London Winter 2019

Monument to Great Fire of London Our final two days have been a chance to revisit some unfinished museum expeditions: Imperial War Museum, and British Museum -and to do some more walking of the city.  The underground is so efficient that it is easier than walking and I have found it more difficult to get my above ground bearings of the city than for others - Rome, Paris and Athens. According to John it does not rain properly in London but only drizzles and the last two days have had some of that.  On London Bridge towards Houses of Parliament On our walks we went to the Great Fire of London monument designed by Sir Christopher Wren (1677) which is adjacent to Pudding Lane where the fire supposedly started.  The next day we did a circuit from Westminster Underground through Parliamentary Square, up Whitehall past all the government buildings included a shut off Downing Street and eventually to Trafalgar and return.  The streets around Whitehall were gridlo...

We took the fast train to Cambridge with John who was visiting one of his Supervisors at the Maths Department.  The train station at Cambridge is about 20 minutes walk from the city centre and this was deliberate as the Colleges did not want students easily travelling to London to fraternize with the opposite sex and vice versa. In a brisk walking tour of the city we learned how it developed since the 12th Century as a training centre for religious life - not always with the support of the locals who rioted against the students times during the 14th century.  The town was a puritan centre during the reign of Elizabeth 1st and suffered during the puritan rebellion with many of the Catholic colleges being damaged.  The birthplace of Oliver Cromwell was nearby so Cambridge aligned with the Parliamentary forces against the Royalists during the Civil War of the 1640's.  The rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge can perhaps be traced to this period as the Charles 1 ...

Maureen at Kings Cross Station After 2 weeks in London we are becoming accomplished travelers on the London train system.  In most cases there is a variety of routes one can take to any destination and it is fun trying the different routes.  I did find it challenging sitting on the train all in a row with the same opposite- it is like two Police line-ups viewing each other and to avoid the awkwardness most seem to use their mobiles - perhaps before them people talked.....  The Central and Victoria Lines seemed warmer, busier and more polluted that the others and we often preferred travelling to the London Blackfriars Bridge station with great views of the river before taking the underground.  On Sunday 12th January we visited the Imperial War Museum - again too big for one sitting so we focused on the excellent WW1 and Holocaust galleries. As I wound through the recounts of the Western Front I could not forget the words of Wilfred Owen in Anthem for a Doomed...

Part of Canterbury Cathedral exterior When he was sent to convert Britain with 40 Benedictine Monks in 595 AD St Augustine of Canterbury was so afraid that he turned tail back to Rome and had to be re-sent by Pope Gregory.   The reluctant arrived in 596 beginning a legacy, centred on Canterbury, that cemented Britain as a Christian land for the next 1500 years.  Nearly 800 years later  The Canterbury Tales , written by Chaucer as 24 stories, tells the tales of some 30 pilgrims walking from Southwark to Canterbury on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Thomas Becket. Augustine,  Beckett are Chaucer the fascinating central characters in the story of the city of Canterbury, originally a Roman town, to which we traveled today. The bustling streets of this compact university city were full of establishments (pubs and businesses) hundreds of years old that have served visitors and pilgrims over the centuries.   On our l ittle p...

Maureen at Buckingham Palace The daily ritual of changing of the Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace attracts thousands and we were among them watching the marching up and down of the band in their grey coats and black bearskin hats as the guards changed. The crowd was about 10 deep peering in through the  iron fence and I wondered who was really in the zoo - probably us! At the end of the 45 minute process the   ‘old’ Guard are matched back to Wellington Barracks  and the new troop to St Jame's Palace down the Mall. All quite a spectacle.   NZ War Memorial Multiple pylons shaped  as a vertically oriented cross Close to the Palace up Constitution Hill are significant War Memorials including that for Bomber Command 70 years in the making.  The controversial carpet bombing of Dresden and other German cities at the end of the war led to the reluctance to recognize the ~54K British and allied airmen who died in the air war - two of my Fa...

