VE Day: Poppies @ Tower + Art @ OXO + Riverside Walk + Civil Service Club Social

Let's celebrate VE 80 Day! With another 🌼Daisy 🌼Chain 🌼Event!!!

To start: The Tower Remembers: Poppies return to the Tower of London!
Thousands of poppies will be returned to the moat at the Tower of London, for a commemorative display lasting all summer. 30,000 of the 880,000+ ceramic poppies which made up the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation in 2014 will be arranged in the moat to resemble a 'wound' at the heart of the Tower, from which the poppies will form a crater, with ripples flowing outwards.
We will view this from the edge... don't forget your camera 📷🤳
Whilst here, we'll also see the war memorial by Tower Hill Station...
BTW - there may well be a fly by going on too 🙏🤞

From here we'll take a social riverside walk (on the south side) to the OXO Gallery to see: Brushstrokes from the Front Lines exhibition
Paintings by trailblazing British war artist Doris Zinkeisen go on display for the first time, for this VE Day exhibition. She was a British Red Cross and St John Ambulance Brigade volunteer nurse during the Second World War, and many of her artworks depict things she witnessed, such as hospital wards, rescue missions during night air raids and the repatriation of prisoners of war.
Zinkeisen was one of the first artists — commissioned by the British Red Cross — to paint the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after it was liberated in April 1945, capturing both the relief work being undertaken, and the disturbing death, sickness and suffering of those who were held there in captivity.

Whilst coasting along the riverside we will pass HMS Wellington:
HMS WELLINGTON is the only surviving Battle of Atlantic ship on the east side of the Atlantic and has been an iconic feature on the River Thames since 1948. The Battle of Atlantic was the longest battle of WW II, starting on 3 September 1939, and ending on 8 May 1945. HMS WELLINGTON is credited with escorting over 103 Atlantic convoys, saved over 400 lives and is listed on the National Historic Ships Register. She is also the last Grimsby Class Sloop.

Before our final stop, we will see the Cenotaph on Whitehall it will be draped in Union Jack flags!!!

After this, I will take us along to The Civil Service Club in Great Scotland Yard which is a unique organisation in a special building at the historic heart of government in Whitehall. Upon her accession to the throne in 1952, Her Majesty The Queen made the premises available to the Club to provide 'a social facility within the reach of all.’ Today the Club is thriving as never before, with more than 12,000 members and a mission true to its original founding.
I am a member and I have booked tables for us. Therefore, it is important to keep your RSVP up to date, especially if there's a waiting list. Our tables are booked for 15:00 hrs.
Here's a link to view the menu:
[[CSC-Bar-Menu-Jan-2025.pdf](http://csc-bar-menu-jan-2025.pdf/)](https://www.civilserviceclub.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CSC-Bar-Menu-Jan-2025.pdf)
Drinks are reasonably priced too...

The Meetup fee for this event is £4.00 – which is payable on the day.
I will meet you outside Tower Hill Tube Station by the Tea Tram exit. Please keep an eye out for the Meetup sign. If you do not see us please call/text me on: 0739 623 3874 – text is best! - psssst! Don't forget to say your name in the message. However, before sending any message please check the site in case I have added an update.
Please be aware that I cannot take calls/answer messages once the event has started.

Hope to see lots of you there :)

NB. As usual there will be others coming along from my other Meetup family ;)