London Day 2 in 16,760 Steps

Armed with my trusty itinerary, we embarked on our day that would have us out in London for over 12 glorious hours. It was truly incredible.

High on my list was a visit to see the exhibit Dickens in Doughty Street: 100 Years of the Charles Dickens Museum.

In 1925, 48 Doughty Street, former home of one of the country’s most famous authors, Charles Dickens, opened as a museum for the first time. 100 years on, we were invited to this special exhibition bringing together the highlights of its extraordinary collection, from some of the first objects to enter the Museum, to the most recent acquisitions.

Illuminating the life and works of Charles Dickens and the Museum’s role in preserving his legacy, I spent the morning oohing and aahing over Dickens’s original manuscripts, letters to friends and family and rare first editions of his most famous works. But what I enjoyed the most was encountering Dickens the man as well as Dickens the writer, his personal style, interests and passions.  From his hairbrush, walking stick and only surviving suit, to portraits and photographs made during his lifetime.

This friendship album belonging to Maria Breadnell contains the earliest known literary works by Charles Dickens- surprisingly, poetry! So cool.

I found this wash-house copper rather intriguing. This copper consists of a bricked up space containing a large metal bowl with a wooden lid. There would have been a fire directly below the bowl and the clothes were stirred round and round with a wooden stick in much the same motion common to modern washing machines. However there was another use for the Victorian clothes copper; once a year, it would have been cleaned and used for boiling Christmas puddings. This tradition was later celebrated in Dickens's A Christmas Carol, when: "the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper."

Dickens was a very popular figure and a great deal of his income came from him doing live readings. This is the reading table he designed. He wanted it so the audience could see all of him.

How fun for me to recreate Mr. Dickens and Mr. Pickwick Meet on the Doorstep of 48 Doughty Street by Charles Buchel. Created in the same year that the Museum opened, this painting appeared in The Sphere magazine to encourage readers to donate to the Dickens Fellowship for the preservation of this house. It also featured in the Museum's first official guidebook. Charles Dickens is being welcomed home by Mr. Pickwick, the main character in The Pickwick Papers, which he finished writing here and which launched his career as a novelist.

What an opportunity for me to step into Dickens’s last surviving London home and discover more about one of the world’s first international celebrities.

I discovered this little must see on Atlas Obscura. Nicknamed the Farting Lamp, this is London's last remaining Sewer Gas Destructor Lamp which was invented by Joseph Webb in the 1890s for the sewer system mastermind, Joseph Bazalgette. The purpose of this particular type of lamp was to remove and burn off sewer gases and their accompanying hazards.

When the first of the modern sewer systems were being laid beneath the streets of London in the late 19th century, they brought with them a major and dangerous problem in that methane gas could build up in them which, in turn, led to the alarming possibility of the subterranean sewers exploding beneath the feet of passersby above. Webb's idea was that the sole fuel for his lamp would be the methane gas, which would be vented up from the sewer, thus enabling his invention to perform two useful tasks at the same time - burn off the sewer gas and illuminate the surrounding street. So many interesting things to discover here.

Another London must is a stroll along the Thames.

Cleopatra's Needle in London is one of a pair of obelisks (1450 BC) that were moved from the ruins of the Caesareum of Alexandria, in Egypt, in the 19th century. Inscribed by Thutmose III and later Ramesses II of the Egyptian New Kingdom, the obelisk was moved in 12 BC to Alexandria, where it remained for over 1,800 years.

It was presented to the United Kingdom in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and Sudan Muhammad Ali, as a diplomatic gift.[1] Although the British government welcomed the gesture, it declined to pay to move the obelisk to London. It was subsequently erected in the West End of London on the Victoria Embankment in Westminster, in 1878.

The scars on the pedestal and the Sphinx were caused by fragments of a bomb dropped in the roadway close to this spot in the first raid on London, in WWI, by German aeroplanes in 1917. Wow.

There was a protest happening so this is as close as we wanted to get to St. Stephen's Tower (aka Big Ben).

Field Marshal Monty, Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, 1887 - 1976.

How wonderful is this?! This memorial was raised to commemorate the vital work done by over seven million women during World War II. Unveiled by Her Majesty The Queen, 9th July 2005. The typeface used on the sides of the monument replicates that used in war-time ration books. The unveiling was one of the ceremonies to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of WW2 and included a fly-past of military helicopters flown by all-female crews.

Trafalgar Square was the perfect spot to spend the afternoon.

I'm regretting not getting a poem written. What fun.

Our next stop was St. Martin-in-the-Fields for Lunch at the Café in the Crypts.

