Very good day yesterday, as anticipated, but almost blown by traffic so that despite an early start we arrived for our coach with literally 1 minute to spare. There are standard tours of the Houses of Parliament where groups of around ten have a guide, or alternatively there are audio tours with headsets, but because ours was arranged through the MP, it was a personal tour of just my myself and my daughter and his secretary. I always prefer that kind of tour myself, because it gives you the flexibility to stay as long or as short a time on each bit, or to study things other people might not be as interested in, on the one hand, and then to ask questions on the other. But the biggest difference was that we were able to go to St Mary Undercroft (not my photos). This is reached via a set of gates labelled "pass holders only" and even our secretary had to notify the security people we were going there. But why did we want to go in particular? Because that is where Emily Davison's cupboard is. I was pleased to see a large information panel beside it, giving the story, but it seems a very British thing in some ways that it is in a part most people can't see.

Next, off to the Royal Opera House for the backstage tour. I hadn't appreciated just how large a building it is. The theatre, for those who have visited, is perhaps one quarter or one fifth of the total size of the building. It has six floors above ground and two underground. It contains what is, or perhaps was, the largest lift in Europe, which takes entire lorry and is used while transporting scenery. In renovations and other building work since the millennium they have been able to bring most of the auxiliary activities on site. So rehearsal rooms used to be about 45 minutes away - they didn't say but Sadler's Wells rings a bell for ballet rehearsals. Now they have three or four duplicates of the stage for various purposes - rehearsals, built sets for other current productions. We were lucky enough to see some rehearsals under way, but could only watch for a few minutes. Then in one of the rooms at the top of the building is where they make the props, which is a serious little machine shop, with separate rooms for the metal work, carpentry, glass fibre work and textiles, plus a properly vented spray room. all these are clustered round the main area where a mere handful of people are busy carving heads out of polystyrene amid a tumble of props - a chair with pig feet and ears, axes, turtles hung from the ceiling and fake tiger skin rugs.