A little walk around London...

Not too bad a day weather-wise today. I t was supposed to rain abut 1600 and it did the forecasters do seem to get it right more often than not.

With our packed lunch we set off for the local station despite thee overground trains from our station not running today we were easily able to get to the city simply by catching the southern instead. Then a walk across London bridge and we were soon attracted by the advertising banners of the Cheapside Fayre. There were some interesting demonstrations by blacksmiths and farriers and one that intrigued us was a primitive wood turning lathe driven by foot pedal power.  As we watched the blacksmiths working with their red hot metal the bells of St. Mary le Bow. Church began to ring out.

 

Home of the famous Bow bells, that you must be born within the sound of to be able to call yourself a cockney. I’m, a sucker for an old church and the inviting peal of those bells was too hard to resist. We were lucky enough to tack ourselves a departing tour, led by none other than George bush.  No the ex-president of the states isn’t moonlighting as a tour guide, This George bush is the rector of the church. During the Norman period, the church wad known as “St Mary de Arcubus” was built and was famed for its two arches (“bows”) of stone. The name ‘le Bow’ is said to come from the Norman arches (it was apparently initially known as St Mary de Arcubus) which stand in what is now the crypt. The church was destroyed in the great fire of London and the extensively damaged by German bombing in April 1914. The building we were in, though rebuilt in the Wren style, was not completed until the 1960s

.Around a corner we came upon  an interesting building, decorated with ocean themed statues. We looked everywhere but couldn’t find any names or identification on it. Apart from a flag or two with 10 Trinity Square on them.

 I googled  it when we got home and discovered that it  was originally designed as the headquarters of the Port of London Authority by renowned architect Sir Edwin Cooper in 1922, has received planning consent from the City of London Corporation to be developed into a luxury hotel. 

Close by was a memorial garden dedicated to the members of the Merchant Navy who lost their lives during the first and second world wars. My maternal grandfather was a member of the merchant service whose ship was sunk by a German mine off Farewell Spit at the top of the South island of NZ.  Had and the entire crew not survived his name could well have been inscribed on the walls of the memorials.