In search of H.V. Morton's City of London

I have been reading a wonderful book by H.V.Morton, In Search of London, published in 1951.  An extraordinary thing about this book, is that it was written while London was still devastated by the Blitz.  Morton describes vividly the early history of London, the devastation of the Great Fire in 1666, the opulence of Edwardian London, and the London of the 1930s, just before the second World War.  Then he describes walking the City in the Blitz, from Cheapside to St. Mary le Bow, 'a bare and roofless shell',  he mourns a special fish restaurant once called Simpson's, visits the Guildhall, where the 'big black timbers of the roof lay criss-crossed and charred, jet-black and wet across shapeless piles of masonry', the Gog Magog statues at the entrance blown to smithereens.  All around St. Paul's were acres and acres of ruins; 'the roads high with fallen masonry, the gas mains on fire..'  It was still a scene of devastation when he wrote the book.

So I took the 47 bus from Bermondsey over London Bridge, thinking of T.S. Eliot:
 

'Unreal City,

Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,

A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,

I had not thought death had undone so many.

Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,

And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.

Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,

To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours

With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.'

(The Waste Land, 1922)

H.V. Morton says that Old London Bridge, the original bridge with the houses all along it, ended at the church of St. Magnus Martyr, and the arcaded tower of the church was part of the original footway.

The Monument (Wikipedia)

I went to look at the Monument to that previous destruction of London, the Great Fire of 1666. Pudding Lane, where the fire started in a baker's shop, is just around the corner.
Morton says the Fire raged for three days. In those days the Square Mile of London within the original Roman Wall was London, a crowded square mile of narrow alleys, houses, shops. The great palaces of the nobility were along Strand, the Court and fledgling Parliament were at St. James's. the All the streets of the West End were fields then. Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, Mayfair, even Bloomsbury had not been thought of.
After the Great Fire Old St. Paul's, the second largest Christian church in the world after St. Peter's was a roofless ruin. John Evelyn describes it:

'I went this morning on foot from Whitehall as far as London Bridge, through the late Fleet ST, Ludgate Hill by St. Paul's, Cheapside, Exchange, Bishopsgate, Aldersgate and out to Moorfields, thence through Cornhill etc. with extraordinary difficulty, clambering over heaps of yet smouldering rubbish and frequently mistaking where I was: the ground under my feet so hot that it even burnt the soles of my shoes.'
(Quoted in H.V. Morton)

The inscription on the Monument says that 89 churches were burned, with the Guildhall, hospitals, schools, libraries, 13,200 houses, 400 streets, covering 436 acres. There are 345 steps to the top of the Monument, and, like H.V. Morton, I hesitated. There were a lot of school children clustered around the entrance and, unlike H.V. Morton, who went right up, I decided that it could wait for another day.

Seventeen years after the Great Fire 25 of the burned 89 churches had been rebuilt, many, most? by Sir Christopher Wren. I would very much like to know: Why did London need the enormous church of St. Paul's and 89 churches, all clustered so very close together? To say nothing of Westminster Abbey, not so very far away.


Thinking of Shakespeare, I set off for Eastcheap and the Boar's Head. Wikipedia says there was a Boar's Head Tavern, owned by Sir John Falstof, but it was in Southwark, and another Boar's Head in Whitechapel, where plays were staged. The Eastcheap Boar's Head was demolished in 1831 and the sign is now at Shakespeare's Globe. Shakespeare lodged in various places around the old city; Charles Nicholl's book The Lodger tells the story of his time in Silver Street around 1603. There was a market on Eastcheap from Saxon times, so that is why it is called Eastcheap.

Where the Boar's Head once was

I found myself in Threadneedle Street outside the Bank of England, so I peeked in to see Sir John Sloane's vaulted ceilings but it was late and the Museum, where you can lift a gold bar, was closing. H.V. Morton says the Walbrook river runs beneath the Bank, and Roman London was built on its banks, when St. Paul was making his missionary journeys. Emperor Claudius, the stammering Emperor so well acted by Derek Jacobi, invaded, with elephants, following a successful action by his legions near a ford called Lyn-din which I suppose was a crossing on the Walbrook river. Claudius stayed in Britain sixteen days and decided a city would be built at Lyn-din. The Romans also built what was for a very long time the only bridge across the river; London Bridge. I had never realised before that Bank tube station is called after the Bank of England.


