Take Five

Winter Warmers by Judith Schrut

The Wallace Collection celebrates our four footed friends: Edwin Landseer, Hector, Nero and Dash with the Parrot Lory, 1838 Royal Collection Trust ©His Majesty King Charles III 2022, photo courtesy Brera PR Portrait of Cecilia Vicuña in front of Quipu Womb 2017, at Tate Modern 2022, c.Cecilia Vicuña, Photo ©Tate (Lucy Dawkins) Jan van Eyck, Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife (the Arnolfini Portrait), 1434, © National Gallery, London

Judith Schrut takes us on a brief, but spectacular preview of 2023’s cultural activities and other treats.

The glow, glitz and guzzle of the festive season are behind us and Spring’s tell-tale snowdrops, blue skies and daffodils aren’t quite ready to put in an appearance. Are you wondering what to do with these wintry waiting weeks? Good news! Britain’s got loads of toasty treats on offer this time of year. Read on to discover some great ways to cheat that chill and warm those cockles.

1. Cold Hands, Warm Art

For a simple, pleasurable and often free way to come in from the cold, it’s hard to beat a visit to one of Britain’s huge range of museums and art galleries. With over 2,500 to choose from, there’s one for every age, interest or attention span in your household. And if statistics are anything to go by, this is one of the nation’s favourite pastimes, with an astonishing 50.2% of UK adults visiting a museum or gallery at least once a year (2019 gov.uk figures).

At the National Gallery you can de-chill in the warm glow of some of Europe’s finest paintings. Included with free entry are must-see treasures by Van Gogh, Monet, Turner, Leonardo DaVinci, Canaletto and dozens more. Upcoming special shows (ticketed, members free) include After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art and

the Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the

Renaissance. There are gorgeous gift shops for tasteful browsing and a choice of cafés and restaurants for that essential tea and cake break. Highly recommended are the Gallery’s Friday Lates, with free workshops, tours, music and bars.

The British Museum was the world’s first national public museum when it opened in 1759. Today, it’s home to one of the largest and most comprehensive collections on earth - over eight million works covering two million years of human history and culture from across the globe. Admission is free; tours, talks and object trails abound. try the Museum’s whirlwind self-guided tour, an eyepopping stroll taking in the Rosetta Stone, Lewis Chessmen, Samurai armour, two-headed Aztec Serpent, Egyptian mummies, Parthenon marbles and other worldly wonders.

The Tate siblings - Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives - are packed with temptations for art lovers, with unparalleled collections of old and new masterpieces set in superb spaces. From Matisse to Magritte, Picasso to Picabia and Dali to Damien Hirst, Tate Modern offers an ever-changing feast of visual treats, outstanding special exhibitions and some of the best riverside views in London. Tate Britain’s focus is British art, including the world’s largest collection of Turners, plenty of Hogarths, Hockneys, Henry Moores and Blakes (both William and Peter) and innovative shows such as Hew Locke’s Procession, the Rosettis, and Women in Revolt. Tate St Ives, majestically perched on the sands of Cornwall’s loveliest coastal town, gives us Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life. While you’re visiting St Ives, be sure to stop by the magical, semi-hidden Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, a lesser known member of the Tate family. It’s in the house where Hepworth lived, worked, raised triplets and tragically died when her art studio caught fire in 1975.

Everyone loves these big hitters, but don’t overlook the hundreds of small but artfullyformed museum and gallery gems off the beaten track. The Wallace Collection is one such gem, set in a stunning 18th century London house and filled with exceptional paintings, arms, armour and priceless antiques, not forgetting the enchanting courtyard café. Animal lovers won’t want to miss its highly anticipated show devoted to our four-footed friends, Faithful

and Fearless: Portraits of Dogs from

Gainsborough to Hockney.

The Horniman Museum and Gardens, fresh from triumph as 2022 Art Fund Museum of the Year, celebrates cultures and community with amazing and lovingly displayed objects from around the world, plus wonderful gardens, aquarium, micro-forest, butterfly house, Sunday market and family activities galore. Also worth a voyage out are Bath’s warm and welcoming Holburne Museum and Norwich’s Sainsbury’s Gallery, soon to host Empowering Art, a groundbreaking exhibition of indigenous art from the American Northwest. Book lovers will enjoy a pilgrimage to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, West Yorkshire, Jane Austen’s House, Hampshire or Charles Dickens Museum, London.

