Chapter 18: London: Eye in the Sky & Westminster

The London Eye is also known as the Millennium Wheel and rises to a height of 135 metres (443 feet) and is visited by over 3 million people a year. The London Eye is located at the western end of Jubilee Gardens, on the South Bank of the River Thames between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge.
It was formally opened by Prime Minister Tony Blair on December 31, 1999, although it was not opened to the public until March 2000 because of technical problems. Since its opening, the Eye, operated by Merlin Entertainments but sponsored by British Airways, has become a major landmark and tourist attraction. Today it is owned 100% by the Tussauds group, which also owns Madame Tussauds Wax Museum and even Warwick Castle. (Amongst the original owners, British Airways removed its name in 2008.) It cost $125 million to build, and the lease for the land on which the struts of the Eye are anchored is £500,000 per year. On 5 June 2008 it was announced that 30 million had ridden the London Eye since its opening in March 2000.

One needs to understand that your traveller is acrophobic, aeroacrophobic and bathmophobic! My fear of heights is especially acute today, but at least I need not worry about steep slopes and stairs, or my fear of being in high open spaces. The pods on the London Eye are definitely enclosed! But I admit to you that I have to sit down several times because of dizziness, and try not to be too conspicuous as I hold on! (I have these same feelings on airplanes, so obviously my phobia is not too acute.) The expression on my face is as much a grimace as a grin. It is not a smile!

That said, I am glad I make the 30-minute journey into the sky on the London Eye. The view is amazing and today is clear enough that we can see miles and miles--up to 25 miles--into the distance. The Eye offers a 360-degree view and I am able to take a few photos as we "fly."

Here we see the Palace of Westminster at the end of Westminster Bridge, including Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

Here we look towards St. James Park and Green Park, with Buckingham Palace, the Treasury, the Foreign Office, and the Ministry of Defence. Here we look north down on Charing Cross Station and the Jubilee Bridges. Almost centre, on the horizon is BT Tower. Shell Mex House is just visible to the right.

Two trains meet in the southeast parts of London.

Looking vertiginously down at London County Hall, which houses not only the London Eye exhibition and ticket office, but also the London Aquarium and the Dali Universe.

Our fellow passengers inside the London Eye pod or capsule, of which there are thirty-two, each able to hold about twenty-five travellers. Our flight is not sold out, so there is lots of room, even enough space for me to sit on the floor.
The capsule behind us, now at the top, is not crowded either.

The London Eye, originally created by a husband and wife team of David Marks & Julia Barfield to celebrate the millennium to give visitors a unique way to see London, looks like a giant bicycle wheel.

My travel companion, Gary Parrish seems to have none of the fear I am showing. And this is actually a photo taken before we left the ground and flew 443 feet into the sky over the River Thames. It is also unnerving when we get off the Eye--while it is still moving, by the way--to see workers rush into each capsule before new passengers board, with mirrors held under the benches to look for bombs!

As we alight we immediately see some sculptures by Salvador Dali enticing us into the museum.

Not only Dali is represented on the Quay, but we also find Batman!

This part of Jubilee Park reminds us of Halifax Harbourside with its buskers. Along this Quay are numerous buskers, including a cycling fish and Charlie Chaplin. In fact, this is a vibrant area of London, full of people enjoying the sunshine and friendly crowds. It is not too crowded, but that is partly because we are here quite late in the tourism season, late September. To us, and those others here, it seems this is perfect.

After our flight on the London Eye, we look across the Thames towards Big Ben, Westminster Palace and Westminster Abbey. I think then about Big Ben. This 316-foot clock tower was completed between 1858-59. "Big Ben" is a nickname for the tower, named, probably, after Sir Benjamin Hall. The proper name is The Clock Tower; the 13.76 tonne bell itself is named Big Ben. The bus tour guide said it was a good thing it wasn’t named after Sir RICHARD Hall. We cross Westminster Bridge to take the Westminster Abbey tour.

We pass the Westminster Pier, and enjoy the lively atmosphere is this area, but also note artistic tributes, such as this statue to Boadicea, created by Thomas Thornycroft. Boudica (formerly known as Boadicea, and known in Welsh culture and legends as "Buddug") (d. AD 60 or 61) was a queen of the Iceni tribe of what is now known as East Anglia. She led an uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire. Westminster Abbey is another part of London which I do remember visiting as a young Boy Scout in 1965. Its history is long and eventful, as there has been a church of some type here for over one thousand years, from at least the time in 950 AD when Dunstan and a dozen Benedictine monks from Glastonbury built a monastery.

But it was King Edward the Confessor who founded his church on the site, consecrated 28 December 1065. A new abbey was built in 1245. In 1540, when Henry dissolved the monasteries, Westminster was re-founded as a cathedral so escaped the ruination of other monasteries. But Westminster became an abbey again in 1553 when Catholicism was restored. Queen Elizabeth I made Westminster a Royal Peculiar, meaning that the Dean and Chapter were answerable to her, as a special church under the Queen.

