A Hidden London Secret.......St Dunstan In The East

Just a short walk from The Tower of London is the wonderful ancient ruins of The Church of
St Dunstan in the East. It's a building with quite a bit of history, having first been constructed back
in the Saxon days. And around 950 AD a Holy man by the name of Dunstan took it upon himself,
with a bit of help, to try and restore it.
It was then later destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. And shortly after that misfortune
Sir Christopher Wren stepped in and restored it even creating a new Church Tower which still
stands today, although the Church was destroyed once again during the Blitz in 1941. But thankfully
the Wren Tower survived leaving just a few standing walls with it's Gothic arched windows.
It was decided after that, that the Church would not be rebuilt and that a garden would replace
the central Church space, which was eventually opened up as a public space in 1967.

And yet it wasn't until I read a recent edition of the London Time Out magazine that I
discovered this secret hidden away place as they once again did a feature on such hidden
London gems. The article was titled 'Eight Properly Calm Places in London.'

While I was there on Saturday, visitors were flocking in and out all the time. And I counted
three model and two wedding photo shoots in the couple of hours I was there. In fact I
got roped in to help out on one wedding photo shoot where I was asked to hold up the Brides
long white veil for effect.
But I imagine it must get even busier in there during the working week as the grounds has
become a sort of lunch time refuge for the nearby City workers.

I imagine that in a few weeks that this place will look even more appealing as I noticed that
many of the large vine like leaves that surround those Gothic window arches, were slowly starting
to turn red.
And I did actually film a three and a half minute video on my phone but sadly had to
delete it as I hadn't left enough memory on it to stabilize the footage. Just wish they'd give
you more internal memory on these phones. So I'll probably return to the grounds and
re film it, but for a shorter time. 

Returning back home I couldn't resist passing The Tower Of London as well
as Tower Bridge.

For a warm early October day I was amazed at the huge crowds
of tourists and visitors that were roaming around The Thames
near Tower Bridge.

Below: The River Thames and The London Shard Building.

October!

Above image via  In Search of Cozy Spaces

WELCOME BACK & A SUMMER OF D.I.Y

So here we are, back once again after a month long Summer break.
It's good to see that many hundreds of visitors have been visiting
this blog daily even though I've not been posting anything.
Hopefully these two big return posts are not too big to both appear
on this opening page, what with my holiday photos further down
in the next post.

Above is an image of the damaged floor and carpet by my small kitchen, and I mean small.
It seems that over the last few years that my old fridge was constantly leaking, especially
more so every time I defrosted it. So come this very warm Summer in what seemed like
the hottest two weeks we had in July, I started the process of repairing all the damage.

And first to go was the fridge. And after that I pulled up the surrounding damaged carpet
and laid down some hardboard. And then on top of the boards I put down some floor tiles.
It also gives the appearance that the very small kitchen floor area now spreads out
into the main room. And I was really pleased with the outcome. But being that I had to
get a new fridge and a much wider one, I had to cut into the partition wall that I put up
several years ago as the fridge was too wide to fit under the kitchen worktop.

But that whole week without a fridge was a tough week. Why? Because it was the
hottest week we had during our Summer heatwave. And I guess you've all heard of
The Naked Chef, but being up here on the top floor of our house I actually spent many hours
working in just my briefs and a tool belt. Now that would have made a picture as it
seems impossible to keep this flat cool during rare severe heatwaves.
But boy did we load up the new fridge with cold drinks and ice lollies once
it arrived.

The fireplace in the above picture was one I hand made but I had to awkwardly build
it around that little cupboard where a disconnected old gas meter is housed.
 

Above middle picture shows the original fireplace which is still concealed under the present one
which I made a few years ago when we had gas heating, which has now been disconnected.
The image on the right was of the new facade fireplace that I made. And on the left is a picture of
when I went for the old country cottage look.

And below is how things are now.

Above: The small kitchen on the right. And on the left is the newly
constructed guest room.