London's Globe Theatre

Set behind a red brick wall on the banks of London’s River Thames, opposite St Pauls Cathedral is what appears to be a very old building possibly from the 1500’s.

It is distinctive by having white walls, with an old style render and wooden supports. A straw thatched roof complete the old world feel. It is in fact a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

Shakespeare the famed actor and playwright is still as popular today as he was in his heyday 400 years ago. With memorable place like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet in much ado about nothing makes him possibly the worlds most famous theatrical writer.

It maybe a replica, but it is as close to the original design as possible from the information that was known about its predecessor, an Elizabethan style building (buildings built in the time of Elizabeth I). It is made from wood of unseasoned oak and uses wooden pegs to hold it together. It has thatched roof which was the first new one in London since the Great Fire of London in September 1666. The architects had to get special permission for the local building regulators to build a wooden structure in London as it was not permitted after that fire anymore.. If you look at the roof you can see the sprinklers, one of the many concessions the builders had to take to get it completed. Like the original it is open to the weather, so if you're seeing a performance at the theatre you will get wet as well as the actors.

What can we expect to see in Shakespeares Globe Theatre?

This building is not just a replica and it’s not a museum.The way to experience the Globe is to enjoy a live performance here. It is like transporting yourself back 400 years to the time of Shakespeare himself. If you can imagine as you walk through the doors at ground level you will see the stage 5 feet from the ground which has a canopy over it held up by columns. Like the original it is galleried seating in a circle around the stage on 3 levels. The bench style seat are wooden and quite uncomfortable, but you can hire cushions and a back rest. And if it’s cold you can even hire a blanket.

• History

• Blue plaque/Sam Wanamaker

If you look closely at the theatre from the river side path, on the wall there is a Blue plaque to a man by the name of Sam Wanamaker.

He was an America actor and director who loved to play in Shakespearean roll. He came to England to work in the 1950’s after becoming fearful of being blacklisted in Hollywood due to his communist sympathies as a student. Shortly after setting up home here he went with excitement on the hunt of the original globe theatre, as he had acted in many replicas back at home. He was dismayed to find that the only evidence of it was that green plaque that we saw which was on the wall of a brewery. This started for him an obsession to see a Globe Theatre back by the south banks of the River Thames. He established the Shakespeare Globe Playhouse Trust. Seventeen years later a groundbreaking ceremony was held on a Bankside site near that of the original Globe, which he would of witnessed but unfortunately he died in year before, 4 year before it opened in 1997. It was a real gamble that most people thought would fail, particularly because this area was still just derelict warehouses and where no body ever came. But his vision has transformed the area now commonly known as the Southbank or Southwark. 3 year later the Tate Morden gallery open in 2000 the same year we got a new foot bridge, theM illennium Bridge across the river Thames.

• Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

The theatres has been so successful that it has also has additions. In 2014 an indoor theatre call the Sam Wanamaker playhouse was built. It is said to have similarities with another in door theatres that Shakespeare used,  just north of the river from where we are standing call the Blackfriars Playhouse. The modern Globe found, just like Shakespeare did 400 years ago, that you can’t make money with an open air theatres in the winter, so you need to build an indoor one. Like the out door theatre, seeing a performance here is like stepping back in time. The show are performed in candle light with candelabra and chandeliers surrounding the audience.

• Today

You can of course visit the theatre to see a show but you can also take guided tours to give you the backstage view of what has become a new modern icon (old) for London

The Bank of England

The Bank of England by Paul Murphy 

 The Bank of England is the United Kingdom’s central bank. Today, some of the bank’s main responsibilities are:

• Design and print bank notes (which it has had sole rights to for over 300 years)

• Store gold in its vaults on behalf of its customers

• Act as Treasurer for raising money and managing the government’s debt

• Safeguarding the value of the nation’s money by putting downward pressure on inflation 

• Controlling interest rates

Duke of Wellington Statue outside The Bank of England

History

In the late 17th century, King William III found that the long, ongoing war against France was taking its financial toll. So William Paterson, a city merchant and great financial genius of the time, along with Michael Godfrey, also a merchant, proposed a public loan. The scheme was to set up a National Bank, which would lend its share capital to the government. Investors would receive a guaranteed return through money raised from a new levy on shipping and alcohol. This was know as the “Tonnage Act”.

The proposal was put to the cabinet by Charles Montage, 1st Earl of Halifax, who, at the time, was Commissioner of the Treasury and was made Chancellor of the Exchequer in reward for establishing “The Bank of England” in 1694. In just 11 days, £1.2 million had been raised. The bank was given a Royal Charter on 27 July 1694 (a Royal Charter is a formal document issued by the Monarch as a letter of patent).

