Browsed by
Category: London

Trains, Cranes and Cobbles

Trains, Cranes and Cobbles

Comments 4 Comments

Chance is a fine thing. Our weather forecasters invariably get it wrong but occasionally a forecast will turn out to be right purely by chance. Saturday was one of those forecasts. It was forecast to be sunny all day and so it was.

We leaped on a train, figuratively speaking, and leaped off at Stratford (one station before our normal terminus – Liverpool Street Station). There are two stations at Stratford now; the one that we just used, which has been there a long time, and Stratford International which is relatively new. It's called Stratford International because the international trains don't stop there (what?). They were supposed to but the train operators refused to stop there because it's only a few minutes out of St. Pancras. However they were threatened with being forced to stop there so they agreed to re-examine the situation after the Olympics. We shall see.

However there are trains that stop there which go to parts of Kent. Well that's foreign because it's south of the river and we are thinking of taking a day trip down into Kent at some point so we thought we'd see what was involved in getting from one station to the other.

This map shows the relationship between the two stations with Stratford International just below the top (Blue lettering), Stratford Station just below that and to the right (grey lettering) and the Olympic Statium lower down and to the left.

The large grey/brown block between the two stations is the Westfield Shopping Centre. It turned out to be a fairly straightforward walk through the shopping centre from one station to the other so we'll know for next time.

Having walked to Stratford International we didn't have to walk back because we were then going on the Docklands Light Railway, henceforth known as the DLR, to Blackwall. We managed to get a front seat looking out the window so I took a few photographs on the journey.

This one is as we were leaving Stratford Internaional because I thought that arch looked rather graceful.

A little further on and we were approaching Stratford and the Olympic Park with the stadium on the right and the strange twisty helter-skelter thing on the left.

One has to be very quick in composing a shot when trying to take photographs from a moving train and it's also tricky holding the camera steady whilst bouncing up and down with the train's movement but I managed this shot of the Millenium Dome as we went past.

We had to change trains at Canning Town to get to Blackwall and this is our next train arriving. They are rather cute. The nice thing is being able to sit behind the front window as there is no driver (they are controlled by computer).

Arriving at Blackwall DLR Station we went to start our walk. The first thing to do is look for the sign pointing to Billingsgate Fish Market and follow the wide paved path going out of the picture on the right.


So we did that. This brought us to a main road and a very short way away to the left was a short flight of wide stone steps which took us up to the edge of Poplar Dock.

It was nice to see, when this dock was redeveloped for housing, that the old dockside cranes were left in position.

Walking along the dock we saw a lot of boats and from here the cranes can be seen over to the left and a red DLR train in the distance on an elevated section of railway. Walking to the southern end of Poplar Dock we were able to cross into Blackwall Basin and see the buildings in Canary Wharf reflected in the water.

 We also caught a glimpse of the Millenium Dome again just beyond these waterside apartments which we saw from the footbridge.


We eventually reached the lock which is the entrance to West India Dock with yet more, and larger, cranes just off Prestons Road. The buildings of Canary Wharf are prominent in the background.

On the other side of Prestons Road is yet another view of the Millenium Dome. That thing seems to pop up everywhere.

We eventually reached the western end of West India Dock and headed east along the other side of the dock and started to see a bit of greenery.

Bearing in mind that the London Marathon comes through here tomorrow we saw very few signs of that. Just a few TV broadcasting vans with dish aerials on their rooves but nothing else. We did wonder if there might be crowd barriers is place specifically to spoil any photographs I might want to take but, no, not a sign.

We reached No. 1 Canada Square which is one of the very tall buildings and went into the shopping centre at its base. This shopping area must go under a large number of the buildings because it is v-a-s-t. There are also free public toilets here if that interests you (and if you can actually find them – we did smilies ).

We did finally find our way through to Cabot Square and emerged once more into sunlight and were surprised by a couple of little attractive cameo views that suddenly appear here from time to time.


We left Cabot Square and made our way north towards West India Quay, not to be confused with West India Dock which we have already passed, and we emerged from the left onto the footbridge in the distance just beyond the cranes.

This view was obtained by going up on to one of the DLR platforms of West India Quay station which is on an elevated section of the railway at this point. Yet more cranes which, I thought, looked a bit like Martian War Machines. Here is another view of the Martian War Machines with the DLR showing in the background in the station from which I took the previous view.

The area on the right of the footbridge includes some of the original docklands buildings which have been restored and fronted by the original cobbled surface. This includes the Museum of London Docklands and also numerous restaurants. Walking along here and looking at all the different menus one is rather spoiled for choice. We eventually decided on one particular menu at a restaurant called Henry's and decided to have lunch.

We were shown to a table in the sun with padded seats, which was nice, and our order was taken very soon after. Our drinks arrived first and our meals not long after that. Table service was very efficient but drinks and meals took longer than we would have expected although not too long so I expect the slight hold up was in the kitchen.

Amanda had roast belly of pork with dauphinoise potatoes and vegatables and I had pork schnitzel with red cabbage and sautéed new potatoes. We both enjoyed our meals and the food really was very good. So much so that I had to refrain from licking the plate. Amanda made the point that her dauphinoise potato was some of the best that she'd had.

