London has many places to discover and visit. Today I want to tell you 4, which I had the opportunity to visit during my trip to London in late April 2018.
Let’s begin with St. Bartholomew the Great (The Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great) founded in 1123 by Rahere, a prebendary of St. Paul’s Cathedral and Augustinian canon.
Historically, the church was part of a monastery, partially demolished in 1543, which also seems to have belonged to the hospital. The story of Rahere tells that during one of his travels he fell ill (perhaps of malaria): during his prayers, he made a promise to build a church and a hospital; Saint Bartholomew appeared to him in prayer, indicating where to build a hospital and a church. Even today, St. Bartholomew is a pilgrimage destination for its healing powers, especially on August 24th, for the Feast of St. Bartholomew. The entrance ticket costs 5 pounds and is open every day: on the official page about opening hours and ticket costs, you will find all the information you need (it also includes a £ 1.50 ticket for the photos I have not been asked to pay, I do not know whether due to forgetfulness or because there is no longer this ticket).
For some years I was thinking about a visit to the Brompton Cemetery, near Earl’s Court. Officially called “West London and Westminster Cemetery”, in Victorian style, it is part of the Royal Parks and is one of the seven major cemeteries in London. It’s located in what, in the eighteenth century, was a vegetable garden for fruit and vegetables intended for city markets; it is, with 211 thousand tombs, one of the largest cemeteries in the city. It is located at Fulham Road and also has an official website.
Between the Tower Hill tube stop and the All Hallows on the wall church, are located the Trinity Square Gardens where during the hot season, many city workers come to enjoy their lunch break. Inside the small park, there is a “square” that marks the position of gallows and gallows that, between 1455 and 1747, were used for the executions. Moreover, today there is the Memorial dedicated to merchant seamen who died in a war, whose names are engraved along the walls of the memorial (some say they are the dead of both world wars, others only during the second).
I conclude this story with the Victoria tower gardens, a small garden in the shadow of the parliament and overlooking the Thames. Here Londoners take the dog for a walk, the inhabitants of the area that run to keep fit and families with children to entertain the little ones at the playground. In the middle of the garden, there is the small Gothic Buxton Memorial, which used to be in Parliament Square. This small memorial reminds Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton (brewer, reformist, abolitionist) and commemorates the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire (in short, the abolition of slavery).
As you enter the gate from the side of the parliament, you are in front of the Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial, the memorial dedicated to Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel. The bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst by Arthur George Walker, inaugurated in 1930, is the central part of the memorial itself; the bronze reliefs to commemorate Christabel Pankhurst were added in 1958, when the statue was moved where it’s now visible.