Aldgate Pump is a water pump at the junction between Fenchurch Street and Leadenhall Street in London. It was moved there from its original location in 1876. It was famed for its clear sparkling water but in the 1870s it was discovered the water was being contaminated by organic matter from new cemeteries built along its route which resulted in the deaths of several hundred people in what was known as the Aldgate Pump Epidemic.
The Bevis Marks Synagogue, in the heart of the City of London, is a Grade I listed building which was opened in 1701 and is the only synagogue in Europe to have continuously held regular services for over 300 years. I paid a visit as part of Open House London and as photos are not allowed inside so I only have a couple of photos of the exterior to share here.
I’ve written about the Supreme Court building in London before, particularly in regards to the beautiful sculptures outside, but Open House London gave me the opportunity to explore the interior. Designed by James S Gibson with Skipworth and Gordon it actually houses both The Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (the court of final appeal for the UK overseas territories and Crown dependencies).
I’d taken photos of the exterior of St Clement Danes Church on a previous visit to London but I was finally able to spare the time to go inside in September. Right by the Royal Courts of Justice it is one of London’s two “island churches”, so-called because of the layout of the road around it. (The other is St Mary le Strand which will be the focus of a later post).
Whenever I’m in London for a few days I try and schedule an afternoon of just wandering around an area and taking photos of places I’ve not managed to visit before or where I’ve visited only briefly. Despite the intermittent rain after visiting Temple Church I decided to take a wander around Somerset House. There was some sort of event going on inside so I only took photos of the courtyard and exterior.
Mapperley Hall was built by Ichabod Wright, a banker, in 1792. The Wright’s were a prominent family in Nottingham and many of them have plaques erected in St Mary’s Church. It was their home until the end of the 19th century when it became part of University College Nottingham. As best as I can make out it has now been split into separate flats.
The International Slavery Museum opened in 2007, the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Britain and is the only museum of its kind to look at both historical and contemporary slavery. It is housed on the first floor of the Merseyside Maritime Museum, and therefore has free entry.
On my final day in Liverpool I decided to take a walk down from my hotel towards the Albert Dock in order to visit the museums there but the first building I actually stepped inside was the Liverpool Parish Church.
Wollaton Village’s Dovecote Museum is a little tricky to find though just a short walk from the village and at the end of a cul-de-sac. It’s a small building dating from the 16th century, having been built around 1565 by Sir Francis Willoughby of Wollaton Hall.
Recently for my birthday we spent a week in Llandudno, Wales (and there will be lots of posts coming up about the many things we did whilst based there). On our first day of wandering around the town we came across the below sculpture of the Queen of Hearts from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was here that I learned that Alice Liddell – the real life inspiration for Carroll’s heroine – spent many summers with her family in Llandudno and her adventures there served as inspiration for many aspects of the books.
