With all the activity at the Church, I thought there was a “yard sale” happening.  But when I got closer I saw there were no tables of “for sale” items.  It was only a bit later that we found out it was the BBC taping a show.

Shooting Take 1,  I think I heard.    It involved a car needing to drive by several times for the scene… or waiting for a car to pass that wasn’t in the scene.  I’m not sure which.  And no one seemed to be wanting to chat it up with me about what was happening.   

Actor Dennis Waterman  center, one of the show ‘s stars. 

Two  former marines having a chat.

I asked  this gentleman if he knew where Christopher Jones was buried.  But he was part of the BBC crew so couldn’t help with that but did tell us all about the show which was fun.  He and Randal had a lovely chat while I watched some of the filming.  It sort of distracted me from looking inside the church…so that will be another visit.

I did find this commemorative plaque but not the one specific to Christopher Jones.

The tablet below was a thank you to the family who rebuilt the crumbling tower.

“Captain Christopher Jones was not a local man, although he was resident in Rotherhithe at the time of Mayflower’s departure for Southampton.  He was born in Harwich at around 1570 and only moved to Rotherhithe in 1611. It was a popular place for sea captains to live in the 17th Century, and it is probable that Jones knew ship owner Edward Maister.   Captain Jones died on the 5th March in 1622, in his early 50s, and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s in Rotherhithe.  The church of St Mary’s was rebuilt in 1715, by public subscription, due to damage inflicted by repeated flooding.  Many of the old churchyard monuments and memorials were lost during this process, and the exact location of the burial of Christopher Jones is no longer known.  Apparently there is a stone tablet in memory of him saved from the old church and set into the new tower’s wall. (We only found the plaque.) There is modern monument to him in the churchyard of St Mary’s, depicting St Christopher, the patron saint of travellers, holding a small child.  It was unveiled in 1995, to mark the 375th anniversary of the voyage.  http://russiadock.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Public%20art This is a great website for Rotherhithe history.

The St. Christopher Statue in honor of Christopher Jones

“Rotherhithe’s most ancient “blue coat school”

    “Rotherhithe has throughout its history been a strongly maritime area, home to docks, ship builders and breakers.   This building (across the lane from St Mary Church) was the home to Rotherhithe’s most ancient school, which was founded in 1613 by Peter Hills and Robert Bell. Peter Hills was an eminent mariner and the school was for "eight sons of mariners from the parish". The school grew, accepting both girls and boys. At one point in the early 18th century it had 65 girls and 77 boys.  In 1836 a girls’ school opened nearby and the school no longer took girls. By the end of the 19th century about 150 boys were educated at the school.

     The original building was on the north side of St Marychurch Street. The school moved to this building in 1795. The school provided an education for Rotherhithe children until 1939.

     The figures are of Portland stone and the children are wearing the traditional blue coats of charity schoolchildren, which gave the name "Bluecoats" to such schools. Beneath the statues is an inscription:

St MARY ROTHERHITHE

Free School founded by Peter Hill and Robert Bell Esqrs 1613

Charity school instituted 1742

Removed here 1797

Supported by voluntary contributions

Sources of Information:

• The Story of Rotherhithe by Stephen Humphrey. London Borough of Southwark. ISBN 0 905849 21 3

• Secret London Bluecoats. Pictures of these and other bluecoats statues in London.

• www.stmaryrotherhithe.org St Mary’s Rotherhithe Parish Website. More information on Peter Hills and the school.

http://www.waymarking.com/

St. Mary the Virgin-Rotherhithe 

http://www.stmaryrotherhithe.org/

“……At this time the heart of the village of Rotherhithe was the parish church of St Mary the Virgin. There had possibly been a church on this site since Saxon times; the building standing in 1620 dated from at least the early 12th Century. The list of rectors goes back to 1282. The Church’s position on the river bank, made its tower a welcome landmark to homecoming sailors. The lovely building which stands on the same site today dates mainly from 1714, but a number of memorials preserved from the earlier church provide evidence that this was a parish of seafarers. A finely sculptured stone relief of a ship in full sail, nearly contemporary with the Mayflower, commemorates Captain Anthony Wood who died in 1625. The epitaph of Captain Roger Tweedy who died in 1655, leaving ‘Two Shillings every Lord’s day forever to be distributed among twelve poor seamen or seamen’s widows in bread’, is obviously that of a Rotherhithe Sailor:

‘His soul a ship with graces fully laded

Through surges deep did plough and safely waded.

