Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison

One of last month's Nice Days Out was a bit different... I visited a prison!

Well, an art exhibition in a prison to be precise.

HM Prison Reading closed in 2013 but is currently open to the public (for the first time ever) for a very special art exhibition. Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison sees artists, writers and performers respond to the story of Oscar Wilde, Reading Prison's most famous inmate.

I've passed Reading Prison so many times over the years, I couldn't resist the opportunity to see inside the building.

The space has changed a lot, of course, since the Victorian building opened as Reading Gaol in the mid 1800s. The mix of the Victorian architecture and the more modern fixtures and fittings is a very interesting one, and there are still lots of traces of the everyday life of the prisoners here - notices pasted on walls, graffiti in the cells. 

 

 

 

 

 

Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in cell C.3.3. He wrote De Profundis here, and after his release he went on to write The Ballad of Reading Gaol - a poem which he published under his cell number instead of his name.

This is how cell C.3.3 looks today:

During the exhibition, there have been readings of De Profundis in the prison chapel - from a stage the same size as Oscar Wilde's cell, and in front of the cell's original door. 

 

There's all kinds of different art and pieces of writing dotted throughout the building, in the corridors and in the cells. Paintings, video art, installations, letters ... all sorts of interesting stuff responding to the space, to Oscar Wilde's life and to themes of imprisonment.

I especially liked Waterfall by Robert Gober (a jacket hanging on the wall with a rather surreal and magical waterfall inside/behind it)....

... and these paintings of a glass of water by Peter Dreher (who has painted the same single glass of water on the same table repeatedly, over several decades).

It was also fascinating to read about the history of the building (and the ghastly Victorian separate system) and to see photos of some of the discharged prisoners.

There's no photo of Oscar Wilde, as they only photographed prisoners who were thought likely to re-offend. I wonder what all these people were imprisoned for?

This is an exhibition unlike any other.

Architecture and history and art and literature... plus the raw emotion of standing in one of those tiny cells and imagining living there day after day. It's a lot to take in!

 

Inside runs until 30th October - click here for more info and to book tickets. UPDATE: the exhibition has now been extended to December 4th!

P.S. As this is normally a family-friendly blog, I ought to mention that there are some adult / NSFW artworks in this exhibition so bear that in mind if you want to find out more :)

A Visit to The Cornershop

I took a trip to East London last week (as part of a Nice Day Out) to visit Lucy Sparrow's Cornershop.

This is a pop-up shop with a difference - all the products in the shop have been hand-stitched from felt!

Lucy stitched all the products herself, right down to the felt signs and felt till / cash register.

There are biscuits and beer...

... lots of felt newspapers...

... tins of sardines, baked beans, soup, custard and fruit cocktail...

 

...  and jars of sweets and bottles of gin.

 

There's a chiller cabinet with butter, cheese, milk, cans of Coke and boxed sandwiches...

 

... and freezers with ready meals, oven chips, plus icecreams and ice lollies.

Don't forget the Marmite and Custard Creams!

There are also felt versions of all your household essentials, like toothpaste, shampoo, washing powder and dog food.

Plus (of course) lots of schoolkid-tempting treats like sweets and crisps.

Delightful!

The Cornershop is open every day until the end of August. You can read more about The Cornershop and Lucy's previous felt artworks here and buy products from the shop here.

The British Library, St Pancras & A Walk Along the Thames

This week's Nice Day Out started out at the British Library.

 

It was just a short visit - just time to have a quick look round and check out an exhibition I was interested in about childrens book illustrations. I definitely need to remember to come back here for a longer visit because mmm... so many lovely books...

Right next to the British Library is St Pancras station & hotel, famous for its Victorian architecture:

 

Pretty fancy, huh?

Then I got the Tube to St Pauls...

 

... walked across the Millennium Bridge...

 

... and went to Tate Modern to meet the lovely Laura from LauraFallulah. I've known Laura for years online, through Etsy etc, it was really nice to finally meet up for a proper chat! 

 

After a cuppa and a bite to eat at the Tate, we went next door to the Bankside Gallery:

 

There was a lovely exhibition of small prints and paintings on when we visited, including some prints by Angie Lewin whose work I've only ever seen before in reproductions as notecards, etc. The shop here has a great selection of notecards and other nice bits and pieces, it's definitely on my list for future birthday-card buying!

Then we went for a walk along the Thames, down to the Westminster Bridge and then back along the other side of the river before having another cuppa and heading homewards.

 

It was a bit of a grey day as you can see from the photos, but not too cold and it didn't rain once, hurrah!

Guildhall Art Gallery & The Cheapside Hoard

For this week's Nice Day Out I went to the City of London (this is an area of London, not just a fancy way to refer to London itself). I love the juxtaposition of the old and new in the City!

 

I had a wander round, looking at lovely old buildings like the Royal Exchange...

... and the Bank of England. Sadly the Bank of England Museum is currently closed, but the building itself is well worth seeing - such fantastic doors! (2 lions guarding a pile of gold coins? Awesome!)

 

Then I walked to Guildhall Yard...

 

 

... a gorgeous, quiet square. The Guildhall is very impressive!

 

I looked round Guildhall Art Gallery, which had an interesting temporary exhibition of portraits and some lovely Victorian pictures. You can also see part of the Roman ampitheatre that was discovered beneath the building when they were adding a new basement gallery - the original shape of the ampitheatre is marked out across the yard by a curved black line (if you look at the pictures of the yard, above, you can see it in the 2nd photo). 

It was also a wonderful, quiet space to wander round - at times during my visit I was the only person in each gallery space!

 

After visiting the gallery, I walked round the corner to the Guildhall Library where there's a small Clockmaker's Museum. This little museum tells the story of clockmaking from the perspective of The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers (est. 1631) and showcases the Company's interesting collection of clocks.

 

Then I headed to the Museum of London...

 

... for lunch, and to see the Cheapside Hoard exhibition.

The Cheapside Hoard is a collection of 16th & 17th Century jewellery & gemstones that was discovered buried in a London cellar in 1912. I had never heard of it before reading about this exhibition, but it looked interesting and I could get a discount off the ticket price with my Art Pass so I thought I'd have a look... and WOW. This exhibition is amazing! I spent an age looking round it and taking lots of notes, and I am almost tempted to go back and see it for a second time!

The first room introduces you to jewellery-making and -selling in Elizabethan and Jacobean London, with displays of things like old shop signs, tools, jewellery boxes, etc and a recreation of a goldsmith's workshop.

Then the jewellery itself is gorgeous and displayed really well, with great info panels that tell you about the pieces themselves but also lots of interesting things like the various ailments that Elizabethans thought certain gemstones could cure.

Around the walls are several awesome portaits from the period showing people wearing jewellery very similar to the pieces from the Hoard (I adore the portraits of this era, so I loved seeing these - they were all quite fabulous) plus extra context-giving displays like some clothing from the period and (completely delightfully) a perfume created for the exhibition based on the typical contents of perfumers stores at the time (you open up a little door in the wall and sniff the perfume through a grate - it smelled rather delicious!).

Top tip: when you visit this exhibition you have to leave your coats and bags in lockers for security reasons, so if you go along, remember to take a £1 coin for your locker.

After the exhibition I had a cuppa and then spent a while exploring some of the permanent galleries in the Museum. These are arranged chronologically - I got as far as the Great Fire of London until it was time to head home. I'm really looking forward to visiting the Museum again soon so I can check out the rest of the galleries and explore some of London's more recent history.