September 2025 Archives

Castle Acre Priory is located in the village of Castle Acre in Norfolk, and this priory was founded around the year 1089 by an order of Cluniac monks from Burgundy. In addition to the priory, there is also a castle here (Castle Acre Castle in Norfolk). The site is largely ruins with some structure remaining to explore, and it is a fairly large site with some architectural decoration still visible and the remains of a large toilet block over a former stream of running water. The ruins date from the 12th century.

At the entrance to the priory is the visitor's centre, which also contains a museum room about the priory's history, purpose, and the people who lived and worked there. There is also a display of items discovered at the priory.

A small herb garden also exists next to the visitor centre.

William de Warenne, who founded the priory, was given the land after he fought alongside William the Conqueror at Hastings. The castle was built with the priory, and a town was built up around it.

The site plan of monastaries normally followed a pattern with the different rooms leading off cloisters and the church itself facing a specific direction. This included the dorms for the monks, the refectory where they would have eaten, kitchens, a chapter house, infirmary, and other such buildings.

The front of the cathedral here contains the elaborate decoration with influences from the middle east in the decoration around the doors, windows, and arches.

I went to explore the buildings and learned about them through the audio guide.

part of the infirmary buildings

Nave

Cloisters

The latrines would have been connected to the dorms where the monks would have slept. There were twenty-four seats in the latrine. There were two levels, and the waste would have gone into the stream and eventually into the river.

Next, I went to the Prior's Lodging, which is still a functional roofed building on the site. It was converted into a home after the monastary was dissolved in the mid-1500s. The other buildings were ruined.

The chapel contains some fragments of colour near the window featuring Tudor roses, and the floor tiles can still be seen as well in the chapel.

The Great chamber was lavishly decorated for the prior and is still standing for visitors to enjoy.

Before I left, I headed across the bridge to the other side where there were additional buildings. These were used for agricultural and brewing.

There is a lot to see at the priory, and the audio guide tour is very good. I had just enough time to see everything before it closed, and I think visitors need approximately two hours here to see everything and listen to the audio guides. The site is maintained by English Heritage.

At the beginning of July, I visited the National Trust property, Hughenden. This property was owned by Benjamin Disraeli, a prime minister of Britain in the 1800s during the reign of Queen Victoria. The prime minister lived in Hughenden from 1848 until 1881. The house was also an important intelligence base during World War II for creating maps from photographs captured in planes. After its use in World War II, it became under control of the National Trust who now manages it.

I had a quick wander around the gardens, which were in bloom with early summer/late spring flowers.

I also had a wander around the rooms in the house. At the National Trust houses, the layouts and exhibitions do change from time to time, and the exhibitions on the house during World War II had changed, and a new kitchen area was opened to the public.

On the dining table, one of the chairs had its legs cut down for the benefit of Queen Victoria. She was very short in size, and cutting the legs down was more comfortable for her short legs.

There are a lot of grounds to explore at Hughenden as well, but I did not spend too long as it was raining slightly. Hughenden is built on a hillside, but toward the bottom of the hill is the church. Inside the church is a memorial to Disraeli.

To see additional posts about my visits to Hughenden, see:

Christmas at Hughenden Manor
Hughenden Manor in August

Street artist Liam Bononi is originally from Brazil but now resides in the UK, and he started to paint graffiti in 2007. The style is realistic but with expression and energy. The artist painted in Upfest 2024 in Bristol a violinist deep in concentration of the musical skill. He was inspired by a performance of Rupert Engeldown on a visit to the city of York. The work is painted on a wall in Bedminster and off the main street.

Unfortunately, since the wall was painted, a small extension in front of it has been placed up. This makes the street art difficult to see and difficult to photograph.

Street artist Aspire (also known as Aspire A51), paints birds and other animals as the main subject. I have featured the artist's work in London before as they tend to paint a lot around London. The artist also blends in features of the walls and uses them in the work at times and creates "pixelated" areas of the artwork. The first artwork in this post is a large wall in Bedminster, Bristol. It is titled "Cherry on top" and shows a bird sitting on top of apples with a cherry on its head. The artist, at the time this was painted, was combining the birds with food items in a series.

