Trafalgar Square – A Traveling Fool

When the bus to The Making of Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour returned to the Victoria Bus Station, I walked along Buckingham Palace Road from there to Victoria Street to visit Westminster Cathedral. The only connection that Westminster Cathedral has to Westminster Abbey is that they are both located in the part of London called Westminster and are both essentially on Victoria Street (although it is called Broad Sanctuary by the time it reaches the Abbey).

Westminster Cathedral is a Catholic Cathedral, built in the 19^th century in the neo-Byzantine style, influenced by the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. It was that influence that made me curious to see it. The exterior is striped with white stone and red brick. The interior is covered with mosaics. The Hagia Sophia influence was the mosaics. Otherwise the basic floor plan of the cathedral was a standard, western, crucifix with side chapels and one long nave.

There was a very interesting glass coffin containing Saint John Southworth, who was a Catholic martyr in the 17^th century. He was hanged, drawn & quartered. But his pieces were gathered up, sewn together and parboiled to preserve them. I do have to admit that I was glad there was a gold mask over his face.

I took a taxi back to the hotel. A friend of mine, who had never been to London before, was supposed to be flying in that day and was going to contact me so we could get together for dinner. I waited for quite a while to hear from him and even tried texting him at one point. Unbeknownst to me, he was having some issues with his phone.

At about 8:20pm I received a text asking me to meet him in the middle of Blackfriars Bridge at 8:30pm. The only way I was going to make it in time was to take another cab. Fortunately, since the hotel was right next door to Charing Cross Rail Station, a line of taxis was always there ready to take folks coming into the station to their destinations. I leapt into one, apologized to the driver for the strange request I was about to make and sat back as I was taken to the bridge, arriving just in time to see my friend walking towards me.

Actually the driver spotted him before I did. I lowered the window and called out to him. Then I paid the driver and hopped out of the cab.

From the bridge, we headed up towards Fleet Street, but I wanted to show him the Temple first. By this time of night, there was only one entrance open and that was the entrance nearest to where we were. Not being a resident of the area, I explained to the person manning the guard house why I wanted to come in for a short time. She was fine with it and let us in.

The Temple had once belonged to the Knights Templar. The only vestige of their prior ownership was the Temple Church. The rest of the area that belonged to the Templars from the 12^th through the 14^th centuries had been taken over by two of the Inns of Court – the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple from the 14^th century on.

Wat Tyler had sacked the Temple during the late 14^th century Peasant’s Revolt. One of the Jack the Ripper suspects lived on King’s Bench Walk in the Temple. The War of the Roses began at the Temple when each side picked a rose from the Temple rose garden to symbolize their cause.

I knew my way around when coming in through the entrance under Prince Henry’s Rooms on Fleet Street. But I had never entered the Temple from this particular entrance before and so was unable to navigate the maze satisfactorily to get to the Temple Church from there. I was able to point out the rose garden and King’s Bench Walk however, and called it a day.

I had planned that we would eat at the George Pub, which was a very old, very traditional, half-timbered Elizabethan pub at about the spot where Fleet Street became The Strand. So I wasn’t in any big hurry as we sauntered along Fleet Street. I pointed out St Dunstan’s Church which was reportedly where Sweeney Todd hid the remains of his victims in the crypt (until the stench started coming up into the church).

I told him about the Great Fire stopping just before Prince Henry’s Rooms (so they were authentic to their time) and that Prince Henry would have been king instead of Charles I had he lived. What a difference in history that might have been.

We walked by the Griffin marking the border of the official City of London from the rest of London (and where Fleet Street became The Strand) and gazed at the Royal Courts of Justice (where civil trials are heard) before turning our attention to the George Pub. Although it still looked the same outside, it had radically changed its menu since I was there last (and probably had changed ownership too). It had gone from being a traditional pub with traditional pub food to being a trendy restaurant with trendy, and expensive, food.

