Went to bed early so I could have a lie-in - and that I did! Still made it into town in plenty of time - and here's the thing; as I was walking to the bus stop, I noticed no breathlessness whatsoever, and even when I ran for the bus, well yes, I was breathless when I got on, but didn't feel in imminent danger of death! Oh, I've definitely turned a corner - after almost three months. Credit it to the royal wedding yesterday. Jeez, it's like in the middle ages, when people thought that the royal touch cured illness.. now, they can do it remotely! Seriously, taking to my bed for almost the whole day to watch it, dosing myself with cough syrup and coughing regularly, worked absolute wonders. Not yet cured, but I may yet live..
I arrived too early, and found myself mingling with the crowd going into the Dominion Theatre, which is taken over by the Hillsong Church from 11am through the afternoon on Sundays. Indeed, someone even asked me whether she could take my photo for the website. See, the handiest thing was to stand under the canopy in front of the doors, for the shade - today was so sunny that I wished I'd brought a hat. Should certainly have left my coat at home, and will do so tomorrow. And I was standing there for a long time - which didn't do my back any good. The guide was running late - in fact, I even ran into another couple of ladies who were looking for him, and phoned the Funzing contact, who said he'd contact him for us.
And it was Jess again, for Fun London Tours! Ah, excellent - he always gives an entertaining walk. He apologised as he arrived - although he did actually make it on time, just. At which time a whole slew of people magically materialised from the surrounding crowd. After a few minutes waiting for latecomers, we were off.. all the way around the back of the theatre, to the shade - he did make a concerted effort to have us in the shade as much as possible. Now, it turns out that this theatre used to be a brewery.. and in 1814 they had something of an accident, in which one of the barrels ruptured and the pressure of the escaping beer ruptured another, and so on - until the flood of beer came out with such force, and such a volume, that it broke down the back wall and flowed down the streets! Eight dead, and as he said, nobody knows about it now.. the surrounding area, known as the rookery, was so notoriously poor and the buildings of such poor quality that the flood simply washed them away - and the people in them.
Apologies for the general lack of photos, by the way - there wasn't much unusually photogenic to snap, and I'm just so familiar with this part of town that there wasn't any point.
As we headed down to St. Giles' church, I had a burst of nostalgia - I came here for my lunch sometimes when the office was local to it, they have a food market. We spent a while there, in the shade of a tree in the churchyard, chatting about local villains - including Jack Sheppard, who broke out of prison four times, and was so famous that, when he was finally being hung, his biography was already on sale at the hanging! Durnit, he even had a plan for escape then, but it hung on a doctor who was supposed to make his way to the gallows and declare him dead prematurely. Unfortunately, the crowds who'd come to see the deed were so large, given his notoriety, that the good doctor couldn't make his way through in time, and poor Jack really was hung.
It was at this time that our group started to make its collective wisdom known - we had a former forensic scientist in our midst, who could tell us exactly what the cause of death from hanging was. We also had someone from Australia, who knew about deportations, and indeed, we had a second tour guide, who was coming along to learn this tour, and made his own contributions from time to time. Indeed, our guide was to say at the end that it was the most enjoyable walk he'd been on, as he learned so much!
And so, on to Seven Dials - just close enough to our old office building that I could see they haven't demolished it yet. This was the setting for a chat about gin - apparently, William of Orange brought over the tradition of gin-drinking from the Netherlands, and taxed foreign drinks so high that gin became the preferred drink of the lower classes. Apparently, in its heyday, each street leading off Seven Dials terminated in a gin shop! Which, I guess, makes it appropriate that the column in the middle of Seven Dials bears an inscription that says it was unveiled by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands! He also spoke of the misogyny involved in the disapproval of gin, calling it "mother's ruin" because it enticed women out of the home and into gin palaces.
Look, a photo! See, I've already photographed the Freemasons' Hall, but thought I'd put it up again upon learning that it stood in for the Kremlin in The Death of Stalin, due to its opulent interiors.
And so on to Bow Street, where we stood in the shade of the Opera House. Now, I haven't been down here in a while - in the meantime, they've removed that black hoarding where the Man in the Hat used to stand, sometimes in pouring rain, bless 'im, to distribute his tickets, the nights that he brought us here! They still have fencing up, but it seems as though they're finally progressing with whatever they're doing. Honestly, I'm not that keen to return to the Opera House, not without the group that he used to bring here. Wouldn't be the same. Anyway, today we were there to talk about Bow Street Magistrates' Court (of course) and the corrupt thieftaker general, who ran his own criminal gang!
On to Covent Garden, where we were told about the guide to the local ladies - the Tripadvisor of its day, as someone remarked! This was a great class melting pot, the slum dwellers coming to make money from the toffs who were attending the new local theatres. Now, by this stage we had run over time, and my bones were beginning to ache - London Literary Walks aren't so strenuous, so it's a while since I've been so exercised! Happily, the rest was downhill.
And so to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, which of course doesn't face Drury Lane at all - he explained that it was turned around, so the main entrance is now where the back door used to be. Anyway, seems it's the most haunted in London, and a "grey man" attending rehearsals is a promise of a successful run! We finished in Somerset House, former home of the Catholic Queen Henrietta Maria, who apparently used her position to flaunt the anti-Catholic laws of the day, had a Catholic church built there and let Catholics be buried there, when the norm was for them to be put in unmarked graves. Afterwards, in one of those acts of blatant vandalism, they demolished the church and built over the cemetery - leaving the bodies where they were, and using the gravestones as building material. Euch, I'll never look at Somerset House in the same way again!
Anyway, another informative and entertaining tour - guaranteed with Jess. Me, my back and hips were killing me - I managed to limp my way to the bus stop, and this time, the bus came quite quickly. On the way, passed Brandy Nan! See, Queen Anne had a thing for gin - returning to that theme - and her statue outside St. Paul's inspired the following ditty:
Brandy Nan, left in the lurch, her face to the gin shop, her back to the church.
Delighted to be in early. Tomorrow, I booked with London Science Events for a talk at the Royal Society on Why Philosophy of Science Matters to Science. Then, of course, I remembered I have a meeting at 5.30! Doors open at 6, and you have to be there well in advance to secure entry. Blast. Well, the other Meetup events that appealed were either also on too early, or didn't have any decent tickets left. So I thought film. The one that came top looks decent - but its closest showing is in Cineworld Wandsworth, which used to be my local but is now a bit of a trek for a film I'm not that pushed about. Which has slipped in ratings anyway, since I last looked (that was quick)! Anyway, in the meantime, I got an email from Londonist.. and something coming up for tomorrow night looked attractive, so I booked it. So I'm now going to Tales from the Phantasmagoria, in the Old Red Lion. Improvised horror comedy, we have three souls on stage who find themselves in hell and have to figure out how they got there. Sounds different.. and I might even manage to walk there. Despite it being uphill!
On Tuesday, my £3.60 club had tickets for a Beethoven cycle in the Barbican! Sadly, they'd sold out - but that didn't stop me buying my own ticket from the venue, although it cost more. Still, Beethoven is my favourite, so..
On Wednesday, Eleanor is back with a Flamenco evening at Sand's Films, olé! Advertised via the London European Club, booked through TunedIn London. Ah, it'll be so good to get back there again!
On Thursday, back with London Literary Walks, which are getting more frequent again - this week, it's Krays, Chaucer and Matches.. And then I'm back to Ireland for the long weekend.
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