At Rotherhithe he did at length arrive

And to their poor his tribute fully gives

And in this port he doth at anchor stay,

Hopefully expecting Resurrection’s day’.

Rotherhithe men who were not sailors were shipbuilders and their wooden sailing ships looked a fine sight at anchor in the Thames.  In 1612 Rotherhithe received recognition as an official centre of the shipwright’s craft when a charter was granted to ‘The Master, Wardens and Commonality of the Art or Mystery of Shipwrights of Redrith in the County of Surrey’.  Even in the 17th Century there was a dry dock at Rotherhithe. In 1700, the first of the great wet docks was constructed, known originally as the Howland Great Wet Dock after the Howland family who were the landowners at that time. Its purpose was to provide safe harbourage for ships, which had earlier been forced to anchor in mid river and suffer buffeting by storms. It came to be known by its present name, the Greenland dock, after 1725 when the South Sea Company leased it for the Greenland whaling trade. The other docks, which made up the 365 acres of the Surrey Commercial Docks, were constructed in the 19th Century.

http://www.stmaryrotherhithe.org

We continued down Rotherhithe Street to its intersection with Swan Lane to find  “the most amazing statue of a time travelling pilgrim.”

You can just see the tall pilgrim hat at the end of the path….he looks like the Tin Man from a distance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylBltWIX3Vg  is a very “home done” video but fun to watch.

Sunbeam Weakly and the Pilgrim’s Pocket by Peter McLean.

(The sculpture reads "Sunbeam Weakly" but the marker says "Sunshine Weekly." )

Judy, Helen, Warren and Randal

This photo was taken after lunch; some of our friends wanted to see the statue.

“The statue, “Sunbeam Weekly and the Pilgrim’s Pocket” stands on the walkway at Cumberland Wharf. The work is by Peter McClean, depicting a newsboy in 1930’s attire, reading a copy of the newspaper depicting the story of “The Mayflower” and all that has happened in the USA since those early days. The pilgrim is reading the paper over the boy’s shoulder, looking astonished at how the world has developed since he landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. The boy’s dog also appears to be trying to read the newspaper, standing on its hind legs.”  http://www.thamespathway.com/chapter13/rotherhithe.aspx

The young boy is reading a graphic novel! Sunbeam Weakly

“Created by local artist Peter McLean it was erected in 1991 and shows the ghost or spirit of a representative Pilgrim Father looking over the shoulder of a small boy in 1930s clothing, who is reading a magazine called the Sunbeam Weekly.  A dog stands on its hind legs, its front paws resting on the boy’s legs, looking as though it wants to be involved. It is a Staffordshire bull terrier which is particularly appropriate for this area, where every other dog seems to be a staffie.  All three stand between a gas lamp.”  http://russiadock.blogspot.co.uk/

Past and future…. The Mayflower on the Left and a good deal of New York City on the Right though maybe Boston would have been a more acurate location to se the future for the Mayflower pilgrims.

1620 London A to Z atlas, fish, cross, US button, Lobstah claw and under the letter A what might be a daggar?

Paintbrush, pliers, scissors, hammer head and knife  and the word WHY.

Converted wharehouse buildings line the Thames on both banks

“The sculpture is accompanied by an explanatory information board which has, understandably, deteriorated since the LDDC put it up some 20 years ago.  It needs replacing, because much of it is illegible, particularly in the section that covers the background details about sculptor Peter McLean.  The bits that can be deciphered are basically a CV of McLean’s college past and the galleries in which he exhibited, and doesn’t say anything about other items he produced.  However it also describes the brief to which McLean worked, which was to create something that reflected local heritage, to be figurative rather than abstract, and to aim for something light-hearted.”

http://russiadock.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/sunbeam-weekly-and-pilgrims-pocket.html   has more detailed photos than I am showing.

Plaque reads… Sunshine Weekly

23 Cheapside : Intersection of Philpot Lane (Left) and Cheapside (Right)

“Up to the 12th century, for those living and working in the City of London, Cheapside (‘cheap’ meaning market) was the major of two markets and the names of the streets that lead off it reflect the trades that flourished there – Wood Street, Milk Street, Bread Street, Honey Lane, Poultry and Friday Street (for fish).” http://www.onenewchange.com/

One Poultry Place was part of our walking tour so more about that another time.  It is also where the Boots optemetric shop is located and where I finally got my glasses put back together. 

