A sunny, cloudy

What weather should we expect today? According to the forecast, sun, clouds and showers, one of those days so typical of these islands. Here we are approaching Chapel Market on our usual Sunday shopping run.

The Farmer’s Market

The Farmers’ Market was out in force as usual.

The main market

So was the main market with the usual weekday stalls and some others that appear only on Sundays.

Queueing for Sainsbury’s

We were a little early and when we reached Sainsbury’s, there was still a queue of customers waiting for the doors to open. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long.

Queueing at the checkout

We sped round the store with practised ease and reached the checkout where we had to queue briefly.

Hurrying through the market

Afterwards, I hurried through the market as usual to collect our takeaway coffees from Mercer’s.

Order your spare keys here

I did stop to photograph this stall which is one of those that is here only on Sundays. It provides a useful service and we have had keys made here.

After a visit to Mercer’s, coffee in hand, we went quickly home for lunch and a little rest, ready for the afternoon’s outing.

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You may recognise this view from previous posts. It’s taken from a table outside Myddelton’s deli where we went for coffee.

This is a little glimpse inside the shop. It is replete with interesting foods with a definite Italian bias.

After coffee, we set off on foot. Here we are passing Percy Circus but we did not stop as we were on our way to another destination.

We went down to the main road and caught a bus to St Pancras Church.

At St Pancras Church we encountered a crowd. We had come to see an exhibition being held in the crypt. The exhibition is entitled Ritual Britain and today is the last day.

The exhibition title, I think, disguises the subject. It is really about traditional British-English folklore. This is not a topic that I know anything about or have any interest in. I therefore will not parade my ignorance with ill-founded comments but just show you some photos with occasional comments.

The above-mentioned crowd was watching a group of Morris(wo)men who went on the perform a dance, or whatever they call their activity. As we arrived late, we did not have a clear view, not that that bothered me particularly. There was drumming, clashing of sticks and guttural shouts. It all meant something, probably.

To be honest I was more interested in photographing the Greek-style caryatids.

I did manage a photo of the Morris dancers after their performance though this is probably not very interesting.

To view the exhibition we had to join a queue. This would once have seemed rather an imposition but since Covid-19, queueing has become such a usual activity that we have learned to take it patiently. The ostensible reason for the queue was to monitor numbers entering in order to avoid overcrowding. I say “ostensible” because the person monitoring us did not do a very good job, being distracted by such things as taking photos of the Morris dancers, during which several groups of people slipped into the exhibition unchecked.

When it was our turn to enter, we went down the steps to the crypt and were asked to sign in. The crypt, consisting of low tunnels and side rooms, is actually quite a good venue for exhibitions.

This is where I give up any pretence of understanding (let alone explaining) what I saw. I just took a few photos. This one was labelled “Reclaim the Forgotten”.

This one was labelled “Cherish the Neglected”.

No, I don’t know, either.

This is part of a display of costume dolls. The crowds of people (despite the ostensible monitoring of numbers entering) made it hard to obtain unobstructed views.

Costumes for dance or rituals, presumably.

Not real heads, happily.

There were lots of pictures but as photographing pictures (making a picture of a picture) seems a rather pointless exercise, I photographed just a token one.

There was also a film but we did not wait to see it, I’m relieved to say.

After this visit to the crypt and its strange contents, I was glad to catch a bus home where we could make tea and look forward to a relaxed evening.

Today is forecast to be cloudy with a threat of rain. We decided that a local walk was indicated, starting, of course, with coffee at the deli.

In Myddelton Square

This picture of the square gives an idea of the conditions. It was quite warm too.

Abandoned painting

In Claremont Square we spied this fairly large painting of sea snd sky, apparently abandoned. Was it an amateur project no longer in favour?

The sun puts in an appearance

We took our coffee outside Myddelton’s deli and at one moment, the sun shone. It was a brief interlude though welcome.

Lurking lions

After coffee, we went for a walk. I’ve photographed these lions before but they always amuse me, seeming to lurk among the foliage for prey to happen by.

Community garden, always closed

We passed this small community garden and I remarked that, being close to the deli, it could be a pleasant place to drink our coffee but, unfortunately, I have never seen it open.

