...had just finished celebrating Mass at westminster Cathedral when I arrived to meet my fellow History Walkers on the steps. He greeted me very cheerily and wished us a good walk, adding that he hoped I wouldn't make everyone go too fast...a weeks back I bumped into him when I was hurrying across the piazza. It's true that I do walk v.v. quickly - more than once I've had Walkers begging me to slow down a bit...but I always feel so keen to show everything that is along the route, as London as so much fabulous history!
It was a beautiful May evening, and our Walk took us into St James Park, and on down to Horseguards. The Houses of Parliament were bathed in a sunset glow and then slowly the darkness fell and the lamps came on.
So much of London is ugly now: the revolting "walkie talkie" in the City, the blank, faceless soaring Shard, the horrible concrete and glass slabs destroying any possibilty of a pleasant walk down Victoria Street (always a dull road, and available for some imaginative changes, but no...)
But things move and change...one day the vile ugly buildings will come down, to be replaced by something different again. London once had slums where cholera festered, and a public executiuon site where people crowded to view the hangman and his butcher assistants. And those things seemed normal at the time.
More Walks planned...meet Sunday June 7th, 2.30pm at Holy Redeemer Church, Chelsea, for a walk in the footsteps of St Thomas More....Sunday June 21st for the big Martyrs Walk starting 1.30pm Stepulchre's churchyard, near the OLD BAILEY...Monday July 6th, meet 6pm (after Evening Prayer) at St Patrick's, Soho....
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