Wandering London – The Odd and Overlooked

 London
Nov 152023
 

November 2023

I am in London to enjoy the company of friends, see a few plays, eat some good food, and just enjoy the architecture and people of this wonderful city.

I am staying right on the Thames at Broken Wharf, looking down on a spot where I went mudlarking last year.  It affords me a view of the Millennium Bridge from my window.

On the 13th of November, I did nothing but walk and walk and walk The City of London and the Southbank areas of London. This post is just a little of what I encountered.

Public Art

 


It is always fun to see what people are taking pictures of, most being selfies.  So, as I was wandering, taking photos of this art on the bridge, I noticed that others had seen it too.  These are itty bitty pieces of art that were once chewing gum. This is the work of Ben Wilson. For over ten years, he has been changing the chewing gum blobs you see on all the streets in the world, but in this case, London, into art.  He uses a blowtorch, acrylic paint, and lacquer. Wilson has been arrested several times, but since he sticks to gum, he is not actually doing anything illegal.  I was glad to grab these shots, as I have read the city plans on getting rid of them in a clean-up job next month.  I doubt it will matter. I am sure Wilson will be back. He has a never-ending canvas.

On my very last day in London, I was looking out my window at the Millennium Bridge and saw what I thought might be the artist.  I dashed over and, sure enough, was able to get a picture of the man in action.

 

The Seven Ages of Man

The Seven Ages of Man

The Seven Ages of Man is a major piece of work by Richard Kindersley, who studied lettering and sculpture at Cambridge School of Art and in the workshop of his father, David Kindersley, who was also a noted stone carver.

Monument to the Unknown Artist

This is an animatronic man. Although the day I was there, he did not move.  I have seen pictures of it in varying positions. Apparently, it will mimic someone standing and posing in front of it.  The plinth reads, “Don’t Applause, Just throw Money”. The piece stands near the Tate Modern and is by the artist collective Greyworld.

Historical Tidbits

Memorial to Mahomet Weyonomon at Southwark Cathedral

The Southwark Cathedral, while easy to find, is tucked aside a considerable amount of construction, somewhat under the Southwark Bridge and behind the Borough Market.

The area has been a place of Christian worship for more than 1,000 years, but the cathedral dates to the creation of the Diocese of Southwark in 1905.

The shell above is a monument to Mahomet Weyonomon. (c. 1700 – 11 August 1736). He was a Native American tribal chieftain of the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut. He traveled to England in 1735 to petition King George II for better treatment of his people.

He contracted smallpox before ever being able to see the King.  As a foreigner, he wasn’t able to be buried in the church, so he was quietly buried outside in the dead of night.

In November 2006, Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the memorial. The sculpture is by British artist Peter Randall-Page.

Southwark Cathedral is one of the starting points on the Pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral.

Seated on the bench behind the cross is a statue of William Shakespeare. There is also one inside of the church. Shakespeare was a member of the parish, and there is a celebration at the cathedral every year on his birthday.

The Ferryman’s Seat

Also in the area of the Southwark bridge is the last remaining of a boatman’s perch that apparently were all over the south bank of the Thames.

Before the London Bridge was built, the only way to cross was by “wherrymen”.  They would perch on these stones, waiting for a passenger.

Aldgate Pump

We so often pass things like this in the streets of any city, and in truth, this pump has a bit of a macabre story attached.  Water fountains like this can be found all over many cities in the world as a source of fresh water for the neighborhood.  The Algate fountain was prized due to the fact that the water was rich in calcium.  Unfortunately, after a period of time when people complained that the water tasted funny, they found that the river that fed the pump flowed right through a cemetery, picking up a lot more than the calcium from the bones.  This is probably not as bad as the Cholera Pump in Broad Street that I visited last December, but stomach-churning nonetheless.

Lloyd’s Building by Richard Rogers in London

Not far from the Aldgate pump is this striking building.  Arch Daily put it perfectly: Completed in 1986, the Lloyd’s building brought a high-tech architectural aesthetic to the medieval financial district of London.

Panyer Alley Boy

No one knows anything about this little sculpture, and yet it has pride of place. The plaque below was not part of the original. It is not where it originally started, where that was no one knows, and what he means and what he is doing is just as lost. Let me lift just one line from Hidden London’s explanation: What does the stone depict? Most authorities have been in no doubt that the boy is sitting on a bread pannier, but others have supposed it to be a fruit basket or a woolsack, while one commentator felt that it “resembles more a coil of rope.”

Parks

Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in Postman’s Park

As in most big cities, the tiny parks that are scattered around are always a pleasure to find, if just to sit.  Postman’s Park is exactly that.  The plaque above sits near a long row of covered benches, a nice respite from the rain that was beginning to come down.

The plaque from 1900 was a project by George Frederic Watts honoring the bravery of ordinary people, policemen, and firemen who gave their lives to save others. Throughout the park, you will find individual plaques to the heroes themselves.

Goldsmith’s Garden

This gold leopard is the trademark of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Not only are they the landowners of this public garden, but they are also one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City of London.

Their guild was established in 1327 and was responsible for the inspection and branding of all precious metals within the realm of the ruling monarchs.

Goldsmiths Garden

While hard to tell, the garden is actually sunken. In the corner, you can see the sculpture “The Three Printers.” The piece was commissioned by the Westminster Press Group and is the work of Wilfred Dudeney. It depicts a trio of figures that represent the newspaper trade that was once prevalent along Fleet Street.

The Cornhill Devils

Waaay high up on a building on Cornhill are a series of terracotta devils. The building itself was designed by architect Ernest Augustus Runtz in 1893. It is said that the vicar of St Peter’s Cornhill was unhappy with the plans for this new terracotta structure as it strayed onto the church’s property. Runtz had to change his plans, incurring costs and frustration, and so he added the ornamentation to get back at the vicar.

The Philpot Lane Mice

Little things like this always intrigue me, and if I learn of one, I go track it down.  Who really knows why these two mice are on the side of a building? But there is an adorable story of how they came to be, of course, most likely made up, but cute nonetheless.

It is said that in 1862, while the building was under construction, two workers started arguing over the whereabouts of their lunch. The argument eventually came to fisticuffs, with one man falling to his death.    Only later was the lunch found with two mice eating away at it.  To commemorate their fallen comrade, the workers added the sculpture.

London is a magical city, and the heart of it The City of London is a paradise for history lovers, architecture lovers, and the curious.  I will never tire of wandering aimlessly through its streets.

 

 

 

Wandering London in the Pouring Rain

 London, United Kingdom
Nov 152023
 

November 14, 2023

Blackfriar Pub

I began my day at Blackfriars Bridge.  Blackfriars originated as a Dominican friary founded in the year 1278. The name Blackfriars comes from the color of the robes that the Dominicans wore.

I had the best of intentions of wandering the Farringdon Neighborhood all day today.  The rain began around noon and continued to come down so hard that I made my way back to my hotel to write, dry off, and watch the rain fall on the Thames through the window.

Here is what I did manage to see.

Smithfield

One of the few places in London to escape the fire of 1666, the market’s neighborhood is a treasure chest of remarkable buildings.

The hospital that turned 900 years old this year and a largely Norman church in whose converted chapel a teenage Benjamin Franklin worked as a journeyman printer. In the area, one can find Renaissance-era schools and Turnbull Street, which Shakespeare mentions in Henry IV, Part 2 when Falstaff ridicules Justice Shallow for prating about “the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnbull Street”.

Smithfield witnessed the execution of William “Braveheart” Wallace and, during Mary I’s attempted reversal of the English Reformation, the burning at the stake of many Protestant Londoners. And a mere 200 years ago, men reputedly sold their wives at the Smithfield Market. Wife selling in England probably began in the late 17th century. It was essentially a form of divorce, which was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthiest.

The Smithfield Neighborhood

There is evidence that this neighborhood dates from the Bronze Age.  The vast difference in architecture throughout the neighborhood shows that it has gone through many changes over the decades.

Ornamentation on the Smithfield Meat Market

The Smithfield Meat Market was designed by Victorian architect Sir Horace Jones in the second half of the 19th century. The market once dominated this area. That is changing. By 2025, Smithfield’s 1960s Poultry Market nearby will reopen as the home of the Museum of London, while the elaborate Victorian Central Market will subsequently relaunch as a combined food hall/conference center/co-working space in a redesign led by Studio Egret West.

 

The Charterhouse

The Charterhouse

The Charterhouse dates to the 14th century when, in 1348, Walter Manny purchased a 13-acre plot of land in Spital Croft from the Brethren of St Bartholomew.  Manny established a Carthusian priory, and that is where it takes its name from.

The building has had many historic and interesting tenants and has also been altered and built upon so that not much of the original building remains.

Charterhouse continues to serve as an almshouse to over 40 older people, known as Brothers, who are in need of financial support and companionship. Since 2017, women have been accepted as Brothers. It is open to the public in partnership with the Museum of London.

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Charterhouse Square

This area is littered with plaque pits. It is thought that the one under Charterhouse Square could be the grave of as many as 50,000 Londoners.  The pits were necessary as the plague, which wiped out 60% of London, happened too fast to bury people properly.  The pits were discovered during the construction of a Crossrail project.

One of the skeletons found during the Crossrail project is displayed in the Charterhouse Museum.

This stunning art deco building is the Fox and Anchor. It was designed by architect Latham Withall and built in 1898 by W. H. Lascelles & Co.. The architectural ceramics and sculptures are by Royal Doulton and designed by W.J. Neatby in the British Art Nouveau style.

As I quickly walked home before my umbrella could give way and I would be ankle-deep in water, I was able to capture these last two shots.

The Golden Boy of Pye Corner

The Golden Boy of Pye Corner from the 17th century. It marks the spot where the 1666 Great Fire of London was stopped.  The statue of a naked boy is made of wood and was originally winged.  The Monument to the Great Fire marks where the fire started.

Last year, when I walked by St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, it was covered in scaffolding.  This time, I was able to see the only statue of Henry VIII, dressed in his resplendent style, on display in all of London. It was erected in this gatehouse in 1702 to acknowledge that in 1546, Henry granted St Bartholomew’s to the City of London.

I had begun to explore this area last December when I was here, and today, despite my day being cut short, I was glad to get back to it.

This area isn’t as touristy as other parts of London and had its rough times in the 70s and 80s, but the number of new hip restaurants and pubs is a sign it is coming back with a vengeance, and that makes it a fun area to explore.

 

 

 

Visiting London for Food and Fun

 London
Nov 152023
 

November 2023

I am leaving London with a heavy heart, despite the knowledge I will be back in a short seven months.

This trip was to visit friends, dine out, and see a few plays.  I managed to do a lot more, but here are the plays I saw and the places I dined, none of which would have been possible if my dear friend Susan had not made all the play reservations and all the dinner plans.

Plays

Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theater.  This is fabulous; you laugh all the way through, and when you aren’t laughing, you are humming the lyrics to all the songs.  The acting was sublime, with the standouts being Daniel Mays as Nathan Detroit and Marisha Wallace as Adelaide.

