Kirkaldy Testing

We were out and about exploring Bankside this morning.

I loved this Commit No Nuisance sign.

We went for breakfast at Caravan Bankside, as we loved the food we'd had at their other restaurant in Kings Cross.

Tom ordered a coffee served in a science beaker while I sipped on a Blood Orange & Basil Shrub .

I had a delicious bowl of brown rice porridge with almond milk, maple syrup and banana.

Tom had fancy cheese on toast with sourdough, ogleshield cheese and caraway onion jam.

Afterwards we took a tour of the Kirkaldy Testing, the only museum in London where you're encouraged to break things.

The museum is open once a month when they run the huge testing machine.

We started down in the basement with a video before starting the tour.

The testing machine upstairs was so big that it was weighted down with lots of pieces in the basement that we had to be careful not to trip over.

Our guide was lovely and so excited about engineering. He'd explain how each of the machines work and then ask "make sense?", as though we were all set to start using then.

Back upstairs in Mr Kirkaldy's office, we got to see an example of one of his certificates for the test of materials. His favourite quote was "Facts, Not Opinions" and it's etched in the stonework above the front door.

Back in the main hall, there were more testing machines to play with.

This one measured the strength of Amazon packing cord and now I understand why it's so hard to rip them open.

It was then time to check out the huge testing machine which had just ran a test of one of the iron railing from outside.

It turned out that the railing had a vein of an unknown type of metal running through the middle of it to make it stronger.

A huge new extension had been added to the gallery since we last visited.

There was a giant swinging mirror ball in the main hall and lots of people were lying underneath it watching the reflections.

We then headed up to the galleries to check out the art.

This sculpture cast a really awesome shadow.

I loved Andy Warhol's Guerrilla Girl exhibition.

My favourite exhibit was this giant tower of radios, all tuned in to different stations from around the world.

We then made our way across the bridge into the new extension, stopping to look down on all the tiny people below.

There were some really amazing neon signs in the gallery.

We then attempted to make our way to the viewing deck on the roof but trying to get the elevators to stop on the right floor felt like an immersive art project.

Eventually we made it to the roof and the view was amazing and worth the frustrating 15 minutes it took to catch a lift.

We had a quick swing on the swings on the grounds as we were leaving.

We then went for an early dinner at Tibits, a vegan restaurant where you make up a plate and pay for it by the weight.

I ordered a Green Russian with stolichnaya, vanilla matcha, vanilla syrup and soya milk. It was delicious.

There were so many delicious things to choose from but I put together a plate of falafel, okra poppers, quiche, beans, carrot gravalax, salads, seeds and sweet potato wedges.