Westminster Abbey – A Traveling Fool

February 15, 2021

Trooping the Colour 1983

The Queen of England’s actual birthday is in April. However, it is tradition to have the official celebration of the birthday of whoever the current British Monarch is in early June. This is called Trooping the Colour and is quite a spectacle.

Mom and I had determined during the days leading up to the Trooping the Colour what the best place to view it would be. We chose the steps leading from The Mall up to the Duke of York’s Column. The Duke in question was the second son of King George III who died in 1827. He had been Commander in Chief of the British Army and was so beloved by the men that they pulled together the funds to create the monument.

We found a spot at the base of the column (and at the top of that part of the steps) where we could sit down when we needed to, but could easily see over the crowds in front of us. I bought a program from a member of the Welsh Guards, in full dress uniform, who actually was Welsh. This was the first time I had heard a Welsh accent and I was enthralled. Since he wasn’t on duty, we could actually talk a little until someone else came up to get a program.

The ceremony consisted of a parade from Buckingham Palace to the Horseguards Parade consisting of representatives of all of the British and Commonwealth armies plus most of the Royal Family. In 1983, the Queen rode on horseback with Prince Phillip, Prince Charles, and the Duke of Kent just behind. The last time she rode horseback was 1986. She has taken a carriage since then (along with Prince Phillip). The Trooping the Colour tradition goes back as far as the 17th century.

At the Horseguards Parade, the Queen receives a royal salute and then inspects the troops of the Household Division. These include both the foot guards and the horse guards. After this, they all parade back to Buckingham Palace, where the entire Royal Family assembles on the balcony while Royal Air Force jets fly overhead.

I have included a couple of photos of the Trooping the Colour that I did not take, just to give an idea of it. Back in 1983 I had a camera without a zoom. So, though I took a lot of photos, it can be difficult to see what is in them without greatly enlarging them. In the one with the Queen Mother and Princess Diana in a carriage, the carriage is over to the right side and is drawn by a white horse. The Queen Mother is in blue while Diana is in grey and white.

The photo with the Queen shows her to the left of the photo riding a chestnut horse and with a white cockade in her hat. She is just in front of a white horse with the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Kent right behind the white horse.

We stayed until the parade passed us heading back to Buckingham Palace. Then we headed over to Westminster Abbey to visit the Royal Tombs.

Back in 1983, the main entrance to Westminster Abbey was used unless visiting the Royal Tombs. The entrance that is now used for visitors to the entire abbey was used only for the Royal Tombs back then. When entering, we were greeted by the painting of Richard II at his coronation (at the age of nine) that was commissioned by him and painted during his lifetime. The Coronation Throne was behind the Shrine of Edward the Confessor. Today both the painting and the throne are at the front of the abbey near the Tomb of the Unknown.

It could have been that the Shrine of Edward the Confessor was only open to the public because of it being the Queen’s Official Birthday, but Mom and I were able to go up the steps and walk around among the tombs of Edward I (and Queen Eleanor of Castile), Richard II (and Queen Anne of Bohemia), Henry III, Edward III (and Queen Phillipa of Hainault), and Henry V. Edward the Confessor’s queen, Edith of Wessex, is buried somewhere near his shrine, but nobody knows for certain exactly where. The shrine was built by Henry III in 1241 directly above where the Confessor was originally interred.

All of the tombs, except Edward I, have effigies of the person or people inside lying on the top. Edward didn’t plan to stay there. His instructions had been to be taken to Scotland and be buried there once his son, Edward II, conquered the country. Junior didn’t conquer Scotland. Instead Robert the Bruce beat the tar out of him at Bannockburn and won independence from England (which lasted until James VI of Scotland became James I of England).

The shrine was closed to the public on all of my visits since then. But, at some point, it became available during special Verger tours. My most recent trip to London in 2017 included a Verger Tour of Westminster Abbey. I was able to re-experience the thrill that I felt to be able to spend time up in the shrine. In 2017, we could also kneel in the niches of the shrine for prayer, if we chose to do so. The niches were quite worn from the knees of 800 years of people kneeling there.