Further information: nationalgallery.org.uk british museum.org tate.org.uk wallacecollection.org

Contestants cook and coo in the Great British Bake Off Musical, photo courtesy Borkowski Arts & Ents

2. Hot Tickets

It’s been a rough, tough couple of years for UK Theatreland, forced by the pandemic to go dark for the longest period since Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan Parliament shut down all theatres in the 17th century. Which makes it all the more fabulous to see stages across the country open again and back to their best. The coming months promise an invigorating blend of new treats, classic revivals and golden oldies to snuggle up to.

Topping West End newbies this year is the Great British Bake Off Musical. Bake Off has been wildly popular UK telly for more than 13 years. But did you know that The Great British Baking Show, (as it’s called in the States), is a firm favourite on American TV too? Much of US viewers’ fun comes from discovering just what those Brit bakers mean by puddings, soggy bottoms, hot baps and so on. The New York Times has even run a translation guide. “Stodgy is bad, scrummy is good, gutted is bad,” it goes.

There’s also the world premiere of hiphop musical, Sylvia, with the soulful Beverley Knight and a vibrant cast shining a light on Sylvia Pankhurst and the British Suffragette movement.

From Broadway comes the London premiere of Allegiance, starring George Takei (Star Trek’s Mr Sulu) and based on his own childhood experience. Born and brought up in Los Angeles, five-year-old Takei and his family, along with over 125,000 other Japanese-Americans, were forcibly removed from their homes, declared ‘enemy aliens’ and incarcerated in harsh US internment camps during World War II.

Classic American musicals are perennial West End hits. For a different and remarkable version of an all-time fave, try Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, re-imagined for the 21st century but keeping those cherished tunes like “People Will Say We’re in Love”, “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning”, and the eponymous opener, “Oklahoma”. In March, Bridge Theatre presents a bold and original take on Broadway and movie classic Guys and Dolls, starring Daniel Mays (Line of Duty, 1917), with Nick Hytner (History Boys, One Man, Two Guv’nors) producing and Arlene Phillips choreographing.

South of the river, the National Theatre stages Othello, Shakespeare’s racially-charged tragedy of jealousy and revenge, and Romeo and Julie, a modern take on Shakespeare’s immortal love story. You can catch other NT-originated productions like the Lehman Trilogy in the West End or on tour. It’s great knowing that friends and family back home can also enjoy NT’s brilliant shows, as National Theatre Live broadcasts in dozens of movie theatres and other venues across the USA.

London’s many off-West End venues offer a pleasure and quality match for a fraction of the price. The Young Vic, well known for being both innovative and unafraid of controversy, brings us Mandela, a world premiere musical about the late Nelson Mandela, presented ‘in proud partnership’ with his family.

Historic, beautiful and easy on the wallet, you’re guaranteed a good seat and a magical evening at Wilton’s Music Hall. Wilton’s is the world’s only surviving Grand Music Hall, with a previous life as ale house, concert room and Methodist mission. Nowadays, it’s a beautifully restored space offering an imaginative programme of live performance and other events.

Wilton’s upcoming season of delights includes Gilbert and Sullivan’s surrealcomedy-meets-spooky-chiller, Ruddigore (or

the Witch’s Curse), Carradine’s Cockney

Singalong and the Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, the hilarious, deeply moving story of two unknown young Brits who, together and apart, changed the world of comedy forever. There’s a unique Evening with Sylvia Plath, starring the sensational Denise Gough (Angels in America) plus Edinburgh Fringe awardwinner, Paris from Piaf to Pop, a celebration of timeless French song.

Last, but not least, you can see some of Britain’s best shows at or touring its numerous regional stages. Among this year’s top temptations are Bugsy Malone, at Alexandra Palace and touring, and 42nd Street, opening at Leicester’s Curve Theatre, then touring. If you love British satire, don’t miss Birmingham Rep’s revived and alive stage version of an 80s TV-puppet classic. Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image Saves the World presents a ‘monstrous’ cast of stars including Adele, Tom Cruise and Michael Gove (“together on stage for the very first time”), Harry and Meghan and Boris Johnson. But beware the show’s audience warning: Contains jokes, some of which are really naughty.

Further information: bakeoffthemusical.com wiltons.org.uk nationaltheatre.org &ntlive.com birmingham-rep.co.uk

3. Go for Glow

Outdoor light displays have become increasingly popular in recent years, but this winter they seem more abundant, imaginative and - a surprising bonus in these eco-conscious times - energy efficient and less costly than ever. Many of these finish with the winter holiday season, while others take the long view, shining their lights well into the new year.