I went on to explore the Royal Exchange. This is the place where brokers, merchants, and Lloyds insurers met from 1581, to transact their business, but they are long gone to more modern commercial palaces. The present building dates from the 1840s and looks like a Greek or Roman temple. Inside there are now restaurants and boutiques but there is also a frieze by various Victorian artists running all around the walls showing scenes from the history of Britain. There is a huge bronze statue of the Duke of Wellington outside, cast from the cannons captured during the Napoleonic wars.

Then to St. Mary Woolnoth, a beautiful 18th century church by Nicholas Hawkesmoor, but built on the site of much older churches and a possible pagan temple. Prominent anti-slavery campaigners worshipped here, including William Wilberforce and it inspired Peter Ackroyd's Gothic novel Hawkesmoor. King William Street is not named for William III but for William IV, uncle of Queen Victoria who was king when the street was created. Wikipedia reminded me that T.S. Eliot, when he wrote The Waste Land, was working in a local bank.

Finally I stopped at another Wren church, St. Clements Eastcheap, just off King William Street, in Clement's Lane; Eastcheap once extended to this point. St. Clement of Rome was the patron saint of mariners, as well as patron saint of marble-workers and stone-cutters. This is the St. Clements of the nursery rhyme because there was once a market at the end of London Bridge where Spanish ships unloaded and sold their oranges and in those days the smell of oranges was all around. 

'Oranges and lemons

Say the bells of St. Clements'

I meant to write the whole story of my visit to the City in one post but there was so much to say that I will have to divide it into at least two posts, maybe more.

test

testing

Down The Blue: The Cafe Situation

Grosvenor Estates have bought the Peek and Frean Biscuit Factory site.  Peek and Frean used to be a major employer in Bermondsey but closed in 1989.  The company brought the world the Twiglet and the beloved, delicious Garibaldi squashed fly biscuit.  Now the old factory is home to small businesses; graphic artists, designers, studios.  Grosvenor Estates famously developed Belgravia and Mayfair and are now looking at the potential of The Blue, the area around Blue Anchor Lane, linked to Borough by Southwark Park Road.  Grosvenor Estates are doing their homework on what the area needs to become another trendy London location and sent round a questionnaire asking what residents think would improve the area.  One of the suggestions was more cafes.

This sent me out to look at the cafes already here. I already knew and love Mr. Cappuchinos on Jamaica Road. There you can get a newspaper, an enormous range of hot and cold sandwiches and panninis, the usual range of coffees though they have not yet upgraded to a barista to serve them, and can sit either inside or out on the extraordinarily wide pavement.

In the Biscuit Factory itself there is a good old-fashioned cafe with good solid  hot meals served mostly to the workers in the Biscuit Factory and  the workmen currently crawling all over the Four Squares Estate.

The other side of the railway arches, in what is properly The Blue, the first cafe is the Curry Den, probably named for the famous Milwall Football Team, recently relegated, who's home is The Den, just up the road. Here you can try their famous Piri Piri grilled chicken. They are very nice people and once specially made samosas for me when I popped in.

 Then there is Lou Farrow's Snack Bar and Take Away; Traditional Pie and Mash.  Here they serve meat pies, eel and 'liquor' a mysterious green soup which turns our to be made with parsley.   It is a real, traditional eel pie and mash cafe, and they are rare these days.

Going on down Southwark Park Road are Pete's Bakery, which sells cakes and serves coffee, the Pop In Cafe, oh the other side of the road, and a Wimpy bar.  I haven't seen a Wimpy bar since the 60s.  So I looked it up on Wikipedia and found, to my astonishment, that Wimpy is South African.  Maybe that is why they suddenly vanished from British streets.  The first UK Wimpy was opened in Lyons Corner House, Coventry Road, London in 1954.  This one is at 251A Southwark Park Road.  Checking on the internet the one on Southwark Park Road looks to be the very last one left serving.

Next comes the Market Square where I get my jellied eels and news of Millwall football club from the fishmonger.  Here there is the Lucya Cafe which serves a traditional menu to the locals.  

There is also the Star Express, serving huge breakfasts, a huge range of burgers and sandwiches, Turkish meat balls and liver and onions. and finally there is Duns Delicatessen which serves that other well known London delicacy, salt beef sandwiches along with a splendid all day breakfast including kippers, haddock, black or white pudding and porridge as well as toasted ciabattas and panninis.  All seem well-loved by locals Although it is wonderful to have the huge range of coffees and delicious food served in more fashionable locations round London there is still a place in my heart for these traditional cafes.

