I did another ouple of sections of the Thames Path recentlly.
A blog featuring whatever I fancy, often on the Christian faith but not exclusively
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Day Off Week 9 2026
On my day off last Tuesday I headed down to Westminster and walked another two sections of the Thames path. It was all very interesting and included New Scotand Yard, the Savoy, Cleoatra's needle, Tyndale, Raikes, etc. I ended near the Savoy and walked upfrom there to the STrand where I hada coffee in Caffe Nero, reading this new biography of Pascal that I have agreed to introduce at the enxt Theological Study Group at the Pastors Academy. In the evening we watched a recording of last week's The Apprentice.
The Buxton Memorial Fountain
Given my recent reading it was interesting to stumble across this the other day.
The Buxton Memorial Fountain is a memorial and drinking fountain commemorating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, and in particular, the role of British parliamentarians in the campaign. It was commissioned by Charles Buxton MP, and dedicated to his father Thomas Fowell Buxton along with Wilberforce, Clarkson, Babington Macaulay, Henry Brougham and Stephen Lushington, all of whom were involved. It was designed by Buxton, an amateur architect, in collaboration with neo-Gothic architect Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812–1873) in 1865. It coincided with the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which effectively ended slavery in the USA. The memorial was completed February 1866. It was originally constructed in Parliament Square, erected at a cost of £1,200. As part of the postwar redesign of the square it was removed in 1949 and not reinstated in its present position in Victoria Tower Gardens until 1957.
There were eight decorative figures of British rulers on it, but four were stolen in 1960 and four in 1971. They were replaced by fibreglass figures in 1980. By 2005 these were missing, and the fountain was no longer working. Between autumn 2006 and February 2007 restoration works were carried out. The restored fountain was unveiled on 27 March 2007 as part of the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807 to abolish the slave trade. A memorial plaque commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Anti-Slavery Society was added in 1989.
Thames Path - Next Bits
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I was on my own on Saturday and so I thought I woud do the next two sections of the Thames Path. I got myself down to Sloane Square by opublic transport and grabbed a coffee, I then walked to Chelsea Beidge and headed back almost to the Alert Bridge then made my official start. First we passed the Chelsea Physic Garcen and the Royal Hospital. As ever, one is amazed by how much open space London contains. I noted the western oumping station and, on the other side, the pagoda in Battersea Park and the remaining facade of the Bettersea Power Station. Just beyond Grosvenor Railway Bridge I started a seond, less full section, that included Dolphi Square adn St George's Square adn finished with the statue of William Huskinson in a little park area. I walked a little way further until I fond a bus to Victoria and then home. The thing is an education.
Day Off Week 6 2026
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10 Notable People Who Lived in Cheyne Walk, London
4 George Eliot the novelist spent the last three weeks of her life here
10 David Lloyd George the Welsh prime minister
12 Ralph Vaughan Williams the composer 1905-1928 who wrote symphonies there
13 Bertrand Russell the mathematician and philosopher in 1902
16 Dante Gabriel Rossetti the artist 1860-1882. There is a staute nearby.
21 James Mcneill Whistler the artist 1890–92. (He also lived in 72 (until his death there in 1903), 96 (1866–1878) and 101 (1863))
27 Bram Stoker the writer
93 Elizabeth Gaskell the novelist was born here
104 Hilaire Beloc the writer
119 J M W Turner the artist died here in 1851
(Also Thomas Caryle, I K Brunel, Sol Campbell, various members of The Rolling Stones, etc)
10 London Railway Bridges
- Cannon Street 1883
- Blackfriars 1886
- Hungerford 1845
- Grosvenor (Victoria) 1860
- Battersea 1863
- Fulham 1889
- Barnes 1895
- Kew 1869
- Richmond 1848
- Kingston 1863
10 London Road Bridges
- Putney Bridge 1729
- Wandsworth Bridge 1940
- Battersea Bridge 1890
- Albert Bridge 1873
- Chelsea Bridge 1937
- Vauxhall Bridge 1816
- Lambeth Bridge 1932
- Westminster Bridge 1750
- Waterloo Bridge 1817
- Tower Bridge 1886
(There are others before Putney and [between Waterloo and Tower bridges] Blackfriars, Southwark and London Bridge)
The Thames and the Cutty Sark
On Friday I went with family down the Thames to Greenwich, where we looked oer the Cutty Sark, which had not done before. All very well presented. Great weather.