A loud rushing sound
Photo by Tigger

As we walked down Lloyd Baker Street, we began to hear a loud rushing sound. Looking around, we discovered that the sound came from this manhole cover in the middle if the road. What was causing it? One possibility that occurred to us was that it might be the Fleet River, one of London’s “lost” rivers, so called because they still exist but are now hidden away underground. We will have to try to find a map of its present course to confirm or negate the hypothesis.

“Pavement garden”

Also in Lloyd Baker Street, we both photographed this garden that has been created around the base of a tree. There seem to be increasing numbers of these tiny gardens, made by individuals or the community, usually anonymously though occasionally accompanied by a notice asking people to respect it. What should we call them – “street gardens” or “pavement gardens”? I think I will use the latter designation for now, for the sake of consistency.

We met a one-eyed cat

We had not seen the local cats in either Claremont Square or Myddelton Square so when we spotted this one, also in Lloyd Baker Street we made sure to greet him politely. He accepted our attentions with equal courtesy but preferred to remain seated on the doorstep. Cat score = 1.

Sunken pavement
Photo by Tigger

We walked along part of King’s Cross Road where there is this stretch of curious sunken pavement. I don’t know what the reason for it is. I will try to discover it.

Yard or workshop?

We crossed into Pakenham Street and passed this interesting-looking though silent yard or workshop. There is a street-art-style painting on the wall at the far end. Was it commissioned or is it “guerrilla art”? Who can say?

The black cat
Photo by Tigger

Now we met our second cat, a pretty jet-black one with yellow eyes that shone from his face when he looked up at us. He also greeted us in friendly style. I rather suspect that cats sometimes become bored during the day when their owners are absent or busy and therefore appreciate meeting people who show interest. Cat score = 2.

The black cat
Photo by Tigger

Sadly, we thought is best not to stroke either of the cats as there have been warnings that pets can carry the Covid-19 though seemingly unaffected by it themselves. For now, then, our interactions with cats met along the day will be verbal only.

St Andrew’s Gardens

We had now left Islington and entered the Borough of Camden, though not very far into it. This park is called St Andrew’s Gardens and is the old burial ground of the Church of St Andrew Holbourn.

Sinking tombs

As is usual, most of the gravestones have been removed and the area landscaped though a few of the larger tombs have been left in place. What is noticeable is that most of these tombs are crooked and give the appearance of sinking into the ground, like leaky old boats becoming waterlogged.

Victorian drinking fountain

Also apparently sinking is this Victorian drinking fountain. The inscription is barely legible but I can read the date: 1885.

Tigger declared this point to be the apogee of our quasi circular walk and I thought that this was an appropriate term for it. We now began our return home.

Great Percy Street

As we walked, the clouds thickened and as we reached Great Percy Street, raindrops began to fall. Fortunately, it was a very light shower and of short duration.

Percy Circus

We began the trek up the hill to home. The outward walk had been downhill and now we had ti pay for that with a long, slow climb. We passed through that other favourite spot of ours, Percy Circus.

Passing by Bevin Court

We deviated from the straight (steep) line to take the pretty path (longer and therefore less steep) through Bevin Court.

Cruikshank Street

Here we are in Cruikshank Street, not yet home but not too far away.

Tigger had to go in to the office today and I decided to meet her part way on her route home. Liverpool Street Station makes a good meeting point.

Here I am at the Angel crossroads on the way to the bus stop to catch the 153 that goes to Liverpool Street Station. Handy.

Bouncing along on the single-deck 153. The wonders of modern communications, specifically text messages on our phones, allow us to keep in contact and say where we are and how soon we will arrive. How did we manage before mobile phones? 🙂

The bus drops you off inside the Liverpool Street Bus Station. As I was early, I decided to go for a wander. (Curiously, my foot is not at all painful today. How does one explain that?)

I thought to explore Broadgate Circus which is beside the station but it was crowded so I beat a quick retreat.

Building work took place here and went on for a very long time, partly because interesting archaeological deposits were found and had to be dealt with properly. The result of the work is a station on the new Elizabeth Line. I’m not sure when services are due to begin on it.

I walked down Blomfield Street and spied greenery. We have passed this way often but never actually explored the park.

