London: St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London, Museum of London

Today’s itinerary in London included an eclectic mix of attractions, namely St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, and the Museum of London.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

In most continental European cities I’ve been to, it’s generally been free to enter the big old churches and look around, but there’s a fee to go into the museums and art galleries; sometimes a substantial fee.

In London, it’s the opposite. There’s a fee to go into the two biggest old churches, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, but the major museums and galleries are free. I should qualify “free.” They ask for donations. There are big glass-covered bins for that purpose at the entrances. Being donations, they are optional, but strongly requested. In fact, at the entrance to the National Gallery, a staff member actively guilted people into dropping in five or ten pounds.

At St. Paul’s Cathedral, there was a mandatory £20-pound adult entry fee. Although, because I’m approaching decrepitude, they let me in for £17. That price includes an informative audio/visual guide.

For the record, because I’m an atheist, I don’t object to charging for churches, but not for museums and galleries. It’s just that I thought churches were supposed to be houses of God. God charges people to come into his home? That’s not very hospitable of Him, is it? However, I’m pleased to report that God accepts credit cards.

A visit to St. Paul’s covers three levels, the main floor, the galleries atop the dome and the crypts below ground.

St. Paul’s Cathedral Floor

St. Paul’s Cathedral is laid out in the classic Catholic layout of a cross. But it’s not Catholic. It’s Protestant. The senior church officials told Christopher Wren, the architect, to not make it look Catholic.

I don’t know about such things, but I think he either ignored those instructions or failed in the execution of them. To me, St. Paul’s Cathedral looked much like the grand old Catholic cathedrals I’ve visited in continental Europe. Experts could probably rattle off dozens of differences. But I couldn’t see them.

Beyond the entry, which is the lower end of the cross, is the nave. The intersection is covered with a majestic dome and cupola. There are transepts on the two short arms of the cross. The choir, which houses rich-looking wood seats, is in the top part of the cross. The actual choir sits in a portion of these seats, but, for smaller services, congregants sit in the section called the choir as well. (The screen on the audio/visual guide spelled it “quire,” not “choir.” The dictionary that comes with my Mac tells me a quire is “four sheets of paper or parchment folded to form eight leaves, as in medieval manuscripts.” Obviously, quire has another meaning of which I’m unaware. Either that or the person who set up the audio/visual guide was a poor speller.)

Behind the choir or quire, there’s a monument to American war dead. Don’t ask me why they honour only the Americans. I haven’t the foggiest. What are the Commonwealth countries? Chopped liver?

I could try to describe the art and architecture of the sanctuary, but I’d undoubtedly do a horrible job of that. Instead, here are some pictures.

The Galleries

Climbing a lot of steps—more than five hundred—took me first to the Stone Gallery and then the Golden Gallery. These are outdoor galleries atop the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral that offer amazing views of London.

(The first 200 or so of the steps are a trap. Unlike some of the stairs I’ve climbed to get to the roof or dome-top in other cathedrals, the first steps in St. Pauls were wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side easily and the risers were short. I thought, “Great, this is going to be a breeze.”

After those first steps, however, the staircase narrowed to only wide enough for one person and the risers were much higher. Fortunately, unlike in a few other cathedrals I’ve been in, there were two of these narrow staircases, one for up, the other for down.)

At the lower gallery, the Stone Gallery, I had to look through the somewhat narrow spaces between columns to take in the view. However, at the Golden Gallery, I had a clear view over the sturdy railings.

St. Paul’s Cathedral also has a “Whispering Gallery. This is, supposedly, halfway up the dome. I read about it in the travel book I have. The audio/visual guide also mentioned it. Apparently, in the Whispering Gallery, if you put your ear to the wall and a partner walks halfway around the dome and does the same thing, you can speak to each other in whispers and make out what the other person is saying.

Being alone, I wouldn’t have been able to test that out. But I thought it was cool. So, as I climbed the stairs, I kept an eye out for the entrance. I couldn’t find it. I saw some closed doors, but they had do-not-enter notices on them.