The problem started when we decided to have a dessert. We placed our order and waited, and waited, and waited. We queried this a number of times and were told it would arrive soon. It didn't. We finally got our order 30 minutes after it was placed. Both of our desserts were cold items so no cooking needed. The desserts, like our main courses, were very nice and although we were given an apology I said that waiting 30 minutes really was unacceptable. They cancelled the cost of the desserts by way of compensation.

In spite of that long wait I think that it must have been an unusual problem because it was busy and obviously very popular so we will go back if we are that way again and give then another chance. From the point of view of table service and quality of food I would recommend them without hesitation.

We now headed to the Museum of London Docklands shown here in part of the restored warehouse with a cobbled frontage.

The museum is big with a variety of exhibits including some which try to show what the narrow streets of old London would have looked like.

After spending some time looking around we realised that we were both feeling tired and so decided to head for home. Leaving the museum we headed through the grassy Canada Place.

Then through Jubilee Park

and towards the nearest DLR station thence back to Stratford and on the train home. Our second trip of the year (our first being to meet Marie in London on her birthday).

 

Plan A or Plan B?

Plan A or Plan B?

Comments 6 Comments

Wednesday 20th February was Marie's birthday and we had planned to meet her in London for a day out. The weather forcast for that day was cold and overcast but dry so we planned to visit the Museum of London, then lunch, then the Wallace Collection.

On the Tuesday before, the weather forecast suddenly changed, and it was going to be sunny spells around 11:00 AM and then clear sun around lunchtime for the rest of the day. So when we spoke to Marie on the phone the night before we formulated Plan B which was to meet at Paddington Station and walk along the Regents Canal to Camden Lock.

On Wednesday morning the weather forecast had changed again (this is all par for the course as far as weather forecasting in this country goes) and the sunny spells weren't going to appear until mid-afternoon. When we met Marie in Paddington Station we decided to revert to Plan A, but in reverse, as it  appeared that there wasn't going to be much sun and it was cold with an icy wind. It was very nice to see Marie once again and she looked very well.

We walked from Paddington to Manchester Square, which is where the Wallace Collection is based, passing a few nice little mews on the way.

It was nice to get inside in the warm and we left our outer coats in the Cloak Room before setting off to wander round. Entry is free and even the cloakroom works on a donations basis. I did take a few more photographs, having taken many on our previous visit, but photography here is not easy. The light levels are low and using flash or a tripod is forbidden.

Those two backs belong to Amanda and Marie.

In one of the nearby cases was this rather fancy bowl. Not sure I'd like that staring at me though. It doesn't look terribly friendly.

Even this horse was a little surprised to see Marie and I think that the knight is using his sword to point out something on the ceiling. That's Amanda in the background looking at the other knight on horseback.

After a couple of late knights we left the Wallace Collection, walked the short distance to Oxford Street, and caught a 23 bus to St. Paul's where we were planning to have lunch in the Crypt. It did not go according to plan. We discovered that not long before a party of 67 Americans had descended, like a plague of locusts, and had virtually cleaned the place out. There was now only one main course available which involved goats cheese and Amanda and I didn't want that although Marie was happy to have some. We decided to have soup and bread except they were out of bread too. I don't like parties of 67 Americans. You'd think that they would have had the decency not to eat so much.  :???:

After that we had some cups of tea and coffee with cake to fill any gaps then it was onward to the Museum of London.

After looking at various exhibits, of which there are a lot, we took Marie into another part of Barbican to see some Roman wall before the light started to go.

The semi-circular area is the base of a medieval guard tower which had been built into the old Roman Wall and the obvious length of wall is Roman.

We went back to the Museum of London, which is easy to do as entry is free, and looked at some more exhibits. Did I mention that there are a lot?

Our last exhibit was the Lord Mayor's Coach after which we were all feeling approximately knackered after so much wandering round. We wandered off to find Barbican Underground Station and on the way I taught Marie how to say 'tomato' properly.  ;-)  We said our goodbyes at the station and Marie went west and we went east.

We enjoyed our day and I hope that Marie did too. Until next time Marie. :grin:

 

It’s a jungle out there!

It’s a jungle out there!

Comments 2 Comments

It's definitely a jungle

although perhaps it's a desert!

Well actually it's both! For the sake of the narrative we'll call this place 'The Conservatory' irrespective of the fact that emblazoned across the top of each entrance doorway are the words 'The Conservatory'. I'm glad we've got that straight.

Just recently the weather has been mostly cloudy but fairly mild then a few days ago the temperature dropped to around freezing. Brrrrrr! Where better to warm up than a semi-tropical environment – so on Sunday off we went (no it's not Kew).

This is a very large conservatory and although we had only a quick look round it still took us an hour. It also features a small aviary about the size of a small garden shed but containing an amazing number of different species. There were small quail no longer than about seven inches

and some Zebra Finches. All these birds were devilishly difficult to photograph because they kept hopping or flying around. Very inconsiderate.

This small area may give you an idea of the conservatory's size:

The people on the high level walkway on the left and the people below gives an idea of scale. It is not hot and humid in here but pleasantly warm with a remarkable number of plant species not to mention the occasional fish.