The Bank of England was founded as a private bank, but by 1844 it had become the official Central Bank of the United Kingdom. In 1997 the bank was given independence by the labour government’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, under the leadership of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The first Governor of the bank was Sir John Houblon, grandson of a French Hugenot refugee. Today’s Governor, Mark Carney, a Canadian, is the first non-British born Governor of the bank. 

Old Lady of Threadneedle Street

There are several possible theories for this term, but two of the more plausible  are:

1. A cartoon satirising the government’s constant interference in the Bank’s affairs. The illustration by James Gillray, entitled “Political Ravishment” or “The Old Lady’s in Danger”, showed William Pitt, the Prime Minister, picking the coin-filled pockets of an old lady, personifying the Bank, whose dress is made of £1 notes.

2.  A lady named Sarah Whitehead, whose brother Philip was found guilty of forgery in 1811 and was executed for his crime. Sarah was so shocked she became unhinged and for the next 25 years she went to the bank asking for her brother. 

Architect John Soane

Locations and Architecture 

The bank first opened in July 1694 at Mercers Hall, Cheapside. In November the following year it moved to Grocers hall, Princes Street, remaining there until 1734, although work was started on its present location in Threadneedle Street in 1724. George Sampson was appointed architect on the first bank to be built in Threadneedle Street, which was finished in 1735. Robert Taylor expanded the building in 1765 adding the famous courtroom, where the Governor and committee meet every month to discuss interest rates, amongst other business. 

When rebuilding the Bank (1925-1939), the architect Sir Herbert Baker moved the room   from the ground floor to its present location on the third floor. 

During riots in 1780 a mob attacked the bank. The rioters were dispersed by the military. After this, the government sent guards every night to the bank and they became know as the Bank Picquet. The guard attended every night until 1973 when the bank set up their own security. 

The riots prompted the third, and arguably the most famous, of many architects to work on the bank John Soane, to build a huge, strong windowless wall to encircle the bank in 1788. This is known as the curtain wall and it covers the entire 3.5 acre site of the bank as it stands today.

The Bank of England remains as relevant to Britain today as it did at its conception in 1694, when the founding charter stated its purpose:

“To promote the public good, and benefit of our people”.

Banqueting House

Timeline of Banqueting House

• 1619 

Inigo Jones designs the new Banqueting House for James I.

• 1636  

Rubens' paintings are installed on the ceiling.

• 1649

King Charles I is executed on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House.

• 1689 

William and Mary are offered, and accept, the Crown of England at the Banqueting House. They reign as  joint monarchs after the deposition of James II.

• 1893

Queen Victoria granted the Banqueting House to the Royal United Service Institute for use as a museum.

• 1989

Management of the Banqueting House is taken over by Historic Royal Palaces.

The Architecture

The Banqueting House, Whitehall, London, is grade 1 listed, and is cited as a very important building in the history of English architecture.

t was commissioned by King James I because he wanted a stately building for the ‘Masque’, a form of festive theatrical entertainment. In Tudor and Stuart England, a ‘Banqueting House’ was described as a separate building reached through pleasure gardens from the main residence, whose use is purely for entertaining.

Finished in 1622, the very impressive design by Inigo Jones is in the ‘Palladian Style’ (the style used by Andrea Palladio, the 16th-century Italian architect). Jones was very much the architect of the moment and was riding high on the critical acclaim of his previous work of the Queen’s House at Greenwich which was inspired by Jones’ travels across Europe.

The interior of the Banqueting House is equally impressive, with ceiling canvases painted by the Flemish artist Sir Peter Paul Rubens, which were installed in the hall in 1636. The canvases are the only surviving ceiling paintings by Rubens and depict The Union of the Crowns, The Apotheosis of James I and The Peaceful Reign of James I.

James I also installed a vaulted undercroft that was designed as a drinking den for James and his friends. There was believed to be a ‘grotto’ decorated with shells which has now gone. After James’ death, the undercroft began to be used for secret gambling games. The vault still exists, and is now rented out as a function room.

The Banqueting House is the only building that still remains of Grand Whitehall Palace. The rest of the Palace was destroyed in 1698 by fire. The devastating fire is said to have been started by a careless washroom woman, who was heating water over a fire that got out of hand. The fire spread throughout the Palace, destroying it.

The building exterior was controversially refaced in Portland stone in the 19th century although the original façade was faithfully preserved.

