Today was a field trip day. I am happy to say that it was the LAST of our day long field trips (I do have an overnight one next week though). Basically we were on the bus the entire day. Seriously. The bus left at 9:30 this morning (I LOVED the later departure time!) and we headed off to Standen House. It was designed by Webb, and was in the Arts and Craft movement style. We arrived at Standen at 11:15ish (lets keep track… that is 1 hour 45 minutes) and split into 3 groups. Since the house was so tiny we couldn’t go around as a group. Instead we had to walk through by ourselves. So I wandered… it was nice. I could live there actually! There was original William Morris wallpaper (the first design too!) on the wall in the hall so that was awesome. It took everything in me not to stroke it!
After 25 mins or so walking through the house we had to leave so the other group could come in. We had an hour and 15 minutes to wander around the gardens and eat lunch. Isabel and I found a bench to sit on and overlook the beautiful British scenery! I read the plaque on the bench and it was made in 1910!! It was one-hundred and two years old! That is older than most things in the states and we were allowed to plop ourselves down on it and munch pb&j sandwiches! Epic.
Our bus left at 1:15 and we started our 50 minute ride to Red House. Unfortunately 30 mins or so into the journey we were in the middle of a traffic jam. We finally arrived at Red House at 3:20 (That is 2 hours and 5 minutes + the earlier 1:45 = 3 hours 50 minutes) Red House was really cool architecturally. It was William Morris’s house so it was all Arts and Crafts. The only thing here was that everything was missing from it. The house was empty minus wallpapers and a few built in bookcases/shelving. We stayed for about 40 mins and were back on the bus around 4.
The bus driver was awesome and let whoever wanted off to get off at Westminster tube stop which was PREFECT because my line runs through there. We got back as Big Ben was striking 5, so that was an hour + the 3 hours 50 minutes = 4 hours and 50 minutes. Basically we were on the bus for 5 hours and spent 2 hours at one house and 40 minutes at the other…. It wasn’t REALLY worth it. Oh well. I can say that I saw William Morris’s house!
P.S the picture is off William Morris's first wallpaper
sorry to hear. that makes a long day!
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