I've mentioned elsewhere that my day job involves working with museums and that it is not nearly as exciting as it sounds. Thursday was spent at three lovely ones in London, all of which I've added to my del.icio.us museums tag.

The Linley Sambourne House is one of my favourite small museums in London. I am a sucker for domestic interiors which appear to have travelled in time, such as the much more famous (and Georgian) Soane museum in Lincoln Inn's Fields. The Sambourne is a Victorian/Edwardian townhouse which has been fully restored over the last few years. The virtual tour at the website gives you an idea of how it all looks, but can't recreate how it feels to walk through the rooms. Whereas the equally beautiful Leighton House Museum ten minutes up the road feels like walking through a slightly decadent art gallery - and anyone who likes either the Pre-Raphaelites or the Stranglers* should make the trip west to Kensington - the Linley Sambourne feels genuinely domestic. I understand it's open to the public at weekends for scheduled tours with actors in costumes whose scripts are based on archival material, should any London-based readers be interested.


I'm trying very hard not to dwell on the theft of my laptop last night.

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*the video for Golden Brown was filmed in the Arab Room. I do always spend the rest of the day singing "texture like sun" whenever I've been there. Golden Brown was one of my first singles, bought for me by a sibling. I do not know if they knew the most popular interpretation of the lyrics or not: it seems a tad odd to be given a song about heroin when you're 10.