pumpkinstrokemarrow

We started off at the Château Dell Denbies, down in Dorking, recently awarded some accolade for the finest rosé in the land. A substantial place, in a fine setting and with a very large car park. There used to be a large courtyard, but this has now acquired a glass roof under which you can take tea surrounded by merchandise which is a cross between that which might be obtained from a National Trust shop and that which might be obtained from Chessington Garden Centre. I imagine that they also share with Chessington Garden Centre the important commercial fact that there is a lot more money in selling tea and cake in a place with a car park than there is in the core business, be that bedding plants or rosé. The art gallery is upstairs, occupied for the week by a consortium of arty people, including a neighbour of ours. One of them was kind enough to introduce me to the Hillsong Church, an outfit of which I had not previously heard, which sports a very fancy web site (http://www.hillsong.com/) and the Leatherhead branch of which gathers three times a Sunday in the Leatherhead theatre. The very place where we once had Peter Hall on stage apologising for the unready state of the Hamlet we had just seen. A place more notable now for its uncomfortable seats than for its theatre. It seems to have fallen off the repertory circuit, such as it is.

We then moved onto the cult of beauty at the V&A. An interesting exhibition, fitting in well with my dying fad for the Pre-Raphaelites. Many of the pictures on show were in fact from the Tate Real, displaced by the renovations there (see 3rd April). However, I did not find many of the cult objects very beautiful. Some of them looked very expensive; neatly expressing the irony that these back to basics people made a crust by pandering to the dubious tastes of the grocery billionaires of their day.

The exhibition was also very badly curated. It was too crowded (with things, not people that is. Number of people OK) and badly laid out, the lighting was atrocious and one was entertained by luvvies reading poetry through gratings in the ceiling. The fact the 'AV hardware' and 'AV software' both got a mention in the credits on the wall at the exit, along with the important people who stumped up the necessary, says it all. The one or two exhibitions I have been to in the upper regions of the Tate Other - a place of which I do not usually approve - were much better done. Plenty of space with the objects in question left to speak for themselves without much curatorial or AV support. The good news is that the V&A courtyard is probably too big for a glass roof so they have settled for a nice fountain instead. Courtyard looks very well; long may it reign without glass.

Fine slice of warm apple strudel from somewhere between Gloucester Road and Earls Court. Probably the Caffe Forum. Lots of interesting places and buildings in the area, around which we had not been for a while.

On the way home, we intrigued to learn, from the top of a C3 bus, that the borough of Fulham used to have an electricity department which ran large sub-stations, suggesting that once upon a time electricity supply, in London at least, was a matter for local authorities. Must have been before they invented privatisation. It is true that Lots Road power station was just around the corner but I thought that was to do with tube trains rather than cookers. I note in passing that the roof of the power station is being taken off. Is the power station setting itself up as a rival to Battersea or will the powers that be have the nerve to knock this irreplaceable & invaluble piece of national industrial heritage down for flats?