Dear Grace,
Your Great-Grandma Jo inspired this adventure walk the previous day while we were Skyping with her and Grammie Mo. She told us we just had to go to St. Paul's Cathedral. Conveniently, there was a family adventure walk to go along with the visit. It was a beautiful, sunny weekend day. We spent the entire time outside and will be going back to further explore the insides of St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London. We are looking forward to going back with family and/or friends when they come to visit. We visited our dear friend, Corey Prologo, in London after we got engaged. One of our favorite things to do was explore the Tower of London. We can't wait to go back with you.
Cheers!
Mummy
Walk #2 Out of the Ashes: the Great Fire of London
"The Adventure: In 1666 the City of London was practically razed to the ground by the Great Fire of London. Starting on Sunday 2 September at Thomas Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane, at approximately one o'clock in the morning, it raged for four days. The fire spread fast via warehouses and shops full of combustible materials. A strong easterly wind fanned the flames along the narrow streets of timber houses. By 7 a.m., 300 houses had been destroyed. By the time the fire was put out, St. Paul's Cathedral, 44 livery halls, 13,200 houses and 87 churches were gone and a hundred thousand people were homeless. Astonishingly, there were only six recorded deaths; but it is impossible to be sure how many people actually died. What is certain is that many people who had survived the Great Plague of 1655 had now lost everything.
It took thirty years to rebuild London and cost 10 million pounds. The new city followed the footprint of the medieval street plan but with improvements: brick houses; wider streets; new pavements and sewers. Sir Christopher Wren was the chief architect of Charles II's vision and his work has shaped the city we see today. Climb the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, the apogee of Wren's work, survey the city streets from the top of the Monument, built to commemorate the Great Fire, and open the door to some of the fifty-one new churches resurrected from the ashes. Bring a picnic to enjoy on the Thames shore, some gloves to mudlark and an appetite for brass rubbing.
It is Music Week in London to kick off summer. We took a moment to enjoy this view and the sounds of the 6 pianos sitting in the middle of the courtyard for anyone to sit down and play.
"Start by walking through St. Paul's courtyard to the steps of the Cathedral."
"With its European-style dome St. Paul's was an extraordinarily radical concept in architecture at the time, and remains a relic of Wren's thwarted dream to redesign London as an Italianate city. The cathedral, which took 35 years to build, is 355 1/2 ft high. The gold ball and cross on top is 23 ft high and weighs about 7 tons."
"Walk up the 259 steps of the spiral staircase to the Whispering Gallery and try out its clever acoustic - if you whisper on one side of the gallery it is audible all the way round the other side. Keep going up to the Golden Gallery - making your climb a total of 528 steps - and you will be rewarded with a panorama of the city. At the time of the Fire St Paul's was stuffed with people's belongings. They thought a stone building wouldn't catch fire; but by 8 p.m. on the Tuesday, the third day of the fire, it had succumbed."
This is the point where a gentleman politely walked up to Daddy and told him no photos were allowed to be taken inside the cathedral. Daddy tried his best to discretely take a couple more.
Half of the cathedral was closed for Sunday prayer and masses including the Whispering Gallery. We are going to make sure to go back on a Monday-Saturday as well as come back for a Sunday mass.
Before leaving I lit a candle and said a special prayer for some important ladies in my life.
I love this picture Daddy took. I think think it looks like a post card.
"This is one of the 'new' churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren; it is immortalized in the nursery rhyme ' Oranges and Lemons'. Turn right into Cheapside, and take a distant look at the Guildhall. This was the only non-ecclesiastical stone building that survived the Great Fire; valuables were hidden in the crypt as the fire leapt up Cheapside. At No. 1 Poultry, built on the site of St Benet Fink church, a casualty on day two of the fire, turn right, once the centre of the apothecary business, also destroyed in the blaze."
Daddy was excited to stumble across Harry's Bar during our adventure. We saw this restaurant in Venice and Rome while we were on our honeymoon. Daddy can't wait to take the Vetors here for a drink when they visit us. (Only a couple weeks away!)