Below is another stand-out actor in the show, Cedric Neal, as Nicely-Nicely Johnson.

 

Frank and Percy at The Other Palace was really wonderful.  One need not speak of how great the actors were; you expected that, but these two gentlemen brought all the emotions that go with daily life, facing aging and accepting love.

Kenneth Branagh directs and plays the title role in King Lear at the Wyndham Theater.  This play got trounced in the reviews, but while I found a few of the characters as pathetic as milk toast in their acting abilities, I truly enjoyed the play.

Dining Out

Tea at Claridges

Tea is always special, and with Christmas decorations, especially so.  The tea at Claridge’s is absolutely worth every penny.

Aulis

Aulis is a 12-seat restaurant with a fifteen-course meal.  The first few courses were in a small room where we gathered at small tables.  The food was brought out and explained.  Then we moved to the main room, where the food was prepared to watch and learn. – I had the wine pairing as well.

The menu and the pictures say it all.

And, again, it was Susan who had the sense to take all the photos.

Gooseberry tart, raw sea bream in coal oil, radish, nasturtium, autumn shoots and flowers

Truffle pudding caramelized in birch. Corra Linn cheese and Wiltshire truffle

Truffle pudding caramelized in birch. Corra Linn cheese and Wiltshire truffle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Launceston Lamb belly with fermented beans and black garlic

 

Large white pork and Devonshire eel doughnut, cured pork fat, and Aulis blend of caviar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

West Coast turbot, Crown Prince pumpkin, lovage, and smoked bone sauce

14-day aged Creedy Carver duck, fermented Kalibos cabbage, Boltardy beetroots, and raspberry vinegar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frozen Turnworth cheese with London borage honey

Roasted juniper fudge tartlet with preserved perilla

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isle of Wight

 Isle of Wight, x
Nov 102023
 

November 10, 2023

I traveled to the Isle of White via ferry, leaving out of Portsmouth to Ryde.

Once you disembark from the ferry, you have a long walk to town on the Ryde Pier. Ryde Pier is an early 19th-century pier and is the world’s oldest seaside pleasure pier.

The pier was designed by John Kent of Southampton, and its foundation stone was laid in June 1813. The pier opened in July 1814 with, as it still has, a timber-planked promenade.

By 1833, the pier had grown to a length of 745 yards. It is this pre-Victorian structure that has, with some modifications, carried pedestrians and vehicles ever since.

I had but one day, and the Isle of Wight is much bigger than one expects, so the day was spent at Brading Roman Villa.

The Isle of Wight is home to Osborne House, a former royal residence. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo.  Sadly, it was closed.

The Isle is also home to the Needles, a row of three stacks of chalk that rise 98 feet out of the sea off the western extremity of the Isle in the English Channel.  Sadly, from Ryde, the trip by bus is two hours, and there just was not enough time.

The Museum that houses the Roman Villa

However, the Brading Roman Villa was a treat and well worth the trip. Brading Roman Villa was part of an Ancient Roman farm, and while poorly excavated during the Victorian Era, it still has a few mosaic floors that make it a very special place.

The first building constructed at Brading Roman Villa appeared in around 100 AD, not long after the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD. This consisted of the South Range, which was soon followed by the larger North Range in 200 AD.

By the 4th century, the Grand West Range was completed as a winged corridor villa, making up the main building of the family’s residence. Over time, the interior of the West Range was changed, with walls moved and mosaics added to suit the changing times and fashions.

The cockerel-headed man is thought to be dressed as a Lanista, a trainer and owner of gladiators.  Its symbolism at Brading is a mystery.

The figure in the center of this panel is an astronomer. He points to a celestial globe while on his right is a pillar sundial, and to his left is a horizontal sundial.

To head back to Portsmouth, I took the Hovercraft, which is faster and a fun extra adventure.

On the voyage between Portsmouth and the Isle of White are the Palmerston’s Follies.

Two of Palmerston’s Follies

The Palmerston Forts were built during the Victorian period on the recommendations of the 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, prompted by concerns about the strength of the French Navy.  There was considerable debate in Parliament about whether the cost could be justified. The name comes from their association with Lord Palmerston, who was Prime Minister at the time and promoted the idea.

The works were also known as Palmerston’s Follies, partly because the first ones had their main armament facing inland to protect Portsmouth from a land-based attack, and thus (as it appeared to some) facing the wrong way to defend from a French attack.

Another reason for the Folly tag is because, at the time of their completion, the threat from the French navy had passed, and because the technology of the guns had become obsolete before the forts were finished, they were the most costly and extensive system of fixed defenses undertaken in Britain in peacetime.

The Solent Fort or No-Man’s Land Fort

The Solents Fort, or No-Man’s Land Fort, has a long and sordid history after it was sold by the government.

The Fort’s second life began as a luxury home/hospitality center, including an indoor swimming pool and two helipads. In July 2004, Legionnaires Disease found in the hotel’s water system forced its closure. The Fort was put up for sale in 2005 and again in 2007, but the company collapsed.  In March 2008, Harmesh Pooni, claiming to be the owner, barricaded himself inside the fort in protest against the administrators of KPMG.

The fort eventually opened as a hotel in April 2015.  As of this writing, the island is again up for sale.

 

 

Portsmouth, England

 Portsmouth, United Kingdom, x
Nov 102023
 

November 10, 2o23

HMS Warrior (launched in 1860) has been restored to its original Victorian condition.

Portsmouth’s history dates to the Roman times. It is said that Portsmouth was founded c. 1180 by Anglo-Norman merchant Jean de Gisors.

The city is home to the first drydock ever built. It was constructed by Henry VII in 1496. Portsmouth has served as a significant Royal Navy dockyard and base for centuries.

The Dockyard, which is still a major source of employment, dates from 1496 when the town was already a naval base. It was greatly expanded after 1698 and now covers more than 300 acres. In the 1860s, four masonry forts were built along the Spithead to defend the port and naval base.

Portsmouth is the birthplace of notable people such as author Charles Dickens, engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, former Prime Minister James Callaghan, and actor Peter Sellers.

 

Spinnaker Tower

The Spinnaker Tower is a 560-foot-tall observation tower built to be the centerpiece of the redevelopment of Portsmouth harbor.  The tower’s design was chosen by Portsmouth residents from a selection of three different designs in a 1998 public poll.

The tower was designed by local firm HGP Architects and engineering consultants Scott Wilson and built by Mowlem.

The Portsmouth Naval Memorial

The Portsmouth Naval Memorial commemorates approximately 25,000 British and Commonwealth sailors who were lost in the World Wars, around 10,000 sailors in the First World War, and 15,000 in the Second World War. The memorial features a central obelisk, with names of the dead on bronze plaques arranged around the memorial according to the year of death.

The Royal Garrison Church

The Royal Garrison Church is thought to have been built in 1212 by the Bishop of Winchester as part of a hospital and hostel for pilgrims. After the Reformation, it was used as an ammunition store before becoming part of the governor of Portsmouth’s house during Elizabeth I’s reign.

King Charles II married there in 1662. The church was destroyed by fire bombs on January 10, 1941, but the chancel survived.

The Cathedral Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, more commonly known as Portsmouth Cathedral, is an Anglican cathedral church. It is the cathedral of the Diocese of Portsmouth and the seat of the bishop of Portsmouth.

 

A sweet little planter with a little girl reading a book underneath. This sits in the reflective garden of Portsmouth Cathedral.

Portsmouth Cathedral

Found on the lawn in front of Portsmouth Cathedral

Portsmouth suffered severe aerial bomb damage during World War II, and substantial clearance and rebuilding took place in the postwar decade.

Ancient grave markers in the front of the Portsmouth Cathedral

Vernon Gate of Gunwharf Quay

Gunwharf Quay is now a shopping center.  It was constructed in the early 21st century on the site of what had once been HM Gunwharf, Portsmouth. Gunwharf was one of several such facilities that were established around Britain and the Empire by the Board of Ordnance, where cannons, ammunition, and other armaments were stored, repaired, and serviced, ready for use on land or at sea. Later known as HMS Vernon, the military site closed in 1995 and opened to the public as Gunwharf Quays in February 2001.

Boundry Walls of Gunwharf Quay

Point Battery (which is also known by its earlier name, Eighteen Gun Battery) is a former gun emplacement.

The gun battery was created as part of Bernard de Gomme’s rebuilding of the fortifications around Portsmouth in the late seventeenth century.

Vice-Admiral John Benbow (March 10, 1653 – November 4, 1702)

A figurehead that caught my fancy in the museum

This is just a very small sampling of Portsmouth, as I only really had one day, but it is truly a delightful town with the most amazing and informative museums.

The HMS Victory

 Portsmouth, United Kingdom, x
Nov 102023
 

Portsmouth, England

November 9, 2023

The HMS Victory is undergoing a massive overhaul, so I was not able to see her as a whole ship from the outside.  The inside, however, is an amazing walk through history.  It is difficult to convey through pictures or even words, but the 2-3 hours I spent on The Victory were some of the most enlightening and fascinating hours I have ever spent learning history.

A quick look at the exterior of the ship and its restoration.

I am an American. And yet I know who Admiral Nelson was and The Battle of Trafalgar, but when you walk this ship, you really do feel like you are in the battle from beginning to end.  It is a very special experience.

The Battle of Trafalgar was to witness both the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s plans to invade Britain and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson.

The prow of the Victory

HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759, and launched in 1765. In the rating system of the British Royal Navy used to categorize sailing warships, a first-rate was the designation for the largest ships of the line. Building the HMS Victory took around 6,000 trees 90% were oak, and the remainder were elm, pine, and fir.

She is still a commissioned ship, so she has 245 years of service as of 2023, the world’s oldest naval vessel still in commission.

Victory is best known for her role as Lord Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21st, 1805.

Touring the Victory is a several-hour process and worth every moment.  You begin at the top and work your way down to the hold.  All along, there are history stops and volunteers that ensure you are the most well-informed person regarding the HMS Victory and the Battle of Trafalgar when you leave.

What one does not really comprehend is how someone such as Horatio Nelson was as revered and admired as any rock star of today.  His movements followed, his battles studied, and his death a major state period of mourning.

What never comes across in movies or books is how even the Captain’s rooms are broken down and turned into cannon sites.  The lovely blue paneling and doors could be taken down and stored or simply thrown overboard should the ship find itself in a surprise attack. Thus turning the entire area into a battery of cannons.

This is Nelson’s bed. The man only had one arm, so getting in and out of a ship’s bed such as this was something he could do on his own.  He was a very proud man and would not accept the help of others when doing simple everyday tasks.

This is what one thinks of when one thinks of sleeping on a ship.

The Carpenters Walk

One of the larger cannons on the HMS Victory. The lead sheathing on the top was to protect the firing pin area from the elements until it was needed.

