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The trip that nearly wasn’t.

The trip that nearly wasn’t.

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Wednesday 21st March

The London weather forecast from the Meteorological Office for tomorrow (Thursday) is sunny all day and we believe them don't we? A trip to London tomorrow sounds possible.

Thursday 22nd March

Up early ready for our trip to London and Amanda listens to the travel news on the radio. Oh oh! There is overhead wire damage on the railway south of us so there are no trains for part of our journey and buses are being used as a substitute. There is also an accident on the A12 causing considerable congestion and, guess what, the buses are using the A12.

A bulletin a little later says that the overhead wires should be repaired by 7:30 AM. We don't think that there's much chance of that so we prepare to cancel our trip but are still listening to the travel bulletins.

About 30 minutes before we'd normally leave for the station we see that our usual train has been cancelled but, surprise surprise, the trains are starting to run again after that with possible delays of up to 1 hour on the journey. We decide to chance it and go for the train after our normal one which leaves 30 minutes later.

We arrive on the platform of our local station 15 minutes before our train is due to arrive and five minutes later a train arrives. An extra train has been put into service and it gets us to Liverpool Street Station without any delays. Hoorah, we made it after all.

We walk, in sunshine, to the Guildhall Art Gallery (entry is free) where we descend into darkness, well very nearly darkness. We are going to see the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre discovered when the Art Gallery was being built. These remains are from the eastern entrance to the amphitheatre.

It was long suspected that Londinium must have had an amphitheatre but it wasn't until 1988 that these remains were discovered during excavations prior to building the new Guildhall Art Gallery. Excavations of the remains continued until 1996 when it was declared an Ancient Monument and the designs for the Art Gallery had to be revised to preserve the remains in situ.

This was our first view of the remains. The green pattern of lines at the back is meant to represent rows of bench seating in the amphitheatre proper – we are in the eastern entrance remember.

Having wandered along to the far end where the amphitheatre would have been we looked back to see this view.

Having had a good look round the amphitheatre remains we went back upstairs to look at the Art Gallery. It is very nicely laid out and has some amazing pictures some of which are shown here together with Amanda looking out from a gallery at a mega-picture of her illustrious ancestor.

This is that very picture and he's the chappie on the horse – General George Elliot, defender of Gibralter when the spanish tried, and failed, to lay siege to it. Amanda's grandmother was an Elliot.

I thought that this painting was particulary interesting as it was of the grand opening of Tower Bridge. Looks to be quite a celebratory affair.

We left the Guildhall Art Gallery and emerged into the sunshine. Yes it was still sunny. We now headed south for the River Thames and St. Catherine's Dock. We had been to St. Catherine's Dock before and there are pictures on the web site to prove it but this time it was just a starting point for our planned route.

As we went past the Old Stock Exchange we went in for a quick look. It has now been converted to an upmarket shopping centre and Cafe.

We continued on to St. Catherine's Dock by Tower Bridge and set off on our route shown on the map below as a black dotted line. The green area on the left edge is the Tower of London.

Most of that route, you may notice, is along what used to be a canal but is now no longer navigable because it is blocked at both ends and has new housing along its length which does make a nice setting and probably isn't cheap.

Remember the weather forecast? Sunny all day. Notice that although there are a few patches of blue sky there is now some significant cloud appearing.

Part the way along that route we came to the location marked '1'. You couldn't really miss it because there are what appear to be two large, old sailing ships parked next to the canal. They are full size replicas of real ships.

The Three Sisters is a replica of a 330 ton ship built at Blackwall Yard in 1788, which traded until 1854, taking manufactured goods to the East & West Indies and returned with tobacco & spices.

The Sea Lark is a copy of an 18th century American built schooner, which ran the blockade and was captured by the Admiralty during the Anglo-American War in 1812-14. The public cannot get on to these ships.

So what is this place? It is:

We noticed by now that the sun was covered in a layer of thin cloud. It was possible to see where the sun was because of the very bright patch in the sky but the light was very diffuse. Meteorological Office weather forecasts – don't make me laugh.

The story of Tobacco Dock hasn't finished yet. When this area was originally developed in early nineteenth century the site covered 30 acres and specialised in high-value luxury goods such as ivory, spices, coffee and cocoa as well as wine, tobacco and wool, all stored in elegant warehouses and cellars. Tobacco Dock was one part of this scheme.

In 1990, after investing 47 million pounds converting the old warehouse, it was re-opened as a shopping centre. Soon after it was hit by a recession and soon went into receivership and closed. Over 20 years later it is still closed although properly maintained. You can see the building to the right of the ships beyond the gates. The old warehouse which comprises the main part of the shopping centre is now a grade 1 listed building.

We left Tobacco Dock and continued our route to location '2' on the map. This is Shadwell Basin the largest area of open water remaining from the old London Docks.

You can see the towers of Canary Wharf in the distance. This is another old dock which has been converted to upmarket accommodation.

