Introduction
The story of Westminster begins for all practical purposes with Edward the Confessor, who became king of England in 1042. As a youth, Edward, heir to the Saxon throne, was forced to flee with his mother into exile in Norman France by Danish kings who had seized control of England. While in exile, Edward developed a deep piety, vowing that he would one day make a pilgrimage to Rome if his family fortunes ever changed for the better. However, later, when these fortunes did change, and he became king, he was persuaded by his counselors that it would be unwise to leave the country long enough to make the pilgrimage. He was released from his vow by the pope who suggested that instead, Edward used the pilgrimage monies to give to the poor and to build a memorial to God. This Edward did by retiring to the Isle of Thorney (a gravel island between the Thames and one of its tributaries, the Tyburn) where, near the site of what had been an old monastery, he launched a monumental two-pronged building program to construct 1) an abbey and 2) a palace from which he could oversee the building of the abbey.Through the centuries, Edward’s church, which no longer stands, evolved into Westminster Abbey, and his palace became the Houses of Parliament. The name West Minster (West Monastery) was used to distinguish it from the East Minster—the part of the city around St. Paul’s. Note: The word is minster, not minister. A minster is a church associated with a monastery.Edward lived only long enough to see his abbey completed and dedicated, on Christmas Day 1065—a week or so before his death. Because of his illness he was unable to attend the dedication in person, subsequently his body was removed from its first burial site and buried in the abbey in 1163. His immediate successor, Harold, was crowned in the church shortly thereafter, setting a precedent for all but two of the kings who followed him: Edward V, one of the young princes who was suffocated in the tower, and Edward VIII, who abdicated before his official coronation. Thereafter, the abbey has served a dual purpose: 1) as a burial place for kings and queens and 2) as the coronation site. Thus, a major center was established in the west of London to vie for power with the City in the east. While the City remained the center of trade and commerce, Westminster emerged as the center of royal justice and administration.With the arrival of William the Conqueror in 1066, the year after Edward’s death, further tension evolved between the largely Saxon population of the city in the east and the Norman-controlled crown and church (in the west). Part of the reason for the construction of the Tower of London was to protect the king from the citizens of the city and to insure their loyalty. In fact, two additional castles were built by William near the west wall of the City to guard against Saxon insurrections as much as against foreign invasion.Members of the court, knights, and representatives of the commons (local communities) began building near Westminster Palace, and by 1332, this location provided a meeting place for what became the House of Commons. Just prior to that time, the Lancastrian kings had inadvertently nearly destroyed Westminster (and London) as a focal point of importance, by moving their court to York in the Midlands (in order that they could more easily deal with problems that constantly arose in Scotland). The nobility dutifully followed them, and for a time Westminster nearly became a ghost town. In 1338, Edward III ordered the exchequer back to Westminster, and, thereby, saved the village from extinction. Two hundred years later, in 1547, Edward VI, the young son of Henry VIII, gave St. Stephen’s Chapel, the king’s domestic chapel, to the commons for their meeting place.Therefore, to visualize this walk fully it will be needful for you to return in your mind to this medieval era, when London was largely polarized into these three major geographical centers. Almost everything in between the City and Westminster was primarily farming and pastoral lands, owned in the main by the church—all of this nestled uneasily along the Thames, the major connecting artery of commerce between the two centers.During the Tudor era this pastoral setting was severely disrupted by Henry VIII, the last king to live in Westminster Palace, and the Protestant Reformation in England. After subjecting the church largely to his own will, Henry did away with the old monastic orders of Catholicism, seizing their lands for the crown and selling them to the highest bidder (in the Dissolution of the monasteries). Thus, the way was opened for the development of the area between East and West Minsters, leading to the later connecting of the two.Lambeth, the area across the Thames from Westminster, provides the focus for the second part of our walk. During the middle ages, the horse ferry from Westminster landed at Lambeth (thought to be from Loamhithe or “muddy landing place”). And it was here in 1197 that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the ecclesiastical head of the Catholic Church in England, obtained a parcel of land in exchange for land in Kent and built a residence so that he could be closer to the crown. Lambeth Palace is still the official headquarters in London of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. Other lesser bishops followed his example, and in the succeeding century, the bishops of Exeter, Bath, Llandaff, Durham, and York all built grand townhouses along the Strand and toward Westminster. The initial intent of Pope Gregory, headquartered in Rome, had been to pattern the ecclesiastical government in Britain after the model of the earlier Roman secular government in Britain, with headquarters for the church in London and in York. Londinium had served as the capital of Britannia Superior (Upper Britain) and the administrative center of Britain, while York had served as the capital of Britannia Inferior (Lower Britain) and the focal point of military operations. With this pattern in mind, Gregory sent Augustine, the first Roman missionary to Britain, in 597 to establish one seat of the church in London and another in York. These two archbishoprics were to preside over all the churches in Britain.However, history was changed when Ethelbert of Kent, who claimed overlordship of much of England, became the first notable British convert to Christianity. London was more resistant to conversion. Therefore, Augustine seized the opportunity and made Canterbury, Ethelbert’s capital, the major diocese in England, rather than London. And, as you will learn at Canterbury, Thomas à Becket added greatly to the fame of that cathedral by his martyrdom. However, today, though the major ecclesiastical head of the church is still the Archbishop of Canterbury, his official residence is in Lambeth.
