A London Christmas themed walk
Yesterday's walk around London celebrating the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas was an adventure. It started with delays to our train (a tree on the railway line down towards the coast) and ended with heavy rain. It was interesting but turned out to be just a walk around London with some tenuous connections to the Carol and many historical facts. We were the only people on the tour with the organiser as so many people had cancelled - but it was interesting nonetheless.
We learned some new things which is always good. For example, everyone thinks that Queen Victoria's husband Albert introduced the Christmas tree tradition to Britain but it was actually Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III (and Queen Victoria's grandmother). Victoria and Albert made it popular with this picture in the Illustrated London News:
We also learned that crackers are a very British concept at Christmas and were invented by a man called Tom Smith (and if you are a tourist you can't buy some in this country and try to take them home on the 'plane as they will be confiscated at Customs for their explosive content!).
It wasn't a good afternoon for photos, but I took a couple which are under this cut:
St Michael's Church: Paternoster Royal was one of the stops. This is the restored church which Christopher Wren designed (it took heavy damage during WWII).
The original church was built by Richard Whittington (aka Dick Whittington the Mayor of London from the Pantomime). He was buried in the original church in 1422 (which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666) .
The statue of Captain John Smith in Paternoster Square (he played a very important role in the establishment of the Jamestown colony, the first permanent English settlement in North America)
This is Goldsmith's Hall - the home of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths who have been on this site since 1399. This is the third hall built on the site designed by Phillip Hardwick in the 1820s. We stopped there for the Carol's 5th day section - 5 gold rings *g*
A lovely view of St Paul's Cathedral in the evening light (it was nearly 4pm when we finished). I love how the light is just catching the dome.
We walked back to Charing Cross from St Paul's - by which time it was dark enough to see the Christmas lights along the Strand.
We learned some new things which is always good. For example, everyone thinks that Queen Victoria's husband Albert introduced the Christmas tree tradition to Britain but it was actually Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III (and Queen Victoria's grandmother). Victoria and Albert made it popular with this picture in the Illustrated London News:
We also learned that crackers are a very British concept at Christmas and were invented by a man called Tom Smith (and if you are a tourist you can't buy some in this country and try to take them home on the 'plane as they will be confiscated at Customs for their explosive content!).
It wasn't a good afternoon for photos, but I took a couple which are under this cut:
St Michael's Church: Paternoster Royal was one of the stops. This is the restored church which Christopher Wren designed (it took heavy damage during WWII).
The original church was built by Richard Whittington (aka Dick Whittington the Mayor of London from the Pantomime). He was buried in the original church in 1422 (which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666) .
The statue of Captain John Smith in Paternoster Square (he played a very important role in the establishment of the Jamestown colony, the first permanent English settlement in North America)
This is Goldsmith's Hall - the home of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths who have been on this site since 1399. This is the third hall built on the site designed by Phillip Hardwick in the 1820s. We stopped there for the Carol's 5th day section - 5 gold rings *g*
A lovely view of St Paul's Cathedral in the evening light (it was nearly 4pm when we finished). I love how the light is just catching the dome.
We walked back to Charing Cross from St Paul's - by which time it was dark enough to see the Christmas lights along the Strand.
