St. Katherine’s Docks

Date: Thursday 2 August 2012
Posted by: EL
Curator: MS
Attendees: MS, KS & EL
All photos by EL via Instagram – WednesdayWalkingClub ©2012

Hut by the Fiji pavillion on St. Katherine’s Docks

Danish Pavillion outside of Dickens Inn: Viking long boat!

Olympic Park as Lego!!

Lego wind turbine to promote Copenhagen and big screen showing Olympic games outside of Dickens Inn. 

Olympic-ed Tower Bridge

Chickenwired Lions sculptures at Tower of London.

A gold plaque outside of 10 Trinity Square predicting the future. 

Hidden City Church Gardens

Date: Thursday 24 May 2012
Posted by: EL
Curator: MS
Attendees: MS, KS, JH & EL
All photos by EL via Instagram – WednesdayWalkingClub ©2012

At last! We went on a spontaneous walking club meet today! The weather in London is summer in full swing, it was a beautiful day. 

Cut through Alley way, we were on Mitre Street on to Bevis Mark to see one of the oldest City Synagog. Then we moved along to Bury St onto The Gherkin. 

On route, we passed by the new development of Aon (err) and Lloyds of London. We then walked onto Leadenhall Market, I wish these Jubilee union jack decoration would stay up all year around! 

Onto Cornhill, St Michael’s Church next, the little green garden behind the church was heaving with city workers today and the customers from the little pub has spilled all over this alley, here’s a shot of St Michael’s Alley/Castle Court. 

A new alley named Post Office Alley to commemorate the old Post Office:

Here we found a new church garden – St Stephen Walbrook

Here MS and KS looking at tombstones. It’s so quiet and peaceful here, there were two ladies taking their lunches, and a time sculpture at the front end of the garden reads “I count only the sunny hours”:

From one garden to another, St Swithun’s Church Garden:

To end our journey, we dropped by my favourite city secret garden: 

Hello!

We haven’t post for a while that’s because we haven’t had any walks since June due to busy work schedule. As holiday approaches, we may finally find time and hope to resume our Wednesday Walking Club next week. 

At the meantime, I encourage you to follow Random Typography, a new blog about random typography found in various cities by our designer Elsie.

03. Then & Now I: Crutched Friars, Savage Gardens, Shad Thames

Date: Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Posted by: EL
Curator: MS
Attendees: MS, CE & EL
All photos by EL of WednesdayWalkingClub ©2011

MS has brought in this amazing book called “Lost London 1870 - 1945” by Philip Davies, it featured photos of pre-WWII of London. We had an idea of visiting the sites where the original photo was taken and examining what has changed since and what has remained.

Book jacket of “Lost London 1870-1945” by Philip Davies.
Note: All “THEN” images in this post were extracted from this book.

03.1 Crutched Friars

We started off this week’s walk from our street on Crutched Friars heading towards Mark Lane, under the train arch, to our left is Mint Hotel. 

THEN:Crutched Friars, 20 June 1912
View looking west to Hart Street and Mark Lane from beneath the arch to Fenchurch Street railway station with railway offices to the right.

THIS IS NOW:Crutched Friars, o4 May 2011.

THEN & NOW: A digital composition by EL.
As you can see, main buildings on the left remains the same. Most buildings on the left have been overtaken by Mint Hotel.

DECODED: Here is the comparison 1912 vs 2011

We continued on our journey to the other end of the street and looking back at the Fenchurch St Station’s arch. On my right now is St. Oalve’s.

THEN: Crutched Friars, 20 June 1912
View along Crutched Friars from New London Street looking east towards the end of Fenchurch Street station. To the right is the side of St Olave’s, Hart Street, the model for “St Ghastly, Grim” in Dickens’ The Uncommercial Traveller with Seething Lane beyond. On the pavement is a cast-iron firm alarm pillar, once a common item of street furniture, now entirely vanished.

