London Off the Beaten Path Tips by rexvaughan

This is an interesting building with outstanding limewood carvings inside, but its bigger attraction is that it has free lunchtime recitials and concerts every day. We heard three very accomplished young musicians playing piano, cello and violin and performing works by Beethoven and Mendelssohn.
There is also antiques and collectibles market in the courtyard and a nice green garden on the grounds.
We were there in January and went to the Aroma Cafe in the church for wonderful soups and sandwiches.
Less than 100 meters from Piccadilly Circus.

Leave a Comment

Phone: 020 7734 4511
Other Contact: 197 Piccadilly (adress)

This museum is housed in the Covent Garden old flower market and is a delightful collection of buses, trams, trolleys and rail vehicles including the first (horse drawn) omnibus. There is also a display of "the tube" construction which shows that it is in fact a tube! There are some hands-on fun for kids as well as a nice cafe and a gift shop where you can get your "Mind the Gap" souvenirs. It is located next to the present Covent Garden market on Russell Street and Wellington Street.

Leave a Comment

Phone: 0171-379-6344
Website: www.ltmuseum.co.uk

This may be of interest only to Methodists, but the City Road Chapel which was so prominent in Wesley's work and life in London is still existing. Built in 1778, it was a center of his ministry and also the home where he lived and died. His tomb is in the back garden. The building is still an active congregation and it is my understanding that Margaret Thatcher is a member. It also houses a museum tracing the development of Methodism and contains a lot of Wesley's personal possessions. It is at 49 City Road. Tube: Old Street.

Leave a Comment

Phone: 071 253 2262
Website: www.wesleyschapel.org.uk

In the shadow of Big Ben at the end of Westminster Bridge is a statue of Queen Boadicea. In about 60 CE, the Romans killled her husband, head of a Celtic tribe, raped their two daughters and flogged Boadicea. This put her in a highly irritated state of mind so she took an army of several thousand and scared the togas off the Romans, almost defeating them. I understand that there were tens of thousands of soldiers killed and she was captured and imprisoned where she later died. The cause of her death is still debated. This is a wonderful statue, done around 1900 and donated to the city of London by the artists son. It is easy to catch if you do a Thames cruise which starts or ends at Westminster Bridge.

Leave a Comment

As near as they can determine, this is an accurate representation of the original Globe Theatre (though not on the same site). It is a beautiful open air theatre which seeks to combine the actors, the audience and the architecture into the performance. It is half-timbered and thatched - the first thatched roof in London since the great fire in 1666. The thatching is fire-proofed and has to be retreated every 5 years. From May to September there are live performances of Shakespeare's plays here. Other times the theater is open for tours and has probably the largest collection of Shakespeare's "stuff" anywhere. It is almost directly across the Thames from St. Paul's Cathedral and just west of Southwark Bridge. Tube: London Bridge then about a 10 minute walk.

Leave a Comment

Phone: 020/7902-1500
Website: www.shakespeares-globe.org

There may be other places but at least in Greenwich you can cross the Thames on foot. Yep, there is a tunnel under the river that you can take and it is a short and easy walk. In fact on either side are elevators to take you down or up to the tunnel. The tunnel opened in 1902 to replace and expensive and somewhat unreiliable ferry and served primarily workers living on the south side and working in the dockyards. A feature I find attractive is the entrance domes at either end. Today the tunnel is a convenient link between Greenich and Island Gardens. One interesting thing I read is that the tunnel is classified as a public highway and therefore must remain open 24 hours a day. The elevator service is available pretty much all day but not overnight. There is a spiral staircase as an alternative. Free access.

The Greenwich side entrance is just beside the pier. You can't miss the glazed dome.

Leave a Comment

Smithfield has been the site of a meat market for centuries and some suggest that a livestock market operated here as early as the 10th Century. It has a long and checkered history as the original "smooth field" was the site of the burning of 300 Protestants by Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary) in the mid 16th Century and was used also for many public events - jousts, tournaments and the annual Bartholomew Fair, a raucous event that was eventually surpressed by the City. This was the cloth making area and the street beside St. Bartholomew the Great Church is named Cloth Fair.

Now the site of Smithfield Market (officially the London Central Markets), it wholesales meats, poultry, game and fish of all kinds. It opens for business at the ungodly hour of 4:00 a.m. and trades until mid-morning so if you want to see the action you have to get up early. We went there on Saturday so the market was not open but enjoyed the wonderful old building, the Cloth Fair area, Great St. Bart's Church and the little plaza beside St. Bart hospital.

Leave a Comment