A week in London

Algate, London - not far from our hotel

We spent seven nights and six full days in London, and John managed to be bed-ridden for three of them.  And another day was half spent at the London General Hospital Whitechapel, located within walking distance.  He hadn’t been able to shake the infection he caught on the ship.  So we resigned ourselves to doing just as much as we could, which really wasn’t much.  I went out by myself for 2-3-4 hours but no longer.

On Thursday 1^st May, I walked to the Barbican to visit one of my tutors, Else Churchill who happens to be “The Genealogist” at the Society of Genealogists.  It was nice to meet first hand one of the eight or so tutors for the certificate course I finished in February.  I then checked out some of their resources.  It is the kind of place one could spend a week, similar to the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG) in Sydney.

On Friday we walked to the hospital at Whitechapel, saw a triage doctor (not like Australian emergency centres where triage is done by nurses), waited an age (as expected) to see another doctor who ordered a chest x-ray.  This turned out to be good news – no lung damage; anti-biotics should do the trick said the doctor.  But Saturday and Tuesday were spent in bed.  John says yesterday (Thursday) was the first day he’s felt well.  He was very weak for a few days.

John at St Dunstan's church, Stepney

We were close to Stepney after leaving the hospital, so we walked to St Dunstan's church where John Bruce and Sarah Butler were married about 1790.  Their son James Bruce, sentenced to death in 1831 for burglary but transported to New South Wales instead was the head of a huge family which now numbers well over 3000, including spouses.  His wife and older sons joined him in Bathurst and he was granted a ticket of leave about 1840 and a full pardon in 1848.  He ended up doing quite well as a farmer near Bathurst.

On Saturday, I decided to catch the first bus that appeared, being the 100 which took me to Liverpool Station.  Not much to see there, so I caught an Underground service to Oxford Street which was VERY crowded, being a bank holiday weekend.  But for the first time, the sun was shining.  I found a very pleasant park called Soho Square park, full of young people sitting on the grass or lying trying to get a tan.  No chance – they need to go on a cruise for that!  Later I caught a bus to Picadilly Circus and walked via Leicester Square to Trafalgar Square where I caught a bus back to Tower Hill.  Everywhere in the city was crowded, with many French speakers.  Maybe all the English go to Paris for the weekend.  Makes sense.

Petticoat Lane - actually Middlesex Street no

On Sunday John felt well enough to go out, so we walked to Petticoat Lane – a lane that no longer exists because the Victorians were embarrassed by the name, so changed it to Middlesex Street.  The Sunday market covers about a mile, and is very crowded with locals and tourists – clothes were the highlight of this market.

We then walked back to Tower Bridge,

Tower Bridge

crossed it and found a Polish festival on the banks of the river opposite the Tower of London. We caught a bus to Trafalgar Square and found a very large Indian festival outside the Tate Gallery.  After watching this for a while, we caught a bus to Knightsbridge and just behind Harrods Department Store, we found the church where John’s great grandparents – Joshua (Middleton) Moxon and Louisa Mary Wilkinson were married in 1865.  Back home to Tower Bridge and soup for dinner.

Docklands Museum at West India Docks

The following day, we decided to explore the East End, starting with West India Docks and Canary Wharf, an area that has seen huge redevelopment and restoration in the last 10 years or so.  We visited the wonderful Docklands Museum which highlights the working history of the Thames, the sugar trade and slavery.  I visited in 2012 but it was just as good to see it again.  We were disappointed with the street access in the vicinity of Canary Wharf – it took a long circuitous route and many dead ends for John to find his way around.

Greenwich Naval College

From Canary Wharf, we caught the Docklands Light Rail to Greenwich and were well rewarded seeing the Greenwich Naval College, now the University of Greenwich and the Cutty Sark.

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The Docklands Light Rail, well patronised at the time of the London Olympics, is particularly accessible, although wheelchair users need to be careful not to turn their small wheels when alighting the train since there is a small gap between train and platform.

We caught a catamaran back to Tower Hill - it took only 30 minutes and was well worth it, with many interesting buildings on each side of the river.

Docklands Light Rail (DLR)

After two days solid sightseeing, it was no wonder John spent Tuesday in bed. He said he wasn’t feeling ill, just exhausted. 

I headed out in the afternoon to find the London Metropolitan Archives, but got lost.  By the time I realised I should have kept going in the previous direction just one more block, I had become disheartened and found myself at Ludgate Hill.  I could see St Paul’s Cathedral in the distance so made my way there, then caught a bus back to the hotel.

Fiat Doblo - manual with five gears - easy to strap John in

That was the end of our time in London.  The next morning our rental wheelchair accessible van (WAV) was due for arrival, and at 11.30am it appeared – on the back of a truck.  We squeezed all our luggage in and away we drove – stalling at the first corner!

We headed for Harlow, a British "New Town" established in the 50s and 60s to house the many people displaced by the destruction during the 1940s.  Harlow was the nearest place to Hoddesdon which had a wheelchair accessible hotel room.  It is less than 30 miles north of London.