Today we travelled into central London to visit the newly renovated National Portrait Museum. Not sure what I expected, it seemed pretty much the same as before but with a new entrance, a smaller cafe and more extensive and expensive dining options. The portraits are wonderful. As ever, non-contemporary portraits are dominated by men of power and privilege, with a very few notable exceptions. However, there was an inspiring portrait of Eleanor Rathbone (centre, between Beatrix Potter & Dame Anna Neagle). Wow! What a woman! She attended Oxford Uni but wasn’t allowed to graduate (women were not allowed to graduate until the 1920s). She campaigned for women and families and was a key and decisive driver in the introduction of family benefit (now child benefit). And I wondered just how many millions of children and families were transformed through her life’s work. When our children were little child benefit was the only way we could afford to buy food. 

And she said of herself;  “I do not believe I belong to the small class of people who justify public portraiture.”

And then on to Covent Garden and then to St Bride’s’ Fleet Street, the Writer’s Church, the Printers’ Church, the Journalists’ Church. A whole load of history here, and we left with more questions than answers. 

So quite a day in the heart of London.