Day 58
Liverpool Street - London Bridge - London City Airport - Loughton
So, today I finish the Ls, and what an easy letter of the alphabet it's been. Pretty much every journey has been straightforward, with the stations having been gathered together in handy bite-sized groups, dotted along the same stretches of the underground network, and generally having being organised seemingly for the benefit of anyone who might (for some bizarre reason) wish to visit them in alphabetical order.
Today is no exception (though the final L station does faintly let the side down by being way out on the eastern end of the Central Line - but I'll forgive it as it's then an easy ride home to Ealing) - and to cap it all the sun is shining hot and strong. It's true there are thunder-storms threatened for later in the afternoon, but I hope to be well on the way to being finished by then.
***
The first of today's stations is Liverpool Street - both a tube station and a busy mainline railway station. It's the terminus of trains from east England locations - Cambridge, Norwich and the like - and is one of the busiest stations in London.
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| Liverpool Street |
The entrance to the tube is inside the main concourse, and just to the left of it is the first indication that this station has one or two surprises to offer.
You are probably aware of the practice of 'twinning' one town with another (or sometimes several) from a foreign land. Though the practice dates back many hundreds of years, most current 'twinnings' are 20th Century agreements, with many being an attempt to rebuild diplomatic bridges after World War II. Coventry and Dresden for instance, two heavily bombed cities on opposite sides of the conflict, are now twin towns, as are (a touch more light-heartedly) the towns of Dull in Perthshire and Boring, Oregon.
However, a slightly rusty, but otherwise very colourful plaque informs me that the practice is not confined to the larger-scale twinning of towns and cities, but can also be applied to individual buildings - such as the station in which I currently find myself.
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| Twin Stations |
Yes, Liverpool Street Station is 'twinned' with Amsterdam Centraal Station in The Netherlands - the reason being that these are the two ends of the London to Amsterdam rail/ferry route (via Harwich and The Hook Of Holland). Whether this is the only such pairing of stations, I have no idea - I've certainly never come across such a thing before - but it seems to me to set a dangerous precedent. I mean, why not twin the termini of every route? And why stick at just train and ferry routes - why not include plane, coach, bus, taxi or even (heaven help us) the Boris Bike? In fact, if it comes to that, why restrict it solely to stations? Surely any designated Point A can be twinned with an equally arbitrary Point B?
'Welcome to Droitwich Working Men's Club - proudly twinned with Buckingham Palace, Sydney Opera House and the Great Wall Of China.'
***
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| Kindertransport Monument |
Another reminder of the perils of wartime can be found a little further along from the aforementioned plaque. This is the first of two monuments (the other in a slightly more prestigious location outside the entrance to the station on Liverpool Street itself) commemorating the part the station played in the rescue of thousands of mainly Jewish child refugees during the run-up to WWII.
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| The Arrival - another Kindertransport Monument |
The Kindertransport policy - to take in and protect children from Germany and Austria - was agreed by the pre-war government following the horrific events of Kristallnacht (the Night Of Broken Glass) in 1938. In a desperate bid to protect their families, thousands of parents arranged to have their children taken to places of safety away from the Nazis.
Since the children had to leave their own parents behind, foster parents volunteered to take them in, and soon trains packed with refugees began arriving at Liverpool Street Station. Nearly 10,000 were eventually taken in and saved from the future horrors of the Holocaust - although for many of them it would mean never seeing their parents - who were not so lucky - again.
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| Plaque on the monument |
The location's history goes back long before the 2nd World War of course, something the recent excavations as part of the Crossrail development have (literally) unearthed.
It was on this site in the 13th Century that the first Bethlehem Hospital for the Insane was established.
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| Bethlehem Hospital |
The term 'bedlam' - a corruption of Bethlehem - has long been a synonym for madness and for those who suffer from it, and indeed it crops up several times in the works of Shakespeare, for example:
"To Bedlam with him! is the man grown mad?" (Henry VI Part 2)
"The country gives me proof and precedent / Of Bedlam beggars..." (King Lear)
"Ha! art thou Bedlam?..." (Henry V)
The Crossrail excavations have recently uncovered a huge plague burial ground (from around the end of the 16th Century) and underneath that - going even further back in time - are the remains of a Roman burial ground, or possibly execution site - since many of the skulls found were separated from their bodies...
