I met up with Harry in the Strand. Unlike him he arrived late. We set off straight away and walked to Trafalgar Square. He read from the Hidden London Walks book and told the stories. I took the pictures and listened. The square has the smallest police station in the country, only enough room to hold one policeman.
The highlight of the tour came when we walked up Savoy Hill and discovered the King’s Chapel of the Savoy. It looked so pretty among all the modern building surrounding it. I approached and entered.
Here is a potted history of the Chapel
A palace was built on the Savoy estate in the fourteenth century by John of Gaunt (1340-1399), a younger son of King Edward III. Its lifetime was short. It was plundered and burned in 1381 during the Peasants’ Revolt. Contrary to a persistent belief, nothing of the palace survives above ground. It remained semi-derelict until what was left of it was cleared away in the early sixteenth century by command of King Henry VII to construct a foundation known as ‘Hospital of Henry late King of England of the Savoy’. The hospital was begun towards the end of the king’s reign and completed by 1515. It was a charitable foundation to provide a night’s lodging for 100 ‘pour and nedie’ men. Engravings of the hospital show an extensive complex of buildings, including a great dormitory, longer than Westminster Hall, and three chapels, dedicated to St John the Baptist, St Catherine and Our Lady. The hospital foundation was dissolved in 1702 and most of the complex was demolished in the early nineteenth century for redevelopment and to allow the construction of the approach road to the new Waterloo Bridge. All that survives today is the Chapel of St John the Baptist, now known as The King’s Chapel of the Savoy.
We wandered on up to the Strand, which is bastardisation of an old english word meaning shore i.e. the edge of the river. We passed Somerset House and popped into St Clement Danes
The exterior belies the very ordinary interior.
Through The Aldwych another OE term meaning old settlement. and into Fleet Street. We passed by The Cock Inn and left the street to see Samuel Johnson’s House, closed at the time of our passing. We entered the Olde Cheddar Cheese to have a pint and something to eat. However they took so long to serve us and they only had hamburgers on the menu so we left with nothing.
Our next stop where we tried to drink and eat was the Punch Tavern. We ordered drinks but when we asked to see the menu the bar girl admitted that there would be at least a 40 minute wait. Harry and I chatted for awhile and then moved onto The Old Bell Tavern where we had another drink and I ordered the steak and ale pie with mash and carrots, a good value plate of food.
When we had finished we walked back to Charing Cross and made our separate ways home. A very good day out in London following the book, chatting and a couple of drinks.