This next picture is that same pool, seen from a higher level, showing a small part of the little wooden footbridge which crosses the small channel which connects this pool with a larger pool elsewhere.

There are, of course, the inevitable palm trees including some quite tall ones.

There are other types of tree, also quite tall, and we saw some nice flowers.

You may be able to tell from the conservatory structure that this is not a Victorian structure but something that is much more modern. There is also an Arid Plants Gallery which has an amazing collection of Cacti. Amanda commented that she prefers this one to the Cactus House at Kew and would like to return in Spring when the cacti should be flowering.

Some of the cacti were rather tall. A lot taller than Amanda.

There were also orchids in this gallery.

This is one of the high level walkways which leads into the Arid Gallery.

So, where could this possibly be? I'll give you a clue. When we had finished looking around we left and then walked south for ten minutes and ended up at – St. Paul's Cathedral! The road we walked down was Aldersgate so, yes, this is in the City of London, believe it or not, and is part of the Barbican Centre on Level 3 not far from the Museum of London. We 'discovered' this many months ago when we were in the Barbican during the week and, currently, the Conservatory is open to the public only on Sundays so we were unable to go in then. It is not really publicised and so is pleasantly uncrowded. It is also free. The days on which it is open to the public are displayed on this page http://www.barbican.org.uk/visitor-information/conservatory which you should check before you go. That page describes it as 'a little hidden treasure' but I would have thought that it's a big hidden treasure.

Having walked to St. Paul's Cathedral we went into the Crypt for lunch and very nice it was too. Amanda (on the left) had spicy chicken and I had fish pie.

After lunch we hopped on a number 23 bus and headed west. Regent Street was pretty crowded with, probably, Christmas shoppers

but Oxford Street looked manic from the top deck of the bus and we were both glad not to be walking along down there. We got off at Bond Street Station and headed north for a short distance to Manchester Square and the Wallace Collection.

The Wallace Collection, we found, was even more astonishing than the Barbican Conservatory. It was rather like a mini Victoria and Albert Museum and Amanda commented that some of the displays here put the V&A to shame. It is free although they do ask for a donation if you are so inclined.

This is the view you will see if you approach north from Oxford Street via Duke Street.

The main stairway will be your first sighting as you walk into the main hall.

The Back State Room apart from having bright red wallpaper and curtains has displays of paintings and porcelain.

This is just some of the Sevres porcelain in the Back State Room.

This vase and cover is not glass, as you might imagine, but engraved rock crystal.

One of the painting galleries upstairs. They do have some bright wallpapers here.

One of their most famous pieces – the Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals painted in 1624 displayed in the Large Drawing Room upstairs.

In the Oval Drawing Room, upstairs, this amazing writing desk is just like the one I have at home. Well mine has four legs too.

You want armour? They have armour. There is also a comprehensive display of weapons.

We finally left the Wallace Collection to head home although we had one last venue planned which was the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in, unsurprisingly, Great Ormond Street which is north east of the British Museum and we caught the number 98 bus to get there. If you go into the main entrance of the hospital, veer to the right around the reception desk, then go left along the corridor you will see a sign sticking out on the right-hand side saying 'Chapel'. We went in.

Dating from about 1875 this is a good example of Victorian 'over-the-top-ness' and really is worth a look. It is very small, about 21 feet square, so it won't take you long. The view below of part of the ceiling demonstrates that just about every inch of space is decorated in some way with plenty of gilding. It is said to be decorated  in "elaborate Franco-Italianate style". It's certainly that.

We were the only visitors in the chapel.

Finally we caught the number 8 bus to take us back to Liverpool Street Station and thence home. A very interesting trip.
 

The Republic of Texas

The Republic of Texas

Comments 6 Comments

Just in case you wondered, the subject heading is relevant and we'll get to it later.

Days where the sun has been out for most of the day have been few and far between this year and, we are told, this summer has been the wettest for 100 years so we couldn't afford to miss the opportunity of a sunny day. We woke on Friday morning to a clear sky and made preparations to go to London. Having arrived at our local railway station a good ten minutes before the train was due to leave we thought that we had plenty of time until, that is, we saw the queue for the ticket office. We have never seen such a long queue here. Normally we wouldn't expect to see more than 3 people queuing at most and very often there is no one waiting at all. We assumed that it must be people going to the Paralympics as Stratford is the last stop before Liverpool Street Station. Our train was due to depart at 09:23 and we were worriedly watching the clock as we moved all too slowly towards the ticket office which we reached about 09:23,  although our train hadn't arrived yet, and bought our tickets. The train came in about two minutes late – phew!

The train stopped at Stratford and the Olympic Park didn't seem to be very busy at this time of day and we continued to Liverpool Street Station arriving about 10:20. On the western side of Liverpool Street Station there is a row of doorways each of which has a bus stop by it and one of those buses is the number 11 which we were going to catch.

The No. 11 is quite a good sightseeing route so we went to the upper deck and found a seat at the front. The bus leaves Liverpool Street Station along Sun Street, crosses London Wall into Old Broad Street and thence along Threadneedle Street to Bank. From there we go down Victoria Street, fork right into Cannon Street and eventually pass this:

Do I need to tell you where we are? I don't think so.

