Roman London

22nd  October. You wouldn’t think there was much evidence of Roman London today, (or Londinium, as it would have been called then) some 1800 years after the Romans left Britain. Today Pauline Hedges took us on a guided tour to demonstrate that there is actually quite a lot of it to be seen, just by wandering around the City. This tour was arranged a year ago, following a tour of the Financial areas of the City of London, also guided by Pauline. We had such a good time last year that we  decided there and then to do another trip a year later, when we would visit Roman London.

Londinium circa 200 A.D.

As usual, we gathered at Shepperton station for the 9.45 a.m. train to Waterloo. We were 17 in number, and most of us elected to obtain a group ticket, which meant an all zones day ticket to London cost us just £9.10 each.  A few of us made other arrangements. Mark Steptoe is a season ticket holder, and was able to obtain a ticket for himself and Jenny free of charge. Des and Moira were heading to the West End after the walk, so used their senior Railcards for a discounted fare to Waterloo.  So none of us paid the full price for a rail ticket, which pleased us immensely.

All aboard the train at Shepperton

The guided tour started earlier than I had expected. As we passed through Fulwell station, Doreen pointed out that this is where she went to school. I tried to get a photograph of this historic site but the train was moving too fast. A little later, somewhere near New Malden, Mark pointed out the very building where he used to work. Yes, the very building!

Doreen's old school - Thames Valley Grammar

I wasn’t going to be left out of this, and when we arrived at Vauxhall station I made sure everyone was aware that this is where I got off the train during my commuting years. Mark, a fountain of knowledge on many subjects told us that in the early days of railways, a delegation of Russians came to learn about this new  transport  system. Members of Parliament took them to the nearest station which was Vauxhall. When the Russians asked what it was called, meaning the type of building, they were misunderstood, and were told it was called Vauxhall. Thus it came about that the Russian word for station is ‘vauxhall’.  Strange but true

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Vauxhall Station

Upon arrival at Waterloo, we went our separate ways for 10 minutes for a ‘comfort break’, arranging to meet in the usual Waterloo meeting place, under the clock. From there it didn’t take long to go down the escalators to the London-City line, and a few minutes later we emerged from Bank station  and crossed the road to the Royal Exchange.  Here we met up with our tour guide Pauline, and off we went on our quest for Roman London. Most of it lies 7 yards under our feet, but parts of it can still be seen, as we were to discover.

On the steps of the Royal Exchange

Pauline tells us about the Bank of England, behind us

The City is divided into numerous wards, which were established in Medieval Times, and it wasn’t long before we were walking through the ward of Cheap. The word in old English means ‘Market’. An interesting aspect to this part of the walk was the large number of livery halls we passed, including the Mercers, Goldsmiths and Saddlers.  The most famous of all is the 15^th Century Guildhall itself, a magnificent building which I was fortunate to visit many years ago. Inside it has two giant statues, called Gog and Magog.

The Guildhall

Pauline showed us a number of public gardens in the City. Apparently there are dozens of them within the square mile, mostly very small, but they provide a tranquil place to sit or stroll for City workers. We had a walk around one of them ourselves, I can’t remember which one. There was a board in the garden showing a map of all the green spaces in the City of London. You could easily spend a relaxing day just strolling around these gardens.

A City garden

We passed the Barbican, the 20^th Century walled City, on our way to London Wall, a street which gives a useful clue to what might be found there. This is where the PDG and I met up with the Lord Mayor’s procession a couple of years ago. Today however we were here to view the remains of the actual Roman wall, which can clearly be seen. There has been some restoration work, but if you look closely it is still possible to see Roman workmanship in the wall. The Museum of London is also here, and Pauline suggested that we come back and spend some time in this Museum, which has amazing displays on the subject of Roman London.

A piece of the actual wall which surrounded Londinium

 Narrow medieval streets

Walking past the famous bells of St Mary-le -Bow, the time was just after 12 noon and we heard the bell rather strangely chime 4 times. Shortly afterwards it chimed another 4 times. I assumed it was striking 12 but taking its time over it. Pauline explained how the prevailing wind is from the west, which explains why only East Londoners can claim to be born within the sound of Bow, and are therefore true Cockneys. Mark Steptoe, born in West London, sadly cannot make this claim, even if he wanted to. The bells are also credited with persuading Dick Whittington to return to London, and of course are mentioned in the Nursery Rhyme ‘Oranges and Lemons’

The clock tower - St Mary-Le-Bow

A plaque nearby

As our walk continued it was interesting to come across fascinating road names which clearly indicated the activities which went on there, for instance Milk Street, Poultry, and Pudding Lane. If you were looking for a brothel in medieval times, you would go to Love Lane or Cock Street (it's true, believe it or not). Wardrobe Place really was the place monarchs kept their state clothing, and Mincing Lane was actually named after nuns from a nearby Church who lived there. The Medieval word for a nun was mynchen, from which Mincing Lane derives.