The park lies in the centre of a circular site called Finsbury Circus. There are grand buildings but I was more interested in the garden.

Approaching the gardens. What are they like, I wonder?

The garden is circular, as you might expect, with a large central grassy area and a circular path with benches round the periphery.

It also has a small bandstand but as there was a crowd of people in it, I didn’t go any closer to photograph it.

Just then, I received a message from Tigger that she had arrived so I hurried off back to the bus station.

We fancied a coffee before starting for home but everywhere was crowded out until, in Finsbury Avenue Square, we found the Everyman Cinema. It has a bar in the basement. This is quite pleasant, with comfortable chairs and was virtually empty of customers. My sort of place.

You are served at your table and the coffee comes in proper cups. As I said, my sort of place!

After our coffee break we made for a bus stop, passing through Finsbury Square. (Do you see a pattern forming? 🙂 ) It contains, inter alia, this Victorian drinking fountain erected by the Smith family. More information here.

While waiting for the bus, I photographed this picturesque building topped by a figure of Mercury on a globe. He is so high up, though, that he is hard to make out. I previously described him here. Our bus soon arrived and were wafted back to the Angel, courtesy of TfL (Transport for London).

Tigger is not working today and we wanted to make good use of the day. Despite the grey skies we went walkabout. We started with coffee at the deli.

Look who popped up
Photo by Tigger

We walked round Myddelton Square and of course looked in a certain window. Guess whose head popped up 🙂

Coffee with extras

At the deli we ordered our usual coffee and also some extras as a treat. (Guess who chose which.)

Watching the world go by

We sat outside the deli and spent some time enjoying the coffee and watching the world go by.

Wharton Street

We set off down Wharton Street for the next part of our outing.

Bumblebee
Photo by Tigger

On the way, Tigger photographed this bumblebee busy collecting pollen. I’m always glad to see these familiar and useful insects as they are under pressure for a variety of reasons and their numbers are falling. The more gardens there are for them, the better.

Aboard the bus

On the main road we caught a bus to London Bridge Station.

The Southwark Needle

We left the bus at its final stop, on London Bridge. We walked past this entity, a public sculpture known as the Southwark Needle. Whatever else it might do, it reminds us that in times past (and not so long ago, really), the heads of executed people were placed on spikes on London Bridge, perhaps “pour encourager les autres”.

London Bridge Station

We entered the station which, fortunately, was not as busy as it is apt to be at rush hours, in order to use the facilities, that is, the toilets. With many public toilets being closed down, places like stations provide a valuable service to the public, especially as station toilets are now free to use.

Hays Galleria

We next went to Hays Galleria (no apostrophe) for refreshments. The shopping and restaurant mall is the result of rebuilding the old Hay’s Wharf. The central open area was originally a dock for ships but has been filled in.

Costa Coffee

We stopped off at Costa for another round of coffees before continuing.

I might mention at this point the my right foot had been troubling me from the moment we set out this morning and became steadily more painful as time passed. I hobbled along bravely, adopting a picturesque limp.

Along Tooley Street

Tigger expressed a wish to visit the Church of St James Bermondsey which we have seen many times but usually from the rain as we headed south on outings. Accordingly, we set off along Tooley Street and, because of my foot, took a bus part of the way.

St James Bermondsey

We reached the church at last and entered the grounds.

The old burial ground

The old burial ground, like most of those attached to London churches, has been landscaped as a park. Some of the more elaborate tombs have been left in place but most have been removed.

Removed to the periphery
Photo by Tigger

The removed gravestones and memorials have been stacked around the periphery of the burial ground.

Inside the church

The church was open today and we went inside to take a look. Built as one of those created under the Church Building Act of 1818, St James was consecrated in 1829. It is a galleried church of somewhat plain design. There was little in it to retain us for very long.

The flying dragon
Photo by Tigger

A major (in my opinion) and unusual feature of the church is the figure of a flying dragon atop the steeple. This choice of such a subject for a church weather vane has proved puzzling to many as the dragon is often associated with the devil in Christian mythology. One possibility is that, rather than a dragon, it reflects the griffins on the coat of arms of the City of London just the other side of the river.

Drinking Fountain

In the church grounds stands this drinking fountain. It is dated 1886 and it is dedicated to the memory of Nathaniel Montefiore by his wife. The press-button taps no longer produce water so it’s difficult to know whether or not this is the fountain’s original position at installation.

A last look at the church

The church steeple is quite tall so you need to distance yourself to photograph the building as a whole. We took a last look and turned back towards London Bridge Station.

Railway bridge

We started our walk back by passing under this bridge, interesting mainly for the fact that it would have been when crossing this bridge that we would have seen the church and its dragon or griffin from the train.

Supporting columns

The bridge is fairly old – Victorian at a guess – and has a row of supporting columns down each side of the roadway. The long closed Tooley Street Station also used to be here before its functions were absorbed by the later major station at London Bridge.

Shops in the embankment

To return to London Bridge, we could simply follow the railway line which, in this neighbourhood, runs on an embankment in the arches of which various businesses have found useful premises.

Invaded by giant ants

Here too we find an old train carriage being used as office accommodation that is apparently being attacked by gigantic red ants.

London Bridge Bus Station

As for me (and my painful foot), I was glad to catch sight at last of London Bridge Bus Station where we went and stood next to a 43 bus whose driver was taking his rest period. Our patience was finally rewarded when the doors opened and we went aboard.

Aboard the 43

We settled in our seats for the not very long ride back to the Angel and home, where we had a late lunch and reviewed our crop of photos.

Tigger returns to work tomorrow and Friday so we now have our sights set of the weekend.

After lunch we went out for a gentle walk whose main goal was to call in at Myddelton’s deli for coffee. In the interests of healthy exercise, we did at least go the long way round!

Looking down Arlington Way

We went via St John Street to Chadwell Street and thence into Arlington Way where I took the above photo. It shows, inter alia, the undertaker’s whose clock, I was glad to observe, was still showing the correct time. (Clocks, you will have observed, are one of my obsessions.)

Call in for an opinion
Photo by Tigger

This notice in a shop window amused me. It has been corrected, unfortunately, but originally advertised the shop’s “opining hours”, suggesting that customers lacking opinions of their own could pop and ask the owner to opine for them.

Shakespeare’s vine

We entered Myddelton Passage where we of course monitored the progress of the vine in the garden of the Shakespeare’s Head pub. It’s doing well and preparing a bumper crop of grapes.

Here we are walking through Myddelton Passage which was once a property of the New River Company, as plaques on the building façade testify.

Myddelton’s deli – closed

We had of course made a fatal error in our plans. Myddelton’s closes at 3 pm on Sundays and we were too late to buy coffee there.

Walking through Exmouth Market

Instead, I suggested we go to Caffè Nero in Exmouth Market where we could sit inside on comfortable chairs.

Preparing our coffee

We did just that and found Caffè Nero open.

Coffee in proper cups
Photo by Tigger

At least when you drink “in”, your coffee is served in proper cups, not paper ones.

Inside Caffè Nero

We sat for a while in the comfortable chairs and I started composing this post there. Then we decided it was time to head for home.

Antique shop front in Easton Street

Quite a few small shops in the neighbourhood were originally dwelling houses which were at some point, usually in the 19th century, converted by rearranging the ground floor as a shop front. In the fulness of time, many have been converted back into dwellings. In some cases, the shop front is still discernible simply because it was cheaper to leave it but in a few cases it has been deliberately preserved for its historic interest. I think this one belongs to the first category.

The Easton

This pub, currently called the Easton, is on the corner of Easton Street. I don’t have any information on the derivation of the name “Easton” or the history of the pub. I would guess that in its present form it dates from the late Victorian period but that is only a guess.

We met a cat
Photo by Tigger

A little further along, we met a three-legged cat. He seemed healthy and happy despite his disability and was happy to come and make our acquaintance.

Walking up Lloyd Street

That was our final encounter of the walk and we now made for home, albeit taking a slightly roundabout path so as to add convincingly to Tigger’s daily minimum mileage.

Tigger is working all weekdays except Wednesday in the coming week. After a week together, I shall feel bereft but will bear up bravely 🙂 If I, or we, have any adventures, I shall be sure to let you know.