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A Musical Soiree

A Musical Soiree

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Pamela has been a very good friend of ours for many years and she has a birthday coming up which will mark yet another decade so she decided that a celebration was in order which she described as 'A musical soiree'. She lives in Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk and plays the bassoon.

So it was that last Saturday we headed 50 miles north to Bury St. Edmunds first on the A12 then the A14. The A14 approaches Bury St. Edmunds from the east and about 7 miles east of Bury St. Edmunds is the small village of Woolpit where we decided to stop to have lunch and a look around.

Woolpit's history goes back at least two thousand years and this shows the centre of the village with some of the ancient, timber-framed buildings and the church tower showing over the top.

This is a closer view of the old village water pump shown on the left in the previous picture.

There were other rather nice buildings scattered around the village.

After our walk round we went into the Teacups Tearooms, the red building, in the next photograph, partly hidden by a silver car. They provide light lunches such as salads and sandwiches, which can be toasted, as well as tea, coffee and cold drinks.

Amanda had a savoury flan salad which she said was very nice and I had a toasted sandwich which I liked very much. We followed that with some cake which was delicious.

There were cars parked everywhere in the village today which may be partly due to it being the weekend when a lot of the residents will be at home and also because there was an art and crafts exhibition in the church. Under those circumstances it wasn't really worth me taking photographs inside as the interior was covered in stands of various types.

It didn't, however, stop me taking a few pictures outside.

Woolpit is a very small village with an extraordinarily large and impressive church with what must have been some very expensive features. Take the porch as an example.

That chequered pattern on the side wall is known as Flushwork and must have been expensive to create. Look at the numerous carvings and embellishments on the porch and the top of the tower. They wouldn't have been cheap. Just below the roof line there are small windows using flushwork again. Here is a closer look.

This money would probably have come from the very wealthy wool merchants which were prevalent in Suffolk during the medieval period. The roof inside was also exceptionally well decorated but we will have to make a return visit to photograph that.

Having had lunch Amanda decided that she would like to have a look around the art and crafts exhibition in the church and I decided to walk to Drinkstone to see if I could find the two windmills.

The walk entailed going down Rag Lane to the end, along a public footpath across some fields then along a country road. This is the veiw I had going across the fields.

Can you see the post mill on the right (without sails) and the smock mill on the left (also without sails)? I was obviously on the right track. Those black cows with a white band round their middle are Belted Galloways.

I was, eventually, able to get this close to the smock mill.

The post mill was further back on private property so the best I could do was this.

Not quite so good. It's a shame that neither mill has its sails. I started back for Woolpit and as I came back along Rag Lane I caught these two views.

We decided to head for Bury St. Edmunds but instead of taking the easy route along the A14 we chose to meander through the country lanes. As we were passing through Beyton we saw this church and so stopped.

We could see inside that it had obviously been renovated, probably in Victorian times, and decided that there was not much of interest. WRONG!

It turns out that, for example, although all the quire stalls look fairly modern some of them are actually medieval and some are modern reproductions. In the next photograph the stalls on the left are medieval and the one on the right is a Victorian reproduction. There is a noticable, although not marked, difference in colour.

We moved onward and stopped again in the village of Rougham. They also had a large imposing church although not quite of the same standard as Woolpit.

There was some noticable decoration around the top of the tower. That panel in the centre appears to be text but we couldn't read it. Latin perhaps?

We decided to move on to Bury St. Edmunds. Pamela was holding her soiree at the Manor House, Nowton Court on the outskirts of Bury St. Edmunds and we were also staying the night at the same place which was very convenient.

It turned out to be a lovely 19th century building in large grounds with some exceptional trees. It was also very quiet.

In the second picture above we had our breakfast the next day in the lower part of the two storey bay window on the right so that we were looking out into these grounds.

However back to today. We were shown to our room which was very nicely appointed, settled in and then went outside for a quick look round.

It'll do.

An hour or so later we went down the rather imposing staircase, which I suspect they had built especially for us, to join the reception.

There was champagne which I tried (it's a long time since I had any) and it confirmed my previous memory of it – I can't see why anyone would get excited about it.

After a lot of chatting we moved off to the function room. I should point out that Pamela, being a musician, has a lot of musician friends so she had arranged a group of her friends to form a small orchestra of about 20 instruments which was the musical part of the soiree. The main piece was a serenade by Brahms in five movements, which I hadn't heard before and was very nice indeed.

I was very interested, as I'd never sat quite so close to an orchestra before, to see how the musicians played each of their instruments. There were violas, cellos, a double bass, flutes, oboes, bassoons and french horns. Amanda and I both thought that it really was very good.

