It was really wet again on Thursday morning. Bit of a theme that it’s raining really early then clears up through the day, with the odd shower throughout the day. Sharon and Emma were booked in for the Churchill War rooms (I’ve done them twice already – they are fantastic)
I decided I’d check out the London transport museum and the London museum across the road. Went over to Covent Garden where the transport museum is, but decided to wait till we are back in London in a few weeks before using my ticket (last nights tour included free entry) as they have a display in a few weeks I’d be interested in.
Checked out the shop though, many interesting books to buy, all of which I have no luggage space for, so didn’t buy anything.
At the transport museum they are selling furniture and cushions decked out in transport fabric that normally adorns the seats on tube trains. It’s not cheap, that square foot stool is £175. I wonder if they charge extra for used chewing gum, tube dust and questionable stains found on the real tube ?
There is a book on the Barbican
And a brutalist architecture map, in which the Barbican is a standout feature
Lots of stairs in Covent Garden
Came back to St Pauls, where I grabbed another fabulous coffee from the guys at Black Sheep and wandered around to look at the remains of the original Roman London wall. There is a street here that follows the original walls path (more or less) and amazingly they named the street “London Wall” there is not a heap of it left, but you can see parts of it. After the WW2 bombing more of it was exposed, and you could see how many parts of it were incorporated into the foundations of Victorian buildings and their walls.
When you know a little bit more about the cities history some of the place names make more sense. The Barbican was the fortified building outside the wall. I’m sure the original barbican looked much nicer than the building there now. There is also Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Newgate etc, which as you can guess were gates in the wall.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Wall
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Alphege_London_Wall
After this I went inside the Museum of London (free entry apart from special exhibits) and checked out the Roman London display.
Then wandered down across the millennium Bridge to Borough Market to meet Sharon and Emma for lunch. In the evening I caught up with a few of my friends from the London office for beers and a curry. (Sharon and Emma were booked in to see a play at the Globe)
We went into Brick lane, ended up back at City Spice where I’ve been a few times. Brick lane can feel a bit pushy with the restaurant tours trying to get you to go inside to eat. Just keep walking if you are not interested. You should be able to get at least a free drink per person and 20% discount thrown in.
It's all about the coffee 