Just past the Nero sign on Philpot Lane

http://blackcablondon.wordpress.com

Very tiny indeed!   And a very terrible recent paint job!

Compare my photo I took today with the one below, you can see the lower mouse’s tail and the upper mouse’s leg and foot have been covered with white paint.  The photo below was from a blog entry in 2011. 

“The mice are still fighting over a piece of cheese on the Philpot Lane side of 23 Eastcheap. They apparently date from 1862 when  the building was constructed for the spice merchants Messrs Hunt & Crombie by John Young & Son.  I can’t think of another piece of Victorian street art in London, so if the Bourchier Street  Pig now claims the crown of smallest sculpture, perhaps the mice can go for the “Oldest Street Art” title instead.”

http://www.peterberthoud.co.uk

http://www.peterberthoud.co.uk/2011/04/pig-on-a-tile-in-bourchier-street-2/   shows the small plastic pink pig that eventually disappeared so I really I don’t think it counts and the mice still win.

And the mouse sculpture I haven’t yet seen……..

Further south, on a quiet stretch of the Thames Path near Rotherhithe, another rodent is easily overlooked. A menagerie of bronze animals ambles towards Surrey Docks Farm: there’s a family of pigs snuffling the ground, a fox prowling behind some waddling geese, and a couple of goats gazing blankly ahead, as goats always do. But, over on the Thames wall, there’s an odd little raised bump. On closer inspection, it becomes apparent that it’s not even big enough for a bump; it’s more of a blip. It’s a perfectly modelled bronze mouse.

http://smokealondonpeculiar.co.uk/

Public Art

   Among the hidden delights of the area along the riverside or by the ponds in the Surrey Docks is a charming series of sculptures by established artists, commissioned by the LDDC and each specifically linked with the history or attractions of the area.   At Cumberland Wharf, near the Mayflower pub, "The Bermondsey Lad and The Sunbeam Weekly", a series of three bronze figures – a Pilgrim Father, a small boy and a bull terrier – by Peter McLean refers to the Pilgrim Fathers who set sail for the New World from here in 1620.  Philip Bews’ Deal Porters at Canada Water recalls the agile men who unloaded deal (timber) from the ships in the local docks while on the top of Stave Hill a Bas Relief by Michael Rizzello depicts the Surrey Commercial Docks as they were in 1896 – after a shower of rain the "docks" fill with water.   At Barnards Wharf a cavalcade of farmyard animals by a variety of artists including pigs, a donkey, goats, geese, an owl and a mouse parades along the riverside towards Surrey Docks Urban Farm.

http://www.lddc-history.org.uk/surrey/index.html

Information about St. Dunstan and the church follow the photos.

London Garden Square Competition awards over the years.

Insect hotel

“Two legs good, six legs better!”

“The Insect Hotel is a classic take on the structure of an urban hotel with multiple levels and a interesting facade based on a Voronoi pattern. The hotel is constructed from 25 layers of birch plywood with voids cut out using CNC, which will be loosely stuffed with recycled waste materials and deadfall for various bugs to make their way into. The sides of the hotel are accessible for butterflies and moths, and the top is suitable for absorbing rain water through planting. The Insect Hotel is found at St. Dunstan’s in the East “ http://www.waymarking.com/

Arup Associates http://www.arupassociates.com/en/projects/insect-hotel/  design for a hotel for insects was the competition winning entry in ‘Beyond the Hive’, Sponsored by British Land and the City of London to celebrate 2010 as the International year of Biodiversity.

     Selected from five shortlisted hotels that were built and placed in parks around London, the jury included Paul Finch; Sarah Henshall; Adrian Penfold, Head of Planning & Environment, British Land; Peter Wynne Rees, the City Planning Officer; and architect Graham Stirk.

     Insects prefer habitats that are essentially neglected. Different varieties of insect require different habitats and environmental conditions to survive, so the challenge of designing an Insect Hotel is to cater for as many of these conditions and contexts as possible. These habitats generally consist of the detritus of the natural and man-made world comprising of organic and inorganic materials most of which can be procured from waste management or garden sources.

     Most simple insect hotels may be constructed in a very straightforward way from an assemblage of materials stacked together aided by an armature structure, that contains the disparate materials. Stacked timber palettes containing a variety of deadfall and inorganic waste is an example of this approach.

