UK Trip Day 3 London

Train trip to London

John needed to go into London to see his Scottish bank, a branch of which is located in Kensington High Street in London, so we took the train into London on Tuesday. Susan had earlier taken Geoffrey to Addenbrooks hospital in Cambridge for his day surgery, and dropped us off at the station to catch the train.

Having purchased off peak day rover tickets online we were there in plenty of time for our 0943 train and we sat in the station watching trains come and go, including one to Liverpool Street at 0934. So 0943 arrived, but our train did not. When John examined the ticket more closely it actually was for 0934!  (Oops!) Barb didn't speak to him for a good ten minutes (it's amazing how much can be said by not uttering a word). We had to wait for the next train an hour later at 1034. The day wasn't getting off to a good start. (Oh I don't know - the sun was out and it didn't rain).

John in isolation after the 0943 failed to exist

There were other trains though - this one is going in the wrong direction

With an hour to kill there's always a photo op

Fortunately things improved after that. We managed to navigate the connection at Liverpool station to the Underground Circle line and get off at Kensington, where John quickly located his bank.


Barb.  And Liverpool Street Station.

Upstairs at Liverpool Street

Barb wandered around the shops while John attended to business and was very impressed by the high end neighbourhood.

Kensington High Street



Barb was struck by the number of luxury cars in Kensington

A red bus

The décor at John's bank

John looking cool - what else?

We found a lovely old church (St Mary Abbotts built in 1872, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott) where people were already planning vigils for last night's horrific Manchester bombing where 22 people attending an Ariana Grande concert died. Horrendous news, made worse because many of the victims were children.

 

St Mary Abbott Church I

St Mary Abbott Church II



St Mary Abbott Church III

We found ourselves having lunch at the Marks & Spencer deli in Kensington Railway station precinct, before heading into Tower Hill on the Underground.  The staff were delightful and cheerful.  We thought it was just a reaction to seeing us, until we twigged that the relief shift had just turned up and it was home time!


Kensington High Street station had a stunning arcade

This was an unwitting good plan. Tower Hill was heaving with tourists (yuk) when we got there at 3 pm and there was insufficient time left for a Tower of London tour.

 

The Tower of London, overshadowed by Barb

Trinity House - i/c lighthouses and so on around UK

The Tower really is big

A Beefeater

Traitors Gate

 

We did the Tower Bridge tour instead. This turned out to be great fun!

The tower with ...

... and without

NO!

Barb was very brave on the glass bottomed floor high up over the roadway, happily posing for photos while John edged around the glass.  (You bet.  It sent shivers through my nether regions!)

This is the girl afraid to cross the road 

 

 

 

Apparently I'm engrossed in something.  OK.

John was very interested in the pumps and gigantic horizontal steam engines that used to control the Tower bridge lifting mechanism and reading about the history of building the bridge. Boy heaven!

 

There were two of these horizontal engines, each the same power as a
CityCat engine but just a little larger.  They were only decommissioned in 1977.

One of the decommissioned furnaces
Looks like a boiler feed pump on the left

Afterwards we walked along the new Queens walk along the riverbank beside the Thames all the way to London Bridge which we walked across on the way to Bank Underground station.

Hays Galleria, on the south side of the river
Gentrified wharf where tea clippers used to dock

The Shard

London Bridge from the side ...

... from on the Bridge

City Hall, London (not to be confused with the City of London)

Butlers Wharf (and John)

London City Hall from afar

We came across the Monument, a very high tower built 1661-7 to honour the victims of the Great Fire of London which had started in Pudding Lane. John can remember climbing up the long spiral staircase to the top as a child ... I don't know if you still can (I checked later - yep!). Barb's knees were not up to that challenge today.

Modern tubes trains have all the carriages open
 to each other with no connecting doors

Barb was quite perturbed by the very steep descent (and speed) of the escalators going down to Bank Underground station, especially with the peak hour crowds.  On the tube train we were jam-packed like sardines, clinging to the overhead rails for support.

By the time we got back to Great Chesterford Susan was just coming back from picking up Geoffrey from the hospital. He's still a bit sore and sorry and went to bed to rest and recover.  Susan had a prior engagement for an evening at the theatre in Cambridge to see a play with a friend.  John and I wandered across the road to the local pub, The Plough, and had a very decent meal with our beer and shandy.

Wow!  It was as good as it looks!