The Romans, as every schoolchild knows, called the city Londinium, and - as was their wont - built a big wall around it at the earliest opportunity. Succeeding generations maintained, rebuilt, and added gateways to the wall - the names of which have been getting etymologists' knickers in a twist ever since.
So we have among others: Ludgate (either from 'Flood', 'Fleet' or an old English word meaning 'Back'); Cripplegate (probably not related to the unfortunate people who begged there, more likely from the word 'crepel' - a covered passageway); Moorgate (leading to the moor to the north, called Moorfields); and Aldgate (possibly from 'East', 'All' or 'Ale' - take your pick!). Over time these names have been extended to refer to the relevant street or to the wider area.
Thus I find myself to the east of the station, on the busy thoroughfare known as Bishopsgate - whose name is one of the less contentious ones, being derived from the man who built it (or - let's be realistic - paid a pittance to have it built by peasants): Erkenwald, Bishop of London (c. 675).
It leads north to south and is part of the A10, which in turn used to be an old Roman road. The location of the actual gate (long gone) is still marked with a bishop's mitre, set into one of the buildings at the junction with Wormwood Street.
I turn into Wormwood Street - noting some of the more modern architecture as I do so - the 'Gherkin' and the slightly older 'Tower 42' (formerly known as the 'Natwest Tower'), and walk west onto the road known as London Wall.
Sections of the original wall which used to surround the city of London still exist in some places, but here the only remnant of it is the name of this street - which heads west from Bishopsgate all the way to the Museum Of London just north of St Paul's.
The wall's extent can be seen on this map, from the Museum Of London's website:
I turn right at the point marked '11' on the map - heading to Moorgate tube station to get a train to my next destination. As I turn the corner, I notice a plaque on the wall, also bearing the number 11 - and with a short description of the history of this part of the wall.
Perhaps my next project should be to walk the route of the wall - collecting pictures of these tiles as I go...
***
From Moorgate I get the Northern Line down to London Bridge - my next stop - and another combined Tube and Mainline station, with trains this time heading south to E. Sussex and Kent.
I exit the station onto Tooley Street - the closest street to the river - which I feel should be my first destination, given that the station is named after possibly its most famous crossing point.
There has been a bridge here since Roman times, and possibly earlier, though the image that's always conjured up in my mind is this one from 1616:
This is taken from a much wider panoramic view of the Thames, which you can find here, and the reason I always think of this particular image is that it clearly shows just how much life took place on the bridge. What now is just a mundane means of getting across the river, was once almost a town in miniature in its own right. Just look at the buildings that crowded on top of each other - shops, houses, public latrines, and at the gate-house (visible to the right of the engraving above) a lovely display of severed heads, just to welcome you.
The buildings hung out over the river, and inwards over the central roadway forming a sort of tunnel. It was crowded and smelly and crossing the bridge could sometimes take up to an hour, so I'm not saying it was a particularly pleasant place to be at times. Nevertheless, something in me rather likes the idea of this sort of 'bridge community'.
It certainly has to have been more interesting to look at than the current incarnation...
Historically, London Bridge is famously known for either 'falling down' or for being sold to gullible Americans, who thought they were buying the more impressive Tower Bridge (which is actually the next bridge along).
While the first event may have happened - it's pretty certain that Mr Robert P. McCulloch of Missouri (a wealthy entrepreneur with, some might say, more money than sense) knew full well which bridge he was buying. He just happened to be on the look out for an attraction for the city he had just built in Arizona (Lake Havasu City), and the bridge just happened to come on the market at the same time (having begun to collapse into the Thames).
McCulloch paid well over the odds for it, and the cost of transportation and rebuilding must have been astronomical - but it still stands in Havasu City today, should you ever wish to pay it a visit.