Four Squares Estate: Guerilla gardening

Below my flat are two large brick raised beds for flowers.  They have a couple of sad, diseased looking rose bushes in them and a lot of weeds.  It did not take me long to get the itch to rescue them.  But where to find flowers in Bermondsey?  In Birmingham there are plant shops on just about every street plus a garden centre just behind where I live  .London is a vast urban desert with no plants.  I try Tesco, Canada Water, Jamaica Road.  Wherever I go in London I look for shops selling cheap plants.  Or any plants, with roots.  Or bulbs.    The only place I see plants in profusion is Chelsea Flower Show and they are not for sale.
  
Only in The Blue, at the small, struggling local market, can I find plug plants, sold from a barrow.  They are amazed when I buy up, at a very good price, all the plug geraniums I can carry in two large plastic bags.
I plant them out and go back for more.
Then I collect all the seed from my garden and throw it all over the beds.
Result, a fine crop of opium poppies, a few foxgloves, nasturtiums and a lot of cheerful mixed geraniums.

In the autumn I have the job of removing all the dead plants.  I plant tulip and narcissi bulbs and, in February,  I bring some snowdrops.  They all come up.

This year the Four Squares Estate renovations are all happening.  The council blocks are all covered in scaffolding and green netting.  I thought it would be dark under all the nets but it is really not too bad, and it is very exciting to see wonderful shiny new UPVC windows going in.  Suddenly the run down Four Squares is looking almost respectable.

Because of the building work I did nothing to the guerilla garden this spring.  But nature did its work for me.  A fine crop of foxgloves has taken over.














e-mail: childhoodblog@gmail.com

Tigers in Southwark Park

Bermondsey and Rotherhithe have a beautiful city park.  Southwark Park is right on the boundary between the old boroughs and there used to be a lot of in-fighting between them over its management.  Now they are both part of Southwark and the park is listed Grade II.  With Kings Stairs Gardens across Jamaica Road this green lung goes right down to the river.   Surrounded by council flats it is still like being out in the countryside.

There is quite a lot of wildlife

T

There is a bandstand from Queen Victoria's Great Exhibition, installed in 1884 and a drinking fountain..




There are two wonderful caryatids holding up nothing in the shrubbery. These come from Rotherhithe Old Town Hall, 1897, which was bombed in World War II.  In 1974 these were moved to the Heygate Estate, but now that huge council block has been demolished they are in the park

By 1885 a boating lake had been added, and there are still paddle boats for hire.

Near the lake is the oasis of Ada Salter's Garden.  Ada Salter was married to Dr. Alfred Salter.  They both worked tirelessly to improve the slums of Bermondsey, fighting disease and trying to improve the borough's housing and living spaces.  They planted the thousands of trees we still enjoy and created gren space wherever they could.  Ada became the first woman Labour Mayor in 1922, Alfred Salter became a Labour MP and both were Labour councillors.  The garden was created in memory of Ada Salter in 1934.

There are two art galleries showing pretty good exhibitions, a nice cafe, a good playground, a running track, lots of space for ball games and running around and a bowls club.  The park is used a lot by the locals especially mums with small children.

Across Jamaica Road on the Thames is Kings Stairs Gardens.  Edward III built a manor house here in the 14th century and it was used until Tudor times.  Later there was a working commercial pottery on the site.  The remains of the manor house are still there in the garden.   Here is an artist's idea of what the manor looked like.

e-mail:  childhoodblog@gmail.com

Gormley at White Cube

Doing my civic duty I picked up a newspaper from the pavement.  It was the  Evening Standard, full of interesting stuff including Antony Gormley's new show, Model, at White Cube.  My local White Cube in Bermondsey, which would fit in well with my plan to explore Bermondsey Street.

Carrying Southwark Council booklet The Story of Bermondsey, I walked down Jamaica Road, pioneering a new route to Bermondsey Street.  Down Tanner Street, in the bit the bus can't penetrate,  I found a massive warehouse full of antique furniture, very nice.  On to Tower Bridge Road and the squat little church of St. Mary Magdalen with its astonishingly low steeple, hardly a steeple at all.  But the church is the oldest building in Bermondsey, built in 1291 right next to Bermondsey Abbey.  The Abbey stood roughly between Grange Walk, where there are still remains of the Gatehouse, and Bermondsey Square where the Friday antiquyes market is held.  The small building by the church was the parish watch house, where any local malefactors were detained by the night watchmen.

