Central Hall

Near a fortnight ago, a long delayed visit to Westminster Abbey, followed as it turned out by an impromptu visit to Methodist Central Hall across the road - Methodists not being keen on either abbeys or cathedrals, although some do bishops and some do superintendents.

It was, as it turned out, a bright, cool day after the rain of the day before. The stream running down from the site of the frame house, now near finished, in Meadway, was back in a small way, having been near extinguished by recent work on the drains. The temporary roof over the bungalow around the corner being turned into a dream house looked enormous. Timber frames for the new first floor well under way.

Waterloo was offline for some reason, so we entrained for London Bridge and took the Jubilee Line from there - to a Westminster Abbey which turned out to be pretty crowded. The tourists are back. And getting on for a year since our last visit, noticed at reference 1, as it happens, a religiously flavoured concert, rather than a proper visit.

Struck on this occasion by the elaborate tombs for the great and good of old arranged around the chancel, visible from the east end ambulatory. This one for the second earl of Pembroke (of reference 2, castle in Wales and college in Cambridge), a full-on medieval knight, present, for example, at the Battle of Bannockburn. The faces were presumably chopped off during the iconoclastic disturbances around the time of our Civil War.

While some of the kings went in for double decker tombs. We were not told told whether they took the upper or lower berth. Presumably wives and retainers were not sacrificed to occupy the other one, in proper pagan style. Some of these tombs were once rich with elaborate inlaid decoration, some golden if not gold, now mostly gone, and must have been conspicuously flashy when new.

Also stuck by this take on the passage of worldly glory, the sic transit gloria mundi. With Richard Busby above earning his spot by being headmaster of Westminster School for many years. He was also a strong royalist at the time of the Civil War. In any event, sufficiently in favour, at least in death, to be allowed to push Anne of Cleves aside, a lady whom one might have thought should have had precedence. One of the wives of Henry VIII who was treated relatively decently. But for Busby, see reference 3.

An artist-in-gold was in attendance, touching up various bits of gold with gold paint. At least I assume that it was not gold leaf.

We were reminded by the Hockney stained glass of the weakness of church administrators for ugly modern art. Also of the poor choice of light fittings for the nave, also rather large and ugly.

We sat for a bit in the seats provided in front of the choir screen, from where one gets quite a good view of the upper parts of the nave, but moving on as a lunch time communion service started. A service held more or less in the middle of the busy abbey. I associated to the long-off time when we were in Notre- Dame in Paris, also busy with tourists, with a society wedding going off in a railed-off chapel in the middle, roughly where St. Augustine's shrine is in this Abbey.

But given the crowds, a short visit, after which we made our way to the cafeteria for a snack, to find that at lunch time one had to take lunch. Which at that moment we did not fancy, so we decamped to Central Hall across the road where we were pleased to find that their downstairs cafeteria was up and running again, having been shut during the plague. In fact, checking this afternoon, I find that the last visit, noticed at reference 5, was not long before the onset of the plague. A memorable lunch of liver, bacon and bard. A day when I squeezed rather more into my three hours in time than would be likely now, getting on for four years later.

This time around, a very substantial portion of brisket, served with mash and baked carrots. Really very good for a cafeteria. BH settled for a large, cheese decorated mushroom in place of the brisket. Rather higher grade cutlery than one expects in such a place. And very probably much better value than we would have got in the Abbey - and a much pleasanter location - with the cafeteria in the Abbey being rather cramped and subterranean.

Upstairs to ask if we could see the main hall, to be treated instead to a personal guided tour, some results of which are to be found under the group search key below. During which we got to see the chapel, a more sensible size than the hall for regular worship, repurposed from HSBC - a branch which I may well once have used. And the hall, probably now more used for events than for worship. Quite grand and impressive, a sort of hybrid between a large cinema of old and the Masonic temple up the road. Not very holy at all, even less holy than the Abbey.

But we were told that the large dome of the ceiling was a feat of engineering, certainly for its time. Presumably directly underneath the larger dome visible in the first of the snaps above. And I was much reminded by some of the detailing - for example, the door in the middle of the snap above - by that of the roughly contemporary GOGGS, Government Offices Great George Street, just across the way and in which I spent much quality time.

We also got to stand on the balcony from which some of the forthcoming festivities at the Abbey will be broadacast.

Central Hall did rather better with their light fittings, but I forget what the central lyres are all about. I feel sure that we were told that they were about something.

Lots of anecdotes about the life and times of our guide, about the life of Central Hall in general. One of which, for example, was about her late Majesty being very pleased to find from a life-size statue that the famous Wesley, the itinerant preaching one, was a shorty of very similar height to herself.

Out to revisit the back door into Caxton House, the home of the Department of Employment  for a few years. I used to cycle up and down this ramp every working day, on my way to and from Liverpool Street Station for some years, rain or shine, light or dark. Before, as far as I can recall now, the days of gates and barriers.

Down the road, a luvvies' camper van had taken up station opposite the building which was said once to have been the home of one of the security services. No-one around to ask what they were up to. But I do learn from reference 5 that 'honeywagon' is luvvy for what to you or I might be a portaloo. Lots of fancy photography too.

And so to Victoria Station, where the upstairs Wetherspoons, from the balcony of which I once used to survey the rush hour crowds over a little something, did not look very open at all - despite, according to their web site being open from 06:00 to 24:00, seven days a week. Perhaps they take a break in the afternoons. Where there also used to be a gents convenience, tucked away under some stairs, not well known, and a lot more convenient than the facilities provided on the station proper - if any.

Back to Epsom to find, not having got wet all day, that we had just missed what looked like a sharp shower.

PS: it is sometimes a puzzle to work out how pixels turn into pictures, or in the case snapped above words, that is to say the right hand portion of the label just below the dome. Full size on my laptop, completely illegible. Thumbnailed on my laptop, reasonably legible. Here, somewhere in between.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/vespers.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aymer_de_Valence,_2nd_Earl_of_Pembroke.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Busby.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/08/east-pole.html.

Reference 5: https://www.on-set.com/.

Group search key: mch.