On the opposite side of the station to the River - but hardly unnoticeable for all that - is the towering edifice known as The Shard.
Now the UK's tallest building, at over 1000ft, it was completed in 2012 and opened officially in 2013, and like many iconic buildings it began life with a particularly dull and unimaginative name. In the same way that number 30 St Mary Axe has now all-but officially become known as 'The Gherkin', 20 Fenchurch Street as 'The Walkie-Talkie', and City Hall as 'The Armadillo' (or somewhat less salubriously; 'The Glass Testicle'), 'The Shard' was originally given the uninspiring name of 'London Bridge Tower' (they must have been up all night thinking that one up...)
It was actually a criticism from the English Heritage organisation, that the tower would be 'a shard of glass through the heart of historic London', which first gave rise to the nickname it has now adopted as its official title.
There's a restaurant, a hotel, viewing areas and of course many floors of offices. I'm sure it's worth a visit, though that'll have to wait for another time for me, since there's a lot more to see in this part of town.
Before I head off though, I take a moment to look up at the Shard to take a photo. It's then that I notice the miniscule figures of two window cleaners hanging precariously onto the side of the building. Their cradle is suspended from a kind of crane sticking out of the building several floors above - it reminds me of the sort of thing Inspector Gadget would have secreted inside his trench-coat, and hardly something I'd trust my life to.
Returning my gaze to ground level, I move on.
If the area around Liverpool Street could be said to have had a bit of history about it, the area around London Bridge could easily fill half a dozen A-Level textbooks.
There's the bridge itself, of course, which we've already looked at - and just around the corner (and right next to Borough Market) is Southwark Cathedral, the latest incarnation of various places of worship which have been located here since before the Norman Conquest. The cathedral's website delicately hints at some of the 'colourful' members of historical congregations from Shakespeare's time - 'not only... merchants and minor courtiers, but also actors, foreign craftsmen, and the ladies from the bankside brothels.'
Borough Market - which has become a sort of Mecca for foodie-types, with its various stalls offering free samples of pretty much anything you could want to try - celebrated its 1000th birthday in 2014.
It's a great place to wander around - selling everything from basic meat and fish, to some of the more exotic foods and ingredients from around the world. Just make sure your wallet is well-stocked if you pay it a visit, as you'll want to buy pretty much everything you see.
Both Southwark Cathedral and Borough Market lie to the west of London Bridge station, some distance inland from the river. Closer to the Thames, and continuing along towards Southwark Bridge, is the walkway known as Bankside - and this is where I head next, stopping first to look at Sir Francis Drake's ship - the Golden Hinde.
Or rather, its replica - the Golden Hinde II.
This was built in the 1970s as the original ship, in which Drake circumnavigated the globe at the request of Elizabeth I, had long since rotted away and been dismantled.
The original was itself maintained for public display for the best part of 100 years (a novelty in those days) before its demise, after which timbers from it are supposed to have been used to make pieces of furniture that now sit in various locations, including a long table in Middle Temple Hall - the place where Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was first performed.
Now, to digress for a moment, a few years ago I was in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in this hall, in which an actor (who shall remain nameless) was larking about with a broom - one of his props. He accidentally launched it roof-wards, and watched in horror as - seemingly in slow-motion - it arced towards this ancient and venerable table, before narrowly missing both it, and the portrait of Elizabeth I which hung nearby. A cautionary tale - never let an actor near anything valuable!
Unfortunately the replica ship is closed when I get to it - otherwise I'd have had a look round. Instead, I continue westwards towards Bankside, via the narrow Clink Street.
The first thing I pass on Clink Street are the remains of the former Winchester Palace - a 13th Century palace, which was destroyed by fire in 1814, leaving just the West wall of the Great Hall, with its rose window, still standing.
Just as Lambeth Palace is the London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Winchester Palace was for many years the London home of the Bishop(s) of Winchester. The original bishops acted as treasurer to the king of England, and so needed to be in London regularly. Since it would be some time before Premier Inns would gain the foothold they now have in the country, the then bishop - Henry of Blois - built himself a palace instead. Fair dos.
