A Dickens Walk

Last night was my first Meetup in a week - and just like the previous Meetup, I was with London Literary Walks!  This was A Dickens Walk. Meeting at The Gladstone Arms - and another person I recommended these walks to came along, after much promising! Promised to be be a good evening.

Well, at the end of the day - literally - I had a very intensive meeting at work. I came out with a lot of information - and a stinking cold! As Mary was later to remark, things like this can be triggered by events.. I guess we can blame the meeting then! Anyway, I had great plans to walk to the walk - but by the time I'd been to Tesco to buy paracetamol, hankies, and a sandwich, the best I could do was to take the Tube, if I wanted to get there in any reasonable time. On top of all that, my first leg was on the Central Line, which was as crowded as ever - I had to wait for the third of those trains before I could squeeze on. At least they were frequent. The Northern Line was much better - and at least I alighted right around the corner from the pub.

They were right inside, and I grabbed a drink and a chair and joined them. And scared them all with talk of germs! I just had time to down the drink - a sure cure for a cold - by the time we left, at 7.30 prompt.

As usual, the walk started right outside - apparently, Dickens lived on this street while his father was in debtor's prison nearby. Probably drank in the same pub as we had!

This was quite a short walk, as we meandered through the backstreets of Southwark. We passed some grand buildings - the most likely to have survived from that time, of course. Not all with the same use as originally - Trinity Church, for instance, became a rehearsal space for the London Philharmonic:

We finished up on a street reminiscent of medieval pilgrimages to Becket's shrine, which might start with refreshment at the Tabard Inn:

And so to the second pub of the night - Harveys of Lewes, which used to be the Royal Oak. A nice, cosy pub, which does good chips - a few of us had food. And wouldn't you know it, I ran into an ex-coworker there, who it turns out lives locally. Small city. Afterwards, some of us returned to The Gladstone Arms, where the live music had started: and boy, was the joint hopping! Trad Scots / Irish music - even the bagpipes were produced!

Great session, and a great evening.

Tonight, if I can fight this cold, I'm back for a pub night with Spooky London - we're at The Anchor Tap.

And tomorrow, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Education, Education, Education at Trafalgar Studios. Set in a school in the 90s, it looks like great fun. And just today, ShowFilmFirst advertised an offer on it, damnit! All tickets £20 for shows up to the 22nd. Ah well..