On Friday we went to church.

That is, our first stop was St. Paul’s cathedral. There has been a church on this spot since St. Mellitus, Bishop of London built one in 604. Long story short, due to fires and wars and all manner of destruction, it was rebuilt multiple times, and a huge gothic version was built starting in 1087. And that building survived for nearly 600 years until it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The present day one was completed in 1710. It was designed and built by Christopher Wren, no relation to Christopher Robin. Wren was a celebrated architect who built 40 churches in London after the fire; he was very busy.

It’s big, built in the English Baroque style that was popular in at the time. I’m a High Gothic fan, so this church did not resonate with me; the thick, neoclassical pillars supporting the nave give a the place a heavy, grounded feel – I like my churches light and airy. I think this is the only photo I took – is that wrong?

We did climb to the lantern on top of the dome, it was a good walk spoiled, if I may paraphrase Twain. 538 steps up, but I argued to Michele that the first 150 or so were weeny, 5 inch high steps and hardly count, she didn’t buy it – she doesn’t buy a lot of what I’m selling.

Isn’t this odd? There is a clock face that can only be seen by climbing up to the dome, why is that?

It was designed specifically for the clock-winder to see the time from within the clock room. Back in the day, the clock required manual winding. This internal face allowed the person responsible for the mechanism to check the time and ensure the hands were synchronised without having to leave the room or lean dangerously out of the tower.

Wren made provisions for a clock in the other tower but it was never completed.

We descended to the crypt to see what that was about. The Brits kind of go out of their way to play up their war heros, and they have been in a lot of wars, so I guess, ok…Catholics bury bishops and popes in their crypts. In St. Paul’s we found a couple of big tombs.

Here lies Lord Admiral Nelson of the Battle of Trafalgar fame.

And the Duke of Wellington, he of Waterloo fame, defeating Napoleon for the final time. To be fair, he lead a distinguish career in government as well, serving as Prime Minister among many other posts, so OK.

And while Winston Churchill is not buried here, his funeral was held at St. Paul’s and they installed The Churchill Memorial Screen in 2004 to link him with the Greats. The screen is festooned with all manner of symbols and badges.

Churchill was honored with the Order of the Garter. Queen Elizabeth II invested him as a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (KG) on April 24, 1953. This made him Sir Winston Churchill, a high honor recognizing his wartime leadership and service to the nation.

The badge is the star of the Order of the Garter, which is worn by the Coldstream Guards, one of the premier infantry regiments in the British Army.
Motto: The central part of the badge displays the motto of the Order of the Garter: “Honi soit qui mal y pense” (“Shame on him who thinks evil of it”).
The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regiment in the British Army, formed in 1650

We were famished after our climb and popped into a pub along Ludgate Hill called Ye Olde London where I had my long awaited Bangers and Mash with Yorkshire Pudding, it was delish. Michele hated her salad – who knew the Brits call arugula “rockets”? When I asked gal at the bar what rockets were, she said they were “rockets”. Well, 1 out of 2 isn’t bad, as long as the one was mine.

We waited patiently for the 26 bus to take us to Westminster. We wanted to see the Abbey. It was worth the wait.

It was first built in the Romanesque style by King Edward, known as Edward the Confessor as he was quite devout, in the mid 1000’s. It was consecrated on Nov. 28, 1065, about a week before poor Edward died, which set off a chain of events that would change the course of England forever.

(just a quick aside, because this is fascinating stuff!)

When Edward died, his brother-in-law Harold, Earl of Wessex claimed the throne. Harold was also the son of Godwin, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, so he had a pretty good pedigree. Edward’s bastard son William, the Duke of Normandy, thought he had an agreement with Harold that he would take the throne after Edward, but Harold beat him to it, so William raised an army, built a fleet, sailed the channel and defeated Harold at the famous Battle of Hastings in 1066 and ascended to the throne now known as William the Conqueror.

This is all beautifully chronicled in the amazing Bayeux Tapestry – and this just in: the tapestry is coming back to England! I saw a sign in the British Museum noting it is coming in September and staying until July 2027, the first time back in England in a thousand years. This is epic -like when the Mona Lisa came to the US in the 1963 – simply because Jackie Kennedy asked President Charles de Gaulle if it could. No insurance company will touch the tapestry’s coverage – so the British Government agreed to indemnify the tapestry for 800M pounds – $1.1 Billion!

Now that’s the ticket, French High Gothic, the highest vault in England, just beautiful

Here’s the lovely lace vaulting in the choir.

You may ask: “Where is everybody?” We got our tickets only 20 minutes before closing, so an hour or so later after walking around the complex we stepped back into the church to find it empty, and this place was packed to the rafters with people, packed!

There are 3000 people buried here – everybody who’s anybody – there is a poet’s corner: Dickens, Tennyson, D.H. Lawrence, Lewis Carroll, Henry James, W.Y. Auden, Robert Browning, the list goes on. I even found the Great Ernest Shackleton:

We sat outside enjoying the throngs of people milling about as the weather has been lovely. We waited to hear the chimes of Big Ben at the top of the hour.

There is a little monument park that celebrates many famous Brits – here is Sir Winston in profile.

We hopped on the Circle Line and got off at Notting Hill Gate and walked up to Portobello Road and came across the shop in the movie (I watched it again on the plane) which is now just a dopey souvenir shop.

We stopped at a sidewalk cafe and celebrated our day with a glass of champagne; London in springtime is really nice.

With love,

M&T