 
 


Bermondsey Street runs across Tower Bridge Road here.  It is probably the oldest street in Bermondsey, narrow with warehouses on either side and cobbled alleys leading into old yards. It is the place I fell in love with on my very first visit to Bermondsey, walking across Tower Bridge to Zandra Rhodes Museum of Fashion and Textile.



The gleaming modernity of White Cube stands back behind a courtyard.  In the Model Room Antony Gormley was talking about his maquets, fascinating essays in translating the human form into cubes and playing around with extending them.  Perspex and wire models and drawings show the internal working structures.  In the white rooms the nearly black metal models are austere and beautiful; standing, lying, crouching.  Finally, stretching the length of one room, lies an interactive cubed form, an exploration of inner and outer space.  Enter the tunnel at the toe, adjusting to the dark, and feeling cautiously, a hand out and up to feel the wall and ceiling.  Explore the marks on the surface.  Crawl through the dark, dark tunnel towards faint light.  See the square of light ceiling where the roof opens up, fortuitously incorporating the square light fittings of the gallery.  Sitting on a shelf and looking around I saw shades of grey squares superimposed one on another, with one triangle of light.  Then there was a very, very dark space, pitch velvet black but with a faint reflective gleam from some far wall.  Walking slowly forward, hand outstretched and raised, I suddenly hit a barrier, the reflection was deceptive.  This is the head.  Then back to where I found a shelf and a space darker than the dark around and crawled to the back.  I observed invisibly and sat and listened to the boom, boom of people's feet on the metal, drummed with my hand and someone drummed back. 
I wondered when I saw the perspex maquets why Gormley made the final model opaque but now I understood.  Transparent would be another story.

whitecube.com/

 

Eel Pie and Mash

The first time I tried eel was down The Cut, by the Young Vic.  I had gone to see Trevor Nunn's  
Timon of Athens, so that is a long time ago.  I had, I think, jellied eels, in a white-tiled eel pie shop.  I went to look for it last week but it is not there now.

 
My next eel was at Lou Farrow's Snack Bar and Take Away; Traditional Pie and Mash,  down the Blue, off Blue Anchor Lane, just past the railway bridge, in Bermondsey.  It is a cafe.  I went in and asked for eel pie and mash and the man at the counter said something I didn't understand.  He said it again, I still didn't understand.  He asked again so I said 'yes'.  He gave me a pie, some mashed potato a bowl of green liquid with chunks of something interesting in it, and another bowl of more green liquid.  The eels were in the first bowl.  They were, well, interesting.  The green liquid was like a thick green soup.  It turned out he was asking me if I wanted extra 'liquor'; the green soup.   Till last week I thought it was pea soup but it isn't.

 Last week I went to Manze's Noted Eel & Pie House which is on Tower Bridge Road.  I got beef pie, very nice, stewed eels, soft and succulent, on the same plate, with mashed potato, and, separately, more of the mysterious green soup stuff.  This time as I understood what the woman serving was saying, I asked her what was in it, and it turned out to be parsley.    It was pretty good.  There is another Manze Eel Pie House in Peckham which I will try next time I am up that way.  The shop was full of locals, eating at long wooden tables, with a few Japanese tourists, probably looking for authentic London grub, like me.
The original shop was established in 1902, there is an internet site, and they say they will deliver throughout the UK, to other pie shops.

 

After that I walked back to the market at The Blue and found the fishmonger, who was selling jellied eels.  They were in salt jelly, which was nice, but the eels were a bit rubbery.  I need to experiment further with these.  The fishmonger told me that these days the eels don't come from the Thames but all the way from Ireland; Mick's Eels.  The lion sculpture in the market was paid for by local shop keepers and may, or may not, be the Milwall Lion.

According to Wikipedia there still about 80 eel pie and mash shops around the east end of London so I still have more investigating to do.  One, Goddards, was previously on Deptford High Street and  is now behind Greenwich market.  Eel Pie Island, far away up the river near Hampton Court, is called that because Londoners from the East End went there on days out and wanted their traditional  food.

Lion sculpture in The blue