Wandering the streets of London

Rembrandt Gardens

There was no reason to hurry this morning although we woke quite early. It was a grey and ever so slightly damp day but not as cold as yesterday.

By 11 o'clock, we were ready to go for a walk - Christine wanted first to visit a nearby M&S store that she has seen before, close to Edgeware Road underground station.

She completed her purchases - Mike was let down because they did not have the item in stock in the correct size that he would otherwise have bought, despite having one that was mis-labelled. Only after stripping off layers of warm outer clothing and trying it on did he realise that that it was a different size on the label from that on the hanger.

We then went on a bit further to look at one of the possible churches for tomorrow morning - St John's, Hyde Park. Like many churches in London, it is surrounded by newer redevelopment - London is a city that is forever changing as one use for land is replaced by another.

The church was open so we were able to look around inside. It had been re-ordered in recent times and now looks very light and airy although it was not always that way. A one-time screen has been moved to the back of the church so that it forms a useful feature to mark off space just inside the entrance. The pews have been removed - an information panel said that they had originated from America.

Most of the stained glass windows contained traditional nineteenth century decoration but a couple were much more recent. There was also a demonstration organ mechanism but alas the phone camera failed to take a useful photo. The main organ has just been completely re-built, recovering the decoration on the facing organ pipes from the ravages on an earlier repair. It seems that also some modernisation to the mechanism has been reversed. We had almost finished looking around when we were shooed out as the church was being closed up. It seems that it would not normally have been open on a Saturday.

Near to the church we spotted this restaurant - the 'first Yemeni' where a couple of chaps were just settling down to enjoy their traditional smoking pipes. Current laws mean that they have to sit outside whatever the weather!

We walked back via Praed Street (to pick up a paper from the small Tesco store at Paddington Basin and then into the station itself. Christine would like a traditional paper A-Z to guide her next week but alas, WHS did not have one. We will have to look further.

Back to the boat via the arm and were surprised to see four empty mooring spaces - yes, we know that nb Chance reported a similar fact a few days ago but they have flown off to India by now.

Earlier this morning Christine had prepared a new soup and it was made ready quite quickly once we were back on board. Most welcome.

Two o'clock and we went out again to walk to another church. We crossed the bridge over the arm with a view of Brownings Pool. This is the name of the canal space around a small island - Rembrandt Gardens is a small open area on one side, where our boat is moored.

St Stephens Church was closed, apart from the porch, so we could not see inside. We have yet to make up our minds.

We came back a longer way around so that we could walk along the last part of the towpath into Little Venice.

We crossed over the railway line at Westbourne Park, passing outside the huge LT bus garage.

Along the way we had a chance to look at one of the bridges which has puzzled us each time we come this way. From the water it is not possible to work out what it is used for. However, even from the adjoining land we were no wiser as the towpath end is completely blocked with a fairly modern brick wall. The other end just disappears into an anonymous building.

We took a slight detour to see whether St Mary's church might be a possibility but its forbidding entrance and well-locked gates did not put it high on our list. Probably rather too high church for us anyway.

We crossed over Ha'penny footbridge to return along the opposite bank - we knew from our arrival yesterday that the towpath is closed at the entrance to Brownings Pool and would mean a diversion.

Down one of the side roads we could see a slender spire and went to explore. However, St Saviour's Warwick Avenue is in a modern redevelopment with much of the land used for housing. The entrance to the church is far from disabled friendly, up two sets of steps into a dark and rather drear entrance. It did not seem, from the little information available, that this was what we were looking for either.

Close to the church we spotted a restored original Cabman's rest, where taxi drivers can have refreshment and a chance to chat with other drivers.

Then it was back the last short stretch to the boat and cup of tea. We have tickets for a concert tonight at St Martins in the Fields so a report on that will have to await an update to this blog, probably tomorrow.