Members are advised of forthcoming visits by
email and sign up (by responding to the email) for each
visit in advance on a first come, first served basis.
Individual visits may be limited to 10-20 members depending
on the destination. To keep things simple (!) for me, I'll
open booking for each visit about a month before the date
and if numbers are limited I'll let you know.
Please note that many visits require payment
of entrance charges. Some events are free, but many require
a payment for an entry fee or guided tour. When an event is
'pay on the day' please have the correct money with you, in
an envelope with your name on it as this is the best way of
checking who has paid and who has not! If I ask for payment
in advance it should be by cheque made payable to ‘Islington
U3A’ and sent to me, or by electronic payment direct to
iU3A’s account. Email me if you need more information. If
the visit is ticketed, I will ask for a stamped, addressed
envelope from you so I can send you your ticket/s.
September 2023 visits
We began ‘exploring’ after the summer break with two visits
in September, both attracting small groups to

the events. On
Friday
1 September the destination was Greenwich, where
seasoned Explorers know there is always plenty to see! The
focus for this visit was the Queen’s House which has an
impressive exhibition of paintings and drawings by the two
eminent Dutch artists Willem van de Velde, father and son,
who were invited to set up their studio in the Queen’s House
by King Charles II. As a result, the Maritime Museum in
Greenwich has the largest collection of sketches, drawings
and paintings by the Van de Veldes outside the Netherlands
and a selection were shown throughout the Queen’s House.
Also on show for the first time since its conservation is a
huge tapestry of the Battle of Solebay (1672) designed by
Willem van de Velde the Elder – and you can see it in the
photograph. The exhibition ‘Greenwich, art and the sea’
continues until 14 January 2024, and is well worth a visit —
especially as it’s free! If you go, be sure to look closely
at one of the large paintings ‘en grisaille’ as you’ll spot
Van de Velde the Elder with his drawing board on knee,
making sketches of the naval action taking place in front of
him!

On
Thursday 14 September
we headed west to Kensington to visit Kensington Palace
while a temporary exhibition ‘Crown to Couture’ is running
at the Palace (it’s on until October). This major exhibition
ranges through the King’s and Queen’s State Apartments — the
photograph shows King Charles I on horseback looking down on
a typical gallery! — and features an extensive
collection of outfits for men and women from UK collections
of historic dress and from contemporary international
designers who created visually impressive ‘special occasion
wear’. Visitors can examine detailed embroidery and lace,
shoes and corsets, learning about the rules and etiquette of
court dress and can’t miss an 18th century dress with
panniers which measures about 3 yards from side to side.
Twentieth and twenty-first century dresses ranged from a
modest white lace frock designed by Edith Head for Audrey
Hepburn to stunning outfits for Beyonce and Lizzo — which
were definitely not modest! This exhibition seems to have
attracted different audiences to the Palace, those visitors
who are interested in visiting the historic site and another
group who are primarily interested in fashion and costume
design — a clever bit of marketing. We had a fine afternoon
to enjoy the Palace at its most attractive — and welcome
afternoon tea in the café afterwards.…
Previous Visit Reports
A useful summary of our recent explorations is available
here:
2021-22 Summary
Report
July: RCP Gardens: The Denis Lasdun b

uilding for the Royal
College of Physicians close to Regent’s Park, is a
‘must-see’ for fans of 20-century architecture, but there’s
another reason to visit — so a group of Explorers
(including two new members) headed there on 12 July for the
last ‘exploration’ of the summer. The RCP boasts a medicinal
garden, designed to surround the building and extend along
the neighbouring Terrace and the John Nash-designed house
named after William Harvey. Like the better-known Chelsea
Physic Garden, the plants in it would have been grown for
medicinal purposes for hundreds, if not thousands, of years
and the RCP offers expert-led group tours so that visitors
can find out more. Our group was taken round by Dr Sue
Burge, formerly of Oxford University; she features in a
couple of our photographs in the full report
here of our
entertaining and illuminating tour that afternoon. You can
go round the garden on your own during the week — the
building and museum are also open, or book one of the
regular monthly group tours — highly recommended!
July: Whitstable: The Exploring London group has

