So up until late Friday afternoon I hadn’t the foggiest idea what I was doing on Saturday. Until I saw a mention on Londonist of the London Maze that was happening at Guildhall in London on Saturday. As Londonist pointed out, Diamond Geezer has much more info on his site than the official Maze site has. It’s basically a history fair held in a rather historical building. And there was free access to the Guildhall Art Gallery. I was sold. I wanted to get to the gallery during Open House a few weeks ago but didn’t have time.
Took the coach from Cambridge in to Victoria and then grabbed the tube to Canon Street. Grabbed an early lunch and made my way to the Guildhall. The fair was fair enough. Saw some interesting looking books that I made note of and organizations to look up (like one that does specifically industrial archeology). I got a bag of City of London freebies. The bag has a big City of London emblem on it so even that made me a happy bunny. The exhibit in the gallery was about items from London’s past that were moved, and in some cases returned to their original locations.
Walked from Guildhall, across London Bridge to Borough Market. I hadn’t been there in ages and wanted to get myself a brownie. Nom nom. When I was around here earlier in the week I noticed that the scaffolding had been removed from the top of The Monument which has been having restoration work done to it for several months now. It’s looking quite nice.
As I didn’t have anything else planned, it was a good opportunity for a final push to get to the Jack the Ripper and the East End exhibition at the Museum in Docklands. It closes on November 2nd and I’ve been meaning to get to it for ages. Trouble is the DLR is in various stages of engineering work until sometime in the fantastic year 2080, so getting there was always a pain. Seeing as I didn’t have anything else pressing as I usually do, now was the time. I’m pretty sure it’s been a bit over two years since I’ve been to the Museum in Docklands. It’s a bit of an odd, but neat feeling to think that I have a history with London now. First though, I thought I’d take a stop into Greenwich as I was in the area.
Took the tube from London Bridge up to Bank and then grabbed the DLR as far as I could to Westferry. Got a rail replacement bus to Cutty Sark in Greenwich. Had a look around Greenwich Park, the Royal Observatory and the Royal Naval College. The weather was amazing and by this point I was just in my t-shirt. A refreshing change after the cold snap a week ago.
Caught the rail replacement bus to Canary Wharf and the Museum in Docklands is a short walk from there. I’m getting a bit better at finding my way around that area. It’s a bit too modern perhaps for me to be able to navigate ;).
The exhibit was very good. It’s in two parts. First is about the conditions of the East End of the time and how that lended to a crime like the Ripper murders happening. Photos of people and places, artifacts from sweat houses and factories. One interesting item on display was the jaw of a woman who suffered from “phossy jaw”. This was the name given to the effects of working with phosphorus in match factories. The woman who worked at the Bryant & May match factory made history by going on strike to get their working conditions improved.
The second part was focused on the Ripper murders. There were copies of police reports, maps, supposed letters from the killer and letters sent from the public to the police and newspapers. There was a surgical knife that was supposed to be the murder weapon, or so was told the person who the knife was given to.
Hopped back on the DLR at West India Quay to Bank. There was a bit of an Oyster card hiccup. Everyone who came off the DLR had problems with their cards working at the gates. Walked to Monument station (quicker than interchanging underground) and took the train to Embankment. I was originally going to head further west to the Science Museum for a bit of shopping, but at this point it was nearly 6 o’clock, so much too late for that. Instead I had a lovely chicken panini and a leisurely stroll along Victoria embankment, past Westminster Palace and Abbey and onto Victoria station to catch the coach home.
Photos, as always, are up on Flickr and here are my tracks for the day…
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