The opening lines in rap go: How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a  Scotsman,  dropped in the middle of a forgotten  Spot in the Caribbean by Providence, impoverished, in squalor  Grow up to be a hero and a scholar? So we attended Alexander Hamilton at the Victoria Palace telling his remarkable life story as a key figure in the founding of the USA.  Apart from the stunning production, music and acting, this story has so many other relevant messages about living life to the full, love won and lost, not being afraid to be bold and of saying goodbye.  The experience of nearly 4 hours passed like 5 minutes and we laughed, cried and reflected on our own lives and that we should 'not throw away our shot' .  Our thanks go to our daughter Therese who encouraged us to attend and we now understand why she has been 3 times!  The morning was spent continuing our exploration of the National Science Museum at Kensington.  I particular...

The famous central atrium of the Natural History Museum below the Blue whale skeleton is a mandatory stop for photos and we joined the throng before reprising  our knowledge of dinosaurs that was so sharp when the children were little and we knew the 'The Land Before Time ' series of movies by heart. Given the British founded the sciences of modern geology and mineralogy those galleries were outstanding and we enjoyed the sections on volcanoes and earthquakes.  The 2011 Japanese earthquake featured in displays but the simulated earthquake pad did not quite live up to that at the Te Papa museum in Wellington which seemed to be a step higher on the Richter Scale when we visited there with the children some years ago! ' Lucy's tooth ~  Australopithecus afarensis living ~3.7 million years ago I was looking forward to the gallery on human evolution having recently become very interested in this subject and was not disappointed.  The history is complex with ...

Shakespeare's First Folio Books and media are so ubiquitous that it is hard to imagine a time when they were both rare and revered. Seldom is one awestruck in the presence of  a text, but many at the British Library, both sacred and profane, left me in awe.  Below is a list of examples of the many seminal texts that I viewed familiar to my 'western'  historical knowledge: the Codex Sinaiticus (4th Century) and Codex Alexandrinus  (5th Century) which were the first translations of the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament into Greek;  Lindisfarne Gospels (~700 AD) Magna Carta (1215 and later revised) Copernicus's  On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres (1543) -a book that argued for a sun- centred solar system and eventually revolutionized both science and theology Johann Gutenberg’s Bible (~1455)- the first Bible printed by machine Lady Jane Grey's Prayer Book - she was executed 12 Feb 1554 and would have had this book with her up...

Long Grass with Butterflies The Concert On the sacred Feast of the Epiphany we c elebrated with the Eastern Churches who mark Christmas at this time.  It is a feast of joyful promise marking the manifestations of God among us in Jesus in real time: The visitation of the wise men from the East, the Baptism in the Jordan and the wedding feast of Cana.  This year we were blessed to attend Mass with Sally , Maureen's cousin, at the prayerful and lively parish of    Our Lady of Victories ,  Kensington after a meal with John at High Street Kensington.       Thames below Westminster Next morning Leicester Square tube station was our alighting point for a walk around Trafalgar Square and visit to the National Gallery.  Therein is an extensive collection of European and British paintings from pre-Renaissance until the late 19th Cent ury.  Like all large galleries it is somewhat overwhelming and impossible to appreciat...

Abbey An early start and the fast train from Paddington Station took Maureen, I and John to Bath by 0930.  On a crisp morning we delighted in the features of this beautiful town that Maureen had visited many years ago but the historic spa and temple complex has been extensively excavated and developed since then. Roman Baths Our first stop was to Bath Abbey and then a long tour through the Bath Spa, Aquae Sulis  which gave us a unique window into Roman life in Britain.  The spa water is supposed to have healing properties and nearby there is a modern swimming and spa complex - closed for the Winter.  We did brave a free sample of filtered spa water with the verdict being that treated Adelaide water was superior in taste - we await its healing properties! Royal Crescent  The Salamander Tavern near Queen's Square was empty when we arrived but by 1230 was packed with locals.  After a pub lunch we strolled up the hill to the  Circus and Roy...