January brings Winter Woodland Lights to Hampshire’s Hawk Conservancy. You can enjoy woodland illuminations and live owl displays while supporting the Conservancy’s landmark work, protecting and caring for more than 130 owls, eagles and other endangered raptors. If you can’t make it to the light show, there’s plenty of time in the coming year to experience fabulous flying displays, owl evenings and daily ‘Good Morning’ sessions with vultures.

Southbank’s free Winter Lights exhibition will keep London Thameside aglow through January, with playful and thought-provoking light works designed by light artists from across the globe. Feast your eyes on STELA (Super Terrestrial Electric Light Aurora), bringing phenomenal Arctic skies to the riverside. Loomin’ is a fluorescent tree canopy, brilliantly guiding you along the riverside, while Sixty Minute Spectrum turns nearby buildings into a giant illuminated clock.

The magnificent Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, will be lighting up its Pleasure Gardens every weekend evening to the end of January. Follow the light trail and be dazzled by colourful tree canopies, interactive displays and a tunnel of twinkling stars. When the sun goes down, the Manor’s elegant façade will be illumined by lights dancing to sequenced music.

Winter Lights aglow at Waddesdon Manor, © Waddesdon, a Rothschild House & Gardens, Photo Chris Lacey

Leicestershire’s Belvoir Castle stages its breathtaking Spectacle of Light and Sound in January-February throughout Castle gardens and woodlands. During February, Compton Verney, Warwickshire’s Spectacle of Light shines a beautiful luminous trail through the estate’s woodland, while Haughley Estate, Suffolk, features a magical Alice in Wonderland-themed Spectacle.

Epping Ongar’s Light Fantastic has a truly original way to light up the dark winter nights. Its trains travel through woodland tracks and rural stations, blazing with hundreds of coloured lights and lineside displays, accompanied by a rousing light and music show. Meanwhile, it’s (pun intended) putt-luck at Bath’s Glow Golf, the UK’s first illuminated minigolf course, complete with fairy lights and glow-in-the dark golf balls.

Accessible, environmentally friendly and gloriously free to view - and not just for Christmas, but for every day - London’s Illuminated River is the longest public art project in the world. It lights up 3.2 miles and nine bridges along the Thames with mesmerising sequences of shifting colour and subtly-changing LEDs. Each bridge’s lights celebrates its unique history and architecture. Cannon Street Bridge’s kinetic colour bounces and reflects moving trains passing above, while the green tints on Westminster Bridge mirror the interior of the adjacent House of Commons. Visit the Project’s website to learn about the fascinating history of each bridge and inspirations for each illumination.

Further information: waddesdon.org.uk hawk-conservancy.org illuminatedriver.london

Dichroic Sphere, Jakob Kvist, photo by Christoffer Askman, courtesy Southbank Centre Press Office

4. Soul Music

2023 marks 300 years since the death of Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), mathematician, astronomer, physicist, anatomist and one of the UK’s greatest architects. In his astonishing 91-year lifetime, Wren designed churches, palaces, hospitals and many famous buildings around the UK.

As a rising young star in his mid-30s, Wren was given the awesome task of rebuilding 51 London City churches destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666. These included what would become his masterpiece, St Paul’s Cathedral. Here Wren was later buried, under a headstone which reads: “If you seek his memorial, look about you”. Throughout 2023, Wren’s surviving churches will honour the great man’s legacy with concerts, tours and many special events, including a ‘Wrenathon’ of choirs across the City of London and a concert at Trinity College Oxford in its atmospheric Wren Chapel, with music composed during Wren’s later years.

St James Church Piccadilly is another Wren gem, a pearl in the glittering string of historic and welcoming UK churches and other venues providing outstanding free concerts throughout the year as well as cosy refuge on a winter’s day. St James’ is famed for exquisite wood and marble carvings by the masterful Grinling Gibbons, as well as celebrity past parishioners like poet-painter

Jazz musicians Mike and Kate Westbrook and ensemble perform the Westbrook Blake, St James Church Piccadilly

Sir Christopher Wren’s St Mary Abchurch, with its glorious golden ceiling, choir of cherubs and elaborate Grinling Gibbons carvings, photo courtesy Brera PR

William Blake and author-abolitionist Ottabah Cugoano. With its large, light and airy space and acoustics perfect for both preaching and music, St James has long been a quality concert venue, with lunchtime recitals three times weekly and other yearround music events including sparkling jazz evenings and monthly gospel music fests.