established several
traditions in the nearly 10 years it’s been ‘exploring’ —
and one of them is having a day trip outside London! We
started quite locally with Hatfield House, but in recent
years locations conveniently reached by trains from Kings
Cross or St Pancras have proved popular and 2023 was no
exception. Whitstable proved to be a popular destination on
6 July and all the places on our group walk led by Rob Smith
were quickly taken up. Rob’s walks have always highlighted
aspects of the venues that group members were unaware of —
and this walk was no different. Whitstable is much more than
picturesque oyster bars! We learned about early railways in
the area and even earlier industries dating back to the 16th
century. Even the local ‘Castle’ had a rather racy back
story as the full report
here shows. Our
photo was taken by the harbour on a brief pause before group
members headed off individually — some to have lunch,
explore more of the town — or fit in another walk and a swim
before returning to London!
June: Oval Cricket Ground: Our Fellow-E

xplorer Jill L regularly goes to
watch matches at the Oval ground, home of Surrey Cricket
Club, and she suggested going on one of the regular tours of
the ground that are offered to visitors. So a group of
Explorers bought their tickets and joined a tour on 23 June
— with Jill in charge! Pauline took the group photo during
the tour and Angela wrote … ‘You didn't have to be a
particular fan of cricket to enjoy the tour of the grounds,
although there was plenty for the true aficionados to be
interested in. The actual ground, or pitch, was much more
intimate than I expected and was, not surprisingly, a
beautiful oval shape with of course the iconic gasometer in
the background. It was easy to imagine walking down the
steps into a packed ground, bat in hand, ready to score a
useful set of runs or, indeed, climbing back up the steps
having been bowled for a duck and having to face your team
in the dressing room!’
Have a look at
the photographs
that Jill and Pauline took during the visit to whet
your appetite for your own visit to this historic cricket
ground.
June — Guildhall Art Gallery: The afternoo

n of 14
June was very warm and sunny, so it was a pleasure to get
inside for a second opportunity to catch up with the latest
temporary exhibition there,
The Big City. The run of
this popular exhibition had been extended to the end of July
which gave more ‘Explorers’ a chance to explore London in a
different way — by viewing very large paintings from the
City’s collection which aren’t normally easy to see because
of their size. From Greenwich in 1678, to south London in
2013, the exhibition ranges in both time and location — and
you can search for mice in surprising locations too! This
exterior photo was taken from the side of St Lawrence Jewry
Church, which has recently reopened and is looking beautiful
inside, across the sunny courtyard to the Guildhall Art
Gallery building. The Guildhall itself is on the left —
watch out for details of our proposed visit there in October
as it’s bound to be popular.
May and June — Covent Garden: Two grou

ps of Explorers
headed to the Covent Garden area with our guide Jill Finch,
to follow the second of her popular ‘Oranges and Lemons’
walks, which are themed around the well-known nursery rhyme.
This time we started the walks at St Martin-in-the-Fields
church — ‘I owe you five farthings, say the bells of St
Martins’ — and it was pointed out that the area around this
St Martins church was such a poor one that a debt as small
as 5 farthings was much more likely to be significant than
in the parishes of more wealthy City churches with the same
dedication. Even in such a familiar area as Covent Garden,
the groups saw locations that we had never noticed before,
such as what must be London’s narrowest alley, and learnt
fascinating stories about street muggings, murderous actors
and how not to get into one of London’s newest small
museums! Read the full report
here for
details of the walks and many more photographs taken in May
and June, when the sunny weather showed London at its best …
April — Old St Pancras Church: This visit had

