Hot on the heels of a busy weekend came another one. Having managed to get some last minute doggy day care we made our way to London while it was still the morning. I’d booked us into a hotel in Acton, so we decided to drive. It was a reasonably smooth journey (apart from the M3 junction as usual), and there was a room available for an early check in.
The main reason for the hotel was the gig we were going to that evening, and that I was off to a conference Sunday morning, so it was easier than travelling up and down like a yo-yo.
With an afternoon to play with we took the Central Line to St. Paul’s. It’s strange, we’ve been to London plenty of times, and have been past, or could clearly see the dome of the Cathedral on many occasions; but we hadn’t visited it. I had been in the past a couple of times, but Helen had never been.
As we approached through Paternoster Square you see glimpses of the Cathedral through alleyways, but up close the scale of the building can be overwhelming. We took a leisurely stroll around the outside of the building; taking in the features, statues and grandeur of the building; which much to my chagrin, I have seemed to take for granted. I have been abroad to various cities and drooled over the size, scale and grandeur of their buildings, all whilst passing St Paul’s with a shrug and comment of “Yeah, it’s St. Paul’s.”
There are times we bemoan paying to get into some of our medieval, grand Cathedrals in the UK. All whilst not blinking about paying to do the same when abroad. A £20 fee may seem a lot, but we’ve paid €25 to get into the Sagrada Familia, or €20 for the Berliner Dom, and St. Paul’s is worth as much if not more than either of them.
The scale is just breath taking. As are the artwork and statues within the Cathedral. There is just so much to see, and to try and take in. So many monuments, it is just a majestic marble magnificence.
The last time I had been to St. Paul’s, the stairs up had been completely closed. This time the Whispering Gallery was closed, but the Stone and Golden galleries were open, so off up the stairs we went. All 548 of them up and all 548 of them down. It isn’t easy, but the couple of twenty something blokes I overtook on the way up must need to think about a fitness regime. If an old, fat, unhealthy git with dodgy knees and a mortal fear of gyms can trundle past them, then something is wrong with them.
I’m not great with heights, which I’m sure I’ve mentioned a few times before, but whenever we get the chance, we seem to make our way to the top of any structure we visit that allows for such things. And it is almost unfailingly worth the climb (or lift in some cases). This was no exception.
The views across London from the Stone Gallery, on a clear crisp November day were stunning. And they were even better from the higher Golden Gallery.
It is very noticeable from up there just how many other churches were rebuilt around St. Paul’s in such a small area of London. They call Prague the city of a thousand spires, but London cannot be far behind, and it is so much easier to notice that from atop of the dome.
The journey down was so much easier, and so much so that we carried on down into the crypt.
The crypt would be worth visiting in its own right. It is bigger than most churches in the country, and the monuments would put most art galleries around the world to shame. It’s difficult to walk past or on a slab that doesn’t have a famous person’s name on it.
There are two huge monuments in the crypt, both of which hark back to the Napoleonic Wars. The Duke of Wellington and Admiral Nelson dominate the space under the choir and chancel of the main Cathedral. Around the outside of these chambers, the larger memorials are all to those who fought in various wars.
The memorial to Florence Nightingale is signposted, but it is smaller than others there, and it is on the wall of the crypt. Saving lives obviously wasn’t as important in the church’s eyes, and they couldn’t have possibly put up a large tomb for a woman could they?
There are now various displays in the crypt; a history and timeline of both the current church building and the previous buildings that have stood on the site since 604AD; and a gallery of modern day images painted of the cathedral in a bright almost pop-art style.
They also have scale models of the current and previous Cathedrals next to each other in display cases. You see how large the current Cathedral is, and then you look at the old Cathedral and realise it was longer, wider and its main tower and spire was much higher. Then you can imagine if that building had survived what a sight it would be now. Although if it had we would never have the current spectacular building.
There is still plenty of space to exit through the large gift shop (yes; pen, fridge magnet and guide book), and an even larger café, before we came out up some more stairs, not blinking into the light, but to find out it was nearly dark. Time to head back to the hotel.