So we walked a couple blocks further along The Strand and had our dinner at a café. We sat by the window and marveled about how we were hanging out in London instead of Minneapolis. Had I known that the George had changed, I would have taken him to the Olde Cock Tavern (16^th century) just a short distance before Prince Henry’s Rooms. I had wanted to show him a place with some real traditional English atmosphere. Oh well.

After dinner, we continued along The Strand, veering off to Trafalgar Square to take a look at it all lit up at night before getting a few groceries for him from the Sainsbury’s by my hotel and putting him into a cab at the Charing Cross rail station. He was staying in the part of town near Victoria Station.

Then I prepared for my flight home the following day. I thought it was a shame that we only had that one evening in common.

Next – some time spent at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia where Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S Grant to end the American Civil War.

The Virgin Trains East Coast train from Edinburgh’s Waverly Station to London’s Kings Cross Station was leaving at 10:00am. After having breakfast and checking out of the hotel, I asked the Doorman on duty about the best way to get from the hotel to the train station. Although it was next door, there was a shopping mall in between. Should I go through the mall? Should I go past the mall and around the corner? He started telling me the way to get there (neither of those two) and then decided he would just take me there himself.

He told the other Doorman on duty inside, took hold of my bags, and escorted me to just past the mall entrance next to the hotel to some steps to the roof of the mall. That was a surprise. When we got to the end of the mall roof near the station, there was an elevator. This took us down into the train station. My new friend (he was actually from Romania – a combination Romanian and Scottish accent is quite delightful) led us to the Departures board, found the train I would be riding, and then took me and my bags to another elevator.

That elevator took us to where the trains themselves were waiting. He continued to escort me all the way to the train. There he made sure I got my larger bag checked. I was traveling First Class (I had gotten a great deal there too). In Standard you keep your bags and try to find a place to put them, which may or may not be near you. Once the bag was checked, he turned me over to the First Class Conductor. Needless to say, I gave the Doorman a good tip.

I had booked a single seat that was at a table. I placed my coat in the rack above me, the small bag on the floor under the table, and settled in. The trip took four hours, stopping at various towns and cities along the way. Lunch was served, so I wasn’t hungry when I arrived at my destination.

Once in London, I checked into my hotel. It was a hotel I used to stay in with Mom on many trips. But it had recently undergone a total refurbishment, gained another star, and decided that their focus would be on the business traveler. I realized on this trip that it was no longer the hotel for me.

The next morning after I arrived, I walked down The Strand to take the boat from Westminster Pier to Greenwich. En route I took a photo of the Admiralty Arch with the UK flags lining The Mall beyond the arch. As I reached Westminster Pier, I took a photo of the statue of Boudica.

Boudica was queen of the Iceni tribe of Celtic Briton who led a revolt against the Romans in about 61 AD. Her husband, the king had died, leaving his kingdom split between his two daughters and the Roman Empire. His will was ignored. His daughters were raped. His widow publicly flogged.

Boudica raised an army and went after the Romans in three cities – Verulamium (now St Albans), Camulodunum (now Colchester), and Londinium (now London). It is said that roughly 70,000 to 80,000 Romans and British were killed. All three cities were burned. London was where the Ninth Legion met Boudica’s troops and lost. But, there were way more Romans and they ultimately defeated the Britons.

Once on the boat, I took a photo of the London Eye before going inside. It was starting to look like it was going to rain. All along the boat ride down the Thames to Greenwich, I took as many photos as I could on the side of the boat where I sat. Humorous commentary was given onboard as various landmarks on either side of the boat were pointed out. I planned to sit on the other side on the way back.

As we glided beneath the Tower Bridge, I shot several photos as that bridge is a favorite of mine. I have included a photo with the modern building The Shard framed between the towers of the bridge.

Beyond both the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge and on the same side of the Thames as the Tower of London was the Prospect of Whitby. This was the oldest pub on the river, dating to about 1520. The current building is not original as it had a fire and was rebuilt in the early 19^th century. The only part that is original is the stone floor.