    As the objective of the City of London Corporation’s Brief suggests that the hotel is also ‘visually engaging and a well-crafted object’ and ‘enhances its setting and complementing the garden’ as well as having utility and corresponding to a defined volume, a more sophisticated version suitable for the vicissitudes of a London Park and the more critical eye of the human inhabitants.

http://www.waymarking.com

http://inhabitat.com/   for additional information.

The Wren Clinic

The Wren Clinic, EC3

Hello and welcome to the Wren.   Approaching our 21st year, we are one of the longest established complementary health clinics in the City of London. Our practitioners are all highly trained, have generally been qualified and in practice for more than three years, and many of them are involved in coaching and teaching.

Address:   Idol Lane  London, London City of EC3R 5DD

http://www.wrenclinic.co.uk

Therapies:

Acupuncture, Alexander Technique, Allergy Testing/Treatment, Aromatherapy, Beauty Therapy, Bowen Technique, Chinese Herbal Medicine TCM, Chiropody/Podiatry, Counselling, Cranio Sacral, Life Coaching, McTimoney Chiropractic, NLP Therapy, Nutrition, Osteopathy, Pyschotherapy, Reflexology, Reiki, Shiatsu, Sports Massage

The Clinic is located in the building adjacent to the tower. 

  “Tower, 1698, by Wren.  Large, Portland stone structure in gothic style. 3 main stages, Diagonal buttresses rising to octagonal turrets with large finials. Smaller finials between. Stone spire supported on open diagonal arches. Enriched doorways to west and south. North side now obscured by low building. East side rendered where formerly within church. Fine gates and railings to both doorways. Body of church, 1817-18, by David Laing. Destroyed except for walls in World War II. Gothic style with buttresses, traceried windows pinnacles etc. Yellow brick faced externally in Portland stone. North-east vestry. East wall reduced to sill level in centre.

Listing NGR: TQ3314980718

Selected Sources

Legacy Record – This information may be included in the List Entry Details

National Grid Reference: TQ 33149 80718

7 days a week throughout the year 8am – 7pm or dusk – whichever is earlier.”

http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1359173

Our stop at St. Mary’s on Hill

Our guide Simon was very theatrical in his storytelling.  I read that many of the www.walks.com guides are actors in their other lives.

  The  reason for my returning to St. Mary’s on Hill was to learn more about the skull and crossbones over the alley entrance attached to the church.   Once St. Mary’s had included a grave yard.  (More about that later.)  But I thought Simon had said the skull and crossbones represented cemeteries where plague victims had been buried.    I still don’t know the whole answer.

St Mary at Hill on the street of the same name

The clock is the church clock and the alley way is closed off and filled with bags of construction materials.

“All that we have to remind us of this last of a series of plagues is the old burial grounds, over the entrance to which may be seen the sculptured representation of skull and cross-bones distinguishing the sites of the plague cemeteries . http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/fcod/fcod13.htm (But this is the only reference I found to plague cemeteries and skull and crossbones.)

St Mary at Hill tower

Lovat Lane

London

EC3R 8EE 

A millennium of ministry

St Mary-at-Hill has served in the Parish of Billingsgate for nearly a thousand years.  An ‘ancient church’ on this site is mentioned in a legal document dated 1177, so we can conjecture with some certainty that a church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin has stood here since at least the end of the 11th Century. Billingsgate Quay was an important harbour in the 10th and 11th centuries. The route north into the old city would have led past the church. The steep rise of the way up from the river gave it the name of St Mary at or on the Hill. The original church was no doubt smaller than the present building which has been extended, altered and renovated throughout its history. The Churchwardens’ accounts from the C15th inform us that by then it had side chapels dedicated to St Stephen, St Katherine, St Ann and St Christopher.

     Ancient Graves

Burials within the Church and in the Chapels were for the wealthy, as they were charged at 16s 8d, while internment in the Great Churchyard to the North cost just 8d. This is now a pretty courtyard garden. It was closed for burials in May 1846 and all human remains were carefully removed to West Norwood cemetery. The church crypt and vaults were similarly emptied of human remains (some 3,000 in all) between 1892-94.  Some slabs and memorials remain, but there are no skeletons below. Museum of London excavations have found traces of much earlier graves on the site, confirming that the area was part of the Roman city as well as the later Anglo-Saxon settlement.

