Hands up who else is missing a regular dose of ‘live culture’. I know I am. Along side bookshops, and drinking coffee inside a cafe, art galleries and museums are what I really miss.
I know having all of these usually so readily accessible in London is a privilege. A privilege I hope I will never underestimate, especially having been with out them for so many months over the last year.
Standing in front of a beautiful painting, or historical treasure with nothing but a sliver of space and air separating you from it is a wonderful thing. I long to gaze on the tapestries at The Victoria and Albert Museum. I’m yearning to mooch through Tate Britain and pining for the lavish rooms of The Wallace Collection. To hear live music or be part of a theatre audience again is the dream
I know that of course in time these will all return. Our experience of them may return in slightly different ways, but they will return. Art and Culture is part of London’s DNA. It gives the city its breath and shape it can’t stay away for ever.
So many of London’s places of culture are doing their absolute best to bring their offerings to us in imaginative and creative ways. Of course it can never replace a ‘live’ experience but it does mean that those who are desperately missing their culture fix can still find it. The first lock down was certainly enhanced for me by the wonderful selection of streamed performances from The National Theatre. In fact I was able to ‘go to’ performances of Frankenstein and Jayne Eyre, both of which I had longed to see but never managed to get tickets for.
Read on for some of London’s finest online Cultural highlights.
Music and Dance
The Royal Opera House
Returning to the ROH is high on my post lockdown wish list. In the meant time I highly recommend watching The Royal Ballet’s performance of La Fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter). I have seen it and its wonderful, lots of fun and very entertaining. I am also planning to watch exquisite fairytale opera Cendrillon (Cinderella). All the ROH’s live streams are just £3 £3, an absolute bargain!
Ronnie Scotts
If you music tastes are more inclined toward Jazz, then hop over to Ronnie Scotts Website. This jazz institution in the heart of London is offering a series of live streamed shows.
St Martin in the Fields
I really enjoyed the streamed carol service from St Martin’s over Christmas. They are currently putting on a weekly online concert series called Fresh Horizons. Tickets are £10 and you can watch your chosen concert as many times as you want over 30 days
Theatre
The National Theatre at Home
The National Theatre at Home has a huge selection of plays available to rent for around £6 each or you can subscribe for £8.32 a month. If you are quick, there is still time to catch Dick Whittington.
Stage To View
If musicals are your thing then, Stage to View has selection of West End and Broadway Musicals available to watch for £4.99 or €5.99. I quite fancy An American in Paris.
Shakespeare’s Globe
If Shakespeare is what you crave then Globe Player from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre is definitely worth exploring. Apart from a huge collection of Shakespeare’s plays. There are a couple of added extras including Gemma Arterton in The Duchess of Malfi. You can also watch some of the fantastic free content featuring interviews and conversations with the likes of Judi Dench and Derek Jacobi. I’ve watched the conversation with Ewan McGregor which was fascinating.
Art
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery is a gem of a gallery with a gorgeous shop and cafe too. It is one I cannot wait to get back to.
The gallery currently has a number of online creative activities to get involved with including some free nature inspired family craft events on Sundays.
Unearthed: Photography’s Roots. This is the gallery’s first major photography exhibition which I really hope to be able to get to in the flesh. In the mean time, there is a free online curators talk and Q&A on 4th March. Tickets are £10
You can also explore in close up many of the wonderful paintings which make up part of the gallery’s permanent collection.
The Royal Academy
The Royal Academy has done a brilliant job throughout the various lockdowns continuing to make its collections and art accessible to all. One of the exhibitions I am most looking forward to seeing this year (everything crossed) is David Hockney’s ‘The Arrival of Spring Normandy 2020’
“Made in the spring of 2020, during a period of intense activity at his home in Normandy, this exhibition charts the unfolding of spring, from beginning to end, and is a joyous celebration of the seasons.”
For the time being take an online tour of ‘Tracey Emin / Edvard Much: The Lonelieness of the Soul’
Or, get inspired with all the ideas for art activities with small and big kids.
The Wallace Collection
I adore The Wallace Collection and it was the first gallery I went back to when they opened briefly in the summer. It had felt like a momentous occasion.
They have a whole series of talks and courses available online. The one which has caught my eye is on 8th March, International Woman’s Day.
“curator Suzanne Higgott will discuss the life and legacy of Lady Wallace: the shy, enigmatic Frenchwoman who bequeathed the Wallace Collection to the British nation”
This is a free event accessed via Zoom on on the gallery’s Youtube channel.
There are also a lovely series of videos entitled ‘meet the expert’ . An opportunity to learn from one of the gallery’s curators or specialists about specific works of art or furniture.
Although it breaks my heart that all our wonderful places of culture remain closed, as I was researching and writing this I realised how much is still available to feast our culturally hungry eyes on. Maybe lockdown isn’t ‘quite’ so bad after all…..!
I would love to hear any of your other lockdown culture recommendations in the comments below.
