What’s awfully remarkable and overwhelming about London is that there is so much to do, so much to see, and so more to adore. When you’re deciding what to do for the day, it’s often quite difficult to decide exactly what you want to do because all the options are so enticing, and you also just don’t want to miss anything.
So, frequently choosing what to do feels a bit like a chase through eternity, and you have to just choose something while knowing that something else might get left out. But, at the same time, whatever you do choose will be absolutely splendid and fantastic and wonderful.
There are the essentials, though, for anyone who comes for a visit, and they include in no particular order: the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament. We’ve seen Buckingham and Parliament, and while we’ve seen the outside of Westminster, we didn’t go inside, because it happened to be closed on the day we visited.
So, the time finally came to see the inside of Westminster. And I highly recommend a visit. Sadly, you can’t take pictures on the inside, so my memory won’t be as clear as with everything else I’ve seen thus far, but I’ll try my best.
I do also highly recommend that you take the free audio tour. Your narrating tour guide takes himself way too seriously, but it’s an informative tour nonetheless. And while I find the whole religion thing overly ridiculous, it’s difficult not to admire the magnificent structures that the entire business inspired. But, more importantly, Westminster is a marvelous place to visit some obviously important memorials and entombments of some obviously important people.
The first tomb you visit as part of the audio tour, after walking towards the main front doors and past the tombs of Henry Purcell, Ralph van Williams, Benjamin Britten, and Gustav Holst (and I was annoyed they didn’t get mentioned in the audio tour), is a tomb of the unknown soldier, who lies beneath a giant black stone framed with red poppies. There’s a serious calm about everyone about you as you visit the grave of someone who served their country and whose name we don’t know, much in the same way the same thing happens when you visit the unknown soldier’s tomb at Arlington outside DC. It’s clear that everyone around you understands that this is no ordinary tourist attraction and that calling it a tourist attraction feels a little wrong. Westminster is more of a pilgrimage for the masses that now transcends whatever one believes. And there’s something awfully powerful about visiting the burial sites of so many important people throughout time.
Following the unknown soldier’s tomb, you make your way toward the Nave, an area with a smallish biggish altar situated before an elaborate screen (added in the 16th century, if I’m remembering correctly) of immaculate gold, several pointed apexes adorned at the top with crosses, all done up in a way to blend in with the overall aesthetic of a building that took hundreds of years to build from when construction began in the 13th century.
After passing through the Nave, you view the Quire, and I couldn’t help but think about “Monty Python and the Meaning of Life” when all the school children were in church, falling asleep, looking bored, while Michael Palin, playing a minister, leads them in prayer, “Oh Lord! Oooo, you are so big! Gosh, we’re all really impressed down here, I can tell you!” mainly because the Quire seemed so similar to whatever church they filmed that scene in. It had the characteristic benches running parallel to the abbey walls, smart lanterns with red shades sitting on long desk things in front of the benches, with various books and hymnals sitting on music stands and on the long desk/table things.
Past the Quire, you enter into several smaller chapels that house tombs of lots more important people, including those of King Edward I (the tall one they called Longshanks) and several others called Richard and Henry, but their numbers are escaping me at the moment.
Two chapels I have a much firmer memory of, however, are those where Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Mary I are buried and where Mary Queen of Scots is buried. What’s remarkable about Elizabeth’s tomb is that her sister Mary, the devoutly Catholic one who killed countless Protestants, is buried immediately below her sister Elizabeth, the devoutly Protestant one who killed countless Catholics.
Naturally, of course, I can never think about Queen Elizabeth without thinking about Miranda Richardson’s absolutely hilarious performance of Elizabeth I in the BBC comedy from the 1980s, “Blackadder II.” And while I know that the real Elizabeth didn’t screech and talk in a high pitched mouse-like voice and make jokes about cutting people’s heads off, it’s still terribly fun to pretend that the real Elizabeth did.
But, on the other hand, I also think about Cate Blanchet’s stunning turn as Elizabeth I in the film, “Elizabeth,” and it was that film that my interest in the silly English monarchy that I wish would go away began to become something more serious beyond knowing that Elizabeth I always had pearls around her neck (and I only knew that because of watching Blackadder). It’s really a terribly fascinating story, the whole English monarchy thing, especially the Tudors, the Hanoverians, and the current day Windsors.
Anyway, I’m losing track of where I am…
Oh yes! Bloody Mary buried directly beneath her sister Elizabeth, two sisters so directly opposed to each other, yet there their bodies lie so close to each other.
In the chapel just opposite the one where Elizabeth and Mary’s tombs are (which house their bodies! Isn’t that weird! What do they look like, I wonder! Wouldn’t you just LOVE to dig them up and see!!) is the body of Mary Queen of Scots (and what does HER body look like? Aren’t you curious? That’s all I think about when I go to cemeteries and old abbeys like this. I just wanna dig their bodies up to see what they look like!)
If you don’t know (and you really should, as it’s terribly fascinating, not just the politics, but all the executions by removing the head), Elizabeth had Mary Queen of Scots imprisoned in the Tower for 19 years to stop her from spreading Catholicism before Elizabeth finally cut Mary’s head off, and then when James I became king after Elizabeth I who was childless died, he made sure Mary’s tomb in Westminster rivaled that of Elizabeth’s. So, on one side of the abbey you have Elizabeth’s elaborate, marble effigy, lying down with palms pressed together in prayer, and on the other you have Mary’s elaborate, marble effigy, lying down with palms pressed together. To add more drama and just to reaffirm the drama of it all, Elizabeth’s sister Mary is directly below Elizabeth. Even in death, such rivalry that you can still feel in the abbey today.