     16th & 17th Centuries

The Church Bells of the tower and steeple (replaced in 1787-9 by Gwilt’s square brick tower) were rung for the crowning of Henry VIII in 1509. During the later years of Henry’s reign, the English Church renounced the primacy of Rome. The Civil War raged between 1642-51 and six years after the Restoration of the Monarchy, with the City still reeling from losing 1 in 5 of its inhabitants to the Plague, the Great Fire of London (1666) started in Pudding Lane, a stone’s throw away from St Mary-at-Hill.

     Renovation after the Great Fire

The overall plans for restoring the City churches were famously orchestrated by Dr (later Sir) Christopher Wren, but it may have been the somewhat overlooked genius, Robert Hooke, who supervised the rebuilding of St Mary’s while Wren was concentrating on St Paul’s.  It is a matter of record that Hooke was responsible for building the internal wall under the tower, at the west end.  The Fire had consumed the interior of the church leaving only parts of the walls and the brick work of the tower. Utilizing the previous fabric as far as possible, the original north and south walls were reconstructed, but the building was extended a little to the east.  An ornate main frontage of exposed stone was built on St Mary at Hill. There were three windows – mullioned and transomed.  (The central window was blocked in 1767). The North and South windows were restored in Gothic style and doors retained in both walls. St Mary-at-Hill was one of the first churches rebuilt after the Fire, and was completed in 1677 at a cost of £3,980.

http://www.stmary-at-hill.org/

Church entrance and small garden

Notice of the closing of the cemetery in 1846. 

All human remains were removed from the cemetery and the vaults and crypts and were reinterred  in the West Norwood Cemetery.

“A carved bas-relief in stone of the Resurrection, formerly over the gateway in Love Lane, is now in the N.W. vestibule.” http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=120246

Fittings—All of late 17th-century date unless otherwise described, but much of the wood-work was altered and added to in 1848–9 by the woodcarver W. Gibbs Rogers, whose work is so like its original as to render the age of many of the fittings, in whole or in part, doubtful. Chairs:  two, partly repaired, with carved and pierced backs, enriched arms, carved legs, shaped stretchers, and twisted front posts. Clock-case: projecting from S.E. angle of church, square case with carved spandrels, moulded cornice and pediment, carved supporting beam with carved truss below. Communion Table: with five legs carved and twisted at the top, curved stretchers and moulded and enriched top. Communion Rails: with carved and twisted balusters and flat carved standards, quadrant-shaped angles and carved top rail. Doors: In centre of vestibule under gallery, panelled door to screen. In vestry—two panelled doors.  A carved bas-relief in stone of the Resurrection, formerly over the gateway in Love Lane, is now in the N.W. vestibule. Font: octagonal white marble bowl with reeded enrichment, baluster-stem with acanthus-enrichment, black marble base. Carved oak cover with cherub-heads and swags, ogee-shaped upper part with enriched angles and terminal. Gallery: Organgallery at W. end approached by a staircase from the N. vestibule, with turned and twisted balusters. The panels of the front have modern carving. It is brought forward in the centre for organist’s seat. Monuments and Floor-slabs. Monuments: On N. wall, (1) to John Woods, 1658, Anne (Burnet) his first wife, 1645, and John his son, 1670, marble tablet with Corinthian side columns, entablature, broken segmental pediment with cherubs supporting cartouche-of-arms. On S. wall, (2) to John Harvey, 1700, marble cartouche (Plate 26) with drapery, shield-of-arms and cherub head; (3) to Thomas Dovall and Anna (Potts) his wife, 1700, marble wall-monument (Plate 25) with Composite side-pilasters, draped segmental pediment, achievement-of-arms, etc.; (4) to Charles Vickars 1712–3, marble draped cartouche with cherub-heads and shield-of-arms. In N. vestibule —on N. wall, (5) to Isaac Milner, 1713, marble tablet with Composite side-columns, entablature, segmental pediment with urn and achievement-of-arms. In S. vestibule—on S. wall, formerly in St. George Botolph Lane, (6) to Daniel Wigfall, 1698–9, marble cartouche with drapery, cherub-head and shield-of-arms. Floor-slabs: In middle aisle— (1) to John Knapp, 1708, and Mary (Brownrigg) his wife, 1711, with shield-of-arms. In vestibule— (2) to Samuel Leadbeater, 1710. Panelling: panelled wainscot all round church, three panels high, with some modern work. The vestry has panelling two panels high and a moulded architrave and cornice to the fireplace. Plate: includes two cups and cover-patens, one of 1576 and inscribed Thomas Lorimar, the other of 1587, two tankards of 1637, a paten and dish both of 1684, and a sealhead spoon of the same date. Reredos: of three bays, middle bay flanked by Corinthian columns supporting an enriched cornice and round arch and enclosing two enriched round-headed panels, painted cherubs above heads of panels, and below panels a third panel carved with foliage, fruit, flowers and a crown; above arch, a segmental pediment with cherub-heads and a book in the tympanum; side bays each with enriched panels, the lower one carved with swag and crown, frieze carved with swags and wreath. Royal Arms: Stuart (Plate 16), in centre of gallery front, a second of same date at W. end, from St. George Botolph Lane. Screens: Under gallery, in middle of vestibule—with Corinthian pilasters flanking doorway and supporting an enriched entablature with cherub-heads on the frieze; E. side panelled and finished with a coved and enriched cornice. Under gallery, at N. and S. ends—panelled, that on N. with names of churchwardens, Thomas Beckford and Henry Loades and date 1672. Seating: Under gallery—churchwardens’ pews have four posts, with old carving in front, supporting the gallery.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=120246

