1982 Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament (7/5/1982)

Monday, July 5, 1982

This morning they were playing the music quietly in the restaurant for our breakfast of two different rolls with butter and jam. We went to check-in for another night, and the price went down to 5.25 GBP because they were adding two more tenants. Saw a crossing guard near the hostel, with a coat and shield in a fluorescent green-yellow color, and passed a nursery shop that had fuschia trees that Sue had never seen before.

Crossing guard

We walked back to Victoria Station, stopping at the coach station to find out they would not honor our BritRail passes, nor take them in exchange for bus passes. There were two trains sitting in Victoria Station, and the ticket agent said they would leave if the drivers came. He didn’t know anything more. We went to the BritRail Travel Centre and were told we could get the passes cancelled for a refund, or we could validate them and get a refund for each day the trains were on strike. We decided to go to the SNCF/French Railway offices, following Buckingham Palace Road past the Royal Mews where the Queen’s Royal Carriage is kept, and Buckingham Palace with the red-coated guardsmen pacing to and fro in front of their guard boxes.

Buckingham Palace guard

Buckingham Palace

Walked through Green Park, which was indeed green, with canvas lounge chairs scattered here and there.

Gates to Green Park

We arrived at Piccadilly Circus and knew SNCF was at #179. We followed the numbers upward, arriving at the 130s before reaching the end of the row of buildings. Across the street was a park. We asked a bobby/policeman who told us we had to go to the opposite side of the road and down beyond a park. Retraced our steps past posh hotels and shops. Finally found the SNCF office to pick up applications to extend our Eurail Passes from 15 to 21 days, but we didn’t hand them in yet. Returned to Buckingham Palace where the helmeted bobbies were keeping the crowds in good order, waiting for the changing of the guard ceremony. At 11:30 we heard the footsteps of the guards in their hobnailed boots marching down The Mall and around the other side of the circle from where we stood. They were accompanied by a band and followed by a fife and drum corps, then the Horse Guard.

Palace Guards and band

Horse Guards

We couldn’t see, but heard the music and the stomping of boots of the changing of the guard. Partway through the ceremony, a car drove to a side entrance of the Palace and deposited a young couple. Prince Charles and Princess Diana? Probably not as they just had a baby, Prince William, last month.

London taxi

We tried to figure out where the palace guards would leave and went to the middle of the circle to admire the Queen Victoria Memorial (1911 by Sir Thomas Brock).

Queen Victoria Memorial

We sat on the curb and watched the traffic go by. Although the road was about 4 lanes wide, there were no markings, yet cars, taxis, and bicycles smoothly zoomed around the circle. Every once in a while people would run across, and the cars would stop.

London bobbies/policemen

When the ceremony was over, we ran to the barricade in time to watch the guards pass right by in their funny rolled toe boots.

Palace Guards

Palace Guards band

We ran to the other side of the circle to watch the rest of the troops head down the Mall, with mounted police holding back the traffic. Ran back to the side of the first exiting guards to follow their route to the Wellington Barracks. Through the fence we saw the troops put at ease and run into the guard room, while the band members boarded buses. Those band members were not all young!

We returned to Victoria Station and were unable to get any predictions about the BritRail strike, but decided to get the passes cancelled in hopes of getting a 100% refund. At the tourist board we purchased two one-day bus/tube passes. After a brief rest sitting next to a bag lady, we headed up Victoria Street, stopping at a fruit stand for a half pound of cherries. Saw the Byzantine-like architecture of the Catholic Westminster Cathedral (1895-1903, designed by architect John Francis Bentley), where Pope John Paul II had celebrated Mass in May.

Stopped in a post office to buy stamps, and Sue discovered she had a 2-schilling piece. We learned that is equal to 10 pence. We had hoped to see Scotland Yard, but the Metropolitan Police offices were covered by scaffolding.

Arrived at the more famous Westminster Abbey/Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster (1245-1517, largely finished by the architect Henry Yevele) and were confused by the array of tours offered.

Westminster Abbey

We entered the back of the church to see many tomb plaques and memorials, including one for Franklin D Roosevelt. Halfway down the aisles, there was a gate and you had to pay to go beyond it. At that point, a minister climbed into the pulpit to ask for quiet as he prayed for the people in Lebanon. (Israel had invaded southern Lebanon in June, hoping to expel the PLO, who had been launching guerrilla attacks into Israel from Lebanon, and the Syrian army. The Lebanese civilian population were the ones to suffer.)

We purchased a 1.10 GBP/$2 ticket to see the rest of the Abbey, and Sue joined a group that had formed as we entered.

Westminster Abbey ticket

Thus we learned there is a fancy altar frontal that can be removed from this altar in front of the choir, where the commoners were separated from royalty. The choir had rows of seats on either side, each with shelving and a lamp. The royalty’s altar (High Altar, 1867, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott) was behind the choir, where we sat in pews to learn about who was buried in the church, the coronation procedure which takes pace here, and the doors with peep holes were pointed out (the nuns sat behind these doors for Mass?).

When we realized this was an organized tour and we didn’t belong, we took off on our own to see the two rose windows, the mosaic floor, and the many, many commemorative statues, memorial plaques, gravestones in the floor, and tombs. We circled around the chapels to see the tombs of royalty, such as Mary I and Elizabeth I, along with smaller tombs of child princesses and an urn of a king and prince killed in the Tower of London as children. Henry VII, founder of this Abbey church, has a central tomb in the chapel behind the altar. There is also the Coronation Chair, a primitive wooden piece sitting atop a bulky rock (brought to the Abbey in 1296), which is the Stone of Scone upon which earlier kings of Scotland were crowned. Behind the chair we could peek into the RAF chapel at the back, with rows of seats for knights. (I don’t think the knights and RAF were from the same time period!)

