Turner's London

20080309_Southwark

Sunday the 9th was the day before the gales that blew all over England and led to a miserable cold and windy week. Perversely, London chose to be at its prettiest, giving us Turneresque skies and dramatic clouds. I almost expected the Fighting Temeraire to appear on the Thames.
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many...
I again took my guide from Benedict Le Vey and wandered up the Borough High Street. I passed London's only surviving galleried coaching inn, admired the fine brickwork of the hop factors, glimpsed the Corn Exchange, enjoyed the Art Nouveau excess of Harpers Cafe, and passed the oldest railway station in London. Across the street from St Thomas' Hospital, I was accosted by one of those worrying people with a satchel full of brochures and a slightly mad look in the eye. He was very interested to hear that this was the site where the first English bible was printed, but seemed disappointed at my lack of interest in his photocopies of inappropriate bookshop displays. I was just warming up for a lecture on the role of Southwark as a moral free zone outside the constraints of the Elizabethan City of London when he wandered away...
I made my way through Green Dragon Court (which you may remember from such films as Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)) and past the (closed) Borough Market. I whizzed past the Golden Hinde, Winchester Palace, the Clink, and wound up at the Anchor Tavern, arguably built on the spot where Samuel Pepys watched the Great Fire of London. Another fire viewed from nearby, The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October 1834, was a subject for Turner, and thus leads me back to the start of my blog.