Turtles
One of the things we did with the family last week was to go round London looking at turtles. We did it with snowmen and a little bit with penguins but this time it was turtles. Good fun.
10 London locations beginning with W
It has often struck me that there seem to be a lot of places in London beginning with W and I have sometimes confused them briefly.
- Walthamstow
- Wandsworth
- Wapping
- Wembley
- West Ham (and a few other wests - West Hampstead, West Hendon, etc)
- Westbourne Park
- White City
- Whitehall and Westminster
- Willesden and Willesden Green
- Wimbledon
(Also Walworth, Waterloo, Wanstead, Wealdstone, Whetstine, Whitechapel, Woodford, Woolwich, Wood Green, Winchmore Hill)
A Busy Monday
Monday was a very full day. Things start quite early these days. There were other things to do in the morning as well and then at 1 pm we had the next Evangelical Library lunch time lecture from Nick Needham on Robert L Dabney. An excellent piece of work. I will give a full report soon. I am sorry not more were able to hear it. After that we had a committee meeting and that was worthwhile. Finance continues to be an issue. Things are healthy enough at the moment but on current trends, it won't be long before we are in trouble. Current trends are making it difficult. Then after that I met up with a pastor friends of mine from West London and we visited a home in Golders Green where a couple are troubled about recent phenomena in the home. It turned out that Ihad met the lady before in another connection. We talked and then we prayed |(me in English, my friend in the family tongue). They kindly gave us gifts even though we were there only a short time/ I hope this will lead to further contact and a spiritual blessing on the famiily. It was nice too to have a coffee and catch up with my friend who I first met years ago through EMF
As I walked home through the park, there was a glorious sunset. My mother used to tell me that God was too good to me (she feared I would take it for granted). God certainly is very good. Then after tea I had a Bible study on salvation with two Iranian kurd refugees who come to the church. One of them has recently been transferred to Luton nd had caught the train to Cricklewood. I am encouraging hiom to attend a church in Luton but he like us, he says. anyone I was able to pass on part of the gift I'd just received to hm to cover his significant costs. The Bible study was okay bit all in translation. Their English is not great and my Farsi non-existent.
I then relaxed watching University Challenge (Cardiff beat St Andrews - not a Celt in either team!). We also watched a bit of TV - DI Ray and the ITV News.
The Lonely Londoners
I found this book in the house the other day. It was given a way with The Times a few years ago. It is well written but in a convincing West Indian style, sometimes with little punctuation. The scope is too thin for it to be a great novel and the unsavoury nature of certain parts was unhelpful. It captures the WIndrush generation's experience to some extent and is very interesting. Sam Selvon died in 1994.
Spurgeon for tourists
This article appeared in a book of practical hints for tourists by Morris Philips in 1892. See here.
AN HOUR WITH SPURGEON
London, October 1, 1890.
The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon still draws crowds to his tabernacle, which is situated in a part of London called Newington Butts. It is by no means a fashionable district, being in the Southeast end of the city. You tell any “cabby” to drive you to Spurgeon’s church and he will put you down at the door. But it is only a twenty minutes’ ride on a ’bus from Charing Cross; fare four cents.
That Mr. Spurgeon attracts great throngs of hearers, every one knows, but here are a few figures: His tabernacle accommodates between six and seven thousand people, and on Sunday morning, September 28, when{68} the writer was present, five thousand four hundred people listened to him. This was in September, be it remembered, when everybody is out of town and “London is empty.”
The regular members and attendants ascend the stone steps and enter the church through the front door; strangers and visitors get in by a side entrance, through an alleyway, and as they pass in, a tiny paper envelope is handed to each person. You drop into the envelope as much or as little coin as you please (for no human eye is watching you) and this envelope you in turn drop into an open box on your left, this method probably taking the place of a collection, which would be so difficult to manage where five or six thousand people have to be approached.
People sometimes ask what is the secret of this preacher’s distinguished success? The foundation of his success is his earnestness and evident sincerity.
He impresses his hearers with the belief that he believes what he is preaching. He does not seem to be making a profession or business of religion. There is nothing perfunctory in his manner; he rejoices in his calling.
Then again Spurgeon is a good and effective speaker. He talks in a slow, deliberate way, his enunciation being clear and his pronunciation perfect. Each word is distinct and clean cut. His accent is cosmopolitan; there is nothing local in it. Except for the pronunciation of a few words, such for instance, as the word “after,” to which Mr. Spurgeon gives the broad sound heard in England, you might be puzzled to know whether the great divine was born “within the sound of Bow Bells” or graduated from Columbia College.
