What do you mean I already have to fly home tomorrow?! <sob> Yes, it’s true that this (quick) trip is nearly at an end, but I’ve already got plenty of happy memories from this weekend to take back with me! As you’ll learn below, my Saturday consisted of just one, all-day event, hence no separate post for it. But taken with a fun potpourri of events on Sunday, it made for a great weekend! Regular readers may find them sounding a bit familiar though…

To start, there was Saturday, which was all about Doctor Who. Funnily enough, that’s what Saturday was about on my last London trip, too! In fact, this Saturday was all about Doctor Who in the exact same way as that trip in that all I did was go to a screenings of a Doctor Who adventure at BFI Southbank. As with last time, the screening sold out quickly a few months ago while tickets were only available to BFI members. Thankfully, my friends David and Darren were able to snag a ticket for me this time as they did last time. Hooray! I was actually quite happy when I heard it had sold out because this screening was for the 1984 story Warriors of the Deep, which is generally NOT regarded as a classic by many fans (unlike Terror of the Zygons last time, as most every fan loves that one). But it stars my favorite Doctor (the Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison) and my favorite companion (Tegan Jovanka, played by Janet Fielding), so I was excited! And, as usual, this screening was done to celebrate the upcoming Blu-ray release of Season 21, so we weren’t just watching the regular version of the story we all know and love (or not), but rather a souped-up special edition (which I can confirm was done VERY well). Unlike last time though, there was no separate screening for a documentary from the Blu-ray set, but we did get to see a montage of clips of some of those extras (not only is there a ton of care put into restoring these classic Who stories on Blu-ray, but there’s also a ton of great new bonus features made for them, so I’m usually more excited for those than for the actual episodes!). This is actually the event that spurred me to plan this quick trip over here (though as you’ll read below, I managed to find some Who fun on Sunday, too) and I’m very glad it worked out!

Just like last time, the screening included a few extra things – a short talk at the beginning, a couple of short talks in at the halfway point of the story, and a few more talks at the end, plus a short quiz to give away some fun prizes. And I’m delighted to confirm I won a prize this time! To be fair, I only won it because, when asked by the emcees who came the furthest, it turned out it was me. But hey, a prize is a prize! My friend Matt come up from Brighton for the day again, so it was great to see him, plus the aforementioned David and Darren, along with other friends. Afterwards, we all had fun in the BFI bar with drinks, conversation, and gossip, which was followed by dinner nearby with Matt and a couple other friends. All in all, an excellent Saturday! Not a lot to show off for pictures, I’m afraid, but I was inside a theater for several hours anyway. 🙂

Justin and Dick from the BFI getting things started, followed by a quick conversation with Al Dewar from Character Options (the company that makes Doctor Who action figures, which will come into play momentarily), plus a shot of hands in the air during the short quiz.

A few photos from the various chats they did during the break before watching the second half of the story. We got to hear bits about the upcoming Blu-ray release and the new work done to make Warriors shine.

A look at a new Silurian mask plus two other props that were used in the scripted mini-adventure that was used in the trailer for the upcoming Blu-ray release.

And that’s it! I only realized now that I didn’t take a photo of my dinner, which was a tasty bowl of ramen from Wagamama. Although Waga is a ubiquitous “fast casual” chain around the UK (much like my beloved Pizza Express, but for Asian food), I’d never actually been to one before this weekend! Glad to have officially crossed it off the list. I got back to my hotel pretty early afterwards, around 830p or so, which was actually great as it gave me time to chill with a bit of TV. I know it seems like I do a lot of these UK trips (especially when I’m trying to cram stuff into a shorter trip), but I don’t mind some chill time in my hotel once in awhile. It is a vacation after all! And as it turns out, I ended up doing a fair amount of running around on Sunday, so I more than made up for a slower Saturday.

My Sunday started with something I didn’t even have a glimmer of before the trip! Would you believe it was another Doctor Who event? Well, I say Doctor Who, but it was really a general sci-fi media convention, which I had no idea was happening until my friend Tom messaged when he saw I was in the UK. I just met him a few weeks ago on my annual trip to LA for the Gallifrey One convention and he assumed I was coming over for another con! Though it sounded fun, I hadn’t planned for it and already had some other Sunday plans brewing, so I thought that was the end of it, but then my friend Tony ALSO messaged me saying he would be happy to get me a guest pass as he runs part of the event. By this time I thought maybe the universe was telling me I should make an appearance and when Tony said he’d arranged for some folks who were going to be at the Saturday screening to bring the pass with them, that clinched it. I grabbed it from them there and then made my way to the convention on Sunday morning.