There are two old lifting bridges at each end of the basin and this is the one nearest the River Thames. You can see that Canary Wharf, the tall tower blocks, are really not far away.

We turned round and started back and noticed this view which we hadn't noticed on the way out. Looks quite imposing doesn't it?

We also saw this old water level gauge which runs from 16 to 24 feet – you do speak Roman don't you?.

On the way back along St. Catherine's Way we saw Alderman's Steps but have been unable, so far, to find out why they are so called.

So that was the end of our trip that nearly wasn't. 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.
 

We do some boring things don't we?

 

My New Torch

My New Torch

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When we went on our last trip to London I took a photograph of Tower Bridge illuminated at night and that was when I realised something important. I couldn't see the controls on my camera in the dark so if I wanted to change a setting I had to walk across to the nearest source of light, change the setting and then walk back to my original viewpoint. :oops:

I decided I needed a torch small enough to fit in one of the pockets in my camera bag. I managed to get one which is just 3.5 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. It takes 3 small batteries and the light comes from 9 LEDs which use little power so the batteries will last a long time. On the last trip, when we got back, we also had trouble following the footpath in the dark across the fields from the station to where we had parked our car so the new torch would be useful for that. :lol:

So the new torch was put to use when we returned from our trip to London yesterday, Wednesday, and very useful it was.

We had been on another trip to the South Kensington Museums and started with the Victoria and Albert Museum to see some of the areas we had missed on the previous trip. One of those was the Silver Gallery. Notice the two elaborately decorated pillars in the foreground and you should also be able to see that there are more pairs of pillars further along the gallery but that they are plain. Originally all of the pillars were as elaborately decorated as the first two but at the beginning of the 1900s it was decided that, because tastes had changed, the decorative tiles should be removed.

Now it has been decided that the decorative tiles are a good idea but there were only enough left to complete two pillars. Better than none at all I suppose.

We also visited the British Galleries which seem to hold a lot of items that aren't actually British but were brought back to this country by British travellers to decorate their homes. I'm not really convinced that that is a valid reason for including them in a 'British' Gallery.

However we did see this picture and thought it would be of interest. "Well", I hear you say, " it is attractive but not particularly special" but you would be wrong! The picture has been created using nothing but small stone shapes, not micro-mosaics, and I suspect the sky is a piece of marble with the veining looking like clouds. Each shape must have been cut to perfectly fit in with all the other shapes and I think that that is astonishing.

The odd vertical shape just to the left of centre is a reflection which I couldn't do anything about.

There was an exhibition devoted to the eighteenth century fashion setters, Mr & Mrs Garrick. The Garricks were certainly a fashionable couple, David Garrick was a famous actor, theatre manager and playwright and his wife Eva Maria Veigel was a Viennese dancer. They were very keen on fashionable society and created their own lifestyle to be at the height of London fashion.

This was a corner of their bedroom.

This is the Raphael Gallery which I though was rather imposing. The gallery houses the surviving designs painted by Raphael for tapestries commissioned in Rome in 1515 by Pope Leo X. These cartoons, as they are known, have been owned by the British Royal Family since 1623 and they have been on loan to the Museum since 1865.

This room set shows the panelling in the Music Room from Norfolk House. Norfolk House was located on the west side of St James's Square and was the London residence of the Dukes of Norfolk from 1722 until it was demolished in 1938.

What is a remarkable coincidence is that it's just like our music room. Well, actually, we don't have a music room but if we did we'd have one just like this.

We did, eventually, run out of things to look at and decided to have a sit down and a cup of tea/coffee. We also decided to try a cafe in the Natural History Museum as the price of such things in the Victoria and Albert Museum Cafe is about twice what I'd expect to pay in London. It turned out that although the Natural History Museum was cheaper it wasn't by very much.

After we had finished our drinks we thought we'd have a look round at some of the things we had missed on our previous visit. That included the Dinosaur Gallery.

One of the exhibits that caught my eye was this replica of a dinosaur's nest. I think that the little dinosaurs are rather cute.

Meeting one of these wouldn't be so cute. :shock:

There was one exhibit that we both thought to be very well done and that was a life-sized replica of Tyrannosaurus Rex which was animated in a remarkably life-like manner. I couldn't take a photograph because the lighting was too dim and the replica didn't stop moving so ruled out a very slow shutter speed. It's worth seeing if you visit the Natural History Museum.

Afterwards we wandered around the Mineral Gallery and saw these very pretty opals together with a lot of other rather colourful minerals.

We were very definitely flagging now and it was time to leave for Liverpool Street Station, and home, so I'll leave you with this view of the Main Hall after dark.

When we arrived back at our local station we had to walk across a public footpath across the fields to get back to where we had parked our car. My new little torch proved to be invaluable in this situation so it was a worthwhile purchase. It was bitterly cold walking across the fields and we were glad to get back inside our car. Brrrrrr!

Stairs, reflections and sunlight.

Stairs, reflections and sunlight.