I found this a very interesting corner…..

The large plaque to the left…..

John Crane died in 1823 at the age of 86.  His wife Elizabeth died in 1819 at the age of 91

John was interred in the south aisle of the church.  At his death the bulk of his estate went to his poor relations.  Elizabeth and their infant son who died in infancy were buried with John.

The plaque says that his executors erected this monument. 

(If I’ve read my photo correctly, John died at 86 and Elizabeth at 91.  So why is it we say we’re living longer?    It also, if I’ve done my math correctly tells us she was 19 years older than he when they married.)

Reference:   PROB 11/1668/305

Description:  Will of John Crane, Merchant of Croydon , Surrey

Date: 04 April 1823

Held by:  The National Archives, Kew

Legal status: Public Record

I might just have to go find this…..

The curved top plaque is in Latin so I give up..

Plaque beneath is in memory of a 16 year old boy

In memory of James Hogarth, son of George and Jane Hogarth, Aberdeen who died May 26^th, 1816; aged 16 years.  This tablet is inscribed by his disconsolate parents.    This is sadly very similar to the Roman stone memorial commissioned by the mother at the death of her 15 year old son that is in the All Hallows Undercroft.

Burial slabs indicating who had once been buried here.

Lunchtime Recitals  each week at 1.05pm : The piano is in the left hand corner where those people are seated.  But you can’t see the piano behind the pole.

     There was some type of production about to use the church so the altar was moved and that blue screen set up for filming. 

November 21  was Masachi Nishiyama  at the Piano  but I didn’t stay as I’d other places to visit and didn’t want to walk out mid performance.

November 28

INVERSION

Flute & Organ Duo

Ruth Stockdale & Robert Smith

     “Our lunchtime recitals are informal affairs. It is acceptable to come and go during the playing, and you are welcome to bring your sandwiches into the Church – a precedent set under Prebendary Wilson Carlile, founder of the Church Army* and Rector of St Mary’s at the turn of the 19th-20th century  (for working people who had brought food from home to eat and had no place else to go I was told by Kathy, the Church watcher.)

     Musicians from all over the world perform at St Mary-at-Hill. There is no charge for these events, but we suggest and appreciate a donation of perhaps £5.00

     Performances now include Monday and Friday recitals arranged by St Anne’s Lutheran Church and Music Society who brew and serve coffee, to enjoy with the music.“ 

http://www.stmary-at-hill.org/music.php

•Is a part of the ministry of the Anglican Church and is NOT affiliated with the Salvation Army or Jesus Army.  http://www.churcharmy.org.uk/pub/aboutus/FactsAndFigures.aspx

    “An amazing musical event took place at St. Anne and St. Agnes, the Lutheran church in the City of London, on July 28, 2004, the 254th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. “

http://www.nextreads.com/display2.aspx?recid=6943877&FC=1   fascinating reading for Bach lovers. 

“After a fire in 1848, the ceiling was renewed and the interior remodeled under James Savage, architect.

http://www.stmary-at-hill.org/gallery.php  gallery shows the church interior as it normally appears.

