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| Birthday cake for sporty son |
So, my days out.....
Wednesday
After choir practice and some lunch with a friend (from choir) we went up to London for a pre-booked 'pilgrimage tour' of St Paul's cathedral. It was a bitterly cold day and the tour began outside. We stayed inside the entrance by the radiator until it was time! The tour was a short one looking at the space inside, describing how the cathedral was used when it was built and how it is used today. I was interested to learn that originally the service would have taken place at the high altar not where everyone sits today, and this is the reason for the bad acoustics (I have been there for a lecture and can vouch for the bad acoustics). Someone asked what the space where worshipers sit today was used for then. Apparently it was a gathering place, to meet friends and business people (I thought about Jesus casting out the money changers at the Temple at this point!). Not only that but often the church prostitutes were brought in here. Oh yes, Bishops had their own brothels!After the tour we were invited to stay for Evensong. My friend and I wanted the facilities only to learn that they were being refurbished and we would have to use the public toilets at Paternoster Square. We had to pay 50p for the privilege. There was a notice up to say that children had to pay too. I was rather angry about that. If you are a mum and have a couple of kids that's £1.50. I'm afraid I'd carry them through or let them slip underneath the barrier - wow I'm a revolutionary!
Evensong gave me pause for thought. I liked the singing but it struck me how little the congregation partook in the service (the creed, Lord's prayer and a few Amen's). It took me back to the times when religion was done for the people, like only the clergy were qualified to 'do' this sacred thing. In the prayers the 'high ups' were prayed for before the poor. Sorry, I feel it should be the other way round!
I'm a strange mix in my faith. I go to high Anglican church with all the robes, incense (on festival days) and some chanting. I'm used to it. But I struggle with it. This brought back all my past thoughts on what faith is about, what it means and I am having rather a crises....but that's another story! The experience was an interesting one, nonetheless.
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| Temple bar |
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| St Paul |
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| St Paul's cathedral |
Thursday
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| The Exhibition Book |
This was the day I'd been waiting for since I heard about it. My brother and I arranged to meet in London (he lives in Sussex) to go to the Museum of London for the Scotland Yard exhibition which I'd pre-booked for us. It was marvelous. Entering I got quite a buzz (sometimes I worry about my obsession with crime!). We were not allowed to take any photos inside so I have none. This was an extensive exhibition with items from crime scenes originally kept in a museum and used as training for police officers. This is the first time they have been on show to the public. It begins with the history of the Police Force, the first officers and 'thief takers', then the first detectives. I was immediately thrown into the recent Dickensian TV programme with Inspector Bucket of the Detectives! Wonderful stuff. I was amused to see a photo taken in the late 1800's of CID in disguise. They were dressed as sailors etc, one had a patch over his eye. They looked a right motley crew!
Some of the display cases were arranged similar to how they would have been in the original museum. One of the saddest parts were the records of criminals from the 1800's - twelve year old kids sentenced for stealing such tiny amounts, and a young lady sentences to seven years hard labour for a suicide attempt. That was heartbreaking. On display too were the execution ropes, an execution box with ropes, restrains, hood, sandbags. I found all this distasteful and cannot imagine anyone wanting the job of executing people. I am, and always have been anti capital punishment,
Further inside the exhibition you follow crime through the ages, displays of individual crimes, the people involved, the murder weapons, photos, records, how the crime took place, how it was solved, the sentence handed down. Here there was Crippen, the acid bath murdered, the Krays and their rivals, the Richardson's (including, on show, the electric circuit board they used to torture their victims). There were sections on forgery, weapons, abortion, drugs, terrorism, including the burnt out laptop from the Glasgow Airport bombings in 2007. Despite the state of the laptop 98% of the data was recovered.
This was a fascinating and detailed exhibition. One other exhibit I must mention was the display of a seige in 1910, known as the Sidney Street Seige. The public crowded round to watch (much like today), it was filmed and photos taken which were then sold as postcards. Today that would have been all over social media! This was social media of its day. It made me smile.
If this sort of thing interests you I urge you to make the effort to go and see this. The exhibition ends next month and it is well worth dragging yourself to London for!
After the exhibition we had a quick look around some of the free exhibits they have in the museum and then went on a stroll to try and view part of the old Roman wall. We met a man who lives in the Barbican and he offered to take us to the city wall via the private residents gardens. So, with his key he took us to the gardens and to the wall normally inaccessible to the general public. What a kind man. I told him he should be a tour guide because of his local knowledge, A wonderful day. I'm still buzzing!
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| Roman room (Museum of London) I could happily live in this - just needs the wide screen TV! |
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| Part of the Roman city wall taken from the private residents gardens, Barbican! |
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| Barbican |
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