been
organized for us by fellow-Explorer Judith Birch. When she
told us about it she said that the guide who would take us
round, Lester Hillman, knew a tremendous amount about the
church, the surrounding churchyard and the neighbouring area
of Camden — and he certainly did! It was a grey and damp
morning — as you can see from this photo — to start
exploring a churchyard, so the coffee and tea that was
offered in the church was very welcome. The group sat
comfortably inside the church to hear Hillman’s discursive
presentation about the building and then moved outside to
learn more about burials in the churchyard, both those which
survive to the present day and those which have been moved
due to the several redevelopments in the area. While the
ash-tree known apocryphally as the ‘Hardy Tree’ had fallen
in the winter of 2022, there were still a few cheerful signs
of spring to come in clumps of cowslips between grave stones
… and the sun did come out as some of us continued exploring
as far as the canal, Camley Street and Kings Cross. Thanks
to Judith for arranging our visit, and for writing the
report
here too!
March, April — Wapping: The walks that Jill Finch

leads for Exploring London are
always popular so we try to repeat them. Our walk around
Wapping was no exception, so we had walks scheduled for 27
March and 13 April. The photo shows the March group ready to
set off from outside Wapping Station. Spring weather has
been variable — to say the least — but the groups were
lucky, as both dates were chilly but bright and dry. The
route enabled the groups to learn a lot about the social,
economic and architectural history of the area with its
strong maritime and trading links. Converted factories and
warehouses, docks and canals, pubs and churches all featured
in the tour, though the April group were unable to visit
inside St Peter’s as the report
here records.
Happily, both groups did end their tours at the Prospect of
Whitby for a well-deserved lunch! There are plenty of
photographs in the full report and they may encourage more
members of the Exploring London group to head to Wapping
later in the year if you haven’t done so before.
March — The City of London’s Guildhall Art Gallery:
This
is currently showing a temporary exhibition of huge
paintings from the City’s collection — ones that are not
normally on public display as they are so big that the
gallery doesn’t have the wall-space to hang them! The
exhibition is another way to ‘explore’ London as the images
date from the late 17th century up to the early 21st century
and show how artists have responded both to events in the
City and to the urban landscape of London. A group of
Explorers, led by Liz (who volunteers at the gallery as well
as coordinating ‘Exploring London’) visited on 17 March and
are pictured in the temporary garden that was installed
outside the Guildhall in March. As the exhibition has been
extended until July, there will be another chance to visit
later in the spring/summer.
March — Leighton House: On a chilly an

d wet day,
19 Explorers, despite the weather, headed to Kensington for
this visit. This photo of the exterior and hardy blossom
tree was snatched between showers of rain! Leighton House,
the former home of Lord Leighton, has recently reopened
after a major development and refurbishment which has added
a larger entrance and shop, a cafe and educational
facilities to the building. Lord Leighton had bought an
empty building plot in 1864 and over the next 30 years the
house evolved into — as the handy guidebook says — ‘a
palace of art, combining domestic accommodation, a large
painting studio, spaces for entertainment and a setting for
his collections’. Group member and Explorer Rachel S has
written a report
here in which
she reflects on this visit and her previous visits to
Leighton House, and additional comments by other members and
a selection of photographs give a good idea what can be
expected if you visit too. Kensington’s website
www.rbkc.gov.uk offers an
excellent introduction to Leighton House and Sambourne House
and the ‘Holland Park Circle’ of artists who lived there in
the 19th century.
January and February 2023: Exploring London started
off 2023’s visits programme with two opportunities to
‘explore’ south and north of the river! On 27 January there
was a chance to visit Greenwich and see Luke Jerram’s
‘Museum of the Moon‘ installation in the Old Royal Naval
College’s Painted Hall. The contrast between the impressive
paintings by Sir James Thornhill on the walls and ceiling of
the hall and the slowly revolving globe of the moon can be
seen in the photographs in the PDF of the full report of our
two visits and you can see the link
here.
Just over a week later, on 8 February, a larger gro

up of Explorers set
off on a bright but chilly morning to the Dickens Museum in
Bloomsbury. It was definitely a chilly day and for many of
us, the first stop was the museum’s cafe as you can see from
the photo! The museum, comprising two townhouses on Doughty
Street, had plenty of interest whether one is a fan of
Dickens or not. The photographs in the PDF
above show some
of the main rooms on view in this early Victorian interior.
Furniture, pictures and other artefacts from the museum’s
extensive collection are well-displayed and would reward
return visits. One recommendation — pick a quiet time or day
as the small houses can get pretty crowded when there are
groups or events.
Islington’s ‘Exploring London’ group is for

