Monday, Sept. 24
Richmond and Hampton Court

I’m definitely getting a cold. Shit! I thought I was yesterday and am more congested in my head today. I bought some decongestant tablets at Boots Chemist at Waterloo station before finding the Original London Walks tour guide. We are a group of about two dozen, which was a pleasant surprise to our guide, a short, perky woman named Hillary. Seems last week she only had 3 or 4 on her tour and, in the wake of the Sept. 11 events, thought it might take a few more weeks for the numbers to rebound. The cost for the full day is £25 which includes £10 for the all day tour (normally £5 for a 2 hour tour) and the cost of the river boat from Richmond to Hampton Court Palace and the entrance fee to the Palace itself. There were discounts for children and seniors. Most major attractions seem to be in the £9-£11 range so this was not out of line. We take a commuter train to the town of Richmond to start out walking tour.

A bit of history about Richmond: Richmond used to be called Shene and a Royal hunting lodge was built here first by Edward III in the 14th C. Richard II lived here until his wife, Anne of Bohemia died and in his grief, he tore the manor down. Henry VII built it again but it burned so he rebuilt a fine palace and renamed it for himself. (He was the Duke of Richmond before he wrestled the throne from Richard III in 1485 at Bosworth, thus ending the Wars of the Roses and establishing the Tudor dynasty).  The palace was used by royalty for the next century until Oliver Cromwell tore it down during the Civil War. The palace was never rebuilt although many fine estates and manors were founded here, Richmond being a prestigious place to live then as well as now. Charles II gave the green to the town and it’s been a public greenspace ever since. There is also a large old Deer Park where the monarchs used to hunt and where some royalty still lives. (It is  either the Duke and Duchess of Kent or Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, I just forget.)

Hillary recounted the history of the town as we walked along the edge of the green. She pointed out the Victorian theatre where a theatre has stood probably since Elizabethan times and described how the green used to be part of the palace grounds and was partly used as a tilt-yard for games of jousting.  We were allowed a short break to walk through some of the narrow cobbled lanes and find something to take with us for lunch on the river boat. She pointed out a café where she had an arrangement whereby you could order a sandwich and pastry and the staff would bring the orders to the boat in time for the sailing. You aren’t restricted to that, you are free to do what you like and make your own arrangements but it seemed just as good as anything to me. 

We made our way to what remains of the old Tudor palace, a gate and gatehouse. Henry VII’s coat of arms watches over the red brick gate and you can still see the black brick pattern in the building that used to store the Royal Wardrobe, that’s the linens, bed and wall hangings and tapestries. There used to be arches on the ground floor that are since filled in. This was to keep air circulation so that the fabrics wouldn’t become damp and moldy. This courtyard also contains some elite manors and cottages, one of which was owned by a former favourite of Queen Anne, Abigail Hill.

We followed a path to the river, passing a manor once owned by an 18th C. Lord Mayor of London, Lord Asgill. The Thames here is narrower than in the city, dotted with small islands called Aits or Eyets and lined along one side here with houseboats, reflecting in the calm waters of the river. There is a nice park along the waterfront, a town project to beautify the area. We came across a marine repair shop under an arch by a bridge where a fellow told us he was building a wooden submarine. There was a brief silence as we all wondered if he was having us on but it turns out it’s very true! In 1620 there was a wooden submarine that made a successful underwater journey to Greenwich and the BBC is doing a documentary on it. This man was commissioned to build a replica!

The boat ride upriver takes about an hour and a half from Richmond, about half the length the journey will take from Westminster pier in London. We had our sandwiches and a drink and watched the lovely scenery as we passed by. The weather is variable, with a bit of sun and blue sky showing now and then.  Lining the riverbank there are lots of parks, businesses, a number of prestigious looking houses and apartment blocks which probably wouldn’t come cheap. This follows the traditional approach to Hampton Court which was always by Royal Barge along the river. The first part of the palace you see is a great gilded gate that backs the south front and Privy Gardens.