#1 Notting Hill to London Eye
Begin this walk by boarding a #12 bus at a Notting Hill bus stop. Be sure you catch the bus on the Palace Court side of the road. Your ticket for the underground is also a bus ticket. I recommend you get a seat on the top deck, as near the front as possible for the best vantage point. This bus will take you through most of the major tourist centers of London—much like a sight-seeing bus. Stay on the bus until it crosses the Thames, and dismount at the next stop. Walk back toward the river, and watch for the walkway that goes by the side of the Thames on the same side as the bus stop. Do not cross the bridge yet. Turn right and go down that path past the London Aquarium to the London Eye.If you were to walk farther, you would soon arrive at Hungerford Bridge, that you crossed on the last walk, and beyond that to Royal Festival Hall. Don’t stop to visit either the Aquarium or the Eye at this point; just take a quick look so that you will know where to go later.The London Eye (also known as the Millennium Wheel, one of London’s few successes for their millennium celebration) was the brainchild of British Airways and represents the turn of the wheel of time—celebrating London’s past and looking forward to its future. It lays claim to being the highest observation wheel in the world (450 feet) and is one of the dominant images on the London skyline. The ride takes about thirty minutes, and the view (up to twenty-five miles) is well worth the effort. I suggest you come back later, when you have more time.The London Aquarium, constructed at the cost of £25 million and opened in 1997, has been built into the Old County Hall Building that once housed the Greater London Council (now non-existent). Its forerunner was an aquarium housed in the Old County Hall that contained all the species of fish found in the Thames. That inventory has since been expanded to include other exotic marine life. Privately owned, it is one of the largest collections of aquatic life in Europe—some chambers reaching two stories. I highly recommend a visit, especially if you have never had the opportunity to stroke a stingray.
#2 Westminster Bridge
Retrace your steps until you come back to Westminster Bridge Road. Turn right and cross over Westminster Bridge.An earlier version of the Westminster bridge you cross was actually the second major bridge to be built, after London Bridge. Note also from your map that at this point the Thames is running north and south, rather than east and west, as it is closer to the city. Hungerford Bridge is now to your right and Lambeth Bridge to your left. We will cross Lambeth Bridge later in this walk. At the far end of Westminster Bridge you will come to the statue of Boudicca (mentioned in the Londinium walk). The statue is by Thomas Thornycroft, one of the premier Victorian sculptors. Note that the horses are not reined, suggesting the wildness of the scene, and don’t miss the scythes on the wheels (shades of Ben Hur). Her two violated daughters are represented by the two women in front of her.
#3 Parliament side to St. Margaret's/Abingdon Street
Cross the road to the Parliament side, turn right, and walk past the Parliament buildings on your left to the first intersection, St. Margaret’s/Abingdon Street.The clock tower you pass, technically called Elizabeth Tower and attached to Parliament, contains the famous “Big Ben.” The current tower, constructed in 1859, stands near the site of an earlier clock tower that rose above the wool market in medieval Westminster. Technically, the term “Big Ben” applies only to the largest (of five) bell atop the tower, not to the tower itself—so one does not actually see Big Ben without going inside the tower. Thought to have been named after Sir Benjamin Hall, First Commissioner of Works, the bell measures nine feet in diameter and seven feet in height (with a four-foot crack that developed soon after its being placed, giving it a distinctive sound). Though he was quite rotund himself, Hall is not even in the same league with the bell, which weighs over thirteen tons. When the House of Commons is sitting, the Ayrton lantern above the clock is lighted.The surrounding buildings, commonly known as the Houses of Parliament, are more correctly referred to as Westminster Palace—begun by William the Conqueror on the foundation of Edward the Confessor’s palace, which was not grand enough for William, who was accustomed to the resplendence of the French palaces. Unlike the Tower of London, this palace was never fortified. Thrice it was devastated by fire, most recently in 1834; you may know J.M.W. Turner’s painting of this event. And like most of the major buildings in London, it took direct bomb hits during WWII, especially during the Blitz, sustaining some significant damage but remaining unbowed.