Globe Theatre The Globe theatre was faithfully reconstructed with the same materials and style as the original. We undertook a fascinating tour with a guide/actor giving many insights into the social and political context of the original theatre and how its design enabled audience engagement. Around 1600 when such theatres first appeared, the poor class in cramped London had little entertainment bar bear fights, cock fights and executions.  The theatre  add ed a whole new dimension to life but they were short lived being shut down due to the civil war and the rise of puritanism.   On the 6th of September, 1642, the were closed by ordinance being considered not seemly to indulge in any kind of diversions or amusements in such troubling times.  In early 1643 the actors remonstrated  pleading with no avail with parliament to reopen the  theatres  by writing "The Actors remonstrance or complaint for the silencing of their profession, and banishmen...

528 steps, with no lift, is what it takes to get the magnificent view from the top of St Paul's Cathedral.  You can see from the picture that we made it!  It is slightly less that the 551 steps we took to the top of St Peter's dome in Rome several years ago. Pope Gregory the Great, founded the original St Paul’s in 604 AD but the buildings were later damaged by fires and Viking attacks.  William the Conqueror commissioned a Gothic cathedral in ~1 087 AD (finished in 1148), standing until the Great Fire of London in 1666.  However from the reign of Henry VIII the shrines and artwork commemorating saints was destroyed.  The architect Christopher Wren oversaw building of the current cathedral from 1675-1697.  The building caused great controversy in that it is was deemed as too 'Catholic' being similar to St Peter's and St Paul's in Rome but without any reference to saints apart from St Paul.  However the tombs of the Duke of Wellington and Ad...

Westminster Cathedral  After a late rise on New Years Day we attended Mass on the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God at Westminster Cathedral along with over 500 others.  The cathedral is relatively new being completed in 1903.  It's style is early Christian Byzantine but is interesting in that the nave has mosaics but the rest of the vault is dark as if symbolizing the open heavens.  I expected a polite and ordered communion like in Australia but it was in fact everyone for themselves people coming from everywhere without allowing those at the front into the line.  This was similar to our New Year's experience in Athens and a good example of how charity wanes when folk want to get something  cf Christmas Sales! The Cabinet World War II rooms were nearby and we spent several hours below ground there learning about how Churchill's war cabinet and high command operated.  The complex was not actually bomb proof and was strengthened  after the wor...

Outside John's place Shepherd's Bush On a dreary morning we arrived at Westfield Shepherds Bush near where our son John is living with fellow Pure Maths PHd students.  This is one only 2 Westfields in London and is very high end compared to anything we have seen in Australia:Tea Tree Plaza would seem a cheap as chips version. After a lovely lunch with John he showed us his abode which is well set up for his needs. Being New Years Eve we were invited to Maureen's cousins place in Alexandra Palace.  Maureen reunited with her first cousins Sally and Jane, not having seen Jane for 30 years.  In a marvelous evening  relationships were renewed and family news, stories and faith was shared. Along with some raucous revelers, we passed midnight at the Kentish Town Railway Station waiting for a train to our station..

On a beautiful winters day we traveled to Hampton Court Palace via Waterloo Station, South Western Railway and Bus.    The Palace was occup ied first by Henry VIII with his first wife, Anne Boleyn, as a 'pleasure palace' away from London where he and the court could indulge.  All of his wives stayed here and a tour of the Palace reveals much about Henry's reign and wives as well as the Tudor  and Georgian dynasties.  One of the scant remainders of his first wife Anne is found in an inscription on the wood panels inside the Great banquet hall.    H&A inscription centre panel The gardens of the Palace are extensive and reminded us a little of Versailles but we especially enjoyed the enormous kitchen areas where an army of workers prepared up to 21 courses for the frequent banquets.  A match was in progress at the famous tennis courts where Henry VII , Elizabeth 1 and many others have played and this original form of the game seemed ...