Chapter 17: London: Quick Tour

Today I am in London with my Canadian friends, Cindy & Gary Parrish. We have spent a few days resting in Oxfordshire before braving a day-trip to this city which I last saw in 1965.

It always proves effective, I think, to do a quick bus tour of a new city, before moving to specific sights to see and places to visit. It worked for us in Dublin and Oxford, and again serves in London, as we undertake the Original London Bus Tour, which includes a Thames Cruise.
We also visit Westminster Abbey and we take a flight on the London Eye, but I will save those visits for my next chapter.

Our Thames cruise starts at Westminster Pier, across the river from the London Eye, and it proves to be an excellent vantage point and a great way to see how the city has changed along the Thames, with many modern buildings apparent amidst historical landmarks.
Our open-deck cruise boat allows us to enjoy the fabulous weather. In fact, except for one day of rain in the highlands of Scotland, we have had gorgeous sunshine every day of our vacation.

Here we pass Cleopatra's Needle and the Shell Mex House. Queen Victoria ordered that she wanted these parts of the bridge to look like pulpits. We also pass the still-standing supports for the Blackfriars Railway Bridge, which had been taken down in the late 1800s.

I do not know for sure how many bridges cross the Thames; some are new, a few are historical, some are for trains, some for cars and some are only for pedestrians. It all makes tremendous sense to this traveller. Below we see the Hungerford Footbridge and the Millennium Footbridge.

The Blackfriars Bridge, both pedestrian and vehicular.

Of course, arguably the most famous of the Thames' bridges, and certainly the most recognizable, is Tower Bridge. As we approach it on our Thames cruise, we first pass by the HMS Belfast, now a Thames naval museum.

HMS Belfast served throughout the Second World War, playing a leading part in the destruction of the battle cruiser Scharnhorst, and also the Normandy Landings. In service with the Royal Navy until 1965, she was saved for the nation in 1971 as a unique reminder of Britain’s naval heritage.

There is almost too much to take in, and no one could remember everything the guide says; besides, he has to spend a lot of his breath asking people to remain seated, but no one listens! But we do see the weathervane of the Fishmongers' Hall, Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hinde, Sea Containers House and London Bridge Hospital.

I am not sure how visible the New Globe Theatre will be from the river, but I am so happy to see it as we arrive opposite Bankside. I will return to visit I promise myself. [And do so, the topic of a later chapter.]

The replica of Shakespeare's Globe was built in the 1990s and opened in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth. It is the only thatched-roof building that is permitted in London, thanks to exemption from the law passed after the Great Fire of London decreeing that no thatch would ever be allowed!

Next to the Globe is the new Tate Modern Art Gallery, one of the most visited galleries in London. It was built from the old Bankside Power Plant (1947) and required considerable renovation, plus the addition of a glassed in two-storey addition, or lamplight. (Cindy also takes a picture of it-left-when we bus through Southbank.)

The guide opines that the two buildings above are both amongst the ugliest in London. Left we see London City Hall, and right is the National Theatre.

Many tourists believe that London Bridge is actually the bridge known as Tower Bridge. In fact, try Googling images of the London Bridge opened in 1968, and most of the pictures will be of Tower Bridge.

In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London placed the bridge on the market. Council member Ivan Luckin had put forward the idea of selling the bridge, and recalled: "They all thought I was completely crazy when I suggested we should sell London Bridge when it needed replacing." On 18 April 1968, Rennie's bridge was sold to the American entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch for $2,460,000. The claim that McCulloch believed mistakenly that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge was denied by Luckin in a newspaper interview. The bridge was reconstructed at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and re-dedicated in 1971 and has become Arizona's second-biggest tourist attraction, after the Grand Canyon.
Tower Bridge crosses the Thames at the Tower of London. We think to take the cruise under the bridge to Greenwich to see the amazing Thames Tidal Barrier, but wisely realize there is not enough time today.

I saw the next photo, of a small plane flying through Tower Bridge, on the wall of the B & B we stayed in near Edinburgh, so decided to do some research. What I learned was that in 1912, the eccentric airman, Frank K. McClean flew his new "hydro-plane," a bi-plane capable of landing on water, from Sheppey, up the Thames Estuary and between the bascules and the walkways of Tower Bridge. Some say he did this due to an emergency, but other sources claim it was simply an aerobatic stunt. He claimed to be protesting the government’s failure to embrace aviation and the resultant media frenzy about his stunt drew plenty of attention. The fact that photographers were on hand from the newspapers seems proof enough of his intentions. In 1952, a London Bus was trapped on a bascule as it was rising and was forced to jump from one to the other! Since there is very little commercial or naval traffic on the Thames nowadays, I doubt the bridge needs to be raised all that often.
I realized that the portrait paintings in the B & B were of the same Frank K. McClean, but I cannot ascertain if our B & B hosts are of his family.

Views of Northbank from the south, showing City Hall, across to the financial district, featuring the so-called "Gherkin," officially known as the Swiss Re Tower, or 30 St. Mary Axe, or sometimes just as "the pickle."

I confess to loving photos such as these ones, a scene showing the medieval Tower of London, and the ultra-modern, space-age "Gherkin" tower.

