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Medieval, Monumental and Modern

Medieval, Monumental and Modern

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8:30 PM Wednesday 1st May 2013.

Just back from our day trip today and this comes under the ‘Modern’ category.

Before I continue with this post I’m going to get you to guess what/where this might be. I’ll give you a few days and I’ll also give you a clue. It’s in London. There, that narrows it down a bit doesn’t it? smilies

9:30 AM Sunday 5th May 2013.

Clever-clogs Annecyborn was the first with the correct answer. It was, indeed, the Gherkin and this shows the whole width of the base.

Another sunny day forecast, another trip.

We arrived at our London terminus, Liverpool Street Station, and went out into Bishopsgate where we turned north and walked until we reached Brushfield Street on the east side of Bishopsgate. Walking along Brushfield Street we soon arrived here:

That is one of the entrances to Old Spitalfields Market. The area belonged to St Mary Spital, a priory or hospital erected on the east side of the Bishopsgate thoroughfare in 1197, and the name is thought to have been derived from that.

By the later 19th century inner Spitalfields had eclipsed rival claimants to the dubious distinction of being the worst criminal area in London and it is this area that is associated with Jack the Ripper.


The market building is 19th century and turned out not to be particularly interesting architecturally unlike, for example, Leadenhall Market. There are plenty of shops including cafes which seem popular but we weren’t really interested in those so we moved on.

We came out of the eastern end on Spitalfields Market and walked south along Commercial Street, turned right into White’s Row, left into Bell Lane until we came to Frying Pan Alley. There is nothing special about Frying Pan Alley except it’s name and with a name like that we just had to walk through it.

It is an old alley although, sadly, all the old buildings have been razed to make way for modern buildings. However this alley once housed numerous Ironmongers who identified their premises by displaying a frying pan outside.

On the map above Spitalfields Market is top right and Frying Pan Alley is marked with an arrow.

We came out of the west end of Frying Pan alley, turned left into Sandy’s Row, right into Middlesex Street, forked left into Catherine Wheel Alley (named after the Catherine Wheel Inn which was demolished in 1911) then left again into Cock Hill. It’s a maze of narrow streets and alleys round here. That took us, via a dog leg, into New Street and after turning left into yet another alley we found ourselves in Devonshire Square. You may be able to trace our route on the map above in the darkened rectangle.

Devonshire Square is area enclosed by buildings and accessible only via alleyways. All these alleys and squares are old but the buildings have obviously been replaced.

Devonshire Square is actually a number of individual squares connected by alleyways and as we wandered through we came across this life-size sculpture of a knight on horseback.


King Edgar (944-975) made an agreement with a group of 13 knights that he would give them land near to this spot on condition that they would each engage in three combats, one on the ground, another on water and the third below ground.

We did wonder how they could have fought below ground but after thinking about it we decided that they could have used a cellar or crypt.

We made our way out of these squares and alleys and headed south towards the Gherkin.


We couldn’t really miss it could we?

Nearby is the medieval church of St. Helen’s dating from the 11th century. It is the largest surviving church in the City of London and it contains more monuments than any other church in Greater London except for Westminster Abbey.

It is unusual in that it was designed with two parallel naves, giving it a wide interior.  Until the dissolution of the priory in 1538, the church was divided in two by a partition running from east to west, the northern half serving the nuns and the southern the parishioners. That partition has since been removed. It is the only building from a nunnery to survive in the City of London and one of the few churches to survive both the Great Fire of London of 1666 and the Blitz during World War II.


You can see that they have cornered the market in monuments and there were more all over the floor. This church was William Shakespeare’s parish church when he lived in the area in the 1590s.

Heading south down St. Mary Axe towards Leadenhall Street we passed another medieval church – St. Andrew Undershaft dating back to the 10th century although the current building is mainly 16th century. This is another city church that survived both the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz.

The church’s curious name derives from the shaft of the maypole that was traditionally set up each year opposite the church until 1517 when the custom ended.

We were now headed west to the Guildhall where I was hoping to get a photograph which is better lit than the last time we were here. We went via St. Michael’s Alley, which we previously visited when we went to Leadenhall Market, and I took a photograph of the Jamaica Wine House. This was originally London’s first Coffee House.


We soon arrived at the Guildhall where I took my photograph.

The last time I tried it was late in the day when the sun was low and there was a large dark shadow across the courtyard and across part of the building. Much better this time.

We now headed for the Barbican and arrived at about lunchtime. This is the Barbican Centre Terrace and that low building ahead on the left is the Barbican Food Hall (not a particularly imaginative name) where we were going to have lunch.

It was not at all expensive at around £9.50 for a main course and the food was beatifully cooked and very tasty. We both had Thai Red Curry of Duck Leg with saffron rice, vegatable rolls and Coconut Dip. The duck meat just fell off the bone and we thoroughly enjoyed it. To be recommended if you are ever this way.

After lunch and before we left we went up 3 levels to where the conservatory is situated. It was not open today as we expected but I took a photograph from the outside of part of it to show what the construction is like.


We left Barbican and emerged into Aldersgate Street a little north of the Museum of London where we caught a bus going north to the Angel, Islington, where another bus took us west along Pentonville Road to St. Pancras.

For a railway terminus that is a pretty impressive victorian building. However we hadn’t come here to see that specifically we had come to visit the British Library.


That’s St. Pancras Station peeping over the wall in the second picture.

This is a large, impressive modern building with a very interesting construction. This is the entrance hall.

The library holds over 150 million items from many countries, in many languages so it may take you a little while if you want to read them all. It also includes the King’s Library; a collection donated by King George III and housed in the King’s Library Tower, a six-storey glass and bronze structure in the entrance hall. This shows just part of the King’s Library Tower.

A number of books and manuscripts are on display to the general public in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery which is open seven days a week at no charge. Some of the manuscripts in the exhibition include Beowulf, the Lindisfarne Gospels and St Cuthbert Gospel, a Gutenberg Bible, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur (King Arthur), Captain Cook’s journal, Jane Austen’s History of England, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and a room devoted solely to Magna Carta. That lot should keep you amused.

They also hold copies of all web sites and blogs which have the suffix .uk which will include this web site and blog. In that copy of this web site there will be a picture of the British Library and in that library will be a copy of this web site and …. ad infinitum.

We decided it was time to leave and so went out into Euston Road. Walking south-west along Euston Road we turned left at Dukes Road which led us to Woburn Walk.

This attractive pedestrian street features beautifully preserved bow-fronted buildings that were built in 1822. A plaque on one of the buildings marks the house of W. B. Yeats, who lived here between 1895 and 1919 and the street is home to restaurants, bookshops, and galleries.

Our next, and last, planned stop was the Charles Dickens Museum just off Grays Inn Road in Doughty Street. We planned to walk through a number of what we hoped would be attractive squares on the way. It turns out that they were.

Starting with Tavistock Square:


and finishing with Russell Square.

We soon after arrived at the museum. The entrance door is the one on the right.

There is a sign on the railings giving opening times and it closes at 5:00 PM with last entry at 4:00 PM. So what’s the time? 4:10 PM. Oh #@**&^!! smilies

So we didn’t get to see it after all that. Next time perhaps. We caught a bus to Holborn, changed to a bus to Liverpool Street Station and caught the train to go back home.

The Republic of Texas

The Republic of Texas

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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 Prospect of Whitby, Captain Kidd and the Town of Ramsgate

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

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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:
 

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