3/2: London Lore & Jack the Ripper 'Sights'!

After an overnight flight in economy seats from Denver to London - oh joy! - Steven and I had an entire day in the city to explore a couple of areas we didn't have time to when we were in London for several days last October at the end of our six-week trip to Ireland and part of the UK. We hoped we'd tire ourselves out, too, before another overnight flight in economy seats - double joy! - to Colombo in Sri Lanka, the first country in our four-month adventure to Asia and now the Middle East because of the coronavirus.

To get into London from Heathrow Airport certainly wasn't cheap in my opinion. It cost a hefty $100 just to get to the train station, plus another $40 to leave our backpacks at the left luggage, plus about $20 more in tube fares for the day - ouch!

I was so glad we weren't on my favorite TV program, The Amazing Race, because we'd have flunked as we ended up going round and round the very large Paddington Station twice after taking the express train from the airport and looking for the 'tube' station into the city. It would have been comical if we weren't so tired!

After finally arriving in the city, we came across the Monument to the Great Fire of London that burned from September 2-5, 1666, after it broke out in a bakery in Pudding Lane. It devastated the city, resulting in the destruction of over 13,000 houses and 87 churches. The monument was designed in consultation with Sir Christoper Wren, the city's preeminent architect.

We began our walk of the Bankside area at London Bridge. Bankside was the historic heart of the revitalized south bank of the Thames River. It had been known as the 'wrong side of the tracks' and was London's red light district for centuries before becoming "an industrial wasteland of empty warehouses and street crime" according to travel writer Rick Steves. From London Bridge, we had a great view of Tower Bridge, the neo-Gothic drawbridge. I learned the river in between the two bridges was known as the Pool of London and was the furthest point seafaring vessels could travel inland. The large ship on the right was the HMS Belfast, a WW II cruiser.

Small griffin statues depicting winged lions holding swords at the south end of the bridge guarded the entrance to the financial district known as The City.

We had a great view from the bridge of The Shard skyscraper, the tallest building in Western Europe and home to offices and restaurants.

We walked down to the riverside to get a better view of London Bridge which was in its fourth life of the 2,000 year old river crossing. In 50 AD, the Romans built a wooden footbridge but that was taken down in 1014 to retake London from Danish invaders. Remember the song we sung as children: "London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady?" That came from that period!

The neighborhood church where William Shakespeare prayed was Southwark Cathedral and dated back to 1207. A plaque informed us that for over 1,000 years, Christians have worshipped at the cathedral. In 606, it was a convent; it became a priory in 1106, a parish church in 1540, and a cathedral in 1905. Southwark was the oldest Gothic church building in London and was also where Chaucer, Dickens and many other notables were associated with the church.

The church was a symbol of the urban renewal that had taken place in the Bankside/Southwark area with damage from WW II repaired and windows replaced.

The Shakespeare Memorial commemorated the famous playwright who lived nearby in Southwark. Behind his alabaster figure was a backdrop of the 16th century Bankside skyline.

The window above showed characters from his plays including Hamlet talking to a skull.

The Great Chandelier was given to the church in 1680 and its symbols of the Crown, Mitre and Dove reflected the relationship of Church and State at the time.

It was hard to see the High Altar Screen erected in 1520 through the Pilgrimage art installation whose dozen candles represented people with a connection to pilgrimage including Thomas Beckett who led many pilgrims from Southwark.

The oldest part of the cathedral was the 13th century Retro Choir with its crisscross arches and stone tracery in its windows. Four chapels lined the choir.

The tomb of John Gower, the poet laureate to King Richard 11 and King Henry IV. His head rested on three well-known books, one each in Latin, French and English.

The Chaucer Window above the tomb depicted 14th century pilgrims as recounted in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer was a contemporary and friend of Gower.

The Prayer Map for Zimbabwe reminded the church faithful to pray for those in Zimbabwe because the three episcopal areas of the Southwark diocese were linked with three Anglican dioceses in Zimbabwe.

In 1469, the roof of the priory church collapsed and the stone vaulting was replaced by a carved wooden ceiling. These medieval roof bosses were from that ceiling. The one on the top right showed the Devil swallowing Judas Iscariot!

On the other side of the cathedral was Borough Market where trading used to begin at the ungodly hour of 2 am at the wholesale produce market! Nowadays, it was full of trendy specialty and organic foods.

This simmering pot of goodness was Vegan Pumpkin Curry. Andrew and Paul: That would have been just up your alley!

From the market we wandered down Park St. that had an old 19th century ambience which made it popular as a film location.

No need for a description here, I figure!

