Skulferatu #115 - Gabriel's Pier, Gabriel's Wharf, Southbank, London

 

On yet another of the hottest days of the year, I was on a short stay over in London before heading back home.  So, what to do in that heat?  Well, I did the most sensible thing I could do, and as usual, went out in it.  As I was staying near to the Thames, and the tide was low, I thought I’d make my way there and wander along by the shores of the river to do a bit of mudlarking.

 

I wandered along the white hot pavements by Waterloo, and then cut through the back streets until I arrived at Gabriel’s Wharf.  There I made my way past the trendy, overpriced coffee shops and eateries, to a set of stairs that led me down onto a sandy beach by the Thames.

 

Busy people at Gabriel’s Wharf

 

Gabriel’s Pier and the shoreline along the Thames

 

Gabriel’s Pier and a bit of beach

 

This little bit of beach was busy with sunbathers and lots of children who were swimming in the brown, swirling waters of the river.  Though I was wilting in the heat I wasn’t going to join them in the cool water, as I remembered the stories of old about how dirty the Thames was.  There was one in particular about a passenger boat that sank sometime in the eighteenth century.  The story goes that of the hundred or so passengers on the boat, around twenty survivors were pulled from the river.  Within a week they had all died, poisoned by the water they had ingested while in the Thames.  The story, like many, may not be true, but the river was once horribly polluted and dirty, and even though it has now been cleaned up massively, you wouldn’t catch me swimming in it.

 

Leaving the beach area, I walked under Gabriel’s Pier and followed the shoreline along the Southbank, past the OXO building and towards Blackfriars Bridge.  Scraping at the stone and mud with my feet I found a few clay pipe stems and bowls, and a couple of small stones that had been cut into a circular shape with a whole drilled in the middle.  What they were I had no idea, but stuck them into my pocket anyway.

 

Shoreline along the Thames

 

Finding a relatively dry outcrop of rocks I sat down to watch life on the river.  Tourist boats sped past whipping the shoreline with rough waves, a couple of barges ambled by, and a group of a dozen or so canoeists paddled along, bouncing merrily in the waves of the passing boats.  Seagulls soared over, screeching, and gabbling in the way that seagulls do, and up above on the walkways around the shore was the distant mumble of the thousands of people out and about in the hot, hot sun.

 

After daydreaming for a while on my seat of rock, I walked back along the shore to Gabriel’s Pier, which like Gabriel’s Wharf, is named after Christopher Gabriel, whose family business was based here from the 1770s until 1919. 

 

Gabriel’s Pier

 

Under the pier

 

In a tangled wooden thing that had been fixed between the struts of the pier, I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me on my walk.

 

Skulferatu #115

 

Skulferatu #115 in a tangled wooden thing

 

Skulferatu #115 in a tangled wooden thing

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #115

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 51.508557

Longitude -0.109673

 

what3words: until.swaps.wiped

 

 

 

Skulferatu #110 - Bastion 14, London City Wall, Barbican, London

Travelling down to Kent, I found I had an unexpected day out and overnight stay in central London due to a train strike. So, what to do? Well, I did what I always do and went for a walk. After a foray around the banks of the Thames I cut up past Saint Paul’s and towards the Barbican. There, amongst an array of buildings from Brutalist concrete to glass and steel I spotted a ruin, sitting in a little oasis of green, just by the entrance to an underground carpark.

 

The ruins of Bastion 14 sitting by the 1970s Bastion House

 

Bastion 14 with concrete and glass buildings towering above it

 

Making my way down to it, I found that it was the remains of a fort that formed part of the old City Wall of London. This Medieval wall was built on the foundations of the old Roman wall around the city, and the fort, or Bastion 14 to give it its official title, was one of the 21 bastions built along it. 

 

Bastion 14

 

The original city wall was built by the Romans around 200AD as a defensive wall around Londinium. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, it fell into decay. In medieval times the need for a defensive wall was once again called for, and large sections of the wall were repaired and rebuilt. Then, in the 17^th century London expanded rapidly and the wall was seen as no longer necessary, so much of it was demolished.

 

Tourist Info Map at site, showing the course of the City Wall

 

When the city wall fell out of use, many of the bastions were incorporated into other buildings, with Bastion 14 at one time being used as part of a warehouse.

 

During the Second World War the area around Bastion 14 was flattened by bombing and the buildings encasing it were destroyed. The Bastion was then identified as a historic structure and was saved from demolition. However, the 1970s office block towering above it, Bastion House, doesn’t appear to be so lucky, as it is now earmarked for demolition. Shame, as it’s so ugly that I quite like it.

 

The walls of Bastion 14 with Bastion House towering above

 

Bastion House

 

I had the whole garden area to myself as I wandered the old wall and Bastion 14. As the sun warmed my old bones, insects buzzed around me, and two crows kept an eye on me as they skipped and hopped around the grass lawn looking for insects.