Along Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street and past the Royal Courts of Justice:

Along Strand to Aldwych where we got off. The bus goes on to Fulham Broadway via Trafalgar Square and Westminster which would be the last of the sightseeing route. Who needs a tour bus?

We now walked north up Kingsway, turned right into Portugal Street then eventually left into Portsmouth Street which runs up towards Lincolns Inn Fields. The building in Portsmouth Street that we came to see was this:

The Old Curiosity Shop with its jettied upper storey and wooden beams dates from the 16th century and is probably the oldest shop in central London. It has been suggested that this was the inspiration for Dickens' novel but there is no evidence to support this idea. Made using the wood from old ships the building miraculously survived the the Great Fire of 1666 and the bombs of the Second World War.

From there we walked through the side streets and made our way towards Trafalgar Square passing through Covent Garden Market on the way.

There were two noticeable differences compared with when I was here last. There are Olympic flags suspended under the roof (no surprises there) and there seemed to be few people. When I was last here it was positively seething.

We eventually entered Trafalgar Square at a point right next to St. Martin-in-the Fields. As it was now 11:00 we decided to go into the crypt cafe for some coffee. There are also toilets down there and there is nothing to stop you walking in off the street and using them like public toilets. However, as we discovered, there is a prominent notice in the toilets which explains that it costs £32,000 annually to maintain them and although they have no objection to you using them in that way they do hope that you will either buy something in the cafe or shop or at least leave a donation in their donations box. Pretty generous I thought.

We left Trafalgar Square via Pall Mall and part way along Pall Mall we had a look in the Royal Opera Arcade. Just ignore the strange woman looking in the window.

Where Pall Mall turns into St. James's Street we saw the main gate of St. James's Palace which is the gatehouse from the palace of Henry VIII and is, of course, Tudor.

We turned up St. James's Street and on the corner of St. James's Street and Pall Mall we saw this old shop.

Berry Bros. & Rudd is one of Britain's oldest wine and spirit merchants and in 1698, the building dates from that time, opened its doors for the first time at 3 St. James's Street, London and it still  trades from the same premises.

Note the alleyway on the left-hand side. That is Pickering Place and at the far end is a small very attractive courtyard. This is the view down the passageway with the courtyard showing at the far end. The timber construction of Berry's old shop can be seen in the wall.

Before we go into the courtyard can you see that little metal plaque on the wall? Well this is what it says:

It's amazing what one can find in London. And so we go into the courtyard.

Having left the courtyard, and the Republic of Texas, we went a little further along St. James's Street to Blue Ball Yard on the opposite side of the street.

Those buildings, apparently, are stables built in 1742 which have now been converted into living accommodation. I imagine that originally the stables would have been at ground level and accommodation for the staff above.

Further up St. James's Street we came across a modern development called the Economist Plaza. It wasn't really of interest to us but we wandered across it and went down some steps on the other side which were made of some very obviously fossiliferous polished limestone which was absolutely stuffed with fossils.

Having emerged into Bury Street we walked up into Jermyn Street where a little further along we first came to this statue of Beau Brummel.

One of the reasons this statue is here is that Jermyn Street is stuffed with tailors shops and, further along still, we came to this shop.

It is, I have to admit, a rather boring shop but they make and supply my shirts. I thought you might like to know that. :cool: Beau Brummel eat your heart out.

We then went up into Piccadilly and shortly after came to Hatchards Bookshop.

It is known world-wide among those who like books and bookshops and the other reason I mention it is because Amanda's maiden name was Hatchard. You may notice that I'm standing in the road in order to take the photograph and Piccadilly is a very busy road but I managed to take this one picture just before I was run over by a bus.

A few yards along is the Fortnum and Mason department store and opposite is Burlington Arcade. If you have more money than you know what to do with then these are good places to shop.

We walked further west along Piccadilly until we reached Albemarle Street and walked north up there until we reached the Royal Institution.

The Royal Institution is an independent charity dedicated to connecting people with the world of science and this building houses the Faraday Museum. They are most famous for their Christmas Lectures which were started by Michael Faraday in 1825.

Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include that of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. The Faraday Museum details some of his experiments.

The Royal Institution also has a nice little cafe, where we had lunch, and toilets and if you are lucky enough to visit on a day when there are no lectures being held, as we were, then you may visit the lecture theatre where Faraday gave his first Christmas Lecture.

Impressive!

We moved on further west towards Shepherd Market passing through Berkeley Square on the way but didn't hear any nightingales. :lol: Shepherd Market is a small village-like area with a maze of narrow streets and lanes. Running parallel to White Horse Street is Half Moon Street where the fictional Bertie Wooster (the perfect upper-class Mayfair resident and his faithful valet Jeeves of P.G. Wodehouse's novels) lived.

In the 1920s Shepherd Market was considered to be London's most fashionable and opulent district by the city's bourgeois social elite. Shepherd Market remains a peculiar and curious collection of charming alleyways, eclectic cuisine, 18th century pubs and discreet residences.

Leaving Shepherd market and moving further west we arrive at Hyde Park Corner with the Wellington Arch.

