All the best to Sam
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Speedy recovery.
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All the best Sam.
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Best wishes to Sam.
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Hope Sam makes a speedy recovery.
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Thanks chaps, we have been home around 30mins and all is good so far 
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Wishing Sam the speediest of recoveries.
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In Exeter for the first night of a listening club in 12 bar
Alice Coltrane _ journey in satchidanada is the first play through
It’s all coffee and corduroy so far , nice mix of age groups though
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Any pics of the set up there?
It’s very much not hifi and I could hear a bit of earth hum, which wasn’t great. But I liked the vibe. I’ll take some pictures next time but it’s a shop/coffeeshop . And the setup is mostly that
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Cleaning a marble size dog turd off a quad power amp left during the night.
For some reason he prefers to shit on rocks whilst out.
Reminds me that I must list the amp on here soon
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Camping downstairs as Hel decided that when she was painting the landing floor and stairs last night that she would do every single step so we’re now confined to kitchen and lounge with the dogs until the tackiness dries off.
Redford did make a break at some point yesterday when the floor paint was wet and ran all round the bedroom leaving black paint paw prints everywhere. Who got the blame, me or Redford…
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It was just prior to Christmas and I didn’t really have time to write up the rest of our London day out.
We left Hyde Park having visited the other gallery (Serpentine North) & like Adam @AmDismal we didn’t really get or appreciate the gamer oriented artworks in there either.
A double decker bus (deliberate choice, we wanted to see stuff) took us into the centre & we got off to have a brief wander round a bustling & decorated Covent Garden. A string trio were playing/busking inside & there were a variety of other street entertainers doing their various things outside.
We took another bus over to the Tower of London & dropped down to the river next to Tower Bridge to take our Wapping walk along the Thames Path. I’ve always wanted to explore this area.
Artfully concealed Shard!
At one time it was the hub of the empire with goods arriving at the various landing points from all over the world. The river is still lined with large wharf buildings, many of which were converted into nice flats in the 1980’s & it now has a quiet charm with a few pretty parks & gardens close to the river. Back in the late 60’s I was taken on a boat ride from Westminster down to Greenwich by my grandparents & I can recall the busyness of the river then, probably on a weekday, the barges & huge numbers of cranes overhanging the very brown water. Most of those cranes have gone now.
We had to wait as the drawbridge opened, letting boats out of St Katharine’s dock and onto the river.
There are various named staircases (steps) going down to the river. These were dangerous places. Many watermen & lightermen would be drowned on rough days as water surged around & even now you can sense the hazard at them as the tide rises. It’s always intrigued me how people got around the country before the railways & one of the means were packet ships that would depart from Wapping, head out to the channel & then go along the South Coast calling in at the likes of Plymouth & Falmouth on their way West. Probably quicker & safer than trying to travel overland.
Among the wharfs on this stretch are 3 riverside pubs & the first we came to was the Town of Ramsgate. This is a small, & narrow old pub that was very busy on this Saturday lunchtime. We made our way through & were able to get a table in a small yard overlooking the river. A nice dockland porter was taken.
It would seem that the Town of Ramsgate was where Hanging Judge Jeffreys was finally arrested. James II had fled & William of Orange was arriving in London to take the crown. Jeffreys, the last person with any legal authority in the abandoned kingdom, also made his way to Wapping to escape but was apprehended in the pub & sent to the Tower.
Further East past more large wharf buildings & steps we came to the Captain Kidd. This pub was created inside one of the wharf buildings in the 1980’s but still gives a feel of how these places were inside & again had a pleasant riverside yard/garden area. More porter.
Next to the Captain Kidd is Execution dock where many pirates & smugglers (including the Captain himself in 1701) met their end, hanged over the river there by King Henry’s steps. At the adjacent King Henry’s wharves a now rare crane & its cabin still juts out.
Back on Wapping High St, there’s a bollard fashioned from a captured French Naval cannon. After the Napoleonic wars, a good number of French ships & their cannons came into the possession of the Admiralty & their first intention was to re-use these on any new British ships. But British armourers, seeing how this could decimate their industry, objected. The idea was dropped and subsequently many cannons were re-purposed as bollards with a cannon ball welded into the mouth so they couldn’t ever be used in anger again.
