DAY 10, MAY 7, 2013, TUES (23°C - 9°C):
St Paul's Cathedral:
St Paul's Cathedral sits at the top
of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London. Its
dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on
this site, founded in AD 604.
The present church, dating from
the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style and
was part of a major rebuilding programme which took place in the city
after the Great Fire of London.
At 365 feet (111 m) high, it was the
tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also
among the highest in the world. In terms of area, St Paul's is the
second largest church building in the United Kingdom after Liverpool
Cathedral.
It has survived 2 bombs during WW1.
The lowest level of the dome is the
golden gallery and the next is the stone gallery
We climbed up the dome to the
Whispering Gallery — it has unique acoustics; a whisper on one side
can be heard clearly 100 feet away.
Climbed 271 more steps and reached the
Golden Gallery at the very top of the dome and had panoramic views
across London.
We then climbed down and saw a group of
rough youngsters galloping up the stairs. We were very thankful we
had been the first to go up and enjoy a peaceful climb and gorgeous
views in serenity.
The interior is great. These are some pics from the net.
We looked
through all the memorials.
The largest monument in the cathedral
is that to the Duke of Wellington by Alfred Stevens. It stands on the
north side of the nave and has on top a statue of Wellington astride
his horse.
The crypt also contains over 200
memorials and numerous burials. Christopher Wren, the architect of St
Paul's was the first person to be interred, in 1723. On the wall
above his tomb in the crypt is written, "Lector, si monumentum
requiris, circumspice" (Reader, if you seek his monument, look
around you).
Also in the crypt, directly under the
dome, is the tomb of admiral Nelson. The marble sarcophagus which
holds his remains was made for Cardinal Wolsey but was disused as the
cardinal fell from favour.
Important services held at St Paul's
have included:
the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke
of Wellington, Sir Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher;
Jubilee celebrations for Queen
Victoria;
peace services marking the end of the
First and Second World Wars;
the wedding of Charles, Prince of
Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer,
the launch of the Festival of Britain
and the thanksgiving services for the Golden Jubilee, the 80th
Birthday and the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
The gift shop has some interesting
items.
Chessmen as part of the
choir—appropriate souvenir from St Paul's gift shop.
Royal Mews:
We went on to the royal mews next—Home
to the royal Collection of Historic Coaches and Carriages
The horses stabled at the Mews are
Windsor Greys and Cleveland Bays, breeds chosen for their steady
temperament and stamina.
This is a landau— four-wheeled,
convertible carriage.
It is lightweight and suspended on
elliptical springs. It was invented in the 18th century; It was named
after the German city of Landau where they were first produced.
coachmakers of Holborn, London, produced the first English
landaus in the 1830s.
The soft folding top is divided
into two sections, front and rear, latched at the center. These
usually lie perfectly flat, but the back section can be let down or
thrown back while the front section can be removed or left
stationary. When fully opened, the top can completely cover the
passengers,
The landau's center section might
contain a fixed full-height glazed door, or more usually a low
half-door.
This is a four horse-drawn carriage
used by the British Royal Family.
The coach was built in 1830 for Prince
Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge. In 1920, the family returned the coach
to the Royal Family by presenting it as a gift to Queen Mary.
Large glass windows and
transparent panels in the roof were added, as well as the Royal Arms
and the insignia of the Order of the Thistle being emblazoned onto it
and a model of the Crown of Scotland was added on top of the roof.
The coach was used for the first time
by Queen Elizabeth II during the opening of the General Assembly of
the Church of Scotland in 1969; by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
in 1977 during the thanksgiving service for her daughter's Silver
Jubilee. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh also used it at Windsor
during the Queen's sixtieth birthday celebrations in 1986 The
carriage was used again in 2011 to chauffeur the Queen and Duke of
Edinburgh at the Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.
This is the Irish stage coach—has
deco on the crown's sides...
The Irish State Coach is an enclosed,
four-horse-drawn carriage used by the British Royal Family. It is the
traditional horse-drawn coach in which the British monarch travels
from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster to formally open
the new legislative session of the UK Parliament.
The original Irish State Coach was
built in 1851 by the Lord Mayor of Dublin. It was extensively damaged
by fire in 1911, and completely restored in 1989 by the Royal Mews
carriage restorers. The exterior is blue and black with gilt
decoration and the interior is covered in blue damask. It is normally
driven from the box seat using four horses.
Rolls Royce Phantom.
The Australian State Coach is an
enclosed, six horse-drawn carriage used by the British Royal Family.
The coach was presented to Queen Elizabeth II of Australia and the
United Kingdom as the official gift on the occasion of the Australian
Bicentennial on 8 May 1988; the coach is fitted with electric
windows, heating and hydraulic stabilisers.
The Glass coach is one of the principal
State carriages of the British monarch. Built in 1881
It is used each year on various State
occasions, but has most famously been employed at Royal Weddings,
either to convey the bride-to-be to the Church before the service (as
was the case with Lady Diana Spencer in 1981),or to transport the
newlywed Bride and Groom from Church after the service (as happened
with Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh in 1947).
the top has golden border and the crown
is in the center.
Miniature crowns, sceptre here...
Here are riding gear.
This is the Gold State Coach. It is an
enclosed, eight horse-drawn carriage used by the British Royal
Family. It was built in 1762 and has been used at the coronation of
every British monarch since George IV.
The coach's great age, weight, and lack
of manoeuvrability have limited its use to grand state occasions such
as coronations, royal weddings, and the jubilees of a monarch.
The coach weighs four tons and is 24
feet (7.3 m) long and 12 feet (3.7 m) high. It is gilded and features
painted panels by Giovanni Cipriani and rich gilded sculpture
including three cherubs on the roof (representing England, Ireland
and Scotland) and four tritons (mermans), one at each corner
(representing Britain's imperial power).
The body of the coach is slung by
braces covered with Morocco leather and decorated with gilt buckles.
The interior is lined with velvet and satin. The Gold State Coach is
pulled by a team of eight horses wearing the Red Morocco harness.
Buckingham palace:
We were at the gates of Buckingham
palace.
The gates show The Royal Coat of Arms
The shield is quartered, depicting in
the first and fourth quarters three guardant lions of England; in the
second, the rampant lion of Scotland; and in the third, a harp for
Ireland.
The crest is a guardant
lion wearing the imperial crown, himself on another representation of
that crown.
The leftside supporter is a crowned
English lion; the right, a Scottish unicorn. According to legend a
free unicorn was considered a very dangerous beast; therefore the
heraldic unicorn is chained, as were both supporting unicorns in the
Royal coat of arms of Scotland. In the greenery below, a thistle,
Tudor Rose and shamrock are present, representing Scotland, England
and Ireland respectively.
The coat features both the motto of
English monarchs, Dieu et mon droit (God and my right), and the motto
of the Order of the Garter, Honi soit qui mal y pense (shame upon him
who thinks evil of it) on a representation of the Garter behind the
shield.
The three gates – the Australia
Gate, Canada Gate, and South and West Africa Gate, each with two
gateposts bearing allegorical figures of the cherubic genre, or more
properly, as they are wingless, Amorini. Each figure has a shield,
and some animal and items representative of the particular Imperial
dominion.
Originally known as Buckingham House,
the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the
Duke of Buckingham in 1705. It was acquired by George III in
1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte, "The Queen's
House"—14 of their 15 children were born there
During the 19th century it was
enlarged, forming three wings around a central courtyard.
Buckingham Palace became the
official royal palace of Queen Victoria in 1837. Widowed in
1861, the Queen left Buckingham Palace to live at Windsor Castle,
Balmoral Castle, and Osborne House. In 1864 a note was pinned to
the fence: 'These commanding premises to be let or sold, in
consequence of the occupant's declining business.'
Public opinion forced her to return to
London . Court functions were still held at Windsor Castle rather
than at the palace, presided over by the sombre Queen habitually
dressed in mourning black while Buckingham Palace remained shuttered
for most of the year.
The last major structural additions
were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the
East front, which contains the well-known balcony on which the royal
family traditionally congregates to greet crowds outside.
However, the palace chapel was
destroyed by a German bomb in World War II; the Queen's Gallery was
built on the site and opened to the public in 1962 to exhibit works
of art from the Royal Collection.
The Palace measures 108 metres by 120
metres, is 24 metres high and contains over 830,000 sq ft of
floorspace.
Investitures, which include the
conferring of knighthoods by dubbing with a sword, and other awards
take place in the palace's Ballroom, built in 1854. At (120' ×
59' × 44' 3.5"), it is the largest room in the palace. It has
replaced the throne room in importance and use.
During investitures, the Queen
stands on the throne dais beneath a giant, domed velvet canopy, which
is known as a shamiana or a baldachin and was used at the coronation
Durbar, Delhi in 1911.
A 1999 book published by the Royal
Collection Department reported that the palace contained 19 state
rooms, 52 principal bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, and 78
bathrooms.
While this may seem large, it is
small when compared to the Russian imperial palaces in Saint
Petersburg and at Tsarskoe Selo, the Papal Palace in Rome, the Royal
Palace of Madrid, the Stockholm Palace, or indeed the former Palace
of Whitehall, and tiny compared to the Forbidden City and Potala
Palace.
During World War II the palace was
bombed no less than seven times, the most serious one resulted in
the destruction of the palace chapel in 1940. Coverage of this event
was played in cinemas all over the UK to show the common suffering of
rich and poor. One bomb fell in the palace quadrangle while King
George VI and Queen Elizabeth (current queen's parents)were in
residence, and many windows were blown in and the chapel destroyed.
War-time coverage of such
incidents was severely restricted, however. The King and Queen were
filmed inspecting their bombed home, the smiling Queen, as always,
immaculately dressed in a hat and matching coat seemingly unbothered
by the damage around her. It was at this time the Queen famously
declared: "I'm glad we have been bombed. Now I can look the East
End in the face".
Queen Victoria memorial:
This is Queen Victoria memorial,
Buckingham Palace.
The famous white 'wedding cake'
monument in front of Buckingham Palace commemorates Queen Victoria
(1819-1901). Work began in July 1903 and the final memorial was
unveiled in 1911 by King George V in the presence of the German
Emperor Wilhelm II, his first cousin,( the two senior grandsons of
Victoria).
The whole sculpture has a nautical theme, much like the rest of The Mall (Admiralty Arch, for example). This can be seen in the mermaids, mermen and the hippogriff, all of which are suggestive of the United Kingdom's naval power.
Queen Victoria holding a sceptre and an orb.
It stands 25m high and is made of
2,300 tonnes of white Carrara marble. bronze and granite. This
is the largest monument to a monarch in England.
As well as Victoria, there are statues
representing courage, constancy, victory, charity, truth and
motherhood.
Around the curved sides of the pedestal, and slightly lower than the monarch, are an angel of Truth to her right (the viewer’s left), and an angel of Justice to her left (our right). Truth carries a mirror, is crushing a snake under her foot, and is accompanied by a seated woman seeking the truth in a manuscript, and a cherub bearing some frond of palm leaves. Justice, a suitably more severe armoured figure with helmet and sword, is helping a weeping nude woman at her feet, and also has an accompanying cherub, who bears Justice’s scales. To the rear(not seen in this pic), facing the Palace, is a group of Motherhood, sometimes called Charity, as a seated figure in repose with three infants.
Atop the pediment is a winged Victory, with figures of Courage and Constancy crouched at her feet, all gilt. Victory balances on an orb, one hand raised and beckoning, the other holding a long palm frond. Courage wears a helmet and bears a club, while Constancy holds a ship’s compass. To front and rear we may note stone eagles with outspread wings, symbols of Dominion, or empire. All these together show the qualities of the Queen.
This belongs to the bronze groups. Four
massive lions, each with a monumental figure, stand to the four sides
of the monument, the gift of New Zealand. They are Agriculture
and Manufacture, Peace and Progress, something of a change from
Brock’s earlier idea, which was to have winged lions.
This is Manufacture— a tough workman, muscular, bearded, wearing an apron and holding a mallet and some rolled up scroll.
Agriculture is a woman, wearing a milkmaid’s costume, and carrying a huge sheaf of corn and a small sickle.
The formal flowerbeds are laid out in a
semi-circular design around the central memorial .
The planting schedule follows a
traditional seasonal pattern that is repeated each year. Each
planting takes approximately 2 weeks and involves up to ten staff.
Replanting of the beds in summer requires approximately 22,500
plants, including geraniums, spider plants, salvias and weeping
figs.
In winter time the beds are
filled with about 50,000 yellow wallflowers and red tulips—in
the background this scheme is seen.
St Martin in the Fields Church:
This is St Martin in the Fields
Church—we listened spellbound to 1/2 hour organ recital
It is dedicated to Saint Martin of
Tours. There has been a church on the site since the medieval period.
The present building was constructed in a Neoclassical design in
1722–1724.
The spire of St Martin's rises 192 ft
(59 m) above the level of the church floor.
This is Nelson column.
London Eye:
London eye here— it is 135
metres (443 ft) tall and the wheel has a diameter of 120 metres (394
ft). It is currently Europe's tallest Ferris wheel. When erected in
1999 it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel, until surpassed first
by the 160 m (520 ft) Star of Nanchang in 2006 and then the 165 m
(541 ft) Singapore Flyer in 2008.
Supported by an A-frame on one side
only, it is a cantilevered observation wheel.
32 sealed and air-conditioned
ovoidal passenger capsules are attached to the external
circumference of the wheel and rotated by electric motors. Each of
the 10-tonne capsules represents one of the London Boroughs and
holds up to 25 people, who are free to walk around inside the
capsule, though seating is provided.
The wheel rotates at 26 cm (10 in) per
second (about 0.9 km/h or 0.6 mph) so that one revolution takes about
30 minutes. It does not usually stop to take on passengers; the
rotation rate is slow enough to allow passengers to walk on and off
the moving capsules at ground level.
We did not feel the need to ride the London eye, we were happy enough with the view we had got from St Paul'ds tower. We did not fancy the long queues and the boring half an hour on the eye!
Here's Big Ben— the great bell of the clock
at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London.
The tower is now officially
called the Elizabeth Tower, after being renamed in 2012 (from "Clock
Tower") to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The
tower holds the largest four-faced chiming clock in the world and is
the third-tallest free-standing clock tower.
The tower was completed in 1858 and had
its 150th anniversary on 31 May 2009. It is 315 feet (96.0 m) high.
The four clock dials are 180 feet (54.9 m) above ground. The
hour hand is 9 feet (2.7 m) long and the minute hand is 14 feet (4.3
m) long.
London taxi can also been seen...
We were then at the westminster
pier—wanted to take a cruise up to greenwich but the ride was only
up to Tower of London. So we called it a day.
Westminster Bridge opened in 1862—a
road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, linking
Westminster on the north side and Lambeth on the south side.
THIS REPORT CONTINUES HERE:
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