(London:) Don’t look down!…

… because this is a post about some of the things you might miss if you do.

I was reading something the other week about “Offbeat London” and it set me thinking about the quirky sights and sites that brightened my day when I noticed them while working in the city.

This first post is about the “sights”, things which, for the most part, I spotted while looking up or around (ie not “down”) as I walked to and from work, or around work during my breaks.

Some of them are pretty famous, others less so. All of them (thanks to my commuting patterns) are in what I suppose you could call the eastern side of central London, between Charing Cross railway station and the Tower of London.

Charing Cross/Embankment Gardens

And a gate linked to one of the most scandal-dogged figures ever linked to British Royalty, George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham. Villiers came from pretty much nowhere to become an adviser, favourite and likely lover of King James I, sowing dissent between the king – both James and his son, Charles I – and the upper classes and Parliament. Feel free to read more about him here, but he’s not the subject here, his gate is.

This beauty was the water-gate to York House, which (as the plaque puts it) the Duke ‘acquired’ from the Archbishop of York. The water-gate offered access to the River Thames, and actually stood pretty much on the water’s edge, until Victoria Embankment was built in 1862.

As the plaque tells you/us (or would if it hadn’t been chucking down when I took the picture):

“It was built in 1626 by Nicholas Stone, Master Mason for George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham to serve as the watergate of York House, which the Duke had acquired from the Archbishop of York in 1624. The arms on the river front and the motto Fidei Coticula Crux ( the Cross is the Touchstone of Faith) on the land-side, are those of the Villiers family. YorkHouse was demolished in 1675 and streets were laid out on the site. In 1893 the gate having fallen into decay the London county council obtained parliamentary powers to acquire and preserve it as an object of public interest.”

King’s College/Surrey Street

Look up and you’ll see this:

Go through the archway and find this:

To be honest, it’s not the most exciting thing in the world (even without the gratuitous footwear shot). What’s probably more interesting is the speculation over whether it is actually a bath, whether it is actually Roman or not, and/or what it actually is: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/strand-lane-roman-baths

Carey Street

This building is actually quite famous. but what is it?

It’s the Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ), which is in the news all the time, because it’s where appeals, in both civil and criminal cases, are heard. But this isn’t the main entrance, on the Strand, which is the one that appears on the telly and in the papers, but the back door. Even though it’s marginally less impressive than the Strand frontage, it is still interesting in its own right: Carey Street used to be the site of the bankruptcy court, which is why being “on Carey Street” is a (probably lesser-known) slang way of saying someone is broke.

Newgate(ish)

How about this, then, a related building, half-a-mile or so away?

Enough to scare the living crap out of you, eh? And so it should (If you’ve been naughty, of course). Because it’s over the door of the entrance to the UK’s most famous criminal court, aka the Old Bailey. The original, old, bit of the building, that is, not the modern entrance that appears in so many news reports.

The rest of the entrance, in case you’re interested, looks like this:

If you want to find out more about the RCJ and the Old Bailey, my old mucker Tim Wood, who used to be a court reporter at the Old Bailey, does talks on and tours of ‘Legal London’, ie both courts, and the Inns of Court where the barristers hang out, including Lincoln’s Inn (below) – and even the cells of the old Newgate Prison under the pub across the road from the Old Bailey. You can find Tim here.

Lincoln’s Inn Fields

A bit of WWII history now, in the shape of a memorial to the Canadian airmen who served in World War II, whose HQ was in the house opposite:

Gray’s Inn Road

Look up at the junction of Gray’s Inn Road and Theobalds Road and you’ll see these handsome chaps atop the Yorkshire Grey pub.

I  can’t attest to the quality of the pub, I just liked its external decor. Who the rider, or horse, is/are, I have no idea, but neither does Historic England: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1379006

Also on Gray’s Inn Road is the Art Deco apartment block Trinity Court. I always liked to look at it but never took pics for myself, so thank heavens for the wonderful Modernist Britain website: http://www.modernistbritain.co.uk/post/building/Trinity+Court/

Leather Lane

Home of the eponymous Leather Lane Market. I used to like it because it was a ‘proper’ street market, with stalls selling fresh fruit and veg, clothes, toiletries and household goods and a bit of street food, flanked by small independent food shops that sold delicious dinner cheap.

Nowadays it seems to have become more foodie-fied, as well as a bit more corporate and sanitised, but if you’re in the area, it’ll still be worth a look: https://www.camden.gov.uk/markets-in-camden?inheritRedirect=true#ehkt

New Street Square

Amid the chrome, glass, concrete, tiles etc, a… living wall!

Fleet Street

The glorious Art Deco Express Building (again, I didn’t think to take pics, so ‘Thank You’ Modernist Britain: http://www.modernistbritain.co.uk/post/building/Daily+Express+Building/). The Express moved out long ago and some bank or other is in there now, but the foyer is open to the public sometimes on Heritage Open Days (https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/).

