In 1999 Mom and I both had enough frequent flyer miles to fly to London for free. So we decided to go for my birthday in mid-December. We liked the idea of the Fielding Hotel, which was at the intersection of two gas lit, cobblestoned, pedestrian-only streets near the Royal Opera House. The Fielding was a stone’s throw from where Henry Fielding’s house had been and dated to the same period — the early 1700s.
Henry Fielding had been the author of the novel “Tom Jones”. But he had also been a magistrate at the Bow Street Magistrate Court just across the street from the Royal Opera House. He and his brother formed the first police force in 1749, called the Bow Street Runners.
Since the hotel was located in a former house, it had no lift (elevator). Fortunately we knew that and packed accordingly. We each brought one small case (a small version of the roller bags that people now bring on airplanes as carry-ons) plus a shoulder bag and wore everything multiple times. In addition, I had a large duffle bag packed flat inside of my case to hold our clothing on the way home so we could pack the presents we planned to buy in the more structured cases. The room was in the back of the building, which had a sloped roof. The bathroom was down a half flight of stairs. Getting ready to go out took planning to avoid traveling up and down the stairs multiple times. We also left a light on down below when we went to bed should one of us need to negotiate the stairs in the middle of the night.
After settling in at the hotel, we went for a walk in the area, had lunch and then stopped in at Covent Garden to see what was going on there. They always have musicians or singers performing for free. We listened to two violinists and a cellist prior to two flutists. We poked around in the various shops to pick up some Christmas gifts for family members and friends. Covent Garden was decorated for Christmas and was very festive.
The next day, we traveled over to the Kensington area to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum. They were having a special exhibit of costumes from the film Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Joseph Fiennes. After having lunch in the museum (they have a very good cafeteria), we headed for Harrods for some more Christmas shopping.
Harrods had a great pet section with lots of fun dog toys. Bill Clinton was President at the time. They had toys of both him and Tony Blair (who was Prime Minister). I found out when going through Customs back in the States that dog toys are custom free. Who knew? Once we were done shopping, we went for a cream tea just across the street. That filled us up enough that supper wasn’t necessary.
The following day we visited Prince Henry’s Room on Fleet Street. Prince Henry was King James I’s eldest son. But he died young and so his brother Charles I became king instead. Charles was the one who lost his head to Oliver Cromwell. The Great Fire of 1666 stopped just shortly before it would have reached this building, making it one of the few buildings prior to 1666 to survive.
The room was a museum dedicated to Samuel Pepys at the time. He was the 17th century diarist who wrote about the English Civil War and the Restoration of King Charles II to the throne. He also wrote about both the plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666. Mom and I were the only people there, so the guide chatted with us quite freely.
He was a proponent of the theory that Sweeney Todd had been a real person (I have a book that says that he was and lays out his life). According to both the book and this guide, the “real” Sweeney Todd lived in the 18th century. The guide pointed out where Todd’s barbershop used to be next to St Dunstan’s Church. He said the Demon Barber of Fleet Street was found out when the aroma of the remains of the bodies that had been placed in the crypt of St Dunstan’s (his cellar connected to the crypts of the church) wafted up into the church. Missus Lovett’s pie shop was supposedly in the lane next to the Royal Courts of Justice. So the solicitors, barristers and judges likely were partaking of them.
The guide also pointed out the figure on the building opposite Prince Henry’s Room as Lady Caroline Lamb dressed as a pageboy. Lady Caroline Lamb was the wife of Viscount Melbourne who was Queen Victoria’s first Prime Minister (and so memorably played in the Masterpiece series by Rufus Sewell). Lady Caroline had a very famous affair with Lord Byron and was the person who said that he was “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”.
From Prince Henry’s Room, we went to Doctor Samuel Johnson’s House in Gough Square. It was like finding our way through a maze to get there. The house, which had been built in the late 17th century, had been restored to what it would have looked like when Doctor Johnson lived there in the 18th century. He compiled his famous dictionary on the top floor.
On our way back to our hotel, we decided to stop in at the Temple Church (one of our favorite places in London). There was a private service going on at the time and the church was closed to the public. We could hear “O Come All Ye Faithful” being sung and sat down on a bench just outside of the ancient door to the original church built by the Knights Templar to listen before heading back to the hotel and to dinner at a nearby pub — the White Lion.
On the day of my birthday, we started out with a visit to the Jewel Tower. It had been built in the 1360s as King Edward III’s treasury and part of Westminster Palace. It and Westminster Hall are all that are now left of that palace. From there, we crossed Westminster Bridge to visit the museum dedicated to Florence Nightingale in St Thomas Hospital. My mom had once thought about becoming a nurse, but went into social work instead. She had always admired Florence Nightingale.
That evening, we had booked dinner at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand where they offered a 3-course meal at the early dinner seating on Sunday’s for £19.25 (which would have been about $30). Simpson’s has been in existence since 1828. Dickens, Gladstone and Disraeli were regular patrons. I recorded in my journal that I had crab with lemon mayonnaise, followed by the Roast Beef Dinner (roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and slow roasted carrots) and Bubble and Squeak, plus a plum crumble tart. Looking at the restaurant’s website, the Roast Beef Dinner alone is now £35 (roughly $45). Bubble and Squeak is made with mashed potatoes and cabbage (I often use a cheesy mashed potato and add both cabbage and shredded carrots). It gets its name from the noise it makes while cooking.
The next day, we visited Charles Dickens’ house. A more perfect place to visit at Christmas time, I could not imagine. More of the house was open than when we had visited before, but it was now a self-guided tour instead of being with a costumed guide. I missed the guide we had on our first visit. He had been an absolute delight. By the time we left, it was much colder and raining hard. So we took a cab to Marks & Spencer to buy the last of (and majority of) our gifts.
We were unaware that Marks & Spencer didn’t take credit cards. They also didn’t have a toilet for public use. So, in order to purchase the items we had collected, we needed to shield each other while digging into the areas on our persons where we had secreted the bulk of our cash. That had to have been an odd sight. Fortunately we had enough on us.
We didn’t think that the personnel in the store were terribly friendly. In fact, although we told them what we were doing and to hang on to our items until we got out the cash to pay for them, they were in the process of returning them to the racks and counters from which we had picked them up when we produced the necessary. If it hadn’t been raining heavily and our last day in London, we would have walked out and gone elsewhere. But we re-gathered the items, paid for them, and hailed another taxi to get us back to the hotel. Actually we went to the American Express office next door to Simpson’s-in-the-Strand to get some more cash — just enough for dinner that night, breakfast the following day, and the cab ride to Victoria Station to get the train to Gatwick (which was the airport that had a direct flight to Minneapolis back then). The rain had let up by then, so we were able to walk up the road to our hotel without getting ourselves or our packages drenched.
That night we went to a performance of “The Woman in Black” at the Fortune Theatre. Our seats were in the front row of the upper circle. This was about two stories above the stage with very steeply raked stairs. We were terrified just getting to our seats. The play was very cleverly done with just two actors and a minimum of props. It was probably the scariest play I’ve ever seen. Afterwards we walked back to our hotel along a gas lit, cobblestoned, narrow, pedestrian-only street. I leaned over to Mom and said, “All we need now is a fog and Jack the Ripper”. “Thanks”, she said.