Some of the history of Hampton Court Palace: It was built by Cardinal Wolsey in 1515 as a means to show off his wealth and power. His power waned, however, when he was not able to obtain a legal method to rid Henry VIII of his first wife, Katherine of Aragon and when Henry strongly hinted that he REALLY liked the palace, it was donated although the writing predicting the fate of Wolsey was clearly on the wall. Henry spent a lot of time here, and expanded the palace to the point where it could house and entertain nearly 1000 people, servants, court attendants, hangers on and favour seekers. William III and Queen Mary II planned to tear down the palace and hired Christopher Wren at the end of the 17th C. About half way through the rebuilding process, Mary died and William lost heart. Lucky for us as that meant quite a bit of the Tudor section still stands albeit with renovations and alterations. The Palace was still lived in during modern times, for “grace and favour” apartments until a fire in one of them in 1986 caused a lot of damage to the King’s Apartments. These were restored but I don’t believe anyone lives here now.

Hampton Court would have been imposing and impressive at it’s height in the 16th and 17th C. with gilded cupolas, brightly painted brickwork and a gate house that was two stories taller than it’s current height. It was reduced in Georgian times for safety. All the old Tudor chimneys are different. There are about a half dozen sections to be visited including the Tudor State rooms, Tudor Kitchens, Stuart King’s and Queen’s Apartments, Georgian Rooms and Wolsey rooms with the Renaissance Galleries. The Privy and sunken gardens are open with the rest of the palace until 6 p.m. and the park is open until dusk.

Hillary led us first to the Tudor state rooms. We gaped up at the exquisite hammer beamed ceiling of the Great Hall, spotting the little painted faces peeking down. “Eaves” droppers! Most of the stained glass here is 19th C. but one window and section of the wall is believed to be original. The ceiling of one ante room is gilded leather mache and there are Tudor roses everywhere in glass, in stonework and paintings and tapestries. The Royal Chapel has subdued lighting and is very peaceful. There are no photos allowed inside most of the Palace except the kitchens. There are actors/guides around in period dress who will stop to tell you about their manner of  costume and what sort of person they are meant to represent for that period in time.  We saw one man in a splendid doublet and tunic from Elizabethan times and another couple dressed in late 17th C. outfits and heard about the cost of their clothing and the type of society they would have frequented.

Hillary took us next through the Stuart King’s Apartments which are laid out identically to the Queen’s apartments on the floor below though I didn’t see that or the Georgian rooms. These rooms are much larger than the Tudor section with higher ceilings and wide sweeping staircases. There are lots of painted ceilings with Baroque decoration, plaster work and rich wall and bedroom hangings. My favourite room contained over 3000 pieces of armament decorating the walls in various patterns. Rifles, knives, swords, spears, etc.  

After this section our formal tour was over. Hillary was off with our applause and thanks and we had a couple of hours to look around on our own. I headed to the café by the kitchens first thing  for a tea break and then went to explore the kitchens, pretty much the last original Tudor part of the Palace, a series of rooms that are used for skinning game, plucking preparing fowl, baking, cooking etc with the old scarred wooden tables and huge ovens, high enough for a person to walk into.

There are a couple of gift shops and cafés in the complex. It’s also interesting to explore some of the little courtyards. You can get an audio player to do a self-guided tour of various areas. I did go into the Wolsey rooms and Renaissance galleries as well. It’s not known if Wolsey actually used those rooms but they are small, low ceilinged, and wood paneled and you can almost imagine him sitting at a desk by a window. The ghost of Katherine Howard (Wife #5 for Henry VIII)  is supposed to haunt one of the Tudor anterooms and elsewhere on the grounds are a tennis court, a maze, the Great Vine which still produces wine every fall, the sunken garden and Privy Gardens and the huge park with it’s pruned yew trees and fountains. When I was here in 1993 during a photo op stop of the gardens on the bus tour, the Privy and sunken gardens were in the process of being restored, using plants and shrubs that would have been there in the 17th C. The lowering sun cast long shadows along the garden paths and glinted off the decorated south front of the palace. 

Just about closing time, 6 p.m. so I made my way to the train station across the river. I chatted to a couple on the train, two seniors who live in London. They told me about a documentary that was being aired on television, on the wives of Henry VIII. The second part was on tonight!  What an appropriate way to cap off this day!

I bought a large tea and sandwich at a coffee shop in Euston station and settled in for a quiet night in the hotel after I made sure I had all my bits and pieces packed. I am checking out tomorrow and meeting Nikki after work to finish out my week out in Essex in Leigh-on-Sea.

