Museum of London (2) and Selfridges is A Hundred!

Thursday, June 4, 2009
London

I took forever to fall asleep last night. And then, when I did get to sleep, I awoke within an hour and then took forever to fall back to sleep again! In frustration, I switched on my bedside lamp and turned to Harry for company. Read about 50 pages before I did finally fall asleep at 2. 30 am and awoke at 7.00 feeling really fatigued. Sitting in bed, as I usually do, I began to work and realized it was 8. 30 when I heard sounds outside my bedroom door--which announced to me that the cleaning lady, Minda, had arrived to start her weekly chores. Just when I was getting accustomed to rattling around on my own in this spacious loft, I had company and how comforting it felt.

Of course, just as I had been warned about her arrival, she had been told about my presence. And she could not stop chatting with me as I ate my cereal breakfast. She was so excited that I was from the States because she has traveled there extensively herself and has several relatives in Michigan. She is a lovely friendly Filipina and she instructed me very thoroughly on the garbage disposal system in this building and the precautions I must take if I am using the washer-dryer in the laundry room. I was very grateful indeed, both for her company and her concern for me.

Then, I got back to my room and worked steadily for about three hours. I finished transcribing the interviews I did with the Walters and after I had proofread them, I felt hunger pangs beckoning me towards the kitchen once again. I made myself a toasted ham and goat cheese sandwich which I ate while watching TV--this gave Minda more of a chance to chat with me and ask me if I knew her former employers from Sharon, Connecticut!--which I didn't.

I showered quickly to allow her to go ahead and clean my bathroom and at 2. 30, she left, having spent 6 whole hours cleaning this penthouse. I decided to go out and enjoy the day which was a bit more nippy than the hot days we've had recently.

More of the Museum of London:
I set out first for the Museum of London with the idea of finishing up the bit on the Fire of London that I hadn't yet done. I arrived there rather quickly, taking two buses, and discovered that in just 15 minutes time, a Highlights Tour of the Roman Gallery would be starting. I decided to join it and in the company of a docent called Lynne, I spent the next 45 minutes seeing again the items I had seen two days ago.

Lynne was very good indeed. In the manner in which she spoke--the clear enunciation, the turn of phrase, the wacky sense of humor, the accent--she reminded me so much of my former neighbor Tim! It was amazing! Of course, she knew a great deal about the gallery and she explained things very clearly; but to my enormous shame, I who had grabbed hold of a portable stool so that I could rest my feet in-between items, found myself dozing away during her commentary! Clearly lack of sleep was taking its toll on me and I resolved to get to bed early tonight. I was glad I received another review of the Roman Galleries and I have to say that I came away from this museum realizing how deeply influenced London is by Roman occupation. In fact, the modern city of London sits on top of 20 feet of "rubbish", i.e. garbage that was left over by the Romans initially and all the other people that made the city home over the centuries.
The Fire of London exhibit was not half as exciting as I thought it would be, though I have to say that I was deeply excited to discover that the home currently occupied by my friends Cynthia and Bishop Michael Colclough at 2 Amen Court is featured in the Museum as one of the blocks of houses rebuilt after the Great Fire between 1671 and 1675! I wonder if my friends know that information about their house is actually in a museum with a picture of their front door! I must make sure I convey this fact to them!

St. Bride's Church on Fleet Street:
I was done by 5.30 pm and out the door soon after. Since I was in the right vicinity, I decided to finish up a self-guided tour from my Frommer Book 24 Self-Guided Tours of London entitled 'Monks and Bodysnatchers'. I had covered almost the entire route over which this tour travels (on one evening when I had decided to explore Charterhouse Square and Smithfield on my own). It was only the latter part of the tour that I hadn't traversed and this took me through Giltspur Street to the golden statue of the 'Fat Boy' on the corner of Cock Street. It is significant that I was looking at this statue today--the day I had spent studying the various aspects of the Great Fire of London of 1566--as the statue was put up to represent the dangers of gluttony. For the fire had started in Pudding Lane and had ended, five days later, in Pie Lane! It was felt that it was the gluttonous ways of Londoners that had brought the wraught of God down upon them and caused them to suffer so abominably! This statue was later moved from Pie Lane to its present location.

Then, I was walking towards the end of the road to enter The Viaduct Tavern at the end of the street and the intersection with the Old Bailey. I was instructed to enter the pub and examine its interior decoration which was rather striking. The pub was already full of white-collared workers having their first pints of the evening and I had to elbow my way to get through to the three paintings of classical women representing Agriculture, Banking and the Arts. The decoration on the walls was ornate and featured fat cherubs gazing down upon the carousers. My book also informed me that this is the most haunted pub in all of London--oh dear! Knowing this fact, I will not be seen hanging around this place after dark--that's for sure.

