Farewell to London (sigh, wave)

This is our last day in London, and we are sorry to leave. The pre-arrival thought that this would be the last time we were here, but we have begun to rethink that!

If you care at all for opera or plays, one cannot leave London without seeing the Globe Theatre. It was originally built in 1599 by Shakespeare’s playing company, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. A theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. According to records, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale. It was rebuilt in the following year.
Like all the other theatres in London, the Globe was closed down by the Puritans in 1642. A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe”, opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet  from the site of the original theatre.

The original theatre accommodated approximately 3,000 people, most of them having paid a pence (about equivalent to our penny) – the average salary among the peasants was 6 pence per week) to stand and watch the entire play. There were no costumes or props so you had to imagine when there were horses or other things crucial to the play. So, it really didn’t matter that most of the standing audience could see.

On the three upper tiers, where people literally sitting cheek-to-cheek (not the face one), in combination with the number of people standing, the stench must have been horrible. So there was constructed on the three tiers ‘wind holes’ to allow air to pass through. Must be where we got ‘windows’. The play was performed at 2 pm every day, so that it would get natural light, because there were no candles, and even today (although stage lighting is used), the performance time is the same without candles or any other audience illumination.
Here is what the current theatre looks like. The stall with the paintings is where dignitaries sat, and the royalty actually sat in a stall next to the musicians so they could be seen by the public (seeing the play was not a requirement!) 

You may not know, but many of the phrases we commonly use come from Shakespeare’s plays:

After the Globe, we walked over the Millennial Bridge, a pedestrian over the Thames, on the way to Saint Paul’s.
Needless to say, we had what was the expected: cold, hazy and damp London weather today.

We were met at Saint Paul’s by Rev Canon James Milne, minor canon for liturgy. He is the son-in-law of the wonderful Richardson family we met on the Queen Mary 22. He is married to their son; they are both clergy ordained in the Scottish Episcopal Church. James offered to show us some of the sights no one gets to see before the evensong.

The first thing we saw – and CLIMBED – was the staircase
used in the filming of Harry Potter – we still can’t believe we climbed it!

(from the bottom)

I wished I had looked at my Fitbit to see how many steps there were. . . but, we made it!
(looking down from the top).

Once we got to the top, we could look out over the church below – and I mean below. . . check out the picture from the ground and from the celestry.

In the upper storage area, is a plague dedicated to Sir Christopher Wren, who originally designed the cathedral. He wanted to maintain a simple décor, but Queen Victoria thought it was too plain and had the mosaics added.

If you notice the plug in the half dome, you can see how they applied the mosaic tiles. A suspension board was dropped through the hole and the artist would lay on his back.

James reserved seats for us in the quire for the evensong. Saint Paul’s has a choir college so there were a lot of cute little boys in the choir – one couldn’t stay awake and another had his ruffle on backwards. . . but are darling. The evensong was inspirational and we can’t thank James enough for spending time with us.

As our last hurrah in London, we went to dinner at the Black Friar Pub. It was happy hour and you could hardly get in. This building and street used to be a friary where they brewed ale. The décor contains a lot of pictures of the friars in they daily work.

We now have to go back to the Vancouver Studios and repack so that one large suitcase contains the ‘good’ clothes from the cruise, and two small ones of what we will need as we travel through England and Wales.

Going to miss London and think we may have to come back. So ends the fun in London.

But we do have question for locals – the sun doesn’t set until around 9 and the sun rises between 4:30 and 5. How do you ever get a good night sleep???????