Further along and our final pub is one I’ve wanted to visit for a very long time. The Prospect of Whitby (named after a collier ship that used to operate up the East coast) is the oldest riverside pub in London dating from 1520. There’s a board inside showing all of the monarchs there have been since then although Charles III has taken the last space & they’ll need a new board. It’s a rambling warren of bars & rooms over several floors some of which have views over the river & it does also have a riverside yard. They did a mean pint of Old Peculier in there & a surprisingly reasonable (£5) bowl of soup & nice roll. Lots of other good looking meals but that was all we wanted.
The place is full of history. The room we ate in was once used for international boxing matches between sailors from various places & the likes of Sinatra, Cassius Clay & many other well known entertainers have visited over the years. We really liked it & I’d recommend looking in if you’re ever in the area. A nice gallows outside by the river too although strictly speaking that should’ve been back at Execution dock.
We wandered a bit further along to Shadwell basin where an outdoor market was going on & admired the engineering of the old bridge there.
Then by train from Wapping up to Shoreditch for a wander around Spitalfields market. That’s changed a lot since the mid 90’s when I used to play midweek 5 a side on the pitches there. No room for football pitches now. The streets around the market are overrun with large & smaller bronze elephants which I guess is to do with the Asian occupants of nearby Brick Lane.
It’s an area which has had waves of migrants passing through, some staying & then moving on. Originally it was Huguenots (Protestants) from France fleeing persecution by Catholics there. Later a Jewish community came & there are still several Bagel bakeries in the area. More recently Bangladeshis came & settled & Brick Lane is now famous for its curry houses & shops.
Hawksmoor’s Christ Church, Spitalfields
There are quite a number of narrow streets with Georgian architecture & big windows which would’ve let the light in for the Huguenot weavers & tapestry makers of the late 17th early 18th century & it was to one of those houses (Dennis Severs house) we went for a tour.
This house is really a display set up to give the impression of how such a house might have been, to live in, in the 18th Century. We took the evening, silent candlelit tour and the rooms were as if the occupants had upped & left just before we arrived. The fires were burning, there was food & drink on some of the tables. It was dark, the floors creaked, there were smells. An incredible sensory experience & quite creepy in the top floor servants’ rooms. Another place that’s well worth a visit. No photography or filming allowed but there’s plenty to see online if you look for it. It may be best to go unprepared really & just soak it up.
A brisk walk then back from Spitalfields to the Tower of London pier where we caught one of the amazing & fast Uber Clipper boats back up to Westminster taking in the illuminated Tower bridge, Shard, Globe & South Bank.
A couple of observations. London felt incredibly safe, at least in the parts we visited, and the public transport there is extraordinary. We didn’t have to wait more than a couple of minutes for anything & those staff we did encounter were very polite & helpful.
On the Sunday we went to watch niece Sophie play at Charlton and afterwards went to another large & busy riverside pub in Greenwich called the Trafalgar Tavern. They did a very fine Sunday dinner. As we came out there was a bright green laser being beamed overhead along the Meridian which I think is something they do each evening for a while.
Naval College, Greenwich
EDIT. Was wrong about the elephants.
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When the new series of Wednesday came out, Claire booked a Wednesday-themed cruise on the Thames. It was a fairly tall boat, and they had to raise Tower Bridge for us to pass.
I never knew that was a bucket list thing until I did it! Serenely progressing towards the bridge, waving at tourists and annoyed drivers, as it opened was really cool.
100% agree on your perspective on London though - it feels really safe, transport is incredible and decent value, it’s a great city.
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There is still much of London I’ve never explored.
Would love to be able to spend a month in central London and explore.
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A lot of very familiar “lived 100 yards from there”, “worked 100 yards from there” places. Thank you!
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I did actually look into a couple of other old pubs in Spitalfields because a, I like old pubs & b, these 2 actually were places the unfortunate women that became victims of Jack the Ripper would go to. One was the 10 Bells across the road from Christ Church which was being a lively old boozer that Saturday as was the Pride of Spitalfields on Heneage St. Next door to the Pride was a new looking Gilbert & George visitor centre/exhibition space which is a lovely building & gallery but again, their art doesn’t do much for me, colourful as it is.
Sadly we’d missed the immersive Van Gogh exhibition that had been on Commercial St just previously. I didn’t even know he’d lived in the area for a while until afterwards. I’d been wondering what the connection was.
It’s finally dried and so here it is in all its glory. It’s black, it’s not very neat or refined but Hel seems to like it and it’s better than the carpet or untreated floor that was there.
Shades of -
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“I’m blind …the gulls have plucked out my eyes” !..