(But what do their bodies look like right now?? I want to know! I need to know!)
Anyway, so much to say about Westminster, as its so dense with so much history, and I know I’m probably leaving stuff out.
A curious tomb in the back of the abbey behind Henry VII’s Lady Chapel which is directly behind Edward the Confessor’s shrine which is directly behind the main Sacrarium, is that of Oliver Cromwell.
Oh Oliver Cromwell! How I adore you!
I mentioned Oliver in my post where I talked about our visit to Old Sherborne Castle, but to refresh your memory: he was Prime Minister following the Civil War that abolished the English monarchy for 11 years following the execution of Charles I. When Oliver died, the monarchy was restored with Charles II (yes, I know; the poor dears; they couldn’t manage a country without a monarchy like how the wonderful French will manage following their revolution and the execution of their last king, Louis XVI; still, then we wouldn’t have gotten Mad King George III, who lost the American colonies and all that interesting history that comes with it), and so they decided to dig Oliver’s body up, hang him, and then cut him up to humiliate him even in death.
But, there his tomb remains: empty, but a powerful reminder of great people with great foresight into better ways of running a society.
Moving on, though, after all the tombs of famous kings and queens and their children, you get to enter Poet’s Corner, where a number of literary greats are either buried or immortalized in stone. It was all started when Geoffrey Chaucer was buried in the south transept in 1400, and since then other poets and novelists joined him in the nearby area, where you can also view a stunning memorial for William Shakespeare, who isn’t buried there, but whose memorial of marble is elegant and wonderful to behold. A little further on you can see where Handel is buried, and who, even though German, made most of his living writing oratorios for the English in England in English (hence why his text setting is sometimes a bit, well, awkward).
You finish with the audio tour at Poet’s Corner, but there’s still much to explore, including the Pyx Chamber (a place where they stored their gold in huge wooden chests), the Chapter House where you can currently see on display the vibrant paintings of Hughie O’Donaghue commemorating the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War, the Abbey Museum where you can view remarkable effigies of various monarchs from Elizabeth I, William and Mary, to countless others in addition to the coronation chair of Mary II (because they needed two that year since she and William III ruled jointly), the College Garden (a cute little elegant garden with a modest fountain surrounded by the greenest grass, various flowers and shrubs, ancient stone walkways, and great arches), the Cloister Garth (a larger version of the College Garden except with no fountain), and around the Cloister Garth you can visit the graves of many others including, unexpectedly, that of Muzio Clementi, who was born in Rome but who died in Evesham.
Then, as you make your way out of the abbey, one last treat to see is THE coronation chair, used since the 14th century, if I’m remembering correctly, for all the monarchs since, Elizabeth II included.
Really, though… Westminster Abbey is a must for all visitors to London. Undoubtedly you’ll notice things I didn’t, or maybe you’ll make a point to see and do the things I did. Either way, a spectacular experience.
Following Westminster, we made our way to the 1666 Fire of London monument, and it is this monument I recommend you visit rather than the London Eye. For one, fewer tourists tour here, for another, it’s much cheaper (especially if you purchase the joint Tower Bridge and Monument ticket, which is what we did), and, for a third, it provides a much more exhilarating experience, wind in your hair and everything.
When you arrive, you’ll notice the great pillar and atop it a majestic gold adornment. The very bottom of the monument is a great, stone foundation, almost a perfect cube, inscribed with its memorial message to such a tragedy to befall London.
Then, prepare yourself for quite a climb, up over 300 steps of a long, spiraling staircase (but you can do it, as my 70-year-old mum with bad knees proved), a staircase that you can look up and down, right up and down its center. It’s really quite dizzying.
Then, when you reach the top, there’s a platform not wide enough for two people except at the corners, with an elaborate, metal railing, and above that, a fancy chain link fence that houses visitors in safely.
But for those of us with a debilitating fear of heights, you’ll find yourself clinging for dear life as far away from the edge as possible (which is only about two feet or less) against the stone wall behind you.
Nonetheless, as I said earlier, I found that this monument provided a much more exhilarating view of the city, complete with views of the Shard, City Hall, the Tower and Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf, the Gherkin, and St. Paul’s, and all with fewer people and in a way where the wind was in your face so you felt much more connected to the city.
Make sure you take a picture of yourself next to a Pudding Lane sign at the bottom of the monument while you’re over here, as, after all, that’s where some baker allowed some bread to burn starting all this terrible fire to begin with (or so they think). In the world of Doctor Who, however, the Great Fire started due to alien weaponry exploding in a certain building on Pudding Lane in a serial called, “The Visitation.”
The Doctor left the weaponry behind, though. “Won’t it confuse the archeologists?” Nyssa asked.
I’m sure it will…
After all this, we did, however, make one, last final stop around town, and that was to the Earl’s Court station, where, rather lovingly, you can see a police box.
And how fantastic is that! A chase through an eternity of history and countless visitations to so many important memorials and tombs, and you can end your day visiting a marvelous icon that also kind of serves as a memorial to obsolete objects: a silly, old, battered, blue box that today serves no purpose beyond being the exterior of the most famous time machine ever, but in its day in reality an important communications hub.
I want to continue writing about our visit to the Tower, but I think I’ll leave it for my next post. Like Westminster Abbey, the Tower, too, is full of such dense history that it deserves a post dedicated almost entirely to itself alone, in the manner that this one did for Westminster.
Unfortunately, there are no fast return switches here to speed up the time between my posting this post and the next, but hang tight. It’ll come soon.