A battery of 32-pounder cannons. The 32-pounder guns were sets of heavy-caliber pieces of artillery mounted on warships in the last century of the Age of Sail. It was usually the most powerful armament on a warship. The British version fired a 32-pound projectile at about .3 miles per second. They were most famous for being mounted on HMS Victory.

Firing mechanisms changed over the years to become safer. If that is actually possible, this was a newer flintlock system.

Tools used in cannon operation and firing.

This marks the spot where Admiral Horatio Nelson was hit by a musket ball fired from an enemy ship at a range of 50 feet. The ball entered his left shoulder, passed through a lung, then his spine at the sixth and seventh vertebrae, and lodged two inches below his right shoulder blade in the muscles of his back.

Nelson was carried below decks and died on this spot at half-past four in the afternoon, three hours after he had been shot.  The man asked not to be thrown into the sea.  Instead, his body was placed in a cask of brandy mixed with camphor and myrrh, which was then lashed to the Victory’s mainmast and placed under guard. The HMS Victory had to be towed to Gibraltar after the battle, and on arrival, Nelson’s body was transferred to a lead-lined coffin filled with spirits of wine.

After laying in state, on January 9th, a funeral procession consisting of 32 admirals, over a hundred captains, and an escort of 10,000 soldiers took the coffin from the Admiralty to St Paul’s Cathedral, where he is buried.

It is well known that rats were an issue on ships.  However, what I learned was that rats love gunpowder and would gnaw through entire barrels to get to it.  This was obviously an issue regarding the gunpowder itself, but also the fact that the rats would be covered in it and scurry around the ship where open flamed lanterns sat about.

For this reason, gunpowder barrels were always lined in copper or lead.

Rats were also a source of food for the hungry sailors, despite the sailors 5000 per day calorie diet.

About 1,500 British seamen were killed or wounded in the Battle of Trafalgar. In the Spanish and French fleet, 14,000 men were lost.

As I have said, this was an amazing experience, and should you find yourself in the neighborhood of Portsmouth, England, set aside a minimum of one to two days to learn about the history of the Age of Sail.

The Mary Rose

 Portsmouth, United Kingdom, x
Nov 102023
 

Portsmouth UK

November 9th, 2023

The Mary Rose

If you want to get an honest and complete look at what naval service and war were like in the 1600s, 1700s, and early 1800s, visit Portsmouth, England.

The quality of education you receive while touring both the Mary Rose and the Victory is second to none.

The Mary Rose was a warship in Henry VIII’s “Army by Sea”, built in Portsmouth and launched in 1511. She had a career that spanned 34 years.

When Henry VIII came to power in 1509, he inherited a small navy from his father, with only a couple of sizeable ships. Henry commissioned two new ships to be built: the Mary Rose and the Peter Pomegranate. The large vessels represented Henry’s ambition for naval expansion and to send a clear message to England’s enemies.

The Mary Rose required a huge amount of timber. It is said that around 40 acres worth of trees were used to build her. She was built to accommodate up to 700 sailors, soldiers, gunners, surgeons, and cooks.

In 1545, there were 140,000 men in the English forces on land and at sea. This was almost twice the population of London at the time.

The Mary Rose sank in the naval Battle of the Solent. The battle took place on the 18th and 19th of July 1545 during the Italian Wars between the fleets of Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England. The Solent lies between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.

The Cowdray engraving of the battle of the Solent, 1545. The painting was lost in a fire, but copies remained.

When the Mary Rose went down, she took over 500 men with her to the bottom of the sea. However, there may have been up to  700 men on board, of which fewer than 40 survived.  Most of the skeletons recovered by archaeologists were of young men in their twenties. Scientific tests have also shown that her crew was diverse, with sailors from Europe, including Spain and Italy, and others from further away, including North Africa.

Sinking of the Mary Rose at the Battle of Solent

The Mary Rose was probably carrying supplies for two weeks when she sank.  This was an enormous quantity of supplies and weight.  These included 1800 kg of beef, 900 kg of pork, 750 fish, 3350 kg of hard unsweetened biscuits, and 31,500 liters of beer.

The only confirmed eyewitness, an unknown Flemish sailor who escaped from the sinking vessel, claims that the Mary Rose had fired all of her guns on one side and was turning when her sails were caught in a strong gust of wind, pushing the still open gunports below the waterline. Her reason for sinking is still debated today.

The recovery of the Mary Rose is a feat of modern science and tenacity that is rather incredible and one that took decades.

The search for and discovery of the Mary Rose was a result of the dedication of one man, the late Alexander McKee. McKee initiated ‘Project Solent Ships’ to investigate wrecks in the Solent. His hope was to find the Mary Rose.

Using sonar, the team discovered a strange shape underneath the seabed. Between 1968 and 1971, a team of volunteer divers explored the area.

On the first of May 1971, diver Percy Ackland found three of the port frames of the Mary Rose.

There were 27,831 dives made to the Mary Rose during the modern excavation project, equating to 22,710 hours on the seabed.

A committee was set up to consider many different methods of raising the hull. They decided to use a purpose-built lifting frame that would be attached by wires to steel bolts passing through the hull at carefully selected points. These points were spread evenly across the section of the ship, mainly in the major structural beams.

For the first 12 years, the Mary Rose was sprayed with chilled water to prevent it from drying out while scientists conducted research into its long-term conservation.

The Mary Rose team treated the timbers with polyethylene glycol to replace the degraded timber cells, requiring spray application under 98% humidity. For 19 years, while spraying was ongoing, the ship was sealed within an insulated hotbox.

In 2013, when the Mary Rose Museum was opened in Portsmouth, the sprays were turned off, although the ship remained in an insulated hotbox as it dried. The drying process was informed by complex computational fluid dynamics to ensure that all elements of the ship received the same temperature and relative humidity, preventing variation in drying rates and, therefore, warping, shrinking, and cracking. Over three years, 100 tons of water was removed from the ship. In 2015, the drying was complete.

A Canon from the Mary Rose

Over 26,000 artifacts and pieces of timber were raised from the seabed.  As well as the remains of about half the crew members and a dog used as a ratter. These are all nicely displayed throughout the museum.

A Ludus Anglicorum set (a predecessor of modern backgammon) owned by the master carpenter.

Fun and Offbeat in London

 London, United Kingdom
Jan 032023
 

December 2022

 

I took a Christmas-Food-themed walking tour put on by London Walks.  When discussing Christmas geese, we were brought to this very interesting little spot in Leadenhall.

In the 1800s, Old Tom, a gander from Ostend, Belgium, became a fixture in the market. Somehow Tom never made it to anyone’s dinner table and became a regular fixture at the market. He lived to the age of 37 when he died of natural causes and was buried on the market site.  He was so famous the Times ran his obituary on April 16th, 1835; it read:

‘This famous gander, while in stubble,
Fed freely, without care or trouble:
Grew fat with corn and sitting still,
And scarce could cross the barn-door sill:
And seldom waddled forth to cool
His belly in the neighbouring pool.
Transplanted to another scene,
He stalk’d in state o’er Calais-green,
With full five hundred geese behind,
To his superior care consign’d,
Whom readily he would engage
To lead in march ten miles a-stage.
Thus a decoy he lived and died,
The chief of geese, the poulterer’s pride.’

The crest of the Bakers Company London

When discussing pies and such, we stopped in front of the Bakers Company, which is essentially a bakers guild.  The manager was locking up and invited us in for a history lesson.  The chance stop was a delight and education into the livery system of London. The Bakers’ Company can trace its origins back to 1155 and is the City of London’s second oldest recorded guild.

Not far from the Bakers Company building is the monument to the 1666 London Fire.

The fire started in Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday, September 2nd, and spread rapidly.

The 1677 Monument to the Great Fire of London stands near London Bridge

Constructed between 1671 and 1677, ‘The Monument’ was built on the site of St Margaret – New Fish Street, the first church to be destroyed by the Great Fire.

It snowed about 2″ in London on the 12th

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In honor of gay pride and the mass shooting at the Orlando Gay Club in the US, London has installed some fun and supportive pedestrian traffic signals. There are several iterations, here are just two I was able to snap a picture of.

Pelicans of St. James Park

It was just a fluke I caught this fellow and his heron friend.  Due to the Avian Flu, all of the Pelicans of St. James Park have been rounded up and are being sequestered away from danger; I guess this guy didn’t get the memo. In 1664, pelicans were given to Charles II by a Russian Ambassador.  Over the course of history, there have been forty pelicans at St. James; there are presently six at the park: Sun, Moon, Star, Tiffany, Isla, and Gargi (who is actually wild and the only one without his wings clipped).

 

There are so many statues around London, as there are with any city with this much history.  It is worth admiring most of them, but hardly worth a discussion; these two are interesting for a story, and while not true, it is still fun.

Cromwell on the grounds of the House of Parliament

King Charles I over a door of St Margaret’s Church and across the street from Parliament

These two men as nemesis is a kind way of stating it.  For those not up on British history, Cromwell was responsible for the execution of King Charles. So as Cromwell sits on Parliament grounds with his head bowed in thought and, some say, “avoiding the gaze from King Charles” across the street, one has to wonder upon their relationship.

The problem with the myth of the statues is that Cromwell’s statue was erected in 1899 to a design by Sir William Thornycroft, and the bust of King Charles I wasn’t donated to the Church by The Society of King Charles the Martyr until 1956.

Have you ever thought about how long history has had postmarks? Fascinating, isn’t it?

The Signs of Lombard Street

The grasshopper was the family sign of Thomas Gresham, who lived here in the 16th century. Gresham founded the Royal Exchange, inspired by Antwerp’s Bourse. London’s first central trading hub was opened by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571.

The first record of a shop under the cat-a-fiddling was back in the reign of Henry VI (1422-16, then 1470-71). It was a second-hand clothes shop.

In 1290 King Edward I ruled that all Jews should be expelled from The City. Soon The City of London began to fill with Italians from Lombardy. Lombard Street and its environs became home to small goldsmiths or family-run banks.

Not all Londoners could read, and street numbers were only sporadically used from the early 1700s. So a hanging sign was a way to draw business to your shop.

Over the years, the signs disappeared, but on the occasion of Edward VII’s coronation, some were brought back.

A little bit of background. The City of London is a mere 1.12 square miles and is widely referred to simply as the City (differentiated from the phrase “the city of London” by capitalizing City). The City is a major business and financial center, with the Bank of England headquartered here.   The local authority for the City is the City of London Corporation, which is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities, such as being the police authority.  The corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London (an office separate from, and much older than, the Mayor of London).

Soho

One of the Noses of Soho

In 1997, artist Rick Buckley decided to stage a protest against the appearance of CCTV cameras across the streets of London. And the concept of The Seven Noses of Soho was born.  The artist did this all on the QT, so many were removed immediately by the authorities and the like, but several remained to the delight of people such as myself.  Buckley came clean in 2011, and a hunt for the seven that remain is a fun way to pass the time.  I want to thank my friend Susan for her patience in my search, and it was actually she who spotted this one on Great Windmill Street; we never did find the one on Marble Arch.  Next visit, I hope to search for Tim Fishlock’s ears in his installation “The Walls Have Ears”.