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All the stairs were the greatest problem with relections and sunlight next. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself so let's start at the beginning.

Friday 13th January 2012 saw us headed out to London once again on our first day trip of the year. Our last trip was three months ago and was also to London. We arrived, as usual, at Liverpool Street Station and took the underground to Tower Hill which involved the first of a lot of stairs.

You have probably done it yourself, come out of Tower Hill Station and charged off towards the Tower of London visible ahead but then you would have missed something important. Very soon after leaving the station there are some steps (more steps) going down to a pedestrian underpass and on the left there is a stone wall with the statue of a man wearing a skirt standing in front of it. Why would that man be wearing a skirt? Well that's how the Romans used to dress init? He is in fact Trajan, a Roman emperor, and the wall he's standing by is part of the old Roman wall that surrounded Londinium (London).

A view from the other side of the same wall shows the Tower of London beyond and, to the right, Tower Hill Station. So the next time you go to Tower Hill don't walk straight past the wall without a second glance.

Back to Tower Hill Station we go past it into Trinity Square and then out of Trinity Square keeping right along Coopers Row. A short way along on the right-hand (East) side is the Grange City Hotel. You could be forgiven for walking past but just stop a moment and look through the opening.

Notice that, right at the back, there is a stone wall – more of the old Roman wall around Londinium. There is a public right of way through the arch and the courtyard at the back so just walk through and have a look.

There is a bronze coloured plaque on the railings providing some information. This map shows the location (the wall is labelled 'London Wall'):

Back we go to Tower Hill Station and westward on the Underground to South Kensington. The easy way to get to the museums is through the pedestrian subway. It's very well used and the individual museums are sign posted along the way…

… and that museum is where we're headed. When entering from the subway you will emerge straight into the Sculpture galleries.

This museum is astonishing and, in some ways, overwhelming both in terms of the exhibits and the building itself spread over 6 floors which means traversing lots of stairs unless you are a wimp, of course, and want to use the various lifts around the place. It is difficult to mentally grasp the number of items on display here from the very small to the extraordinarily large. This shows part of the Glass gallery and these display cabinets line both sides.

You want ceramics? They have ceramics!

In the Jewellry Galleries there is a rather interestingly lit spiral stairway which goes up to yet another Jewellry Gallery above.

Cast Court is one of those places where as you come through the door your chin hits the ground with a thump as your jaw drops. To say it's surprising must be the understatement of the year. Some of the exhibits are gigantic. In the picture below the figure bottom right of centre gives an idea of scale.

Behind the open courtyard, called the John Madejski Garden, is the Cafe. It offers a comprehensive choice of refreshments from tea, coffee, light refreshments and cooked meals. We stopped to have lunch there at about 1:15 and, because it is popular, there were very few vacant tables although we did find one. It is probably less crowded well before and well after one o'clock.

The food is very good although not cheap. There are a number of counters serving different types of food. A salad counter, a tea, coffee and cakes counter, a hot food counter and a light snacks counter. It is a little confusing because having got our main meal we then had to go to the tea/coffee counter for drinks. The Salad Counter and the Hot Food Counter don't have tills but the other counters do so they apparently expect you to choose your main course then go to one of the other counters to pay.

There are five separate areas in which to sit. One either side of the food counters and three different rooms off to the side called the Morris, Gamble and Poynter rooms. This is the Gamble Room.

After lunch I decided to pop across the road to the Science Museum whilst Amanda continued looking around the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The Science Museum is spread over seven floors (more stairs) and on the ground floor in the entrance hall are various large machines such as the one shown here.

One of the problems I had in this museum was reflections on the glass cases, probably caused by the general lighting, which shows up in this picture of a difference engine, one of the early mechanical computers.

One of the highest floors included a gallery dedicated to the history of flight and had lots of aircraft of all types hanging around, literally, in the roof including this Hurricane fighter plane and the Spitfire just beyond it to the right.

On a lower floor was this gallery with an interesting collection of vehicles including the original Stephenson's Rocket locomotive, a Ford Model T, and over in the far right-hand corner a V2 rocket with its nose buried in the ceiling.

This is the original Stephenson's Rocket:

In the section on Space Exploration there is a replica of a Moon Lander.

After wearing my legs out going up and down from floor to floor I went back to the Victoria and Albert Museum to meet up with Amanda again.

We had a last look round which included Tipu's Tiger. This is an 18th century Indian automaton showing a tiger eating a european which was considered to be very amusing in its time. It was worked by rotating the handle visible near its shoulder and the growls of the tiger and the cries of its victim could also be heard. Better than television. :grin:

As I said earlier the building itself is interesting such as this staircase here:

The problem I had with scenes like this was with the very bright patches of sunlight set against the much lower levels of lighting out of the sun. Usually I prefer sun for photographs but not in situations such as this.

We'd had a very enjoyable day in the Victoria and Albert Museum and we've only seen a fraction of what it has to offer. This is a museum that you cannot afford to miss and you cannot afford to spend less than a day there.

