Michael and I took a walk around the gardens Westminster
Abbey to view the memorial crosses, which have been placed there. Every year, in the lead up to Armistice Day,
the public are invited to plant little wooden crosses with personal messages in
honour of the fallen from past wars. It
was overwhelming to see the sheer number of crosses, with the saddest ones
planted in the section for ongoing conflicts.
I was able to see the section reserved for members of the Buffs (Royal East
Kent Regiment), where my great uncle had served.
There are two rather whimsical displays on the streets of
London at the moment. One is the Year of
the Bus sculpture trail. There are three
trails, which feature sculptures of London buses, which have been painted and
adorned by well-known and aspiring artists.
Some of the sculptures are quite beautiful whilst others are
amusing. Following the display, the
artworks will be auctioned to raise funds for three charities. The other display is the Paddington
Trail. There are 50 Paddington Bear
statues dotted all over London, which have been designed by celebrities such as
Stephen Fry, David Beckham and Emma Watson.
It is fun to just chance upon one of these cute creations. My favourite is the one designed by Stephen
Fry, which features a rather smart looking bear wearing a Union Jack duffle
coat. He can be found outside Downing Street.
I had read an article in The Age about wandering around the
area of Kings Cross Station and how much the area has changed. Michael and I set off to explore and had a
very pleasant afternoon meandering through the streets. We soon found the St Pancras Old Church and
discovered the Hardy Tree. Thomas Hardy
trained as an architect before he became an author, and one of his jobs was to
supervise the re-interment of bodies in the churchyard, which had been moved to
make way for the railway lines. He
decided that the displaced gravestones should be placed in a circular pattern
around a tree. That tree has now grown
in and around the gravestones in an interesting and rather beautiful way. There is also a tomb for Sir John Soane and
his wife in the churchyard. This
mausoleum provided the inspiration for the design of the iconic red telephone
boxes of England.
We went to see the Christmas lights in Regent Street the
night they were lit and were not disappointed.
Once again, traffic was stopped to allow families to walk the street to
view the lights. There are huge banners
of lights strung across the roadway with some of them adorned with giant
plastic snow domes, with the snow whipping about inside them. Just lovely.
We also visited Marylebone High Street when the lights were turned on
there, which was fun. The streets around
Sloane Square and where we are staying are adorned with small, real Christmas
trees which hang from every light post, all twinkling with fairy lights. Nearly every shop has now put up their
Christmas window displays and the effect is magical.
There are even real reindeer for children to
feed and pat at Covent Gardens! The
giant Christmas tree from Norway will be erected in Trafalgar Square over the
coming days with the lights turned on there on December 4th. I can’t wait to see it.
I took myself off to the Royal Mews and had a lovely morning
touring and viewing the fabulous state coaches.
My favourite was the coach designed to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond
Jubilee. This coach was designed by an
Australian and built in Australia. Apart
from being a very ornate and beautiful creation, the material used is also of
great historical significance. The crown
atop the roof is carved from timber from the HMS Victory. There are also timber sections from the Mary
Rose, the Mayflower and various abbeys, cathedrals, castles and palaces. The doorhandles are encrusted with diamonds
and sapphires and the lamps are made of beautiful crystal. It would be very comfortable to ride in as
well, as it is heated and has electric windows!
On display were a number of other carriages including the Gold State
Coach, which has been used for the coronation of every British monarch since
George IV.
Next on my list was the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham
Palace. This was where I made an
uncharacteristic error and didn’t research what I was about to see. I made the erroneous assumption that I would
view paintings and artwork belonging to Her Majesty and therefore expected
royal portraits and the like. Instead,
there were two exhibitions taking place, Gold and Cairo to Constantinople. The first exhibition on gold was mildly
interesting to me and there was an impressive gold tiger head on display. The second exhibition showed a number of
photographs, which were taken on a royal tour undertaken by the Prince of Wales
in 1862. Again, this was mildly
interesting, if only to see how one could mistreat ancient monuments in those
days ie climbing the sphinx and souveniring whatever one wanted.