I also discovered some additional work around Bedminster and other parts of London from the artist, including the one below on shutters.

The below artwork was photographed at the top of the hill at Queen's Road in Bristol and shows two birds in a grassland setting.

More artwork by Aspire on this blog can be seen below:

Bird Street Art by Aspire in London
Street Art by Aspire in Penge
Aspire Street Art in Camden
Airbourne Mark and Aspire Collaboration - "Music to Prey To"
Bristol Street Art Round-Up 2018
Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park
London Street Art Review Round-up 2016

I visited the city of Vienna in Austria twice this year on a city break. The first visit that I had was in February, and the second visit was at the end of May. During my visit in May, I covered off some of the places that I did not get to see the first time and met up with a colleague and expored the city, and several of these photographs were taken during that time.

First up, food! During my visit to Vienna at the end of May, I explored a few different options for food. I went to the ROLLERCOASTER Restaurant and had dinner and a slice of birthday cake, which was set to their special show. This is a really unique restaurant as the food is delivered on rails set to lights (see my post about the ROLLERCOASTER restaurant here). The restaurant is located at Prater amusement park, which I also visited (see my visit to Prater here.)

I also had a drink in the Volksgarten at the cafe. I had ordered lunch, but it never came after waiting for so long. The dessert came, and I had the creme brulee, but the food never did come and the restaurant is greatly under-staffed.

I had chicken schnitzel at an Austrian restaurant in the city at Wollzeil, a tiny little place in an alleyway.

Afterwards, I went to another restaurant (Heindls Schmarren Palatschinkenkuchl) and had the apple strudel. 

I went back to the ice cream parlour Ferrari and had gelato. I also went to have champagne breakfast at Hotel Sacher and tried their famous chocolate cake (see my visit to Sacher here).

There are many places selling sweets, and I didn't go to any cafes or bakeries this time, but the food all looks delicious.

The city has so many beautiful buildings.

I did not get to go to the Sisi Musum, but it is photographed above. 

Theatre

I did get to finally go inside the Votive church, which I did not get to do last time.

When I visited Vienna in February, there was a huge ice skating rink at the Rathausplatz. There was something else going on here this time, but I managed to get a photograph of the building.

The Austrian Parliament is also impressive with detailed sculptures and gold gilding inside the colonnade.

The museum district buildings and grounds are also impressive, and I visited the art and history museum in February.

The Heldenplatz seems to be a popular place for the horse and carriage rides.

The Hofburg is a palace, but I did not get to visit it either.

Next up is probably one of the best places that I personally enjoyed in Vienna - the Volksgarten. The gardens are roses are beautiful.

I had never sen this pale purple shade of rose before.

Inside the Volksgarten is a temple, and this holds art exhibitions. The exhibition was "Washerwoman" by Shannon Alonzo, who is from Trinidad and Tobago. It shows a woman washing clothing, which is very labour-intensive and damaging to the hands.

I explored some of the streets, such as an internal market.

The Opera House

Burggarten

The gardens are beautiful in Vienna, and I enjoyed seeing them in bloom. I went to see Schoenbrunn Gardens; I had already been inside the palace in my visit in February. I also visited Belvedere Gardens and the galleries/palaces. See my visit to the Belvedere galleries here. See my visit to the Alpine Gardens at Belvedere here. See my visit to Belvedere Gardens here.

I had a walk through Stadtpark. There are many parks around the city.

I enjoyed Vienna, and May was a good month to visit the city to enjoy the gardens and city before it gets too busy.

I visited Swindon a couple of times this summer for work, and while I was there, I took a quick walk to see the street art. There is an area of Swindon that is being regenerated, and the scaffolding is filled with street art. Other parts of the city centre have also been painted during the city's street art festivals. Below are some photographs that I took of Swindon's street art on my visits this year.

