LONDON 2

THE CITY

The “City” of London is distinct from the city that is called London.

The City is a corporation and rules just over a square mile of what was once the ancient city.

It has its own police force and laws.It’s own Mayor. The monarch has to ask permission from that Mayor to enter the City.

There are no roads only streets. London has 8 million people living in it. The City of London has 7000 but swells daily to 300,000 with commuters working in the financial sector based here.

Above-Ludgate Hill is the highest point in the old city and is where there has always been a temple or a church or a Ctrhedral

The current St Pauls was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built after the Great Fire of 1666 that destroyed the older wood and stone Cathedral.

Christopher Wren also rebuilt 51 churches that surrounded the original Cathedral.

Many are now gone but some still survive  hiding away behind new modern glass office blocks.

Below-The spiral staircase that leads to a grand view atop St Pauls.

Below-St Pauls sits upon Ludgate Hill so named after the pre Roman King Lud.  

This statue of him with his two sons once sat upon the entrance to the City from the west or Ludgate.  Now it is in the old Church of St.Dunstans.

The arch below called the Temple Bar replaced it in the early 1600’s. It got to be too narrow for traffic and was removed to a country house to be yet again put back close to St Pauls.

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The name Temple comes from circular Temple Church off the Strand  built by the Knights Templar.

Above-The entrance to St Bartholomew the Great near St Pauls. The oldest (1142) church in London still in use.

Further down those narrow alleys toward the river one comes to the place where the old Blackfriars Monastery used to be.

Now there is the……BLACKFRIARS PUB

It was built in 1875 near the site of a thirteenth century Dominican Priory, which gives the area it’s name and was the inspiration for the pubs design.

Totally charming and more like a church inside than a pub. A profane church. It is decorated in the Nouveau end of the Arts and Crafts style, with mottoes on the walls such as -Haste Is Slow, Industry Is All – and friezes of monks with animals ears going about the business of collecting eels and boiling eggs and making brew.

The reasonable exterior does not prepare you for the extraordinary interior. The immediate impression is that of an extravagantly ornate church, or scaled down cathedral, every inch decorated in marble, mosaic or bas-relief sculpture.

Details appear after awhile such as the various figures perched on the mouldings. This one below is reading a book upside down.

This one playing a concertina.

In the 1960’s Sir John Betjeman, who later became the Poet Laureate of England, led a campaign to save the Black Friar from demolition. Thanks to him and his supporters we can still enjoy this delightful pub.
It is amazing to think that buildings such as this were even considered for demolition but the sad fact is that many fine buildings were swept away in the post war rush to rebuild and modernize.

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Built in 1900 by the artist George Watts it was a memorial to ordinary people who died saving the lives of others and might otherwise have been forgotten. Under a loggia and along a wall are some 160 plus ceramic memorial tablets that are quite touching and poetic in their descriptions.
Here are some.

…saving lads from the entanglement of weed!

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THE SOUTH BANK

After the war it was a desolate bombed out wasteland now it has turned into a bustling second city across the river.

This continues the areas history of  theatre and entertainment venues.

Above- As it used to look like in the fifties.
Barges and warehouses lined the river which brought the wealth of Empire right into the heart of the City. The ships are gone now and the river is quiet.

The way was cleared for a walking path direct from St Pauls over the river to the South Bank and the Tate Modern.

When one crosses the river from the City one is in Shakespeare’s London. This is Bankside or Southwark.

In his day it was not legally part of London and so it was where the Londoners went across old London Bridge to indulge their vices.

It was a red light district with theatres, inns and bear baiting arenas.

The Golden Hinde that Francis Drake circumnavigated the World in sits in dry dock with a skyline behind unrecognizable to Elizabethan eyes.

Tower Bridge now is dwarfed by a new skyline developing in the City.

The remarkable development east of St Pauls is clear in this image above

with The Shard winning the race to be the most dramatic.

It is currently Europe’s tallest building at seventy two stories and just over 1000 feet high.

Below- The “shock of the architectural new” started in 1951 on this bombed out site south of the river with The Festival Of Britain. It was designed to be uplifting for the masses after the war and to show Britain could still be on the leading edge of design. The first buildings still exist in their controversial modernist concrete “brutalism”.
Now after all the passing years they are listed as preserved examples of that period and house the National Theatre and various music venues.

The buildings (below) still get a dusting from giant cleaning ladies.

Below-From Waterloo Bridge one sees the London Eye or Big Wheel.
Great views for those who lack vertigo.

Above looking down on old London City hall

Below-The new City Hall building called variously the Egg -Darth Vader’s helmet and the Glass testicle.

Above-Looks like an escape pod for the bankers when the masses rise up to storm “The Gherkin” as it is called.

Below-It too is now being crowded out by more steel monsters.

Above what was once docks for bringing in goods from all over the world are now refurbished  modern businesses.

Tower Bridge now looks like the day is was built.

Above–Southwark Cathedral is a mini Westminster Abbey with almost as much history. Shakespeare’s brother is buried here and the Bard himself is honored as he was doing business nearby and therefore it was his local church.

Below-The infamous Tower of London.

Below–Shad Thames. As one continues eastwards what was once Victorian dockland has been preserved as trendy apartments and bars etc. This area was well known to me as a child.  Bustling during the day with ships being offloaded into these warehouses but night and on weekends it was deserted.