Off Fleet Street are two pretty famous churches:

Temple Church, which is really interesting in its own right, even without the Da Vinci Code connection – it was built by the Knights Templar, for goodness sake!. There is now an admission fee, though, for people visiting for other than to pray:

And the ‘journalists’ church’ of St Bride’s, with its wedding cake spire:

Blackfriars

A couple of minutes away from St Bride’s is Blackfriars, home to the Blackfriar pub (more on that anon), and the recently re-built Blackfriars railway station, and this testament to the joy of travel in times past:

Around St Paul’s Cathedral

If you’re struggling to remember what month it is, look up in Paternoster Square, next to St Paul’s, and you’ll get this handy reminder:

It’s the ‘Noon Mark’, which around mid-day, in strongish sunlight, casts a shadow to tell you. (It was designed and cut by Cambridge-based Lida Cardozo Kindersley Workshop and the diallist Frank King.)

And for a different perspective on St Paul’s, head to One New Change. And, especially, the roof:

Newgate Street

Just down from the Old Bailey is Christchurch Greyfriars, destroyed by a bomb during World War II and now a peaceful garden:

King Edward Street

Look around on King Edward Street (or St Martin-le-Grand Street) and you’ll see the gate/s to Postman’s Park, home to one of the most poignant and thought-provoking sights in the entire city: the Watts Memorial:

The most recent tile was added, after a break of many decades, in 2009, and is to Leigh Pitt, a 30-year-old printworker who, two years earlier, drowned saving a nine-year-old boy.

Some of the other tiles are enough to give any health and safety officer a heart attack, others bear testament to a time when a woman could sacrifice her own life for another yet still not merit being given her first name:

London Wall

There really is/are still bits of the original wall around here (and it’s close to the Museum of London, too, if you want to kill two birds with one stone – hopefully not a stone you’ve nicked from the wall!):

Gresham Street

Look beyond the church of St Lawrence Jewry and you’ll see the Guildhall, the historic home to the Corporation of the City of London (it’s the City’s only surviving Medieval secular building). It’s not normally open to the public, but the adjoining art gallery is. That’s in itself worth a visit, but there’s a bonus in the basement – a Roman amphitheatre:

Cannon Street

This next thing I didn’t see by accident, but after looking for it lots of times. However, as you can see from the explanation, there was probably a good reason for me not seeing it before: it wasn’t there! But now it is, pretty much opposite Cannon Street railway station:

Lime Street

You don’t have to put much effort into looking for the next ‘sight’, as it pretty much smacks you in the chops: the Lloyds Building.

It’s not the prettiest building in the world by any means, but I developed a soft spot for it after doing a tour of (parts of) it when it was relatively new. I learned that it looks so weird partly because the lifts and other facilities are on the outside, making them accessible and so easier to maintain and replace/update them (although according to what someone who knows the building was telling me the other week, this hasn’t been quite as successful as expected). The innovative design, by architect Richard Rodgers, means it’s now Grade I listed. Oh, and they no longer offer tours, other than organised group ones by special arrangement.

Fenchurch Street

I didn’t find The Garden at 120 (https://thegardenat120.com/#content/page/roof_garden) for myself, it was suggested to me by someone I met outside the Lloyds Building. It’s the latest roof garden to open in London. It’s not as high up, or as fancy, as the one in the Walkie-Talkie tower (aka 20, Fenchurch Street), but as it has a lower profile, the queues to get up there are (much) shorter. It is completely open, though, so be prepared when the weather is bad:

Minories

Ibex House: you can’t go in it, just admire it from the outside. You can go into Lazio, the Italian caff on the ground floor, though, and if you’re looking for un-fancy, unfussy, reasonably priced basic Italian and British food, you should. For more on Ibex House, let’s turn again to the wonderful Modernist Britain: http://www.modernistbritain.co.uk/post/building/Ibex+House+London/:

Tower Bridge/Tower of London

Look around near here and you’ll see St Katharine’s Dock.

There’s not much going on here, unless you live or work there, or have a boat moored there, but it’s a pleasant enough place to wander round. And it’s home to some historic vessels, including Gloriana, the rowbarge made to commemorate HM The Queen’s Diamond jubilee:

Mooring

South of the River:

London Bridge

Look out from the approach/es to London Bridge Railway Station and on Tooley Street you’ll see St Olaf House (thank you, again!, Modernist Britain: http://www.modernistbritain.co.uk/post/building/St+Olaf+House/):

Bankside/Shakespeare’s Globe

If you’re around Shakespeare’s Globe, you might spot this, on the house pretty much next door. I’m not sure how excited the residents are about sad tourists – like me – snapping pics of their home, but, well, it must have been famous for a couple of centuries at least before they bought it, so I’m not sure they can really complain (much):

Millennium Bridge

If you decide to cross the river via the Millennium Bridge (practically on the Globe’s doorstep) you could do worse than stop off on the St Paul’s Cathedral side and put your feet up at Cafe 101, in the international HQ of the Salvation Army – it’s tasty, reasonably cheap, and the profits help support charitable projects around the world:

Bon appetit!