St Martin-in-the-Fields stands at the north east corner of Trafalgar Square and as such is a building I’ve passed by plenty of times but never had the time to pop in until this last visit when I deliberately added it to my places to see. There’s been a church on the site since at least 1222 but the current building dates from 1722-1726.
After visiting the Banqueting Hall and the Jewel Tower I was walking around Westminster when the impressive looking Methodist Central Hall caught my eye. Built to mark the centenary of John Wesley’s death in 1905 (the founder of Methodism) I decided to pop inside and ask if I could take some photos of the interior. Straightaway I was told that if I had about twenty minutes to spare I could have my own, free tour of the building.
Another installment about some of Nottingham’s more interesting buildings. The first is Ye Olde Salutation Inn. Dating from 1240 it, along with several others in Nottingham, claims to be the oldest pub in the city. The building was originally a tanner’s workshop, before that the site was another ale house with the catchy name of The Archangel Gabriel Salutes the Virgin Mary. During the Civil War of 1642-1651 rooms were set aside to recruit for both sides in the conflict.
On my last trip to Leicester I kept an eye out for any plaques in the vicinity and came across these two interesting examples. The first, near the Richard III Visitor Centre was that commemorating Agnes Archer Evans.
Continuing on from my earlier post about some of Leicester’s interesting buildings, this is St Nicholas’ Church, the oldest surviving place of worship in Leicester. Built around the 9th or 10th century there are still some original features left such as the original walls of the nave, though part of it was demolished after 1600 and the spire was removed in 1805.
Bromley House Library is in a gorgeous Georgian townhouse on Angel Row in Nottingham that was built in 1752 for George Smith, grandson of the founders of Smiths Bank. I’ve passed the front door a countless amount of times and never noticed it was there. I first heard about it a couple of years ago but it was only this year, when the library is celebrating 200 years of continuous operation that I finally got around to going on one of their free tours.
St Mary’s Rest Garden is a small park next to Victoria Park and the Victoria Swimming Baths in Nottingham. Formally a cemetery, a Quaker by the name of Samuel Fox donated the land after an outbreak of cholera in 1835.
On the same day I visited the Monument to the Great Fire of London I walked a little further down the road until I came to St Dunstan in the East, a Church of England church built around 1100 that was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
On a trip to the theatre in London I found myself with a few hours to spare and decided to head to the London Canal Museum which is only a short walk from King’s Cross Station. As to be expected for such a niche museum it is quite small, consisting of just two floors, but at just £4 it was a reasonably priced way to spend an hour.
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