To commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the intraocular lens implant, the UK and Ireland Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons held a wonderful meeting in the Leonardo Hotel Tower Bridge culminating in a charity event at the Tower of London…it was spectacular.
I had a day or two and decided to walk the old streets of London as I had gone to university in the oldest hospital in the world, St Bartholomew’s in East Smithfield. Of course when an undergraduate in the late seventies, we had many other things to occupy us than wandering the streets of town…
The Leonard Royal Hotel Tower Bridge near Tower Hill tube stationBut a few minutes away, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London on a cold gloomy London morning…I walked up Minories to have a look at Petticoat Lane, once very well known, but it is actually very tacky and not worth visiting today….The Shard loomed in the distanceand I had a most agreeable sausage sandwich and cappucino at Pete’s Cafe opposite Aldgate Station….The City of LondonThe Gherkin peeped out between the buildings near petticoat laneI walked along London Wall to LIttle Britain and West Smithfield….roads I had known only too well all those years agoFinally arriving at the Olde School, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, founded in 1123…this of course is a newer wing that wasn’t there 40 years agothe distinctive black and white crest of BartsKing Henry VIII gateway at the main entrance….through which is the Church of St Bartholomew the Lessand the beautiful square of the hospital….thankfully whilst there has been development, some of the old buildings remainoutside…. a memorial to William WallaceSt Bartholomew the Great ChurchSmithfield Meat Market…I remember when I first walked through it on my way to St Bartholomew’s Hospital…there were lots of men dressed in bloodied white overalls…I thought they weren’t very good surgeons at Barts! Of course they were the butchers of Smithfield meat market, soon to be converted to a museum…someone saw fit to paint the gates within the meat market this garish green and purple colourCharterhouse Square…where preclinical sessions and the halls of residence were locatedwhere I learnt anatomy 40 years ago….overlooking charterhouse square is this block of flats where Hercules Poirot of Agatha Christie fame is supposed to have stayedwe were taken on a tour of the City of London looking at historical medical sites…here of course is St Paul’s Cathedral, surrounded by many guild houses and worshipful companiesI then wandered past Hatton Garden and down Holborn where the gusty winds of Storm Bert were throwing up the autumn leavesOne of the endearing charms of London is that the old juxtaposes with the new ..a wonderful study in contrastsAnd so my walk from Tower Hill to Shaftesbury Avenue ended …
Revisiting old London…the same and yet not quite the same as it was 40 years ago was a revelation…each street, each corner was evocative of an old memory…I’m glad I chose to walk everywhere that day! This is a departure from my usual birding posts but I’m glad I did it….
The Natural Traveller 
I tried to spot a bird in the pictures, but you’re right—there isn’t a single one! 🙂
A really nice walk down Memory Lane…and I agree that it’s much better revisiting, than going down Petticoat Lane!