tunate in having a
very active member in Pauline, who moved to west London but
has kept up her membership of iU3A. On 21 February she took
a group of Explorers for a visit to the National Archives in
Kew and nine of the group are pictured here, outside the
Archive’s building. The National Archives is free to visit
and has a programme of temporary exhibitions, currently
Treason:
People, Power and Plot. It’s accessible by tube,
Overground and SW trains from Waterloo, close to the Thames
and Kew Gardens and the well laid-out grounds are proving to
be a haven for bird-life, as the group spotted! There’s more
information on the website
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
if other iU3A members fancy a trip west! See the pdf of this
visit
here.
December — Royal Society: Explorers visited the Roy

al Society in its
Carlton House Terrace headquarters on 6 December 2022,
prompted by a temporary exhibition focusing on John Ruskin
and his interest in contemporary scientific developments,
especially ‘the science of sight’. Pre-booking for groups
was required as there’s only a small exhibition space and,
like many similar buildings, the Royal Society is heavily
used for meetings and conferences. But when we contacted
them, they remembered we had previously visited in 2016 and
we were offered the opportunity for a guided tour of the
impressive building and a visit to the library, where
several of the Society’s treasures were out on display for
the group. Our guide for the afternoon, the Library Manager,
gave us a potted history of the Society and the building
itself as we walked round, before the group spent time in
the temporary exhibition at the end of the tour. If you read
the report
here you’ll get
a good idea of the visit, with more photographs — and you’ll
see that it looks as though we’d be welcomed back again!
November — Sutton House: At last, ‘Exploring

London’ has finally
caught up with all its planned pre-Covid programming.
Fellow-Explorer Brenda had arranged for a guided tour of
Sutton House, the NT-managed property in Hackney, before
life closed down in March 2020 — and we’d even paid a
deposit! Sutton House eventually re-opened for visits this
year, initially for group tours only, so we were able to
negotiate a date and Brenda led a group visit on Wednesday
23 November. The guide took our group all over the house,
explaining about its history and stories and pointing out
the interesting features which have survived the years. The
full report
here tells you
more about the visit, and includes several photos to give
you an idea of what to expect if you visit on your own, as
the house will be open again for individual visits in
February 2023 after its winter clean; there are concessions
for NT members and Hackney residents.
November — Abney Park Cemetery, to lea

rn more about the
cemetery and nature reserve, and especially the Common
Graves project ‘Abney Unearthed’. We’re very grateful
to Judith, who is an ‘Explorer’ and volunteers on the
project, for making the arrangements for the group, and to
Haydn who led the party on its exploration. Abney Park was
one of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemeteries established in the
nineteenth century to cope with the lack of space for
burials in existing London cemeteries. Luckily for the
group, the wet weather held off long enough for a walk
through the cemetery, identifying where ‘common graves’ had
been sited and researched: Judith’s report
here with
photographs gives more information and shows what it looks
like in a mild and wet November! For more information, go to
www.abneypark.org where you can
learn more about Abney Park, development plans and events
and opportunities for volunteering.
October — Visit to the Poppy Factory in R
ichmond (arranged
by Pauline). While the single poppies themselves
aren’t made at the site any more, the special wreaths are
assembled there. The Factory has a visitors’ centre where
the history and manufacture of the iconic red poppy is
explained by means of full displays and installations and
visitors can attempt to make their own poppies — using only
one hand — or try making wreaths. One group member
remarked afterwards that both activities were pretty
difficult — but our photo of some of the group shows that we
did manage it! There are more photographs on the report
here which
Pauline wrote and we’re very grateful to her for setting up
this October visit. As you can see, the visit did include
tea and home-made cakes!
Archive
For a summary view of our visits over all the years, have a
look
.
.
.
.
.
Or if you are interested in reading about our even earlier
visits in 2015 then have a look at our archive