Now it was time to head home but with a small diversion which meant going back to Tower Hill and I'm sure you'll guess why we left it till last.

I admit it – I went berserk with the camera today so there are many more pictures than those shown here and a lot of them will appear on the main web site in due course.

 

A later date.

A later date.

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At the end of my last post I said "we plan to return for more at a later date" – this is that later date on a Sunday.

We came back to the City of London, as distinct from the City of Westminster and the West End, and started from the Monument this time.

We were last here when we went up to London to meet Jerry, 'Old Guy USA' on the forum, and this is where we parted at the end of our day together. Jerry went off to his hotel and we went home. The day had been cloudy with showers then but today it was sunny.

From the Monument we went into Pudding Lane where the Great Fire of London started, and no, we didn't start it – not even by accident.

Pudding Lane looks totally different now, although it is still cobbled, compared to how it was in 1666 but nearby is Lovat Lane which gives an idea of how Pudding Lane might have looked at the time. Lovat Lane slopes down towards the Thames.

The top picture of the two is the top end of the lane where it joins Eastcheap and just out of sight past the church is the view in the second picture. Note how the sides of the cobbled surface slope towards the centre forming a central drainage channel. That is how all the roads at the time of the fire were constructed and that is where all the sewage would have been thrown. Nice! :yuck:

Pudding Lane is east of the Monument and Lovat Lane is east of Pudding Lane so we turned around and walked back west to Cannon Street which was really quiet, being Sunday, compared with a weekday. There are, as you can see, still buses around although we weren't here to look at buses.

Just opposite Cannon Street Station is a small grille near pavement level which would be very easy to ignore. But if you did ignore it (You did didn't you?) you'd be missing part of London's history.

It is virtually impossible to photograph beyond that grill because there is a sheet of glass behind it which is covered in reflections from the bright light outside and behind that, just visible, is the London Stone. This is the stone from which the Romans measured all their distances from London.

We then walked a little further along Cannon Street, turned right into Walbrook, left into Bucklersbury then left into Queen Victoria Street. A short way along on the lefthand side are the foundations of the Temple of Mithras.

This foundation was discovered during rebuilding work in 1954 and is, perhaps, the most famous of all twentieth-century Roman discoveries in the City of London. This temple was built in the mid-3rd century and, during excavation, various artifacts were discovered and are now in the Museum of London.

We continued along Queen Victoria Street as far as the junction with Black Friars Lane where we found this wedge shaped pub which as you can see in the lower picture is The Black Friar.

This pub was built on the site of a thirteenth century Dominican Priory, hence the name, but it is the interior, an Art-Nouveau masterpiece created in 1905 by the Royal Academy sculptor Henry Poole, that makes this pub so interesting. If you want to see the inside then you know where to go (they do provide cooked meals).

We went right into New Bridge Street and crossed over into Tudor Street, along Tudor Street then right into Whitefriars Street. We were looking for Magpie Alley/Ashentree Court along on the lefthand side of Whitefriars Street and spotted the narrow entrance to the alley. This led us into an obvious courtyard of all modern buildings, some with steps down to basement level. At the bottom of one of these basement steps is this:

It is all that remains of a Carmalite 13th century crypt.The crypt lay buried for centuries until it was unearthed in 1895 but it was not restored until the 1920s. It is protected by plate glass but is available to view at any time by going down the steps from the courtyard above.

From here we made our way into Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill towards St. Paul's cathedral and into Paternoster Square with this view of Temple bar and one of the towers of St. Paul's Cathedral.

We had lunch, which was quite good and reasonably priced, in the St. Paul's Crypt cafe. There are also publicly accessible toilets down there.

After lunch we walked up Warwick Lane seeing Cutler's Hall on the way.

Then left along Newgate Street where we saw St. Sepulchre's Church on the corner of Giltspur Street. Built into the railings of the churchyard is London's first ever public drinking fountain (shown in the second picture) and round the corner in Giltspur Street is the Watch House (shown in the third picture).

The Watch House was built to deter grave robbers which were rather prevalent in those times as freshly dead bodies were in great demand for surgeons to practise on and fetched a high price.

We went up past Smithfield Market to Charterhouse Square and saw this attractive little alley nearby.

Then back to Barbican to revisit the Museum of London where, this time, we saw the Lord Mayor's Coach (and had a cup of coffee).

We also saw this model of an old London bus with an external stairway to the upper deck. I hate to have to admit this but I can remember going to school on one of those exact buses as a child. :oops:

Just round the corner from the Museum of London we made a quick visit to Postman's Park. A small, little known but interesting little park.

Last, but not least, we went back to St. Paul's and at the east end walked into One New Change. New Change is the name of the street and One is the address/name of a very modern, covered shopping centre. If you like shopping then you will probably like this and there are lots of places providing food of various kinds.

We didn't go in for either of those things. There are lifts which are made of glass and run on the outside of the building and if you go up to the 6th floor you will find a roof terrace which is freely accessible to the public and that is where we went.

