Gem in disguise : The Wallace Collection

The Wallace Collection located in Marylebone , this was the first art collection in London that I went to. It is a lovely town house with lots of different rooms filled with 18th century French paintings and furniture. The journey to this place (I must admit) I got a little lost, as it was not on the main streets.I encountered roundabouts, 4 way streets, almost got into the wrong building (Woops) . But finally, The Wallace Collection building was in front of my eyes.

The first observation that I made when I arrived was this place was not known popularly among tourist, you would not see large crowds holding their professional cameras following the tour guide with the flag. You would see locals and art enthusiast enjoying their time admiring the ambiance.

From the outside I assumed that this was going to be a small museum, not as fancy as The British Museum or Victoria Albert Museum but boy oh boy was I wrong.Entering the building suddenly took me back right to the 18th century where I am the master of the mansion with butlers waiting for me. There were grand stairs that would definitely made a great entrance with soft carpet rugs, marbled tiles with beautiful curves on the staircase borders. Suddenly I felt under dressed with my bright pink raincoat, black t-shirt and jeans because this place screams POSH.

This collection contains at least 25 galleries with displays of 18th century French paintings,furniture and porcelain along with a collection of world class armory. None of the rooms feel empty, each room gives out different vibes based on the color of the walls. There are rooms with soft pastel colors with lovely pattern wallpaper.

IMG_20160919_141525_edited

IMG_20160919_142301_edited

IMG_20160919_141743_edited

IMG_20160919_135003_edited

IMG_20160919_142045_edited

IMG_20160919_142212_edited

After leaving the room, sudden change of vision with bold strong colored walls. Like the images below , it is very eye catching and memorable (especially when purple is my favorite color) .

IMG_20160919_142627_edited

IMG_20160919_142421_edited

Of course as I was taking pictures in every room, there's always one shot that is definitely Instagram worthy with a touch of fancy filter and creative hashtags.

In every beautiful museum of course we expect to find a grand room where it offers the best collection, the highest ceiling or for others the room that has the most seating areas so they can sit down and check their phones. There were a few of those rooms in this museum, but for me this is THE grand room of the entire building.

For those of you who are planning to take out your friends or family seeing London for the very first time. This is definitely a best first impression. The building might be small, but I now realized why can people be in art galleries staring in paintings for hours and hours.

That's the first post of Flojaya in Flondon, register your email so you could receive updates on my upcoming posts. Peace out and enjoy the Flo! xx

The Wallace Collection

Address: Hertford House, Manchester Square, Marylebone

Post Code: W1U 3BN

Tube Stops: Bond St (Central and Jubilee Line) , Baker St (Bakerloo,Cirlce, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee,Metropolitan Line)

Daily 10-5pm