Originally Mom and I had planned to take a boat to Hampton Court Palace from Westminster Pier. But since we were behind in our schedule by a couple of hours, we found we missed the last boat to Hampton Court. We decided to take the boat to Greenwich instead.

At Greenwich, we visited the Queen’s House. It was designed by Inigo Jones for Anne of Denmark, who was the queen of James I. Anne died before it was completed, so it ended up as the property of Henrietta Marie, queen of James’ son, Charles I. It was used just a short time before the English Civil War and Charles’ execution.

When the Tudor palace that used to be at the edge of the water was demolished and the Royal Seaman’s Hospital built (by Sir Christopher Wren), the new building was in two parts to keep from spoiling the vista from the Queen’s House to the Thames. This is now the Old Royal Naval College. The Queen’s House itself contains mostly period rooms, while the wings contain a Royal Museum and parts of the Maritime Museum (at least that was what was there in 1983). It was a special treat to be able to see Admiral Horatio Nelson’s uniform.

We could see the Royal Observatory from the Queen’s House, but didn’t quite have time to do everything. So we decided to see the Cutty Sark instead. I finally visited the Observatory in 2016.

1983 was several years before the 2007 fired that severely damaged the ship. So it was quite intact from when it had been built in 1869. It was very exciting to be able to climb around on the ship. At that point (since London in 1983 was really my first trip anywhere) I had never been on an old sailing ship before. I love old ships and had a couple of ancestors who were ship captains, so it was very special to me.

Next time – our last full day in London before heading out for a couple of day trips.

Trooping the Colour at Horseguards Parade

August 16, 2020

London: Don Juan in Soho, Verger’s Tour at Westminster Abbey & Hail

As soon as I returned home from my 2016 trip to NYC, Edinburgh & London, I went online to Rabbie’s Tours site to see what they offered in addition to day trips out of Edinburgh and Glasgow. I found numerous short trips (for a few days) and long trips (for a couple of weeks) out of Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, and Dublin. All of them were small group tours for 16 people max. Perfect. I printed out the ones in which I was especially interested and began to think seriously of returning the following year to take part in them.

So when, in November of 2016, I discovered that David Tennant would be starring in a comedy, Don Juan in Soho, in London’s West End in April, May & June of 2017, I already had planned everything else I wanted to do. With a few calendars from MSWord printed out and the dates of the play plus the available dates of the tours I wanted scribbled on them, I went online to the theatre site for the play and bought tickets for two performances. Then I booked the Rabbie’s tours — one for five days out of London and another for four days out of Edinburgh. I planned the remaining days and booked the day trips, air, hotels, airport transfers, and round trip train to and from Edinburgh. All set. Just needed to wait until April.

This time I had enough frequent flyer miles to get a free round trip flight. Yay! That saved a good amount of money. Enough that I decided to splurge a little on my first hotel in London, which was next to the river, and get a room overlooking the river. Since I didn’t want to go back to the hotel I used to use in London, I was experimenting with other hotels.

For the first three nights (before taking off on one of Rabbie’s tours) I had booked the Royal Horseguards. This was the one on the river. Built in 1884 as a luxury apartment building, it was located close to the Horse Guards Parade and Banqueting Hall just off Whitehall.

After my plane landed at Heathrow, I was supposed to meet the transfer I had booked to get me to my hotel. They were late. I called the company (I always keep the information about my bookings with me just in case) and asked where he was. They said he should be there. I said he wasn’t. Eventually he showed up. He didn’t speak much English and left me to deal with my own bags while I followed him to where he had parked. Then he drove like a maniac all the way to the hotel. I had been in some taxis with some wild drivers before, but this guy won the prize. I closed my eyes and prayed like crazy.

I was there too early for the hotel to be ready for me (checkin was 3pm). So I checked my bags into their baggage room and set off to get some lunch. One of my favorite pubs – the Sherlock Holmes – was nearby. So I walked over there and ordered some fish & chips with a half pint of cider (hard cider). In pubs it is necessary to place your order at the bar, and then sit down. They bring it to you once it’s ready.

