London Open House 22 September
A bright but cold start in the City of London, I had planned
to visit the Bank of England but the length of the queue put me off so went to
the second on my list, The Guildhall.
A lot more to it than I had expected with lots of interesting bits in addition
to the main hall itself, interesting to see the amalgam of the old buildings
with the more recent builds, including the Guildhall Art Gallery.
Then a rush to get to Trinity
House (1794) before it closed, again
more to see than I had expected, including a couple of good models of Light
Ships, one having a couple of canons (not sure what they were used for?). The
building was damaged in WW2 but well restored.
Then onto The Custom
House, (1817 & 1825) a large building on the Thames bank. A typical air
of governmental neglect inside but with an impressive ‘large room’ in the
centre of the building where the main customs business took place, now
seemingly just used as an office space.
Onwards to Blackfriars and Unilever House, an imposing 1930’s building, the frontage recently
restored with a modern office development behind.
Then a walk through the Inns of Court to the days highlight The Royal Courts of Justice (1874-1882)
G E Street’s masterpiece. Very Victorian Gothic with little obvious internal
changes and a magnificent main hall with corridors and court rooms leading off
it. Certainly made an impression on me and the exterior features in my
City2City ‘PhotoWalk’ – Blackfriars to Waterloo Bridge via Aldwich
