Tower Hill and St. Katharine's Docks

A very late start to touring today but we didn't get home until 7PM so late or early, 6 hours of walking and touring no matter what time you get started is plenty!

Our destination today (Friday) is St.Katharine's Docks and our tube stop was Tower Hill.  The picture here is one of the first things we saw and it is a bit of the roman wall built around Londinium around 200 AD.  Of course, Londinium eventually became London and every once in awhile when digging is being done down into London roads and soil, they will come across artifacts that are always historically significant.  This bit is close to the Tower of London.

We were walking away from that area to go to St. Katharine's Docks, an area that used to be the main part of the Port of London and is now a VERY upscale residential and retail  area.  Since we started so late, my first destination was lunch and I wanted to find The Dickens Inn.  It's not really an inn, it doesn't have anything much to do with Dickens, in fact it was originally a warehouse in the port.  However, it was refurbished as this very atmospheric pub and the food wasn't bad either.  It's in the background of this picturel


Outside, since it was Friday, this area has a market of food kiosks, mostly ethnic and we probably should have tried some of that food rather than pub food but it was kind of chilly out so we chose to eat in.  We did, however, go outside for dessert, something we don't often do, but there was one kiosk that had all different kinds of chocolate cakes that were hard to resist.  Mine was Bailey's and coconut and John chose coffee and almonds, both of which were delicious.





From there we went over to the lock that separates the Thames from the dock area where all these luxury boats  live.  Having been through locks on our England canal boat adventures, it was very interesting to see this very large lock in operation.  The boats coming through were beautiful sailboats and what I would call party boats, perhaps for hire for corporate events, etc.  The locks are only available for use at high tide, about a 4 hour time span; low tide comes down so far that the lock is like a mud flat.  There is about a 25 foot drop or rise in the tides off the river so the lock is quite essential to get the boats in and out of the dock areas.  The sailboats were beautiful, the masts about as high as the buildings surrounding the area.  Each boat was manned by about 5 people and had at least three sails so they must be spectacular  under sail.

From the docks we strolled past the Tower and up past the side of the Tower.  It is absolutely huge.  I've been in it twice and we have tickets for one night in June to observe the locking of the Tower.  This is a 700 year old daily ritual of passing the keys from one guard, a Beefeater, to another to lock the gates.  You have to request the tickets months in advance and I was thrilled when we arrived to see the self addressed envelope I included in my ticket request waiting for us here.  The tickets are free but are in such demand.  The ceremony starts at 9:30 and apparently you have to be very prompt to observe it.  My clients and friends, Karen and Barry and sons who were transferred to London for two years, urged us to take it in and since I had heard about it for years and realized this was probably my only chance, we did.  When it happens, I will share it with you. 

From there we took a bus to Leadenhall Market.  This is a historic marketplace under an ornate roof with really beautiful architecture and painted in green, maroon and cream.  The market dates back to the 14th century and this building was built in 1881.  When John and I visited it about 20 years ago, it was a true market with stalls of fish and meat and cheeses and fruits, men in striped aprons and long sleeved white shirts.  It was a big disappointment to find that almost all of that is gone and the stalls are now upscale shops of clothing, jewelery, etc.  We came across one butcher, one cheese shop and a wine shop.

Being Friday night, the local pubs were packed with many customers drinking outside the pubs.  It's hard to tell with this picture of the quaint pub, The Ship, not too far from Leadenhall, because it is so small, but the alleyway curved all around it was packed with patrons dressed in their pin striped suits, enjoying what probably is their first beers of the weekend.
   
 We left and headed back to Hammersmith via the tube.

Another quiet evening at home with the newspaper, the blog and some wine.  We have started talking about driving to Broadstairs where Ellen and Philip have a seaside flat we can use.  I believe we will go on Sunday with the exhilarating feeling that life now offers us the opportunity to just schedule events as we would like them to happen.  With that in mind, we don't know when we'll come back!