We decide that we will now catch a No. 9 bus to the Royal Albert Hall as our last port of call which we do.

You may notice that the cloud has increased somewhat. It was forecast to increase by about 6:00 PM but it has arrived a bit earlier so the sun is fading fast and so are we. We decide to call it a day and head back to the station first on the No. 9 as far as Aldwych and then the number 23 to Liverpool Street.

We go back through Hyde Park Corner, Piccadilly, St. James's Palace and Pall Mall, Trafalgar Square, Aldwych, Fleet Street and past the Old Exchange thence to Liverpool Street Station and home.

An enjoyable day.
 

The best laid plans of mice and men . . . .

The best laid plans of mice and men . . . .

Comments 9 Comments

Did you know that Google Maps can be used to navigate when using public transport in London? You can use it either on your computer before you go or on your smartphone whilst on the move.

We planned to go to London yesterday. I wanted to go to the British Museum again and Amanda wanted to go to Regents Park to see the roses so we used Google Maps, 'Get Directions'.

First select the type of transport which, in our case, was Public Transport. Our starting point was Liverpool Street Station and my end point was the British Museum. Click the 'Options' link just below the destination box and select the 'Prefer' option. We wanted to use buses so we selected 'Bus'. Click 'Get Directions' and a map should be displayed together with a short list of routes in a box on the left. I chose the No. 8 in preference to the 242 because it got me slightly nearer my destination.

We discovered that the No. 8 terminates at Oxford Circus which, Amanda decided, would be near enough to Regents Park for her to walk the last bit allowing us to travel together on the same bus.

We normally allow 35 minutes between when we leave home to when our train departs. We left home at the normal time and a short while later were held up by traffic lights at some road works which had appeared suddenly this morning. In fact they were still setting up the road works when we arrived to do whatever it was they were planning to do. Then when we were near the railway station we found ourselves in an unexpected traffic queue. Time was getting short! After parking the car we had to do a fast walk across the fields to the station to find that there was a queue at the ticket office. We did eventually get our tickets a few minutes before the train arrived.

Google Maps tells us that the bus stop is in Bishopsgate just outside the station and that it is 'Stop L'.

"Liverpool Street station
Bishopsgate
London, UK EC2M 7QH"

There are two stops 'K' and 'L' and different routes stop at each stop. The stops have a plate on the very top with the large letter identifier easily visible.

We went to the appropriate stop only to find a sign on it saying 'Bus stop not in use'. Bummer! This is because there are roadworks along the centre of Bishopsgate making the road narrower than normal. We decided to walk in the direction in which the bus would travel and find the next stop which was 'Y'. It was a relatively short walk to where Bishopsgate changes into Gracechurch Street.

The No. 8 bus is supposed to run every 6-10 minutes so we expected not to have to wait very long. Although there was almost a constant stream of buses of every other route we were still waiting for a No. 8 twenty minutes later.

Then we saw a No. 8 approaching. But wait, what do I see? The destination board on the front of the bus says 'Holborn Circus' but it should say 'Oxford Circus'. We ask the driver who tells us that all the No. 8s are turning round at Holborn Circus because of delays further along the route. Bummer again!

What we should have done in advance of our journey is to look on the "Transport for London" web site but which we didn't think of doing.  :oops:

Go to www.tfl.gov.uk, select 'Live Travel News' then select your mode of transport i.e. Tube, Buses etc. With buses you can enter the route number and get information on any delays or cancellations on that particular route and doing that for the No. 8 gives a list of possible problems.

We decided to go as far as we could i.e. Holborn Circus and walk the rest. We chose the bus because it would have got me significantly nearer the British Museum than the Tube would have done but in this case the Tube would have been quicker and nearer. It was our own fault for not checking TFL's web site for possible delays first.

Travelling on the London Buses should normally be easy and straightforward. Bus stops are obvious and give details of the routes calling at this stop.

There are no facilities on the buses in central London for buying tickets so payment must be made in advance. If you are travelling around as a visitor then you will probably have a Travelcard or an Oyster Card both of which can be used on the buses. If you need to purchase a ticket then there are machines like this at some stops but it is an expensive way of doing it.

This is a view from the upper deck.

Access to the stairs is on the right surrounded by a guard rail and above the front window is an electronic display giving the bus route number and either the current stop or the next stop if the bus is moving. There are also automatic announcements giving the same information.

Sitting in the front seats, when available, gives the best views.

This is our bus driving into the roundabout at Holborn Circus to go all the way round and back the way it came for its return journey.

We walked from Holborn Circus to New Oxford Street where I turned north up Museum Street for the British Museum and Amanda went off to Regents park.

When I went into the British Museum, at around 11:30 AM, the first thing that struck me was the noise; most of which was probably from the multitude of school groups in evidence. I don't remember this much noise on our last visit.

Most of the rest of the world had obviously also chosen today to visit the museum and I don't remember it being as crowded on our last visit. On our last visit we arrived at the museum in the late afternoon which is probably a better time of day to visit as the school groups are likely to have gone by then.

I hadn't managed to photograph the Rosetta Stone on our last visit so I thought I'd try that. It seemed to be permanently surrounded by visitors and I had to wait a long time to get this:

Not a very good picture partly because of the reflections in the glass case and partly because it's very poorly lit.