If you know the expression "thrown in the Clink" which arose from the sound of prisoners' chains, that came from the Clink Prison that burned down in 1780. Originally part of Winchester Palace, only the underground cells remained that used to house troublemakers that ran afoul of the bishop's 22 licensed brothels! Prisoners, including heretics or priests who crossed their bishops and prostitutes who attempted to go independent or cheated favorite clients, weren't fed. They had to bribe guards to eat, to avoid torture or even get released.

A few steps away was all that remained of what had been the 80-acre Winchester Palace along the waterfront. The wall with its lovely medieval rose window was the end of the Great Hall, the banquet and reception room held by the powerful Bishop of Winchester, the palace's owner. 

How disheartening to learn that bishops lived in their estate complete with fountains, stables, tennis courts, a bowling alley, a farm and a fish-stocked lake. They also profited from prostitution and gambling that were illegal activities just across the river. The ruins were only discovered in the 19th century following a fire and not finally revealed until the 1980s during redevelopment of the area. 

Very close by was the full-size replica of Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hinde that he used to circumnavigate the globe on a three-year voyage with 100 men from 1577-1580. Drake set sail with the Hinde and five small ships to first sail around South America, raiding Spanish ships and towns in Chile and then likely making his way along the coast all the way to Canada. The crew then proceeded across the Pacific to Asia and beyond with the ship so full of booty that the rock ballast was replaced with gold ingots and silver coins. 

A female 'hind' or deer was on both the bow and stern. 

In 1580, Drake sailed up the Thames with just the Hinde and 56 men. Queen Elizabeth I who had hired Drake to plunder Spanish ships and the colonies in the New World was so enormously pleased when he returned with an extensive hoard of gold, silver, emeralds, diamonds and spices that Drake was rewarded by being knighted. This galleon replica itself has circled the globe!

The map showed Drake's extensive travels.

The last of Bankside's original inns cum brothels in the red light district was The Anchor. It was mind boggling to know that a tavern had stood in this spot for over 800 years! Shakespeare himself likely drank here as his original Globe Theatre had been right behind The Anchor.

From the front of The Anchor on Bankside Road, we had a lovely view of the Southwark Bridge and the domed St. Paul's Cathedral in the center.

A few downright chilly steps further along Bankside Rd. was the new Globe built in 1997 with timbers, a thatched but fire-retardant roof and wooden pegs for nails and seating for 1,500 theater goers. Shakespeare's acting company built the original 3,000 seat theater which was by far the largest in 1599 so the actor, playwright and businessman could premiere his greatest works.

Across from the Globe we stood at the railing imagining the devastation people on the Bankside would have seen on September 2, 1666, when The City across the river went up in flames in the Great Fire after its start in a bakery. Though 80 percent of The City went up in smoke in four days, miraculously only 9 people died. The Bankside area became a temporary refugee camp for those who had lost their homes in the fire. 

Just a tad further along the road was the Tate Modern (art museum) built in a former power station. What an innovative way to re-utilize an empty and ugly Industrial Age building on the south side of the Thames.

Entrance was free so we parked ourselves on a somewhat comfy bench to take the load off for a while! The spacious interior had an intriguing water feature that appealed but we didn't have the energy to devote to seeing anything more of the museum, especially since modern art isn't our thing.'

If I were a little kid, I'd have wanted to sit right down in this shell! 

The pedestrian-only Millennium Bridge was constructed in 2000 to connect St. Paul's and The City with the Tate. It lasted for two whole days until the "bridge to the next millennium" started wobbling so badly that it had to be closed for eight months while structural changes were made. 

It was bone-chilling cold walking across the bridge but fun, too, getting closer and closer to the iconic St. Paul's Cathedral that we toured on our last day in London in early October. I hope it won't take me forever to finish writing the post from that trip which began in Ireland in mid August!

As the bridge marked the end of our Bankside walk, we took the tube to the Liverpool Street Station to begin our walk through the East End, the area of London that was always the less desirable part of town even in medieval times. Part of the reason was it was downwind of the foul-smelling hide-tanning district. The disparity between the city's affluent West End and poorer East End was made worse in Victorian times "when the wind carried the pollution of a newly industrialized London" according to Rick Steves. 

The differences between the old 19th century brick buildings and the 21st century glassy new office high rises was apparent right away.

We got off the busy thoroughfare to stroll along charming Bishopsgate Street. At its end was Christ Church.

The Fruit and Wool Exchange seemed like an odd combination to be housed under one roof!

I admit that one of the reasons we thought it might be amusing to walk through part of the East End was because the legendary gangster Jack the Ripper made the area famous beginning in the fall of 1888 when he committed several gruesome murders. Witnesses were able to pinpoint when the crimes took place by the chiming of the bells at Christ Church. 

