Friday, October 14, 2022
October 14 is our anniversary. We usually go somewhere to eat, but I find unless we’ve booked it, it often doesn’t happen. We did make an attempt though, looking for a roast or even just a cream tea somewhere.
We were well into our clearing out and packing days during our anniversary week. I’d say that we wouldn’t ordinarily choose to go to London Bridge for such an occasion but I’d booked a couple of months earlier to go see the Gaia My Earth exhibit at Southwark Cathedral. The cathedral is somewhere that we’ve always loved and the place Krish had met our close friend Emma and her husband many years earlier.
Anyway, I’d been wanting to see the Gaia and London Bridge and the cathedral ticked a bunch of boxes so we were going.
The cathedral is at the edge of the market and there was the usual well-organised entry path. No one asked to look at our tickets so in we went.
Then as you clear the entrance, there floats Gaia.
Gaia was created by UK artist Luke Jerram. It’s a suspended, revolving seven metre diameter model of earth. The artwork has been touring around the world for some time. In Greek Mythology Gaia is the personification of the Earth
There’s also audio – music and voices, including many who are at once awed and fearful of our earth and its future. The model wants to create more respect and responsibility for each other and our planet.
As large as it is, this Earth is “1.8 million times smaller than the real Earth with each centimetre of the internally lit sculpture describing 18km of the Earth’s surface. By standing 211m away from the artwork, the public will be able to see the Earth as it appears from the moon.”.
The atmosphere in the cathedral was hushed. People stood and watched it, some walking around to view it from all sides. At one point a group of school children were escorted in and each one gasped at seeing it for the first time because, yes, it’s very impressive. The backdrop of the cathedral was quite lovely. I’d actually like to have seen it in dimmer light.
The cathedral has some great artefacts scattered about, items that have been found and kept from its earlier days. Originally called St Mary Overie, then St Saviours, there’s been a church here since the early 12th century, but over the years it has been added to and restored. It became a cathedral in 1905. Since Shakespeare lived in Southwark, he also has a memorial here – a statue and stained glass window – so many visitors think he is buried here. He isn’t but his brother Edmund who died in 1607 at the age of 27 is. Each year on Williams’s birthday there’s a memorial celebration here in the cathedral. I’ve never managed to be there for it.
When I came to London in 2002, I’d often go to Borough Market. I loved walking along from St Pauls, over the Millennium Bridge and eastwards from the Tate Gallery – my favourite part was between the Globe Theatre and London Bridge so took in all of the market. Over the years the market has become busier and more trendy, with more and more cooked food stalls popping up. This is true of most markets but it changes the ambience and attracts more crowds of young people. It’s still fun to go there when it’s not so crowded and I tend to stick to the shops in the surrounding streets, like Neals Yard Dairy. I really do try to stay away during lunch hours and weekends.
It was one of those days when nothing appealed in the way of food. We checked out some menus and turned away. We looked at the menu for Roast, inside the market, but again turned away. I grabbed a sausage roll for the bus home and I no longer remember what we ate that night but I think someone still owes me an anniversary dinner!
Liberty, a London luxury, is a sharp contrast to the often shabby back streets of Soho. But it also backs onto Carnaby Street and, along with the rest of the world, in 1960s London I loved any excuse to at least window shop there. Carnaby Street isn’t the untidy jumble of independent shops it used to be. Now it’s full of midrange franchises with only a touch of the bohemian and bizarre. It is a passage that feels transitional, merging beatnik Soho gently into Regent Street splendour.
