The plan for the day was to walk to Kings Cross station, do the Platform 9 3/4 thing, then Tube to Leadenhall, another Harry Potter site, both in the interest of our grand-daughter, Penelope, who is now a serious student of the lore. Then, and thus in the center of The City, we would look around and see what else was of interest. No plan survives first contact, according to Rommel, and sometimes, I admit, our "targets of opportunity" approach actually fizzles. But not this day. The title will become clear as our story unfolds.
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Inside Kings Cross; maybe not as you'd imagined it |
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Extremely famous site (actually part of the adjacent Potter store; like Mordor, you can't just walk out onto the platforms...); we had read that you can expect up to a 20 minute wait, en queue, for your photo opp here |
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But that was pre-COVID, and it was still in the AM, and so we walked right up and did the pix; alone and unmolested |
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Adjacent is one of the larger Potter shoppes we have seen |
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Wand selection |
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Leadenhall market, scene of Dragon Alley; not ancient, but pretty old...14th century origins, but the current get-up is decidedly Victorian |
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The only store that actually interested us; here we stimulated the local economy and later enjoyed the bellotta along with some manchego and cava; la vida es buena |
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Then you turn around and look up and you're confronting one of the masterpieces of Bowellism |
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The Lloyd's Building; aka the "Inside-Out" building |
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Designed by Richard Rogers ("Some enchanted evening..." wait, no...), who also did the Pompidiou in Paris |
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Bowellism, a variety of structural expressionism, is said by some to have originated with Gaudi [really??]; I actually like this stuff, although I am not sure it supports the stable and conservative image that banking and insurance companies like to cultivate |
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This is how close it is to Leadenhall |
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Spare parts |
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Apparently their policy doesn't cover climbing accidents |
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Most interestingly, Lloyd's moved the facade of their older (1928) building so it could be the entrance to the new tower; look in through the doors and you'll see bowels |
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Nice nod to history, tradition, I thought |
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Turn around again, and...if you like historical and architectural contrast, London is hard to beat |
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Disused toilettes in the middle of the street (discreetly underground, of course) |
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And the now fiery bit: this is Wren's Great Fire Monument, 202 feet high, and 202 feet from the bakery, on Pudding Lane, where the fire broke out on the night of September 2, 1666; so I have been wondering: where was Wren on that fateful night? He is known to have enjoyed puddings... does he have an alibi? Airtight? Prior to the fire, he was merely a lecturer in anatomy and astronomy at Oxford, making frequent trips to London for science club meetings...Who, other than Wren--who subsequently designed the new St. Paul's and some fifty other rebuilt churches--benefited more from that fire? Just wondering... |
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The Monument's official inscription |
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Helpful translation for those of us who don't read Latin anymore and are not giraffes; the operative bit at the bottom describes the end of the fire: "...the fatal fire stayed its course and everywhere died out. *(But Popish frenzy, which wrought such horrors, is not yet quenched.) *These lines were added in 1681, and finally deleted in 1830." The Fire destroyed much of The City but did not advance toward Westminster; 13,000 homes and many businesses, churches, and public buildings were destroyed; an obscure teacher of astronomy at Oxford, of Royalist stock, with no previous architectural experience, was given responsibility for much of the rebuilding... hmmm |
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We crossed the bridge for better views of the river and HMS Belfast, now guarding the Tower Bridge so it won't be sold to Arizona |
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Also the Tower; but with many pressing questions on our minds we returned to Handel St. |
1 comment:
You packed a lot into this day!
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