The event in question is the London Comic Con Spring and is run by Showmasters, who are also involved in bringing some of the guests to the US conventions I go to. Other than the big 50th anniversary Doctor Who one in 2013, I’ve never been to a big convention center-type event, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this one, especially as it’s not even close to being dedicated to Doctor Who (though they had a good number of who guests there) and I knew it would be more focused on buying stuff (merch, autographs, photographs) than going to panels (they do just a few panels through the event, but not many and certainly not multiple tracks of them like the other cons I go to). But hey, I had a free pass to get in, so why not give it a try?

It was held at the Olympia, which is a little under four miles from my hotel, so I decided to walk there (I know, I’m sure you’re SHOCKED by that). Although still grey (as most of this trip has been), the temp was fine, if a bit windier than previous days, and I only had to deal with a few sprinkles of rain along the way. But that didn’t stop me from getting a few photos!

The Natural History Museum is very close to the V&A, so I knew I’d be walking by that one, too. I’ve only been to this one once, with my friend Steve when I was here in 2024. Both museums were very close to the Hotel Xenia, where I stayed for the second half of my September 2023 trip.

Olympia isn’t too far from Earl’s Court, so I of course had to get a photo of the police box there. I was sad to see part of the sign above the doors has been damaged since my last visit! 😦

Upon arrival, I flashed my guest badge and proceeded to….wander around. Not having been to this event, I had no idea of the layout (as you’ll see below though, it’s basically a big vendor hall, with a second level running a ring around the hall and that featured all the guests’ signing stations. As I said, an event like this is mostly about buying stuff, whether that’s merch from the vendors, autographs from the guests, or photo sessions from the convention (though there was one panel space as well), so while there was lots to see from all those vendors, it took my awhile to figure out where to find my friend Tony! As it happened, I had gone up to the second level to find the bathroom (shouldn’t have drunk a bunch of water before walking!) when I ran into Tony, who promptly showed me the lay of the land, including the green room (which had its own bathroom – hooray!). I wasn’t even planning on being able to get in the green room, so that was a nice surprise! As mentioned above, Showmasters also brings some guests to the other cons I work at, so I already know some of their team, two of whom were already in the green room and happy (and surprised!) to see me. It kind of felt like a convention at home!

Although I didn’t get to catch up much with Tony (he was busy helping to run things!), it didn’t take long for my friend Tom to show up in the green room, with his partner (she’s the guest I worked with in LA a few weeks ago!) and a few other guests I knew. It was great to see them again! This convention had some great Doctor Who guests in attendance and I certainly would have gotten a couple of photos if I’d been able to stay all day, but as it was, I was happy to catch up with a few friends and to experience a new-to-me UK event. Timing-wise, it actually worked out pretty well as the stuff I had already planned didn’t start until later in the day, so I was able to spend a good couple of hours there. Now that I’ve been to one, I’ll have to consider coming to others in the future!

How nice to be greeted by Kitt from Knight Rider when I entered! Tony was telling me the guy who built this version (it’s not the original from the TV show) has used AI so the car can actually communicate back with you. It’s like TV come to life! The other photo shows a view of the event floor from the second level. Lots of stuff to buy!

By early afternoon, it was time to move on from my geek adventure to head to a totally different kind of event. Really glad I got the chance to attend though! Thank you to Tony and the friends I got to see there!

My next stop was something I planned pretty early in the process for this trip. Would you believe it was another cemetery tour? Although it sounds a bit macabre, I enjoyed my tour of Highgate Cemetery on my first post-COVID London trip in 2022, so I did some searching to see what other cemeteries I could get a guided tour of and Brompton Cemetery popped right up. Conveniently, I could easily walk there from Olympia (about a mile), so that’s another sign that me going to that convention as a bit of kismet, right??

Brompton Cemetery dates back to 1839 and, like Highgate, is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries built around London to alleviate the overcrowding in churchyards. London had grown so large so quickly in the early 1800s that diseases like cholera were running rampant, claiming the lives of many citizens. We learned from our tour guide that, before these cemeteries were built, bodies and coffins were given only the most cursory of burials, sometimes uncovering just enough dirt to cover them (and even then, it was normal to see coffin lids and bones coming from from the ground because they were so shallowly buried). Obviously NOT a fun (or hygienic) situation to be in.

