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Today I met a Saxon earl.

Today I met a Saxon earl.

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It was a lovely sunny morning today, we don't have many of those at the moment, so I thought I'd buy some socks, as you do, which means a journey to Maldon.

Whilst I was there I decided to go and see my old friend Byrhtnoth – a Saxon earl who lives in the middle of the River Blackwater some distance from the town centre. It was, however, a very pleasant walk through Promenade Park although the air temperature was cool enough to make ones fingers cold when walking along but there was significant heat in the sun. I have to say, though, he didn't appear to be in a good mood as all he did was wave his sword at me.

I know how he feels.

Walking back through Promenade Park presented a nice view of the quayside in Maldon.

Instead of continuing through Promenade Park I elected to go along the quayside where a number of the old sailing barges are moored and this is Thistle and Hydrogen with one of Hydrogen's sails being given an airing.

Then it was back to more mundane things i.e. sock buying and thence back home.

 

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:
 

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.