A little further along is the 'Clink Prison Museum'. The Clink prison (possibly named after the sound of the manacles being fitted to prisoners) was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester and became so notorious that the phrase 'being thrown in The Clink' became synonymous with being sent to prison, wherever you happened to be.
The museum is supposed to replicate the experience of being in the original prison - though I hardly think the modern tourist-friendly version can come close to the horrors of medieval prison life.
From Clink Street I find myself on Bankside itself - and within a few minutes I'm outside another replica, and what must now be the area's most famous landmark - Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
The brainchild of American actor Sam Wanamaker, the Globe is a historically accurate replica of the original theatre of the same name, which stood a few hundred yards from the current site.
The company of which Shakespeare was a member (as actor as well as writer) decamped here from north of the river following a dispute over the lease of the land on which their theatre (called - imaginatively - 'The Theatre') stood. Rather drastically, they decided to dismantle the entire theatre and bring it with them - rebuilding and renaming it in time for its inaugural production: Henry V.
This is the original 'wooden O' of that play's prologue, although the call for a 'muse of fire' a few lines earlier was possibly ill-judged, as in 1613 on June 29th (coincidentally, dear readers, my own birthday) a piece of wadding from a cannon used in Henry VIII set the thatched roof of the theatre alight, and the entire place burnt to the ground.
The current replica opened in 1997, again with a production of Henry V, though the original idea to rebuild it was mooted as early as the 1970s. It took a lot of hard work and years of fund-raising, but they got there in the end - and to my mind it's one of the best theatre experiences in London.
It also has a special place in my heart - though not for any theatrical reason (at least, not directly).
When Mrs Nowhere Man and I got married in 2004, one of the venues we considered (given our theatrical connections) for the ceremony, was the Globe. Unfortunately, it turned out that although it was licenced for weddings, the space in which the ceremony would take place was the exhibition space underneath the theatre, rather than the stage area.
The artistic director at the time - Mark Rylance - wrote a very nice letter regretting that we couldn't use the stage - but offering us instead the option (eagerly taken up by us) of being welcomed onto the stage at the end of the performance the day after our wedding, and being cheered by the actors and audience. The performance was Romeo And Juliet, (which sounds very romantic, until you remember that they both end up dead at the end... hey-ho...) and I'll never forget the wall of noise that came from the crowd as they gave us three cheers.
Thanks a million Mark!
***
I'm in danger of coming within the range of Southwark tube station if I keep heading west, so instead I retrace my steps and head on to the next place on my list - London City Airport.
I'm looking forward to getting lots of fun pictures of planes landing and taking off from the airport, and imagine that, since I'm on the DLR, I'll get some excellent views from the elevated train and platforms.
However, the planners have obviously decided that they don't want to distract commuters from their morning Facebook-ing or Twitter-ing, and have all but masked the airport from the platforms. Even when I've left the train I can find nowhere from which to get a decent view, and am left with no option but to get back on a train and try to grab a shot as I speed back the way I came.
And this is the best I can do, I'm afraid...
The airport opened in 1987 and is primarily used - not surprisingly perhaps - for business trips, although there are now a few departures to holiday destinations as well.
I've flown from it just once, and from what I remember it's a very pleasant little airport. Not very big - so not very much to entertain you as you wait for your flight - but nice enough, as airports go.
I can't show you any of that of course - as I'd have to be flying somewhere to get beyond the main entrance, so after a very short visit, I'm on my way again...
***
And this is it - the last of the Ls.
Loughton is another one of those stations way out East beyond the loopy bit of the Central Line.
It's one stop along from Debden, which I visited some time ago, and together both stations effectively form the bottom two points of a triangle whose pinnacle is the centre of Loughton.
From Debden station I went north-westwards up Rectory Lane - today, from Loughton station, I head north-eastwards along the High Road. And a very pleasant High Road it is too, with all the usual establishments, and several local independents too.