The south transept contained Poet’s Corner where many literary figures were buried. We exited into the cloister that had a brass rubbing display, and black paper and gold-colored wax were sold for you to do a rubbing on one of the provided brass plates. The Chapter House was the site of the first meeting hall of the House of Commons and had a 700-year old floor.

We went to the Treasury to see masks and effigies (wax figures) of several of the notables buried in the Abbey, and copies of the crown jewels.

Westminster Abbey Treasury ticket

Also Henry V’s sword and saddle, a ring Elizabeth I gave to Lord Essex, and many religious articles. Sue asked if there are vaults beneath the abbey for burials, or whether they broke through the floor to bury someone. The lady didn’t know the answer. (NB. Now with the internet you can learn that vaults were built under the Abbey, until they ran out of space and now monarchs are buried at Windsor Castle.)

We went out in the Dean’s Yard to sit in the grass and eat cherries, when a group of boys in white shorts and t-shirts came out of a far building to lumber around the square doing laps. Meanwhile their pot-bellied coach set up an unusually low soccer net. The boys were divided into shirts and skins, with 10 per side. The coach tossed in a volleyball-size ball and they began a game unfamiliar to us. They threw the ball to teammates, who could not move unless they dribbled the ball, which was awkward on the grass. By mostly throwing and a little dribbling, they tried to throw the ball into the low goal past a goalie. We saw one goal, but the game was slow because of many whistles. It looked like you could not kick the ball.

We saw many boys in shorts, shirt and tie and wondered if school was still in session. Took a photo of the large round red mailbox for the Royal Mail.

Mailbox

After a stop in the Westminster Bookshop (souvenir shop), we headed towards Parliament/Palace of Westminster (1840-1870 by architect Charles Barry). It was a grand Perpendicular Gothic structure with the decorations we tend to think of for a cathedral. Connected by a building with slightly different architecture was the tower of Big Ben/Elizabeth Tower (1859 designed by Augustus Pugin) with its intricate decorations and large clock face (built by Edward John Dent on designs by amateur horologist Edmund Beckett Denison, which has remained reliable since installed in 1859).

Big Ben Tower

The tower is now called by the nickname of the largest bell in the tower, the Great Bell of Westminster, now in its second reincarnation. The four quarter bells strike the quarter hour and Big Ben strikes the hour.

Turned left on Whitehall and had to peek down Downing Street to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s residence and office at #10 (originally three houses built in 1682 and 1684), as the street is blocked at both ends.

10 Downing Street

We passed the Whitehall government offices and came to a gate flanked by two big guard boxes as big as stalls. This was the Horse Guards headquarters, and since it was after 16:00, we missed seeing the 4-legged guards. Across the street was the old Palace of Whitehall (15C, former main residence of monarchs in London), destroyed by fire, except the 1622 Banqueting Hall designed by Inigo Jones. King Charles I was executed in front of this building in 1649 for treason.

Continued to Trafalgar Square with the giant Nelson’s Column (1840-1843 to commemorate Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, designed by William Railton) soaring up in the center, surrounded by four stone lions (sculpted by Sir Edwin Landseer and cast in bronze melted from cannon taken from French and Spanish ships during the naval Battle of Trafalgar). Two large fountains (designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1937-39) fronted the column.

We passed the immense National Gallery building to cute little Leicester Square. There beside the green, the flowers, the trees, and full benches, we found a ticket booth reminiscent of the one in Times Square, NYC, that sells discount theatre tickets. The queue had only 10 people, and we bought 4.25 GBP plus a 50 pence fee /$8.30 tickets for the play “Children of a Lesser God.” We went to find the Albery Theater on St Martin's Lane, coming at it from behind at its stage doors. Once we knew where it was located, we went to look for a place to eat. We returned Leicester Square to check the guidebook for recommendations, only to go back to St Martin’s Lane for the Frigate restaurant. It was not open, but we figured it would at 17:30. We sat at empty tables of a restaurant across the street to wait. I went looking for a garbage can, and almost tossed my trash in a yellow salt container. At 17:30, the restaurant where we were sitting opened, but not the Frigate. This time we tried a basement restaurant of Slatters on the other side of Leicester Square on Panton Street. We were the first patrons in a small place that could seat maybe 20 people. There were sketches on the walls, and a notice for a showing for the artist. I ordered a game country pie with iced tea, and Sue ordered an asparagus quiche with hot tea. My dish was a cold but tasty meat pie (I do not know what game was in it) baked in a crust and sliced like bread. It came with a green salad, cole slaw, and potato salad! Across the street was the British Ministry of Eggs offering information on eggs!

Albery Theaatre ticket

We left at 19:00 to go to the theatre and found our seats in the middle of the third row on the balcony; great seats! The theater was small and the play was excellent. At 22:00 we headed over to Leicester Square to the London Tube/Metro station, and bought 40 pence/70 cent tickets to put in the slot of the turnstile. I realized that I then had to retrieve the ticket when it popped up again. We boarded a tube-like tube train where the doors curved at the top. The seats were upholstered in a corduroy-like fabric and the floors were wooden slats. We were surprised that smoking was allowed. When we got off at the South Kensington Station, we saw that there are no-smoking cars as well. We found our way back to the hostel and our room was dark and had another bunk bed in it. But only the same girls from the night before were there.