Dulwich Picture Gallery, Au Ciel Café & Brockley Pop-up Gallery

Stained glass at the Dulwich Gallery

After visiting the Tate Modern Saturday, my weekend of culture continued with a to visit the Dulwich Picture Gallery for the first time. Located close to one of the exits to Dulwich Park I had no idea where the gallery was before checking the map and striking out in the cold for the walk across to Dulwich.

The small and attractive gallery has an impressive selection of classical paintings and some of the friendliest art gallery staff I have encountered. The classics were much less my thing that the pop art we’d seen the day before. My favourite paining was landscape by Constable. I also liked the galleries relaxed and unhurried feel and took advantage of the benches several times that encourage you to linger in the galleries.

Tartine at Au Ciel

 

After the gallery we headed into Dulwich village to find some lunch at the steamy windowed Au Ciel café. The French inspired menu had small selection of five different tartines, five more baguettes and a wide selection of chocolates and cakes.

I decide up the humus, avocado and white bean tartine (£4.85 eat in), which turned out to be surprisingly delightful. The bread was so generously topped that the filling was oozing over side and made it a little sloppy to eat with your hands. A knife and fork was definitely required. My only quibble was with the accompanying bare leaves. A little salad dressing would have made this an even more special little dish.

On our way home we stopped at a pop up bar / artexhibition in Brockley which was being run by a local artist in the shed at the bottom of her garden for the weekend.