It's in Essex - in the Epping Forest District - and you do feel like you've left the hustle and bustle of London far behind you as you stroll along. I stop for a coffee and a look at the map, and in doing so I notice a little curiosity.
It's a street marked on Google Maps as 'The Dr'.
I assume they mean 'The Drive' - a sensible enough name for a road. But a lifetime of doing cryptic crosswords means I can't help considering some of the alternatives for which those two letters are an abbreviation: Doctor, Driver, Drummer, Debtor, Dry Riser, Drachma...
Of course - it could just be that the road naming committee ran out of ink, or the person writing it down suffered a fatal heart-attack half-way through......
I set off to have a look for myself, but unfortunately the thunder and lightning, which have been threatening all day long, finally arrive with a vengeance and I get quite a soaking as I dash back to the tube station, never having made it as far as the mysterious 'Dr'.
***
And there we have it - another letter crossed off the list.
Now I'm about to go off on my hols to sunnier climes, so won't be Wombling for a week or two. Hope you can all cope without me for a while.
But rest assured, I'll be back soon - bringing you the delights of the letter 'M'. Till then - toodle-pip!
The Romans, as every schoolchild knows, called the city Londinium, and - as was their wont - built a big wall around it at the earliest opportunity. Succeeding generations maintained, rebuilt, and added gateways to the wall - the names of which have been getting etymologists' knickers in a twist ever since.
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| Bishop's Mitre |
Thus I find myself to the east of the station, on the busy thoroughfare known as Bishopsgate - whose name is one of the less contentious ones, being derived from the man who built it (or - let's be realistic - paid a pittance to have it built by peasants): Erkenwald, Bishop of London (c. 675).
It leads north to south and is part of the A10, which in turn used to be an old Roman road. The location of the actual gate (long gone) is still marked with a bishop's mitre, set into one of the buildings at the junction with Wormwood Street.
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| Natwest Tower |
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| The Gherkin |
Sections of the original wall which used to surround the city of London still exist in some places, but here the only remnant of it is the name of this street - which heads west from Bishopsgate all the way to the Museum Of London just north of St Paul's.
The wall's extent can be seen on this map, from the Museum Of London's website:
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| Map of the London Wall |
I turn right at the point marked '11' on the map - heading to Moorgate tube station to get a train to my next destination. As I turn the corner, I notice a plaque on the wall, also bearing the number 11 - and with a short description of the history of this part of the wall.
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| Point No.11 on the Wall Walk |
Perhaps my next project should be to walk the route of the wall - collecting pictures of these tiles as I go...
***
From Moorgate I get the Northern Line down to London Bridge - my next stop - and another combined Tube and Mainline station, with trains this time heading south to E. Sussex and Kent.
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| London Bridge Station |
I exit the station onto Tooley Street - the closest street to the river - which I feel should be my first destination, given that the station is named after possibly its most famous crossing point.
There has been a bridge here since Roman times, and possibly earlier, though the image that's always conjured up in my mind is this one from 1616:
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| Detail of 'Visscher's View Of London' |
This is taken from a much wider panoramic view of the Thames, which you can find here, and the reason I always think of this particular image is that it clearly shows just how much life took place on the bridge. What now is just a mundane means of getting across the river, was once almost a town in miniature in its own right. Just look at the buildings that crowded on top of each other - shops, houses, public latrines, and at the gate-house (visible to the right of the engraving above) a lovely display of severed heads, just to welcome you.
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| A bit of info |
It certainly has to have been more interesting to look at than the current incarnation...
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| The Bridge today |
Historically, London Bridge is famously known for either 'falling down' or for being sold to gullible Americans, who thought they were buying the more impressive Tower Bridge (which is actually the next bridge along).
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| View from London Bridge to Tower Bridge |
While the first event may have happened - it's pretty certain that Mr Robert P. McCulloch of Missouri (a wealthy entrepreneur with, some might say, more money than sense) knew full well which bridge he was buying. He just happened to be on the look out for an attraction for the city he had just built in Arizona (Lake Havasu City), and the bridge just happened to come on the market at the same time (having begun to collapse into the Thames).
