On Saturday 15th May our EC outing took advantage of the Tate Modern 10th birthday celebrations. It was a lovely morning when we met outside the School and so walked the scenic way down to Waterloo and then along the South Bank past the Royal Festival Hall and following the Thames until we arrived at Tate Modern. This is a favourite venue for our outings and this time the grounds outside were transformed with a music festival, DJ’s, performance artists and odd events like the wheelbarrow extravaganza. It was a very busy and colourful scene that really caught our interest as there was so much to see.
Finally we tore ourselves away and went inside to the main turbine hall and to look at the ‘Festival of Independents’. This was where a series of cutting-edge art events, performances, music, and film were located with over 70 international artist collectives, from Shanghai to Rio. An amazing experience.
Although we had managed to fit in a snack at lunch time, we decided to extend our outing and walked along the Thames again to Borough Market where the variety of food and drink stalls were too much to resist. After a thorough tour we walked across to see the replica of the Golden Hind, a historic sailing ship that sailed round the world between 1577 and 1580. By modern standards it looks so small and vulnerable that you wonder how it survived the rough parts of the journey. Our final destination was a quick visit to Southwark Cathedral which first started to be built in 1220. A wonderful place to end the day by enjoying the architecture, antiquity and peaceful surroundings.