After I left I thought, “Isn’t that just like me to miss a major attraction that was probably right in front of my eyes?” When I got back to my hotel I checked St. Paul’s Cathedral’s website. It turns out the Whispering Gallery closed in April of this year after someone died there. It will remain closed until at least December, 2019 while they assess safety measures.

Um. Er. Someone died in there and the cause was something that led them to reexamine safety measures? Yeah, I don’t want to go in there. Thanks.

Here are some pictures from the Golden Gallery and one, the last one, from the Stone Gallery. I took that one by placing the lens of my camera right up to the gap between the columns and panicking deeply that I’d drop my phone (which is also my camera).

The Crypt

Not surprisingly, the crypt at St. Paul’s houses a lot of dead bodies of Londoners of note. Some are buried under the floor, with chiselled engraving on the stone over them to indicate the deceased. Others are in large coffins sitting on the floor.

Among the people interred in the crypt are Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. The latter was given a place in St. Paul’s Cathedral to commemorate his great contribution to Britain and the world, namely Beef Wellington. Anyone who knows me saw that joke coming from a few thousand kilometres away.

There were also a lot of live bodies in the crypt, but those were mostly tourists, including me.

The Tower of London

I’m not sure why they call the Tower of London the Tower of London. It is a collection of buildings inside double fortified walls, surrounded by a now-dry moat. One of the buildings called a tower, isn’t. At least not as far as I’m concerned. The White Tower is a roughly cubed-shaped building. There are squat towers at its corners, but the building itself is not a tower.

Other buildings are just towers, but none of them are particularly tall. They’re not really what I’d call towers. Now, the two towers on the nearby, Tower Bridge, those are towers. The Tower Bridge is not a part of the Tower of London. So, rather than here, I’ll post a picture of it in the random shots that appear at the very bottom of this post.

Even if you do award the buildings tower status, there are more than one. Why, then, do they call it the “Tower of London” and not the “Towers of London?” It’s thoughts like this that keep me from enjoying life.

Britain’s royalty lived in the White Tower for a few hundred years. The White Tower is only a fraction of the size of Buckingham Palace, and a small fraction at that. I guess one monarch or another felt cramped and wanted a bigger place.

These days, the White Tower is a museum that contains mostly armour and armaments of various kings.

Losing Their Heads

In the compound of the Tower of London, there’s a memorial at the spot where heads were chopped off. Only the high mucky-mucks were executed there. The common folk were executed elsewhere.

The star attraction at the Tower of London is the Crown Jewels. The powers that be forbid photography of the Crown Jewels, so you’ll have to settle for my description of it. Poor you. I have no skills in descriptive narrative. None whatsoever.

The Crown Jewels included jewel-encrusted gold crowns, sceptres and orbs. One display case also contained various curios of mostly gold or silver. It all brought to mind that the royals are very rich. Not enough of a description for you? OK. They’re very mega-super-uber-ultra-filthy-stinking rich.

Guards

A couple of guards stood in front of the building containing the Crown Jewels. Every once in a while, one took some determined, pounding steps away from and back to his guard post. A changing of the guard ceremony occurred while I was in the White Tower and I saw only the last bit of it.

That’s not why I mentioned the guards. It was very hot today. The guards wore full suits. And they didn’t look particularly summer weight, at that. On their heads, they wore a tall, dead, furry animal of unknown species. Despite that, the guards didn’t faint from the heat. Under the circumstances, I would have thought they wouldn’t just faint, but melt into a puddle of dissolved flesh. Nevertheless, they persisted.

As I’ve said, I have no pictures of the jewels for you, but here are some pictures of the buildings and the armour and armaments on display in the White Tower.

The Museum of London

My last stop of the day was the Museum of London. It’s a nice, small museum that presents the history of London from the time when there were just hunters and gatherers in the area that is now London, through to the Roman Conquest, the Norman Conquest, and up to almost current times.

Every day, the museum presents a few talks and tours throughout the day. I arrived late in the afternoon, just in time for the last talk. In it, I learned the history of London’s pubs (they evolved from Roman tavernas supplying wine to the populace) and of pub culture. It was quite interesting.

Here are some shots from inside the museum.

Miscellaneous photos from my day