Tuesday Sept. 25
Tate Britain

My cold seems a bit more manageable today though I wouldn’t say “better”. I’m hoping all this walking and fresh air will help prevent the cold from traveling from my head to my lungs. I got 10 pounds back from the hotel because Chris didn’t come after all. They had charged me 50 quid a night for just me staying in the twin room by myself and 60 for the night he was going to be there, paid in advance. Didn’t I mention that? Sorry. Some hotels in the UK (and probably other places) want you to pay up front when you check in. Anyway, the £10 paid for the cab to Liverpool Station where I stored  my bags in Left Luggage for the day.  Pricey but convenient. Stashing them at the hotel would mean either schlepping  them around on the tube or risking being late taking a taxi in rush hour traffic. Now my bags are here and ready to go when I am.

Freed of my burdens, I caught the tube to Victoria Station, hoping to locate the post office. My tourist map had a little envelope symbol in the vicinity but I never did find it. Probably walked right past it knowing my luck.  I was heading south on Buckingham Palace Road. I think. I have one of those little popup tourist maps that i bought last year but it didn’t serve me well in the walk towards the Tate Gallery which was my goal for this morning. They're  handy but don’t have the detail that my other one does. It's a pocket guide book published by Let’s Go and has maps on the inside of it's laminated covers. 

I turned off Buckingham Palace Road in the general eastern direction of the Tate  and found myself along some quiet streets in Pimlico, lined with white terraced houses. I passed by a church, St. Gabriel’s, by Warwick Square and I walked and walked until I realized that the fold out map was really only good if you were following main streets! I couldn’t figure out where I was but at one point I could see the four smoke stacks of Battersea Power station looming up so I knew I was close by the Thames at least. I followed that road, which turned out to be Grosvenor Road and came to a pub called the Spread Eagle. 

By this time I had been walking about ¾ of an hour and it was about 11:30 a.m., my face was clammy and hair frizzy in the morning humidity and I was gasping for a drink. Pub… drink… plan! Only, I did take the girl behind the bar somewhat aback when I asked was there any way I could get a cup of tea? There was, Bless her! I sat down by a window to peruse my woefully inadequate map to discover I was about 100 yards from the Tate which was just around a bend in the road.  Oh well, I did have a pleasant walk and this, after all, is the way you *should* see a city. Walk and see where the roads take you. You can’t get that far lost in central London in the long run, not on foot with a map in hand even one as lacking in detail as mine. The tea was restoring and my feet enjoyed the rest.

After all the moaning I have done over the years about wanting to see the Tate Britain and the J. M. W. Turner paintings, I should have known I had my hopes up too high. There are quite a few rooms in a separate wing at the gallery dedicated to Turner but most of what’s here are his unfinished works and sketches, possibly a temporary exhibit, i don't know. Of the one rooms that had finished paintings I only recognized one of his shipwreck scenes. I thought it would be mostly works that I would recognize but perhaps most of them are scattered around galleries around the world unless this was a temporary exhibition. I ate lunch at the gallery, feeling let down a bit but the food at least is excellent here!

After lunch I browsed in the other galleries, seeing works by John Constable and some really nice portraits by John Singer Sargent, an artist I hadn’t really considered before. There were a lot of portraits that were actually very interesting although the Victorian morals were really played up in many of them with allegories depicted in others.  The gallery is not really large so it’s not overwhelming. Most of the modern art is now housed in the Tate Modern on Bankside near the Globe theatre and wobbly new Millenium footbridge.

After a browse in the shop I took a bus up through Trafalgar Square and got off near Aldwych. That walking thing again. I wandered down the Strand, admiring the turreted Royal Courts of Justice, a bit too Over The Top for my taste but interesting nonetheless. Twinning tea shop is just across from it as well, a deep narrow shop filled with tea and coffee, cups and teapots.

A little farther on I arrived at Temple Bar. This was originally where the Knights Templar had their headquarters and church. There is still a very old church there but it was completely covered in scaffolding. The “Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon” were founded in 1118 to protect Christianity during the Crusades when they accumulated a vast amount of wealth, mostly donated by grateful followers. Power followed along with the wealth. About 200 years after their founding, however, their organization went down in flames, literally and inexplicably swiftly and without resistance, in France.

