Today we had a day out in London to see the Christmas Lights.
Joyce provided the following details of the plan.
"I am arriving at London Liverpool Street at 12.17pm approx. I will head to Oliver Bonas at Liverpool Street station and probably grab a Greggs coffee and wait for the Ipswich train to arrive at 12.20pm. You are welcome to meet me at Oliver Bonas and we will walk to Covent Garden (Via Bishopsgate Exit) for approx 1.15pm to refuel at Pauls Deli on Bedford Street. You can take a tube to Covent Garden of course. Obviously, you don't have to eat at Pauls and for example, Petersham Deli is just around the corner and various other places. I would imagine that we will need 45 mins at least for this stop as I am going to properly refuel. At approx 2- 2.15pm we will head to 'The Actors Church', Covent Garden, which is delightful and we will discover why it is called that. Then it is free time in Covent Garden. So take some time to explore, take photos, find the buskers, browse - it looks beautiful.
I expect that the route will be very similar to last year and include a visit to Liberty or the pub (John!), Carnaby Street, Burlington Arcade, Bond, Oxford and Regent Streets and we can also spend some time in Fortnum and Mason. There will be a late afternoon stop for tea and cake and I will head to the RADA coffee shop (Royal Academy Of Arts) but you can head to the pub.
Dress warmly as the temperature will drop and walking can be rather slow in London. We are quite a big group so please do try and keep me in sight. When it is dark I will wear a glow stick on my hat for easy identification.
Please make sure you phone is charged and not on silent in case we need to get hold of you.
Please remember that you are free to do your own thing exactly as you wish.
I will be leaving Covent Garden at 5.45pm to walk back to Liverpool street for homeward journeys.
Ipswich train is 7pm and Newmarket train is 7.09pm"
Most of us met at Liverpool Street station and Roland and Jane joined us at Covent Garden.
This was our route.
Here are a few of my photos. Alas my camera is getting a bit unreliable and failed to focus properly on a number of occasions after dark, but hopefully some of the remaining ones give you an idea.
We passed The Gherkin.
Kim and Dawn enjoying the free see-saw.
We visited Leadenhall Market, A Victorian structure in the midst of all the towering modern city skyscrapers.
"John will tell us all about it in his blog", said Joyce...
"Leadenhall Market dates back to 1321 and is situated in what was the centre of Roman London. Originally a meat, poultry and game market, it is now home to a number of boutique retailers, restaurants, cafes, wine bars and an award-winning pub.
Starting as the site of a manor, Leadenhall Market has survived changes in use, rebuilding, and even the Great Fire to become a popular destination for city residents, visitors and workers.
Situated in the centre of the City of London’s financial district, the current Grade II listed Market building, designed by Horace Jones, dates back to 1881. Its airy and light wrought iron and glass structure replaced the stone market previously created by Lord Mayor of London, Dick Whittington in the 15th Century. Leadenhall Market is owned and managed by the City of London Corporation."
You can read more about it
here.
No 1 Poultry is a famous post-modern building designed by James Stirling and completed in 1997, 5 years after the architect's death. Read all about it
here.
We passed St Paul's Cathedral....
...and walked along Fleet Street...
...to the Strand. I liked this mural.
At Somerset House we saw people ice-skating.
We rendezvoused at St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, aka the
Actors' Church, which we would visit later.
Dawna and I had our lunch outside it next to this tree with bird-feeders... feeding parakeets!
We had a little walk around Covent Garden before meeting the others again at the church. A singer was performing some operatic arias.
The bell decorations were the same as last year.
...we enjoyed seeing the plaques dedicated to famous actors and actresses, including this one...
Given a bit more time to explore Covent Garden, Dawn and I visited the Royal Opera House. There are nice views from the terrace upstairs...
Here we bumped into Shaun and Erica and 3 of us we had some delicious mulled wine.
The tutu tree in the foyer.
Onward now to see some Christmas lights.
They also had a giant game of Tetris.
Barbara Hepworth's statue
Winged Figure (1963) on south-east side of the John Lewis department store.
The shop windows are full of Christmas displays.
At 4pm, at last, the Oxford Street lights came on.
Instead of visiting Liberty's...
...some of us went round the corner to Carnaby Street...
...for a drink at the
Shakespeare's Head. We were unimpressed by the service and not being allowed to have our drink in the nearly empty upstairs eating area, and ended up outside.
We passed Fortnum and Masons for a second time.
Back towards Covent Garden and then on to Liverpool Street for our trains.
A lovely day out and we were quite lucky with the weather with only a couple of spots of drizzle. We were quite tired though when we got to our trains home.
Thank-you Joyce for organising it all and leading us round.
You can find more details of our 13 mile route today
here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file
here) and more of my photos
here on Flickr.
Other related walks you can find on my blog include
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