Favorite Fotos: St. Paul's

I took a tour of St. Paul's with Henry and Joan back in October, but caught many glimpses of it throughout my visit. Plus I attended an evensong there in early December. The picture at the right shows its famous dome as I approached it from the north for the concert. And on the left is a surreptitious photo taken of the inside of the dome. I know you're not supposed to take photos inside the cathedral, but I couldn't resist since I was sitting right under the dome, waiting for the service to start, and all I had to do was turn off my flash, lay my camera in my lap, and snap!

The picture below gives you a good idea of the cathedral's overall shape: in addition to the dome, there are the two very striking towers out in front. You can see one of them here, as seen in telefoto mode from the Millennium Bridge.


Here they are from a closer vantage point, probably right in front of the main doors (note the time on the clock—I made a point of taking a picture of the clock whenever I could as we climbed the dome later in our visit):


And here are two more views of the towers, one from the first gallery in the climb where you can go outside, the aptly named Stone Gallery, and one from later and further up (from the Golden Gallery, the highest point of the climb; note the time)....

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The cathedral's history is almost as interesting as its architecture is stunning. There has been a house of worship (and this one is still a working church, in addition to being a major tourist attraction) on the site for 1200 years, but the present structure "only" dates to the late 1600's, after the Great Fire which destroyed its previous version. (There is a very impressive, finely detailed, model of the earlier St. Paul's, in the crypt museum.) It is considered architect Christopher Wren's masterpiece, although he designed and built many other beautiful churches to replace and augment the structures lost to the Fire (in 1666).

Some of Wren's churches, along with large swaths of modern London, were subsequently lost during the Blitz of 1940-41. But, although it suffered some minor fire damage, St. Paul's made it through the bombing relatively unscathed while much of the area surrounding it was destroyed, securing its place in the hearts of Londoners as a symbol of the "we can take it" mentality that saw them through this dark period of their history.


Next up: Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

More out and about

After another morning spent piously grading papers, I rewarded myself yesterday with a visit to the last of Rick Steves' major London recommendations, the Courtauld Gallery. What a gem of a place! It's small enough (three levels reached by the winding stairs at the right, but it has a small footprint) that it doesn't feel overwhelming the way the larger museums do. However, it packs quite a punch in the quality of its collection. Cezannes, Gaugins, Manets, Degas' and Rubens' by the dozens—thanks, again, Rick, for not steering me wrong!

A special treat was their current temporary exhibition of Turner watercolors—a mesmerizing little collection of small paintings and drawings. Can't ever get enough Turner!

Actually the Gallery was my second stop of the day. I first headed to the Temple Inns of Court, which had always sounded intriguing to me—a cluster of offices and residences for barristers, like a little college in the middle of London. It was intriguing in person, too, especially since I had trouble finding my way out of the maze of buildings. It would probably be a more interesting place during the week, when there would be more activity. As it was a Saturday, I just enjoyed admiring the architecture, and eventually found my way out using breadcrumbs that led back to the way I entered—apparently the only open gate at the weekend.

I think you should look for something like this in your next law office, Henry:


I'd ridden buses often on the streets around the Temple and the Courtauld, but never walked them, and there were lots of fine views of wonderful buildings and churches like St. Mary-le-Strand and St. Clement Danes, seen at the left (St. Mary's in the foreground). After ambling around this area for a while, I still had some time to kill before evensong at St. Paul's, which was my plan for finishing off the day. So I stopped off in one of Joan's favorite haunts, a Costa Coffee, this one on Oxford Street, to warm up and refresh myself with tea and a muffin.

I'm enjoying these last few days of London sight-seeing (and it is nice not to have competition for the computer 8-) ) but I really miss my guests! Wish you all could have stayed longer!

Evensong at St. Paul's was very nice. The choir (mixed children and adults) and the organ sounded marvelous, but overall the musical selections weren't anything special. However, just being in such an amazing space, with any kind of musical accompaniment, is a pretty awesome experience.

Here is the view along a festively decorated Watling Street (I think) as I approached St. Paul's just before dark (this is at 4:30). I cannot get anywhere near this edifice without "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins starting to play on my mind's radio, and it even plays when I see this picture. Anyone else have this malady?

More London sights

We put in a full few days in London last week in addition to our day trips, and were fortunate in the weather most of the time. Some of our sight-seeing was constrained by errands needing to be run, such as picking up some forgotten souvenirs from the Stonehenge-Bath bus. Their office was near the Tower Bridge, though, so it was easy to combine the trips. (Plus we found a good inexpensive eatery—The Cat and Cucumber—in between bus lot and bridge for lunch.)

After walking across the Bridge (and taking many more photos of this incredibly photogenic structure) we headed upstream toward our main target, St. Paul's. Hal and Sally had heartily recommended climbing to the top and we found that to be good advice. It was a somewhat taxing climb, but the views, both at various points along the way, and at the summit, are fabulous. I was also quite taken with the details of the church itself, like the golden pineapple/acorn/or whatever in the picture above. I took this picture, I believe, from the Stone Gallery, which is the next-highest stopping point.

Here's a look at the view from the top (the Golden Gallery) of the lovely Thames, Blackfriars Bridge, The Eye, and points in between. What great weather for distance viewing!


The interior of the church is quite impressive, too, of course, and unbelievably huge, but no photos are allowed. The American Chapel on one end was a highlight for me. After walking all around we took some time to just sit and soak in the atmosphere (and also rest up from our climb).

We still had time for more sights, and since the Millennium Bridge is right there, leading to the Tate Modern, we went there for a quick visit. Here is a view of the Bridge from the Stone Gallery of St. Paul's. You might notice there's not much traffic on the footbridge. I didn't notice it until later, when we were crossing. There was a sign saying it was closed for a good bit of the day for inspection and maintenance. We trust they found no structural weaknesses!

Our visit to the art museum was brief, but about long enough for art that we old fogeys don't find as interesting as the older stuff. I did enjoy it more than I expected, however, particularly finding a gallery of Soviet propaganda posters quite fascinating. And the building itself is quite a marvel. Plus, it's so perfectly located in London! Here's a lovely sunset view from the Bridge heading back to the north bank, which is better for bus and tube catching.