London Bridge is not currently falling down

A Bronze Age Londoner

London Bridge was falling down, that’s why they sold it to a consortium of Americans (who may have thought they were purchasing iconic Tower Bridge), who transplanted it to Arizona. It isn’t anything special to look at. Neither is the new one. What is special about it is that was erected at the same location as the first bridge across the Thames built by the Romans. Over the years, there have been several bridges at that site, each was falling or fell down.

Roman artifacts from London

All this London history is part of the reason for our return. The current city sits atop the constructions and remains of at least 8000 years. The excellent City of London Museum covers this with marvelously informative displays – dioramas, models, interactive “touchable” artifacts, descriptive information panels, maps, display tables, sit-down computer research stations for each time period, videos, and self-guided tour activity books. We got millions of ideas for the museums and projects we want our students to create from our digs. The museum was itself built on the ruins of the Roman city wall – uncovered by bombs during WW I. There is a lovely memorial garden with a line of red poppies marking the places where civilians were killed by the bombing.

A good luck tablet from the front yard of a London resident
who lived 1900 years ago. Notice the name of the city.

We raced from the museum over to St. Paul’s Cathedral for Evensong. This cathedral is Christopher Wren’s magnum opus, officially completed in 1711. It was built as a replacement for the old St. Paul’s Cathedral which was destroyed in the Great Fire. Its coppery green dome dominates the central London skyline. It is in a style called English Baroque. On the outside it is not terribly baroque, far less ornamented than other cathedrals we have seen. On the inside however, the label baroque almost seems inadequate. Alas that no photos may be taken in the church. The nave is fairly understated. It is light, airy, and open; basically the exact opposite of Westminster Abbey. However, when one’s eyes reach the quire screen, and the ceiling beyond, there is a sudden brightness of gilding and sparkling mosaics. I think it is meant to look Byzantine.

Outside the British Museum

We sat in the quire for evensong and spent the whole time craning our necks this way and that to try to take in all the details. The ceiling is mosaics of scenes from the Bible in supersaturated colors. The canopy over the high alter is intricately carved and richly painted. When it debuted, the cathedral was criticized by some for being “un-English” and it is easy to see what they meant. It is most definitely unique among the cathedrals and abbey churches we have seen around the country. Which is not to say it is not beautiful, it is, but it is also not like anything else. The Choir was amazing as we have come to expect these Anglican choirs to be, and we left the service once more in awe of how 40 human voices could fill such and immense space so gloriously.

Winged bull from Nimrud

The next day we went to the British Museum. It is almost impossible to describe this museum – a mammoth edifice crammed full of humankind’s greatest achievements in stone, glass, clay, metal, wood, textiles, and any other base material I have neglected to mention. There has been considerable controversy around collections like this – that hold treasures from the entire globe. Without wishing to stir coals, I can only say that I wish they had even more. They have proved an outstanding conservator of the heritage of humanity. That is neither more nor less than what they have assembled here. They make safe and accessible (except for the halls with artifacts from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus – they were closed!) many of the greatest treasures of the past. I know that I am glad that the treasures from the Assyrian and Mesopotamian galleries are in the UK rather than in the land where they were made because they would for almost certain not exist today if they had been left there.

Royal Lion Hunt 

What's left of one of the Parthenon's pediments

If you have ever taken an introduction to art history class, then you know what we saw:  everything from the first half of the textbook. There were the winged bulls with human heads wearing long, ringleted beards from Nimrud. We saw exquisitely painted sarcophagi from Egypt. There was the elaborately inlayed Standard of Ur. The Rosetta Stone which was used to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. The friezes and pediments from the Parthenon brought to England from Athens by Lord Elgin. There are rooms bursting with Greek red and black figure ware. There are Mesopotamian cylinder seals and tablets etched with the tiniest cuneiform writing.

I have personally had many “overwhelmed by history” moments on this trip (as in, “whoa, Richard II stood here in this spot”, or “whoa, I’m standing in a 5000 year old chamber”), but the British Museum took that feeling to a whole new level. It is truly awe inspiring to see what people long ago were capable of creating, and it is a little disheartening to think that all we have created in the last 50 years that will still be here in 4000 years is plastic bottles.

The Globe was again our destination in the evening. We attended the opening night of “As You Like It”, and we did like it – very much! It was a fantastic performance – the actors milked every line for maximum humor. We again, had queued early enough for stage-side seats? Foot-room? Positions? Whatever, we were once again practically onstage with the actors. Again, we stood for 3+ hours without the slightest awareness of it, so absorbed in the play as we were. It is wonderful to see these works performed as they would have been seen more than 400 years ago – to reach across time and space and live an experience the same way is indescribably awe-inspiring.

Caryatid from the Erechtheion at the
Acropolis in Athens

Mummy with funerary ornaments

The Standard of Ur