Other Wren churches with regular music events include piano Mondays at St Lawrence Jewry and recital Tuesdays and Fridays at St Brides Fleet Street. You’ll find lunchtime concerts on Tuesdays and Thursdays at St-Mary-Le-Bow, renowned for its bells, magnificent steeple, gourmet café in the crypt and American colonial connections.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are music days at St Olave’s Hart Street. St Olave’s is one of the few medieval City churches to escape the Great Fire, although sadly its interior only partially survived Nazi bombings of World War II. Among its most notable parishioners were 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys and his wife, who lived nearby and are buried in the church’s nave. After some delightful lunchtime music, take time to explore this fascinating, historyfilled space. St Olave’s has many American connections, including a monument to Messrs Davison and Newman, leading 18th century grocers whose tea played a part in the American Revolution. They regularly shipped crates of tea to Boston; these crates were infamously dumped into harbour waters during the Boston Tea Party of 1774.

Southwark, St Paul’s and Westminster Cathedrals hold organ, choral and other free musical events in their noble spaces. Further afield, St Albans Abbey has a rich tradition and splendid setting for all kinds of music. There’s top notch choral music and an early music festival at Keble College, Oxford, while Kings College, Cambridge hosts free Sunday afternoon organ recitals in its wondrous Gothic Chapel, where you can warm your soul and bathe your spirit in the vibrant tones of its famous and ancient pipe organ.

Further information: squaremilechurches.co.uk/wren-300/ wrenathon sjp.org.uk saintolave.com kings.cam.ac.uk/chapel/hear-music-at-kings

5. Walk Yourself Warm

It’s official: Walking is good for you. It boosts your mood, your memory, your lung capacity and your sense of well-being. Just a 30 minute daily walk can help you sleep, resist disease, strengthen the heart, bones and muscles, and let flow those happiness endorphins.

So why not pull on those fur-lined wellies, pack up the waterproofs, trail munch and tea flasks and walk yourself warm? Britain’s got an endless choice of walks and wanders, from coastal footpaths to riverside rambles, forest tracks to city ambles.

Walking Britain offers a wealth of walks in England, Wales and Scotland. It’s website invites you to over 2,300 walks, from easy circular strolls to challenging mountain hikes. Walks by the coast, rivers and lakes, through lush countryside and across hills, moors and mountains are at your fingertips and ready for your footsteps, with all routes free to download and print.

With seven main routes to choose from, Walk London Network is the largest walking network of any city on earth. All routes are reachable by public transport and set out so you can walk them in sections, going as little or as far as you want. Follow the Capital Ring, for instance, through 78 miles and 15 easy-to-walk sections of open space, nature reserves, historic landmarks and more. Thames Path is a 40 mile stretch of easy, level walking on both sides of the river, from Hampton Court Palace through the heart of London to East India Dock. Footways London also offers a network of quiet and enjoyable walking routes in and around London.

If social walking is your thing, sign up to that uniquely British institution, the Ramblers Association. The Ramblers have been promoting walks and walking for the past 88 years; today they organise 500+ local walking groups and many thousands of walks up and down the country.

Need to find your way? For Real Map obsessives and other traditional types (present author included) nothing can beat a dogeared, rain-soaked, misfolded Ordinance Survey paper map. For the uninitiated, OS is a national treasure and the mapping agency for Great Britain, whose original purpose was military–an urgent need to map Scotland after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. Nowadays, OS produces an infinity of detailed maps covering every square millimetre of British landscape, with variations for walkers, mountaineers, cyclists and road users.

For everyone else, the web’s countless free or inexpensive apps and downloadable maps are incredibly handy. The communitybased walking app, Go Jauntly, provides an encyclopedia of maps, routes and ideas. This trove includes kid-friendly strolls, woodland wanders, coastal, canal, river and pub walks, and much more.

And speaking of pub walks, the Guardian has a long-running and popular column on great walks to great pubs. Its cheery tagline promises “a great walk that will always end in beers”.

Further information: walkingbritain.co.uk tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking ramblers.org.uk walks.gojauntly.com

Take Five is our quarterly feature bringing the best of British to Americans in Britain. Judith welcomes your thoughts and comments at judith0777@gmail.com.