More travels with Mum

Excursion tale . . . We set out to tour London in beautiful sunny weather.


Walked past Buckingham Palace and by coincidence caught the guards doing their thing.


Walked along Rotten Row, which is where people ride horses.


Remarked how London is a city of rules. Almost everywhere one would want to lock a bicycle is off limits, unlike in Paris or Toronto.



Took a tour boat to Greenwich.





The entrance to Greenwich.


My Mum worked here after the war when she was in the Wrens.


She served meals to the officers in this hall. She came out through this door.


The tables were set up differently back in those days. They were in long rows, not on a diagonal.




In the floor of the chapel.



Mum lived in this building. Her bed was in a long room behind the two shaded windows.



We had lunch in the Yacht Pub down this lane. A terribly long wait. We had to complain and threaten to leave before they brought us our food.



An interesting art installation on the wall.


We crossed to the Isle of Dogs through the tunnel under the Thames. There was a great mass of people rushing through. One young woman actually shoved past my mother and almost pushed her over! Mum said that when she lived there, it was usually quite empty.


A view of Greenwich from the Isle of Dogs.


Another view of Greenwich.

Perspective

I think mice are rather nice;
Their tails are long, their faces small;
They haven't any chins at all.
Their ears are pink, their teeth are white,
They run about the house at night;
They nibble things they shouldn't touch,
and, no one seems to like them much,
but, I think mice are rather nice.

Rose Fyleman

Retracing Mum's routes

These are some London congestion charge "Cs" painted on the road. I took pictures as we roamed a route familiar to my mother who used to live and work in London.








My mother used to work for Bill Linnit, a theatre producer, in this building. The Linnits moved to the flat from Barton Street around the corner.

This was once the home of Lawrence of Arabia.


John Gielgud lived at the end of Barton in the house with the green door.


Number 11 is where my mother worked for the Linnits before they moved around the corner. She had a bedroom at the back of the house.


Lord Reith also lived on Barton Street, which is behind the Dean's Yard at Westminster Cathedral.


As we wandered, we encountered these signs.



Big Ben with the London Eye in the background.


Whitehall protest.