Day Three: Streets of London

Day Three was fortunately a little bit of a sleep in, to recover from last night’s wild partying with Barry Manilow, but after a quick breakfast at my accommodation, I was off to Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge is really interesting, because it looks like it’s much older than it actually is. Built in the Victoria Era to improve traffic across the Thames (as the many times rebuilt London Bridge was no longer sufficient), Queen Victoria was apparently vehemently opposed to it as it would spoil the view from and of her royal palace, Tower of London. To appease her majesty, they clad the steel structure of the bridge with the famous limestone towers, blending it architecturally in with the nearby royal fortress.

The walk to Tower Bridge

I actually took this picture at sunset today, but it made more sense to insert it here in the blog

It was a very interesting museum, particularly relevant to my interest as a hydraulic engineer. The inventor of the accumulator, William Armstrong (no relation) was involved and they utilised his invention to hold the bridge up when it opens to allow ships through. This is particularly important because legally, ships have priority through the bridge, not the cars. 

View down the Thames off the bridge

The museum was riveting

I'm looking at the ceiling here

One of the original steam engines for the Tower Bridge

How the original system worked

One of the two accumulators that used to work the Tower Bridge

Whilst I was in the gift shop after the tour, disaster struck. As you are probably not aware, I habitually travel with a cross-body bag that I wear on my front to help protect against being pick-pocketed. I sadly had to retire my original bag from 2010 as it had broken on my trip to Japan last year. But just three days in it’s first trip, the zipper pull came completely off the main compartment on my new bag. Pro: no one could access anything inside the compartment, great for security. Con: I couldn’t access anything inside the compartment.

So the wild London adventures were put on hold as I trekked fifteen minutes away to a bag repair shop Mum had found on the internet (after nearly 30 years, she’s still excellent in my crises). Unfortunately, their bag person was away, so they sent me across the road. He said to give him half an hour, so I took out my wallet and phone (which fortunately I keep in different spots than the main section) and went in search of lunch and eating my feelings.

After filling up, refuelling and collecting my repaired bag (which I, unsurprisingly, had overfilled. Oops), I set off to makeup for lost time. Hiking along the Thames, I enjoyed the views, crossed under London Bridge (it didn’t fall down), passed by Shakespeare’s Globe (which isn’t original and is clearly painted to look Tudor) before crossing at one infamous Millennium Bridge. 

After the crisis was resolved, this was the view of the river, with a very ominous cloud approaching

Lots of people on the bridge - fortunately it has been fixed and won't shake itself apart today

I had wanted to go up the Monument to the Great Fire of London on Sunday, but couldn’t due to timing (and it had closed to visitors that day) so without putting too much thought in, I set off in that direction. The Great Fire of 1666, which destroyed a significant portion of London including St Pauls’ Cathedral, started in a bakery near where the Monument now stands. It used to have a much better view, but of course as the skyscrapers have grown, the Monument has seemingly disappeared into the buildings. Still the climb was worth it for a look at London skyline.

A small part of the view from the Monument

311 Stairs I didn't think too hard about before I committed

But at least I got a certificate!

The Monument itself is as tall as it is far from the start of the fire

A bit closer to the bakery that started the fire that caused the disaster

However, it was about half way up the 311 stairs to the top of the Monument, I remembered I had 344 stairs booked in for just after at the Houses of Parliament, where I was climbing Elizabeth Tower to see Big Ben. Hilariously, I had the same delightful tour guide, Nick, as I did for my tour of the Houses of Parliament. He told me he was a bit flustered, as he’d have to come up with new quirky facts because I’d already heard him the first time. 

 

They sell such adorable towers in the gift shop

Thankfully, unlike the Monument, the Elizabeth Tower climb is broken up into smaller sections where we are told a history of the Tower and the minds behind the design. The clock itself was revolutionary for the time in terms of accuracy for a tower clock, pushing the pendulum to ensure it stays accurate despite wind, snow, birds and friction. We were lucky enough to be up for the 6pm ringing, to see the clock in action (although we had to be quiet so our collective wonder wasn’t broadcast across Britain by the BBC).

I got a second opportunity to photograph the hall of Westminster - this time without the people!

No I did not mis-edit my photo - the hands of the clock are really blue

Despite being hit by a bomb during the Blitz, Big Ben chimed throughout WWII and it was broadcast to the troop for morale. Big Ben itself has an 11-inch crack in it, which has been cut to prevent propagation (it occurred just after the Tower was completed, so couldn’t be re-cast or replaced). This means the bell has a unique sound that cannot replicated, so if the BBC played the bells, the Tower still stood and the troops had something to fight for.

Today was my first weekday experience of London public transport and to say it was busy is an understatement. The underground was PACKED. I feel this will be an ongoing conundrum with my trip, as now I am travelling London whilst the rest of the city goes to their jobs and lives their weekday lives.

The last stop on my journey was The Ceremony of the Keys. This is a tradition going back centuries of locking up The Tower of London fortress for the evening. Normally, the guards involved are part of the King’s Guard, but they were unavailable due to rehearsals for Trooping the Colour, so we had some younger visiting guards from Nepal filling in. We got a quick tour of the site (nothing has changed since yesterday, don’t panic) then briefed on how the gates would be locked, how the guard would challenge the key bearer and the part where we as a crowd must call out “God save King Charles.” After the bugler sounded last post and the guards went off to patrol for the evening, we were given some more stories before being escort out of the grounds and I trundled back home on a much quieter Underground.

Up early tomorrow for my first out of London experience. The mornings are getting earlier. I hope my legs hold up to the abuse. However, whilst climbing into bed my watch buzzed with a message from my mother. An unlikely opportunity opened up at stupid o’clock, allowing me to get a ticket for Saturday’s King’s Birthday parade Trooping the Colour. Looks like my final day in London just got locked in.