Up Close and Personal with Shakespeare and the Lord Mayor

We had a rough start to our Southwark day today when we arrived at our local subway station only to learn that the line that we wanted to use (and several others) was closed for the weekend. So we walked a few miles, bussed a few miles, and taxied a few miles to get the Globe over an hour later then we originally planned. But Ruthie’s tour was worth the wait. Spirited and spunky in nature, Ruthie, an actress, led us around the theatre and stage for almost an hour. I loved seeing the painted ceiling over the stage, the two trapdoors for actors who are arriving from either heaven or hell, and the thatch roof, which is now the only one in London. It was also fun to watch the stage crew setting the stage for the performance of The Merchant of Venice, which was performed this afternoon. After the tour, we spent some time in the downstairs exhibition, the highlight of which was the special audio exhibit where we were able to press a button and hear famous actors and actresses performing famous lines from various plays. I listened to several selections from King Lear, including the “Howl, howl, howl…” speech from the end of the play as Cordelia dies. I was able to get a warm-up for our viewing of Othello tomorrow night in listening to Paul Robeson’s and Sam Wannamaker’s renditions of the Moor and evil Iago. Here's a picture of me standing in the middle gallery, close to our
seats for tomorrow night's performance:






Upon leaving the theatre, we explored other parts of Southwark, including the Borough Market, which is known for its Saturday markets. Though its stalls offered many delectable goodies, in the end, we decided to eat lunch at the very old and also well known George Inn. Dickens mentions it in some of his work, and it is supposed that Shakespeare both ate in the pub and possibly performed here in its courtyard, where we ate while enjoying a bit of mid-day sun. Surprisingly, the pub was filled with locals instead of tourists, and it was an enjoyable end to our time in Southwark.

Next, we crossed the Thames to a place filled with more tourists than locals – the City. This is the original part of the city, which was first settled by the Romans. While a fair amount of time here was spent looking up at unpleasant modern structures (mostly financial institutions), we did see the now dwarfed Monument, a 202-foot tower designed by Christopher Wren to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666. The highlights of our time in the City Center, however, were in the area around St. Paul’s, which was also designed by Wren. Turns out, he designed pretty much everything in this entire section of town. Although we could not actually get into St. Paul’s today because of a special service being held for the Knights of St. John, we were able to see a bit of pageantry as only the British can do it when the Lord Mayor, his wife, and several other important-looking (and wigged, I might add) men exited the cathedral after the service. As he stood not fifteen feet in front of us, he executed a queen-style wave and popped into the back of his Rolls Royce.






We were right up front, and this coincidental experience was worth the loss of personal space as I was jabbed by the hordes of tourists around me. We will return to St. Paul’s on Tuesday, when we were originally supposed to see it anyway.

We finished our afternoon with a walk to the Museum of London, which traces the history of London all the way back to before it was peopled. Of course, the much more interesting exhibits were not about land masses and hill formation, but about Roman London and the Great Fire. I was disappointed that the Victorian section was closed, but we should see a similar exhibit in a museum in York, so I can look forward to that instead.

After returning to our neighborhood, we took a walk along the Thames and enjoyed the beautiful homes and gardens of South Chelsea. Many very stylish older people live in this area, and watching them and all of their very British stodginess was almost as fun as looking at all of the beautiful homes along the way. I am now glad to be back “home” and off of my feet, and as I type, I am looking out our front window at the rainstorm outside. Luckily, we avoided heavy rain today and only experienced brief showers here and there. We will hope for more of the same or even better weather tomorrow.