So we left Sheffield and caught the train to London. The hotel I had chosen was very comfortable although probably not in the right spot - Waterloo - within walking distance of Waterloo station but a bit far for a pleasurable walk especially on the way home!
Highlights of the couple of days. Maps exhibition at the British Library; Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art - Had never been to the Museum of London before so did a bit of that one - far too much for one trip but it's free so you could really just keep going back - we did from prehistory up to Henry VIII. Outside areas was being developed so couldn't get down close enough to work out what this sculpture was all about! just tried to find the answer on google and all I came up with was this writtten in 1872
The great coaching-inn of Aldersgate Street, in the old time, was the Bull and Mouth. The original name of this inn was Boulogne Mouth, in allusion to the town and harbour of Boulogne, besieged by Henry VIII. But the gne being generally pronounced by the Londoners on, it gradually became an, and it only required the small addition of d to make and of it. The first part being before this made a bull of, it was ultimately converted into the Bull and Mouth.
The Queen's Hotel, St. Martins-le-Grand, rebuilt in 1830 , now occupies the site of the old Bull and Mouth. On the front there is a statuette of a bull, above which are the bust of Edward VI., and the arms of Christ's Hospital, to which the ground belongs. The old inn stood in Bull and Mouth Street, and the south side in Angel Street still retains the name of the old inn, but is merely a luggage depot of Chaplin and Horne. On the front of the present hotel, much affected by Manchester men, under the turbulent little bull, is a stone p.220 tablet probably from the old inn, and on it are. deeply cut the following quaint lines :-- Milo the Cretonian
An ox slew with his fist,
And ate it up at one meal,
Ye gods, what a glorious twist!
The other memorable part of this trip to London was the heat! It was hot, hot, hot!! Warnings on the tube about carrying water bottles seemed to be a bit over the top to us, but by late afternoon one day we realised how unbearable it can get down there on a crowded train. Of course no one has air conditioning either! One evening we walked and walked (and walked some more) to eat at a riverside Greek restaurant we had been to on a previous trip, of course by the time we got there it was full so walked on and ended up at Swan at the Globe which while not outside eating did have a spare table at the windows with views across the river to St Pauls. And we found another bookshop to add to our favourite London shops. London Review Bookshop just around the corner from the British Museum. Also, Sandy spent an hour or so in Foyles while Eleen went rack slapping.
- it was the first hotel where the reviews were as good as the price so we went for it and the reviews actually were right! Apart from this very weird layout of the room it was terrific. These photos show the route from bed to bathroom - along a narrow corridor - at last a reason for carrying a torch all this time!!