I read the story of John Snow and the Cholera pump as a teen; I was rather thrilled to trip upon it in my wanderings of Soho.

The Cholera Pump of John Snow

In August 1854, Soho was struck with a severe cholera outbreak. A doctor in the area, John Snow, believed that sewage dumped into rivers and cesspools near town wells could contaminate water supplies and cause cholera outbreaks.

He suspected that the source of the outbreak was the public water pump on Broad Street. He used information from local hospitals and public records and specifically asked residents if they had drunk water from the pump.

“Within 250 yards of the spot where Cambridge Street joins Broad Street there were upwards of 500 fatal attacks of cholera in 10 days… As soon as I became acquainted with the situation and extent of this irruption (sic) of cholera, I suspected some contamination of the water of the much-frequented street-pump in Broad Street.”

On September 7th, 1854, Snow took his findings to local officials and convinced them to take the handle off the pump. It didn’t take long before the outbreak came to an end.

Researchers later discovered that the public well had been dug right next to a cesspit. A cloth diaper of a baby, who had contracted cholera from another source, was the source of the outbreak.

This has been a wonderful two months spent in the UK, with most of it centered in London.  I always say it takes a lifetime to get to know great cities like London; I am glad to have had this time to explore and learn what I did, even if it leaves me wanting more.

Cemeteries of London

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 292022
 

December 2022

I am an avowed taphophile, so visiting cemeteries is part of my travels wherever I go.  I made an intentional trip to Highgate, tour and all, but the others were pleasant happenstances.

Highgate

An act of Parliament created The London Cemetery Company in 1836. Stephen Geary, an architect, and the company’s founder appointed James Bunstone Bunning as the surveyor and David Ramsey, a renowned garden designer, as the landscape architect.


Over the next 20 years, Highgate became one of London’s most fashionable cemeteries. In 1854 the London Cemetery Company expanded by a further twenty acres. This new ground, now known as the East Cemetery, was opened in 1856.

This 37-acre cemetery is best known for the grave of Karl Marx.

In 1884, on the first anniversary of Marx’s death, around 6,000 people marched from Tottenham Court Road to the grave only to be turned away by police who, afraid of riots, had closed the cemetery. Marx was initially buried a few yards to the north, but in 1956 his grave was moved to its present location, and this giant memorial, funded by the British Communist Party, was erected.  You can see the original gravestone incorporated into the plinth. A ceremony is held here every year on the anniversary of his death, to the minute, at 2.30 pm.

The grave site of one of my favorite authors – Douglas Adams – author of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

People leave pens at the base of Adams’s grave; I, for one, would have left a towel.  But there is a connection to the pens:

“Somewhere in the cosmos, he said, along with all the planets inhabited by humanoids, reptiloids, fishoids, walking treeoids and superintelligent shades of the color blue, there was also a planet entirely given over to ballpoint life forms. And it was to this planet that unattended ballpoints would make their way, slipping away quietly through wormholes in space to a world where they knew they could enjoy a uniquely ballpointoid lifestyle, responding to highly ballpoint-oriented stimuli, and generally leading the ballpoint equivalent of the good life.”

Sculptor Anna Justine Mahler (Gucki) (1904-1988). Daughter of Gustav Mahler.

Gravesite of famous bare-knuckled fighter Thomas Sayers with his dog named Lion.

The lion Nero on the tomb of John Wombwell

George Wombwell (December 1777 – November 1850) was a famous menagerie exhibitor in Regency and early Victorian Britain. He founded Wombwell’s Travelling Menagerie.  It is said that Nero was so docile children could ride on his back.

A person with some whimsey

Someone with a good sense of humor.

St. Olaves

We had walked into St. Olaves in pursuit of Pepys.  A group of musicians had just finished their practice and were thrilled to talk about the church.

Samuel Pepys (1633 – 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade.

Pepys recorded his daily life for almost ten years. This record of Pepys’s life is more than a million words long and is often regarded as Britain’s most celebrated diary; it has been a primary source for scholars regarding the English Restoration Period.

The entry to the churchyard of St. Olaves

Charles Dickens called St Olaves: My best-beloved churchyard.  The churchyard of St. Ghastly Grim.

In the crypt of St. Olaves

St. Pancras

I have already written about this small unique cemetery in Camden, but I wanted to make sure it got in the cemetery section as well, so here are a few from St. Pancras.

The Hardy Tree –

After photographing this and writing about it, the tree fell in a rainstorm.  It became infected with parasites in 2014, which is why there is a fence around it, and it finally succumbed to its illness on December 28th of this year. The Camden Council said that it is looking at ways to celebrate the fallen ash, including harvesting the wood of the Hardy Tree to make a commemorative object or planting a new tree in its place.

Burdett Coutts Monument

Burdett-Coutts monument is a memorial fountain and sundial of 1877.  Made of Portland stone, marble, granite, and red Mansfield stone, it was designed by G Highton of Brixton and manufactured by H Daniel & Co, cemetery masons of Highgate.

John Soane Monument

Saint Bartholomew The Great

These graves sit atop a plaque pit in the yard of Saint Bartholomew The Great Church.  The church and plaque pit has a fascinating history that I have written about before.

Westminster Abbey

While one doesn’t think of Westminster Abbey as a graveyard, there are over 3000 people buried in it.  There are also hundreds of honorary plaques to notable people throughout history.  I am only going to include two pieces I found that caught my eye.

Elizabeth Russell

Elizabeth Russel was baptized in the Abbey. Elizabeth I and the Countess of Sussex were her godmothers, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, her godfather. She was a maid of honor to the queen and died of consumption in 1601. The skull is a symbol of mortality.

Lady Elizabeth Nightingale

Lady Elizabeth Nightingale died in childbirth in 1731. The sculpture was done in 1761 by French stonemason LF Roubiliac. It depicts a very skeletal Grim Reaper emerging from what looks like a fireplace to spear the dying woman. Elizabeth’s husband, Joseph, fights in vain to save his wife from death.

Wandering the Outskirts of London

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 292022
 

December 2022

Eltham Palace

Eltham Palace consists of the medieval great hall of a former royal residence, to which an Art Deco extension was added in the 1930s, described as a “masterpiece of modern design”.

The original palace was given to Edward II in 1305 by the Bishop of Durham. It is said that is was the favorite palace of Henry IV. Henry VIII passed much of his boyhood at Eltham, and was the last monarch to spend substantial amounts of money or time there.

The hammerbeam roof of the great hall is the third-largest of its type in England

The North Stone Bridge

The North Stone Bridge crossing the moat was rebuilt by Edward IV in the 1470s and is said to be the oldest working bridge in London. It had a drawbridge at one end which was discovered during repairs in 1912.

In 1933, Stephen Courtauld and his wife Virginia acquired a 99-year lease on the palace site and commissioned Seely & Paget to restore the hall and create a modern home attached to it.

Virginia’s bedroom with its marquetry and curved walls

Battersea

Designed by Sir Giles Scott, known for his architectural work on Waterloo Bridge, Liverpool Cathedral, and the red telephone box Battersea Power Station was the first of its kind, producing 400,000 kilowatts of electricity. The Power Station was completed by the British Electric Authority in 1948 and began operating in 1953. It became known as the ‘temple of power’ and was the largest power station in the UK.

The power station was closed down in 1983 and remained largely unused. John Broome, an entrepreneur and tourism adviser to Margaret Thatcher, was the visionary behind the rehabilitation of Battersea.  He got no further than removing the roof of the place to take the machinery out before rising costs killed the project. It took decades, and many owners before plans for the deteriorating ruin came to fruition. In 2012 Malaysian investors SP Setia and Sime Darby stepped in with designs by Rafael Viñoly, and that is what you see today.

The Power Station was renowned for its unique, lavish Art Deco interior, and a little of that can still be spotted here and there.

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Some of the interesting equipment was left in at the ceiling level.

Control Room B sits behind plexiglass in a restaurant and bar.  Difficult to photograph and access, at least it remains for posterity and awe.

Interior of Battersea

The buildings around Battersea Power Station that make up the redevelopment are interesting, and yet they are skyscrapers that are crowded together and thus, despite their unique architecture, are difficult to see and enjoy and even harder to photograph.

Gehry Partners-designed apartment and townhouse complex known as Prospect Place

All you can see of the new American Embassy building, designed by Philadelphia-based architecture firm KieranTimberlake from Battersea Power Station

 

 

 

Getting Around London

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 292022
 

December 2022

Taxis

With the advent of Uber and Lyft filling the world with cheap rides from underpaid drivers, the London Cabbie is still a wonder and should be used as often as possible while in London.

One of the reasons is Knowledge. The Knowledge was introduced as a requirement for taxi drivers in 1865. There are thousands of streets and landmarks within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. Anyone who wants to drive a London cab must memorize them all: the Knowledge of London.

This is actually rather important as the amount of construction that is occurring in London means someone with The Knowledge can get you to your destination on time and without getting lost, as happened to me the only time I agreed to take an Uber.

There is a push in London to switch to electric taxis. They have a little bit different shape and cost £55,599.  I spoke with an older cab driver that didn’t mind the price but said there simply aren’t enough charging stations to make the system work. However, I have a feeling; despite pushback, the electric London cab is the future, as it was, for a short time, in the past.

London’s first horseless cabs were powered by electricity and were called Berseys, after their designer Walter C. Bersey. Twenty-five of them were introduced in August 1897. However, they proved costly and unreliable, and after one fatality, they were off the streets of London by 1900.

At Christmas, I stayed at a hotel off of Russell Square and spotted this lovely little shed. It is one of 13 cabmen’s shelters that still exist, out of an original 60, and only licensed drivers who have passed The Knowledge test are allowed inside.

The huts came about in the late 19th Century when George Armstrong, later to become editor of The Globe newspaper, was unable to hail a taxi during a blizzard because the drivers of the then horse-drawn cabs were staying warm in a nearby pub. In 1875 the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund was born.

Each hut was built no larger than a horse and cart, required by the Metropolitan Police rules because they stood on public highways. They provided shelter and food for drivers and had strict rules against swearing, gaming, gambling, and drinking alcohol.

Today the huts are owned by the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers, and the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund is responsible for upkeep and maintenance, issuing annual licenses to those who run them.

The shelters’ have protected status, which means their restoration is expensive. Replacement materials must match the originals, including the color of the paint, Dulux Buckingham Paradise 1 Green.

Buses

Not easily spotted, the above bus is an AEC Routemaster designed by Douglas Scott. The first prototype was completed in September 1954, and the last one was delivered in 1968. Interestingly, no one really knows why London buses are red.

The Tube

There is a labyrinth in every one of London’s 270 tube stations.  Artist Mark Wallinger installed them to celebrate the Undergrounds’ 150th anniversary.

