Monday, 7 September 2026, London: More portraits (and The Portrait), the Original Ivy, and Avenue Q

Written 29 September 2026

It's aliiiiive! David emerged, as planned, at 8:45 am, and we went off to breakfast at a pub in the square called The Moon Under Water. After I spotted the sign in front of it yesterday saying that it served breakfast, I looked it up and found that it's just one of 827 pubs (by actual count) in the UK (some with hotels attached) run by the Wetherspoon company, 47 of which are called The Moon Under Water. Ours is the Moon Under Water Westminster. The name is a quote from George Orwell, who used it in a description of his (imaginary) ideal pub.

The food was good, and the prices excellent. You could order in person at the bar, but I decided to try the "scan this QR code to order" option, which worked perfectly. From the extensive menu, David ordered the eggs benedict, and I chose the "small traditional breakfast": a fried egg, (English style) bacon, a Lincolnshire sausage, baked beans, and a hashbrown cake, to which I added the optional black pudding slice. We both had tea (they had PG Tips!). All for half the price of the Indigo's so-so continental buffet. I can't believe I didn't take pictures, but I'll get some when we go back for breakfast tomorrow.

Construction continues on the preparations for the movie premier, which keeps expanding its fenced footprint—a bazillion lights, scaffolding, tons of other equipment. According to Google, the next premier scheduled for this venue is Sense and Sensibility on 15 September. Do they really plan to keep constructing more and more for another whole week?! Aside from Fiona Shaw, I don't recognize the names of any of the cast.

After breakfast, we went back to the NPG, where we found we hadn't covered as much of the third floor as we thought—we spent hours and still didn't finish it. They've got pictures of everybody in there. Here, at the left, is John Donne (artist unknown) and at the right, Oliver Cromwell (by Robert Walker). I took scores of photos. and I show only a few of them here, but if you'd like to see more, let me know.

Here, at the left is Jonathan Swift, by the studio of Charles Jervas.

We found that the portable stools were less useful to sit on than in most galleries, because portraits lend themselves less to sitting and staring than other genres. One of the best features of this gallery is the amount of information given on the labels about the subjects, as opposed to the artists, and if you sat far enough from the portrait to view it, you were too far away to read the label. Still, I found my feet held up much longer with the folded stool to lean on, like a cane. In addition, the gallery provided these beautifully designed benches in many of the rooms. They varied in length and in percentage of the length facing one way or the other.

Left: Samuel Pepys (by John Hayls), famous 17th century diarist.

Right: A rather pompous presentation (by Sir Godfrey Kneller) of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. He's the one to whom a grateful Queen Anne presented Blenheim Palace. (Winston Churchill's grandfather was the 7th Duke of Marlborough.)

Scientists were represented. Left: Sir Isaac Newton (in a somewhat more restrained presentation by Sir Godfrey Kneller).

Right: Sir Hans Sloane (by Stephen Slaughter), founder of the British Museum. Sloane Square in London is named for him. Some of my college work-study was paid from a Sloane Scholarship, which I think was also a legacy of his.

Right: Thayendanegea (aka Joseph Brant) (by an unknown artist after a work by Gilbert Stuart and J. F. Rigaud). Mohawk warrior of prominence during the American Revolution

And composers: Left: Top, Henry Purcell (by the studio of John Closterman). Bottom, George Frideric Handel (attributed to Balthasar Denner).

And people associated with the Americas, a four-fer, as it were. On the left are Augustus, Viscount Keppel (by Joshua Reynolds) and Ben Franklin (artist unknown, after a portrait by Joseph Duplessis); on the right Jeffery, 1st Baron Amherst (by Thomas Gainesborough), and George Washington (artist unknown, after a portrait by Gilbert Stuart). That's the Lord Jeffery Amherst for whom the Massachusetts town and college are named, and as everyone knows who went to Amherst (or has a brother-in-law who did), the NPG misspelled his name. It's Jeffery, not "Jeffrey" as their label shows. According to my nephew Jeff, who is named for him, "It's R before E except when it's me."

Finally, more STEM folks. Left, Edward Jenner (by James Northcote), who figured out that you could "vaccinate" people against smallpox (using Vaccinia, cowpox, a milder and less dangerous relative) rather than "variolating" them with the super-risky Variola itself.

At noon, we presented ourselves at The Portrait, the gallery's high-end restaurant, just at opening time and were able to get in easily despite dire warnings that reservations were prudent. It's on the top floor, and the view over the city was great.

We shared the basket of artisan bread (and butter), then each ordered the smoked salmon first course.

For dessert, we ordered tea and split the restaurant's version of a Knickerbocker glory for dessert, which turned out to be a raspberry variation on Eton mess! It consisted of a big scoop of (superb) vanilla ice cream topped with raspberry coulis, whipped cream, pieces of freeze-dried raspberries, shards of crisp meringue, more raspberry coulis, and a sprinkle of pistachios. Outstanding!

The tea was a delicious Assam in this lovely glass service. You may not be able to make out at this scale the large-leaf loose tea and the clever spring-coil strainer built into the spout to keep the leaves in the pot.

Then it was back to the hotel, where David could indulge in his favorite vacation activity—napping—while I wrote.

The evening's show was Avenue Q, which we've seen before. (Where was that? New York? Washington? London?) But it was great and bears repeating.

Accordingly, I reserved at The Original Ivy, a restaurant near the midpoint of our 11-minute walk to the Shaftesbury Theatre.

I started with French onion soup—very rich, beefy flavor, but the onions were strangely chewy. David had the ragout of wild mushrooms on pappardelle pasta.

Then he went on to the roast venison with beets, parsnip purée, and crispy fried parsnip ribbons. He said the venison was excellent but that the beets were even better.

I chose a second starter for my main course—the crispy duck salad with cashews, ginger, watermelon, sesame, and hoisin. Scrumptious.

No time for dessert. I should have mentioned at the beginning of the meal that we had a curtain time to make, but I thought we had plenty of time. Too bad service was so slow.

Here are the curtain (left) and side boxes (right) at the theater.

The show was as great as we remembered. Avenue Q is 20 years old this year, but it is still a riot.