The first picture, looking directly into the sun, gives quite a good view past St. Paul's across London with the top part of the London Eye just visible on the horizon.

The second picture shows just part of the actual roof terrace.

That was the end of our second day trip to the City of London.
 

A tale of two mugs

A tale of two mugs

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The mug on the left dates from 1630 and the mug on the right dates from 1936.

We are just back from our day trip today but where have we been? :cool:

We started our walk as soon as we got off the train, at Liverpool Street Station, so you may guess that our destination was London. We walked west towards Finsbury Circus, which is a small, oval shaped park/garden, with the intention of having a look at it but we were thwarted by CrossRail. CrossRail is a new project which will enable normal overground trains to run from places east of London to places west of London, or vice versa, by means of an underground route through tunnels. The building project will last for years! Finsbury Circus will, eventually be restored to its former condition but that is years away.

We walked around the road (I say 'around' because it's oval in shape) which passes the garden heading towards Moorgate with the intention of crossing Moorgate to head further west but that was thwarted by CrossRail too. We had to go south, not very far, to London Wall, along London Wall, not very far, and turn north again to get back on our intended track. We hoped that the word 'thwarted' wasn't going to appear too often.

After a short distance we found ourselves at the start of Moorfields Highwalk at the south-eastern corner of the Barbican. The Barbican is situated in an area of London which was severely bombed in World War II and consists of housing and the largest performing arts centre in Europe all designed in the Brutalist style. The whole area was planned with pedestrian thoroughfares above ground level, hence the term 'Highwalks', and was opened in 1982.

The building with the white blocks on the right in the lower picture is the Arts centre. This place is a maze of walkways on different levels although there are boards with maps scattered around including the all important 'you are here' legend.

This old stone tower is part of the original Roman wall around London

and this is a section of the Roman Wall with that same tower at the far end. You probably wouldn't expect to find something like that in a development like this.

Still within the Barbican complex we found the church of St. Giles-without-Cripplegate. The name means that the church was without (outside of) the Cripplegate – one of London's old gates. The church is dedicated to St Giles, patron saint of beggars and cripples and is one of the few medieval churches, dating from 1394, left in the City of London having survived the Great Fire of 1666.

A little further on and still within the Barbican we found this:

Ironmongers Hall is an Elizabethan building which, although scorched, escaped the Great Fire of London.

We were now in the south-west corner of the Barbican and we left the Barbican at this point and headed north-west to Cloth Fair where we found the Tudor Gatehouse of the church of St. Bartholemew the Great with the church just visible through the gateway in the top picture.

The church is Norman and, although large, is only a part of the original priory church. There is an entrance fee of £4.00 and I have to say it is really not worth that much. I would say £2.00 is nearer the mark especially as one has to pay another £1.00 to take photographs.

This shows all that is left of the Cloisters and it is now used as a cafe where we had lunch. We both had Lentil and Ham Soup with some bread and although the soup was substantial and very nice it was only just warm enough and service was very slow.

Just around the corner from St. Bartholemews is Cloth Fair. Cloth Fair is a rather narrow street with a Tudor house which escaped the fire of London and whose bay windows are said to be even older.

From the end of Cloth Fair we look across Long Lane to Smithfield Market. Smithfield is not as nice as Covent Garden or Leadenhall Market and part of it is still a wholesale market but it is worth a look if you happen to be nearby. There is some very nice structural ironwork to be seen along Grand Avenue, shown here, but no stalls or shops.

We walked through Smithfield along Grand Avenue then along St. John's Lane, still going north, to reach our next destination – St. John's Gate. This archway was built in 1504 as the entrance to the Priory of the Knights of Saint John – the Knights Hospitallers. There is a small,free, museum inside run by St. John's Ambulance.

A little further north, but only a few hundred yards, is the Priory Church of St John, dating from 1504, with its 12th century crypt which is certainly worth a visit.

The strange thing about the church is that although it is 16th century it has little atmosphere and has the appearence of being quite recent.

We had now reached our northern-most point so we turned round and headed back. So was this the end of our trip? Well, no it wasn't as we still have quite a bit to see (We haven't seen the mugs yet). From St. Johns Gate we went back through Smithfield Market, past the end of Cloth Fair and down Giltspur Street. Here, by the junction with Cock Lane, we saw the Golden Boy of Pye Corner.

The inscription reads "This Boy is in Memmory Put up for the late Fire of London Occasion'd by the Sin of Gluttony 1666". The spelling and the use of capital letters is theirs not mine.

As you probably know the Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane and was finally stopped here at Pye Corner. That appeared to the people of the time as significant and they assumed that God was punishing them for Gluttony (Pudding Lane, Pye Corner – get it?).

We headed due east from here and arrived at our next planned stop.

You may notice that we are above ground level here and that's because we are back on the Highwalks of the Barbican. The entrance to the Museum of London is on this higher level.