While each labyrinth is different, they all have a common graphic language.  They are rendered in black, white, and red and produced in vitreous enamel. At the entrance of each labyrinth is a red X.

According to the artist: the labyrinths serve as a spiritual metaphor for the daily journey commuters embark upon while traveling through the city. They also have a much broader meaning, as, throughout history, the labyrinth has been a symbol of the journeys of life itself.

Getting around London is fun, no matter the system, especially if you keep your eye out for the unusual.

Christmas Lights of London

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 212022
 

December 2022

The Lights at Kew Gardens

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Ten Lords a Leaping

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Christmas Around Town

The tree in Trafalgar Square has been an annual gift from the people of Norway to the people of Britain since 1947 in gratitude for Britain’s support during WW II.

The tree at Covent Garden Market

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Greenwich, To and From and Everything In Between

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 212022
 

December 2022

A trip from downtown London to Greenwich is about one hour.  As the sun was shining and the temperatures have risen to the low 50s, a boat down the Thames seemed the most delightful way to get to Greenwich today.

Original Columns of the Blackfriars Railway Bridge

Of course, there are bridges across the Thames; in fact, there are more than 200 bridges along the river, varying from small wooden crossings on the Upper Thames to large structures like Tower Bridge. But these red columns caught my eye. The red pillars are the remains of the Old Blackfriars Railway Bridge, which was built in 1864 by engineer Joseph Cubitt (1811-1872) for the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway (LC&DR).

From the river, you will see the classic London hot spots such as St Paul’s Cathedral.

St Pauls from the river

You will espy the freshly unwrapped Big Ben with the Parliament Building. The bells of the Elizabeth Tower have been silent for five years; they were brought back on Remembrance Day, November 13th of this year.

Big Ben and Parliament

And, of course, the London Eye.

Once past Canary Wharf, the boat picks up considerable speed and gets you to Greenwich in no time.

This city once relied completely on the River Thames for transportation, and the history of the Waterman is long and storied and worth the time to read about.  I found this boat of particular interest to the story.  The Thames Sailing Barge.

Thames Sailing Barge

A Thames sailing barge, once common on the River Thames, is a type of commercial sailing boat.  It is a flat-bottomed barge with a shallow draught with leeboards, perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary. The larger barges were seaworthy vessels, and the largest vessels maneuverable by just two men.

There is just one issue with these historic boats. Their masts are really rather tall. Thus getting under the Tower Bridge presented challenges.

Tower Bridge is a bascule bridge. ‘Bascule’ is a French word, which can be translated as a seesaw, and describes how the two sides of the road of Tower Bridge open.

Today there isn’t that much large traffic plying the Thames, and by the late 1960s, Tower Bridge only opened a few hundred times a year.  It is now fully automated and powered hydroelectrically.

Greenwich

I was here to visit the Royal Observatory, known for so many things, but mainly the home of what we now consider Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian.

If you stand with one foot on one side and the other on the left of the Prime Meridian, you are perfectly in the middle of the east and west.

The museums of the area are interesting, and watching the Greenwich Time Ball drop at 1:00 is fun, but there are other interesting things in the neighborhood that are a little different and what I would prefer to write about.

There are several public transit options in the attempt to return to Camden, but taking the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) was the most sensible for our return.  But an added adventure is to walk under the Thames and catch the DLR on the opposite side of the river.

The Entrance to the Greenwich Tunnel

The Greenwich tunnel links Cutty Sark to Island Gardens on the Isle of Dogs. Opened in 1902, the tunnel was built to replace a hugely unreliable ferry service that brought those who lived south of the river to work in the docks and shipyards.

The tunnel is 1,217 feet long and approximately 50 feet deep. Designed by Sir Alexander Binnie, it was opened in August 1902 at the cost of £127,000. The tunnel is lined with 200,000 glazed white tiles.

The use of a tunneling shield did the digging. However, the excavation was done entirely by hand. The tunnelers worked 24 hours in eight-hour shifts, managing to dig about 10 feet every 24 hours. The Greenwich Foot Tunnel was initially only accessible via a winding staircase, but lifts were added in 1904.

The elevators of the tunnel are octagonal and once had an attendant.  Why they are octagonal, I have not been able to determine.

A short length of the tunnel was damaged on the first night of the Blitz, September 7 and 8, 1940. Fortunately, the damage was repaired quickly, and the use of the tunnel could continue. The repairs included these exposed metal ring segments.

Standing on the Isle of Dogs and looking back at Greenwich.

I am not the only one to have admired this view.  Canaletto painted this view in 1750.

Canaletto arrived in England in 1746 and stayed for nearly a decade. This painting shows the riverfront at Greenwich with the Royal Naval Hospital and the Queen’s House. The hospital building was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who was also responsible for the Royal Observatory.

Looking up at Christopher Wren’s Royal Observatory from the bottom of the hill

One needs at least one full day to enjoy all Greenwich offers, but the trip is well worth it.

Saint Bartholomew The Great

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 212022
 

December 2022

We walked into this churchyard because we were looking for a plague pit, we found so much more.

St Bartholomew half-timbered, late 16th-century, Tudor frontage built on the older (13th-century) stone arch

St. Bartholomew Church is very intriguing from the street, and one can’t help but want to walk through that arched doorway even if you didn’t know what lay behind it.

The building was founded as an Augustinian priory in 1123 by a man named Rahere.  While in Italy, Rahere had a vision, so he traveled to London, and with the help of servants and children, they gathered stones from all over London to build the structure.  The church is one of the oldest in London.

The tomb of Rahere

Having escaped the Great Fire of London of 1666, the church fell into disrepair and was occupied by squatters in the 18th century. The Lady chapel at the east end was used for commercial purposes and this is where Benjamin Franklin worked for a year as a journeyman printer in the 1720s. The north transept was also formerly used as a blacksmith’s forge.

The church was restored in stages in the 1890s. The Priory Church was one of the few City churches to escape damage during the Blitz and, in 1941, was where the 11th Duke of Devonshire and Deborah Mitford were married.

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The area to the left behind the raised wall is a plaque pit.

The Great Plague of London saw the Black Death decimate over 15% of the city’s population (estimated at 100,000 people) between 1665 and 1666. During this scourge piles of bodies were tossed into deep pits in unconsecrated ground. Over the centuries people have begun to respect the anonymous inhabitants of these pits. There are efforts to map the pits.

Exiting through the Tudor covered 13th century stone arch.

As you enter the church you will find ‘Exquisite Pain’ by Damien Hirst.

Little is known about Saint Bartholomew other than he was one of the twelve Apostles. Tradition holds that after the Resurrection of Christ, he preached in India and Armenia, and was flayed alive in Armenia by order of a local king.

Hirst’s sculpture shows Bartholomew flayed alive, a scalpel in one hand and shears in the other, and carrying his own skin over his right arm. Hirst said the inspiration for his St Bartholomew came “from woodcuts and etchings I remember seeing when I was younger. As he was a martyr who was skinned alive, he was often used by artists and doctors to show human anatomy.” Hirst’s catholic upbringing exposed him to the legends of the saints “they are great stories and it is about… those guys… who all met these terrible ends…,” “everyone is a martyr really in life. So I think you can use that as an example of your own life, just that kind of involvement with the world. Just trying to find out what your life actually amounts to, in the end.”  “I added the scissors because I thought Edward Scissorhands was in a similarly tragic yet difficult position, “it has the feel of a rape of the innocents about it.”

It is said when you travel in Italy never pass a church without going in because of the great art work you will find.  I find this just as true here at Saint Bartholomew the Great.

Camden

 England, London
Dec 162022
 

December 2022

I have taken a flat in London for the month.  London, like most major cities in the world, has been visited, photographed, and Instagrammed to death.  I will not be writing about the major attractions while here, but the odd and obscure.

I am staying in the Camden Borough of London, it is gritty, edgy, and just perfect.

Saint Pancras Old Churchyard

My first exploration was, of course, to a graveyard.  The Saint Pancras Old Churchyard holds two things of interest, the Tomb of Sir John Sloan and the Hardy Tree.

The Hardy Tree in Saint Pancras Old Churchyard

In the mid-1860s, the railway companies cut a swath through the area that included the graveyard of Old St Pancras church. In doing their job, the railroads left a trail of corpses and disturbed coffins all around, forcing the Bishop of London to commission a firm of architects to make things right.

At the time, Victorian poet and novelist Thomas Hardy was a 25-year-old junior architect apprenticing to the firm hired to fix the graveyard. The low man on the totem pole apparently received the honors of this particular commission.

Hardy arranged the stones around the base of this tree.  I imagine it wasn’t quite so higgledy-piggledy originally and that the tree roots have made the jumble we see today.

The Soane Family Tomb

The Tomb of the family of Sir John Soane

One of the most renowned architects of his day, Sir John Soane, never got over his wife’s death in 1815, although he lived until 1837. Eliza was buried on December 1st, 1815, and Soane recorded in his diary: “Melancholy day indeed! The burial of all that is dear to me in this world and all I wished to live for.”

Sloan was the designer of a slew of monumental public buildings, including the Bank of England, churches, and country houses.

Some of the remaining ornamentation on the tomb

The memorial is made up of a  central marble cube of four faces for dedicatory inscriptions, enclosed by a marble canopy supported on four Ionic columns. Enclosing this central structure is a stone balustrade with a flight of steps down into the vault itself. The exterior has Sloane’s favorite emblems of Creativity and Eternity scattered around, the pineapple and the ouroboros.

There is an interesting twist to the story. Architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the designer of the Waterloo Bridge and Battersea Power Station, served as a trustee of Sir John Soane’s Museum for 35 years. Scott designed the classic red British Telephone Box, the K2, after winning a competition run by the Royal Fine Art Commission.  The K2, introduced in 1926, utilizes Sloane’s four-pillar structure.

George Basevi’s painting of Eliza Soane’s tomb

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The K2 Phone Box

Carreras Cigarette Factory

Another delightful building in my neighborhood is what once was the Carreras Cigarette Factory.  They had a line called Black Cat Cigarettes.  According to Cigarettespedia, Black Cat cigarettes were first introduced in 1904 and named for a black cat that used to sleep in the window of Carreras’ Wardour Street shop. It was there so frequently that passersby used to refer to the business as ‘the black cat shop’.

The factory was built in 1928 and designed by Marcus Evelyn Collins and Owen Hyman Collins. At the time, the building was the largest reinforced concrete factory in the country. It was also the first to install air conditioning and have a system for dust extraction.  Its Egyptian theme was part of the Egyptomania craze that circled the world after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.

There are two of these stunning cats at the entrance to the building; they are not the originals. One was moved to the company’s new factory in Basildon, and the other to Jamaica in the 1950s. The majority of the Egyptian Art Deco details were destroyed in the 1960s when the building was remodeled for office space.

Black cat faces line the front of the building.

Something else in my neighborhood that you do not see on a sidewalk every day.

Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough AssociationThe Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association was an association set up in London by Samuel Gurney in 1859 to provide free drinking water.

The Society was inaugurated in 1859 with the requirement “That no fountain be erected or promoted by the Association which shall not be so constructed as to ensure by filters, or other suitable means, the perfect purity and coldness of the water.”

In collaboration with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, troughs were built for horses, cattle, and dogs.  The above one is a cattle trough, and like many others that remain in London, it is planted with flowers.

I look forward to exploring more fun and unique in my neighborhood and around London.

Connecting the Past with the Modern

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 162022
 

December 2022

Roman Walls and the Tower of London

Some kind of fortification most likely completely surrounded the Roman city of Londinium. The portions of the wall still remaining date from between CE 190 and 225.

This section of the wall is built of rubble (mostly Kentish ragstone) bound in a hard mortar and faced on either side by roughly squared ragstone blocks. At every fifth or sixth course, the wall incorporates a horizontal band of red Roman tiles to ensure the courses remained level over long stretches of masonry.

The Roman wall survived well after the departure of the Romans in CE 410, through a long period during which the city seems to have been largely abandoned. The wall above the red Roman tiles would have been added over the years, beginning when it was repaired in the late Anglo-Saxon period. What survived became an important part of the city plan at the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066. Large parts of the wall were incorporated into the medieval defenses of the city.

Bastions were added to the wall sometime in the 4th century CE as spots for catapults or stone-throwing engines.

The 13th-century Beauchamp Tower marks the first large-scale use of brick as a building material in Britain since the 5th-century departure of the Romans.

Beauchamp (pronounced “Beecham”) Tower is a part of the inner defensive wall that once held high-ranking prisoners.

The writings and images are from prisoners from the 16th and 17th centuries, many of whom were confined for political or religious reasons.

Thomas Abel, the chaplain to Queen Katherine of Aragon, carved his name and a bell into the wall after he was imprisoned by King Henry VIII.

 

Lanterns in the Tower of London

When walking around the Tower of London, I noticed these beautiful lanterns.  However, the gold items were not that easy to discern, so I asked a Yeomen Warder. He pointed out that they were three cannons and that the Armory football team logo derives directly from those cannons.

When told stories in places like National Parks and active World Heritage Sites, I am impressed with the vast knowledge of the guides and attendants, but I still take much of it with a grain of salt.  Well…he was correct.

William I the Conquerer ordered the building of the Royal Arsenal in the 11th century. The arsenal was built in Norwich, the original home of the Arsenal Football team, to supply the Royal Armory.

The Teams first logo – 1905

 

Today’s logo of the Arsenal Football team

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I saw the crown jewels and the ravens that are caged due to a worldwide outbreak of bird flu this year, but I thought these pieces of history to be much more fun.

Books, Books and Gas Holders

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 082022
 

December 2022

This is just one small section of the books from King George III’s library.  The display dominates the British Library and is just one of many reasons to visit the library.  They have rotating exhibitions and a permanent area filled with treasures from the British Library, ranging from the Magna Carta to handwritten lyrics by the Beatles, all worth the time and effort to view.

George III reigned from 1760 to 1820. He was king at the time of the American Revolution. His library contains books printed mainly in Britain, Europe, and North America from the mid-15th to the early 19th centuries. It consists of 65,000 volumes of printed books and 19,000 pamphlets (as well as manuscripts and bound volumes of maps and topographical views).

The King’s Library has had various homes during its existence. Its penultimate move was in 1828 when it was moved to the King’s Library Gallery in the British Museum, where it remained for 170 years.  During WWII, on September 23, 1940, a bomb destroyed over 400 volumes.   In 1998 the collection was transferred to the British Library.

Words on the Water

This fabulous bookstore on an old Dutch barge can be found on Regent’s Canal near Granary Square.  Open for at least ten years; it is the brainchild of Paddy Screech, Jonathan Privett, and Stephane Chaudat.  Apparently, due to barge rules, it once had to be on the move constantly, but now it is permanently moored in a great location.

Words on the Water are just below a project I had come to see. Gas tanks, or gas holders, as they call them in England, harken back to the Victorian times, when every town had one for storing gas that was made from coal. After the 1960s, they were used for natural gas.

I first read about the potential to repurpose these tanks in an architectural magazine years ago. These two are part of Gasholder Park, designed by Bell Phillips Architects.

These particular holders were built in the 1850s as part of Pancras Gasworks. The gasholders remained in use until the late 20th Century and were finally decommissioned in 2000.

The victorian elements can still be seen.

They were dismantled and shipped piece by piece to Shepley Engineers in Yorkshire for the project. It took two years to restore, and when finished, they were rebuilt on the banks of the canal.

I love finding buildings I have studied from afar, especially when they are near bookstores.

A Day in Cambridge

 Cambridge
Nov 022022
 

As a tourist, I must admit I prefer Cambridge over Oxford.  Very simply because its entire downtown is pedestrian and it is not growing upwards so it still has a very comfortable spatial feel to it.

However…bicycle usage is overwhelming, which under normal circumstances I would applaud, but I am afraid the youthful, unfettered cyclists can make being a pedestrian a bit frightening at times.

Oddities

Reality Checkpoint

This lampost is smack in the middle of Parker’s Piece.  There are several theories as to how it got its name, but I am rather fond of the one that says it marks the boundary between the central university area of Cambridge (referred to as the “reality bubble”) and the “real world” of townspeople living beyond. One is warned to check one’s notions of reality before passing.

Corpus Clark

The Corpus Clock is fairly new considering most everything else in Cambridge as it dates from 2000.

  • The ripple design alludes to the Big Bang, with the center considered to show the beginning of time.
  • The ‘grasshopper’ that sits atop is actually a ‘Chronophage,’ which means time-eater, devouring each minute as it passes with a jaw that snaps shut.
  • When an hour strikes, there is no chime. Instead, one hears the shaking of chains and a hammer hitting a wooden coffin which represents the passing of time which ultimately leads to death. This is reinforced by the Latin inscription which sits underneath the clock – ‘Mundus transit et concupiscentia eius,’ meaning ‘the world and its desires pass away.’

As fitting a University the creation, construction, and completion of the clock was not a simple task.  Here is the story according to Oxford Summer Courses:

In theory, it goes all the way back to 1725 when Englishman John Harrison invents the grasshopper escapement – a mechanical cog-like device that helps to regulate a clock’s pendulum movement and reduce incorrect time readings.

In 1999, John C Taylor, one of Cambridge’s horologist alumni and inventor of the kettle returned to the city for the first time after having graduated in 1956. Having seen that his college – Corpus Christi – hadn’t changed in the 40 years since he was there, he offered the college the funds to transform the (once before) bank into a brand new library. To mark the occasion, Taylor also decided to add the iconic Corpus Chronophage which would occupy the old bank’s front door.

2001 – 2008: Working closely with local engineers, Huxley Bertram, Taylor, and the team worked on the construction of this impressive clock over seven years.

On his website, John C Taylor details his initial ideas for the clock:

‘I was inspired to create the Chronophage because of modern art. I’ve never been a fan of it, so I wanted to create something that was modern art but had a bit more to it. I wanted to find a new way of telling time.

My idea with the Chronophage was to turn the clock inside out, and then make the tiny little escapement and the grasshopper into the biggest gear on the clock. I wanted impact so I made it one and a half meters in diameter, with the grasshopper a meter long on the top and its legs were the pallets of the escapement which John Harrison designed. This means you can actually see the grasshopper escapement working.

 

The Teleport-o-matic

Hidden amongst some old-fashioned British Telephone Boxes is the Teleport-o-matic.  There are actually many of these around town.   These whimsical portals are by Dinky Doors and according to their website, Dinky Doors are miniature sculptures (with doors), lovingly made and hidden just out of plain sight in the beautiful city of Cambridge. They’re petite portals into other worlds, made with a dollop of humor to spark imaginations and make people smile.  They have a website where you can upload a map of them for a small fee.  If I only had more time.

Where you can find the Teleport-o-matic

Another Dinky Door I spotted.

Stage 3 was from Cambridge to London

Honors

Snowy Farr Sculpture

Just across the square is this unique piece of art. It is an homage to a gentleman named Walter “Snowy” Farr.  Farr raised thousands of British Pounds for The Guide Dogs of the Blind. He was usually seen in eccentric clothing, often incorporating antique military wear, and accompanied by tame animals, including mice, cats, dogs, and even a goat.

After his death in 1977, the Cambridge City Council hired sculptor Gary Webb to create this sculpture honoring Farr.

Honors at Kings College

Xu Zhimo Memorial

This stone sits on the Kings College Campus. Xu attended King’s College in 1922, where he fell in love with Romantic poetry and literature. Upon his return to China in 1923, he founded the Crescent Moon Society, after a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, and taught English at Peking University. He is considered one of the most important figures of modern Chinese poetry. Xu returned to Kings College in 1928 and wrote a poem titled On Leaving Cambridge, of which the first and last lines appear on the stone. Xu died in a plane crash in 1931.

Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree

In 1948, Queens’ College was presented with a special apple tree, as recorded in The Dial: W. S. Rogers (Matric. 1922) has presented to the College an apple tree descended by grafting from the tree under which Newton is reputed to have made his discovery.

This tree is a grafted descendant of the original one at the home of Sir Isaac Newton’s mother in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. On a visit to his mother’s garden during his Cambridge days in the late 1660s, he observed a green apple fall from a tree and only then began to consider the mechanism that drove what is now termed Gravity.

Isaac Newton would spend the majority of his life and all his academic life at Trinity College. He spent the years 1661 to 1696, at the college, first as an undergraduate and then as a Fellow from 1667.

Having written that, it boggles the mind.  That is well over 350 years ago.

The Colleges of Cambridge

Kings College

Kings College Chapel

It is difficult to grasp the scale of Kings College, the chapel, as you see here is 289 feet long and 40 feet wide with an interior height of 80 feet and yet it is in keeping with the size of the other buildings in the school.

The first stone of the Chapel was laid, by Henry VI, on the Feast of St James the Apostle, July  25th, 1446, the College having been opened in 1441. By the end of the reign of Richard III (1485), despite the Wars of the Roses, five bays had been completed and a timber roof erected. Henry VII visited in 1506, paying for the work to resume and even leaving money so that the work could continue after his death. In 1515, under Henry VIII, the building was complete, however, it would take another 30 years to install the 26 sets of stained glass windows.

The ceiling of Kings College Chapel

Fan vault ceilings are always where my eyes go first when entering any building that is graced with one.  This fan vault ceiling just made me gape with awe.  It is the world’s largest fan vault, constructed between 1512 and 1515 by master mason John Wastell.