It was damaged and vandalized during the civil war in 1649, but escaped destruction during WWII. It was cleaned and restored during the 1960s, which may be why I recall it as less worn and tired than it seems to be today. It needs another cleaning! But it doesn't really matter. It is a building in which one's eyes are constantly pulled upwards. I regret that photography is not permitted!

Of course, we all see Westminster on television as it is considered to be England’s symbol of the connection between Church and State. Recent State occasions were the funerals of Lady Diana in 1997 and the Queen Mother in 2002. Thirty-eight coronations have taken place here. The battered old Coronation Chair, first used in 1399 by Henry IV has suffered from its age, and centuries-old student graffiti and exposure to the public. Beneath it for centuries sat the Stone of Destiny or Stone of Scone until 1996 when it was returned to Edinburgh Castle, where I admired it earlier this fall.

My guidebook says that Westminster Abbey may be the most beautiful building in England with its original Norman remains, its great West Tower, and its French Gothic nave (with flying buttresses supporting the heavy roof, rose windows, and radiating chapels).

Everywhere I travel in Britain I find myself fascinated by the intricacy of stone carvings, such as these around the North Transept entrance (below). Gradually, as I travel and do research, I grow more aware of what the carvings and designs mean in the Church.

Described as one of the most “astounding architectural achievements of the Tudor Age” is Henry VII’s Lady Chapel, breathtakingly beautiful, and a place in which we spend some quiet time. The chapel is almost a church by itself, with its spectacular nave flanked by enclosed aisles north and south (in which are the tombs of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots). The fine fan vaulted ceiling has been described as “perfection in its beauty and artistry.” In the spectacular buildings I visit in the UK, I continue to be impressed by the genius of architecture: this roof, for example, seems to defy gravity, built with interlocking pieces of stone that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
The Renaissance tomb of Henry VII and his queen, Elizabeth of York, is magnificent in bronze and marble (by the Florentine sculptor Pietro Torrigiano). Buried under the altar is Henry VI and in vaults beneath the nave are James I, Charles II, William & Mary, Queen Anne and George II. George II was the last monarch buried at Westminster, in 1760. When his coffin was placed in the sarcophagus next to that of his wife, Caroline of Anspach (1683-1737) the adjacent sides of both coffins were removed so that nothing would separate them after death.

In 1725 the Lady’s Chapel became the chapel for the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, and therefore we see the brightly coloured banners and the heraldic brass plates of those knights above and on the oak stalls. I love the intricacy of the ornate carved misericords under each seat—slight projections that allowed the monks to have some support while they stood for long, long services! Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) and several of his associates, responsible for the beheading of Charles I in 1649, were originally buried in this chapel, but their bodies were exhumed and hanged at Tyburn in 1661.

Westminster is, of course, not only a church, but is also the burial place for many important people who have contributed to the greatness of Great Britain. A steady queue files past the tomb and effigy of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) buried atop Mary I or “Bloody Mary”, and Mary Queen of Scots 1542-1587, executed on Elizabeth’s orders. There is momentum to return Mary to Scotland. The tombs I recall from my youth are those of Major General James Wolfe (1727-1759) who died at age 32 scaling the Heights of Abraham in Quebec, and that of Lady Elizabeth Nightingale (1704-1731). Described as “ghoulish,” her monument shows her in effigy being protected by her husband as he fends off a spear aimed at her by the life-size skeletal figure of Death emerging from a tomb.

There are many more tombs to see—the shrine to St. Edward the Confessor, tombs of Henry III, Henry V, Edward I (“Longshanks”) , Edward III, Richard II and many more. Edward I is the king who captured the Scottish Stone of Scone and brought it here, to ensure Scotland could never have its own king again. In 1774, his tomb was opened, and the king was seen
“lying in a Purbeck marble coffin, wrapped in a waxed linen cloth, his head covered with a cloth of crimson sarsenet. In his right hand was a sceptre, in his left a rod decorated with green enamelled oak leaves and with a dove at the top. On his head was a guilt crown. He was measured and found to be six feet two inches, which was very tall for those days.” [Guidebook]

Hence his nickname!

The guide tells me that at least 3,000 are believed buried in Westminster and that there are 600 memorials, monuments and tombs. I decide not to stop at every one of them! But I will not miss Poets’ Corner, which now is much more than a corner, but takes up the south transept. It does not, of course, only honour poets!

Poets’ Corner developed after Geoffrey Chaucer was buried here in 1400, not because he was a poet, but because he otherwise served the royal family. In the 1500s, when his literary achievements were duly recognized, he was moved from his original grave to a tomb on the east wall, thus starting a tradition which became embedded when Edmund Spenser was buried here in 1599. Two things I have learned about famous burials and tombs in the United Kingdom: one is that some of these poor corpses keep getting moved from one place to another, and two, we cannot assume the person commemorated by a tomb, memorial or fabulous monument is even buried here at all! I hope that if my ashes are ever buried that I can be left where they put me!

