A Walk In The Park; And Then Some

August 28th we undertook a walk in the park, Regent's Park, and especially its Queen Mary Rose Garden. Many of the roses were on the wane, as expected, but a surprising number were still going strong. And in any such British park or garden, there was much else to see.

Flocking together

Japanese garden

I used to grow these, successfully, despite the winters,
in our pond in Missoula

Water feature

Incredible borders

As far as the eye can see

The neighborhood adjoining the park is not bad; Regent's University

Other considerations prompted us to walk on, through Fitzrovia and
Marylebone, and Hyde Park, to Kensington Palace and its gift shoppe;
above, cavernous Marylebone Station 

Sculpture along the way

Truly cavernous Paddington Station

Just the main hall

Old Paddington Station; now apparently just the underground

More sculpture along the way: The Wild Table of Love, by Gillie and Marc

Joining in the love

Still processing, but I think it's something very English

Block after block of these

Finally at Kensington, among the Diana memorials

William III stayed here

London Scenes And Out-Takes, 5

Missoula friends Kim and Dave were in London for a week, and we accompanied them on several of their visits around town. And later daughter Rachel arrived, and we did several more visits together...Buckingham Palace, the Globe, Sir John Soane's, and several great meals at Dishoom, Poppies, and Fallow. We might have done more with her but were sidelined with more sickness. 

Lunch at the George Inn 

Frequent patron

Interior views

Waddle and daub removed to open out what were sleeping chambers,
centuries ago, now restaurant dining areas

Us, there

Filling in some sights from Portobello Road...the "Travel Book Shop"
that figures in the Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant movie NottingHill; it is
really a tourist trinket shop...

People lined up to get their pix made in front of the blue door where the
Julia Roberts character lived...

Trying to look regal at the head table of Henry VIII's great hall at Hampton Court

Trying to look regal, Part the Second

Jousting in one of Hampton Court's many gardens

We finally did the Hampton Court Maze and had some tense
moments trying to find our way out...if you try it, be sure to
bring adequate water, food, fully-charged cell phone...maybe
some bread crumbs; note the emergency phone number...

Daughter Rachel arrived and we did several sights together...here,
walking to the Globe, noting the red columns of a former railroad
bridge across the Thames; near Black Friars

Before and after shots of the Globe stage for Comedy of Errors...first
performed December 28th, 1594, at Gray's Inn

Fortunately, we had read synopses of the play and were able to follow
it; more or less...Shakespeare (!)..."algebra on stage"

Exiting the theater, a great view across the river

Most Interesting Pub Yet: The Cittie of Yorke

Although we are not pub-goers, we have seen a few and even stayed over-night in one or two. The Cittie of Yorke, on High Holborn, caught our attention while we were walking to Gray's Inn, and then, in need of a respite, we dropped in somewhat later. What we found was the most interesting pub interior we have seen yet...an Elizabethan pub, or at least so imagined when it was most recently renovated a century ago. Much of the interior was preserved from previous pub and coffee house iterations, dating back to 1430.

From across High Holborn

Inauspicious surroundings, although it is directly adjacent to the (white)
entrance to Gray's Court  

Now in the long bar room, back of the cavernous pub, past two 

smaller rooms; note the humongous barrels above the bar

Ceiling treatment

The whole length opposite the bar containing these booths, said
to have been built with barristers and their conferences in mind

Informative history of the place; Grade II listing, certainly
among Britain's heritage pubs

Typical decor

The whole now owned by and an outlet for Samuel Smith brewery,
in the city of York

Return To Temple And The Inns of Court

We visited the Inns of Court and Temple back in 2021, but the church itself was closed due to Covid. We tried again this year, with success, and even managed to find Gray's Inn as well, site of the first known performance of The Comedy of Errors (28 December, 1594, according to the Gesta Grayorum). The significance of this will become clear(er) in due course. The Inns of Court are Britain's national college of law, sort of, at least for the higher echelons of legal practice. My take on them and the British legal system generally is in the 2021 Temple post https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2021/08/temple-and-inns-of-court.html. Our focus this visit was rather more the Temple, the Templars' 12th century replica of the Temple of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. It is important for much more than that, however...

The Temple: the roundish bit is called--imaginatively--the Round,
and functions as the nave; the longish bit serves as the chancel; the 
whole was consecrated in 1185, presided over by the Archbishop of
Jerusalem; the chancel was rebuilt a century later, the Round
renovated and redecorated several times over the centuries,
notably by Christopher Wren, among others; the Round was rebuilt
after German bombs fairly wrecked the place in 1941

The Templars were perhaps the most powerful and wealthy
secular order in the high Middle Ages, feared and envied by
kings and popes, and the Temple was the headquarters of
their London branch

Interior views; it's not huge, but the verticality prohibits fuller
views, especially with my phone's lens

Effigies and such all around, especially from the 13th century,
the height of the Temple's historic importance; reconstructed
after the Blitz, some casts from the V&A

Re-dedication in 1958 attended by the Queen, the Duke,
the Queen Mother, among others; a place sacred in English
history...

View of the chancel

Interpretive signage is everywhere...a few early bits about
the Templars and the Temple, the rest about what happened
here in 1215, and its aftermath

The Temple was King John's London HQ, and it was
here that the barons first presented him with their demands;
his response at the time was basically "Let me get back to
you on that," and they got back to him a few months later at
Runnymede, forcing his signature on the new Magna Carta;
he shortly repudiated it and even had the pope pronounce it
null and void ("under duress"); things got even messier after
that, with new drafts, negotiations, agreements, repudiations,
etc.; happily for everyone else, John died in 1216...

...and William Marshal, who had been loyal to the king,
took over as regent for the 9 year-old heir Henry III; 
Marshal then decisively blessed the new Magna Carta before
his own death in 1219; and the rest is...

And among the history...quite a few of the signers of the
American Declaration of Independence were alums of
the Inner and Middle Temple Inns of Court 

"Cradle of the Common Law" indeed

Moving right along, we are now walking up Chancery
Lane, looking for Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn, and
looking into the legal regalia shops

Lincoln's Inn of the Inns of Court; I think

Now in the courtyard of Gray's Inn, Vicki, who has a nose for libraries,
spots the Gray's Inn library, where they are airing things out; or possibly
something else

After discussion with a few seemingly knowledgeable residents,
we concluded this was the site of the December 28, 1594, first known
performance of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, "by a company of
base and common fellows"...

Street scene thereabouts; love old London

Aptly named restaurant for the area...

Right around the corner, on Fleet Street, are the Royal Courts of Justice