London Part 4

   First of all, I noticed that although some of you have read London Part 2, the previous post, London Part 1, has not had any readers. Since I posted them both on the same day, it probably messed you up. Anyway, just letting you know there is a part 1 before part 2. = )

     Monday was our last day in London. The weekend had worn us out quite a bit so we decided to sleep in a bit that day. We arrived in London (actually it was the City of Westminster) right outside the Houses of Parliament at about 10:30 that morning. Across the street were the towers of Westminster Abbey rising majestically into the sky.

      We turned the away from Westminster Abbey and headed down the street. In the middle of that street is the Cenotaph which literally means "empty tomb". It is a memorial to the many soldiers that have died fighting for Great Britain. It was original erected in 1919 to commemorate those that had died in the Great War (WWI) but now is a memorial for the dead of all British wars.

The Cenotaph

Speaking of wars, our next stop was the Churchill War Rooms.

     The war rooms are located through that arch and under the building on the left. This was the underground headquarters of the British government during the darkest days of the fight against the Nazis. These 27 rooms were used from 1939 to 1945 and after that they were shut up and left untouched for decades. (I guess they were ready to put all that nastiness behind them and not look at it for a while.) In 1982, the rooms were opened to the public. Churchill's room, the map room, and some other rooms are just as they were when the place was abandoned in 1945. One of Churchill's half smoked cigars is still lying on the table next to his bed.

Churchill met with his generals and advisors here.
He got the reputation of being deaf to those who disagreed with him.
He'd actually pretend he couldn't hear them!

Stairs to a lower room.
It was used during the bombings.

Two guards like this one stood at all times outside the cabinet room.

This sign told the inhabitants the weather outside.
It says "Fine & Warm".

     In the middle of the old War Rooms, a museum dedicated to the formidable Churchill was created. It gave a look at who Churchill really was. He was a fascinating man well worth learning more about but I'll let you do your own research, if you're interested. I'll just point out a few things I found most interesting.

      Along one wall in the museum were backlit pictures all having something to do with WWII. If you stood in front of the picture, you could hear a recording of a Churchill speech. He was a very stirring speaker.

     He was a hard taskmaster according to his secretary. When dictating documents, he would talk fast and pace around the room. He also had a speech impediment that made it difficult to make out what he was saying sometimes. But woe to you if you asked him to repeat something.

     He was also picky about noises as is apparent by the above sign. = )

Churchill's "siren suit"

     This was Churchill's favorite outfit, a velvet one piece jumpsuit. He loved it so much he made a gift of one to President Franklin Roosevelt. (I wonder if Roosevelt ever wore his.) On his visit to the White House in 1941, the staff reportedly got used to seeing him wear this suit everywhere. Apparently it was either this suit or nothing - they preferred the suit. = )

     After the museum, we saw more rooms used by Churchill and his war cabinet.

Churchill's dining room

The map room
These are the same maps they used during WWII!

The kitchen

More maps
The pins are still in them showing the position of troops.

The telephone room
Churchill used those very phones to talk to his allies.    

    As an added bonus to us Doctor Who fans, the Churchill War Rooms were the set of the episode Victory of the Daleks. (We did not see any Daleks on our visit.)       

    Next on the itinerary of the day was a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, the magnificent church built by the architect Christopher Wren.

St. Paul's Cathedral

     St. Paul stands at the peak of the triangle in the middle and the relief underneath shows the story of his conversion. The statue in the front of the church on ground level is that of Queen Anne who was the ruler when St. Paul's was completed. (Interesting fact: This church is the first great church to be finished in the lifetime of its architect.) The outside is amazing but the inside is truly breathtaking. But, you guessed it, no photography allowed.The layout of the church is in the traditional cross shape, the dome capping the intersection. The dome reaches up 365 feet and made St. Paul's the tallest building in London until 1965. It is the fourth largest church in Europe. The first thing you see when you walk in is the baptismal fount standing right in front of you. It was placed at the entrance because baptism symbolically washes away the old man and a new creature begins his new life in Christ and in the church.

Standing at the baptismal fount

The interior of St. Paul's started out rather drab. Wren designed it that way - simple and open with nothing to hide. The main decorations were some painting by Sir James Thornhill portraying 8 scenes from the life of St. Paul painted up in the dome.  We walked up the nave to admire his artistry, walking in the footsteps of Prince Charles and Lady Diana on their wedding day.

St. Paul's Dome

Hard to see the pictures so here's some closer up.

     The dome you see from inside the church is actually one of three stacked one on top of the other. Wren wanted to create a low, shallow dome for the inside so the worshippers wouldn't feel so small but outside he wanted the dome large and impressive. Pretty clever, aye?     

     But even Queen Victoria complained that the church inside was "most dreary, dingy and un-devotional”. So the cathedral started acquiring Victorian ornamentation. In the late 19th century, the artist W.B. Richmond was commissioned to create mosaics to decorate the east end of the cathedral. His work is amazing to behold. My eyes couldn't tear themselves away even when my neck complained of having to look up so long.

Mosaics over quire

     The 3 circular mosaics over the choir show the creation of the birds, fish, and land animals.

Close up of land animal mosaic

A few more mosaics:

One of the "Angel's of the Morning" that support the
creation circles. 

The annunciation

At the far end of the quire is the altar.

Mosaic over altar 

Altar at St. Paul's

     The church has several memorial monuments including one for Lord Horatio Nelson. Lord Nelson was buried in the crypt below the church.

