On a recent business trip to Washington, D.C., I visited a new (to me) museum: the National Portrait Gallery. It's a neat museum and I got to see almost all of the exhibits before my legs—and brain—gave out.The tour reminded me of our rather brief visit to the British NPG, but the sight that really got my London reminiscence juices flowing was the sight of the covered central court (see above). Doesn't it look like the Great Court at the British Museum? (You can see pictures that I took there at the bottom of this page.)
And that wasn't my only London-themed memory on the trip.
The next evening I had dinner at this DC eatery, the first time I'd seen the phrase "Elephant and Castle" outside of London.
Apparently it's a chain of pubs with locations all over the country (none in Texas, however, which accounts for my surprise). I didn't have fish and chips there, although I was tempted. I went 
instead with a local specialty, crab cakes.But I did tip my cap, or mug, or whatever, to my London days by having a Magners cider, which I was happy to find on the menu.
This became my standard pub order when we would head down to the local O'Neill's to watch a soccer game or just have dinner. Of course, there at the corner of Redcliffe Gardens and Old Brompton Road, the Magners was on draft. But I must make do with what's available on this side of the pond. Unfortunately.
2 comments:
Your photos of the court yard are stunning and the NPG certainly looks similar! You might be surprised if you went back to Elephant and Castle these days as the regeneration project is well under way and the Strata building is completed now.
I really didn't go to the E&C area much, but it seemed to come up often in my WWII reading, especially as there were some horrific Blitz raids in that neighborhood. It's such an odd, completely English-y name isn't it?
Post a Comment