[The following day, when Cindy & Gary return to London before flying home to Canada, they visit the Tower of London, and recommend it. I do recall it from 1965, but might come back another day to spend several hours here.]

The name Traitors' Gate has been used since the early seventeenth century; prisoners were brought by barge along the Thames, passing under London Bridge, where the heads of recently executed prisoners were displayed on pikes. Anne Boleyn, Sir Thomas More, Queen Catherine Howard, and Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth I, all entered the Tower by Traitors' Gate.

Looking up the Thames, two things are apparent: there is not much commercial traffic on the river these days; and the skyscape dangles large numbers of building cranes. But the British economy is in freefall right now, the Pound being at its lowest value in decades. I doubt the building boom here will last much longer!

On the bus tour we see, amongst many other sites or sights, St. Paul's Cathedral. I was here as a boy and decide to return to see it another day.

We pass the London Exchange building, built in 1844, with Threadneedle Street going left, and Cornhill Street, right.

My excellent telephoto capability allows me to juxtapose the weathervane on the Royal Exchange Building--known as the Gresham Grasshopper after the man who built the Exchange--with the odd "Gherkin" tower down the street. The Exchange now functions from modern facilities near St. Paul's.
The Bank of England figures significantly in my book about H.J.B. Marriott. He worked here as a young man, and vividly recalled shovelling gold sovereigns into buckets, and then helping deliver them from a wagon. He hated the Bank, and that hatred was a key factor in persuading him to leave England for Port Williams, Nova Scotia, Canada.

We also drive through the Theatre District. (We contemplate coming here to see a show near American Thanksgiving.)

We also see the Courts of Justice on the Strand, detailed here.

Other notable sites are The George Pub on the Strand--aren't all pubs worth noting?--and another building that was originally a Fleet Street tavern. The building houses Prince Henry's Room, and is notable as one of the only 17th century city structures to survive the Great Fire of London and the bombings of World War II. Prince Henry was the Duke of Cornwall and son of James I; the story goes that he used the room now named for him as an office out of which he conducted business. Today, the inside exhibits a collection of artefacts about the diarist Samuel Pepys, famous for his memoirs of the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666, which destroyed much of this area. Another pub, elsewhere, carries a plaque explaining its name.

Every tourist must visit Trafalgar Square with its iconic Lord Nelson Column. In an earlier blog--from my visit to Portsmouth--I wrote about visiting HMS Victory, Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar--[and later I will see his memorial & tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral].

Of course, our Canadian beaver tales start slapping as we drive around Trafalgar Square to see the Canadian Embassy, and cries of "Canadian, eh!" are heard echoing through the bus!

Our tour guide spends much of his voice telling us about celebrities, so when we pass Eaton Square, we learn that living here are Sean Connery and Margaret Thatcher. Of course, I am more curious about for whom this upscale neighbourhood is named: I carry as my middle name, Eaton, my mother's maiden name. More research to do . . .

The purpose of the bus tour is to get an overview of the city, and as we pass through Piccadilly Circus, I check this off as a place to which I must return. I grab a shot of the Piccadilly fountain--but barely see the famous statue of Eros atop it--but as we arrive here near dusk, we get the advantage of the full effect of the electric advertising.

The first electric ads were display in 1910. Right is the Criterion Theatre, with its flying nude sculpture.

Cindy and I are both looking for details. Here are two, one from, I believe, Victoria Station, and the other from Grosvenor House.

Victoria Station and "Little Ben." The detail here is the Lewisham Bus: Jack Marriott was born in Lewisham (as was, I believe, John Dortmunder) and I intend to visit Lewisham in the near future to see if his birthplace is still there--it was in 1937! Now I know that I can take the bus!

Many of my photos from the open double-decker bus show the tops of buildings. This shot is from someone else, likely my stepmother, Dianne. This distinguished pub survived the Blitz and 1960's redevelopment. Far from being intimidated by the skyscrapers that surround it, the Albert stands proud against its bland neighbours. It was built in 1864, on the site of a pub called the Bluecoat Boy, and was named in honour of Queen Victoria's husband, the Prince Consort. On the walls hang portraits of British Prime Ministers, from Salisbury, to an autographed one of Tony Blair. Mrs. Thatcher unveiled her own. Members of Parliament often dine here and for their convenience a division bell is installed.

London is a city of arches: here we see the Admiralty Arch, through which one can approach Buckingham Palace, and the Wellington Arch. We missed Buckingham Palace as today it closed for the season.

Our Original Tour of London by bus, commenced and ended at the Marble Arch by Hyde Park. We arrived by train at Marylebone Station, a reasonable walk from here, but at the end of the day we grab a bus back to Marylebone, weary but happy. Somehow we manage not to use the Underground at all today and crowds were not so bad as we had expected.

My quick tour of London has been excellent for us, and I now have definite ideas about coming back to London on my own, soon.

For now, I must write the next chapter: The London Eye & Westminster Abbey.

[I returned in late October to see The Globe and St. Paul's, and plan to return in November to see the Albert & Victoria Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and Piccadilly.]