Southwark Walk

The rest of the week is all about cheap tickets. For these two days, I'm on TAC walks - today, it was the Southwark Walk. Halleujah, one I could walk to!

Which I did - finally having found a hat among my things was a relief, on what was a blisteringly sunny day. I thought I'd have to get cash on the way, as I had to pay £5 cash on arrival, but it turned out I had one last £5 note, so I left it. Happily, we'd been given a What3Words address, which made it quite a bit easier - plus a physical description, which helped massively once you got there! We were to meet opposite the WH Smith - so, with no activity when I arrived, I nipped in and got a bar of chocolate - I was peckish.

Now, as I have to give £5 to tomorrow's guide as well, I rather thought it might be the same person. But no.. I came out to find a woman, with a sign, greeting people. The sign said London Guided Walks - and she recognised me! As she continued to greet people, I had a quick look for that tag in my (old) blog - OMG, this was Hazel! I hadn't been on a walk with her group in over a year, and not with her personally in over six years..! Not since that fiasco where she had encouraged us to book a walk on her website, where there was a discount, rather than her now-defunct Meetup group, Walks, Talks and Treasure Hunts. However, it turned out the link she gave us didn't work - so a few of us messaged her about it, booked on Meetup, and turned up on the day. She didn't though - not checking the Meetup page, and with no bookings on her own website, she'd thought no-one was coming, and stayed home! I stopped coming so regularly after that - it was the final straw, after the other occasion when Helen and I had booked a treasure hunt, were unable to find it (!), and were marked as no-shows - when I complained, Hazel, who hadn't been leading that event, apologised profusely and offered a refund and a free booking on something else. She said she'd let us know when the new events were booked. Never did..

Well, well, I see she's still in the guiding business - and now has a successful podcast! Fair play - she was always a good guide, despite my unfortunate experiences with her. And so it proved today, as we walked familiar streets, but were given new facts about them - some of which contradict things I'd previously been told.. There were a couple of latecomers - just lucky for them we hadn't moved from the starting place when they arrived, I've fallen foul of that with her group a couple of times; arrive a couple of minutes late, you can forget about it. Anyway, we started with a fascinating - but discreet - archaeological display in London Bridge Station, where we'd met. Just behind the scale model:

And so, out into the sunshine - and on this walk, we were rarely without a view of the Shard:

Including in Guy's Hospital, across the road, with Guy himself gazing on the vista (you wouldn't believe the angle I had to hold the camera at for this, to include the top of the Shard):

Walking through the hospital - which is a public thoroughfare - we stopped at the Keats statue - where she gave us a fascinating synopsis of his life! and pointed out the feature where you can scan the QR code and have the statue "call you back".. (Note also, as she pointed out, the bottle of liquor positioned in a prominent place, on top:)

Two interesting things to consider about this sign, which someone pointed out to me - firstly, that Wittgenstein worked there, and secondly, that he did so incognito..!

Around the back, we came to the Old King's Head pub. Which belies the statement that, as she said, other guides have made - and which I've heard myself - that there is only one public statue of Henry VIII - outside St. Bart's! Mind you, she said, you could make the point that this is a bust, rather than a statue - but I think she said something about there being a statue of him in Westminster..

Thence to the George - and around the corner, where The Tabard Inn used to be! And I have to give kudos to Hazel for her terrific rendition of an excerpt from The Canterbury Tales - which, of course, starts here - in something that sounded very like what I would imagine the original pronunciation to be!

We found ourselves at what used to be the wall of Marshalsea Prison - the debtors' prison where Charles Dickens' father was incarcerated:

Charles - who keeps cropping up in London tours - wrote about one of his characters, "Little Dorrit", having a father in prison here. She's commemorated in a plaque on the ground:

In fact, she's a tad over-commemorated - there's a statue of her in the nearby church, apparently, as well as a primary school named for her down the road, as well as the adjoining playground..

The rest of the walk was kind of familiar to me - I did like, though, how she read the short biographies of a few of the very small number of people who can be identified as buried in Crossbones Graveyard. Not all of whom were prostitutes..

We finished at the original site of the Globe Theatre. Truly, the most interesting walk I've been on in a while - she jokes that nobody knows London like she does; she might just be right! Glad to have come on one of her tours again, at last.

I was near enough to the other Globe - where I do like to eat in the Pizza Express. So that's what I did - dough balls to start (not the spicy ones!), with a moreish garlic butter dip. And carbonara for main - absolutely delicious. Again, though, my wine was delayed - why is it that they can't seem to bring the wine promptly?! I was in a good mood, having finally had another expression of interest from a recruiter in my job search today - so had a dessert - quite good chocolate cake, although not as nice and rich as some I've had. Unfortunately, leaving the restaurant, I caught my foot awkwardly in one of the gutters outside - they aren't marked - and took a nasty spill, badly skinning my elbow. Ah well, no permanent damage..

Tomorrow, it's the Fulham Road Back in the Day Walk. As also advertised - slightly more expensively - with the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners. An earlier start, and a longer journey - plus I have to get out some more cash! But at least I know who my guide is going to be..

On Thursday, I'm with CT, who have slightly cheaper tickets for the Backyard Comedy Club. First time I'll have been there in years! I always remember them being good, though.

Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend. I've booked to see Haunted Mansion - well, my choice isn't huge - I'm hoping to see some decent SFX. Rosario Dawson is a single mother who moves into what turns out to be a haunted house. Owen Wilson is the priest she recruits to exorcise the place, Danny DeVito is a historian, an expert in its history, Jamie Lee Curtis is a psychic. Jared Leto is.. one of the ghosts, by the look of it! Limerick Omniplex is the chosen venue; it's convenient for the biggest Tesco around!