Hello Friends and Family: London II

My first full day back in London was a busy one. I tried to do the Roads to Rome walk by City of London Corporation, but kept stopping to take a closer look at things along the way. Despite forgetting to book beforehand, there was space for me to see the London Mithraeum. The whole experience is very well done.

From there, I walked past the London Stone, down Fish Street Hill, to the Monument. Even though it wasn’t on the walk, I took the opportunity and went to the top. The stairs are extremely narrow, and the climb had my legs and lungs burning, but the view was so worth it.

At the bottom of Fish Street Hill is the church of St Magnus the Martyr. Not surprisingly, I went in. It was awesome, but not as awesome as the next church I visited: All Hallows by the Tower. One of the few churches to survive the Great Fire, it doesn’t have Wren stamped all over it; in fact, there is an arch inside that was built during the Saxon period, and the museum in the crypt houses all kinds of wonderful Roman and Medieval treasures found on the site.

Aiming for a bit of a slower day, on Saturday I wandered down to Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. It was very pleasant. I had picked up a brochure outlining a “Plants and People” walk through the cemetery, just to give my wandering a bit of direction; it did what I wanted it to, but it was impossible to actually identify the plants along the way (probably because it was winter). There was plenty of wildlife, though, and people walking their dogs.

Sunday was the day I continued the Roads to Rome walk. Unfortunately, some of the tube lines were closed, so I couldn’t get back to Tower Hill (where I left off on Friday). I ended up at Bank station, tried and failed to exit at Monument, and so caught the next train to London Bridge. It was quite the adventure.

Having crossed back to the right side of the river, I headed towards Tower Hill. On the way, I found St Dunstan’s in the East; there was more church ruins and less garden than I had expected (I loved it, until lots more people arrived and it got busy). Being near Tower Bridge, I went inside for the Tower Bridge Exhibition. It was cool to see the history of the bridge, but I don’t think I would pay to do it again.

I followed the walk through Leadenhall Market (rather unimpressive), past the Royal Exchange and Guildhall, to St Alphage Garden. St Alphage Garden houses a section of the old Roman wall, extensively repaired during the Wars of the Roses. Nearby are the remains of the tower of St Elsyng Spital (unexpected but cool to see). I finished the day with a couple of hours at the Museum of London (I have to go back – I only got as far as the Medieval gallery).

On Monday I had plans to meet one of my sisters for lunch near her office. Since it’s only a couple of tube stops along from Cockfosters, I swung by to take a photo (it was too good an opportunity to pass up). After lunch, I went to the Guildhall. The art was a lot more interesting than that at Tate Modern, but the Amphitheatre was pretty unspectacular. I enjoyed seeing the Great Hall, and the police museum was worth a quick look.

Wednesday was a Southwark day. I started by walking across London Bridge (Monument was much easier to get to than London Bridge station). The first major thing I did was wander around the Crossbones Graveyard – so much history, but it seems to be all garden these days.

From there, I made my way towards Shakespeare’s Globe, but decided that going inside was too expensive (even with the discount voucher I picked-up from the hostel), so I went to Southwark Cathedral instead. So much history!!!!!