Rice

Shauna Blanchfield

Sarah Harris, Lost Dogs

Merny

Mowcka

Mowcka

Jaksta, hosterroreres

MustOne

The Last One

Stocke, Gorillas by Night

Vlad

Sarah Harris, Lost Dogs

Harrie Dearing

Caryn Koh

Elno

Martin Travers

VaneMG

7th Pencil

Andrew Burns Colwill

Caryn Koh

Adam Illes

Mickeyraw, Ed Poster

Harrie Dearing

Poster One, Jacksta

Jaksta

Leonidas Giannakopoulos

Remy Uno

Jaksta

Nimsdai

More street art in Swindon:

Swindon Street Art

A group of friends and I visited th grounds at Hinton Ampner at the end of July after catching up for a meal nearby. Hinton Ampner is managed by the National Trust, and the picturesque estate and late-1700s mansion is located in Hampshire. This was my third ever visit to Hinton Ampner, and we had a quick walk around the grounds only as I had hurt my foot about three weeks prior and was worried I would aggrevate it further. We had a quick look around the gardens with the beautiful dahlia in bloom. We did not go inside the mansion this time.

There are a lot of ladybugs this year, and we saw a few of them on some of the plants.

We had a walk around the walled gardens, and there was some tents set up with some information that we could see. It was a bit busy there, so we did not linger.

Afterwards, we had a quick look insid the church that is located just outside the walled garden.

The annual Frieze Sculpture returned to Regent's Park for 2025 yestrday, and it will run until the second of November. The free outdoor art in Regent's Park (near Great Portland Street tube station) is in its 14th year this year and coincides with the Frieze Art Festival held in October. This year has a nice selection of sculptures to visit, and all of them are on display now.

I was impressed with this year's sculpture display. The last couple years, I found something was lacking.

Grace Schwindt - "When I Remember Through You"
This ceramic and bronze human-like figure blends with visual representations of plants. The sculpture seems to suggest human's relationship with the natural world. The bronze part of the sculpture holds up the head of the figure, suggesting fragility and dependence.

Elmgreen & Dragset - "Life Rings"
The sculpture appears to be made from lifesaver rings entertwined together and balancing haphazardly. The form seems to show that safety is required, and a balance is needed.

Burçak Bingöl - "Unit Terrenum Rosa"
The sculpture is made using rammed earth with ceramics cast from different flowers encased in a cube. The cubed object looks like an ordinary cube until going up close to see the detail of the colourful ceramics inside and the layers of colour of the rammed earth. The earth and roses came from the park. The sculpture appears to be like an excavation of objects.

Simon Hitchens - "Bearing Witness to Things Unseen"
This is a concrete cast of a shadow of a 250-million-year-old boulder during the equinox. The artist studies time and humanity.

Erwin Wurm - "Ghost (Substitutes)"
This aluminum sculpture is a free-standing outfit/clothing without a body inside it. The clothing seems to float suspended in the air. The artwork seems to question identity based upon the fashion of our clothing.

David Altmejd - "Nymphs"
The sculptures of mythical nymphs are captured in movement of dance. From a distance, we see the free flow of the forms, but up close, they appear to be created with a rough execution.

Henrique Oliveira - "Desnatureza 8" 
The artwork is constructed from reclaimed plywood that was previously used for scaffolding and billboards that the artist reclaimed and renewed. The plywood would have come from trees, and the artist transforms the pieces back into tree-like or root-like forms. The sculpture suggests human's involvement in nature and the ecosystem.

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith - "King of the Mountain"
The artist is of native American background, and the work showcases the buffalo on top of a boulder and inside a broze canoe. The sculpture shows identity and endurance, and the sculpture is ironically placed in London as many moved from Europe and exploited the culture in pre-European-migration America.

Andy Holden - "Auguries (Lament)" 
The sculpture shows the wavelengths of the sounds of different types of birds on top of poles that appear like electrical poles or totems. The birds are nightengale, cuckoo, and the crow. The first two types are nearing extinction. Birdsong is becoming rarer, and the sculpture wishes to highlight the issues with humans and the relationship with nature.