Then, I was crossing Fleet Street and entering St. Bride's Avenue where I suddenly came upon the beautiful tiered 'wedding cake' spire of the church that was another one of Christopher Wren's masterpieces! In fact, this spire inspired the design of the traditional wedding cakes! It is not just this fact but so many other historical tidbits that make it special: the parents of Virginia Dare, the first English colonist to be born on American colonial soil in Virginia, were married in this church. The famous 18th century novelist Samuel Richardson (author of Clarissa) is buried in its church yard. Dickens worshipped here as did Dr. Samuel Johnson (whose home is not too far away). In the Crypt of the church, which was discovered after the Blitz destroyed a part of it, an intact Roman pavement was discovered deep beneath the foundation. Perhaps, most importantly, since this church is a landmark on Fleet Street, once the stronghold of the newspaper publishing industry in Great Britain, it is the Journalists and Publishers' Church and many prominent members of the Fourth Estate have been associated with it. For all of these reasons, this church is special indeed.

I was, therefore, very pleased when I discovered that it was open and could be visited. Naturally, I went inside and made my three special wishes, and had a chance to examine the interior elements. Like most Wren churches, it has a rather plain and austere look with the slightest embellishment in the form of gilded plaster ornaments on the ceiling. There are two rather interesting plaster of Paris figures of a girl and boy that once stood over a school that was situated close to the church. These figures, I have now come to recognize, as traditional fixtures of 18th century schools and foundling homes of London--there are a couple of them on the first floor of a former foundling home in the East Side as well as in nearby Hatton Garden.

Since, it was only 7.oo pm and still so bright--it now stays bright till almost 9.00 pm, a sure sign that summer is almost upon us in case the blooming roses are not indication enough--I decided that I would go out and cover another item on my List of Things To-Do: Visit Liberty of London Department Store, which, if you can believe it, I have never visited before! So I hopped into a bus that was headed towards Oxford Street and just sat in traffic forever around Trafalgar Square. Again, sleep washed over me and I dozed off for a few minutes right there in the front seats on the upper deck!

A Bargain at Selfridges:
When I found that I had not carried my map with me and had no clear idea where Liberty was, I decided instead to hop off at Oxford Street and do something else on my To-Do List: "A Visit to Selfridges during its centenary celebrations". Yes. Selfridges proudly announces the fact that it opened its doors in 1909 and since this is the year of its hundred year celebrations, there are specially packaged items all over the store--chocolates, tea, cupcakes, biscuits, etc. I browsed around in the Food Hall and enjoyed some free samples of chocolates at Artisan du Chocolat (which were delicious!).

Further browsing took me to a section devoted to condiments and there I spied a tiny ceramic dish containing the very English condiment called Patum Peperium aka The Gentleman's Relish! Now I have heard of this thing for years but have never ever tasted it. I believe it is some kind of fish paste or spread made of anchovies which I actually find rather tasty though a lot of people have an aversion to them. This concoction once came in white ceramic signature pots that have become collector's items today and are sold at incredible prices in antiques' stores. Apparently, they no longer make the white pots because the spread is available at Selfridges today in black ceramic pots. However, the tinier white ones that I spied where much more fancy--they featured Edwardian golfers out on the links and Victorian riders at a fair. I picked a small pot of the former design which was, somewhat unbelievably priced at 2. 99 pounds! The small plastic pots that sat right at their side sold for 1. 99 pounds. Naturally, I went for the ceramic pot and took it to the register to pay for it. It was at that stage that the store realized that they had mispriced the item. However, they gave me the benefit of the marked price and I ended up paying 2. 99 pounds for something that ought to have cost me 8.00 pounds! Not only was I glad about spying something that is a keeper--an old-fashioned ceramic box that I can use to store trinkets, but I walked away with it at a bargain!

Discovering St. James' Church, Clerkenwell:
It was time to get back on the bus and get home, but not before I made a slight detour when I got off at St. John Street. I decided to try and find out the name of the church whose white spire I can see from my new bedroom window. I had walked by this church and its yard before on one of my walks but I could not remember its name and I figured that I might as well try to get to Sunday service there if I can while I am living in it shadow! Well, it turned out to be the Church of St. James', Clerkenwell. The streets leading up to it and all around it were just spilling over with wine bar clientele with loosened ties fuelling up for the evening ahead. Indeed, they were so numerous that I thought for a minute it was Friday night!

Then, I walked briskly back home and discovered a nicer, shorter route to my building through the street that I see straight out of my window--Britton Street. Within minutes, I was upstairs, changing, then serving myself a plate of pasta with prawns and peppers that I had thawed from out the freezer and eating chocolate and praline ice-cream for dessert and then catching up on my email of which there was a stack, mostly from Chriselle. While I was in the middle of dinner, my friend Ian called me from the States and we had a chat as we hadn't spoken for ages. He is a regular reader of this blog and he is astounded by how much I have managed to cover. He says he is afraid that when I return home to Southport, Connecticut, I might find it "so dead".

Though I told myself that I would go to bed early tonight, it was midnight when I switched my bedside lamp off and went to bed.