There was then a long break where we all descended on the buffet like a plague of locusts which we did very well. One thing about this place is that they do know how to produce good food.

By now some of the musicians had had to leave but there were enough left to form a 'wind' octet of pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons and french horns. We were then treated to two short pieces the last of which was the Teddy Bears Picnic.

It was now about 11:00 PM and the Soiree had now ended so we went to our room and went to bed after a very, very enjoyable evening.

Next morning we had our breakfast looking out of the window onto the sunny lawn – super.

Our plans were that after breakfast we would set off for home going via Sudbury where we would stop to have a look round. By the time we'd arrived in Sudbury the sun had gone and we found that we were both feeling rather lethargic so we cut our visit short. We'll go again another time. I did take a few photographs as a taster.



The last picture is the Mill Theatre.

We'll take you another time.

 

Lynn – Day 3

Lynn – Day 3

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Another day, another sunny morning.

Today we are going further north to the coast at Hunstanton known colloquially as 'Sunny Hunny'. It's about 40 years since I was there last and we are going once again to look at the cliffs. It was a straightforward, uneventful journey and we reached the old lighthouse in about 30 minutes. We went into the obvious, very large car park to find that the charges were approximately £1.80 per hour with a small reduction for longer stays. We turned round and left.

We drove along the road past the car park entrance and found space further down to park in the road at £0.00 per hour unrestricted. No contest really.

We were now going to walk back the way we came, along the top of the cliffs, until we can access the beach. A short way after leaving the car we came across the only remaining part of St. Edmund's Chapel built in 1272.

Hunstanton has long been associated with Sir Edmund who, as King of East Anglia, led a small army against the invading Vikings, was captured and, after refusing to give up his Christian faith, was tied to a tree and shot by Danish archers. Legend has it that when St Edmund first came from Saxony in AD855 he landed near Hunstanton cliffs.

Then of course there's the old lighthouse.

There has been a Lighthouse here since 1665 which was built of wood with an iron basket of burning coals as a light. Hunstanton had the world's first parabolic reflector, built here in 1776, and the current lighthouse was built in 1840. There is no access inside as it is now a private residence.

We went on past the lighthouse down towards the beach as the cliffs became lower and lower. We could see a large expanse of beach and, further out to sea, a bank of mist touching the water.

Having reached the beach we reversed our direction so that we were now walking back along the beach, instead of the cliff top, in the direction of our parked car. The cliff here comprises three layers of which the bottom layer is Carstone. This is a type of sandstone and shows a distinct pattern of raised, rounded blocks here when eroded by the sea.

The cliffs themselves are the striped cliffs I mentioned in the Prologue and you should be able to see three distinct colour bands. The youngest rock at the top is bog standard white chalk laid down during the Upper Cretaceous then below that is what is known as Red Chalk laid down during the Lower Cretaceous. Both of these layers are limestone. At the base is the Carstone which is brown in colour and which we saw protruding above the beach as rounded blocks in the previous picture.

For those of you who prefer to work in years these sediments are around the 100 million year mark – a teensy bit older than I am.

We walked a little further on until we found some steps and a path to take us back to the top of the cliffs. You can probably see that these cliffs are subject to significant erosion.

After that final look at the cliffs we found a nice little cafe at the top of the cliffs overlooking the sea where we had lunch. After lunch we walked back to the car and headed back to King's Lynn.

About 5 miles this side of King's Lynn is a small village called Castle Rising where we expected to find, as you've probably guessed, a Norman castle. What we didn't expect to find was an imposing Norman church.


On the other side of the church is the old market cross dating from the 15th century which we thought was in a rather nice setting.

The church itself had a rather spendid, and typical, Norman doorway.

Opposite the church was the Tudor Trinity Hospital founded by the Earl of Northampton in 1614 and although the roof is now tiled the original roof was thatched. The term 'hospital' in Tudor times was applied to almshouses.

The inhabitants, known as 'Sisters', were expected to be "of an honest life and conversation, religious, grave and discrete, able to read, a single woman, 56 years of age at least, no common beggar, harlot, scold, drunkard, or haunter of taverns" and had to attend chapel every day.

Finally we got round to seeing what we came here to see – the 12th century castle.


I'm standing on the high earthwork bank which completely surrounds the castle with a very, very deep ditch on the outer edge. That's Amanda teetering on the edge in the second picture.


The main stairway into the castle is quite impressive and it was meant to look that way to impress visitors.