While waiting, I received an email asking me to give feedback on my airport transfer. I kept it clean and civilized, but really let them have it regarding the driver they had sent.

When outside of the US, I turn my cellular data off so I can only receive and send data via WiFi. I always get hotels with WiFi included. Sometimes pubs and other places have WiFi available to customers. The cellular data bill would be astronomical. Once it is late enough in the day so I am not waking anybody up, I send a quick text message to the family letting them know I am safely at my destination. Otherwise I mainly use the hotel WiFi at night to post a few photos on Facebook and send any emails that need sending. Since free hotel WiFi is not secure, I am very careful about what I do on my phone — no banking or anything else dangerous should someone else be able to see what I am doing.

After lunch, I walked to Wyndhams Theatre to pick up my tickets and vouchers (I had a voucher for a program, another for a glass of wine, and one for an ice cream at the interval – intermission). I also took a few photos of the theatre and scouted out where the back stage entrance was located. I had decided to do something I had never done before and wait at the backstage door to ask for an autograph.

The play was both very funny and very tragic all at once. Things didn’t end any better for Don Juan than in any other version of the story. The cast was very talented. Both David Tennant and Adrian Scarborough were especially wonderful.

The mistake that I made was getting my ticket for that first night in the first row center of the Royal Circle (one level up from the main floor). I couldn’t get out of there and down the stairs fast enough to get to the backstage door and be anywhere near the barricade. No autograph for me that night. It was also cold.

I headed back to the hotel and discovered my second mistake. The last block from Whitehall to the hotel was deserted. Never a good idea to be on a street completely alone – especially at night. I stepped up my pace to a very brisk walk.

The next morning, I arrived at Westminster Abbey at 9:35am. I then bought the Verger Tour ticket for £5 on top of the regular admittance. It had taken a while to get through the line. I had until 10:30am to wander around the abbey on my own before meeting up with the rest of my group and the Verger (who is a caretaker of the abbey). That ended up being about twenty minutes from the time I got the tickets.

The Verger was a young woman and was absolutely delightful. She was very knowledgeable about the history of the abbey. She didn’t sound like she was reciting what she had memorized, but like she actually knew all of the information she was giving us. We could ask questions and she knew the answers. She started us off at the Coronation Chair and the portrait of Richard II, followed by the memorial to Sir Isaac Newton. Then came the quire.

We are able to sit in the stalls. This was where she gave us the history. Henry III built the abbey from the quire back to just before Henry VII’s chapel (demolishing much of what Edward the Confessor had built in the process). Richard II built the part from the quire forward to the front door (where his portrait was). Henry III had also created Edward the Confessor’s Shrine, which is between the High Altar and the Henry VII Chapel.

When we left the quire to take a look at the altar and the floor in front of it, she pointed out where Anne of Cleves (fourth of Henry VIII’s six wives) was buried. Of all of the times I had been to Westminster Abbey, I had never seen her grave before. It is very unassuming, just a plaque in the wall.

The big reason why I wanted the Verger tour came next. This was Edward the Confessor’s Shrine. They only allow ten people at a time up there. So we needed to wait for some of the clergy of the abbey and some special guests of theirs to vacate the space before we could go up.

In addition to Edward the Confessor and his queen Edith of Wessex, the shrine platform contained the tombs of Edward I and his queen Eleanor of Castile, Henry III, Edward III and his consort Philippa of Hainault, Henry V, and Richard II and his queen Anne of Bohemia. Most had the effigies of whoever was in the particular tomb. But Edward I had no effigy at all on his very plain tomb. He hadn’t planned to stay there long. He expected that his son, Edward II, would conquer the Scots and that he would be buried up there in the country he had tried so hard to conquer and control. His queen and Edward the Confessor’s queen were not buried in the same tomb with them, but in separate tombs nearby.

Although we couldn’t take photos and we weren’t allowed to touch any of the tombs or effigies, we could kneel in one of the niches of Edward the Confessor’s actual tomb and pray if we wished. I wished. It was a place where people have knelt and prayed since 1269, when Henry III had the new shrine built.