His language hypercritical people might not call choice, but I beg to differ with them; it is exceedingly choice, being directly to the point, and like the man himself, simple and strong. There is no searching for{69} fine phrases and well-rounded periods. His ideas flow freely and they quickly find expression: there is no effect aimed at. The man trusts to the matter of his discourse, never troubling himself about his manner.
His gesticulations are few, natural and not at all dramatic. He will raise his right hand or occasionally take a step towards a small table hard by: nothing more. His voice is not musical, nor is it especially pleasing to a stranger’s ear; but it is firm, clear and penetrating, possessing those qualities most demanded in a public speaker.
On the morning of which I write Mr. Spurgeon took his text from Psalm 63, 7th verse, and held his hearers spell-bound for about forty minutes by his brilliant illustrations, his convincing arguments and his earnestness, for above and beyond all he is deeply in earnest. His prayer is beautiful; he touches a responsive chord in every heart in his fervent appeals to God for mercy and help.
Before the sermon there was singing of psalms and hymns. Mr. Spurgeon gave out hymn No. 916, “Going to Worship.” It was congregational singing, without instrumental music, one man near the pulpit acting as a sort of leader. The singing was too slow for the preacher. After the second verse he called aloud to the congregation to sing faster, himself beating time with his right hand. Psalm 34 was next given out, but when the first verse had been sung Mr. Spurgeon stopped the singing abruptly and said in a tone which was meant to be commanding: “I must beg that if you sing at all, you sing faster: there’s more heart in it if you sing quicker. Praise God as if you meant it; put your soul in the words: it will be more welcome if there’s spirit in it.”
Mr. Spurgeon’s deacons, about twelve in all, are seated on two rows of seats behind him, he and they occupying a high platform and prominent place - probably{70} fifteen feet above the floor of the church, where all can get a good view of the man’s features - all except the deacons.
The great preacher is now in his fifty-sixth year. Like his character and his language, physically he looks strong and rugged, but his health is not good.
Mr. Spurgeon belongs to a family of gospel ministers. His grandfather was an English divine; his father, Rev. James Archer Spurgeon, still living, now occupies, or did occupy until very recently, a pulpit in London; and he has two sons who follow his profession - one at Greenwich, near London, and one at Auckland, New Zealand.
P. S.—Mr. Spurgeon died at Mentone, France, on Sunday, January 21, 1892, deeply regretted by all who had ever heard him or heard of him.
Dyn Eira Eto
Everyone (ie three sons and one daughter-in-law) except my wife who kindly took the pic.
Day Off Week 50 2019
Yesterday's day off had a real Christmas theme. I did some blogging but mostly I was either reading about Christmas or listening to Christmas music. The snow goose is not really a Christmas book but it has a winter vibe. I enjoyed reading it again, especially in the edition I own illustrated by Angela Barrett. I also have a Wordsworth children's book 'Twas the night before Christmas which is a Christmas anthology. I read Clement Moore's poem, Louisa May Alcott's Christmas dream, a shortened version of A Christmas Carol done by Dickens himself and Hans Christian Anderson's The Fir tree. All full of god morals. In the evening Eleri and I went down to the Royal Festival Hall to see Kate Rusby and her band singing Christmas music. Very nice - more on that anon.
10 Famous people with connections to St Giles Cripplegate, London
1. John Milton 1608-1674 Buried there (next to his father)
2. John Foxe 1517-1587 Buried there
3. Oliver Cromwell 1599-1658 Married there (1620)
4. Lancelot Andrewes 1555-1626 Vicar there 1588-1605
5. Sir Martin Frobisher c1539-1594 Buried in the church (though part of him is in Plymouth)
6. John Speed 1552-1629 Buried there (with his wife)
7. Daniel Defoe 1660-1731 Born in the street where the church is and buried nearby
8. John Bunyan 1628-1688 Often preached nearby
9. Ben Jonson 1572-1637 Lived in the parish and two of his sons are buried there
10. William Shakespeare 1564-1616 Lodged here; his rother Edmund had two sons christened there
10 New names for London Underground Stations
2. Swiss Hottage
3. Kilburns
4. Charredwing Cross
5. Sprayswater
6. Hotting Hill Gate
7. Templeture
8. Furn'cechurch Street
9. Searsden
10. Sultry Docks
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