Harry Potter Tour in London

We took a Harry Potter tour while in London. Free Tours by Foot is an excellent tour company that provides young professional guides the opportunity to hone their skills. The consumers pay what they want at the end of the tour. It is usually suggested that an individual pays 10 GBP for a tour that lasts around 2 1/2 hours.  These are obviously all walking tours (tours by foot), so you have to have the stamina to walk for a few hours. Tours are reserved by signing up on their web page.  Over the past several years we have participated in a food tour of east London and a street art tour of east London. Both were very interesting. The Harry Potter tour was as well. 

We started the tour off at the Westminster Underground Station. In the movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" Harry and Mr. Weasley pass through this station on the way to Harry's hearing at the Ministry of Magic.  Our tour guide said the tube station was closed for the whole day for the filming. The actual timing of the clip used in the movie was only around 11 seconds.

Next we stopped at the corner of Scotland Place and Great Scotland Yard (the original location of Scotland Yard) to see the place where Harry and Mr. Weasley enter a phone box to descend into the Ministry of Magic. (Also from the "Order of the Phoenix".)  There is no phone box here. It was brought in as a prop.

Trafalgar Square was the next stop. The death eaters started their flight here and flew around Lord Nelson's column on their way to Millenium Bridge. The premier of the "Deathly Hallows" movie took place outside on Trafalgar Square on a big screen. There was a lottery for tickets to this premier.

Cecil Court off of Charing Cross Road provided the inspiration for Diagon Alley. It is a narrow street lined with book shops and antique shops. Harry bought his wand and his owl in Diagon Alley in the "Sorcerer's Stone".  It was on this street that the composer Mozart stayed on an early European tour.

Knockturn Alley, near Diagon Alley, is a very narrow residential street with old door knockers and curved glass windows. The first mention of this street is in the "Chamber of Secrets". It was a street with shops specializing in the darker arts (magic) in the movie. Harry ends up in a shop on Knockturn Alley after mispronouncing "Diagon Alley" where he intended to go. 

On Charing Cross Road there is a sweet shop (above) that sells Harry Potter candy, among other things. In the window you see signs for Bertie Botts and chocolate frogs. Basically it is a retro candy shop. There is also a sign for gobstoppers from the Willy Wonka movie.

We stopped by a theater in the west end where they are performing  the play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child", parts 1 and 2. Apparently it is sold out through October 2018.  It has been published as a script. The script was based on an original new story by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. It looks like the story was never published (only the script of the play).

We stopped briefly at the Millenium Bridge where the death eaters flew around. Then we headed to Borough Market where we found the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron pub. A taco restaurant is now there. 

We enjoyed this tour. Warning - there is about 2 1/2 miles to walk, plus a short trip on the tube. We did not dally either. You need to be fit to keep up.

Imperial War Museum in London - WWI exhibit

England is in the midst of a 4 year commemoration of World War 1 that started in 2014. I had been wanting to see this exhibit for a while, but it was very busy every time I was there in the past. Luckily the crowds were not that huge this year.

Here is the outside of the museum.

It took a while to sort out the allegiances in the war.  On the one side you had Germany, Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy. The Austro - Hungarian Empire consisted of many nationalities. The Germans were recruiting Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) to join their side. 

On the other side you had France, England, Russia and eventually Belgium and the US were drawn in to the fight. The British encouraged friends to join the fighting and be together in the same troop -creating what they called the "Pals Battalions". The French and British recruited soldiers from their colonies in Africa and India.

Russia eventually left the war in 1917 before the war had ended. The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused turmoil within Russia and they had to tend to that.

The U.S. got drawn into the war after it determined it could stay silent no longer. The safety of its ships was being threatened, as seen by the sinking on the U.S. Lusitania in 1915. A German plot to gain Mexico as an ally was not appreciated by the U.S. either.

The development of weapons of war on both sides really struck me.  Fire power was no longer from rifles alone.  The war took to the air and the sea as well as the land.  There were German bomber planes and German zeppelins that bombed east England. German submarines were sinking ships going to and from Britain. Both sides used poisonous gases to drop on troops and civilians. Tanks were used to fight (sometimes not too successfully as they would get stuck in the mud or break down). The British had rifle bombers that shot off grenades and the Fuze 106 - a shell that would instantaneously explode on contact with barbed wire and anything on the ground surface. 

This is a German Big Bertha mortar used in a howitzer.

Shells containing gas.  The German blue cross shell below caused so much sneezing and vomiting that troops had to remove their gas masks and therefore inhale deadly gases.

Of course there was also the new trench warfare used on both sides. Front line trenches were in the line of enemy fire. Behind them were communication trenches used to carry goods and troops to the front line. It was an intricate system of underground tunnels. It was easy to get lost. The British put up signs to label the trenches so they would not lose their way so easily. The names of the trenches were familiar names from home or warnings to the troops. 

Here are examples of trench signs.

Gifts were sent to the British soldiers and the British government from Britain's territories during the war. These gifts ranged from money to goods (sugar, tobacco, wine, fruit, eggs, mutton, butter, bacon and flour). 