THIS IS NOW:Crutched Friars, o4 May 2011

DECODED: Here is the comparison 1912 vs 2011

Next up, we went down Seething Lane and weaved around Pepys Street and arrived at Trinity House on Savage Gardens. North-east of Trinity Square.

03.2 Savage Gardens

THEN: Savage Gardens, Tower, 20 June 1913
View looking north from Trinity Square with the side of Trinity House to the right.

THIS IS NOW: Savage Gardens, o4 May 2011

Despite the building on the left looks “old”, clearly it was built after the “THEN” photo was taken in 1913. The lovely Georgian houses at the end of the street is now the stylish Mint Hotel. The building next to Trinity House seems like the original structure was kept but since have been worked on quite a bit.

DECODED: Here is the comparison 1913 vs 2011

We weaved through the busy Trinity Square, Tower Hill Station and around north side of Tower of London, onto Tower Bridge. We then made a left and headed to Bulter’s Wharf for our last site – Shad Thames.

03.03 Shad Thames

THEN: Shad Thames, c 1910
Much of the river was lined by vertiginous warehouses creating dark canyons separated by slit-like alleys leading to ancient stairs, jetties and wharves. At Shad Thames a myriad of iron bridges spanned the street to allow goods to be moved across the walkways to warehouses inland.

THIS IS NOW: Shad Thames, o4 May 2011

I didn’t create a decoded nor a composition. I believe original image from the book was taken at least from the first or 2nd floor, I will never get the image stack up. Once use as transporting goods to the other building, now these lovely bridges are balconies for some lucky posh residence who live in this Wharf.

Here is our route this week:

View 03. Then & Now I: Crutched Friars, Savage Garden, Shad Thames in a larger map

What do you think of this post? Is a city suppose to move forward with modern architecture or try to preserve the original historical buildings?

02. Secret Garden Picnic I (Revealed!)

Date: Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Curator & Posted by: EL
Attendees: JL, NP & friend
All photos by EL of WednesdayWalkingClub ©2011

It was unfortunate due to last minute deadlines (including myself), lots of people couldn’t make it and we had to make this into a quickie lunch. I kept the secret location pretty well under the lid, here it is, the mystery is revealed at last!

St. Dunstan in-the-East is truly one of the my favourite hidden London places. This medieval church is well tugged away in the midst of the Square Mile. It was destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666 and was rebuilt in 1817 by Sir Christopher Wren but was again destroyed during the blitz WWII in 1941. Since then, the city has made no plans to rebuild the church again but in 1971 was turned into a stunning urban garden.

Looks like an ordinary old church from the outside, enchanted garden inside!

North entrance into the courtyard.

Open courtyard, City dwellers taking a break from their abacuses. Apparently it’s very quiet here on weekends. This would be a perfect place to spend a Sunday morning reading a book or paper.

Glimpse of remaining architectural details.

This garden has won many awards.

Collaborating with award winning urban art project – The Insect Hotel (2010)

There are plenty of benches in this garden. I love the patterns of the stone-paved and wood patterned ground.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this post! If you ever near Tower of London/Monument, do drop by this enchanted garden. There’s also a St. Dunstan in-the-West near Cannon St. Both churches are now overlooked by the nearby All Hallows by the Tower Church. The remaining tower of the church is also running a homoeopathic clinic (Wren Clinic).

View 02. Secret Garden Picnic I in a larger map

Have you been to St. Dunstan in-the-East? Have you any favourite hidden London places? How did you find them?

This Week 27 Apr: Secret Garden Picnic

It’s been so hectic in the office for the past couple weeks, we had to cancel two of our walks. With MS on holiday this week, we still want to carry on our club. However, this will be a short walk to a secret garden location to have a picnic lunch. Bring your lunch (we can also stop by Prêt/Eat on the way), sunscreen and your sunglasses (finger cross for pleasant weather to continue through this week) and join us this week.

Date: Wednesday 27 April 2011
Time: Aim 13:00 but probably around 13:15
Meeting Point: Outside of 6 Crutched Friars EC3N
Curator: EL

Hint: Give me some credit, it’s not Trinity Square Gardens! :P