Once we finished our tour and I explored the rest of what I wanted to explore, I headed over to the Westminster Arms, where Mom and I had usually eaten lunch on our prior visits to Westminster Abbey. I had bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) with a half pint of their special ale.

After lunch I took a walk, first over to the Horse Guards Parade on the St James Park side. It decided to rain, so I put my cap on, pulled my jacket hood up and tied it on over the cap. A few seconds later, it stopped raining. I pulled the hood back down and the cap off and it started to rain again. It went back and forth like that for the rest of my walk through the park to Buckingham Palace.

From the palace I walked over to The Mall and then Green Park. From Green Park, I could pass through a gate to go by Clarence House (though I could get a better photo from The Mall). This used to be the home of Elizabeth II’s mom, the Queen Mother, and is now the home of Prince Charles and Camilla. It is right next door to St James Palace.

St James Palace was commissioned by Henry VIII in 1530 and was the secondary palace after Whitehall for the Tudor and Stuart monarchs. After Whitehall burned down, the Hanover monarchs used St James, then Clarence House, and then Buckingham Palace as their main residence. When I was there in 2017, Prince Harry was living there as were Princess Anne, Princess Beatrice of York, and Princess Alexandria.

I went around the side of St James Palace along Marlborough Road to get back over to The Mall. I had just crossed The Mall over to the park side when the heavens opened up again. This time, though, it was hail – about marble size. Since there wasn’t any thunder and lightning involved, I took refuge under a tree, on a bench. I sort of went into a seated fetal position until it was over, trying to make myself a smaller target.

Although I will carry a small, lightweight umbrella in my case when I travel, I have it along for the possibility of rain when going out to a play or dinner at night. During the day when sightseeing, I leave it behind. It isn’t possible to take photos when trying to hold an umbrella over my head. I wear an all-weather jacket and a baseball cap. If the weather is warm, I’ll take the lining out of the jacket, roll the jacket up, and stuff it into the lightweight nylon bag I carry with me. It has various pockets to keep my camera, maps, water bottle, extra camera batteries, purchases I might make in a gift shop, etcetera, and it packs easily in my luggage.

Once the hail ended, I headed back to the hotel through the Admiralty Arch. The central arch is only used by the queen, so the gate is closed and locked unless she is using it.

On the other side of the arch, I took a photo of the Statue of King Charles I. He has stood at this location, which was the original location of the Eleanor Cross (a copy of which now stands in front of the Charing Cross Rail Station) from the 1290s until it was destroyed in 1647, since 1675. He faces down Whitehall in the direction of where he was executed in 1649.

The Statue of Charles I had been created in 1633. During the English Civil War, the statue was sold to a metalsmith to be melted down. But he hid it instead. Once Charles II was asked to return to England from exile and crowned king, the statue of his father was brought out of hiding and set up where it stands now.

This time at the play, I had a seat at the end of the second row in the stalls on the main floor. This time, although I didn’t make it to the first row behind the barricades (Did those people even see the play? Or did they just line up outside at the stage door?) I found a couple of short women who seemed friendly and chatted with them before David Tennant came out. It wasn’t terribly long before he flew out of the door, waved at everyone and dashed down the line to the end so he could work his way back down to the stage door.

I managed to get my ticket autographed (photo included here), but I couldn’t get a selfie taken with him since I wasn’t close enough. However, I did manage to take a few photos of him after he signed my ticket. We also exchanged a few words when he handed my ticket back to me and I thanked him for having signed it.

Next time – the Tower of London and an experience with Scotland Yard

August 2, 2020

London: Banqueting House, Westminster Abbey & Temple Church

Banqueting House is the last remaining portion of Whitehall Palace. King Charles I stepped from one of the windows to a scaffold to be beheaded in 1649. His son, Charles II returned from exile and took up residence in 1660. Westminster Abbey is over 1,000 years old – the scene of every coronation since William the Conqueror, and the last resting place of over 3,300 people, including 17 monarchs. Temple Church was built by the Knights Templar in 1185 and is the burial place of several knights, including three of my ancestors.

