London in 10 Days: Postcard from London 3 and 4

Day 3

Our goal today is Spitalfields and the house of Dennis Sever. He was an American eccentric who lived in this house and devoted his life to partly restoring it to be able to set it up as a theatrical "installation" of about three eras of the life of the house.

This house is 18th century, I believe and is set up as it probably would have been in reality as opposed to pretty and perfect. We were greeted at the door by a caretaker who told us to "experience" being there in silence. It was beautiful, very atmospheric, with sounds going on that reflected people there, just not in sight. A bit dark because it was mainly lit mainly by candles, it was gorgeous. We were not allowed to take pictures though.

A good way to see the interiors is by going to this website and also googling his name.

www.dennissevershouse.co.uk

After our "experience" we went to the Spitalfields Market and found a lunch.

Markets there really seem to mean clothes and housewares as apposed to just food. I didn't find that as interesting since I am not of the age that hunts for stuff anymore.

We wandered around to enjoy the architecture. I'm beginning to get used the the violent contrasts in

London. Great glass structures with little old buildings. After a while it became kind of interesting. Now I like it!

We were getting a little tired at this point and decided to start heading home. I had noticed as we

were walking up Bishopgate road that there were a buses passing that were stating they went to Clapham Common which is very near to where we are are living. "Let's try it out?”

Off we went on our bus adventure, through all kinds of Boroughs, across the Thames, up and down, in

and out, (look it up on map) and even through Brixton, which is south east of the Common. We were

starting to worry that we were going to end up a bit far for a walk home. When I asked the driver, who

informed me that we were now on a diversion for construction, he said he would in fact take us to Clapham South station, the very station where we live!!!

Standing in the bus, watching things go by, a man in one of the seats speaks to us, asking the usual

tourist questions of us, Canadian? here long? have you gone to the Tower of London to see the ceramic

poppies? Oh! I had almost forgotten that was going on right now! Roy of the Poppies, thank you. He

told us about this because he was one of the people who planted them. Postscript on this. I was a few days late for it all and did not see them.

Dark at this point (fairly early compared to Canada) we wandered into the shops to find ourselves

some salad for dinner. The food markets here present an enormous array of prepared foods.

Enough day!

A few pictures from the last few days.

Day 4

On my own today, my morning is partly spent on the blog and sorting the pictures.

I wanted to do the River walk on the north shore of the Thames, to get a different perspective and view and to go further east than we had the day before. I took the Tube to London Bridge and walked across toward the city.

Then along the water's edge, seeing Tower Bridge, Tower of London (where I had hoped to see the near to half a million ceramic poppies in commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of WW1. No luck there.

At this point, I have reached Tower bridge, and here are a few shots i got of it, or as much would fit!

I kept walking into what is called East Smithfield. There are inlets and basins that must have once been private wharves for traders but are now very swish marinas. Beautiful sailing ships, old and new.

I looped back up and over with the intention of walking to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Not really too far, but I did not have a detailed downtown map book with me (part of a pedestal to hold up an otherwise low reading lamp) Won't make that mistake again.