MM4.Travel

Barcelona to London – Day Thirty Seven

Monday October 7

Adiós Spain, you were great.

London Calling (again)

We caught the Spanish equivalent of Jetstar back to London – not great, but not totally terrible for what is effectively a flying bus service. Landing at Gatwick airport as seasoned travellers, we then promptly caught the train to Brighton. If you have a basic understanding of English geography this is not ideal. As it slowly dawned on us that London was slowly getting further away from us on Google maps, we were able to jump on the right train back to London. Phew.

The Battersea Power Station from the train. It was built between 1929-1945 & was designed by the architect Giles Gilbert Scott (he’s also designed the red phone boxes). It was shut down in 1983 and recently has been redeveloped as apartments.

We had booked the same hotel that we stayed at some weeks earlier near Tower Bridge, so it was nice to be somewhere familiar. So with the day’s church ratio perilously low we went for walk to check out some buildings.

Aldgate Church

At the end of the street from our hotel, there was a church we had been past a few times. It has the snappy name of St Botolph without Aldgate and Holy Trinity Minories, or Aldgate Church for short.

The church was designed by George Dance the Elder, who also designed the Lord Mayor’s Residence.

The church was built in 1745, though there had been a church in that location since 1115. There was an after school music lesson going on when we went in.

A memorial in the church for a benefactor that dates from 1675. For some reason it reminds me of the puffy shirt episode on Seinfeld.

All Hallows Staining

What isn’t apparent in the photo is some impressive engineering going on, the tower is actually totally excavated & sitting on 13m high jacks.

The church dates back to at least 1320, but has had some issues over the years, the actual church building collapsed several years after surviving the Great Fire of London in 1666. And the replacement was demolished in 1870. It is currently being incorporated into a new development but due to the tower being a Grade 1 building it must be retained in place.

St Olave’s Church, Hart Street

This St Olave’s church, which is named after King Olaf II of Norway, who before becoming a Saint helped King Æthelred to fight off the Dane’s at the battle of London Bridge in 1014. If you knew any of this already, you are doing definitely doing better than me. The church was one of the few to survive the Great Fire of London entirely intact, but was damaged during the Blitz. It was a favourite of the diarist Samuel Pepys, novelist Charles Dickens, and the poet John Beetjeman, not to mention the Norwegian Royal Family during WW2.