Originally I was to go on a day tour to Stonehenge and Salisbury on this particular Thursday and just hang out in London to visit these locations the following day. But I received an email from the tour company the day before saying that the Stonehenge & Salisbury tour had been canceled. Did I want to go to Stonehenge, Avebury and Glastonbury on the Friday? I just switched plans for the two days (fortunately I didn’t have another tour booked for Friday and hadn’t booked ahead for the Abbey).

After breakfast, I sauntered down the Strand to Whitehall and Banqueting House. I was slightly ahead of schedule and so had to wait just outside the door until they opened. Designed by Inigo Jones and completed in 1622 at the behest of King James I/VI as an addition to Whitehall Palace, Banqueting House was part of another palace that Henry VIII took from Cardinal Wolsey (called York Place) and greatly enlarged.

The rest of Whitehall Palace burned down in 1698, by which time the king was the widowed William III, whose heart just wasn’t in having it rebuilt. His wife, Mary II, had been the granddaughter of Charles I (and daughter of James II/VII). Had she still been alive, it would have been rebuilt.

The ceiling of Banqueting House was commissioned by Charles I and painted by Peter Paul Rubens. The paintings were done in Rubens’ studio and installed in the specially designed frames on the ceiling in 1636.

Charles I was disappointed when Rubens went back to Antwerp when he was done and left Anthony van Dyck behind in his place to be the court painter. He wasn’t disappointed for long as van Dyck quickly proved his own talents. The artist was knighted by Charles and preceded him in death by eight years. He was buried at Westminster Abbey.

The glorious ceiling paintings, pretty much deifying his father, most likely would have been the last things Charles would have seen before stepping out of the window from that room to the scaffold. Actually, they used to say that he stepped from one of the windows from the room itself (the far right window in the photo I have included here). Now they say he stepped from a window that used to be above what is now the entrance to the building. Either way, it is said that he wore two shirts because it was cold and he didn’t want people to think he was shivering with fear.

Shortly after leaving Banqueting House, when heading south on Whitehall, the street becomes Parliament Street, which then empties into Parliament Square. Once in Parliament Square, facing east is a great view of the Palace of Westminster, aka Parliament. Several statues of mostly Prime Ministers stand around the square. But there are a couple of non-Prime Ministers there too. Looking west across the street, you will find Abraham Lincoln and, just before crossing the street to go to Saint Margaret’s Church, you can see Nelson Mandella.

Originally built in the 12^th century and rebuilt in the early 16^th century, St Margaret’s has been the site of several wedding over the centuries, including John Milton, Samuel Pepys, and Winston Churchill. This St Margaret is not the one from Scotland, but a 4^th century martyr from Antioch. There is also a St Margaret of York and a St Margaret of Cortona.

In the church is a window commemorating Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Sir Walter Raleigh, executed across the street in Old Palace Yard, is among those buried here. Another window shows him in happier times with Queen Elizabeth I and Edmund Spenser, the poet who wrote The Faerie Queen.

Next to St Margaret’s is the visitor’s entrance to Westminster Abbey. I had to stand in line for a bit, but it wasn’t really too bad. I have experienced longer lines before and since. I was buying my ticket there instead of in advance online. With the online advance ticket, there is a special “skip the line” entrance. To get the advance ticket, it is necessary to specify a particular time slot. I didn’t want to do that on this trip to stay a little more flexible. So I took my chances with the line.

Westminster Abbey is one of my favorite places. I visit pretty much every time I am in London. It is amazing and overwhelming at the same time. Some people have asked in the past why I go to see a place I have been to before. I’ve already seen it; why would I want to see it again?

One answer is that it might have been a very long time ago that I saw it and my memories are fuzzy (not the case with Westminster, but it had been 13 years since I saw it last). Another answer is that, with a place that I find fascinating, I can see things and experience things that I have never seen or experienced before. Then there is that fact that things change. How can an over 1,000 year old church change? You’d be surprised.

The coronation throne used to sit behind the Shrine of Edward the Confessor. It could be easily missed there unless one knew to look for it or had a guide point it out. By 2016, it was up in the front of the abbey in its own special room. The portrait of King Richard II (the fella I had seen David Tennant portray onstage in NYC at the beginning of this trip), was now just outside of where the throne sat. Richard is seated in that throne in the portrait, which used to be just inside of the entrance to the Royal Chapels. There, loads of people missed out on seeing him. The portrait is pretty cool. It was painted in 1390 at Richard’s request and therefore should be a pretty accurate portrayal.

Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside of the abbey, so I can’t include a photo that I took of the painting However, I have included an official photo of it from the abbey’s website. He was only ten years old when crowned King of England. His father had died a year earlier, so he succeeded his grandfather, Edward III in 1377. He was deposed in 1399 by Henry Bolingbrooke (King Henry IV) and subsequently murdered while in captivity. He was 33.

Another change was that Westminster Abbey now had audio guides. The audio guide had numbers on it that corresponded to numbers on a map. No more crowding around a guide or trying to squeeze past a crowd.

The special floor in front of the altar had been uncovered as well. Previously this floor had been covered over for centuries and only visible for coronation ceremonies and rare special viewings. It has a type of inlaid stone called Cosmati and was installed by Henry III in 1268.

Founded in 960 AD by King Edgar and Saint Dunstan, the official name of the abbey is the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster. It is a “Royal Peculiar”, which means it falls under the direct jurisdiction of the reigning monarch. Various monarchs have made their marks on Westminster Abbey, most notably King Henry III, whose building spree in 1245 made it largely what is seen today. King Henry VII built the Lady Chapel with the magnificent fan vaulted ceiling in 1503.

In 2016, the abbey was in the process of creating a whole new space for its museum in galleries up above the abbey’s nave that would be opened in 2018. That particular area of the abbey had not been open to the public for 700 years.

I spent a couple of hours at Westminster Abbey, exploring it more thoroughly than I had ever been able to do so before. The exception was the Shrine of Edward the Confessor. It was off limits. It used to be open to a few people at a time, but things change.

I discovered after I got back home that there were Verger tours open at specific times on specific days. A Verger (who is basically a church caretaker) takes a small group of people into places of the abbey where tourists cannot go on their own, including the Shrine of Edward the Confessor. I decided the next time I traveled to London, I would arrange for a Verger tour.

Another change was that they now had a restaurant within the abbey. It was in the former food stores of the monks in the 14^th century and is called the Cellarium Café. I had some Welsh Rarebit (a fancy cheese toast) with salad, and an apricot tart with ice cream.

My foot was bothering me (the same one which had a stress fracture back in 2014), so I took a taxi back to the hotel (there were several parked out in front of the abbey), gave my foot a massage and wrapped it in an ace bandage. Once wrapped, it felt much better.

I decided I didn’t need to stay in the room with my foot elevated, but I didn’t want to go too far. So I walked the relatively short distance from the hotel to Temple Church.

Built in 1185 by the Templar Knights, the original part of the church is round, with a later rectangular addition. I have mentioned in past posts that I have loads of ancestors who were knights. Two became Templar Knights in their later years. They were buried in the crypt of the church with effigies upstairs.

One died in 1219 at the age of 73. He was a knight all of his life and even led (and won) a major battle at the age of seventy. He had served five kings – Henry II, his sons, the “Young King” Henry, Richard I, John and John’s son, Henry III. He decided to become a Templar Knight on his deathbed and was invested into the order.

Another died in 1226 at the age of 56. He came to the Templars a little later in life — in 1212 at the age of 42. He had been a busy guy – also in the service of Richard I, John and Henry III. He was a strong supporter of the Templars with gifts of lands in Yorkshire. So, as a generous member of the order, he was honored with burial at Temple Church.

Another ancestor died while on crusade in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1241 (at the age of 31). He was with Richard of Cornwall, who was King John’s second son and was involved with the refortification of Ascalon. A chunk of stone, found among the rubble in a former moat in Ascalon, had graffiti including this particular ancestor’s coat of arms. He is also buried in the Temple Church. He either doesn’t have an effigy, or his is one of the unidentified effigies, or his was destroyed when the church was bombed by the Germans during World War II. His body is down in the crypt somewhere.

Next time – Mystic locations of Stonehenge, Glastonbury, and Avebury