The Masonic Temple inside the Andaz Hotel on Liverpool Street was the only place during Open House London where I was required to queue to get in. When the hotel was sold for refurbishment it was so run down that the previous owners had no idea that this Grade II listed marble temple built in 1912 was boarded up behind a fake wall.
I went on a tour of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as part of Open House London. This was one of my I’m in the area so let’s see what it’s about picks and it turned out to be very interesting. The School was founded in 1899 and based elsewhere but their present home dates from 1926, officially opened in 1929.
I hadn’t heard of St Vedast-alias-Foster before I noticed it was forming part of Open House London last year. It’s dedicated to a French saint who was Bishop of Arras around the 6th century.
St Stephen Walbrook is another church I visited whilst down in London for Open House last year. It’s the third church building on the site, the first was founded in Saxon times, the second was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the third was designed by Christopher Wren in 1672.
I visited Clothworkers’ Hall as part of last year’s Open House London. I didn’t know anything about the Clothworkers’ Company beforehand but the pictures of the building looked interesting and I wasn’t disappointed. Founded in 1528 it was originally established to supervise the training of apprentices and setting standards within the textile industry and now continues its work as a charitable organisation.
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert venue in Kensington probably most well known as the venue for the Proms concerts. Originally it was to be called Central Hall, part of Prince Albert’s vision after the success of the 1851 Great Exhibition, but when he died in 1861 it was renamed in his honour.
Weekday Cross used to be the site of Nottingham’s market place and the civic centre of medieval Nottingham. It’s unclear when the actual cross was erected though it’s first mentioned in around 1549 and was pulled down in 1804. The current cross was erected in 1993.
I’d never really spent a lot of time at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery so I decided to rectify that one day last year. The BMAG first opened in 1885 and is a large Grade II* listed building that was a little hard to appreciate on my visit as construction work was going on all around it (the below photo was taken some years previously).
I’d been looking for some places to visit that are easily accessible by train and I was surprised to find a pretty cheap ticket to Ely for less than £10 so decided that it was time to tick off Ely Cathedral from my to do list.
The Heights of Abraham in Matlock Bath has been on my to do list for a long time and I finally decided to go while we were having some sunny weather. As I travelled by train I was able to use my train ticket to get a 20% discount on the entrance price and the cable car station (yes, you can travel by cable car up to the Heights) is only a short walk away from Matlock Bath Railway Station.