Front Door of the Chapel

This is where an Anglo gets frustrated with the royalty, that is not a judgment, just a statement that I have no understanding of the history of the UK and its royalty. There is so much symbolism in the work above the entry arch.  The heraldic carvings are the armorial devices of the House of Tudor. The Greyhound is an emblem of Lady Margaret Beaufort. The Tudor rose, incorporating the red rose of the House of Lancaster and the white rose of the House of York symbolizes Tudor’s links with both Royal Houses.  The Coat of Arms is the Royal Arms of England and the Dragon of Cadwallader (Wales) represents the Tudor family of Henry IV’s father.

The intricate carvings on the end of the Ante-Chapel

Carving on the interior of the Ante-Chapel

A small carving on the railings of the Choir. You will see carvings like this in most choirs of older churches and they are always a treat to find and enjoy

Queens College

Queens College Cloister Court

This series of buildings was built in 1460 and are now the oldest surviving buildings on the Banks of the River Cairn.  The Cloisters were built in the 1590s.

Queens College Chapel

The Chapel was designed by George F. Bodly and was consecrated in 1891. The design follows those of other College chapels with an aisleless nave and a row of pews on either side.

Queens Chapel – The Dial

There are pages and pages and pages written about this clock and sundial, but the truth is no one really knows who designed it or when.

The gardens at Queens College were just spectacular despite it being the heart of the fall.

Other buildings around the cloister at Queens College

The misnamed Mathematicians Bridge

Part of Queens College and probably one of the most photographed bridges in Cambridge is this wooden bridge.  The original bridge was constructed in oak in 1749 by William Etheredge. This existing bridge is made of teak and was completed in 1905.  It was not designed by Newton and has always had screws or bolts at the main joints.

Other Colleges

Many of the colleges are not open to the public, but one can admire their entrances from afar.

St John’s College

The main gate or gatehouse of St John’s College is crenelated and adorned with the arms of the foundress Lady Margaret Beaufort. Above these are displayed her ensigns, the Red Rose of Lancaster and Portcullis. The college arms are flanked by creatures known as yales, mythical beasts with elephant’s tails, antelope’s bodies, goat’s heads, and swiveling horns. Above these amazing beasts is a tabernacle containing a socle figure of St John the Evangelist, an Eagle at his feet, and a symbolic, poisoned chalice in his hands.

Westminster College

Other Structures around Cambridge

The Round Church or Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built around 1130, with its shape being inspired by the rotunda in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It has seen many alterations.

This building was originally the Addenbrooke’s Hospital. There are several Georgian buildings behind this façade, designed by Mathew Digby Wyatt in 1866. I just really liked the round windows.

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The Fitzwilliam Museum

This neo-classical designed building was by George Basevi (1794–1845) and completed by Charles Robert Cockerell (1788–1863) after Basevi’s death in October 1845 houses the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Above the door of a stately Georgian building, opened in November 1934, and designed by Sir Herbert Baker, R. A. sits this lovely bust of Scott.

SPRI was founded by Frank Debenham in 1920 as the national memorial to Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his companions, who died on their return journey from the South Pole in 1912.

In front of the institute is a life-size bronze British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Husky to pay tribute to these hard-working dogs.

Standing on the Garret Hostel Bridge looking towards Kings College Bridge that crosses the River Cam

The current stone structure of the Kings College Bridge was designed by famous British architect William Wilkins in 1818 and it was constructed by Francis Braidwood in 1819.

Looking at the Garret Hostel Bridge from afar

The Kings Cross Bridge is the only real way to see the Garret Hostel Bridge, but that part of the campus is closed to visitors.  This was taken from The Backs. The bridge was designed by Timothy Guy Morgan, who at the time was an undergraduate student at Jesus College, after an open competition. Morgan died in 1960 before the bridge was completed. It was one of the first post-tensioned concrete bridges in the UK.

By evening, I was exhausted, my back was killing me from carrying around a 7-pound camera, and then I found this, just exactly the thing that gets me excited.

Hobson’s Conduit

In the late 1500s, Cambridge was affected by the plague and other diseases. As in so much of the world, the diseases of that time were thought to be caused by ‘bad air’ resulting from the sewage-contaminated water in the river and local ditches.

For this reason, between 1610 and 1614, a watercourse was built by Thomas Hobson to bring fresh water into the city from springs at Nine Wells, a local nature reserve.

This hexagonal monument to Hobson, which once formed part of a market square fountain, was moved to this location in 1856, after a fire in the Market.

Cemetery

You didn’t honestly think I would leave Cambridge without a stop at a cemetery did you? Ascension Parish Burial Ground is considered the “brainiest cemetery in the UK”, as it contains the remains of astronomers, biologists, engineers, poets, and philosopher, including three Nobel Prize winners.

Ascension Parish Burial Ground was established in 1857, although the first burial was not until 1869.  It covers one and a half acres and contains 1,500 graves with 2,500 burials.  It was closed to new burials in 2020.

The grave of 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.  Patti Smith took a Polaroid photo of his grave, which formed part of her “Land 250” exhibition in 2008.

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sir John Cockcroft, who split the atom in 1932.

Poet Frances Cornford (the granddaughter of Charles Darwin)

I took a cab ride out to the cemetery and a cab ride back to my hotel.  Neither cab driver had heard of the place, it is in need of love, but really worth taking the time to find.

 

There is so much to see and do in Cambridge, but I only had one day. I must return.

 

 

Walking Oxford, England – Random Architecture

 Oxford
Oct 192022
 

October 17, 2022

The buildings of Oxford are well known if one watches British television, in particular Inspector Morse.  It isn’t quite like on television because when you wander town there are actual people populating every square inch of the town, but the sense of history and the magnificent architecture isn’t lost on anyone despite, cars, pedestrians, and bicycles everywhere.

I only have 2 days to really spend in Oxford so on day one I decided to walk and walk and walk.  In this post, I am going to focus on architecture.  The buildings are highly random, I went into some, and others I just found worthy of a photograph.

The Randolph Hotel

I am staying at the Randolph so let me begin there.  It too featured in several Inspector Morse shows, and there are several photos of John Thaw in the bar.

Construction of the Randolph Hotel began in 1864. The architect was William Wilkinson. There was debate about the building’s design. John Ruskin favored Gothic revival (why he got any say in the design, I am not sure) but the  City Council wanted a classical style since the rest of Beaumont Street was early 19th century Regency. Compromise gave them a simplified Gothic façade, similar to the Oxford University Museum and the Oxford Union buildings, but in brick. The hotel was named after Lord Randolph Churchill.  The hotel has been modified many times and after a fire in 2015, it underwent a major renovation.


Across the street from The Randolph is The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology Britain’s first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677.  The present building was built between 1841 and 1845 and is a work of art.

The Divinity School is a medieval building and room in the Perpendicular style built between 1427 and 1483.  It too has undergone several changes, in particular after the Reformation.  This is just some of the exquisite detail.

A gentleman touching up signs at the Bodleian Library complex

The Divinity School leads to the Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, however, no pictures are allowed.

The Radcliff Library

The Radcliffe Camera is an iconic Oxford landmark and a working library, part of the central Bodleian Library complex. It is linked to the Bodleian Old Library by the underground Gladstone Link. The exterior was completed in 1747 and the interior was finished by 1748, although it did not open until 1749. It is named after John Radcliff who left 40,000 BP for the library.

The Sheldonian Theater

The Sheldonian Theatre was built from 1664 to 1669 after a design by Christopher Wren. The interior has an exquisite ceiling, which is difficult to capture.

The painted ceiling of the Sheldonian Theater

Painted by Robert Streater between 1668 and 1669 the ceiling is meant to represent Truth descending upon the Arts and Sciences to expel ignorance from the University.

The Emperors of the Sheldonian

There are magnificent carved figures surrounding the theater known as the Emperor Heads.  First commissioned by Sir Christopher Wren in the 1660s, the current set, are from the 1970s, and is the third set. Apparently, the University has only found 23 of the original 45.  It is believed the original 17th Century heads were given away to Oxford associates.

A view from the cupola of the Sheldonian

Standing atop the Sheldonian one can get a sense of what Oxford felt like in earlier centuries. In contrast, when climbing the Saxon Tower of Saint Michael this is the view.

Standing on the top of the Saxon Tower of Saint Michael

Saxon Tower of Saint Michael

 

28 Cornmarket Street was originally three separate shops, and probably dates from the fifteenth century and altered in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. It belongs to Jesus College and has always been in the parish of St Michael-at-the-Northgate Church.

The Corn Exchange

The corn exchange was built in 1894-5. Corn exchanges in England are distinct buildings that were originally created as a venue for corn merchants to meet and arrange pricing with farmers for the sale of wheat, barley, and other corn crops. The word “corn” in British English refers to all cereal grains.

The exterior of Frideswide Church, the patron saint of Oxford

The Jackson Building is part of Trinity College

The Danby Gate

The Danby Gate at the front entrance to the Botanic Garden is one of three entrances designed by Nicholas Stone between 1632 and 1633.

Morris Garage

Since my first car was an MG I had to go find this building. In 1902 William Morris (later Lord Nuffield) took over old abandoned livery stables and in 1909–10 demolished them and replaced them with the Morris Garage, designed by Tollit & Lee. In 1977 the whole building was threatened with demolition, but the frontage, side elevation, and roof structure were retained and in 1980 it was developed as student housing for New College by John Fryman of the Oxford Architects Partnership.

That is just a very very small cross-section of the myriad types of architecture that abounds in Oxford.

 

Walking Oxford, England The Odd and Fun

 Oxford
Oct 192022
 

October 17, 2022

I walked all day on the 17th and decided to break this into two posts, one architecture and the other all the other fun stuff I saw.  Here goes with the Odd and Fun.

Jane Burden was a major figure in the 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite art movement. She was the favorite model for Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the leading artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

She became Mrs. William Morris, the one and the same famous textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, and printer associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement.

However, Jane Burden’s beginnings were rather humble, I had to really work to find this alley where she was born, but it was a wonderful little find.

The alleyway where Jane Burden was born

Homage to two very storied Kings

I tripped over this sign, somewhat buried in a hedge down the street from the hotel at 24 Beaumont.

St Giles Cemetery – I tried to find some history and the City Council simply has it listed as “disused”.

The Oxford Canal is a 78-mile narrowboat canal. Completed in 1790, it connects to the River Thames at Oxford and goes to the Grand Union Canal.

I walked for miles along the canal system finding all sorts of interesting little places.

Osney Stream

The old Rewley Road Swing Bridge with the newer Sheepwash Channel Railway Bridge behind it

The bridge once crossed Sheepwash Channel. It was designed by Robert Stephenson and built in 1850–1. It was reconstructed in 1890 and 1906, using steel girders. The rail line that crossed the Rewley Road swing bridge, carried passengers from Oxford to as far as Cambridge. It was closed to passenger traffic in 1951 and to freight in 1984. The bridge is presently under reconstruction once again.

 

An old gate along the canals running along a very modern housing development

Wildlife along the canals

There is wonderful ornamentation all over Oxford, this guy made me giggle

Lead drain pipes held against the wall with stunning fasteners

Wandering the back streets

The bridge is popularly known as the Bridge Of Sighs but is officially called Hertford Bridge. It was completed in 1914 and designed by Sir Thomas Jackson.

