Walk: The Bombing of London
Today, still with the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners (second day in a row), but now back with Laurence Summers - delighted to be able to make his walk on The Bombing of London! Unemployment does have its advantages.. Jeez, that's been six days in a row where I got fed as part of the outing..! Better enjoy unemployment while I have it - I got a job last week.. ;-) Starting on the 6th.
Last night, it said it wouldn't rain today.. this morning, I checked again, and it said it would. Well, OK.. out I set, got there first of anyone, in fact! (Well, apart from all the other tour groups - seems a popular meeting spot, outside the Royal Exchange.) We duly gathered under the porch.. almost the only free spot, it also turned out to be a wise move, as the heavens opened. Seems Storm Debi was still with us.. Devious Debi! Well, we braved it, Laurence regaling us with stories of bombs.
In a bit, we made our way down to the Guildhall - the rain was getting heavier all the time, and we sheltered under the arches there as he explained to us how the frontage is more modern, but you can see the old stones behind. And then we sploshed across the courtyard to the church of St. Lawrence Jewry. Fancy, for all the times I've passed it, I'd never been in before:
The stained glass windows depict saints - a kindly official explained that, although they were replaced after being destroyed by bombing, they copied the original designs:
There's one of Sir Thomas More:
and one of the saint for whom the church is named:
One section of pews seems to be reserved for aldermen:
It strikes me that the early part of the late Queen's reign was greatly composed of overseeing the restoration of bomb-damaged buildings:
On our way out again, we passed the Wren window, which he shares with another couple of famous architects/builders!
Not bombing-related, but we came across a statue to the guys who collected Shakespeare's first folios, preserving his works for future generations:
Dashing from shelter to shelter became the order of the day - honestly, I was paying more attention to how wet I was than to what I was being told. The rain turned something like torrential.. by the time we came across this tower that's all that remains of a church, Laurence had secured our permission to cut it short and make a dash for the pub. Anyway, this is now a private residence, and last changed hands for £3 million, apparently:
We had a brief stop within sight of Christchurch Greyfriars - well, I've seen that so many times anyway, on so many walks (including ghost walks!); in fact, I used to walk past it from the office for lunch every day, when we moved to Little Britain. It's natural to include it in a list of bombed sites - it was gutted, and is now a garden. And then on to St. Paul's, where we got some more shelter - and the last of those who were going to drop out did so. As he said later, he'd have said more there.. but at that point, the priority was to get indoors, and to lunch. Seriously, we were soaked - most didn't have umbrellas, and our weatherproof clothing was really tested. Actually, it was nearly our appointed time when we arrived - as Laurence said, we'd have overrun if he hadn't cut it short..
Today, we were at Ye Old Cock Tavern - he fancied a change. It's a Greene King pub, so the food is good - excellent, indeed, certainly the chicken Kyiev I had. Others seemed happy too - the only problem was the service, which was slow as could be! They only seemed to have two staff on - and as one of the group remarked, they seemed a bit disorganised. We had a booking, which they had trouble finding, and were most put out at us arriving about 10 minutes early! And then were trying to tell us we couldn't have the large, free corner, because it was booked. Yes - we had booked it. Oh, and it wasn't big enough for us all, even though we were a smaller group than expected.
Ah well. They have Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, so I was happy - and as I say, also with the food. And with the company - that goes without saying. Tragically, I think that's it for me this year with Laurence's walks - I've done all the others scheduled for the rest of the year. And with his next one I haven't done, which is next year, apparently being on a weekend I'm going to be in Ireland.. gee, I don't know when I'll be back to them. But you can count on me coming back sometime..
On the way home (no rain, yay!), I headed into Tesco for chocolate, it being early. Now, I've been having trouble scanning my Clubcard, so went to Customer Service to do it - there was £1.50 off the price with Clubcard, you see. I'm still waiting for my new one to arrive. Well, lo, he couldn't do it either.. do you know what he did do? Only used the Clubcard belonging to the woman at the next till! so I could get the discount. Then asked me "Was that worth £1.50?" Bloody cheek - and she got my points.. I'm telling you, I've been very disenchanted with Tesco Customer Service all year..
Comments
Post a Comment