This shows the three different scripts. The upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences between them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The close-up photograph again a little spoiled by reflections.

It was a little after this that I realised that I wasn't enjoying the experience, as I'd hoped, because of the cacophany and the sheer numbers of visitors so I decided to give up and walk to Regents Park to re-join Amanda.

I arrived in time for lunch so we had lunch in the Garden Cafe as we did on our last visit before venturing out again into the park. Amanda had come to see the roses in Queen Mary's garden so that is what we did although the weather had turned cloudy but we were expecting that for the afternoon.

There were a LOT of roses here.

When we finished here we went into Marylebone Road, which runs along the south edge of Regents Park, and caught a No. 205 bus which took us back to Liverpool Street Station by a route which was completely different from that of the No. 8. The only point of interest that we went past was the British Library. Perhaps a visit for the future?

Today's visit shows that however thorough you think your plans are they can go awry on numerous occasions. :banghead:
 

A narrow perspective

A narrow perspective

Comments 7 Comments

I often see prospective visitors to this country asking what the weather will be like at such and such a time of year. The simple answer is that nobody knows. Even our weather forecasters often get it wrong.

Let me give you an example. On Friday the forecast for Saturday was clear skies all day and on Saturday we did have some sun but there were clouds all across the sky and they were moving slowly which meant that when a cloud covered the sun it was often ten minutes before it shone again. This meant that at just the point I wanted to take a photograph the sun went in and I was twiddling my thumbs for 10 minutes waiting for it to come back out.

Remember, this forecast was only 24 hours in advance.

So what was I photographing?

Well, it started at Liverpool Street Station where we normally come in to London, or did it? We went from there by Underground to Paddington so did it really start from Paddington? You decide.

Having arrived at Paddington we went into the Mainline Terminus to have a quick look at Brunel's handiwork.

This station served as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the current station dates from 1854, and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. That glazed roof is supported by wrought iron arches in three spans, respectively spanning 68 feet, 102 feet and 70 feet. The roof is 699 feet long, and the original roof spans had two transepts connecting the three spans. This shows just one of the roof spans.

One has to admit that the roof does look impressive.

Paddington Station wasn't part of our original plan but as we were passing through we thought that we'd have a look. So where were we headed? Paddington Basin of course, where else!

Paddington Basin is the terminus for the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal and is on the eastern edge of Paddington Station. But back to the picture above first. Notice at the far end of the station there is a grey horizontal band running over the train – that is a footbridge and that is where we are going. Up to the footbridge and over the tracks we follow signs and suddenly emerge on the edge of Paddington basin. There are other ways to get there but that was most convenient for us.

We turn right towards the end of the basin and very soon passed a very modern looking footbridge to the opposite side of the basin which we ignored and continued to the next footbridge from which I took this picture.

In its heyday it was a very busy goods transhipment facility but like a lot of London's docks it fell into disuse when the traffic dwindled. The basin is now the centre of a major redevelopment as part of the wider Paddington Waterside scheme and is surrounded by modern buildings as you can see (The Canary Wharf treatment). Towards the far end is this unusual bridge, which you can just see in the picture above if you look carefully, but it's not what we mean when we talk about 'travelling by tube'.

You may notice that all of the boats are canal narrowboats. This is to become today's theme.

After having a leisurely look round we started off along the canal-side path in the opposite direction towards the main part of the Grand Union Canal. I was going to refer to the path as the 'towpath' which is what they are generally called but that didn't seem to really do it justice as it looked like this.

Although it looks pleasant enough those two bridges in the distance are carrying road traffic and consequently it isn't quiet here. Nice place for a cup of tea or coffee in the canal-side cafe perhaps?

A little further on we have our first sight of Little Venice. This is where the Paddington arm joins the main Grand Union Canal forming this large basin. To continue on our planned route we need to be on the far side and, at first, I thought that Amanda would have to wade across carrying me on her back.

But having continued around the bend we spotted a nice little bridge.

That narrowboat is a floating cafe, you may notice some tables and chairs on the path beside the boat, which would have been an interesting experience for a meal but it was only mid-morning so we passed on that one. That bridge carries a road and so gives access to the local area should you so desire – we didn't.

The part of the canal that you can see beyond the bridge is not the part that we wanted so we crossed the bridge and turned right. Just as we left the Little Venice basin we came across numerous narrowboats moored along the canal on both sides. A lot of these, possibly all of them, appear to be 'permanent' moorings i.e houseboats where people live. We had to leave the towpath soon after this point, because the path was 'residents' only, and walk along the road for a short way.

You may notice in the far distance a boat in the middle of the canal and just behind it a dark rectangle which is the entrance to a tunnel. There is no path through the tunnel so we followed the road slightly uphill until we were at the same height as the top of the tunnel then followed the road opposite, Aberdeen Place, until it bent sharp left. Opposite us, on the bend, was a footpath which lead back to the side of the canal.

You can see the exit from the tunnel and the steps we came down to reach the canal-side path and we certainly weren't alone on this walk.

The surroundings started getting green and leafy so we guessed that by this time we were entering Regents Park and then we came across this house.

We couldn't decide whether it would make a nice weekend cottage or not so we decided not to buy. A mistake perhaps?

When we reached a bridge that gave us the opportunity to leave the canal we went up to ground level but don't worry because we will be returning to the canal later. This was our last veiw of the canal for the time being.

Crossing the canal we found ourselves in the green oasis of Regents Park with the BT Tower showing in the distance.

Regents Park is big! It covers 410 acres and it was just over a mile from the canal to where we were heading – Queen Mary's Gardens. The canal crosses the northern edge of the park and Queen Mary's gardens are, of course, near the southern edge. This involved crossing the 'Inner Circle', one of the few roads in the park, which surrounds Queen Mary's Gardens.

On the other side of the road we found the Garden Cafe and it now being lunch time what could we do but try it? There are two separate areas; the waitress service part and the part for the Hoi Poloi. I was going to suggest the waitress service part as I'd spotted something on the menu which sounded nice but then Amanda saw that they had a 'Stew of the day' in the other part which she liked the sound of – so we joined the Hoi Poloi. Today it was Chicken Stew and it really was very nice. I thoroughly enjoyed it, well we both did but we didn't enjoy the paper plates and plastic utensils. The waitress service next time perhaps.

After lunch we went to look at the gardens. They are mostly roses and, being roses, they won't bloom until about mid-june and there are 30,000 roses of 400 varieties. Amanda wants to come back after they bloom. I wonder if she'll count them?

We found an area including a pond, a nice little bridge and a cascade which looked rather picturesque that didn't involve roses.

We finally started back north towards the canal but when we reached it we first crossed over onto Primrose Hill. A bit like a continuation of Regents park with grassland liberally dotted with trees but also a hill! We had a really good view from the highest point and, as you can see from the photograph, it's really popular with visitors.

What we could see from right to left was the London Eye, the BT Tower, the Shard, St. Paul's Cathedral and Canary Wharf. Certainly worth the not very arduous climb of 256 feet.

So, back to St. Mark's Bridge on the canal at the bottom of Primrose Hill where we go back down to the canal-side path and yet more narrowboats – some moored some moving. Do you see a theme here?. After an interesting little walk along the canal it is not long before we reach our final destination.

Camden Lock and Camden Lock Market. You may notice that there were a lot of people – it was seething! This was a Saturday afternoon, remember, on a sunny day. I wonder what it's like during the week?

After turning off the canal-side path into the market at West Yard our nostrils were assailed with the very tempting smell of hot food. It smelled really delicious and appetising but, as we'd had lunch only a short while ago we had no appetite – bummer!

One thing we quickly discovered is that this place is a warren which made it even more interesting. Going through the stalls to the back we found a short passage into another large area of stalls, Camden Lock Place, and then there are all the stalls inside the surrounding buildings.

They seem to sell everything here – hot food, clothing, fabrics, jewellery, fancy goods, geological specimens, antiques – you name it they seem to have it.

Then there were the stalls inside the Market Hall building over two levels.

This market is interesting, amazing, stupendous! If you like markets you cannot afford to miss this one. We finally dragged ourselves away from all the stalls and emerged back onto the canal-side.

That boat in the foreground is one of the water buses which carry fare-paying passengers from Little Venice to Camden Lock (and back if so required). Then we crossed that bridge in the distance from which we had a good view of Camden Lock.

From here we set off towards the nearest underground station, Camden Town, along Chalk Farm Road and realised that there were also lots of small shops which were almost as interesting as the market. An amazing place indeed.

I took a lot more photographs than I have shown here many of which will appear on the main site in due course. Time to go home to rest our weary legs.
 

The Prospect of Whitby, Captain Kidd and the Town of Ramsgate

The Prospect of Whitby, Captain Kidd and the Town of Ramsgate

Comments 4 Comments

Another Thursday – another trip to Wapping.

Let me explain to our various overseas visitors that Wapping is not pronounced the way it is spelled but instead it's pronounced 'Wopping'. Now that we've got that sorted I'll remind you that at the end of the last report I said:

"Perhaps we'll get better weather next time. We want to do that same walk again to see some things that we missed but I'm not going to tell you what they were and to, hopefully, get some better photographs."

Well we did get better weather, sun all day and temperatures around 70-72F, and we did that same walk again (it was in Wapping) – but with added ingredients. The name comes from the Saxon meaning "the place of Waeppa's people"

So what connection does the title of this post have with Wapping? They are all pubs and they are all in Wapping High Street and they all back on to the River Thames.

Lets start at the beginning. I'm going to use the same map as last time with our new route added.

Last time we went as far as '2' which we also did this time but we went on to complete a circular route. We started, as last time, from St. Catherine's Dock.

We walked along the same canal – you can see the masts of those two replica sailing ships (No. 1 on the map) sticking up into the sky in the distance.

Then onwards to Shadwell Basin (No. 2 on the map). This time we walked round the north side of the basin past the new housing towards the eastern end of the basin with the tall buildings of Canary Wharf visible in the distance.

At the far end is one of the old lifting bridges and this next picture is taken from the bridge (location 3)  looking back across Shadwell Basin.

