Tuesday, September 20, 2011

London Open Weekend – 17 September 2011

A quick look on the Web doesn't show any other other countries that have the same Open House weekend scheme as the UK. It is such a brilliant idea, and works very well here, with the hundreds of years of historic building styles.

We headed to the City of London, as the Square Mile has many participating buildings packed into an easy walking area. We managed to visit quite a few, ranging from Trinity House (which is in charge if the country's lighthouses), several livery companies (the best would have to be the Drapers)
and several churches, which are normally closed on the weekends. It is a curious effect of population dynamics that many city churches have no congregations as no one lives nearby, so they are locked on Sundays and open for many different functions during the week.

One of the more unusual places we visited was a hairdresser at Leadenhall Markets. In their basements is a glass door showing part of the original Roman Basilica foundations. So the modern basement is the ground level of Roman times.

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