St Paul's and the Museum of London

There is nothing like spending a beautiful blue-sky summer London day out and about. What does Marky do on a day like this? Climb 528 steps up a cathedral, of course! As today was a lovely day, I decided to trek up to the Golden Gallery of St.Pauls Cathedral to get a different perspective of London. Finished off the afternoon learning about London itself at the Museum of London.

Woke up this morning and saw that it was a lovely day outside, which made me think "I should try and get a panoramic view of London". Great idea. So initially I was thinking that i'd visit Primrose Hill, up by Regents Park. So I popped online for some alternative ideas on how to get a good view of London and found out that I could climb up to the dome of St.Paul's. Fantastic! Given that it was effectively down the road for me, I was sold.

I thought that my journey to St.Pauls would have been uneventful. I was wrong. On the way over to the Cathedral I spotted a dobule decker London bus... with a twist. The bus had the words "The Wedding Special" and "Just Married", a bit hard to make out on the photo below... but at least the ribbon is on the front! Talk about a uniquely London way to get hitched!


Upon arriving at St.Paul's I milled about the perimeter, a truly marvellous building. No point bolting to the top without first admiring the building from the outside! Obviously, St.Paul's is a popular place for tourists - heck, I was there. I noticed a couple of German school groups, as well as a couple of bus loads of tour-guided travellers. Plenty of local English locals as well. Good thing, too. Apparenty maintenance and upkeep of the Cathedral is in the order of 3 or 4 million pounds a year! I didn't feel so bad about parting with 12 pounds and 50 pence after reading coming across that tidbit of information.



After paying the admission fee and having a brief chat with the chap who was guarding the South Entrance, I headed for the top - a journey that totaled 528 stairs (one way). It was actually a lot easier than I thought. The journey up to the Whispering Gallery is wide and smooth, a whole deal more comfortable and open than I expected. Once I got to the Whispering Gallery I was stunned. You just have to go to see, if you haven't already been. The dome above me was overwhelming in size and equally elaborate. A real shame that I couldn't take a photo.

Continuing my journey up to the top was different. The staircase was stone and cramped, just like it was in years past. Not quite the Chu Chi tunnels in Vietnam, but not the cosiest either. The Stone Gallery provides the first lofty views of London, I stopped to have a look for a little while before continuing. Moving from the Stone Gallery up to the Golden Gallery was the least pleasant part of the journey. There's a step thin metal spiral staircase that shoots straight upwards - thankfully there's only 152 of them though.

The view from the Golden Gallery is lovely. A small sample is contained below, beautiful isn't it?
(You can see what a lovely day it was in 'Sunny' England, haha!)




After heading to the top, I ventured down into the Crypt of the Cathedral. Not as breathtaking as the view up top, but it did provide some novel tidbits of information that I didn't know before - things such as... the crypt being the resting place of Lord Nelson (Battle of Trafalgar)!

Babbling on too much now. Just quickly, went to the Museum of London nearby and spent a few hours there. The permanent exhibitions on the history of London were quite interesting. (I didn't have enough time to look at the contemporary sections). Nothing like a bit of history and culture to finish off the day. Notting Hill festival over the next few days, so a packed weekend!