I took a fabulous walk along the River Thames from Chelsea
Bridge to Tower Bridge. I have wanted to
do this walk for some time since I read an article in The Age before we left
Australia. The Thames Path runs for 180
miles along the banks of the River Thames from Woolwich in South East London to
Kemble in Gloucestershire. I would like
to walk the full length of the path some day but the short distance I walked
has been enough to whet the appetite. I
thoroughly enjoyed myself walking along and stopping to look at anything, which
caught my attention along the way. The
biggest find for me was discovering The Burghers of Calais statue by Rodin
situated next to the Houses of Parliament.
I had no idea it was there and was thrilled to bits when I came upon
it. I am very grateful to have the
luxury of time to explore the city in such a way.
Michael and I had a lovely evening at the Southbank Centre
Christmas Market. There were a number of
wooden chalets selling food, drink, gifts and handmade crafts. We enjoyed roast pork rolls with stuffing,
washed down with mulled wine and brandy.
It was a very nice way to spend some time and I am sure we will return
before the Christmas season is over.
One of the wonderful things about staying in London is the
number of exhibitions, which are on at any given time. Michael and I took in the Witches and Wicked
Bodies at the British Museum, an exhibition that was not well advertised but
well worth the visit. On display were
prints and drawings showing how witches and witchcraft have been depicted by
artists, over the past 500 years. There
were works by Durer, Goya and Delacroix amongst many others. It was all very interesting.
The World Press Photo Exhibition was held at the Royal
Festival Hall and, whilst interesting, was poorly set out so you had to jostle
the crowds to see the displays. Much
better, was an exhibition downstairs called Catching Dreams, which featured
artwork by prisoners. The artworks on
display were of extraordinary quality and there are obviously some very
talented people incarcerated in Britain.
Winter Wonderland has opened in Hyde Park. This is a huge area filled with rides, Christmas
markets, ice-skating and festive fare.
London really is a wonderful place to be at Christmas, especially if you
are a child. It was great fun walking
around and seeing so many people having a great time.
London’s Burning
On Sunday we were to meet Michael’s godmother, Margaret, at
Charing Cross Station. The weather was
woeful – our first day in London where it just teemed with rain. We had arranged to meet Margaret by Eleanor’s
Cross, however, as it was pouring, we decided to wait inside the train
station. Whilst we were waiting, I
noticed two armed policeman patrolling the area. I remarked to Michael that armed police
always make me feel nervous and we agreed that they were there to make their
presence felt during a time of heightened terrorism threat. Suddenly we were aware of what looked like
flares lighting a section of one of the train platforms. We both stood there, along with a number of
other people, trying to work out what was going on. People started to walk quickly away from the area
and Michael signalled to the police that something was going on. Just when the police started to jog over to
investigate, people started running out of the station. I told Michael it was time to get out of
there and I turned to start walking out.
Next thing I knew, someone screamed get out and people really started
running, including me! Once outside, I
turned to see that Michael was nowhere to be seen. I tried to turn back however, I was met by a
wall of running people. Finally, I
caught sight of him, standing at the station entrance talking to Margaret. By now alarms and klaxons are sounding and
lights were flashing over the entranceways stating Do Not Enter and those two
were standing there having a good old natter as if nothing out of the ordinary
was happening! I kept signalling wildly
for them to get away from there whereupon they sauntered over to me and
proceeded to discuss where we would go for coffee. My response was to suggest getting as far
away from the station as possible and could they please MOVE IT! It wasn’t until we returned home that evening
that we saw that a train carriage had caught fire and the station had been
closed for two hours whilst the fire was contained and the mess cleaned away.
The rest of the day was much more relaxed as we strolled the
National Gallery and then lunched at the Café in the Crypt in St
Martin-In-The-Fields. This is exactly
what it sounds like – a café set up in the crypt of the church. All proceeds from the café go towards the
preservation and upkeep of the church.
We had a lovely afternoon just sitting there chatting, so it didn’t
matter that the rain kept up all day.
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