“Saint Mary-at-Hill boasts what has been described as one of the ten most important organs in the history of British organ building.”  Church leaflet

“On 10 May 1988, a disastrous fire in the church of St Mary at Hill in the City of London destroyed most of the roof of the building as well as much of the interior and parts of the organ. The picture below gives a good impression of the damage to both the building and the organ.”

http://www.mander-organs.com/portfolio/st-maryhill.html  tells the story the organ and its reconstruction which is really quite interesting. 

Church watchers Maryanne (L) and Kathy (R)

I had a lovely chat with Kathy who told me about the church but discovering we both grew up in New England was the most fun.  She was from Connecticut but had gone to college at Tufts in Boston.  I was duly impressed that she had graduated from Tufts and she was duly impressed that I lived at St Katharine Docks. 

Church sharing : Lutheran services in English and Swahilli

St Mary at Hill is and Anglican Church. 

Toilet Twinning

While reading the St Mary at Hill website I came across this note…………of all places for me to have missed when I usually know everyplace possible to use the loo while out and about.  I’ll have to go back, listen to a lunchtime concert and use the loo.

Do note the pictures in our toilets which are twinned with loos in the Congo. 

See website to read about sanitation.

If the loos are shut, just ask for them to be opened 

http://www.stmary-at-hill.org/

http://www.toilettwinning.org/what-is-toilet-twinning/   explains Toilet Twinning which brings sanitation to third world countries. 

Lovat Lane

   “Plague and fire did for medieval London, but the city that rose in its place was built on the old street patterns. The names, even the cobbles, remain – Lovat Lane, for example, where the old surface is barely the width of a plague cart’s wheelbase and the gutter still runs down the middle. “

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Lovat Lane, EC3

An endearingly curving and cobbled lane between Monument Street and Great Tower Street, Lovat Lane contains the church of St Mary-At-Hill, known for its ornate gold and blue clock and which was feted by Sir John Betjeman, ‘This is the least spoiled and the most gorgeous interior in the City, all the more exciting by being hidden away among cobbled alleys, paved passages, brick walls, overhung by plane trees.’ Lovat Lane has that slightly Mediterranean feel to it and there are a couple of café restaurants with outside tables to capitalise on this, though we thought we’d wait for slightly more clement weather. Just across the road on the side of the Philpot Lane Café Nero building is the tiny carving of two mice eating a piece of cheese so grab the chance to go and have a look. (My next assignment is to see the twinned loo and find the mice eating cheese now I know where they are.)

http://londonist.com/2011/02/top-10-square-mile-alleyways.php

“…… Dickens saw the City of London change from being a place where people lived to one where people only worked, as it was gradually taken over by the banks, law firms and financial institutions.  The walk began in Billingsgate at the church of St Mary at Hill which is squeezed into a small site surrounded by Victorian office buildings.    There is a tiny churchyard with some gravestones – but no dead are buried here.  Parliament outlawed new burials in the City of London in Dickens’ day, forcing the closure of its churchyards to new burials.  It’s a symbol of the way in which the City was turning into ‘a city of the dead, with the living just coming in to work’.  As a child, Dickens experienced the City as a kind of village community; by the time he died, 80% of the population were gone, replaced by office blocks and warehouses. http://gerryco23.wordpress.com/

This painting was in the Undercroft but I should have included it in the email about the Main Church.

Beneath the present nave is the undercroft of the Saxon church containing three chapels: the Undercroft Chapel, the Chapel of St Francis of Assisi and the Chapel of St Clare.

Chapel of St Clare

“Clare of Assisi was born into a wealthy Italian family but soon shunned her luxurious upbringing to embrace the life of piety and poverty.  Inspired by the words of Francis of Assisi, Clare fled her home and joined Francis, establishing her own religious order. The group became known for their austere and devout lifestyle and for the power of their prayer, which is credited with saving Assisi from invaders twice. After Francis’ death, Clare continued his work and broadened her own influence. Clare died in 1253 and was canonized two years later by Pope Alexander IV. http://www.biography.com/people/st-clare-of-assisi-9249093

“The misshapen piece of lead is left as

a reminder of the destruction that

All Hallows suffered in the bombings of WW2.                                                                          

On December 29^th 1940 a bomb came right

through the east window destroying

much of the centre of the church.

Three weeks later the ruined church also

suffered from fire bombs.  The heat from

those fires was so intense that the roofing

lead melted and ran down the walls. 

St Francis Chapel  just next to the Chapel of St. Clare

( I have a soft spot in my heart for St. Francis who loved animals.)

St Francis organizations  now train wonderful services dogs!