Enter Brompton Cemetery (and others) to help alleviate the problem, at least to some extent. It was originally started by a private company, but as often happens, that company ran out of money, so ownership then transferred to the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, who didn’t do the best job of taking care of it. Today, it’s owned by the Crown, but doesn’t get any money from them for maintenance or upkeep, so the money brought in via tours like the one I went on are is critical in caring for the grounds. It did receive a National Lottery grant in 2014, which helped to make some notable improvements, including building a cafe and information center and to repair/shore up a number of cemetery monuments that were falling apart and tagged as unsafe to be near.

This cemetery is home to over 200,000 people (though interestingly, there are only about 35,000 headstones/memorials, so many people are buried there with no indication of it) and is still an active cemetery today. One of the interesting things I learned on the tour is that, although it is still active, the cost to get buried there is something like £10,000 and plots are technically only leased for 95 years (unlike all the existing plots, which are permanently held). What happens after 95 years? The ground is turned over and other people will be buried in those spots. Wild, eh??

Tours here are led totally by volunteers from the Friends of Brompton Cemetery. Our guide, John, said he’s been a volunteer for about 20 years, having gotten involved because he lived in the area and thus walked through the cemetery many times, building his own knowledge about it up. He was eventually asked if he wanted to become a volunteer tour guide, which is what brought him to our small group.

At about 90 minutes, it was long enough to be detailed and to contain tidbits about the cemetery, its history, and some of the people buried there, but not too long to get boring. Although the skies had been pretty grey up to the point I arrived, the sun actually broke through the clouds for a good chunk of the tour and, even when things clouded back over by the end, we still didn’t get rained on. I’ll take that as a win! I had a nice time and got to take some interesting photos, so it was definitely time well spent (and well worth the suggested donation of £10). The tours are offered every Sunday from March – November and can be booked online or in person (note that the website specifies that there’s ALWAYS room for people to just show up without having booked, so that’s what I did).

Some information about the cemetery, plus a few photos I took while waiting for the tour to start. The photo at the bottom is a view down the main path (just inside the gate above), looking towards the chapel at the other end.

What I enjoy about walking through old cemeteries are the old monuments, history, and the chance for unique photos.

Listening as John tells us the story of Emmeline Pankhurst, a political activist who helped ensure women’s suffrage.

I especially like these large mausoleums, which are sometimes empty (with remains buried in the ground below) and sometimes filled with coffins on shelves.

In some of these photos, I wanted to make sure I captured the blue sky! There’s something interesting to my eyes about the somberness of a cemetery against a bright blue sky.

The tour continued as John pointed out the only memorial in the cemetery that includes actual photos of the deceased (shown in the right-hand photo).

What a good tour that was! Between the tour and my journey to the convention though, I had a lot of steps on my feet by this point and was ready to catch the tube somewhere where I could sit down, rest my feet, and have a meal. Even though I already ate at a pub on this trip, I walked by a neat-looking pub, The Fountain & Ink, a couple of days ago and noticed that it wasn’t part of the big pub chains here (Greene King, Fuller’s, etc.) and that made me want to visit because it’s seems so hard to find pubs like that. I decided to head that way for a Sunday roast late lunch/early dinner and I’m glad I did because it was really tasty! Although I toyed with the idea of getting something else, I ultimately REALLY enjoyed the Chef’s Roast, which included beef, chicken, pork, along with some tasty vegetables and a Yorkshire pudding. And I even had a scoop of ice cream for dessert. After all those steps, I earned it! 🙂

With belly full and feet rested, I decided it would be best for me to walk a bit more (had to get that metabolism going after such a nice meal!) to get to my final destination. As with my last trip, I booked myself in for bingo at Retro Bar with the delightful drag queen, Sheila Simmonds. In fact, this was my third time at one of her bingo extravaganzas and it was as fun this time as always! I was originally hoping Matt could have stayed to join me for this, but as he couldn’t, I flew solo, but it was still fun. Sheila put on just as good of a show as she’s done previously and the crowd loved her. Sadly, I didn’t win anything, but when it comes to bingo at Retro, playing is the fun part!

I had a bit of time to kill before heading to Retro, so I walked around Trafalgar Square to get some evening shots of the landmarks there.

Me and my bingo setup!

Sheila always goes around to ask everyone where they’re from and if they’ve been before. I was thinking she might remember the US guy on his third visit, but no luck.

Listening to Sheila call numbers is a real hoot!

A couple of photos of Sheila’s short, three-act play entitled something like Drag Queen Drinks Glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

And that wrapped up my weekend in London! I’ve enjoyed writing this post in my room with the sun shining through my window, but I’ve gotta get out and enjoy my last day here (and that sun!) while I still can. I’ve got a couple of things planned today (including one I just booked a couple hours ago), so I’m going to make the most of my remaining time.