingham Palace as a boy, Prince Charles has been a supporter of British agriculture. He has his own farm, Home Farm, in Gloucestershire. In recent months, the prince has become outspoken in his concerns for the future of farming. Global climate change is certainly one concern. “We should be treating, I think, the whole issue of climate change and global warming with a far greater degree of priority than I think is happening now,” said the prince.
Another worry to Prince Charles is the industrialization of agriculture. The prince voices the reality that small family farms are vital to the preservation of the English countryside and rural communities. He articulates what farming communities intrinsically understand, that agriculture must be thought of as a “culture” and not as an industry. Web site: www.news.bbc.co.uk

BRITAIN’S TALLEST TOWER IN PORTSMOUTH

A new landmark resembling a billowing sail towers over Portsmouth Harbour, the center of England’s naval power since Tudor times and home of the Royal Navy. At 558 feet, Spinnaker Tower is the tallest publicly accessible structure in Britain, offering superb views of the harbor up to 23 miles in three directions. What a magnificent way to get an overview of Portsmouth’s historic dockyards and ships such as HMS Warrior and Nelson’s Victory—and across the Solent to the Isle of Wight. There are three glass-enclosed viewing decks; the top deck, called the Crow’s Nest, is open to the elements. A high-speed internal lift carries visitors from deck to deck, while a panoramic glass lift outside of the tower takes the scenic route. Web site: www.spinnakertower.co.uk

BBC AT THE BARBICAN

The January 27 celebration of Mozart’s 250th birth anniversary we noted last issue is but a part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra season continuing this year through May 19. Having had its own 75th birthday in October, the BBC Symphony is celebrating its anniversary this season with a program highlighting some of the greatest scores of the 20th century by Elgar, Mahler, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Ravel and Strauss. With top ticket prices of £20 for most concerts at their Barbican Hall home, the BBC Symphony is an affordable way for visitors and Londoners alike to enjoy world-class performances of orchestral music. Web site: www.bbc.co.uk/symphonyorchestra

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At 558 feet, Portsmouth’s new Spinnaker Tower looms high over historic Portsmouth Harbour.[/caption]

MUST SEES AND DOS OF LONDON

Every habitué of London has his or her own list of great visits in the world’s most exciting city. VisitBritain’s list of “Ten Must Sees and Dos” might not be everyone’s, but it certainly contains world-class suggestions that would grace any London visitor’s agenda.

1. The National Gallery. One of the greatest collections of European paintings in the world.
2. British Museum. The works of man from prehistory to today from across the globe.
3. The London Eye. The world’s highest observation wheel spins across the skyline.
4. Tate Modern. Britain’s national museum of modern art.
5. Natural History Museum. The biggest, tallest and rarest in the world.
6. Science Museum. Three centuries of major scientific advances.
7. The Victoria & Albert Museum. Celebrating all things art and design.
8. Geffrye Museum. Its rooms in period styles from the 1600s to the present.
9. Dali Universe. London’s most surreal experience in a dreamlike labyrinth.
10. Queen’s Gallery. Changing exhibitions in regal surroundings.
Web site www.visitbritain.com

ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION AT THE NPG

In 1856 the first portrait presented to London’s newly founded National Portrait Gallery was a compelling painting considered to be of William Shakespeare, known as the “Chandos” portrait. By that time, the bard’s likeness had been a matter of national interest for two centuries. Yet the identity of this picture is still considered unproven, and today we have no certain lifetime portrait of England’s most famous poet and playwright.
On the occasion of the National Portrait Gallery’s 150th anniversary in 2006, the gallery will present an exhibition on the biography and portraiture of Shakespeare. Alongside the Chandos portrait, five other early “contender” portraits purporting to represent Shakespeare will be displayed together for the first time. The exhibition will also bring together original documents relating to Shakespeare’s life, and portraits of contemporary actors, patrons and other dramatists, to place the poet in his own times.
The “Searching for Shakespeare” exhibition runs March 2-May 29, 2006, in the Wolfson Gallery at the National Portrait Gallery. It tours to the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven from June 24 through September 17. Web site: ww.npg.org.uk

MY WORD, THE BARD OF AVON!

The Royal Shakespeare Company is to stage the biggest festival in its history this year, featuring every play and poem by the great dramatist. “The Complete Works of Shakespeare” will be staged from April 2006 to April 2007 in Stratford-upon-Avon, the town where the Bard was born and is buried and home of the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Warwickshire market town of Stratford-upon-Avon is expecting a carnival atmosphere—“a national knees-up” in the words of RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd.
Theater companies from around the world will join the RSC in presenting all 37 plays of Shakespeare at the same event for the first time. Highlights include Dame Judi Dench in a musical version of The Merry Wives of Windsor, Sir Ian McKellen making his debut as King Lear and Patrick Stewart in The Tempest. From the United States, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater will present Henry IV, the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., will bring Love’s Labors Lost and New York’s Theater for a New Audience will stage The Merchant of Venice. Web site: www.rsccomplete works.co.uk

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The famed 1610 “Chandos” portrait of William Shakespeare was the first acquisition of the National Portrait Gallery.[/caption]