"Turn right into Lombard Street, which the fire was raging down by 10 o'clock on Monday morning. At St Edmund King and Maryr church turn right down Clement's Lane to look at St Clement Eastcheap, thought to be built by Wren. A record notes 'one third of a hogshead of wine, given to Sir Christopher Wren, 4 pounds 2s', assumed to be his design fee."
Bank of England
It took us a while to figure out why the tube stop was called Bank. After passing numerous private and national banks, and realizing everything was shut down on a Sunday (including Starbucks and Paul), we finally put 2 and 2 together... we were in the heart of London's financial district.
"Cross of Gracechurch Street at the lights, and continue on King William Street."
"Cross over Queen Victoria Street to look at the church of St Stephen Walbrook, thought to be a practice run for St Paul's, as it also has a dome. This church exemplifies Wren's innovative approach to church architecture: unlike their predecessors Wren's churches are straight-sided rectangular buildings with uncluttered internal spaces. The purposely generous-sized, clear-paned windows meant they were filled with light and the pulpit was placed in the heart of the church with the congregation surrounding it, making it a more inclusive layout. Architecture guru Nicholas Pevsner, who painstakingly charted the building of the UK, lists St Stephen Walbrook as one of the ten most important buildings in England."
"Turn down Pudding Lane to Wren's Monument to the Great Fire: a 200 ft Doric column. Its height is the exact distance between here and the bakery in Pudding Lane where the fire began. Climb the 311 stairs and be rewarded with a certificate and one of the best views in London, especially of the dome of St Paul's."
Looking up the spiral staircase, before I started my climb to the top.
My gorgeous view when I climbed back down outside with certificate in hand.
"Following the path of the fire down Fish Street Hill, which, as it headed to London Bridge, razed to the ground the church of St Magnus the Martyr. Inside the rebuilt St Magnus, designed by Wren, is a model of London Bridge from the time of the Fire."
"Take the steps up to London Bridge: saved from the fire because an earlier fire had burn down some houses and shops, leaving a fire-break the flames could not leap."
"Take the steps to the Thames Path heading east. Pass Billingsgate, the fish market made by Act of Parliament a free and open market for 'all sorts of fish whatsoever', with one exception: the sale of eel was restricted to Dutch fishermen, who had helped feed the people of London in the 1666 crisis. Walk on to the Custom House, where duties on cargoes were calculated, a victim of the fire and rebuilt to Wren's design. Just beyond here is a good place to get to the river for a picnic and mudlarking. Charles II and his brother the Duke of York came along the river in a royal barge to observe the fire. They took charge of the fire-fighting operations and set up fire posts manned by a hundred civilians and thirty foot soldiers."
"Approaching the out limits of the fire, which at 9 p.m., on Monday 3 September was just 300 yards from the Tower of London. All the remaining fire engines at Woolwich and Deptford Naval Yards were mobilized to stop the fire from engulfing the Tower. "
We hadn't eaten a thing since breakfast and it was approaching 4:30 PM. We literally walked into the first restaurant that had an open table and and area for a pram. We will never forget this lunch thanks to our new friends who were visiting from San Francisco. They are all grandparents and fell in love with Grace. She couldn't get enough of them. All smiles and flirtatious head tilts. This picture sums up our late lunch/early dinner.
Hay's Gallery - a nice area with shops and cafes overlooking the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
Tower Bridge - not to be confused with the London Bridge that we crossed to get to the other side of the River Thames.
I was trying to be creative and thought this would turn out cooler.
Tower of London
"At the Tower, walk up the hill to visit the church of All Hallows by the Tower. It is from this tower that the famous diarist and clerk to the Royal Navy, Samuel Pepys, looked out over the city in despair as it burned. His diaries are an important source of information about the fire, including personal anecdotes: he buried his wine and Parmesan cheese in his back garden in Cloak Lane to protect them from being lost in the fire."
"While you are in the church, have a go at brass rubbing and delve into the treasure trove museum in the crypt."
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