St. Paul's, Shakespeare, St. Paul's Again and a Pub Walk

On Tuesday, September 6th, after breakfast, rather than looking for an ATM in our neighborhood, since we were going to the City of London, arguably the banking capital of the world, I assumed that we would easily find one there. We took the Tube to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Around the corner from the Tube station was, indeed, a streetful of banks, each with its ATMs. We went back to the station and found there a London Walks guide, Judy, collecting money for their St. Paul’s walk. London Walks has a very good reputation for its walking tours, many of which seemed interesting when we looked them up on their website. The price, ten pounds (plus entry fees) for a two-hour tour, couldn’t be beat. As a senior, I got a two-pound, discount, and for two pounds, Mary Joy later bought a card which would give her a two-pound discount on each of the other three walks we ended up taking with London Walks.

After waiting five minutes for possible latecomers, Judy gathered us together and led us to the Cathedral, stopping a few times on the way to give us some preparation. No photographs were allowed inside, and there was a bag search. We went through the nave and eventually into the crypt, where, at one point, I found myself standing on the grave of the pre-Raphaelite painter Sir John Everett Millais, who, coincidentally, had at one time lived in the townhouse on Gower Street that is now the Arosfa Hotel. Next to his grave, I found that of a painter who is much, much more to my taste, J.M.W. Turner. The biggest tombs are for the Duke of Wellington and Admiral Nelson (which recycled Cardinal Wolsey’s unused sarcophagus), showing that when push comes to shove, a society values its military heroes more than its artistic heroes.

We had lunch in another church crypt, that of St. Mary-le-Bow, nearby. This is a serious restaurant with seriously good food, unlike the money-for-charity cafeteria in the crypt of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, where we would lunch the next day.

Then we walked down across the Southwark Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. We had bought tickets online for the 2 p.m. performance of Macbeth. I had also gotten a cushion-rental voucher—the theatre is so authentic, that not only is there open-air standing room for the groundlings, but what seating there is is on wooden benches. The play was done very well, with some direct interaction (including topical quips) with the audience.

It finished around 5:00, so we had to rush across the Millennium Bridge in order to catch about half of the Vespers service at St. Paul’s. Afterwards, as we went out, the presider was greeting people at the door. Mary Joy thanked her for a nice service. She responded by asking if Mary Joy were a musician. Mary Joy replied that she was organist and choir director at a small church in St. Paul, Minnesota. The clergywoman responded by offering greetings from St. Paul’s to her choir in St. Paul. That was pleasant to hear.

At 7:30, we were at the Temple Tube station, for London Walks’ “Hidden Pubs of Old London Town” walk. Our guide, Andy, took us to various nooks and crannies of the City, including the Inns of Court and three pubs: the Devereux, the Edgar Wallace and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.. There were some interesting beers and stories, but things ran a bit late, so we were’nt able to have dinner at the pub he suggested, and instead went back to Tottenham Court Road and had more Pizza at Franco Manca.