CrockerTravellers 2015: Tower Experience and Plague and Pestilence.

A warm sunny day again so we headed off into the city.

We had breakfast at Wetherspoons as Geoff was wanting a 'Full English'.

It was the bathroom that I was impressed with!

Geoff liked this Art Deco building.

We got distracted on our walk to Tower Bridge by St Brides church. St. Bride's may be one of the most ancient churches in London, with worship perhaps dating back to the conversion of the Middle Saxons in the 7th century. It has been conjectured that, as the patron saint is St Bridget of Ireland, it may have been founded by Celtic monks, missionaries proselytising the English.

The present St Bride's is at least the seventh church to have stood on the site. Traditionally, it was founded by St Bridget in the sixth century.

St Bride's association with the newspaper business began in 1500, when Wynkyn de Worde set up a printing press next door. Until 1695, London was the only city in Britain where printing was permitted by law.

In the mid-17th century disaster struck. In 1665, the Great Plague of London killed 238 parishioners in a single week, and in 1666, the following year, the church was completely destroyed during the Great Fire of London, which burned much of the city. After the fire, the old church was replaced by an entirely new building designed by Sir Christopher Wren, one of his largest and most expensive works, taking seven years to build.

St Bride's was reopened on the 19th December 1675. The famous spire was added later, in 1701-1703.[10] It originally measured 234 ft, but lost its upper eight feet to a lightning strike in 1764; this was then bought by the then owner of Park Place, Berkshire, where it still resides. The design utilises four octagonal stages of diminishing height, capped with an obelisk which terminates in a bal

The wedding cake is said to date back to 1703 when Thomas Rich, a baker’s apprentice from Ludgate Hill, fell in love with the daughter of his employer and asked her to marry him. He wanted to make an extravagant cake, and drew on the design of St Bride's Church for inspiration as he could see it from his window.

The church was gutted by fire-bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe during The Blitz of London in World War II, on the night of 29 December 1940, dubbed the Second Great Fire. After the war, St Bride's was rebuilt at the expense of newspaper proprietors and journalists.

One fortunate and unintended consequence of the bombing was the excavation of the church's original 6th century Saxon foundations. Today, the crypt known as the Museum of Fleet Street is open to the public and contains a number of ancient relics, including Roman coins and medieval stained glass. Post-war excavations also uncovered nearly 230 lead coffins with plaques dating from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, filled with the bones of parishioners.

Some old favourites.

We decided to fork out the money for the Tower Experience this time. The views from the top were great.

There was a glass section where you could see through the bridge from a very great height.

More views.

Then we looked through the engine room which powered the bridge to open in Victorian times.

Strange modern architecture. Apparently the first summer it was built there was so much heat reflected by the glass it had to be covered up as it was scorching Fenchurch St.

Then it was onto our Plague, Fire and Pestilence tour.

Below this was the first building re built after the fire of a london in 1666. Christopher Wren had it built as a prototype of what he wanted the new buildings to look like and it was from one of these rooms he designed St Pauls.

St Mary le Bow. The sound of its bells dictate whether you are a Cockney or not.

The Guildhall. The building below was the original built in 1430 and above is a building rebuilt after being destroyed by bombing in WW11. When they re built it they discovered the remains of Roman amphitheatre below the foundations. It's circumference is shown by the circle.