The rest of the castle, however, is accessed via the more traditional medieval spiral stairways and passages.


When we came to leave we realised that we were the only people in the castle. An interesting experence.

It's worth a visit if you're ever that way.

The end of another day and tomorrow we go home – but …..

 

Lynn – Day 2

Lynn – Day 2

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Another hot, sunny day dawned although I wasn't awake to see that part. We went down to breakfast and very nice it was. We both had a cooked breakfast followed by toast and marmalade, of course, then it was time for some serious tourism.

Wherever we went in Lynn we went via The Walks past the Red Mount Chapel. It wasn't because we liked it so much but it was the most convenient route into the old part of the town.

We were headed for St. Margaret's Church, or the Minster as it is known, and Saturday Market Place. King's Lynn was originally two towns so it has two churches, two guildhalls and two market places. We will be seeing the other market place later.

For a parish church the minster is big.


The space on the left where there are some parked cars is Saturday Market Place which is used as a car park when there isn't a market being held.

Parish churches don't normally have two towers and especially towers that large and you can probably see in the top picture that there is a sizeable tower, although not as high, further back over the crossing.

This church also contains the largest monumental brasses in the country dating from the 14th century and the figures depicted must be near life-size. This is one of the pair.

Just south of the minster is Nelson Street and Hampton Court. This is not Hampton Court Palace in London but it is pretty spectacular all the same. The whole building was formed over a period of 300 years.

The South Wing was constructed first, consisting mainly of a 14th-century merchant's hall house and is thus the earliest surviving section.

The West Wing was constructed towards the end of the 15th century, probably as a warehouse which was later converted into a house. The East Wing was also constructed at the end of the 15th century.

The North Wing completed the courtyard a century later.

In the picture above the doorway into this courtyard is visible in the far wall.

Next to the north wall of Hampton Court is St. Margaret's Lane with the 15th century Hanse House, a Hanseatic Warehouse, along one side. The Hanseatic League was a trading confederation which existed from the 13th to the 17th centuries.

Running eastward from the junction of St. Margaret's Lane and Nelson Street is Priory Lane.

St. Margaret's Church, the Minster, was originally part of a medieval Benedictine Priory until the Reformation when the priory was disbanded by Henry VIII but the church was saved as a parish church. Priory Lane includes buildings in the medieval priory range. Note the rather imposing archway.

It was rather nice walking around this area with its old narrow streets because it offered plenty of cool shade.

We walked back past the church to the north side of Tuesday Market where we found the town hall complex which included the 15th century Trinity Guildhall.

The guildhall includes the facade with the doorway in the centre of the picture and the gabled building to its right. The part on the left is the town hall shown below.

The town hall is an extension built in a similar style in 1895. You can see the Guildhall jutting out at the far end.

We were now heading further north along Queen Street and then King Street to see St. George's Guildhall. The largest surviving 15th century guildhall in England.


The guildhall ha since been converted for use as a theatre and the second picture shows the structure of the original roof.

We now travelled the short distance to the larger Tuesday Market Place. As is the case with Saturday Market Place when a market is not beig held this market place is also used as a car park.

The prominent blue and white building is the Dukes Head Hotel and the spire poking up above the rooves to the left is St. Nicholas' Chapel. I think that I can say, without exaggeration, that this is the largest chapel that I have ever seen.

Apparently it can't be called a church because it isn't a parish church and that honour goes to St. Margarets so it must be a chapel. Built in the 15th century it has a very fne porch and some of the best carved wooden angels in the roof that we have seen.



To the south of the chapel by a side entrance to the churchyard was the Exorcist's House. The position of Exorcist in past enturies was one which a Catholic priest could hold as he progressed up the church career ladder. It has a side entrance that leads directly into the churchyard and has the reputation of being haunted.

Behind the chapel is Pilot Street where we spotted these nice timber-framed buildings.


We now headed for the river down Ferry Lane. You won't be able to guess where we're going.


It was a strange looking little boat but eminently suited for its purpose.

Here we are on the other side of the river in West Lynn looking back at the King's Lynn waterside.

We walked along the boardwalk which runs along the bank and had some good views of King's Lynn.


Somewhere back there is where we got off the ferry and we have to walk back again. We had worn our legs down to short stumps by now so that is what we did. We went back to the ferry and went 'home'.

We're off somewhere different tomorrow.

 

Lynn – Day 1

Lynn – Day 1

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As someone, somewhere, had decided to award us a week of summer weather we decided we'd better make use of it before it disappears so we arranged to go to King's Lynn for four days.

