Mid-Century Feel (A Visit to Royal Festival Hall)

Dress: Inherited from a friend.  Not my usual style or hem-length but so fun!
Beret: Inherited from a (different) friend
Scarf: Gift from The Cat's mum
Gloves: Southbank Vintage Fair 2011
Boots: Jones Bootmaker
Bag: Beyond Retro

On the weekend, I took The Cat to the aquarium for his birthday.  He's a big fan of water and fish, and neither of us had been to an aquarium in years and years so it was a fun treat.  We enjoyed watching all the different fish (and penguins!) swimming and bobbing about.  We also got to go on a behind the scenes tour.  They are introducing these next year and there will be an entrance charge when they do, but they are currently doing some free trials just to get feedback.  We happened to be in the right place at the right time (for the record - by the stingray lagoon, bemused by the stingrays' strange behaviour).  A staff member approached us specifically (perhaps as some of the few adults without kids attached...) to ask if we were interested in seeing how the aquarium operates and seeing some creatures not usually on view.  Of course we were interested!  So we got to see cute baby fishes amongst other things, and learn about how everything works and how the fishes are monitored and looked after.  There's a lot more involved than you realise, I can say that!

Afterwards, we stayed on the Southbank for dinner and then I took The Cat into Royal Festival Hall.  He's not particularly interested in mid-20th century architecture but I'm trying hard to teach him its merits.  I think this one surviving remnant of the 1951 Festival of Britain needs to be seen from the inside to be understood.  This is what I found from my own personal experience and happily, he was reasonably won over when I took him in.  Hurrah!  Perhaps now he will see it as a positive architectural piece contributing to the riverside?  I doubt he'll ever rank it above the Palace of Westminster but he may view it slightly more kindly at least.

I didn't take any external photos because I think I would have struggled with my wee camera at nighttime, but I did try to capture some of its lovely internal lines and feel with a few photos which I'd like to share with you, my dear readers.  We went in whilst a show was on in the theatre so there weren't too many people in the public areas, hence the somewhat muted and melancholy vibe of the pictures.  But still so warm and beautiful, in my opinion.  I was particularly taken with the abandoned balloon on the stairs towards the end...