Reena Saini Kallat - "Requiem (The Last Call)" 
The sculpture is a World War II device that was used to listen to sounds of any incoming enemy planes. It has been transformed into an audio sculpture that has the last recording calls of extinct birds.

Abdollah Nafisi - "Neighbours"
This steel sculpture appears like two horns facing each other. The different colours and material contrasts. The sound inside the horns is reflected from the surroundings of the park.

Lucía Pizzani - "The Tale of the Eye, the Snake, the Seed"
This sculpture features prehistoric symolbism found in nature and important to humankind for growth.

Assemble - "Fibredog"
The sculpture has been created from natural materials found in Regent's Park. The sculpture reminds me of a harvest festival sculpture.

Timur Si-Qin - "Last of the Wild and Free (Rhododendron calophytum)"
The sculpture is created in stainless steel and depicts an endangered rhododendron bonsai tree appearing to be cased in chrome or silver.

This wraps it up for Frieze Sculpture in Regent's Park for this year. For previous years, see my posts below:

Frieze Sculpture 2024
Frieze Sculpture 2023
Frieze Sculpture 2022
Frieze Sculpture 2021
Frieze Sculpture 2020
Frieze Sculpture 2019
Frieze Sculpture 2018
Frieze Art Fair 2017

Bristol has a large share of street art, some of which is painted for its Upfest festival. Many more has appeared over the years and when the city had been going through a rebuilding phase in the early 2010s. I used to live near Bristol and worked in Bristol, and the city has changed significantly since then with a lot of older buildings demolished and new buildings placed up. Some of the murals in this post were painted all of these years ago and can be seen (or could be seen) from other areas in the city. There is a cluster of artwork on a couple of buildings in the centre of Bristol by Nick Walker, El Mac, M-City, and Aryz.

M-City and Nick Walker

M-City painted the artwork featuring construction cranes during the 2012 "See No Evil" festival.

Nick Walker

"Bowler Hat Man" was painted by Nick Walker. The man appears to pour paint on the street below. His work often features a man in a bowler hat vandalising.

Aryz

"Wolf Boy" was painted by Aryz for the "See No Evil" festival in 2011.

El Mac

El Mac painted "Clothed with the Sun" for the "See No Evil" festival in 2014. The work is inspired by the religious photographs of the baby Jesus. (See this post with another mural by El Mac in London in 2014.)

Street artist Jack Lack's subject is painting animals and other natural scenes that look very realistic. The artist lives in Germany and has painted murals all over the world. Last spring, he painted in Bristol for Upfest. The work is titled "Dangerous Home" and depicts a red panda amongst arrows. The red panda is an endangered species.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

The work is very detailed and looks cute until you realise that the red panda is lying amongst arrows.

When I was in Bristol in late July, I visited ANNA Cake Couture in Bristol. It was a friend's birthday, so we stopped by for some sweet treats. The cafe was founded by Anna Tyler ten years ago, and the cafe in Clifton has been visited by many including celebrities. I tried a few of the different flavours of macaroons and the pistachio cupcake. The flavours and treats are good. 

The cafe is popular and can sell out of a lot of the items.

Wild In Art, a charity group that creates life-size sculptures and organises artists to us them as a canvas, have launched a sculpture trail featuring bulls in Birmingham late this summer. The bulls were launched in mid-July and will be removed in mid-September to auction for charity Birmingham Hospice. The bulls celebrate the famous bull sculpture in Birmingham in front of the shopping mall The Bullring. There are almost fourty large bulls around Birmingham and many more smaller ones. I visited them at the end of August.

Cadbully - Donna Newman

The famous bronze bull sculpture is in front of the city's main shopping mall. The sculptures are designed on it.