This explains the 'mug' reference at the start of this post because this is where that photograph was taken. There is an awful lot of stuff here and we didn't have time to see it all but we did wander around a number of the galleries.

One of the exhibits which reminded me of the Golden Boy was this painting featuring the Great Fire of London:

It must have seemed like the Apocalypse to someone standing there at the time.

We also noticed yet another piece of the old London Wall through a window on one of the higher level galleries.

When I first saw this Roman mosaic I assumed it must be a reproduction as it appeared to be perfect but, no, it's the real thing discovered and excavated by the Victorians.

After wandering round for quite some time we realised that time was passing and we had still more to see outside the museum but we were also feeling thirsty so we stopped for a coffee/tea in the Sackler Hall, one of the two cafes in the museum.

We left the Museum of London via Bastion Highwalk which runs east parallel to London Wall and turned down Wood Street, across Gresham Street into the lower part of Wood Street until we got to Comptor Passage.

Before we go any further have a look at this web page about Mitre Court:

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/london-alleys/page20.php#Mitre%20Court%20EC2

We were looking for that structure labelled 'The Wood Street Comptor" in Mitre Court which was supposedly the entrance to the old debtors prison. It appeared that Comptor Passage was approximately where Mitre Court should have been.

We wandered through Comptor Passage into Milk Street and Russia Row but no sign of Mitre Court. To cut a long story short we couldn't find it and gave up. After we returned home a bit more research revealed that there was indeed some sort of structure under Mitre Court but archaeological investigation revealed that it was nothing more than some Victorian wine cellars which, at some stage, someone had tried to promote as a venue for parties describing it as the old Wood Street Comptor which it wasn't. They probably erected that structure and its signs.

Mitre Court has been demolished to make way for new development because there was nothing of historic interest there so no wonder we couldn't find it. In other words the whole debtor prison thing, including the structure over the entrance,  was a complete fake. There was a real Wood Street Comptor but it had burned down long ago.

We headed back to Gresham Street and the Guildhall.

This is the oldest lay (non-eclesiastical) building in London built between 1411 and 1440. We went from here just around the corner into Basinghall Street to look at these strange stone carved animals/demons on the upper part of the Guidhall.

It was now time we headed for Liverpool Street Station so we turned into Masons Avenue which, in spite of its grand name, is a very narrow alley.

Through there, then Great Bell Alley into Telegraph Street and after lots of twists and turns we eventually arrive back at the station to catch our train. There is lots more to see in the area we have just visited so we plan to return for more at a later date.
 

Yesterday we walked four feet

Yesterday we walked four feet

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… (the ones on the end of our legs that is) and we walked them from Westminster to Liverpoool Street Station. Why Liverpool Street Station? Because that's where our train to London terminates and we will be going back home from there.

We saw Westminster Palace, the London Eye in close up, the Millenium Bridge, some old churches, Tower Bridge, the old Billingsgate Fish Market, a Saxon Arch, the Gherkin, a hidden treasure, lots of alleys, the Royal Exchange, the Bank of England, the Mansion House and a Turkish Bath House. We also visited the area where Charles Dickens wrote some of his novels.

We'd better get started then, there's a lot to do. Don't forget that clicking on a picture will give you a larger version.

Friday was a sunny day and, after travelling to London, we took the tube to Westminster and walked across Westminster Bridge to the south side of the Thames. There's a good view of the Palace of Westminster (Houses of parliament) from there.

We turned east along the riverside path and in a very short time reached the London Eye. I have to say that it looks an impressive bit of engineering in close-up. There were longish queues but not excessive and we weren't planning a ride.

There are a number of visitor attractions along this stretch of the path, including the London Aquarium, together with various cafes which give the area a holiday atmosphere. There are also a number of street entertainers and snack bar trailers along here and we decided to have an early lunch. We bought ourselves some snacks and sat on a riverside bench to eat them whilst watching the world go by. There were a lot of tour boats and we saw a restaurant boat which looked rather like a rather long floating greenhouse.

After lunch we continued along the path with views like this:

I'm sure you don't need me to point out St. Paul's but the bridge is Blackfriars Bridge which we intend to use to go back across the river to the north side. The cranes are part of the building works apparently being carried out on the railway bridge. I don't know what they are doing but they are doing a lot of it.

After crossing Blackfriars Bridge, to get to the riverside walk, one has to do one of two things. Although we want to head east the easiest way to the path is to turn left (west) and go down to the Embankment, on to the path, then turn back east along the path. The alternative is to turn east but that means you can't access the path until you reach the Millenium Bridge then go down the steps either side.

The path on this side, the north side, is very nice and we soon reached the Millenium Bridge.

We continued past the bridge to Broken Wharf where one has to walk inland up to High Timber Street, along High Timber Street for a short distance, then back down Queenhithe to the river. Somewhere between Southwark Bridge and Cannon Street Station we reached a point where the river path continued on but there was a passage to the left which we wanted to explore. This is what we found:

Known as Fruiterers Passage the walls and ceiling are all tiles and the framed images are old engravings of London. We followed the passage round and came out on the river path again and a little further on the path goes through a sort of cage.