This church with its fine architecture and prominent location place it at the heart of the nation. There is no official reference to a church on the site of St Martin’s until Norman times, when in 1222 a dispute was recorded between William, Abbot of Westminster, and Eustace, Bishop of London on the Bishop’s authority over the church. The Archbishop of Canterbury decided in favor of the abbot and St Martin’s, then surrounded by fields, appears to have been used by the monks of Westminster.

In around 1542, Henry VIII, as ruthless with the monks as with his wives, built a new church and extended the parish boundaries to keep plague victims from being carried through his palace. This was enlarged in 1607 at the cost of Prince Henry, the son of King James I. This church was pulled down in 1721 to be replaced by the current building.

While we were there a choir group was rehearsing the most fantastic music we've ever heard in a church. What an expected audio treat.

A quick pause at the Brass Rubbing Center was needed. Brass rubbing was a fashionable Victorian pastime that continues to be popular today. Visitors to churches wanted to take home a memento of their experience, and brass rubbing was their inspired solution. With some paper and a waxy crayon, visitors could trace over the brass monuments that were marking burial places and decorating the church. Eventually this ‘rubbing of brasses’ caused damage but the desire to mark a visit in a creative way was more popular than ever. The dilemma was solved by creating sets of replica brasses to carry on the tradition without causing any damage to the fabric of the original monuments or stonework. Brilliant!

I was completely overwhelmed by my visit to the National Gallery where the nation’s extensive collection resides, from the first paintings to the present day. When the Gallery was founded in 1824, the first 38 paintings came from the private art collection of the banker John Julius Angerstein. Today, the world-class collection of paintings has grown considerably over the last two centuries. There are over 2,300 works, spanning the major traditions of Western European painting. I had only a little bit of time. I'd like to return with hours and hours allotted to get lost in this gallery.

Oh my gosh! Raphael!

Margarito d'Arezzo's The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Narrative Scenes (1253) is one of the oldest paintings in the National Gallery.

The San Pier Maggiore Altarpiece (1370) by Jacopo di Cione and workshop, is one of the largest commissioned in 14th century Italy.

What a visual treat to be able to look at it up close. Such beauty.

There are so many works here that I've only seen in books. Jan van Eyck's self-portrait is one I've studied.

Same with The Arnolfini Portrait (1434).

And these are the newest portraits added to the Gallery!

There are so many intriguing things that catch one's eye.

If I was here with a tea loving girlfriend, I would so be on this bus for an afternoon of tea!

Historical plaque sighting has been like an adult scavenger hunt for me.

This one commemorates the Working Donkeys of Covent Garden. It has been placed in memory of the 100,000 costermongers' donkeys that worked in and around the market. A costermonger is a person who sells goods, especially fruit and vegetables, from a handcart in the streets.

I suspect one would not find many cufflink vendors in most places. I was enthralled with the quantity and varied offered here.

Dinner was booked at the highly anticipated Rules. Established by Thomas Rule in 1798, Rules is London’s oldest restaurant, steeped in over two centuries of history. Renowned for its classic British cuisine, timeless charm, and rich heritage, it has welcomed generations of diners, including literary greats and celebrated figures. A true institution, Rules continues to honor its traditions while offering a uniquely historic dining experience.

Rules lived up to its hype. Oh my gosh.

The evening conclude at The Vaudeville Theatre which opened in 1870 and has been rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous structure. The current building opened in 1926. Rare thunder drum and lightning sheets, together with other early stage mechanisms, survive in the theatre. We were there for SIX.

"Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. From Tudor Queens to Pop Icons, the SIX wives of Henry VIII take the microphone to reclaim their identities out of the shadow of their infamous spouse – remixing five hundred years of historical heartbreak into a Euphoric Celebration of 21st century girl power! This new original musical is the global sensation that everyone is losing their head over!"

We learned about this production when it was mentioned by a character in a TV show we were watching. A google search later and we learned that it was showing in London when we just happened to be in town!

The show definitely has a cult following and we could see why. What a unique way to learn a history lesson. With a fantastic all-female cast, exceptional costuming, and tunes that had us dancing in our seats, we became fans, too.

SIX is the winner of 23 awards, including the 2022 Tony Award® for Best Original Score (Music and Lyrics) and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. What a total blast.

The show also gave us a reason to be out and about in London after sunset (which isn't until 9:14 PM).

London is often described as "a city of contradictions, where history and modernity clash, and it is a place of endless possibilities and endless fascination. Some find it a place of immense power and influence, while others see it as a city of ghosts and melancholy." So far, we'd describe it as "a place where all expectations have been met and when unforgettable memories have been forged." Wow!