#4 St. Margaret's Street/Abingdon Street
At the first intersection turn left on St. Margaret’s Street/Abingdon Street and start walking down that street along the front of the Parliament buildings.As you turn left at the intersection, staying on the Parliament side of the street, look across the road for the statue of Sir Winston Churchill, Britain’s Prime Minister during World War II, which is on the near right-hand corner of the small park, Parliament Square. At the back of the square (actually across the back road of the square and not visible at this point) is a life-size statue of Abraham Lincoln.The drive coming out of the Parliament area on your left (typically guarded by bobbies) leads to Westminster Hall, one of the oldest parts of the complex, dating back to the time of William II (the Conqueror’s son). It was the one part of Westminster Palace left intact after the fire of 1834. If you have seen the movies A Man for All Seasons (the Paul Scofield version) or Cromwell, you have seen the inside of the hall. It contains a superb hammerbeam roof, sometimes called “the finest timber roof of all times.” In this hall, the trials of such famous persons as Sir Thomas More, Guy Fawkes, and Charles I have been held. For many years, it was the permanent seat of justice in Britain (three different types of court used to meet there at the same time). The bodies of monarchs as well as that of Sir Winston Churchill have laid in state there, awaiting their viewing and burial in Westminster Abbey.
#5 Parliament Park to Westminster Abbey
Turn right at the next cross walk, and cross over the street, keeping Parliament Park to your right, and proceed toward Westminster Abbey.The first church you will come to on your left is St. Margaret’s. This church was built by the same Edward the Confessor who is responsible for the original abbey. St. Margaret’s was initially built to serve local parishioners but has since become the church of the House of Commons. Sir Walter Raleigh was executed in the Old Palace Yard (as were several other prominent historical figures) near Parliament and is buried beneath the high altar of St. Margaret’s. Every year in November a garden of remembrance, composed of commemorative Flanders poppies, symbolizing the famous battle of Flanders Field in Belgium during World War I, blossoms in the churchyard. You may want to come back then if you are in London during a fall semester.
#6 Westminster Abbey
When you arrive at the abbey, go inside for a quick look.Westminster Abbey is what is called a royal peculiar church, meaning that it is not under the control of the archbishop of Canterbury, but is maintained directly under the control of the monarch. It is the parish church of the royal family. Unfortunately, you will not be able to go very far into the abbey without paying admission. In the first part of the abbey are commemorative plaques on the floor honoring such dignitaries as Winston Churchill and his counterpart in World War I, Prime Minister David Lloyd George, as well as the British Warrior (England’s version of America’s Unknown Soldier). As you move farther along the nave, you can find the plaque for David Livingstone, of the famous Stanley and Livingstone episode (“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”), just before you arrive at the altar screen. Farther along in the abbey, you will find Poet’s Corner, Henry VII’s chapel, Queen Elizabeth’s chapel, Henry VIII’s chapel, the Battle of Britain Memorial Window, and the burial places of a number of famous kings and queens. You can also find the tomb of Ben Jonson, a British playwright who was buried standing upright to conserve space. I recommend you save this visit for another day, when you have more time. Just before you leave the abbey, look to your left for the commemorative plaque for President Franklin D. Roosevelt—on the wall near the door.
#7 Broad Sanctuary to Parliament
Exit the abbey by the same door you entered, turn right onto Broad Sanctuary, and proceed back toward Parliament.To your left is Victoria Street, which makes a nice walk in itself (see Victoria Street at the end of this walk under the heading Other Places to Visit Nearby When You Have Time). As you come out of the abbey, you will see a large dome-roofed building in front of you and a little to your left. This is Central Hall, built by the Methodists in 1912. It was also the scene of the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in 1956, now it's hired out for public events. The dome is the third largest in London.The modern building, next to Central Hall, is the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, and the last building before you arrive again at Parliament Square is Middlesex Guildhall, built in the first decade of the twentieth century in what has been called art nouveau Gothic.