Fancy gate post at a City garden

All too soon we were back at our starting point. Des and Moira left us to go shopping in the West End whilst the rest of us headed off to Waterloo, from where we walked down to the South bank for lunch. Ken suggested a Restaurant called The Archduke, which he had been in before and found to be good.  So in we went, and were very impressed. The Restaurant sits among railway arches, but the upstairs area we sat in had a super view to the London Wheel and the Thames beyond. If I ever I feel like coming to London for the New Years Eve celebrations, I will book this very table. Despite a large number of us turning up at no notice, the staff couldn’t have been more friendly and helpful. The food was good quality and unusually for London, reasonably priced. I had a home made burger with stilton, which was quite delicious.

Archduke Restaurant

It had been another excellent guided tour in London, and Pauline have already planned next year’s tour, which will be Chaucer and Shakespeare’s London, including the Globe Theatre. I can’t wait.

The Globe Theatre

District Conference 2016 Eastbourne - Day 3 - Parade

We were up early today for another fine breakfast at the Cavendish. We also had to pack, as we needed to check out before heading off to the Conference Theatre for the final morning session of the Conference. Fortunately the Hotel allowed us to keep the car in their car park until lunch time. The car park at the Cavendish Hotel is quite unique. The Hotel is on the seafront, and is part of a  block of buildings, with mostly hotels on each side. In the centre of this block is a private car park owned exclusively by the Hotel. You have to access it from the rear of the Hotel and there are not very many spaces, but if you book early enough (as I did last Friday) your parking space is allocated to you for the duration of your stay by means of a traffic cone with your name on it. This is very useful given the difficulty in parking cars in Eastbourne generally.

Cavendish Hotel

We were joined this morning by Pauline, Doreen and Tony who had just come for the day. The session started with two terrific presentations. The first of these was Mike Goody. Whilst serving with the RAF in Afghanistan in 2008 he lost a leg when he stepped on a landmine. He also suffered brain trauma, and was wheelchair bound for 3 years. However, his determination and competitive spirit enabled him to overcome these terrible injuries.  He swam the Channel in 2009, and won 4 gold medals at the Invicta Games of 2014, a feat he repeated in 2016. He spends much of his time visiting schools promoting the value of swimming, not only  as a leisure activity but as a valuable life skill.

Mike Goody

He was followed by Patricia Parker, an extraordinary woman whose charity Kids for Kids provides goats to help families with milk and food in war-torn Sudan. The charity supports 78 villages in the province of Darfur. The UN reports that there are malnourished children in every village in Darfur, apart from these 78. The Charity plans to include more villages in coming months and years. It must take unbelievable courage to operate a charity in such highly dangerous conditions, but she has been doing this for many years and aims to continue doing so.

Patricia Parker

After a coffee break, it was time for my big moment, the Parade of the Presidents! The president of each club in the District is introduced on stage, and he or she then walks on to raucous applause from their club members. I had been looking forward to this for some time, and had been practising my triumphant wave as my adoring public cheered me to the rafters. I wasn’t sure if there would be time, but just in case, I had prepared a short 20 minute speech about my plans to develop the role of Rotary Club President, once the applause had died down.

I get a hurried shake of the DG's hand

Things  didn’t quite turn out that way. Having sacrificed my coffee to be corralled back-stage with all the other presidents, we were then called out six at a time to shake the DG’s hand. It was all over in a couple of minutes. At least we were called up in alphabetical order, so the three Spelthorne Presidents present, representing Shepperton Aurora, Shepperton & Sunbury and Staines all followed each other on to the stage (me first of course). I think I heard some noise from the audience, but it was all a bit low key compared to previous years.

Spelthorne Presidents. From left Kevin Bridge, Geoff Williams, me.

The keynote speaker for the morning was Nicholas Owen, former newsreader and Royal correspondent for ITV. He was very entertaining, giving lots of anecdotes about the different jobs he has done in his career, including times he met The Queen. He said he must be the first Republican ever to get a job as a Royal Correspondent, although he admitted that he has a lot of admiration for the Queen. Nicholas played a major role in reporting the death and funeral  of Princess Diana, and has written a book on her life. He also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, a programme I have never watched, but said that he didn’t last long. He was speaking today on behalf of The Children’s Trust, the UK’s leading Charity for children with brain injury.

Aurora members in audience ; Brian, me, Tony, Pauline, Doreen and Lyn

After Nicholas Owen had finished, all that remained was for DG Frank West to bring proceedings to a close, and wish us all a safe journey home. Our group from Shepperton Aurora decided to stay in Eastbourne for lunch, and settled on fish & chips at Harry Ramsdens, which we had seen earlier near the pier. However, for some reason, as we passed one of the seafront hotels, The Cumberland,  we were irresistibly tempted by a carvery Sunday lunch, so in we went.  The PDG and I had to go on a circuitous route through non-public areas of the Hotel to avoid the staircase at the front, but arrived safely in the Restaurant.  We enjoyed an  excellent  lunch here, and were laughing rather a lot, to such an extent that the PDG went over to one of the other tables to apologise for the noise. ‘They’re Rotarians, you know,’ she said.

Cumberland Hotel - good carvery