 

The old City Wall and Bastion 14

 

Dried husks and seed heads

 

Bastion 14 with glass and concrete buildings all around

 

Bastion 14

 

While walking along a path through a small garden area of dried husks and seed heads, I saw a gap in the old brickwork by the wall beside the Bastion. There I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me.

 

Skulferatu #110

 

Old wall beside Bastion 14

 

Skulferatu #110 in a gap in the wall beside Bastion 14

 

Skulferatu #110 in a gap in the wall beside Bastion 14

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #110

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 51.517828

Longitude -0.095148

 

what3words: bars.wider.teach

 

I used the following sources for information on Bastion 14 –

 

Tourist Information boards at the site

 

Museum of London Archaeology

A standing building survey of Bastion 14, City of London | MOLA

 

 

Skulferatu #57 - St Paul's Churchyard, London

St Paul’s Churchyard is one of those places in the centre of London where you can escape from the chaos of the busy streets nearby.  A place to relax, contemplate life, or just sit and drink a cup of tea from one of the many nearby cafés.

 

St Paul’s Cathedral

 

Cathedral Dome and St Paul’s Cross

 

Statue of St Thomas à Becket by E Bainbridge Copnall

 

Mausoleum building in the churchyard

 

The churchyard wasn’t always such a relaxing place though.  It was once a place of much hustle and bustle, with markets selling cloth and other goods, booksellers selling books and shops selling music and musical instruments.  Large crowds also gathered there on one occasion to watch the execution of one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot, Father Henry Garnet.  He suffered the rather unpleasant fate of being hung drawn and quartered. 

 

From the mid-15^th Century to around 1635 St Paul’s Cross stood in the churchyard.  This was an open air pulpit and cross from which many sermons were preached and where large crowds gathered to hear them. During the Reformation it became an important place for the government to put forth the religious views that they espoused. 

 

St Paul’s Cross

 

Statue of St Paul

 

Plaque commemorating original St Paul’s Cross

 

The original St Paul’s Cross is long gone, but it is now commemorated by a monument that stands nearby to where it once stood.

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me during my wander around the churchyard in a hollow in a tree near to the St Paul’s Cross monument.

 

Skulferatu #57

 

Skulferatu #57 in hollow in tree near to St Paul’s Cross

 

Skulferatu #57 in hollow in tree near to St Paul’s Cross

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #57

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 51.514174

Longitude -09.097577

 

I used the following sources for information on St Paul’s Churchyard -

 

British History Online

St Paul's: The churchyard | British History Online

 

Wikipedia

Wikipedia - St Paul's Cross

Skulferatu #56 - River Thames Foreshore by Trig Lane Stairs, Paul's Walk, London

 

Many times, as I’ve walked around central London, I have passed stairs leading down into the murky waters of the Thames.  Sometimes, if I’m lucky, the tide is out, and I can take a stroll along the foreshore to do a bit of mudlarking.  I am not a very dedicated mudlarker though, so my collection of items recovered from the mud and sands of the Thames amounts to not much more than a jar full of clay pipe stems and a couple of water worn plastic toys.

 

Trig Lane Stairs lead down to the foreshore from Paul’s Walk, near to the Millennium Bridge.  I have passed these many times, but never ventured down them.  So, while out killing some time before meeting up with a friend, I came across them and decided to go down and have a look around.  The stairs themselves are not for the faint hearted, or doddery old farts like me, as they are quite steep.  However, I managed to get down them without any mishaps.

 

Foreshore of the Thames with the Millennium Bridge in the background

 

View from the foreshore over to the Tate Modern

 

Under the Millennium Bridge

 

I took a little time wandering around the shore which was a mish mash of pebbles, water smoothed bricks, sand and mud.  Amongst all of this were piles and piles of animal bones.  Brown with age and mud I assumed they must hark back to a time when there was a slaughterhouse or butcher’s nearby.  Or maybe just lots of ale houses selling mutton on the bone with the waters of the Thames being an easy place to dispose of all the waste.  Then there were the thousands of clay pipe stems and pieces of the pipe bowls, these being the fag ends of their day.  I collected up a few of these and wondered who the smokers were who had puffed away on the coarse tobacco in them a couple of hundred or so years before.  I suppose it could be anyone from a great literary mind or political thinker to a gin soak.  I ain’t ever going to know, but its fun to imagine the life of the person who had puffed away on it.

 

View from foreshore by Trig Lane Stairs

 

View over the Thames to the Shard

 

As more people began to make their way down the stairs to explore the shore, I found a place to discreetly leave the Skulferatu who had accompanied me down there.  I left it in a small sandy patch, just under the Millennium Bridge.

 

Skulferatu #56

 

Skulferatu #56 in the sand on the shore of the Thames

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #56

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 51.510631

Longitude -0.098475