Shortly after, in London, the law profession moved into the area where the Templars once reigned. This area is the Lower, Middle and Upper Temple area of London, just off the Strand near the courts. It consists of a few streets, lanes, courtyards lined with buildings of various age containing law offices and law schools and residential blocks for law students as well. When you finish your law degree, you are “called to the Bar”.  There are a few medieval buildings left and there is  a serene Fountain court circled with benches and trees through which the rays of sun knifed through like laser beams. There has been a fountain on that spot since the 17th C. There is also a large fenced park which is not open to the public. Many of the buildings are under tarp and scaffold for restoration including the old Temple Hall.

I emerged from there and found myself on the Embankment, not far from Blackfriars. Since my feet again ached to the point of feeling like I was walking on bruises, I decided to head to the station, collect my bags and find a place to sit even though I was early to meet Nikki. We found each other at the appointed meeting spot though the tide of commuters rushing into the station after 5 p.m. It takes about 40 minutes by train to Rayleigh where she parks her car. A large strong looking bloke offered to help carry the suitcase over the platform cross over. He lifted it like there was next to nothing in it while I nursed the huge bruise on my right wrist that I got that morning from wrestling it DOWN four narrow flights of stairs at the hotel! We arrived in Leigh-on-Sea around 6 where Dave had already started cooking our tea and we had a relaxing evening catching up.

Wednesday Sept. 26

Shopping Oxford Street

I had thought I might do the Globe theatre this morning but it’s overcast and gloomy and I thought it might be a good day to spend shopping my way up and down Oxford Street. We were up and out of the house by 7:30 to catch the train and in the City by 8:30. I decided to have a tea and Danish at a coffee shop by the station to wait out the worst of the rush hour. My 6 zone pass is good for travel before 9:30 unlike the one day passes but the Underground is not pleasant when you’re jammed in like sardines. I did this every morning for the rest of the week and it worked out well for me.

I took the underground to Oxford Circus and started up the left side of Oxford Street heading west. I really didn’t have any particular purchase in mind although I wanted to shop in Evans. I bought a few souvenir-y type gifts as a Christmas present for my niece. The shoes in the Ecco store drew me in for a look. There is no Ecco store in North America other than one in San Francisco though some of the better shoe stores do carry the brand and I had heard they were wonderfully comfy. I am not normally a shoe shopper but I was delighted in the choices I saw. I tried on various styles of ankle height boots and shoes and walked out with a chocolate brown nubuck pair of lace ups that felt like slippers on my aching feet!

I browsed in the big Evans store but didn’t see anything I liked or else not in my size which is typical but near the end of the afternoon I discovered a smaller Evans store near Oxford Circus while searching for a boutique called 16/47 owned  in part by the marvelous Dawn French. There I was successful and walked away with three new tshirts and a funky purple bra! I went in Selfridges which was far posher than I realized but I did buy a pot of eye shadow at the MAC counter and had a light lunch in the café where I wrote a few postcards with Beatles music drifting over the sound system.

I also went down Regent Street a little ways, saw Carnaby Street which is just in behind Liberty, and found, Ta Daaaa, Past Times my all time favourite store! Can’t get out of there without buying something for sure. Another tea break at a café that specializes in homemade soups. Damn, I wish I had waited and had my lunch here!

Tired and footsore again, Nikki and I arrived home with enough time for me to have a quick shower and change. We are picking up their good friend Stuart and a work mate of Dave’s, Colin and going out for a curry in Barking. Don’t ask me where it is but I think it’s closer to the East end of London.  I’m not that familiar with Indian food though I do like spicy dishes so we had a consultation on what I was likely to enjoy.  Chicken Tikka Biriyani with a Veg curry was the end result and it was good. I tried a bit of Stu’s much hotter Chicken Madras though and that was tasty as well. 

Unfortunately, Dave had a problem with his order, a mixed Balti with 3 types of meat in it which wasn’t on the menu but which he had ordered there before. They delivered the food after a considerable wait and told him then that they didn’t do mixed Balti but decided to make him a vegetable curry instead!!! Never tell Dave he can’t have what he wants if he knows he’s been able to get it there in the past! He insisted and did get what he wanted after another wait. He managed to discuss the end price of the meal and get a reduction for all the inconvenience too! On the way home we stopped for a little visit at Stu’s and met his girlfriend Elly who hadn’t been feeling well so hadn’t come with us. Home and off to bed. Tomorrow, Shakespeare’s Globe.