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Lived-in Museums of London

As a woman, I’ve spent a good chunk of my life waiting in line for the bathroom. I simply don’t have the patience to wait in line for much else. Museums, like many other tourist attractions, require exactly that: a lot of line-waiting, slow-walking, and a whole other level of patience—not to mention time. Personally, I’d rather spend all my patience and time eating, drinking, and being in a place, rather than fighting my way through a group of Italian tourists for a distant glimpse of a tiny painting I’m supposed to care about and don’t. That’s right, Mona Lisa. I’m looking at you . Or more accurately, I’m looking at the bald spot of the man in front of me who’s taking pictures of you with his iPad from 100 feet away.   During study abroad in college, I had the luxury of visiting places like the Louvre and the Musée D’Orsay as “field trips” and it ruined me for life. These were school-sponsored surgical strikes where you’d visit a set loop of works you’d been studying and then get th
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Kensington Palace: Lived-in Museums of London

Kensington Palace was built in 1605 and is situated on the west side of Hyde Park, a 350-acre green space in the heart of London. In recent years, Kensington Palace has been most famous as the current home of Prince William, Kate Middleton, and their children, but Prince William and his brother Harry actually grew up here, back when their mother Princess Diana resided at Kensington Palace.  You might remember Diana as King Charles' first wife, who was wildly popular with the world, but not particularly well-liked by her husband... Even after the marriage dissolved, Diana remained very much in the public eye, making a name for herself and doing good deeds while looking awesome and wearing classy clothes. She died in a tragic car accident after being chased by the paparazzi through the streets of Paris.  The Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace features a statue of Diana that was commissioned by her sons in 2017 as a tribute to her memory and the impact of her humanitarian work.  A sho
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Hampton Court Palace: Lived-in Museums of London

  Back in the US, a once-popular 80s hairstyle has experienced a renaissance in recent years. The "mullet" features a closely-shorn front and sides, with cascading locks of variable length down the neck and back. The result is famously described as "business in the front, party in the back". Let's imagine that King Henry VIII's palaces were a mullet. The Tower of London was the "business" end, where the heretics were burned, the wives were beheaded, and the frenemies were jailed. Hampton Court Palace, about 12 miles upstream from London on the Thames River, is the "party in the back".  Hampton Court Palace was originally built in the early 1500s for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a trusted advisor of King Henry VIII, who (like a lot of people in Henry's sphere) eventually fell out of favor. While Henry never got around to actually killing Wolsey, he did end up taking Hampton Court Palace for himself. From that point on, Hampton Court Palace
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The Tower of London: Lived-in Museums of London

  Nestled at the feet of the modern city is a castle of white stone that’s been standing on the banks of the Thames for nearly 1000 years. The Tower of London is part-palace, part-prison and a fun, creepy way to do something educational. The entire complex is surrounded by a giant wall that opens out on the river and houses a city-within-a-city where a select group of people still live today. There’s the White Tower, the Jewel Tower, The Bloody Tower—basically, all kindsa towers where human drama and tragedy unfolded in all manner of dark and spooky ways. For instance, this is the place that King Henry VIII made famous for throwing people who pissed him off before he’d have them killed. Two of his six wives were executed here, along with several political foes and former-friends of his who eventually fell from his good graces for one reason or another. You can tour the rooms where Anne Boleyn was kept waiting for her beheading and see the cells where other prisoners etched words in th
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