Markets and Canals in London

Water - Water!  That’s what we need on yet another hot day.

We started with a museum, thinking it would be a cool place to be.  Turned out it was - though dark as well.  We went to Dennis Severs House in Spital fields.  A strange little museum which is like a time capsule of life in and 18th Century world of a family of silk weavers.  Quite Dickensian, cobwebs, decaying and fragmenting parchments and clothing along with the detritus of everyday life.  They said “as if the owners had just stepped out of the room for a few minutes”.  Cups of tea half drunk - fresh bread sliced ready for the taking: fireplaces with the sooty embers of coal in the grate.  And on the top floor, a couple of lodgers rooms where Fagin in Oliver Twist could easily have lived!

It was all a bit weird.  Anyhow, it was just a couple of blocks from Spitalfield Market where we had lunch.  But we made our choice of venue BEFORE Alan spied these offerings - I think he was kicking himself for missing out!

The East End is an interesting area to walk around - very lively, with the grimy old and glistening modern rubbing shoulders.

Now on to Mile End and the Regents Canal: another world again here on the Regents Canal:

A small community with its own floating market, cafe’s and even a barbers!





And so the end of our stay in London draws to a close with the air conditioning of the hotel beckoning us back to Tottenham Court Road by mid afternoon - the underground railways were absolutely stifling in the heat so it was essential to get back before the rush hour.

PS.  We managed to find a little hairdresser just around the corner from our hotel - the cuts were good: took twice as long as our hairdresser’s at home, but cost half as much!  A very pleasant surprise!

PPS.  Another surprise to end our day - as a result of a post I put on the Probus Club Facebook page, we discovered Ross and Robyn Edwards were in London tonight, so we quickly made arrangements to meet up.  They were in Kensington, us on Tottenham Court Road, so we met at a pub halfway between the two places - in Notting Hill Gate.