More wonderful ornamentation

Martyrs Mark

Broad Street is undergoing some road construction so I had to shoot this through a fence, but bless the construction workers for leaving the mark exposed. In the middle of the 16th century, during the reign of Queen Mary I (also known as “Bloody Mary” due to her brutal religious persecution), three Protestant clergymen were charged with heresy and executed on this spot marked with a brick cross. It is said that the nursery rhyme, Three Blind Mice is an allegory for the trio of clergymen’s demise.

On the east façade of Saint Martin’s Tower, there is a clock adorned by two “quarter boys” who hit the bells to mark the passing of every “quarter” of the hour.

Deadman’s Walk

As the sun was trying to set and the Meadow Christ Church was closing I made it to Deadman’s Walk. The walkway is thought to be the route of medieval Jewish funeral processions. A procession would begin at the synagogue (near where Tom Tower now stands) and proceeded towards the Jewish burial ground (now the site of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden).

This stone slab in the Botanical Garden reads:

Beneath this garden lies a medieval cemetery.

Around 1190 the Jews of Oxford purchased a water meadow outside the city walls to establish a burial ground. In 1231 that land, now occupied by Magdalen College, was appropriated by the Hospital of St John, and a small section of wasteland, where this memorial lies, was given to the Jews for a new cemetery.

An ancient footpath linked this cemetery with the medieval Jewish quarter along Great Jewry Street, now St Aldates. For over 800 years this path has been called ‘Deadman’s Walk,’ a name that bears silent witness to a community that contributed to the growth of this City and early University throughout the 12th and 13th centuries.

In 1290 all the Jews were expelled from England by King Edward I. They were not permitted to return for over 350 years.

May their memory be blessed

For me, it was really just a lovely stroll on a stunning fall evening.

Colleges of Oxford

 Oxford, United Kingdom
Oct 192022
 

October 18, 2022

The University of Oxford has thirty-nine colleges and six permanent private religious halls. These institutions are autonomous self-governing corporations within the university. The colleges are not only student residences but have the responsibility of teaching undergraduate students. Most colleges take both graduates and undergraduates, but several are for graduates only.

Behind the walls is where you will find the peace and quiet of Oxford.

Magdalen College

Magdalen College

You do not just walk into the colleges, most are private and do not allow visitors, and those that do, require a fee.  I chose to visit Magdalen because I had read about the gardens.  The college was founded in 1458 with a large endowment, a substantial library, and some very impressive buildings.  Sadly I am here in the fall and while lovely, the gardens are probably better appreciated in the Spring.

The central quad of Magdalen College

Christ Church

Christ Church is one of the largest and wealthiest of all the colleges of Oxford. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is a joint foundation of the university and the cathedral of the Oxford diocese.

Tom Tower was designed by Sir Christopher Wren.  It looms over Tom Quad the largest quadrangle in Oxford.

The Dining Hall most famous as the inspiration for Harry Potter has a far richer history that its movie fame. The Great Dining Hall was the seat of the parliament assembled by King Charles I during the English Civil War.

Christ Church Cathedral

The cathedral was originally the church of St Frideswide’s Priory,  the patron saint of Oxford.

In 1522, the priory was surrendered to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who had selected it as the site for his proposed college. However, in 1529 the foundation was taken over by Henry VIII. Work stopped, but in June 1532 the college was refounded by the King. In 1546, Henry VIII transferred to it the recently created See of Oxford from Osney. The cathedral’s official name is Ecclesia Christi Cathedralis Oxoniensis, given to it by Henry VIII’s foundation charter.

Christ Church Cathedral is one of the smallest cathedrals in the Church of England.  The tour of the Cathedral itself takes half an hour there is so much history as to be overwhelming, but it is a stunning building.

The Meadows Building (1862-6) serves as the public entrance for paying visitors to Christ Church and is where my friend Susan stays when she attends Oxford

Skulls found on the River Magdalen that runs around Christ Church

The exterior gardens of Christ Church are absolutely beautiful.

Alice in Wonderland and Christ Church

Alice was the daughter of Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church, where Charles Dodgson (Lewis Caroll)  lectured in mathematics.  Alice was three when her father became Dean. Alice and her sisters were playing in the deanery garden when Dodgson went to photograph it, and that is how they met.

In 1862, Dodgson (Carroll), his friend Duckworth and the three Liddell sisters, including Alice, rowed up the River Isis to the town of Godstow. On the boat trip, Carroll began spinning the story of a bored girl named Alice looking for adventure. Everyone loved his stories  and they asked him to write “Alice’s Adventures.” Two years after their boat trip, Carroll penned Alice’s Adventures Underground and in 1865 the story was published.

Those on the boating trip,  Canon Robinson Duckworth and Alice’s sisters, Lorina and Edith, appear in the book as the Duck, the Lory—a sort of parrot—and the Eaglet respectively.

You can find “Alice’s Shop” directly across from the entry to Christ Church College

 

Bath, England

 Bath, United Kingdom
Oct 162022
 

October 15, 2023

There is a legend that Bath was founded in 860 BCE when Prince Bladud, the father of King Lear, caught leprosy. He was banned from the court and was forced to look after pigs in a faraway location. The pigs caught the skin disease from him, but when they went rooting for acorns they crossed an area where they wallowed in hot mud, and over time they were cured. Prince Bladud followed and began doing the same, eventually he was also cured. Later he became king and founded the city of Bath.

The acorns are represented atop this John Wood designed building. This is a small section of buildings found on The Circus built in 1754-60.

The Romans

Around 70 ACE the Romans found themselves in Bath as part of their expansion and found the hot water and mud that Prince Bladud enjoyed a wonderful place to indulge their senses. With hundreds of single Roman soldiers with nothing to do, the baths were constructed as a grand bathing and socializing complex.  The Roman Baths are one of the best-preserved Roman remains in the world, where 310,000 gallons of steaming spring water, reaching 114 degrees Fahrenheit still fills the bathing site every single day.

Looking down onto the baths from a terrace built in the 1700s

The Spring Overflow where the surplus water from the spring pours into a Roman drain and flows on to the river.

The Roman Drain

After the Romans

In the 18th century, Bath became a much more genteel and fashionable place and grew in size.

At this time Architect John Wood the Elder 1704-1754 had a large influence on the feel of the city.  He designed and built Queen Square in 1728-1739. His son John Wood the Younger was born in 1727 and built Royal Crescent in 1767-1774 and the Assembly Rooms in 1769-71. The Octagon was built in 1767 and Margaret Chapel was built in 1773.

The Royal Crescent in Bath, England

No. 1 Royal Crescent was built between 1767 and 1772 and was the first house to be completed in the Royal Crescent. The façade of the iconic Royal Crescent as mentioned was designed by Bath architects John Wood the Elder and John Wood the Younger.  However, the interiors and the rear facades could be designed however the owner pleased.

The 500-foot-long crescent has 114 Ionic columns on the first floor with an entablature in a Palladian style above. It was the first crescent of terraced houses to be built and an example of “rus in urbe” (the country in the city) with its views over the opposite park.

Of the crescent’s 30 townhouses, 10 are still full-size townhouses; 18 have been split into flats of various sizes.  No. 1 Royal Crescent is now a museum and the large central house at number 16 is The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa.

Looking down into the garden of the Royal Crescent Hotel from my 2nd-floor room

An example of the various facades in the back of the building

Wandering Bath

The River Avon Bristol

The word Avon simply means river in the language of the pre-Romans. The UK ended up with eight river Avons (or river rivers), thus this is the River Avon Bristol.

Buildings over the River Avon Bristol sit on the Pulteney Bridge which was completed in 1774.  Designed by Robert Adam they were to resemble the Ponte Vecchio. Built for William Pulteney the first Earl of Bath, and the man who owned the land.

The 1603 map of Bath by Savile shows a weir on the River Avon.  The purpose of the weir was to provide a difference in river level that would drive the water wheels used to power the mills. For centuries Bath had suffered from the River Avon flooding – even the Romans had to raise the level of some of their baths complex to alleviate the problem.mIn the early 1970s the weir was rebuilt in its current ‘V’ shape with an associated flood control gate (sluice) on the east side of the river

Pulteney Weir

Bath Abbey

Bath Abbey

This is the third church to sit at this location. Robert and William Vertue, the king’s masons were commissioned for the job, promising to build the finest vault in England, saying “there shall be none so goodely neither in England nor France”. Their design incorporated the surviving Norman crossing wall and arches. It is thought construction began around 1500.

Angels ascending and descending Jacob’s ladder

A story goes, (that has been disputed) that Oliver King, Bishop of Bath and Wells (1495–1503) wanted a new church and he had a dream in which he “saw the Heavenly Host on high with angels ascending and descending by ladder”.  I found the angels to be such a delightful oddity for the front of a church.

The interior fan vaulting ceiling, originally installed by Robert and William Vertue, was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott between 1864 and 1874. The fan vaulting runs the entire length of the church.

The walls and floor of the church are just riddled with war memorials for the local population and monuments to several notable people.  This was one of my favorites. The top half is dedicated to Robert Walsh who died September 12, 1788, at the age of 66.  It is the bottom half that is so interesting and it reads: By the death of this gentleman, an ancient and respectable family in Ireland has become extinct.

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Outside of Bath

Avebury

Due to time constraints, I had to make choices, and I decided to skip Stonehenge and head to Avebury.

Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles with the largest megalithic stone circle in the world.

Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BCE, during the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, the monument comprises a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the center of the monument. Its original purpose is unknown.

West Kennet Long Barrow

The West Kennet Long Barrow was probably constructed in the thirty-seventh century BCE, during Britain’s Early Neolithic period. Built out of the soil, local sarsen megaliths, and oolitic limestone imported from the Cotswolds, the long barrow consists of a sub-rectangular earthen room enclosed by kerb stones. The precise date of construction is not known. Human bones were placed within the chamber, probably between 3670 and 3635 BCE.

Standing atop the West Kennet Long Barrow gives one a good sense of its size.

Silbury Hill as seen from West Kennet Long Barrow

Silbury hill stands 129 feet high and is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world. The first clear evidence of construction dates to around 2400 BCE.  Its purpose is unknown. Few prehistoric artifacts have been found on the hill and at its core, there is only clay, flints, turf, moss, topsoil, gravel, freshwater shells, mistletoe, oak, hazel, sarsen stones, ox bones, and antler tines.

Hackpen White Horse

There are 16 or 17 white horses made of chalk dotting England. Some are ancient, the one in Westbury, Wiltshire, was cut to commemorate King Alfred’s victory at the Battle of Ethandun in 878. The Hackpen Horse was cut to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838. Although little is known about the origins of the horse it is believed to have been cut by Henry Eatwell, parish clerk of Broad Hinton, and also the local publican.

Tomorrow – Oxford.