“The Crypt Museum leads you on a fascinating journey through time, beginning with the Roman tesselated floor of a domestic house in the late 2nd Century and charting the history of the church, its people and the City of London.   The museum is in part of the original Saxon church and contains a collection of Roman and Saxon artefacts, church plate and ancient registers dating back to the 16th century. Their entries record the baptism of William Penn, the marriage of John Quincy-Adams and the burial of Archbishop William Laud amongst many other historic events on Tower Hill.” http://www.allhallowsbythetower.org.uk/visiting/crypt-museum/

The Undercroft Chapel is constructed out of the former ‘Vicars’ Vault’, and is now a columbarium for the interment of ashes of former parishioners and those closely associated with the church.

This site was formerly outside the main building and part of the burial ground adjacent to the apse of the Saxon church. Here lie at least three Saxon coffins, buried in the pre-Norman period. The rough rear wall is part of the 14th century church.

Standing below the present High Altar are altar stones brought back to All Hallows from Castle Athlit in present-day Israel. It is thought that the altar comes from the Chapel of Richard Coeur de Lion in the Templar Church of Athlit. This has great significance for All Hallows in view of the connection with the inquisition of Knights Templar in the earlier Chapel of St Mary.

It was in a vault in this chapel that Archbishop William Laud lay buried for over twenty years after his beheading on 10th January 1644, and a memorial plaque commemorates this.

Memorial to those who died for their country

I can’t imagine climbing rope ladders and then crawling into and out of this thing…in the Antarctic!

Plaque for William Penn whose father saved All Hallows from the Great Fire

A very human bit of history

Donations from various guilds and the big donation from Lord Wakefield of Hythe

Looking down Tower Street towards All Hallows Church and the original White Tower of The Tower of London.

http://www.allhallowsbythetower.org.uk/visiting/virtual-tour/ is a wonderful online tour talking about things I saw but much that I missed.

The Nave I think is the correct term?

Phoenix Altar Frontal not explained on the All Hallows site but the painting is described in the virtual tour.

For Sharon and Asher

Organ concerts are given in the afternoons and one day I will go listen

Croke Altar

     Standing in the Lady Chapel is the altar tomb of Alderman John Croke (1477) which was destroyed by the air-raid of 1940. It has since been completely restored from over 150 fragments.

     The tomb is made of Purbeck marble, and fine brass memorials at the back of the tomb record the effigies of the Alderman and his eight sons, Margaret his wife and his five daughters.

     The casket containing the Toc H lamp, given to the movement in 1922 by Edward, Prince of Wales, also contains stained glass shields depicting the arms of places where branches of the Toc H were founded between 1919 and 1929.

http://www.allhallowsbythetower.org.uk/visiting/virtual-tour/b–croke-altar/

Prayer messages

I took the photo because of the images of London, but since then learned a bit about “Tubby” Clayton

The effigy of the Rev’d Philip Thomas Byard Clayton (popularly known as ‘Tubby’) is one of the last works by Cecil Thomas, the ‘soldier sculptor’, who also made the Forster Memorial in the south aisle of the church. Tubby’s dog sits on a tasselled cushion at his feet and the effigy is supported by four lion cubs, one at each corner.

     Tubby was the founder Padre of Toc H. Assisted by fellow army chaplain Neville Talbot, he established Talbot House (‘Toc H’ in signaller’s jargon), a unique rest house in Poperinge for serving soldiers near the fierce battleground of Ypres in Flanders during the First World War.

     Tubby became Vicar of All Hallows in 1922 and remained here for forty years, until his retirement in 1962. http://www.allhallowsbythetower.org.uk/

Destruction during WW 2

Stained glass windows show London’s connection with the Thames

London Bridge, the Walkie Talkie and the Gherkin.

Tower Bridge and the curve of the Thames around the Isle of Dogs with the talk buildings that are Canary Wharf.

http://www.islandhistory.org.uk/index.php?p=2

St. Paul’s Cathedral

The Tower of London

Looking down on the golden top of The Monument

Sue Ed and Randal with the Gherkin in the distance across the river

Glass half full…..actually totally full if full is defined as what you get for your £4.50.  But there was no charge for the great view.

Empty glass still full of Canary Wharf

View from the Ladies’ Loo with its floor to ceiling window. 

The west basin of SKD Marina is located in the center of the square of buildings just beyond the Tower Bridge.  If you find the clock tower that’s where DoraMac is located.