So, on a hot sunny Wednesday, we set off for a 93 mile journey north to north-west Norfolk which took just over two hours and took us through Braintree, Sudbury, Bury St. Edmunds, Thetford, Mundford and Oxburgh. One wouldn't normally go through Oxburgh on the way from Mundford to King's Lynn but we chose the few miles detour because we wanted to see Oxburgh Hall. Built around 1482 Oxburgh Hall is a moated manor which was always intended as a family home and not a fortress as the crenellations are symbolic fortifications rather than actual.

The main entrance and gatehouse is on the opposite side of the view shown above and the house is arranged around a large open quadrangle where the next picture was taken showing the large impressive gatehouse.

The eyesore deckchairs have been provided by the National Trust who must have been desparate for visitors to notice them.

It is possible to go up onto the roof of the gatehouse if you don't mind the climb up the spiral stairway.



The rooms, as one might expect, are pretty impressive as this view of the West Drawing Room shows although one needs to ignore the strange lady at the far end.

The Library is equally impressive.

The Queen's Room is, as you'd expect, quite large.

But off to the left, out of the picture, is another small side chamber and in the floor of this chamber is a small trapdoor which, when closed, blends in with the tiled floor. However, when opened, this trapdoor gives access to the Priest Hole. Because of the Catholic faith of the Bedingfeld family, a Catholic priest may have had to hide within the small disguised room in the event of a raid.

The entrance is just large enough for a person to slip through and this is all that there is inside. I am sitting on one of two benches with the other showing to my left and the brick slope on the far side of the floor is the only way in and out. Calling it a room, even a small room, is stretching the imagination somewhat. Getting in, and out, is not easy and it reminded me of my caving days. When I came out Amanda went in. We both survived.

If the King's men (soldiers) turned up unannounced then any visiting priest would have had to get in here quickly and possibly stay there for a few days. There is no toilet and no light so don't even think about it but it was better than being dead.

On a lighter note there is a very impressive flower border in the grounds.

It was an interesting and enjoyable visit but now we must go onward to King's Lynn. We arrived in King's Lynn at our B&B at around mid-afternoon and settled in then decided to have an initial short exploration leaving tomorrow, Thursday, as our main exploration day for the town.

A short way from our B&B was a public park called The Walks and we knew that within the park was the 15th century Red Mount Chapel. It is unique and no other building like it can be found. It was built to contain a relic of the Virgin Mary but was also used by pilgrims on their way to Walsingham.

Built on instructions from the prior of Lynn the inner core is divided into 3 storeys and there is an additional cross-shaped ashlar building in Ancaster stone on top.

A strange place indeed which Pevsner described as one of the strangest Gothic churches in England.

Moving towards the river to the west end of The Walks we crossed the road into another small park known as Tower Gardens. In this park is the Greyfriars Tower which is all that is left of a Franciscan Monastery. Take no notice of the strange woman at the base of the tower she seems, somehow, to get into a lot of my photographs.


Henry VIII had all such monasteries demolished but the tower at Lynn was left untouched because it was considered to be a useful seamark by sailors entering the town and is still clearly visible on the town's skyline to this day.

You can see from this model just where the tower fitted in.

We moved further towards the river looking for the Tourist Information Centre so that we could get a free street plan of the town. We knew that it was located in the Customs House and eventually we spotted it.

Situated on the edge of Pur Fleet this building started life in 1683 as a merchant exchange but was bought by the Crown in 1717 for £800 and occupied by HM Customs and Excise until their move to a central office at Ipswich in 1989. It is now occupied by the local TIC. Pur Fleet runs into the River Great Ouse just behind the camera.

We'd had enough by this stage so having collected our free street plan of the town we headed back to our B&B. We'll be back in this area tomorrow.

 

Our trip is at an end.

Our trip is at an end.

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… and to be more precise it's at Audley End. As you all probably know (Who am I kidding?) 'end' is the Saxon word for 'home' and this was Thomas Audley's home.

Not a bad home eh? These Jacobean piles are two a penny around here (Essex and Suffolk) and this one is on the outskirts of Saffron Walden in Essex about a 70 minute drive from us.

There are also a number of other 'ends' around here. I remember coming past Cole End on the way; there is Sparrows End a little south of here near Wendens Ambo (of which more later) and there is a Duck End in Finchingfield.

Audley End was originally the site of a Benedictine monastery (Walden Abbey), granted to the Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas Audley in 1538 by Henry VIII but was later converted to a domestic house for him, known as Audley Inn. That dwelling was later demolished by his grandson, Thomas Howard (the first Earl of Suffolk and Lord Treasurer), and a much grander mansion was built, primarily for entertaining King James I.

