slightly weird

Wednesday, 1st September 2021

Throgmorton Street is  so short, I thought I’d be through in a few minutes but it’s a street packed with lovely things, and that’s before I’ve even walked down its few courts and alleys.

Looking at the map you can see Throgmorton Street clearly marked. The diagonal Old Broad Street  will lead you eastwards to the back of Broadgate/Liverpool Street station. I started my little walk at the southern entrance to Austin Friars passage, where Throgmorton Street cuts cleanly into the junction the passage makes with Old Broad Street. The western end of Throgmorton Street stops at the back of the Bank of England. At any rate, it’s not hard to see – even without panning out to the bigger map – that is a bit of a warren.

The street is named after Nicholas Throckmorton, chief banker of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The stock exchange was on the south side from 1972 to 2004.

The Throgmorton Restaurant, between the Stock Exchange and the Bank of England, was opened on 15 October 1900.

J Lyons & Co., a British restaurant chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884, had an 80-year lease on the property in 1897 from the Worshipful Company of Drapers. It was a celebrated eating place by the stockbrokers, bankers and insurance brokers who have dominated this  area for generations. By all accounts the interior of the restaurant was incredibly grand, with many rooms. The restaurant business ended in the  1970s.

I have so many happy memories of having tea and cake or sandwiches at Lyons Corner Houses around London. The best are from the 1960s when I worked close to the one on the Strand. I’d buy the cheapest lunch – tomato sandwiches – with the luncheon vouchers that were part of my salary. I’d eat these sandwiches in Trafalgar Square and save the rest of my voucher money so that every Friday I could combine them to have a really special lunch.

Another fun thing about Lyons is Nigella Lawson’s connection –  her mother, Vanessa Salmon, was an heiress born into the Lyons Coffee House dynasty. I loved Lyons chocolate cupcakes and found them one day in Morrison’s supermarkets. My fond memory of peeling off the foil cups, then peeling the chocolate icing off the chocolate sponge bottom, to eat last, was tarnished when I tasted them – they were awful! Had they changed or had my memory been faulty? Likely both.

At any rate, the lanterns and everything about the door is gorgeous (there are two identical doors). The place continued as a restaurant, owned by Mitchells & Butler from 2004 to 2013. I’d missed it.

The original Drapers Hall was built in St Swithin’s Lane in the 1420s, then the present hall was bought from King Henry VIII in 1543. It had been the property of Thomas Cromwell, the king’s chief minister. Thomas had been instrumental in the arrest and execution of Anne Boleyn, and later was executed himself, his property forfeited to the king. The hall was rebuilt after the Great Fire and then in 1772 was again rebuilt. The latest alteration was in 1898-9. What I’ve seen of the inside from pictures shows enormous rooms like a palace. In fact, the halls are often shown in television series and movies, such as The King’s Speech.

Through the gates at the left (closer views below) is Throgmorton Avenue, which runs from here to London Wall. It’s a private road belonging to the Drapers’ livery company, with these splendid gates on each end.  Today this end was closed. The gates to London Wall are controlled by the Carpenters’ Company. All this tells me is that there are bits of the area I need to see more of, since Krish tells me that he was lucky enough to see the gates open one day with some ‘old’ carpenters in their livery having a lunch break.

Continue reading “Short and sweet – Throgmorton Street, and a view of St Paul’s”

Thursday August 12, 2021

Every time I’ve gone to Liverpool Street with Krish (who goes on to Guys) I’ve meant to check out the new shops they’ve built into the Broadgate exit from the station. Before, it was a shop-lined walk back to an open area where you could sit on the steps and enjoy your lunch. Inside the Broadgate circle were some popular chain cafes – places I’d think of eating and then was put off by queues and prices. In that respect, it hasn’t much changed.

Now from the back of the station where you’d walk at ground level to Broadgate, you can go an alternate route to an upper level — up the escalators to some fancy new shops, look out at Old Broad Street from the top and circle around to Broadgate Circle where it’s expanded to some upper cafes where I’m plagued by queues and prices! Somewhere in my head I’m thinking maybe it always was here. Such thinking can give me a headache though, so I’ll just say that, if it was always there,  it’s been refreshed. It’s open, bright and very, very different than the old station roads of Liverpool Street and Bishopsgate.

A little something about Broadgate – it’s a hub of office buildings linked by public squares located on the original site of Broad Street station (closed in 1986) and beside and above the railway approaches into Liverpool Street station. It covers 32 acres and brings the world of finance together with food, retail and culture. 19 million people come here to work, and to shop, dine and be entertained in the mainly-pedestrianised development. Building started in the mid to late 80s. Broadgate Circle was completed in 2015, not so long ago.

I considered each fast food place. The dim sum was motioning, the poke bowls were fascinating, but I moved on towards Finsbury Avenue Square, an area I didn’t recognise as having seen before. To get to it I had to walk in a seemingly narrow area by an interesting metallic structure.

Continue reading “Exploring Broadgate”