The Chelsea Flower Show
The Chelsea Flower Show is a weeklong event every May that was traditionally part of the hopefully now defunct annual London “Social Season” (Buckingham Palace garden parties, the Epsom Derby & Royal Ascot (horse racing), Henley Royal Regatta (rowing on the Thames) and dedutantes’ coming out balls etc). The late Queen always showed up and maintaining the tradition, newly crowned King Charles made an appearance this week. The event is put on in the grounds of the Royal Chelsea Hospital, a palatial looking retirement and nursing home for old British soldiers, the so-called “Chelsea Pensioners”.
We’re at the Show on the last day where we meet up with our longtime travel companions Kevin & Megan who’ve just flown in from Perth. The weather is perfect and the crowds massive! The show gardens and the Great Pavilion are the main attractions (apart from the numerous food and drink tents and outlets, whose main inducements are champagne and Pimms #1) but the crowds are so large that it’s a challenge to get any more than a glimpse of any of the spectacular displays
We’re enjoying a long and rather boozy lunch in one of the Show’s two fine dining restaurants when at 4pm a countdown started over the PA system. The countdown is to the start of the end-of-show sale of many of the plants and flowers on display in the Great Pavilion. Many “reserve” their chosen purchases in advance while others join the scrum. Perhaps this explains why the final day crowds are so large? Crowds that pour out of the exits many people carrying their purchases in wheeled bags or bins head for the nearest underground station, Sloane Square
Glyndebourne
There can be few occasions more typically English than a visit to the annual opera festival known simply as “Glyndebourne”. The Festival which started in 1934 takes place in the grounds of the home of the Christie family, in the village of Glynde, not too far from Brighton on the English south coast.
”Home” is perhaps a misnomer. The origin of the house dates back to the the 16th century but the Christie family only acquired the property and extended the house in the mid-19th century.
In the early 20th century, John Christie added an organ room to the house and installed an organ which at the time was the largest in the country outside of a cathedral. And it was in this room in the early 1930’s that the idea for the Festival began based on John’s honeymoon experience with some of the classical music festivals of Europe, such as the Wagner festival in Bayreuth.
A small theatre was built as an annex to the organ room which was gradually added on to so that by the late ‘70’s it had a capacity of 850.
A completely new theatre with a capacity of 1200 was built in 1994. Although the festival runs from May to August, with several different operas each season, tickets are hard to come by. Members get first dibs, followed by associate members and lastly the general public. There is a long waiting list to become a Glyndebourne member - at least 10 years or more. Luckily for us, Lorraine’s sister Françoise is a member and we’re able to get tickets to see Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”.
But the opera itself is just a part of the full “Glyndebourne experience”. Most of the audience (us included) is in evening dress; then there’s afternoon tea before the performance (strawberries and champagne of course); and a picnic during the interval (washed down with more champagne!). Unsure about the weather, we opted for one of the picnic tables in a marquee, but many people bring a table (and a tablecloth of course) and chairs and picnic on the estate’s beautifully manicured lawns. A little windy, but otherwise a near-perfect English early summer’s day - warm & sunny.
I have vague memories of going to Glyndebourne when I was at medical school, but couldn’t remember when or what opera I’d seen. Remarkably, Stephen remembered that I’d seen Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades” even though he hadn’t been there! Checking into Glyndebourne’s archive revealed that this opera had been performed between late May and late June 1971. So a return visit, 52 years later, perhaps almost to the day!
And so this long and very varied journey - ”Everywhere, Everything” - comes to a close. Our journey started in Oslo and quite coincidentally ends in “Oslo” - a rather old-fashioned restaurant on the ground floor of an apartment building in London’s St. John’s Wood, Oslo Court where we enjoy a lovely evening and delicious dinner with Dan & Selina