Famous writers actually interred here include Charles Dickens, Robert Browning, Tennyson, Thomas Hardy and Kipling. Those only commemorated, of my favourite writers, are Shakespeare (whose 1741 grand memorial is very impressive), William Blake, Lewis Carroll, T.S. Eliot, Jane Austen, and the Bronte sisters. There is a beautiful memorial to George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) opposite the monument for Shakespeare, but Handel is not really a poet! Although memorialized in Poet’s Corner, Dr. Samuel Johnson is actually buried in the nave of the church, STANDING UP, a fact confirmed years later when diggers putting in a new grave saw the vertical skeleton of Johnson! It is sometimes obvious that the “poet” honoured is not here, but some memorials are ambiguous and only clear if you are knowledgeable: I know that Dylan Thomas is not buried here, nor is Lord Byron, nor, I think, is Oscar Wilde. I do not know about D. H. Lawrence, Edward Lear, Gerard Manley Hopkins or Henry James. I am not certain about the actor David Garrick, but I do know that “Larry” is here—Lawrence Olivier died in 1989—and I wonder if there are many more recent burials of famous artists. Guidebooks and signs remind us that Westminster Abbey is NOT a museum, that it is a living church and that changes are ongoing. Thus, some of the decorations and religious symbols are quite new, there being no sense that everything must remain as it has been for centuries. However, burials are much more limited than in the past, and only ashes are now interred.

Scenes outside Westminster Abbey, and a view from inside the cloisters. From here we see the 98.5-metre (323 ft) Victoria Tower, a square tower at the south-western end of Westminster Palace, housing the Parliament. It was named after the reigning monarch at the time of the reconstruction of the Palace, Queen Victoria. Today, it is home to the Parliamentary Archives. Atop the Victoria Tower is an iron flagstaff, from which either the Royal Standard (if the Sovereign is present in the Palace) or the Union Flag is flown. At the base of the tower is the Sovereign's Entrance to the Palace, used by the monarch whenever entering the Palace of Westminster for the State Opening of Parliament or for any other official ceremony.

Tourists enter Westminster Abbey through the north transept through the aisle of the statesmen, with its statues to great Prime Ministers, and follow the ambulatory past numerous chapels now crowded with tombs and memorials. The layout of the tour brings us around to the south transept, then across to the lantern, where the nave and quire are crossed by the transepts—(I am starting to understand the language of cathedrals!)—and I stop to look into the Sanctuary to admire the Sir George Gilbert Scott high altar, amazing in its highly decorated and embroidered frontals. I learn from the audio tour handset that during coronations, the coronation chair is always set up facing the high altar; during the coronation, the sovereign is anointed with holy oil and then crowned. I note that the lantern roof caught fire and collapsed during World War II.
As I look into the quire, I think of the scepticism of my students when we studied Lord of the Flies; I told them that there were schools in the UK for the training of choristers—hence the arrival of Jack Merridew and his choir; today, the Abbey Choir School is the only school in the country exclusively for the education of choristers.
From here we visit the cloisters, the undercroft, and the octagonal chapter house with its six huge stained glass windows. Along the walks we see the memorials to the great discoverers, Sir Francis Drake, Captain James Cook, Sir Francis Chicester—whose adventures I read about as a young boy—and even a plaque commemorating Halley’s Comet.
The tour brings us finally to the nave, which took several centuries to complete. The spectacular vault—102 feet above—is exquisitely crafted, and hung with incredible chandeliers placed here in 1966--a year after I was last here—to commemorate the 900th anniversary. [Every year at the WUSC book sale back home, I always buy the old tourist guidebooks: I will have to compare the photos in those to those in my new guide to appreciate the changes, at least in the past century.] Here is where the great scientists are buried: the grave and memorial to Sir Isaac Newton are in front of the screen arch as is the grave of Charles Darwin. I imagine what this says about the coexistence of religion and science! Just prior to the tour’s end, I stand quietly as a prayer is being broadcast (on the hour) at the foot of the Grave of the Unknown Warrior. Here is the body of a soldier brought back from France, with soil from the battlefield, under a slab of Belgian black marble. Surrounding the grave are hundreds of crimson poppies from Flanders Fields. It is a fitting exit point as we pass into the outdoors through the West Towers of 1745, under the statutes to the martyrs and by the 1996 memorial to Innocent Victims of Oppression, Violence and War.

Surely, it is not a coincidence that after we leave Westminster Abbey, we find on Parliament Square a protest--oddly there are no protestors--about Britain's involvement in Iraq.

I surmise that the Bobby across the road at a gate into Westminster has more capability to deal with disorder than his pleasant demeanour might suggest. In fact, the police next to him, who adamantly forbids Cindy taking his picture, is armed with a weapon that would look more appropriate on a battlefield in Iraq.

It is time to leave London for now. Gary & Cindy will return tomorrow. I will wait a while before coming back to see the attractions I have selected for closer inspection. British acquaintances with whom I have talked to about visiting London are much less enthusiastic about coming into the city: some have not been here for years. My own daughter has no real interest; she and her husband will come to see theatre, and Steve occasionally has work to do in London, but they are not tourists and thus don't feel the excitement I have. That's fine; I don't mind doing it alone. After all, I was just sixteen when I first came here, penniless and alone, and I not only survived but enjoyed myself then.

Next chapter: I return to see Shakespeare's Globe and Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral.