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London trips 2022-3

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Great day out with John Beynon in London including a trip down river to Greenwich for lunch just round the corner from the Cutty Sark, one of the last tea clippers to be built (1869) and one of the fastest. It's the largest nautical feature at Greenwich towering over the dock there.  Unsurprisingly we’ve been taking to the river in London over the hot spell. Here en route from Hampton Court to Richmond on a good old boat ‘Princess Freda’ built almost a century ago. ‘Freda’ plies her route day by day over the summer through Teddington Lock to Richmond and back. A familiar sight to regular attenders at St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield Thursday fantastic free lunchtime concerts. It’s the gothic tomb of Prior Rahere 1405 standing in contrast to the Romanesque main body of the church. The kneeling figures flanking his body hold open Bibles bearing cheering words from Isaiah 51: God ‘will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the
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Back to London

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  Having visited our grandchildren Tori and Robyn - what we most missed in London - it was time this week to take a day trip to catch sights in London not seen for six months. I sanitised the handles of a Santander bike and pedalled through Hyde Park where I noticed Rotten Row was being levelled. Did you know the ancient horse track formerly sloped across its width? Another change I noticed was the new patterned front Westminster residential and commercial centre towering across from the Abbey on Victoria Street. Joy to attend evensong there with a choir of seven and a congregation just three times that number. Great to be back in London on a mid-September day trip from Haywards Heath made on quiet trains. I sanitised my Santander bike and headed for my online pre-booked visit to the National Gallery where I caught my first sight of Cezanne’s bathers for six months. I like the way the figures blend into their natural setting. My London experience was a more prosaic blending of mind and
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What do I miss in London?

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What do I miss in London? The glitter of gold - as a former Londoner I love the city and am bereaved since March of regular visits where I usually capture some sparkle. The Durban Court ceiling in the Foreign Office captures the splendour of India. The Victoria memorial and Coronation coach reflect regal glory. St Ermin’s Hotel round the corner from St James underground station glitters outside as well as inside over Christmas. It’s great living in Haywards Heath being able to take or leave London - but roll on the day it’s safe for recreational visits!  What do I miss in London? The cast courts in the Victoria & Albert Museum. There I can pretend I’m in Florence, Rome, Santiago de Compostela or wherever with exact plaster casts of their splendid artefacts manufactured in days when European travel was for the elite. Today such travel is forbidden for recreation and even the Knightsbridge Museum is inaccessible to visitors. When lockdown fully eases I’m looking forward to catchin
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