I’m sitting in a Joe & the Juice just off South Kensington station in London at the moment, with my oat milk latte on the table to my side, wearing one of my favourite silky midi skirts and with all my jewellery that I’ve made since moving here on. I’m surrounded by some of my favourite things basically 🙂 So I figured why not continue the trend and talk about one of my favourite places in London. The Wallace Collection.
If you know me (or if you follow my insta I’m sure you’ll have picked up on this) you’ll know that I love a good house museum. They’re like little museums/galleries in steroids. Just big enough to have amazing collections often that are very personal as well, and small enough that you don’t feel overwhelmed and can sort of experience them in a couple of hours.
And London has loads of them! Heaven. One of my favourites is called the Wallace Collection. It’s easy to get to, in central London pretty near Oxford Street. The building is actually called Hertford House and it was a family home (can you imagine!). It was bequeathed to the British nation in 1897 by the widow of the late owner Sir Richard Wallace, hence its name now. The house itself is a lovely piece of architecture if you’re a buff like I am. But inside you’ll find displayed the beautiful works of art collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess.
Literally every inch of the place is beautiful. The colours of the wall papers are actually one of my favourite things about the place, is that odd? It’s certainly a very niche thing to note anyway I’m guessing.
Each room has a different colour theme.
I want this library. Just so much. Dreaming of having a place with a beautiful library one day.
The Italian art. Oh yes please.
The portraits I could look at for days. This one? Like looking in a mirror. Even my dog would agree. No?
I’ll leave you with this. It’s free. Totally free to visit. One of the most amazing things about London , so much culture that they make accessible to everyone. P.s. they have s pretty cool looking conservatory cafe that I’m hanging out to try and the Collection shop is thumbs up. Anyone else love a good museum and/or gallery shop? Or just me?
L
Lara & Rae 