Classic Rolls Royce cars parked in Dulwich Village

Well Readers, as an East/North Londoner it’s always a bit daunting crossing the river, especially when one has to catch an actual train instead of a tube. But here we are in Dulwich, for a trip to the Dulwich Picture Gallery. We’re here to see their current exhibition of American photographs (highly recommended by the way), but I keep getting distracted. How about this tree, for example?

Persian Silk Tree (Albizia julibrissin)

It’s not until I noticed the ‘beans’ that I remembered that this tree is actually a member of the Bean family (Fabaceae). It’s also known as Mimosa, although for me that name refers to the yellow-flowered tree that grows on one of the County Roads. As a Fellow of the Linnean Society, all I can say is ‘thank heavens for binomial nomenclature’.

Dulwich really is very posh. There are nice cafes everywhere, and everyone looks very well-groomed and put-together. No doubt this isn’t the case for everyone, but I imagine it’s a very nice place to live if you can afford it. It’s also home to a number of famous private schools, such as Dulwich College and Alleyn’s School. Alleyn’s was named for Edward Alleyn, the Elizabethan actor – in his time, he was ranked second only to Richard Burbage,  though Alleyn was most famous for his roles in the plays of Christopher Marlowe, such as Dr Faustus and Tamberlaine. This last role involved dashing his brains out on the bars of the cage that held him captive, which must have been quite something to behold. He set up ‘ The College of God’s Gift’ in Dulwich, which owned most of the land in the area, and which turned into the private colleges. There’s a rather nice statue of him in front of the Old College.

Edward Alleyn and William Allen Sculpture By Louise Simson

Dulwich Picture Gallery is the oldest public art gallery in England – it was designed by Sir John Soane, and has an extraordinary collection of paintings, by everyone from Constable and Gainsborough through Veronese and Fragonard.

Main Gallery (Photo By Bridgeman at German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7681629)

It also has a very nice caff (important for when your feet are swelling on a  hot day) and a sculpture garden outside. I rather liked this sculpture, by Laura Ford: it’s a response to Marino Marini’s sculpture ‘The Angel of the City’, a very grandiose, masculine piece. I love the sense of ‘My Little Pony’ in Ford’s sculpture, plus the sense of stalemate rather than victory. See what you think.

Laura Ford, ‘My Little Marini’

Marino Marini, ‘The Angel of the City’

The stones in the photo below were left behind when a Finnish glacier melted, more than 10,000 years ago – they’re known as ‘Glacial Erratics’. What a great phrase! Sculptor Peter Randall-Page has preserved the stones’ original shapes, but has added a ‘meandering’ pattern, which echoes the frieze on the Picture Gallery. The sculpture is called ‘Walking The Dog I, II and III’

This piece is called ‘Waking Matter’ and uses ‘surplus’ Carrera marble from Italy – it’s by Amy Stephens. You are invited to walk under it, which fills me with some trepidation I must say. It looks a little too like a guillotine to me.

Anyway, we had a lovely time ‘south of the river’, and, indeed, we were so impressed with the exhibition that I’ve signed us up as Friends – the next exhibition is the Hokusai ‘Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji’ which I managed to miss when it was at the British Museum recently, so it felt as if it might be worth it. If you’re in the area (or even if you’re not) do pop in. I can recommend the vanilla doughnuts in the cafe too.