Saturday, May 31, 2014

London Walks

While in London we went on three guided walks with London Walks.  The first was a morning walk was around Jewish London. We went to the Bevis Marks Synagogue, saw former houses of the Huguenot silk weavers that later were occupied by members of the Jewish community and a former Jewish soup kitchen.

Soup Kitchen
The walk ended at Spitalfields market, where we grabbed some lunch before heading to Holborn tube for our afternoon walk, which was Legal and illegal London

Unfortunately,  while we were waiting trying to find our guide, I twisted my ankle very badly. The other foot was already covered in blisters from the previous day.  After a short while my ankle recovered enough to allow us to go on the walk.

We looked at Lincoln's Inn Fields, the four Inns of Court (Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, Middle Temple and Inner Temple), along with the Staple Inn, the Royal Courts of Justice, the place where the barristers get their wigs and gowns (Ede & Ravenscroft - founded 1689, claiming to be London's oldest tailor)

The Undercroft of Lincoln's Inn would be familiar to many people as it is a favourite television location.  It has been used in Poirot, Downton Abbey, Tom Jones and The Importance of Being Ernest (Colin Firth version).

Lincoln's Inn Undercroft

Sadly, we only saw Temple Church from the outside.  I have never been in and would love to have done so.

Temple Church

The final walk was a ghost walk on Saturday evening.  The walk went from 7:30 to 9:30, but it was only just getting dark towards the end. It would have been more atmospheric in the winter when it was cold and dark. But it was still very good, and it took me to places I had never seen before, like St Batholomew's Hospital, Smithfield Market (well, from the outside at least), Christ Church Greyfriars, which was bombed in the war and has not been rebuilt - it is now a garden - as well as some that I had seen a long time ago, like St Paul's Cathedral and the Old Bailey.

Christ Church Greyfriars

St Paul's Cathedral

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