McCulloch paid well over the odds for it, and the cost of transportation and rebuilding must have been astronomical - but it still stands in Havasu City today, should you ever wish to pay it a visit.
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| The Shard |
Now the UK's tallest building, at over 1000ft, it was completed in 2012 and opened officially in 2013, and like many iconic buildings it began life with a particularly dull and unimaginative name. In the same way that number 30 St Mary Axe has now all-but officially become known as 'The Gherkin', 20 Fenchurch Street as 'The Walkie-Talkie', and City Hall as 'The Armadillo' (or somewhat less salubriously; 'The Glass Testicle'), 'The Shard' was originally given the uninspiring name of 'London Bridge Tower' (they must have been up all night thinking that one up...)
It was actually a criticism from the English Heritage organisation, that the tower would be 'a shard of glass through the heart of historic London', which first gave rise to the nickname it has now adopted as its official title.
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| When I'm cleaning windows... |
Before I head off though, I take a moment to look up at the Shard to take a photo. It's then that I notice the miniscule figures of two window cleaners hanging precariously onto the side of the building. Their cradle is suspended from a kind of crane sticking out of the building several floors above - it reminds me of the sort of thing Inspector Gadget would have secreted inside his trench-coat, and hardly something I'd trust my life to.
Returning my gaze to ground level, I move on.
If the area around Liverpool Street could be said to have had a bit of history about it, the area around London Bridge could easily fill half a dozen A-Level textbooks.
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| Southwark Cathedral |
Borough Market - which has become a sort of Mecca for foodie-types, with its various stalls offering free samples of pretty much anything you could want to try - celebrated its 1000th birthday in 2014.
It's a great place to wander around - selling everything from basic meat and fish, to some of the more exotic foods and ingredients from around the world. Just make sure your wallet is well-stocked if you pay it a visit, as you'll want to buy pretty much everything you see.
Both Southwark Cathedral and Borough Market lie to the west of London Bridge station, some distance inland from the river. Closer to the Thames, and continuing along towards Southwark Bridge, is the walkway known as Bankside - and this is where I head next, stopping first to look at Sir Francis Drake's ship - the Golden Hinde.
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| The Golden Hinde II |
This was built in the 1970s as the original ship, in which Drake circumnavigated the globe at the request of Elizabeth I, had long since rotted away and been dismantled.
The original was itself maintained for public display for the best part of 100 years (a novelty in those days) before its demise, after which timbers from it are supposed to have been used to make pieces of furniture that now sit in various locations, including a long table in Middle Temple Hall - the place where Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was first performed.
Now, to digress for a moment, a few years ago I was in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in this hall, in which an actor (who shall remain nameless) was larking about with a broom - one of his props. He accidentally launched it roof-wards, and watched in horror as - seemingly in slow-motion - it arced towards this ancient and venerable table, before narrowly missing both it, and the portrait of Elizabeth I which hung nearby. A cautionary tale - never let an actor near anything valuable!
Unfortunately the replica ship is closed when I get to it - otherwise I'd have had a look round. Instead, I continue westwards towards Bankside, via the narrow Clink Street.
The first thing I pass on Clink Street are the remains of the former Winchester Palace - a 13th Century palace, which was destroyed by fire in 1814, leaving just the West wall of the Great Hall, with its rose window, still standing.
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| Winchester Palace |
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| Information from English Heritage |
Just as Lambeth Palace is the London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Winchester Palace was for many years the London home of the Bishop(s) of Winchester. The original bishops acted as treasurer to the king of England, and so needed to be in London regularly. Since it would be some time before Premier Inns would gain the foothold they now have in the country, the then bishop - Henry of Blois - built himself a palace instead. Fair dos.
A little further along is the 'Clink Prison Museum'. The Clink prison (possibly named after the sound of the manacles being fitted to prisoners) was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester and became so notorious that the phrase 'being thrown in The Clink' became synonymous with being sent to prison, wherever you happened to be.