JCBef - Tom Sutcliffe

Rainbow - Bo Toth Art

Found in Paradise - Gayani Ariyaratne

The Brummie Blinder - Mgan Heather Smith-Evans

Heart of Gold - Reilly Crative

Bulldozer - Nicola Mills

A Cultural Kick Flip - Conrico Steez

Bosco the Bull - Jess Massam

Bull Brum Lines - Sabina Gran

Parkers Goals - Megan Heather Smith-Evans

Brummie Spirit - Aasiri Wickremage

Bronco Bully - Megan Heather Smith-Evans

Steam - Esme Taylor

Brightr Days Will Come - Terri Peay Illustration

Dare to Disco - Lady Gabe

Toro - Lena Kibbler

A Bull in a China Shop - Reilly Creative

Bill Bull Barge - Jan Mota

Bulls ye of the Tiger - Jess Perrin

Moo-Seley - Hannah Jane Lwis Illustration

Elpemera of Birmingham - Lois Cordelia

on the Waterfront - Phillipa and Rachael Corcutt

Mister Samo is a trans artist who lives in Portsmouth and who paints murals about gender identity and acceptance. Last spring, he painted a mural in Bristol with the words "You are loved" and one of his characters, which are often painted with mustard-yellow colour paint. The background is pink with a sunset or sky effect.

More street art by Mister Samo on this blog is pictured below:

Mister Samo Paints Re:Claim Southampton

The Lost and Found is a restaurant located in Bristol (from a chain of restaurants) at the top of the hill almost opposite the museum in Bristol. The restaurant serves bottomless brunch, which I went in to enjoy with a friend when I was in Bristol in mid-July. Brunch includes a meal with a bottomless range of drinks from Aperol Spritz, Prosecco, Mimosa, Bloody Mary, and a few non-alcoholic options (Green Machine, alcohol-free spritz, and Strawberry and Cucumber Fizz). 

I tried a few of the different drinks to enjoy while having the meal.

There are several brunch meal options. I had the halloumi flatbrad, which was served with a fried egg and chili jam. I also ordered truffle and cheese hash browns, and we also ordered skinny fries.

The food and drinks were delicious. 

I really enjoyed this restaurant and wish that there was one in Ruislip or Eastcote area.

Street artist Goin painted in last year's Bristol Upfest street art event. The work is located in Bedmister on the side of The Spotted Cow pub. The work is painted in monotone black and white colours, and It features a little school girl who looks a little bit troubled in pose, and she has a red boxing glove on. The work, "Stop Bullying", highlights the problems in bullying. This subject or cause is important to me as I was a major victim of bullying throughout my school years.

The street artist, who tags the work 901N, often uses humanitarian focus in his artwork. He has painted in Bristol previously. The artist is from France, and he creates his work using stencils.

When I visited Birmingham at the end of August, tributes to the local former resident of the city Ozzy Osbourne were on display across the city in form of street art, display boards, memorabilia in shops, and the "Black Sabbath Bridge" by the canalside. I came across the "Black Sabbath Bridge" and noted some flowers and notes to the famous singer. Ozzy Osbourne was one of the four who were in the heavy metal music band "Black Sabbath".

Ozzy was from a working class family in the city and produced popular worldwide hits and a reality television show in America with his family. He passed away at the end of July, and his fans can have a pilgrimage to Birmingham to pay their respects.

When I was in Birmingham at the end of August, I took some photographs of street art that I saw around the city around the Birmingham New Street station and also around the Digbeth area of the city. I did expect to see more of a street art scene here. 

Let me know if there are other areas of Birmingham to locate graffiti and street art.

Artist Lucy Sparrow specialises in creating items from felt and cloth, and she has exhibited across the world since her first pop-up Cornershop in Bethnal Green in 2014. There have been many other shops, including a chemist and delicatessen, and her most recent exhibition is a fish and chip shop made entirely out of felt. The Bourdon Street Chippy is located in a gallery on Bourdon Street in Mayfair, and this is the same location as used for the chemist in 2021. The exhibition ran from the first of August until the 31st, and I went to check it out during its run.

Upon entering the gallery, I was greeted with seating typical of a fish and chip shop with booths, a menu at the back, and photographs on the wall. Everything was made from felt from the pictures on the wall to the signage at the back and the booths to sit on, the table cloths, the cutlery, the food, and the condiments and their holder.