#8 Abingdon Road to Victoria Tower Gardens
Return to Abingdon Road, cross the street again to the Parliament buildings side, then turn right, and walk toward Victoria Tower Gardens, on your left after your have passed the buildings of Parliament.Victoria Tower is the largest and finest tower (at the end of the palace complex). A flag on this tower by day (and a light on Big Ben’s tower by night) indicates that the Parliament is in session. Victoria Tower contains the royal entrance for the monarch when she/he comes to address the opening session of the Parliament in the fall. I recommend that you view this session on television. If you go to the Parliament just to view the arrival of the monarch, you will confront enormous crowds and miss the entire pageantry of what is happening inside.You will undoubtedly find a long line of people waiting to get into Parliament to view the proceedings of the House of Commons. This is also one of the experiences you should have before you return home. I have found the best time to visit, if you want to avoid long lines, is late into the evening after the majority of tourists have gone to do other things. You can view both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. For tours of Parliament, you need to contact the U.S. Embassy and get a group ticket. Also note the statues of Oliver Cromwell in the moat area of the palace and that of Richard the Lionhearted at the end of the buildings near the parking lot (Old Palace Yard).
#9 Victoria Gardens to Thames
Turn left into the Victoria Gardens and go toward the Thames.The park is entered by a large wrought-iron gate. Standing before you is the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Dame Christabel Pankhurst, two leaders in Britain’s suffragette movement. One of the features of this statue you should note is the bronze replica of the prisoners’ badge, honoring the more than 1,000 women who were imprisoned between 1905 and 1910 for suffragette activity.As you make your way through the park toward the Thames, you will find a reproduction of Rodin’s Burghers of Calais (Le Bourgeois de Calais). There you will also find a plaque telling of the significance of this sculpture: during the Hundred Year's War, Edward III laid the town of Calais under siege, eventually forcing its surrender when the people faced starvation. Edward would only agree to spare the people if six of the city leaders would come forward with nooses around their necks and the city keys in their hands, to offer themselves as a sacrifice. The edict was accepted by the brave men depicted in the statue, and facing what they believed to be certain execution, the six burghers went forth in a humbling and heroic effort to save the people. Fate mercifully intervened through the petition of Queen Philippa, who persuaded her husband that the unnecessary death of the six men would be a terrible omen hovering over their as yet unborn child. Accordingly, the men were spared; but sadly, the child, Thomas Windsor, died within his first year.
#10 Lambeth Palace
Continue until you arrive at the walk nearby the Thames, and then turn right, keeping the river on your left. Across the Thames is Lambeth Palace (the red buildings). That is your destination. The first bridge you will come to as you walk in this direction is Lambeth Bridge, which our coaches cross several times on trips outside of London. Walk the Thames until you come to Lambeth Bridge. Cross the Thames over Lambeth Bridge.Had you continued along the Thames, you would have arrived at the Tate Britain (see Tate Britain at the end of this walk). While you are crossing the Lambeth bridge look to your left. The bridge you see there is Westminster, the bridge you crossed at the beginning of this walk. Farther upstream to your right is Vauxhall Bridge. If you are familiar with the song “Doing the Lambeth Walk” (one of the numbers from the 1937 musical Me and My Girl), you might be interested to know that the actual Lambeth Walk is just slightly to the south and east as you exit the bridge (right on Albert Embankment, left onto Black Prince Road, and left again onto Lambeth Walk, but don’t go there now. There is nothing there but the road.). This area was where many of the Cockneys came on a Sunday afternoon as long ago as the seventeenth century to stroll and to visit a nearby spa, Lambeth Wells, which was a center of music and dancing. Before being closed down in 1859, the Vauxhall Gardens, a center of fashionable (and seedy) nightlife, was just south of Lambeth Walk.
