For our first day back in London, it’s cloudy with occasional bursts of sunshine but it may improve later.

Cloudy day in River Street

We went to the deli for our usual coffee and sat outside to drink it.

Will the shadow stay?

We kept watching the this shadow from the lamppost. It appeared when the sun shone and disappeared when the clouds returned. We hoped it would make up its mind to stay. (It didn’t.)

Tigger had collected many photos of historic buildings while we were away and wanted to look them up in the wonderfully detailed series of books covering the architecture of the whole of the British Isles published under the editorship of Niklaus Pevsner and known to initiates simply as “Pevsner”. Where would we gain access to these books?

The pub vine, Myddelton Passage

We started by walking to Finsbury Public Library to see whether they possessed copies of the volumes of Pevsner that we wanted. On the way we of course said hello to the pub vine which is still flourishing.

The old HQ of the New River Company

We crossed Rosebury Avenue where the above turreted building always claims my attention, and…

Spa Green

…passed through Spa Green, taking care not to disturb a group of pigeons relaxing on the grass.

Finsbury Library

We reached Finsbury Library and looked around for the Pevsners, but without success. We sought help but it turned out that that didn’t keep any of the volumes in this library. Nor did they have the ones we wanted (Dorset and South Hampshire) in other branches of Islington Libraries.

Aboard the 153

Our next plan was to take a number 153 bus to Liverpool Street Station and visit the Bishopsgate Institute which we thought may hold copies of Pevsner.

Liverpool Street Station

We walked through Liverpool Street Station and…

Exchange Square

…crossed Exchange Square.

Black Sheep, Bishopsgate

We stopped off at Black Sheep Coffee in Bishopsgate and were lucky enough to catch one of the comfy sofas.

When we eventually looked across the street at the Institute, we saw it was closed. (Maybe we should have checked before going! 🙂 )

Aboard the 205

Our next attempt was to go to the British Library and seek membership, as we were sure they must keep copies of the Pevsners. To that end, we boarded a number 205 bus to the BL.

Arriving at the British Library

We reached the British Library and enquired about membership only to find that our ID items were not sufficient.

Heading for Sizzles

In view of this, we returned home to pick up what was needed and to have lunch. We tried Cafe Sizzles which had been closed the last two times we tried to go there, leaving us worried that it had closed down.

Cafe Sizzles – open

We were relieved to find the cafe open. Although it was busy there was a table free and were soon served. (They always bring us tea without us having to ask for it!)

Inside the British Library

We returned to the British Library and this time we were successful, though we nearly were not. Tigger was asked for a bank statement as proof of address but didn’t have one. I suggested they might accept the proof provided by the banking app on her phone. Would they? Yes, they would! Problem solved by lateral thinking!

Books stack, British Library

So now we were both members and could consult the books available.

The locker room

But there was one thing more to do first: bags are not allowed in the reading room so we had to go down to the locker room and stuff our bags into a shared locker. Then, at last, we were ready to go to the reading room and ask for our Pevsners.

Pevsner for Dorset

That turned out to be even easier than we had expected: when we enquired at the desk for the books, they had them them right there in a cupboard! We asked for the two we wanted and went to find seats in the reading room.

General view, reading room

We chose two seats as far away as possible from other readers so that we could discuss what we were doing without disturbing others. It didn’t take us long because Tigger photographed the pages she wanted to work on at home. (Another example of how modern technology can be helpful in all kinds of ways.)

We now caught a bus home to make tea and pore over our precious pages from the “Pevsners”. After a couple of frustrations, the day ended successfully after all.

Note: In case you are wondering about the legality of Tigger’s photos of text from the Pevsners, the law permits one to make single (not multiple) copies of one chapter or 5% of a copyrighted text. Tigger’s copies were well within those limits.