Page 68 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

66  BRIT AIN AND IRELAND

The City and Southwark Memorials to famous figures,
such as Lawrence of Arabia
Dominated by gleaming office blocks, befitting its status as and Lord Nelson, can be seen
London’s financial and business center, the City is also the in the crypt. The inscription on
oldest part of the capital. The Great Fire of 1666 obliterated Wren’s tomb is fitting: “Reader,
if you seek a monument, look
many of its buildings, and much of the reconstruction was all around you.”
undertaken by Sir Christopher Wren. St. Paul’s Cathedral
is the most magnificent of his surviving works. Humming i Museum of
with activity in business hours, the City empties at night.
Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames, was a refuge London
for prostitutes and gamblers in the Middle Ages. Theaters, 150 London Wall EC2. Tel 0207-0019
including the Globe, where many of Shakespeare’s plays were 844. 1 Barbican, St. Paul’s. Open
performed, and other places of entertainment were built 10am–6pm daily. Closed Dec 24–26.
7 ∑ museumoflondon.org.uk
along the waterfront in the second half of the 16th century.
This fascinating museum
traces life in London from
prehistoric times to the 20th
century, through nine
permanent galleries.
Objects from Roman London
include a brightly colored
2nd-century fresco, while from
the Tudor city, an example of an
early English Delft plate, made
in 1602 at Aldgate, bears an
inscription praising Elizabeth I.
The 17th-century section
contains the shirt Charles I
wore on the scaffold, and an
Spacious interior of St. Paul’s Cathedral, in the City audio-visual display recreating
the Great Fire of 1666. A dress
u St. Paul’s Modifications to Wren’s original in Spitalfields silk, dating from
Cathedral plan include the towers of 1753, is among the many fine
the west front, the double costumes on display.
Ludgate Hill EC4. Tel 020-7246 8350. colonnade of the west portico, One of the most popular
£ City Thames Link. 1 St. Paul’s, and the balustrade – added exhibits is the lavishly gilded
Mansion House. @ 4, 11, 15, 17, 23, against his wishes in 1718. Lord Mayor’s State Coach, built
25, 76 & 172. Open 8:30am–4pm Pediment carvings on the in 1757 and still used for the
Mon–Sat; for services only Sun, west portico show the Lord Mayor’s Show, held in
Dec 25 & Good Fri. Check website
for partial or full closures. & 8 Conversion of St. Paul. November each year.
∑ stpauls.co.uk Wren created a cool and The Victorian Walk takes
majestic interior. The nave, visitors back to the time of
Rebuilt on the site of a medieval transepts, and choir are Charles Dickens, vividly
cathedral after the Great Fire of arranged in the traditional recreating the atmosphere of
1666, this magnificent Baroque shape of a cross. Its climax is in 19th-century London with
building, designed by Sir the great open space of the authentic shop interiors.
Christopher Wren, was crossing, below the main dome,
completed in 1710. which is decorated with mono-
St. Paul’s has been the setting chrome frescoes by Sir James o Tate Modern
for great ceremonial events, Thornhill, a leading architectural Bankside SE1. Tel 020-7887 8888.
including the funeral of Sir painter of the time. From the 1 Southwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo.
Winston Churchill in 1965 and south aisle, 259 steps ascend @ 45, 63, 100, 381, 344, RV1. 4 from
the wedding of Prince Charles to the circular Whispering Tate Britain. Open 10am–6pm Sun–
and Lady Diana in 1981. Gallery, so-called because Thu, 10am–10pm Fri & Sat. Closed
At 110 m (360 ft) high, the of the unusual acoustics. Dec 24–26. & special exhibitions.
dome is the second largest Much of the fine wrought 7 8 ∑ tate.org.uk/modern
in the world, after that of St. ironwork was created by Jean
Peter’s in Rome. Supported Tijou, a Huguenot refugee. One of the world’s main
by a brick cone, the lantern The intricate carvings of collections of 20th-century
weighs a massive 850 tonnes. cherubs, fruits, and garlands art is housed in this imposing
The dome’s gallery affords a on the choir stalls are the former power station, with its
splendid view over London. work of Grinling Gibbons. vast, cathedral-like spaces.
For hotels and restaurants see pp104–6 and pp107–9

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