London: City of London; Monday, 30 August, 2021

I’d learnt from the previous days mistake and moved back to getting up early so that I had a smooth breakfast before heading out round to Tower Hill to pick up the tube. I caught it round to Moorgate and then followed the Pedways again this time down to the Guildhall, the centre of government of the Corporation of London the body that runs the square mile. The guildhall is an impressive medieval building, that – until works were undertaken in the 1980s to build a new art gallery next to it – nobody realised sits on top of the original Roman Amphitheatre of Londinium. Today the art gallery houses not only some of the corporations art works it also houses in its basement those discovered remains of the arena.

From the Guildhall I had a walk through this part of the city stopping off at the ruins of Christchurch Greyfriars – a Wren built church that was destroyed in the Blitz and has been left as a memorial, with the ruined walls of the church now housing a small garden. From there it was a short walk on to the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, before I headed back towards St Pauls Cathedral, arriving just as the doors were opening for the day.

The cathedral opened at midday and I had a tour of the Triforium – the area above the cathedral floor that houses part of the organ – booked for 12:30 so I only had time for a quick look around the inside of the church before I joined the tour. Along with stunning views down on the cathedral from above another key part of the tour is a visit to the room which houses Wrens original drawings and model for St Pauls. The current cathedral is version 5, the previous four all having burnt down, the 4th most notably during the Great Fire of London in 1666. The 4th had a very tall spire, that actually made it a taller building than the current version, and Wren had quite the time convincing the relevant authorities and church members that what they really wanted was a dome rather than a spire. There are several iterations of drawings that show a spire slowly morphing into the dome that the cathedral is famous for today.

After the tour there was time to have a wander around the cathedral and down into the Crypt where many famous people are buried including Wren himself, along with Florence Nightingale, the Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson.

I had a quick stop for lunch in Paternoster square, just behind the cathedral, and then headed over to Regents Park and London Zoo.

The Zoo in Regents Park traces it’s origins back to the Medieval menagerie at the Tower of London which had outgrown it’s space and so was move here in the 19th century. Over time the role of the zoo has moved away from exhibiting weird and wonderful creatures to one of conservation. Due to the size of it’s site it’s meant its actively reduced the number of big species that live on site, with Rhinos, Hippos and Elephants now all enjoying the Bedfordshire countryside of the sister zoo Whipsnade.

It still has a number of key attractions including the tigers who were being particularly frisky when I visited. I spent a good couple of hours wandering round the site taking in all the exhibits before it was time to head back to my hotel to freshen up.

After a quick bit to eat at the hotel I headed back out for my evening trip to take in a show – something that every tourist to London should do, so I spent my evening watching an only very recently re-opened Phantom of the Opera.