The layout reflects the processional route of the King and Queen, each having their own suite of rooms. It is reputed that Thomas Howard told King James he had spent some £200,000 on creating this grand house, and it may be that the King had unwittingly contributed. In 1619, Suffolk and his wife were found guilty of embezzlement (oops!) and sent to the Tower of London. However, a huge fine secured their release, but Suffolk died in disgrace at Audley End in 1626.

Sir John Griffin, later fourth Baron Howard de Walden and first Baron Braybrooke, introduced sweeping changes in 1762, in particular, the commissioning of Capability Brown to landscape the parkland.

The house is now only a third of the size of the original and is in the ownership of English Heritage although the contents are owned by the current Lord Braybrooke.

We arrived about 10:30 in the morning on a fine sunny day. The first thing that we noticed was this astonishing topiary hedge grown from Yew and Box. It's really quite, er, lumpy.

I don't know why it's been trimmed this way but I'm certainly glad that I don't have to maintain it.

As the sun was at the back of the house we decided to start there. Those bright blue flowers are Forget-me-not and, I assume, a cultivated variety rather than the wild one as the wild ones are a paler blue.

On the high ground behind the house is the Temple of Concord built in 1790 in honour of George III.



After coming down off the high ground we went back to the front of the house and beyond into the parkland then down to the River Cam, which runs through the estate, where we saw the Adam Bridge designed by Robert Adam who also remodelled a number of the reception rooms in the house. Ducks? What ducks? Oh, those ducks. They were making their way towards a lady with a pram hoping that she might be a provider of food. They were out of luck. They obviously didn't like the look of me.

At this point we were very close to the Old Stables and yet another bridge.

That person lurking on the very right-hand edge of the picture is Amanda. She does a very good lurk. You may also notice that there is a black swan nibbling grass on the bank.

These are the Old Stables. Quite fancy for stables.


We continued along by the river until we reached the Victorian Kitchen Gardens and they were vast.

That is Amanda disappearing rapidly into the distance being 'pulled' by the attraction of two very large greenhouses.

See, I told you, she couldn't wait to get inside but I managed to get to the larger of the greenhouses first with its pretty amazing display of Schizanthus (the poor man's orchid).


Ater leaving the Kitchen Garden we found ourselves in the Pond Garden.

That figure is Amanda trying to get away from me as usual. Is she trying to tell me something?

There are two rectangular ponds with, in the dark shadows at the end, a large vertical rockery of ferns and shamrocks. There was also a solitary duck in the far pond and the water level was quite low down and we did wonder if the duck would be able to take off and fly as there wasn't much room but we were also sure that the staff would be used to that sort of occurance and would rescue the duck if need be.

After leaving this garden we emerged into the Elysian Garden with a number of very large trees of which this mighty specimen was one. Amanda thought it was an Oriental Plane.

The little building over the stream is the Tea House Bridge designed by Robert Adam.


We had managed to choose a day, unknowingly, when entrance to the house was by guided tour only. They apparently also have what they call 'free flow' entry which means that you can wander round at your own pace but not today. In either case photography in the house is prohibited and, needless to say, that annoyed me greatly.

It will probably annoy many other people as well. We got just 30 minutes for our tour which is not a lot for the entry charge. At one time it was possible to pay to enter the gardens only but that does not now seem to be available so bear in mind that almost half the charge was for the house and you may get only 30 minutes for your money. There is nothing on the English Heritage web site, that I can see, about Audley End that mentions the two types of access to the house.

So once again we have no interior photographs.

After we left Audley End we travelled the few miles to Wendens Ambo. The name originates from the joining of two villages, Great Wenden and Little Wenden to form Wendens Ambo where Ambo means both Wendens. There is a railway station within the village, Audley End, which is the nearest station to Audley End House two miles away and habitation here dates back to Roman times.

This is the view from just inside the churchyard.

and this is the church. A rather cute little church and quite old. It seems to have been built about the time Domesday Book was written (1086 A.D.) with later additions in the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th centuries.

There was a fragment of a wall painting dating from about 1330 in the Chancel.

The church organ casing dates from the late 1700s

and the Chancel Screen dates from the 15th century.

Amanda, shown on the other side of the screen, does not date from the 15th century.

We went home.

 

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.

It’s a jungle out there!

It’s a jungle out there!

Comments 2 Comments

It's definitely a jungle

although perhaps it's a desert!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There were also orchids in this gallery.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We were the only visitors in the chapel.

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