Expectation Vs Reality

You hear about these great exhibitions and installations, the next big thing, or even a much hyped film, only to discover the reality is less than amazing We have been to enough of these things over the time Climbing-Moss has been in existence and so we thought we’d share a view of Expectation over Reality…

We often search for stuff to do in London and when we see headlines like;

‘Time Out says this is the greatest **** of the year’.

We are intrigued. This was the case a few weeks back when the reports of the new Light Tunnel that connects Kings Cross Station to Coal Drops Yard was opened and it was said to be this amazing light show, the photos looked great and we were eager to investigate for ourselves.

So off we went on a Saturday Evening (before meeting friends for a birthday drink) to see for ourselves, we searched around the new restaurants and bars behind King’s Cross Station and found an escalator leading down.

At the bottom we found well we found a row of the glass cabinets that advertising posters are usually installed into, but these were voided of adverts for Ray Bans and Tampons and instead left blank, glowing fluorescent white light that occasionally changed to a muted pink, yellow of green.

It was greatly disappointing.

Everyone has now heard about the giant Teletubby hill at the corner of Hyde Park, ‘The Marble Arch Mound’. Well the name says it all really, but the hype had it as the greatest UK Attraction when in fact it’s a large scaffolding erection with a flight of steps and a lot of fake grass and the view is of well the traffic lights at the corner of Oxford St and Edgware Road, We went and looked from the ground and simply didn’t bother.

Another waste of time was the Moomins Installation at Walthamstow Reservoirs, a really badly set up exhibition and Nature Trail. It was meant to be a load of giant inflatable Moomins, instead found a few cardboard cutouts and a lot of the path was blocked off due to seasonal nesting birds.

There have been loads more, like the Brixton Windmill, it sounded idilic, but if fact was a half sized structure in the middle of a kid’s playground, not fun, not worth the journey.

The Summer Lights promising beautiful colorful reflections but as its London so it rained all the time.

Or the Vegan Butchers that we queued for three hours to get into and discovered that Vegan Turkey or even cheese still makes us cringe at the memory.

And don’t get us started on London Zoo! We will just leave that there…

But it seems the under rated, insignificant things are the best things to see. Tower Bridge was well worth the climb up all those bloody stairs! And the Northern Lights in Greenwich was amazing and that was just a tiny ‘If you remember’ suggestion months in advance and then no more mention of it.

So it’s a case of too much hype is clearly a warning to avoid it like the plague, but not enough hype doesn’t always meant it’s a total flop, but we will keep on going to these things and telling you what we think of them and then at least you’ll have an unbiased opinion to guide you should you want to go see for yourselves.

So please feel free to recommend something to see in London and we will be back next week with another review.