The bridge on the right takes the railway from Cannon Street Station across the river and when we reached the edge of Cannon Street Station on Cousin Lane we saw these, rather appropriate, items:

At this point you could be forgiven for thinking that the path stops here but you'd be wrong. On the other side of Cousin Lane there is a black cavernous opening which looks like the entrance to a goods warehouse or similar but it is Steelyard Passage and it will take you underneath Cannon Street Station and on to the continuation of the path.

As we walked along the path I noticed this view to my left. The pillar with the golden top is, of course, the Monument and you should just about be able to see people on the top platform.

The church, of which only the roof and tower is showing, is St. Magnus the Martyr, a Wren church, and we detoured very slightly to look inside. The original church was one of the first casualties of the Great Fire of London and was subsequently rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. The roof was destroyed in 1760 by another fire and a smaller fire in 1995 caused more minor damage. It was badly damaged by a bomb in 1940 and was repaired once again.

Back onto the riverside path we continue onward.

That large overhanging balcony on the left above the path is a public viewing gallery accessed by steps just this side of it so we went up. There was absolutely nobody up there, except us, and there is also no seating of any kind. This is the view:

The building on the left is the old Billingsgate Fish Market with Tower Bridge in the distance. Soon after this we reached the Tower of London and this is where our riverside jaunt ends because from here, being only early afternoon, we branch off in a north-westerly direction into the City of London to continue our explorations.

Leaving the environs of the Tower of London we walked along Gloucester Court until we spotted the church of All Hallows by the Tower and went inside.

This church is the oldest church in the City of London having been founded in the year 675 but only an archway from that original church remains above ground.

There is a crypt, part of the original Saxon church, which has part of a Roman tessellated pavement exposed. This is the Saxon Crypt.

This was a very interesting church and is well worth a visit. John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the USA, was apparently married in All Hallows in 1797.

After leaving the church we crossed Byward Street where I took this exterior photograph of the church.

We turned north up Seething Lane which has a nice little garden with bench seats but nothing special so we went on. Up to Hart Street, turned left and along to Mark Lane where we turned right (still going north) to look for Star Alley. We found Star Alley easily enough and what should we see peeking at us through a gap in the buildings but the Gherkin (proper address 30, St Mary Axe).

Nearby was a solitary stone tower. This apparently is all that remains of a church called 'All Hallows Staining', where 'staining' means 'stone', which distinguished it from the other 'All Hallows' wooden churches round about. It was built in 1320, which makes it medieval, and is maintained by the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers.

Off we went up Star Alley and popped out on Fenchurch Street. There are two alleys going north from Fenchurch Street through to Fenchurch Avenue and neither of us can remember which one we took although I suspect that it was Billiter Square.

Anyway we turned left (west) along Fenchurch Avenue towards the Lloyds of London building then right into Leadenhall Place – and were really surprised to see this:

The entrance to Leadenhall Market with part of the ultra-modern Lloyds building on the right. This is something we weren't expecting as neither of us can remember hearing of Leadenhall Market before. It was a meat, game and poultry market and has now had a change of use as Covent Garden has. There are various shops, stalls, cafes, pubs, restaurants and the like and what a wonderful old building it is.

We eventually left the market via Whittington Avenue, turned right along Leadenhall Street and spotted this little church near the corner with St. Mary Axe.

The church of St Andrew Undershaft is rather dwarfed by the Gherkin but is a rare example of a City church that has managed to escape both the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the Second World War bombing. The first church to occupy this site was certainly there by 1147 but that church was rebuilt in the 14th century and was replaced by the current church in 1532.

We went back along Leadenhall Street and left into Gracechurch Street looking for the alleys along the west side of this street. There is a bit of a maze of alleys in this area including St. Peter's Alley, Corbett Court, George Yard, St. Michael's Alley, Castle Court and Bengal Court.

We spent a while wandering back and forth and discovered that somewhere around St. Michael's Alley was where Charles Dickens had a study in which he wrote some of his novels. These are some of the pictures I took whilst getting lost in the alleyways.

That last picture is the junction between St. Michael's Alley and Bengal Court so somewhere close to Charles Dickens Study.

We went through Bengal Court and across Birchin Lane into Change Alley and found our way through to Cornhill where we saw the Royal Exchange.

We crossed over to Threadneedle Street, Forked left up Old Broad Street then crossed London Wall to the northern part of Old Broad Street heading for Liverpool Street Station where we were to catch our train home.

So was that the end of our trip? Well not quite. To get to Liverpool Street Station from Old Broad Street we cut through an alley called Bishopsgate Churchyard and came across this little curiosity:

This is a Victorian Turkish Bath dating from 1895 now converted to a restaurant. It's not quite as small inside as it appears outside because a lot of it is underground. Needless to say, because it's still here, it survived the London bombings during World War II.