     But before we went down into the crypt, we climbed up to the Whispering Gallery up in the dome. It is the level right beneath the dome on the inside. It's called the Whispering Gallery because you can whisper something into the wall and someone on the other side of the dome can hear it. We didn't try it out though - too many people bustling about.

Stairs to Whispering Gallery

Looking down from Whispering Gallery

Looking toward the altar

     Then we climbed up a tight metal staircase up to the Stone Gallery on the outside of the dome with some great views of London. I did get to use my camera here. = )

The Thames River
The Globe is across the river on the left -
(the white building).

   Once we climbed down from the dome, we continued down below the church to the crypt. We saw some very old tombs that had survived the Great Fire in the Old St. Paul's and were moved here when the crypt was completed.     

    In the center of the crypt is a huge coffin sitting on top of a pedestal. This is the tomb for Lord Nelson.

Tomb of Lord Nelson

     The day was speeding by and we had to keep moving. So, after a quick look around, we headed out the exit through the cathedral cafe. (It seemed weird to me that the cafe was on the same level as the crypt, just steps away from it, in fact.)

St. Paul's south side

     Our next visit was to Westminster Abbey to attend the evensong. Evensong is held every evening at 5 pm. Most of this service is sung. We had a few reasons for attending the service: it was a great experience to see this amazing church in the act of worshipping God and be able to join in (not just be tourists sightseeing), the choir that evening was from Toronto (how cool is that!), and it costs almost $60 for a family to visit the church as sightseers while its free to attend evensong.

Westminster Abbey

     We arrived at the church just after the service started and were seated discreetly with the other late comers. The service was held in quire where, obviously, the choir sits. If you saw the royal wedding, you'll remember that the church has a long nave at the entrance, then some doors that lead into the quire with the wooden seats on either side. Then, if you keep going, you get to the altar. Just past the quire two rooms branch out on either side - the cross floor plan. We were seated in one of the side rooms. There is no way to see the choir unless you are seated very close but luckily the church has TV screens that relay the action to those of us sitting further back than the front row. (I wonder if the TV screens were there for the wedding. I remember thinking that most of the wedding guests couldn't have been able to see much.) We were given a bulletin and a handout with information on the different parts of the service and where we were to join in.     

Doors into quire

Looking up - amazing, isn't it?

The quire looking back toward the entrance

Some of the monuments on left

Memorial to the Unknown Soldier

     It was wonderful to just sit back and listen to the choir and soak in the loveliness of the church. People have been worshipping God here for hundreds of years. We were surrounded by memorials and graves of British people including 29 kings and queens dating back to the 13th century. One of the most interesting stories of someone buried here was that of the poet Thomas Hardy. When he died in 1927, his family wanted him buried in Stinsford where his first wife was buried. But others insisted that he be buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A compromised was reached - his heart would go to Stinsford and the rest of him to Westminster Abbey. His heart was removed from his body and placed in a biscuit tin. But, when no one was watching, a cat came in and ate the heart! Eeeww! The cat was caught and killed and they buried it in Stinsford. (I don't know if this story is true but that's the rumor.)

Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey

     To the left of the doors into the quire is the tomb of Isaac Newton.

Isaac Newton tomb

     Afterward, we did a little souvenir shopping and photo snapping on our way to our next stop.

Churchill monument near Westminster Abbey

On the Millenium Bridge

St. Paul's is in the back

      The last stop of the day was the cherry on the top of a wonderful London adventure. We went to a Shakespeare play in the Globe Theatre. We got the cheapest tickets which entitled us to a place on the floor in front of the stage - standing room only. We were tired and footsore from a long day walking around but the discomfort was nothing compared to the awesomeness of being in Shakespeare's own home country watching one of his plays in a theatre that is very much like the one that he himself worked at. What a thrill!

The expensive seats

The groundlings below

The stage

The actors entered and exited up this ramp,
crossing right in front of us.

      The show was called the Indian Tempest - it was a version of Shakespeare's Tempest done by a troupe of Indian and British actors in English, Sanskrit, and French. Not pure Shakespeare but still very enjoyable. We were right down close to the action with actors passing just feet away from us. We saw the opening show of this production and witnessed a few things going wrong - ah, the joys of live theatre. In one part the bad guys were captured under a net. At a certain time they were all suppose to get out from under the net but one of them got stuck - so stuck that the other actors had to come and help him get out! He turned to the audience and told us, "Never act with children or nets!" Then they continued. A few of the scenes involved open flames - candle and torches. Using real fire instead of the unrealistic fake stuff is great but then they go dancing and waving their flowy costumes over the flames! And this happens to be one of the only wooden buildings in London! Nothing caught on fire but I doubt that Andrew and I were the only ones a bit worried about it. 

    (Also, Doctor Who fans will recognize this as the is site of the episode The Shakespeare Code.)

     After the play we joined the theatre crowd walking back to the subway. We passed by the Clink, London's oldest prison, and the remains of the Palace of Winchester, the old residence of the bishops of Winchester. Just past that was the replica of the Golden Hinde.

Remains of Winchester Palace

The Golden Hinde

     It was amazing to just be walking along and unexpectedly come upon these interesting sites. So much history in this city - it's bursting out its seams!    

     There is still much more that we'd love to do and see in London but we definitely made the most of our time and had a wonderful visit here. Until next time . . .