British women served valiantly during the war to treat injured soldiers at the front lines. Other women served as typists for the war office, conductors of railways/trams/buses, farm laborers, and bakers/cooks/clerks/drivers for the Navy, RAF and Army. There were many displays about this topic.

It was noted that the Germans were stirring the pot to get other countries to join them. Germany was trying to woo Turkey, Mexico and Ireland. In the case of Ireland, Germany was encouraging the Irish republicans in their fight for independence from England. That Easter Uprising in Dublin in 1916 was put down by British troops. 

After many years of war, Germany was defeated and an armistice was called in 1918. 

This exhibit on WWI is well worth the time to explore. I believe the museum expanded this exhibit for the current commemoration of the war.  Of course it takes a British perspective on many aspects of the war that you don't learn in your American history class.

Museum of London - Medieval area

My exploration of the Museum of London continued this year with the Medieval room. We managed to catch a free tour of the highlights of this room. It was informative. Look for tickets to these free tours at the front desk. The tour topics vary from day to day, hour to hour. 

The medieval room covers the time period of 410 AD through 1558 (when Queen Elizabeth I started her reign). The Romans started to neglect London. The Anglo Saxons from Germany came over and settled in areas west and southeast of London in 410 AD. The area west of London became known as "Lundenwic" and was established in 750 AD. This was near the current Royal Opera House. In this community craft workers set up shop and made objects of metal and bone. Kings from East Saxon ruled here, followed by rulers of the kingdom of Mercia who controlled a large portion of central England.

In 871 AD Anglo Saxon King Alfred came to power. He controlled the area of London inside the Roman city walls, called "Lundenburg". He reigned until 899 AD. He was continually fending off invasions by Danish Vikings. The Danes kept on invading and ruling parts of England until 1042 AD when King Edward the Confessor came along to rule. The area in northeast England where the Danes ruled was called "Danelaw". 

Here is a photo of Danish Viking weapons that were found in the River Thames in the London area.

Edward the Confessor, the next to last Anglo Saxon King, reigned from 1042-1066. He was followed briefly by Harold II (or Harold Godwinson), the true last Anglo Saxon king who reigned from January through October 1066. Norman invasions from France followed and led to the rule of William I (aka my ancestor William the Conqueror). 

Some Normans came to settle in England during the time of William the Conqueror. There was a fair amount of trade going on between France and England. Among the immigrants to England from France were Jewish people. They typically lived west of London.  Several times during the 12th and 13th century London Jewish citizens were attacked by other citizens in London.  One example was in 1189 AD at the time of King Richard I's coronation. He tried to stop the attacks, but was not very effective.

 

The following is a picture of a Jewish sabbath lamp from the 1100s AD. It would have been lit on the eve of the sabbath in a family's home.

Here are some other photos from the medieval room at the museum.

This is an oak retaining wall from 1220 AD to keep the River Thames from spilling its banks in London.

As you can imagine, wooden walls like these had to be replaced often. Only centuries later were they replaced by stone walls.

Pilgrimages were a popular activity in medieval London in the 13th and 14th centuries. A frequent destination was Canterbury, where Thomas Beckett was archibishop and later canonized after his murder.  Pilgrims would bring back souvenirs, such as this ampule filled with holy water tinged with Beckett's blood. Eww! The profile of Beckett's head was on this ampule.

The following is a model of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. There has been a church on this site since the 7th century. It burned down in the fire of 1666. This model shows the Norman style of architecture on the left side (more rounded style) from around 1241 AD and the gothic style of architecture on the right side (more pointed style) from around 1320 AD. 

A video presentation about the Black Death (1346-1353 AD) mentioned that this plague left 40,000 people dead in England.  For those who survived it, the meaning of life was often questioned (or not - as seen by the commentary in the photo below). 

Ever wonder what a gauntlet looks like, from the expression "to throw down the gauntlet" (challenge a person to a duel)? Here is one from the 1550s AD. This armour was often made partly of mercury.

There are very few remains left of a once splendid castle in Surrey, England called "Nonsuch Palace". 

It was built for King Henry VIII in commemoration of his 30th year of reign and the birth of his son, later Edward VI. Construction started in 1538. It was quite elaborate with courtyards and towers and was meant to rival Francis I's castle in France. The palace cost at least 24,000 GBP. The name "Nonsuch" 

was referring to the boast that no such palace could equal it in its magnificence.

Here is a sketch of what it looked like.

Part of a stucco panel of a Roman soldier survived from the southwest tower. It is in this museum.

The palace was incomplete when Henry VIII died in 1547. It was in and out of royal hands after his death. King Edward VI and Queen Mary had it. Then it was sold to nobles. In 1660 it returned to the royal family until 1670 when Charles II gave it to his mistress Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine.  She had a big gambling debt. She sold off the grounds and pulled down the palace, selling bit by bit to pay off her debts. Some parts of the castle were recycled and used in other buildings.  It is a shame that the palace did not survive.

Another highlight in the medieval room is part of a tryptich panel from a chapel in Westminster Abbey. It dates back to around 1500 and shows the annunciation with the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. The panels here are the outer wings. The middle panel is missing.

These are some of the highlights from the medieval room in the Museum of London, close to the Barbican. More blog posts will follow as I make my way through the rest of the museum.