#11 Lambeth Palace Road
When you exit the bridge, turn left, cross to the other side of the road, and move along Lambeth Palace Road, which leads you gradually away from the Thames.(If you were to go right onto Lambeth Road, instead of left, you would come to the Imperial War Museum and St. George Cathedral, both noted at the end of this walk.) Look for the church in front of you, just as you cross the road at the first intersection. This is St. Mary-at-Lambeth, which contains the newly refurbished Garden Museum. Beyond horticulture, the museum hosts an interesting collection of memorabilia; this is a place you should consider visiting in the future.For those of you who are familiar with Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain William Bligh is buried in the graveyard. And in 2017, during refurbishing of the museum, workers removing and leveling a section of the floor found a staircase hidden beneath the floor leading down into a vault under the main altar. Previous to this time, it had been assumed that all the orignal church vaults had been filled with dirt—all, that is, except this one. Amazingly, the vault contained the lead coffins of (among others) several archbishops of Canterbury (who are not always buried at Canterbury, as one might assume). After some initial examination by archaeologists and other officials, it was decided that the thirty coffins—not all of them with readable nameplates—be left undisturbed and intact, but the remarkable find reestablished the small church as an important part of religious life, bringing it somewhat out of the shadows of its grand and more imposing neighbor, Lambeth Palace.Now that you've taken a look at this pretty little church, stay on the sidewalk closest to the palace wall—although, unfortunately, you won’t be able to see any of the palace grounds except the outer walls. Farther down the way, you may be able to turn and observe some of the Lambeth Palace towers, begun in the 1200s.
# 12 Archbishop's Park
Stay on this road until the brick wall culminates in a wrought iron fence. Continue along the fence until you come to the opening into Archbishop’s Park.You can easily walk around the perimeter of Archbishop's Park, which is equipped with a tennis court, a ball field, and a cricket pitch (for practice purposes). Check out the zip line, which requires a climb up ten stories of stairs (as well as a steep admission price). Definitely not for the faint of heart.Feel free to use the facilities if you wish (at the Bishop’s invitation) except the children’s playground, which—if you haven’t noticed—is always off limits to any but the children and their guardians.
#13 Cross Lambeth Palace Road
Standing at the opening into the park, note the group of buildings to your left and across the road. Cross Lambeth Palace Road, and make your way right along that wall.The wall belongs to the St. Thomas’ Hospital compound. A medical and a dental school are part of this complex, along with one of London’s most famous hospitals (this is the same St. Thomas’ Hospital mentioned in the Southwark walk). As you walk along this street, nearby the hospital entrance you will see a sign pointing to the Florence Nightingale Museum. As the name suggests, this is a small museum honoring “the lady of the lamp”—one of the heroines of the Crimean War (1854–56). There is a price of admission since it is a privately owned museum. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m.–5 p.m. You may want to visit the museum at a later date.
#14 The End: Return to the BYU Centre
Make your way left along Lambeth Palace Road, back to Westminster Bridge. Cross the bridge and make your way to the Westminster tube station (across from Big Ben) if you desire to return home at this time.However, if you are not tired and still have some time for walking, you may want to go back to Westminster Abbey and make your way from there along Victoria Street, and then catch the tube back to the BYU Centre at Victoria Railway/Underground Station. Or you may want to walk to the Tate Britain along the Thames, or visit the London Aquarium, or the London Eye. All of these are available to you in this part of London.
#15 Other Places to Visit Nearby When You Have Time
Walk from Parliament past the side of Westminster Abbey to the beginning of Victoria Street. Begin walking along Victoria Street to its terminus at Victoria Station. Here are directions to the main points of interest. There are three basic ways to get to the Tate Britain gallery: 1) the traditional way suggested by most guide books is to go to Pimlico tube station and walk from there to the Tate. This involves a five minute walk through one of the less scenic parts of London, and I wouldn’t recommend walking through the area at night. I have found it easy to lose one’s way, unless there are others looking for the gallery and one follows the crowd; 2) Up until recently, I have found the most enjoyable way to get there is to walk from Parliament via the Thames Path. It is certainly a much more scenic route and involves about a fifteen-minute walk; and 3) Now, however, it is possible to get to the Tate Britain by boat on the Thames. The Tate boat can be boarded near the Tate Modern, and enjoy a boat ride in the process. Tickets can be purchased either online or at a self-service kiosk on the pier. The boats run about every 40 minutes, 7 days a week.The most convenient way to get to the Imperial War Museum is to go to Lambeth North tube station on the Bakerloo Line (Central Line to Oxford Circus, and transfer from there). Cross over Westminster Bridge Road to Kennington Road and walk down Kennington Road to Lambeth Road. Charlie Chaplin lived at 261 and 287 Kennington Road when he was a boy. After you cross over Lambeth on Kennington Road, look to your left for a park, Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park. When you get to