Rubens' paintings

Charles I and the English Civil War

Charles I inherited a mess from his father, James I. Like his father, he believed he ruled by God’s command. Charles listened to his father’s advisor, the Duke of Buckingham who put up taxes and raised money by selling knighthoods. 

When Buckingham was murdered, Charles started taking advice from his French wife, who was a Catholic. This did not please the Protestant majority in the country, especially the Scottish. In 1640 the Scottish invaded. Charles fell out with Parliament and dismissed it. In 1642 Charles took his army into the House of Commons to arrest five members for plotting against the king but they had been tipped off and escaped. The King declared war on parliament. During the war a fine General named Oliver Cromwell emerged. In 1644 he trained the ‘New Model Army’ who went on to defeat the King. He finally surrendered in Scotland in 1646.

The Execution of a King

Outside the Banqueting House is the site of Charles I execution. It was on 30 January 1649, a freezing cold day. The King wore two shirts as he did not want to be seen shivering and have it mistaken for fear. He was persuaded to drink a glass of claret so he did not faint before reaching the execution block. He stepped through an open window onto a specially erected wooden stage, where his fate awaited him. Execution! 

His execution marked the climax of the English Civil war.

King Charles I is remembered each year on 30 January with a service at the Banqueting House.  

Borough Market

 London’s Greatest Food Market

Borough Market is believed to be over 1000 years old and is the only fully independent market in London. It is operated by a charitable trust and run by a board of volunteers, known as ‘The Borough Market’. Situated on the south side of London Bridge in Southwark, nestling between Borough High Street and the striking gothic architecture of Southwark Cathedral, the present market echoes to the sounds of the trains reverberating over the railway tracks above and of the 100+ market traders selling the best Britain, and indeed the world, has to offer. Walking throughout the market you cannot help but be excited by the array of colours from the fruit, veg, meat, fish, cheeses and by the aromas of the paella, gourmet burgers, bakeries and wonderful coffees in what must be London’s best market.   

Timeline of Borough Market 

11th-12th century

• A market takes shape along what is now known as Borough High Street.

13th century

• City of London markets are being threatened by the popularity of Borough Market. The City of London forbids Londoners from buying cheap goods from the market south of the river and selling them anywhere north of London Bridge. 

14th century

• The area becomes a haven for vagrancy and criminals.

15th century

• Henry IV grants to the City of London ‘assay and assize’ (licensing) of goods sold at Borough Market: revenues which had previously gone to the Crown. 

18th century  

• 1755-the market is closed by Act of Parliament due to congestion on the High Street and the impact on traders north of the river.

• 1756-parishioners of St Saviours church (now Southwark Cathedral) are granted the right to set up a new, independent market away from the High Street in an area still known as the Triangle.

19th century

• The market expands due to the growth of the railways. Borough becomes a vital hub for the sale of food to southeast London.

• The present building’s elaborate wrought ironwork is added. Designed in 1851 by Henry Rose, with further additions in 1863-64 by Edward Habershon. 

21st century

• The South Portico is added to the market in 2004. The portico was taken from ‘The Floral Hall’, previously at Covent Garden, which was dismantled when the Royal Opera House was reconstructed in the 1990s.

Park Street

Borough and the Railways

In the 1860s, the railways were expanding at a phenomenal rate. This required the building of a viaduct through the market. The original 1756 Market Act had forbidden the development of the site, so the trustees of the market said no! 

The compromise was to give the railway companies a ‘flying leasehold’, but only for as long as the railway operated. This is still the case today, and any future development of the site must be with the agreement of the trustees and full compensation must be paid to the market.

The market building on Bedale Street had its upper floors removed, as did the Wheatsheaf pub in Stoney Street for the new bridge to cross over them.

Iron work roof

Borough in the Movies

The atmospheric feel and the years of history surrounding the area of Borough has tempted many film makers to shoot films on location here including:

Bridget Jones’s Diary, starring Renee Zellweger (2001),

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, directed by Guy Ritchie (1998)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).

Borough Market’s Millennium

To celebrate its 1000th birthday in 2014, the market put on various events, one of which is Footsteps in Time.  At each of the three main entrances to the market, shoppers will walk through a different colour of eco-friendly wash-away paint. As they walk around the market, they will leave behind thousands of interlacing footprints, creating a vast and rapidly evolving work of art.

“The work beautifully represented all the millions of feet that have passed through the Market over the centuries - from William Shakespeare to Charlie Chaplin - as well as those that have yet to come,” said Keith Davis, the Managing Director of Borough Market.    

Monmouth Coffee shop