Our second London Walk

This past weekend Laurel and I tubed to London Bridge and walked "Southwark" and "Bankside."  This area is associated with medical institutions including St. Thomas', founded in 1530, and Guy's, founded in 1721 for the purpose of admitting those patients determined by St. Thomas staff to be incurable. This photo is "the lunatic chair" salvaged from the old London Bridge in about 1830 and bought by Guy's  for 10 Guineas to shelter the patients of the asylum. John Keats was a student at St. Thomas' and Guy's 1815-1816 until resigning to write poetry full time (and to recover from an illness acquired from one of the local prostitutes!). We tried to find "the Tabard" from which the pilgrims set off to Canterbury in the famous work but there is quite a bit of construction in the area (see the Shard below) and we were not able start our pilgrimage in quite the same location. We did manage to find the site of Marshalsea Prison, where Charles Dickens' father was imprisoned for being unable to pay a 10 pound debt. Nearby was the Cross Bones graveyard where many prostitutes and single women were buried, as they were denied the right to a church burial. Some 15,000 skeletons lay there (this being being a major site for prostitutes known as Winchester's geese in that the trade paid a licensing fee to the Bishop of Winchester). The site has become as shrine to the outcast dead and is covered by thousands of ribbons, trinkets, poems, and flowers.

  Passing by the old Hops warehouse and breweries, we came to the Borough Market which has been active since the 13th century.  We strolled and bought some bread, authentic English muffins and some salami.  In the picture below, note the "Shard" rising up behind the market.  It is  the tallest building in the European Union - opening to visitors next month.

 Just past the market lies the Southwark Cathedral which is the oldest gothic church in London, founded in the 9th century, rebuilt between 1220 and 1440, and had another touch up around the Reformation in 1530. Shakespeare, John Harvard, and Chaucer are but a few of the luminaries connected with this church.

 We ventured on to the riverfront, past The Globe Theater, to the Millennium Bridge, crossing to St. Paul's (the funding for this one quite literally robbed from St. Peter's). I should note that the Millennium Bridge was initially the Wobbly Bridge, closing for two years of revisions immediately after the first test walk).  By now, the cold, wind, fog and darkness had descended and the characters giving tours (some screaming and others wearing  Jack the Ripper costumes covered with blood) forced us to retreat into a pub.