Brook Drive, leave Kennington and look for the museum in the park.Victoria StreetWhen you reach the point that one would normally go into the abbey, note the sanctuary associated with the abbey (now marked by a red granite column). As suggested by its name, the sanctuary was a protected area, whose rights were obtained by criminals (including murderers) and vagabonds. It was here that Richard Lovelance wrote the famous line “Stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage.”Victoria Street was built in 1862 in order to link Parliament to Victoria Station, which was completed later, in the 1870s. The other end of the road is marked by “Little Ben,” a thirty-foot model of Big Ben, built near Victoria Station. As you walk along Victoria, you can also see New Scotland Yard (built in 1967) to your right. We will visit the original Scotland Yard in a later walk.Just before you arrive at Victoria railway/tube Station, you will come to a modern piazza called Ashley Place on your left. Inside Ashley Place is the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral (as opposed to Westminster Abbey). This Roman Catholic cathedral is one of the most unusual churches in London, built in Christian neo-Byzantine style in 1884. Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, who was responsible for its construction, was one of the first generation of Roman Catholics to be officially recognized after the famous Catholic Emancipation (restoration of Catholic rights in Britain) of the early nineteenth century. The design was chosen in part so that it would not imitate Westminster Abbey, owned by the Church of England (I recommend a visit to the cathedral early in your program).You may want to shop and note the theatres around Victoria Station, and when you are through, you can go back to the BYU Centre from Victoria Station tube station via the Circle Line.The Tate BritainThe Tate Britain is my favorite of all the London art galleries; I consider it a “must-see” for any London tourist, containing as it does the best collection of British art in London. Until the opening of the Tate Modern in 2000, this was the only Tate gallery in London (there are also smaller but unimpressive versions in Liverpool and St. Ives). In 2000, the Tate holdings were divided, sending everything that wasn’t done by British artists to the new Tate Modern that you can see on the Southwark Walk. Consequently, Tate Britain is the major gallery to visit to view the history of British art—a much overlooked part of Western art history. I recommend that you visit this gallery several times during your stay in London, if only for that reason.The initial collection was the gift in 1897 of Sir Henry Tate. If you are observant when you are dining out during your stay in the UK, you will note that much of the sugar you consume is manufactured by the Tate sugar company. Sir Henry was the founder of that company and made the bulk of his fortune by patenting his invention of the sugar cube. So if you see a sugar cube in the future, think of Sir Henry and his contribution to art in the form of the Tate galleries.The Imperial War MuseumFor those who are interested in the social impact of war, this is what you have been looking for. The museum is not only about weaponry, despite the two massive cannons that greet you as you enter the grounds and the fact that it does include such implements of war as a German V2 rocket and a Polaris missile in its displays. It is equally as interested in such social features as the impact of war on food supplies and the subsequent practice of rationing, efforts made to build morale through propaganda and censorship, as well as such obvious interruptions to life as air raids.The museum’s focus is on war from 1914 (the beginning of World War I) to the present—including war in the Falklands Islands, and the Gulf War of 1990–91. Film and other art forms (radio programs, literature, and photography) are employed to make all of the experiences more vivid. One can view a simulation of war in the settings of a front-line trench of World War I or a London street during the German blitz of World War II. Special effects are also employed to recreate other twentieth-century battles.Paintings by Graham Sutherland and Paul Nash (two of Britain’s most prestigious early modern painters) and sculpture by Jacob Epstein reflect the artists’ images of war and its horrors. Henry Moore’s poignant scenes of Brits asleep in the underground tube stations during an air raid offer another personal face to war. Perhaps fittingly, the museum occupies buildings that once belonged to the third site of the Bethlem (Bedlam) Hospital for the insane, dating to 1811. In 1930, the hospital moved to Surrey, and the basic part of the early collection on war was moved from South Kensington in 1936.St. George’s CathedralWhile you are in the same park, I recommend a visit to this Roman Catholic cathedral, at the intersection of Lambeth and St. George’s road, built ironically— and perhaps defiantly—on the very spot where the “no popery” riots assembled in 1780. At that time, when talk of extending civil rights once more to Roman Catholics—allowing them to vote, to hold office, and to attend Oxford and Cambridge—after better than a one hundred year hiatus, the issue was hotly contested in London, and riots ensued.This church was designed in 1840 by Augustus Pugin, one of the premiere architects of the nineteenth century in Britain (and a Roman Catholic himself), after what is called the Catholic Emancipation Act, enfranchising all members of that faith, had been passed by Parliament. Pugin, who was responsible for the design of the entire interior of the newly rebuilt House of Parliament, was in the last stages of completing that important project at the time. Though bombed out during World War II, St. George’s has been rebuilt using the original plans.