A little further along, in the area known as Limehouse, is the Grapes, where Charles Dickens lived for a time in about 1820. The building dates from the 1720s. Another pub dating from 1583 was on the same site before it. The pub is currently owned by a trio of people including actor Ian McKellen. He lives a little further along the river near Canary Wharf.

When we reached Greenwich Pier, I immediately headed for the Royal Observatory. Mom and I had been to Greenwich on our first visit to London back in 1983, but had not made it up to the Observatory. We had spent most of our time there at the Queen’s House (built 1616-1635), which houses part of the National Maritime Museum.

The climb to the Observatory is a steep one and I knew it would take time. I often will explore whatever is the farthest or the most difficult to get to first when I am operating on my own agenda instead of someone else’s. There was a less steep, but longer walk that sort of wound around the hill. I decided to take that route up and the super steep route down.

The Royal Observatory was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II and built by Sir Christopher Wren (the same guy who built St Paul’s Cathedral). The Royal Observatory is home to Greenwich Mean Time (from which all time around the world originates) and the Prime Meridian (zero meridian from which will all distances around the world are measured).

People like to get the cheesy photo with one foot on each side of the meridian line. I took an equally cheesy photo of my feet straddling the line – one in the eastern hemisphere and one in the western.

Once I had explored the building and the exhibits inside, took my feet photo, and spent as much time as I wanted up there, I headed back down, walking through the park that surrounds the space, and found a pub in which to have lunch. The Greenwich Tavern had the usual traditional pub fare, such as fish and chips, which was what I ordered, plus a half pint of cider.

Next came the Royal Naval College, created in the 19^th century in a building built in the 17^th century by Sir Christopher Wren as Greenwich Hospital, a home for retired sailors.

There are several connections between Greenwich and Admiral Horatio Nelson. He lied in state in the Painted Hall at what became the Royal Naval College before his funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral. Several items belonging to him, including the uniform he was wearing at the Battle of Trafalgar, are housed in the National Maritime Museum in the Queen’s House.

The Chapel in the Royal Naval College has, near the entrance, a memorial to Thomas Hardy, Captain of the HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar (not the novelist). He was also a close friend of Nelson’s, and was with him when he died on the Victory after being shot by a French Sharpshooter. Hardy was a Governor of Greenwich Hospital near the end of his career.

The Cutty Sark was built in Scotland in 1869 as a tea clipper to China. It was later involved in the wool trade to Australia. The whiskey was named after the ship, which went into dry dock at Greenwich in 1954. Mom and I had toured the ship back in 1983. It suffered a pretty nasty fire in 2007 and was restored in 2012.

The name Cutty Sark comes from the nickname of the witch who chased Tam O’Shanter in Robert Burn’s 1791 poem. The ship was an extremely fast one back in its day. The restoration allows for visitors to seen beneath the ship as well and inside and on deck. I love ships, especially old ones, and I enjoyed getting to explore this one a second time.

On the way back to Westminster Pier, the rain came down really hard, making it impossible for me to take any photos beyond shortly after leaving Greenwich. My last photo shared here is of the Mayflower Pub in Rotherhithe.

In July of 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Rotherhithe to pick up more passengers in Southhampton and Plymouth, England, before sailing to what became Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Mayflower Pub claims to be at the site in Rotherhithe from which the Mayflower sailed. Whether or not that is true is up to discussion.

Back at Westminster Pier, the rain had stopped. As I walked up Whitehall towards The Strand, I took a photo near Banqueting House. Right after that, I saw that a ceremony was taking place at Horseguards Parade and crossed over to that side of the street to take a look. A photo is included here.

My last shot before heading up The Strand to my hotel was of Trafalgar Square, with the statue of Admiral Nelson on top of Nelson’s Column. The statue in front of the column is of King Charles I. The building seen behind the column with a dome is the National Gallery.

Next time – a day at Windsor Castle & Hampton Court Palace

Tag: Trafalgar Square

The Mysterious Meeting on Blackfriars Bridge

Train from Edinburgh to London & Boat Ride to Greenwich