We then walked eastward to the edge of the Thames and along the Thames Path for a short way

and came out opposite this.

So what is it?  It is the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, built in 1890, and was originally operated  using steam and later converted to use electricity. It was used to power machinery across London, using hydraulic power including bridges, lifts and cranes etc. The Tower Subway was used to transfer the power, and steam, to districts south of the river.

It was used as a model for power stations in Argentina, Australia, New York and Europe. When electricity became cheaper it lost popularity and eventually closed. It is now used as a cafe with the tables and chairs dotted around among the old machinery which is a novelty. They serve cups of tea and coffee together with lunch etc.

Pass the oil please.

Opposite the old power station is the first of our pubs – The Prospect of Whitby. No. 4 on the map.

The Prospect of Whitby lays claim to being one of the oldest riverside taverns in London and dates from around 1520 during the reign of Henry VIII. At one time it was one of the most notorious pubs in London being a meeting place for sailors, smugglers, cut-throats and footpads but now it seems to be a pretty nice pub.

It was formerly known as the Devil's Tavern, on account of its dubious reputation and before that it was officially called "The Pelican". The stone steps, alongside the pub and going down to the foreshore, are the "Pelican Steps"

All that now remains from the building's earliest period is the 400 year old stone floor.

In the 17th century, it became the hostelry of choice of Judge Jeffreys, known as "The Hanging Judge, who lived nearby and a noose hangs by a window, commemorating his custom. According to legend, criminals would be tied up to the posts at low tide and left there to drown when the tide came in.

You'll be wanting to see the noose then? Taking our lives in our hands we went down Pelican Steps on the the Thames foreshore to see the riverside view of the pub. Luckily it was low tide otherwise we may have got our feet wet. Possibly even our eyebrows.

You can see Pelican Steps and the noose is hanging from that tall post on the right. There is a better picture of the noose below.

Following a fire in the early 19th century, the tavern was rebuilt and renamed "The Prospect of Whitby", after a Tyne collier, a type of boat, that used to berth next to the pub.

Walking westward along Wapping Wall we went past numerous old wharves now converted to luxury appartments such as Metropolitan Wharf shown here and, after going down New Crane Steps, New Crane Wharf shown below. No. 5 on the map.

Notice that nice sandy beach along New Crane Wharf.

Having walked the length of Wapping Wall we joined Wapping High Street where the old dock buildings have all been renovated and converted to housing and it's been done very nicely. This is a view along Wapping High Street.

Further along Wapping High Street we reach our second pub – the Captain Kidd. No. 6 on the map.

Somewhere around here in 1701 the pirate, Captain Kidd, was executed by hanging on Execution Dock hence the name of the pub. The exact location of Execution Dock appears to be unknown except that it was near one of the local docks or wharves. His remains were gibbeted by the river Thames at Tilbury for more than twenty years.

Execution Dock was used for more than 400 years to execute pirates, smugglers and mutineers that had been sentenced to death by Admiralty courts. The "dock", which consisted of a scaffold for hanging, was located near the shoreline of the River Thames at Wapping. Its last executions were in 1830.

A short rope was often used for exceptionally nasty pirates which meant that, when they were dropped from the gallows, the rope didn't break their neck and they were then slowly asphyxiated. Customarily, these corpses were left hanging on the nooses until at least three tides had washed over their heads.

The Captain Kidd pub was established as a pub only in 1980 but the building itself is 18th century. The entrance visible on the street leads into a small, rather attractive courtyard which then gives access to the pub proper.

A short way further along Wapping High Street we saw yet another interesting warehouse conversion on the corner of Dundee Street.

A little further beyond that we encountered our third pub – the Town of Ramsgate with Wapping Old Stairs next to it. No. 7 on the map.

This shows Wapping Old Stairs. Amanda is on a set of stairs that just stop in front of a wall – very useful. The stairs to the right of those give access to and from the foreshore. The Town of Ramsgate pub is just out of the right edge of the picture and you may have noticed part of Tower Bridge showing in the distance.

The Town of Ramsgate was originally known as the Red Cow and then the Prince of Denmark with the origins of the pub claiming to go back as far as 1543.

We went back up to Wapping High Street and, after a short distance, turned onto the Thames Path along the edge of the river.

We eventually reached Readmead Lane which was where we turned off when we started this circuit and so have come full circle. We can recommend this area for some interesting exploring especially if you can manage a day when low tide is around the middle of the day which will enable you to go down some of the old steps onto the river foreshore.

We headed back to Tower Bridge and crossed to the south side of the river, along Shad Thames to Pea Pod for a late (2:15 PM) lunch. We have been here before and on our last visit had Old Guy USA (Jerry) with us.

After lunch we walked west along the Thames until we were opposite the Tower of London where I took this photograph of the White Tower. The last time I tried it was covered in scaffolding.

We went back across Tower Bridge, now heading for Tower Hill Station, and went past these in the Tower of London grounds.

They look remarkably life-like but they are made from multiple layers of wire netting moulded to shape.

So our legs are tired and we are tired – time to go home methinks. We covered an awful lot of interesting history today and we found that when we got home we were covered in it and had to rinse some of it off. :lol: