Day 5 - part 1

By the time we got to our last day in London, our original list was pretty much checked off...so, in the late morning we took a look at the map and decided to go to Temple Bar and check out Temple Church...

Took the Underground to the nearest stop and began a nice walk...

 

again, we can hardly walk without running into things because we are always looking up!

According to "TimeOut London" website: This malproportioned caravel was commissioned by Lord Astor in 1895 to crown his elegant riverside pile, close to Temple station. Here we see ... Columbus’s ‘Santa Maria’. Along with much of the metalwork on the building, the weather vane was created in gilded copper by J Starkie Gard. - you should check out the website, it has an entire page devoted to the weather vanes of London...

Two Temple Place has been acquired and preserved by the Bulldog Trust. It was built to elaborate specifications by JL Pearson for William Waldorf Astor in 1895 as his residence and estate office. It was constructed on reclaimed land following completion of the Victoria Embankment in 1870; now the William Morris Gallery at Two Temple Place  -  the first London gallery devoted to showing publicly-owned art from UK regional collections.

 

We come around a corner and see the Royal Courts of Justice, which is across the street from one of the entrances to Temple Bar - 

 

 

Temple Bar is the point in London where Fleet Street, City of London, becomes the Strand, Westminster, and where the City of London traditionally erected a barrier to regulate trade into the city and where we saw this guy earlier from the bus... 

Horace Jones' Temple Bar marker topped by Charles Bell Birch's heraldic Dragon which marks the spot of the origianl entrance where a gate formerly stood

 In the base of the statue resides Herself, Queen Victoria...(Albert is on the other side)

 

And, of course, Fleet Street had intersting things to see... 

 

 

We enter the Inn area off of fleet street, just past the Twinings Tea Shop

 

And we knew we were in the Inner Temple Inn because of these guys...(each of the four Inns have their own heraldic symbol)

 

next up - Temple Church...









Day 4 - Part 5 - Supreme Court

Once you get inside, there are beautiful stone staircases, with the original stained glass windows...

and the courtroom we saw was full of carved heraldic beasts and English Kings...

as well as a few other things to see 

 

Outside of the courtrooms was a large exhibit area - my favorite items were the plaster Russian doll and a sculpted horse...

and some fabulous embroidery on one of the robes on display...

In the lobby was the WWI memorial to the Middlesex Regiment...

Mr. Mandela



Mr. Lloyd George

and, of course, Mr. Churchill

A great day with a lot of history!

Day 4 - Part 4 - The Supreme Court

After a very late lunch, we started walking and seredipity gave us the Supreme Court...it was never on our radar, but it began to rain a little bit and we looked up and there it was...and open for tours, since Court wasn't in session...and for free!

- official guide:  In 2009 the Supreme Court replaced the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords as the highest court in the UK but is now explicitly separate from both Government and Parliament. It hears appeals on arguable points of law of the greatest public importance for the whole of the UK in civil cases and for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in criminal cases.

 

Now I don't know for certain, but I do suspect, that this court is way fancier than ours...take the front of the building for a start...

built 1903-1916

see what I mean?  The front of the building is absolutely covered in sculpture...

The Middlesex Guildhall is the masterpiece of both the architect James Gibson and...the sculptor Henry Charles Fehr (1851-1940), ...the third courthouse building to be erected on the site of Westminster Abbey's old Sanctuary Tower and Belfry since 1807... this is a "highly symbolic location, chosen to represent the United Kingdom's separation of powers, with judiciary and legislature balanced on opposite sides of Parliament Square."  The Victorian Web.



King John with the Barons at Runnymede, where he affixed his seal to the Magna Carta.

a closer look at two of the Barons

Lady Jane Grey being offered the crown by her father-in-law, the Duke of Northumberland. Her husband stands next to her. These three would all be considered traitors, and beheaded

Henry III

 

 The entrance is pretty normal, since it's just plain and filled with the security station, but once you get inside, it is still very interesting...