Last year we focused on the Whitehall area: this year we decided to try the City.And like other people on your right were intrigued by...what?
No, no not this ...they where as sober as we were.
Nor were we phased by this aggressive looking bloke. It was the view from the 11th floor of the
Lloyds building.
We didn't go up these stairs to get there but some poor s*ds have to.In fact Magog - the aggressive one - was at the Guildhall which is the local council's (i.e. the Corporation of London) HQ and where in the past luminaries such as Archbishop Cranmer and Lady Jane Grey were sentenced to death. It is now also used for dinners with royalty etc which are a big part of City activity. It also has an art gallery, the ruins of London's small Roman amphitheatre and this lovely set of stained glass windows. Some of the eclectic group of characters depicted still live in history (Chaucer, Milton, Guttenberg, Dick Whittingdon etc) and several others ...don't.
We skipped the very long queue for the Bank of England and ended up at the Vintners Livery Company. Lovely building, friendly and informed people on hand to chat to, and an insight in to a little known area of ancient privilege. They have responsibility for swan upping (marking of young swans) on the Thames through Royal Charter, which was granted them by Charles I. This was a reward for them supporting him financially when he was skint and fighting Cromwell and for feeding his troops on the swans they looked after on the Thames. Bet you did not know that.
2 comments:
Sounds like you hit on some really good finds. Did you come across any more tanneries and such to continue the poo theme from the 'open' weekend of a couple of weeks ago?!!
The weekend I did open london we went to Lloyds, and it was the most memorable place of the day for sure. I was looking at the website as Jo and family were in London so I was wanting to give them some recommendations but unfortunately they didn't have time. The livery halls caught my eye, there's quite a few of them and I'm sure they're all interesting in their own way.
Open London is such a great idea, I'm quite envious that i missed it!
The tanneries were deliberatetly located in the countryside because of the smell. Parts of Surrey (like Send) were very missable in the 19th century.
I like the Open House event as much to hear about the history or info on what happens inside the buildings, as the structures themselves. That is where the livery hall scored although words like "privilege", "the Establishment", "wealth", "luncheon club", etc buzz through the mind. The Vinters is now apparently more a fund raiser for charity as a City trade association...we were told. We will try some others next year.
Lloyds was highly innovative when it was built in having all the services rooms etc on the outside in order to provide acres of flexible floor space inside, but this just looked to me like boring, old open plan! I would have liked to know more about how the insurance market works there now.
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