April 28 Newbury Park
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"What a difference a day makes" or so the song says. Both my bedroom window shot and my walking to the station one showed blue skies and sunshine, although the weather forecast promised a return to showers later in the day.
I left the tube at Tower Hill, took a few photos of the Tower of London,
mainly blocked by roads, people, lighting poles etc, and walked 20 yards
to Trinity Square. I knew nothing about this beautiful open space, which
houses the Tower Hill Memorial for Merchant Seamen, including a special
memorial for victims of the Falklands War.
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Dominating everything is the old Port of London Authority building, a magnificent edifice. The gardens, themselves, are almost peaceful, remarkable in such a busy area.
Eastcheap is one of the main thoroughfares through the City, and I followed it, taking photographs of interesting buildings and side streets en route.Pudding Lane was the site of the start of the Great Fire of London in 1666 and The Monument was erected to commemorate the event.Right: Eastcheap |
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There are many signs drawing attention to the buildings which did not survive the conflagration.
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At the bottom of the hill is the church of St Magnus the Martyr, one of the numerous interesting churches in the area.
From there, I walked towards the river and then along the Thames Path. Old Billingsgate has wonderful roof decorations, Tower Bridge looked good in the sunshine and the river was busy.
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I had noticed a lot of policemen about and assumed that they were just being visible in order to increase public confidence. When I had to take a detour away from the Thames Path, however, to avoid a section closed by building works, I found myself in the middle of a protest march. It was only when I was able to move to the front of the assembly that I discovered that I was protesting about health and safety problems in the construction industry. |
Given my history in this area, I felt a lot of empathy for their cause and walked with them for a little while, mainly because there was nowhere else to walk.
Under Cannon Street station is The Banker. I couldn't help feeling that a more modern sign could be commissioned and that a public competition might come up with some interesting suggestions. |
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 Just to prove that the Thames is still a working river, I found my path blocked by a folding gate, behind which a huge crane lowered containers - refuse I expect - onto a couple of barges parked on the mud beneath, waiting to be floated off on the next high tide. |
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Queenhithe, so the sign says, is the only inlet on the Thames in central London and used to be owned by Queen Matilda (I think). On the foreshore are the remains of some 19th C barge beds, but I can't quite remember what they used to do.
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The Millennium Bridge |
The famous (or infamous) Millennium Bridge is a fine structure, for all of its chequered history, and it leads up to St Pauls. Very adjacent to it is the wartime fire fighter's memorial which I had never heard of. My second new memorial of the day. "The heroes with grimy faces" was a quotation from Churchill
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St Pauls was heaving, as usual, so I took a photo from the outside before heading down a side street in the search for a coffee and a sandwich for a rather late elevenses. The café staff being Italian, the coffee was excellent. When I emerged, the cloud had built up and it was almost chilly. I walked down Ludgate Hill and then down New Bridge Street to the river and the Old Black Friar. This is an art nouveau building, now surrounded by road works. |
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The Victoria Embankment has excellent views across the river and some fine buildings, including the City of London School and the old Unilever HQ building. Over the water is the OXO tower, a relic from the Festival of Britain in the year when I was born.
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I returned to the pub, met Stephen and had a nice beer but no food. We were informed that there was a 20 minute wait for food and we decided against that.
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Eventually Stephen had to return to work and I returned to my wander along the river before diving into a café by Temple Station for a roll and a coffee. It was expensive but the coffee was good - Italian again. Shame about the service!
Right: The London Eye |
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Somerset House, heavily featured in "The Duchess", is huge and seems to operate on the old architectural principle that if you don't have decent direction signs, people will have the opportunity to see much more of the building.
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I eventually made my way into the central square and then back to a wonderful exhibition of photographs of London by Richard Bryant. Some were of a standard that I could achieve. Most showed a use of light a million times better than I could ever manage. Across the courtyard is the Courtauld Gallery. The renaissance religious works were spectacular although not really to my taste. Upstairs was a good collection of silver. I hadn't realised that before the Courtauld family went into textiles, they were silversmiths. The walls were hung with portraits, many by Gainsborough and almost all stunning.
Another room started the impressionist collection, which was the best that
I have ever seen. No point in trying to describe it, except that it was
brilliant and featured every artist worth mentioning.
Right: Somerset House |
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On the outside, it was raining quite hard. I set off along The Aldwych, watching the huge build-up of traffic, then The Strand and then into Trafalgar Square, taking the standard tourist photos as I went. St James' Park was full of flowers and everything was green. There were pigeons in abundance and grey squirrels sitting up and begging for food - but always out of camera range. I also found yet another memorial, this time to police killed in the line of duty. |
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Almost exactly at the agreed time, I arrived at Victoria, bumped into Andrea and we walked into the old Station Hotel. This has been beautifully restored but I didn't bother trying to take photos with my small camera. We were joined by Michelle and Anne, had a very good dinner and I then survived the long tube ride home.