My last day in London was Thursday and Ally and Cat both had a days holiday so off we went exploring. The weather was showery (for the first time for weeks in London!) and our first port of call was the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. I find all the different types of law courts in London rather bewildering, however these particular courts are mainly for civil cases I think - criminal cases are heard at the Old Bailey just up the road. We didn’t have time to go on a tour so just had a wander around, and it was very interesting; it has a large hall and upstairs it has many court rooms, some of which had cases going on. We followed signs to the “Bear Garden” but unsurprisingly when we arrived there was neither bear nor garden. So we asked a friendly looking lawyer who was passing, and she explained that in the nineteenth century, Queen Victoria had looked down on the room from a balcony corridor and said that the lawyers were as noisy as fighting bears, and the name stuck!
Our next stop was a Triforium tour at St Paul’s, where Catherine joined us. According to Wikipedia, the definition of a triforium is: “a shallow arched gallery within the thickness of an inner wall, above the nave of a church or cathedral”
So it’s like a secret walkway around the top of the inside wall of the cathedral. It was absolutely fascinating. We had a lovely guide called Bill, who was quite quiet but extremely interesting and knowledgable when asked the right questions (which Catherine and Cat did very effectively). It is a treasure trove of dusty old artefacts such as statues, old pulpits, stones from the original mediaeval cathedral which burned down during the great fire of London in 1666, and paintings on which the mosaics on the ceiling were based. Bill knew all the history and anecdotes about the people involved, especially Sir Christopher Wren, who seems to have been an amazingly talented man. There is a giant model of St Paul’s which was used by the builders as a 3D model, apparently Prince Charles was allowed to play in it as a child and got so dirty that fresh clothes had to be sent for from the palace! There was so much more, but rather than list it all here, can I recommend that readers book the tour themselves, it really is worthwhile.
After the tour we found ourselves in need of sustenance, so instead of exploring the public areas of the Cathedral, we went to Madisons for cool drinks. The good news is that our entrance tickets are valid for a whole year, so hopefully I will get a chance to visit again.
But the day was not yet over! Ally had also booked us a tour of the Supreme Court, near Westminster, which is the final court of appeal in the UK for civil cases, and for criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It also hears cases from Commonwealth countries which don’t have higher courts of appeal. It was amazing, and our guide (a young and recently qualified lawyer) was enthusiastic and excellent. I don’t even know how to start describing all the things that we learned, again I would urge readers to go there. I’m so glad that I visited it. It’s in recess just now but I would like to go and listen to a case some day. It also has a nice wee café where I indulged in a delicious piece of lemon, ginger and turmeric cake.
And so my time in London came to an end and I made my way back to Heathrow and then home without incident.
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