There were several felt plates of fish or sausage and chips with mushy peas or curry sauce, typical of the standard British fish and chip chop, also known as "the chippy".

Even the "reserved" place setting was made in felt.

The next area and on the way to the actual "fish and chip" counter/kitchen had a typical community bulletin board with various flyers advertising community news, all in felt.

The kitchen or counter area included the fish and chip menu and prices for the items and the felt "food" on display.

This also included the famous branded pies that are often found at the fish and chip shop.

There were even packs of condiments, salt and pepper, and little forks made from felt to purchase. I also purchased a pickled cucumber (pickle) and picked onion and a couple of pin badges. I always try to purchase something from her exhibitions.

There was also a vending machine covered in felt and branding and filled with felt canned drinks.

Visitors can purchase items, including the shelves of condiments such as mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, and salt.

All of the signage, typical of a fast food shop, was made in felt. Boxes of fish and chips could also be purchased.

I also received a free branded "brown paper bag" made of cloth with my purchase.

For more Lucy Sparrow exhibitions on this blog, see:

Lucy Sparrow's Flt Delicatessen at Diptyque
Lucy Sparrow's Felt 'R' Us at Brunswick Centre
Lucy Sparrow Bourdon Street Chemist
Lucy Sparrow's Cornershop in London 

When I was in Vienna, Austria, at the end of May, I had a visit to Upper and Lower Belvedere and the gardens, which were in bloom with late spring flowers. Upper and Lower Belvedere are former palaces, but they are now home to art galleries. I visited them when I was in Vienna: Belvedere Art Galleries in Vienna. The gardens have fountains and formal floral gardens and statues, and there are also nice views over the skyline.

The wider gardens also host the Botanic Gardens, and there is also an Alpine Garden that visitors can see for a small entrance fee. The formal gardens and Botanic gardens are free to visit.

On one morning before visiting the galleries, I had breakfast with a glass of Prosecco and a hot chocolate.

The gardens are very beautiful in Vienna, and Belvedere Palaces are beautiful.

Street Artist D*Face (DFace) was born in London and is one of the world's most prolific street artists. In 2024, the artist collaborated with art'hotel to create some artwork in spaces in and around the hotel. I happened to see the bronze sculpture whilst walking past one day. Named "D's Little Helper", the sculpture features a large paintbrush holding one of DFace's popular orb character or "helper", which is one of his trademarked characters for artistic inspiration. 

The hotel is a recent launch in London. It was built on land that belonged to Red Gallery, and building work started in 2020 after some emotional "Last Days of Shoreditch" final street art, and it served as a place to get street food and an event space in the final years. It was one of those places in London that had an abundance of creativity and street art that was slowly replaced. 

I previously covered this hotel as it contains an early mural from Banksy, and they salvaged it from a wall and placed it in a prime place above the entrance. 

A couple of friends of mine are members of Lord's, and they invited me to watch a mid-week cricket game in the middle of August when the Hundreds were showing. I got a VIP ticket that members can buy, and we had seating in the Pavilion, which overlooks the grounds. As part of this, my friends and I were allowed to bring a bottle of bubbly, which other visitors are not permitted to do. The game started at 3:00 in the afternoon, but I did not arrive until about 5:15, so I was able to watch a little bit of the game and then wait for the next one.

We did head down into the other seats later on for another angle of the game. I do not know the rules of cricket, and this was my first game.

Between the games, I went into the museum. My friend showed me the tennis game inside which follows the old rules and is different to the modern-day tennis game. In this game, the ball must be hit against the walls.

I had a quick look around the museum.

There was a taxidermied sparrow that became a casualty of the game when it was hit by a ball. There was also a small urn of ashes to celebrate the game between England and Australia.

We also shared some wine between us in one of the bars at the Pavilion.

I also had an ice cream sandwich from a pop up food truck.

I watched the game with my friends, and we shared bubbly and food. I brought some different cubed flavours of cheeses, crackers, and crisps.

This was my first ever visit to Lord's, and after we left, we went to The Globe pub for a drink on the way back to Marylebone, and we got the train back to Ruislip.