The museum is supposed to replicate the experience of being in the original prison - though I hardly think the modern tourist-friendly version can come close to the horrors of medieval prison life.
From Clink Street I find myself on Bankside itself - and within a few minutes I'm outside another replica, and what must now be the area's most famous landmark - Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
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| Shakespeare's Globe |
The company of which Shakespeare was a member (as actor as well as writer) decamped here from north of the river following a dispute over the lease of the land on which their theatre (called - imaginatively - 'The Theatre') stood. Rather drastically, they decided to dismantle the entire theatre and bring it with them - rebuilding and renaming it in time for its inaugural production: Henry V.
This is the original 'wooden O' of that play's prologue, although the call for a 'muse of fire' a few lines earlier was possibly ill-judged, as in 1613 on June 29th (coincidentally, dear readers, my own birthday) a piece of wadding from a cannon used in Henry VIII set the thatched roof of the theatre alight, and the entire place burnt to the ground.
The current replica opened in 1997, again with a production of Henry V, though the original idea to rebuild it was mooted as early as the 1970s. It took a lot of hard work and years of fund-raising, but they got there in the end - and to my mind it's one of the best theatre experiences in London.
It also has a special place in my heart - though not for any theatrical reason (at least, not directly).
When Mrs Nowhere Man and I got married in 2004, one of the venues we considered (given our theatrical connections) for the ceremony, was the Globe. Unfortunately, it turned out that although it was licenced for weddings, the space in which the ceremony would take place was the exhibition space underneath the theatre, rather than the stage area.
The artistic director at the time - Mark Rylance - wrote a very nice letter regretting that we couldn't use the stage - but offering us instead the option (eagerly taken up by us) of being welcomed onto the stage at the end of the performance the day after our wedding, and being cheered by the actors and audience. The performance was Romeo And Juliet, (which sounds very romantic, until you remember that they both end up dead at the end... hey-ho...) and I'll never forget the wall of noise that came from the crowd as they gave us three cheers.
Thanks a million Mark!
***
I'm in danger of coming within the range of Southwark tube station if I keep heading west, so instead I retrace my steps and head on to the next place on my list - London City Airport.
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| London City Airport - Outside |
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| London City Airport - Inside |
And this is the best I can do, I'm afraid...
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| London City Airport - back end of a plane... |
I've flown from it just once, and from what I remember it's a very pleasant little airport. Not very big - so not very much to entertain you as you wait for your flight - but nice enough, as airports go.
I can't show you any of that of course - as I'd have to be flying somewhere to get beyond the main entrance, so after a very short visit, I'm on my way again...
***
And this is it - the last of the Ls.
Loughton is another one of those stations way out East beyond the loopy bit of the Central Line.
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| Loughton |
From Debden station I went north-westwards up Rectory Lane - today, from Loughton station, I head north-eastwards along the High Road. And a very pleasant High Road it is too, with all the usual establishments, and several local independents too.
It's in Essex - in the Epping Forest District - and you do feel like you've left the hustle and bustle of London far behind you as you stroll along. I stop for a coffee and a look at the map, and in doing so I notice a little curiosity.
It's a street marked on Google Maps as 'The Dr'.
I assume they mean 'The Drive' - a sensible enough name for a road. But a lifetime of doing cryptic crosswords means I can't help considering some of the alternatives for which those two letters are an abbreviation: Doctor, Driver, Drummer, Debtor, Dry Riser, Drachma...
Of course - it could just be that the road naming committee ran out of ink, or the person writing it down suffered a fatal heart-attack half-way through......
I set off to have a look for myself, but unfortunately the thunder and lightning, which have been threatening all day long, finally arrive with a vengeance and I get quite a soaking as I dash back to the tube station, never having made it as far as the mysterious 'Dr'.
***
And there we have it - another letter crossed off the list.
Now I'm about to go off on my hols to sunnier climes, so won't be Wombling for a week or two. Hope you can all cope without me for a while.
But rest assured, I'll be back soon - bringing you the delights of the letter 'M'. Till then - toodle-pip!
