Nov 11 - A day in London with a Black Cab Tour

This morning we met Gordon, Black Cab driver and tour guide extraordinaire.  We had taken a London tour with him earlier in the year when we were in London with Liam.  He was so good that we arranged a custom tour for us while we are here.  

Much of the tour was based on a list of sites that Mary had sent to him of things she had found over the years.  Many of the items came from a Facebook group that she follows...Sights of London.  

Our first stop was the Baps Shri Swaminarayan Hindu temple.  It is the largest traditional Hindu temple outside of India.  Unfortunately, no photos inside.  Gordon said this was his first request to by a guest to visit the temple.

From there we went to the Highgate Cemetery.  It was very overcast but not rainy.  The overcast certainly gave the cemetery a moody feel.  The cemetery is very old and very large.  Lots of moss on the listing headstones.

Highgate Cemetery East Photos:

We found the monument to Karl Marx (it was moved from the original site to a more prominent one in the cemetery).

Other interesting ones included Douglas Adams, author of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", with a container of pens left by visitors, wating for him to use them.

A concrete piano for William Henry Thornton, classical pianist around the turn of the 19th/20th century, 

and George Elliot, English poet and novelist (but in our excitement in finding her tombstone we forgot to take a photo of her headstone). 

Highgate Cemetery West Photos:

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More Highgate Cemetery 
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After these stops we went with Gordon's recommendations.  First stop was the St. Pancras Old Church.  The church was lovely...

(Thomas) Hardy Tree Surrounded by Old Gravestones

but one of the more interesting things was the Soane Mausoleum on the grounds.  Sir John Soane was a master architect in London (designed the Bank of England and the Holy Trinity Church on Marlybone).  He designed this tomb for his beloved wife.  She, he and their son are entombed here.  And the shape of the Mausoleum was adopted as the shape for the iconic red telephone booths that one sees all over London and where all the tourists want their photographs take. 

Apparently the full story is that the design was proposed by Sir Giles Scott, borrowing heavily from the Soane design...but still... 

   

One of the more obscure places we stopped was the G.F. Watts Memorial to Historic Self-Sacrifice.  We've never seen this mentioned in the London tour books and we are sure we would never have found it without Gordon. 

In the late 1800's Mr. Watts decided that there were many unsung heroes who deserved to be recognized.  So he put together this Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice and had tile plaques erected in their memory.  It was in a tranquil garden not far from St. Paul's Cathedral.  Work started in the late 1800's but it was never finished as there are only 53 of the planned 120 plaques on the wall.  Here are a few.

Next stop was the Christchurch Greyfriars Church Garden is on the site of the old Franciscan Church of the Greyfriars that was established in 1225.  This is one of many "pocket gardens" that can be found around central London.  Numerous well-known people, including four queens, were buried in the old church, which was destroyed int he Great Fire of 1666.  The new church, designed by Christopher Wren (who designed St. Paul's), was completed in 1704.  

Most of the church was destroyed in 1940 by an incendiary bomb.  Only the west tower now stands.  The current, lovely rose garden was established in 1989.

We did a quick stop at St. Botolph's without Aldersgate...  

with lovely stained-glass window.

There are also remains of the old Roman Fort and City Wall.

St. Albans Church Tower is all that remains of the old church.  The road goes right over what was the nave of the church. In fact, the road goes around the tower. 

We also stopped at Smithfield Market.  it was late afternoon so there wasn't much activity going on.  But the architecture was lovely.  

Nearby we saw a plaque to honor Sir William Wallace Scottish Patriot (1200's).  

And we walked through St. Bartholomew the Great.  Another lovely old church.

Last stop was a lovely garden in the remains of St. Dunstan in the East...another lovely pocket garden in the ruins of another Wren church.  

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More London photos
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What an incredible day in London.  We saw so many things that we would likely have never found on our own.