Across from the church was The Ten Bells Pub that was established in 1753 and was where several of his victims frequented. The ghastly murder of a young Irish lass took place not 50 yards from the church.

We were so fortunate that we hadn't dallied any longer at the Tate or anywhere else along the way as we were the last ones to enter Christ Church before it closed at 4 and the caretaker followed us out the door! The church was unusual in that it had no cross atop its 225-foot high steeple. The church was built in 1711 according to Queen Anne's wishes that a church be erected to give immigrants in the East End a "proper Protestant place to worship."

The church almost appeared Quaker-like inside with its sparse furniture and detailing. I found its simplicity a refreshing change to so many over-the-top churches and cathedrals I've written about over the years.

High above the altar - so high, in fact, we couldn't find it for a bit - was the United Kingdom's coat of arms: the lion and and unicorn and, for some reason, a French motto that translated to "God and my right."

Catty corner was the upscale Spitalfields Market that we'd walked through before admiring the church. If it'd not been literally the first hours of a hopeful four-month long trip, I'd have wanted to peruse the many craft stalls. When the market had been a Jewish one, it was closed on Saturday for the Sabbath. Then and still now, I read it was liveliest on Sundays as a result.

The next stop on our tour took us down Fournier St. which must have looked the same in Jack the Ripper's era with its old lantern-like lampposts and brick apartment buildings called tenements. Nowadays, the word has a negative meaning but historically it simply meant an apartment building in the city.

The back of Christ Church:

Most buildings in London in the 1700s were built of brick that were manufactured in factories in the aptly called Brick Lane located nearby.

At the end of Fournier was a mosque with an attractive minaret that seemed almost to match the height of the church steeple!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the sign at the corner of Fournier St. and Brick Lane! Notice the street names on the brick - they were in Hindi because of the large Indian population in the area.

The stretch of road along Brick Lane has been dubbed "the curry capital of Europe" for the profusion of Indian restaurants. I kid you not, every restaurant proclaimed it was "the best,"  "the master," "the champion" having won some award or another!

I imagine you thought fish and chips was still the national dish in England as I certainly did. Nope, that's been taken over by chicken tikka masala!

A few blocks further along the street was Truman Brewery which was established in 1666 but has now become Truman Markets with more upscale shops and a market.

Atop a wall was this 'art' installation. Figured it would have garnered more attention at the Tate than here!

The first Jack the Ripper murder took place a few blocks away at 29 Hanbury St. on September 8, 1888, when the mutilated body of a 40-year-old flower seller and occasional prostitute was found with her throat slit behind the tenement that had been here. As the MO was similar to one a week earlier and less than a half-mile away, the newspapers nicknamed the killer Jack the Ripper. In a span of just three months, Jack the Ripper went on to kill as many as ten women, most within the sound of the Christ Church bells. He was never caught!

Close to sunset, the minaret looked even more striking.

As we backtracked via Brick Lane, we noticed all the lampposts had been decorated with intriguing Indian designs.

Along Fashion St. was a century-old brick building with a fanciful Moorish design that housed a fashion school of course!

Pretty clever name, don't you think?!

Across from the tenements for the urban poor was the former Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor.

On Tenter Ground, we learned the origin behind the phrase "being on tenterhooks" or uneasy as weavers once dried cloth on iron racks that were still attached to the building!

At the end of the lane was a building where poor women entered to begin their day at a Victorian-era workhouse.

A very narrow street just ahead was Artillery Passage which was used by King Henry VIII around 1500 to practice his artillery. If you've ever seen any Jack the Ripper films, scenes were shot here! Like so much of the East End, it, too, has become gentrified with atmospheric pubs and places to dine. 

The bollard or big black stake in the pavement acted as the boundary marker signifying the end of the East End and the entrance to The City. What a juxtaposition between "the richest square mile on earth" and those that have so much less.

The two walks turned out to be not only the perfect length of time but also the ideal way to keep us upright after the 'all nighter' and before a second one to Colombo a few hours later. It was entertaining and illuminating discovering more sights in one of the world's greatest cities. We were back at Heathrow by 6 after taking the tube to Paddington Station and then the express - read expensive! - train to the airport. If I can believe my phone's walking app, we walked 9.5 miles that day - not too shabby a trek after an overnight flight from Denver and one more that night! 

Next post: IF you're following this year's trip, it'll be about getting a sense of downtown Colombo. But, I will next write a post on our time at Trim Castle and our last hours in Dublin from the 2019 trip. Here's the link: https://bergersadventures7.blogspot.com/2020/03/923-trim-castle-battle-of-boyne-gpo-in.html

Posted on March 9th, 2020, on our last night in Dambulla in northern Sri Lanka as we prepare to head even further north via tuk tuk in the morning with all our bags in tow!