So now we have finished our trip so it's back home via Liverpool Street Station.

We haven't finished with this area in the City yet as there's more to explore a bit further north-west from where we've been today.

Until next time.
 

Cucumber Alley

Cucumber Alley

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As I said in my previous post on Monday last the weather forecast for tuesday was good then the following morning they changed their minds and it was to be not good. On that Tuesday the weather for Wednesday was to be mostly cloudy then this morning, Wednesday, they changed their minds again and it was going to be good. Today looks like a last minute emergency trip day.

Last weekend Amanda pulled a muscle in her back which was fairly painful and it had started to improve and she didn't want to do a lot of walking as it might aggravate the problem so it was me on my own this time.

I got off the Tube (Central Line) at Tottenham Court Road as I was headed for the Covent Garden area. A hundred yards along New Oxford Street and round the corner into St. Giles High Street and there was St. Giles-in-the-Fields.

Along the footpath past St. Giles church, along St. Giles Passage and then Mercer Street I found myself at Seven Dials. Seven Dials is a small circular area where seven roads meet and in the centre is a pillar bearing six sundials. The original plan, in the 1600s, was to have six roads converging but that was later altered to seven. The design of the pillar, however, was not altered which is why it has only six dials (someone has blundered). After this area was built it gradually deteriorated until by the 1800s it was one of the most notorious slums in London. However it is now a prosperous and attractive area including lots of interesting shops and, despite some redevelopment, many of the original buildings remain.

This shows three of the seven converging roads.

And, of course, we must not forget the six sundials.

The Covent Garden area is full of narrow cobbled streets and even narrower alleyways. It would be very easy to take a couple of steps and miss something really quite interesting. Look at this picture for example:

This covered alley off Monmouth Street, one of the seven roads that converge on Seven Dials, could be easily passed with a quick glance as something not worth investigating but that would be a mistake because what you'd be missing is this:

Do you need a little colour in your life? Then a visit to Neals Yard is for you. Not very large but certainly very colourful and is named after the 17th century developer Thomas Neale.

Coming out of Neals Yard into Shorts Gardens and looking across the road to the left is another opening in the wall.

Taking a closer look we see:

This is Cucumber Alley. What I suspect has happened here is that the original buildings have been demolished to make way for a new building but Cucumber Alley already existed as a public right of way so had to be retained. The builders have incorporated it as a shopping arcade that runs through from Shorts Gardens to Shelton Street.

I don't know why it is called Cucumber Alley although being in the Covent Garden area  there may be a conection there.

I was wandering towards my next planned destination when I popped out into Long Acre and saw this building in the distance – well you couldn't really miss it could you?

It turned out to be Freemasons Hall. On the front of the building there is a legend which reads 1717-1967 but that early date isn't when the hall was built but rather the date when the Freemason's Society was started. This hall is the third on this site and is in the Art Deco style having been built in 1927. An impressive and distinctive building.

I went back to my original route and from Long Acre I went through yet another narrow alley:

and popped out into Floral Street.

Floral Street is, as you can no doubt see, a narrow cobbled street (is there any other sort around here?) which runs parallel to Long Acre. There are a number of narrow streets and alleyways off Floral Street one of which is Rose Street and includes the Lamb and Flag Inn where the street turns sharp left.

First licensed in 1623, it's the oldest pub in Covent Garden and possibly one of the oldest in London. You may think that Rose Street is narrow but where it turns sharp left in front of the pub an alleyway continues straight on back into Floral Street.

It is wide enough for two people to pass but only if they turn partly sideways.

From the southern end of Rose Street I went along Garrick Street, right into New Row and left into Bedfordbury where I was looking for the entrance to Goodwins Court:

Now come on, own up. You would have walked straight past wouldn't you? Well, wouldn't you?  :roll: This is what you would have missed:

These buildings date from the 1600s and must have survived the Great Fire of London and you were going to walk past. :unhappy:

Out of the far end of Goodwins Court into St. Martin's Lane then right into Cecil Court.

This is supposedly the street that gave someone the idea for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films. It is full of interesting little shops some of which I noticed were book shops. Now onward to the entrance to Inigo Place and thence to my final destination, the old Covent Garden Market.

This is full of stalls, little shops and you'll be tripping over places to eat but the old market buildings are just a small part of what there is to see in the Covent Garden area and I can't help wondering how many visitors come here and think that have 'done' Covent Garden.

Wandering through the maze of narrow streets and alleyways was an enjoyable experience and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. :cool:
 

If you want to see a map with the locations marked then look here Covent Garden Map

The locations are:

001 Tottenham Court Road Station

002 St. Giles-in-the-Fields

003 Seven Dials

004 Neal's Yard

005 Cucumber Alley

006 Freemason's Hall

007 Floral Street

008 Rose Street

009 Goodwin's Court

010 Cecil Court

011 Inigo Place

012 Covent Garden Market