London Weekend

 
Diverse it was. Hot it was :)

Started with a trip to the British Library and back in time to the period of the Russian Revolution.

 

original version of Dr Zhivago

after checking in and resting up it was time to cash in the first of our gift vouchers and join the Sweeney Todd walking tour. The guide was incredibly knowledgable, really done her research. Stories of Sweeney and Mrs Lovett were the thread that ran through an evening stories that touched on Jack the Ripper, The Knights Templar/Hospitaller, Fleet Street printers and St Brides. We wandered back lanes that we hadn't been down before and in good company.

The Temple was an impressive area dating back to the 12th century that was built by the Knights Templar, at the time the richest monastic order in the world, but lost their wealth, position and ended up tortured and executed by the King of France.

They lost the Temple, due to this and how it was inherited by the Knights Hospitaller eventually ending up in the hands of the legal profession today. Temple Bar is the dividing line between the City of London and the City of Westminster where the heads of convicted criminals were displayed in the C18th but the Temple remains outside the jurisdiction of both the City of London and Westminster.

 

kinda sums up the area today 

Onward through alleyways to Fleet Street to the world of books and printing. Newspapers were printed here from 1487-1980s. Dr Johnson compiled the first English dictionary, Charles Dickens, Oliver Goldsmith, Tennyson, Mark Twain all visited or worked here. They often visited one of the oldest pubs surviving today, first built, just after the Great Fire of London -Ye Old Cheshire Cheese in an alley just off Fleet St, where we stopped off to join them in a pint and a lite bite.
 
 

 
Whilst the story of Sweeney Todd is just that this lane leads to where the shop would have been and through the pavement grill, not easy to photograph, is a lower rear door leading to an underground passage where the remaining body parts were presumed to have been ditched :-0

 



 












 
 
A beautiful sunset highlighted St Pauls and St Brides (the bakers that used to be situated across from St Brides used its tower as a template for the first ever tiered wedding cake :) 

 










 

 
After a nights R&R it was on the train to Watford Junction and the connection to Warner Bros Studion for the Harry Potter Experience - the second of our gift vouchers (thanx Marion :)

What was unique about this exhibition it was not a theme park but a celebration of the art and artistry of everyone involved in film making - scene makers, model makers, animators, wardrobe, wigs, special effects, camera/sound and so much more. The time just flew by (you can spend as much of it as you like there ;)

our favourite - the Knight Bus

you can animate Dobbie and fly on a Nimbus

The white card and dimensional modelling was such perfection.

 

and costumes and props -

 

Too soon it was time to return home just in time to catch the Tall Ships festival in Gloucester Docks - and the traditional Bank Holiday Monday downpour!