{"id":1567,"date":"2022-06-11T17:42:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-11T23:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/?p=1567"},"modified":"2022-12-28T09:01:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T16:01:43","slug":"london-20-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/uk-2022\/london-4-22\/london-20-april\/","title":{"rendered":"London 20 April"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our first full day in London, we explored the neighborhood around St Pancras and King\u2019s Cross stations. We stayed at a nearby hotel, The Megaro<\/a>, because we would be taking the train north in a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The red X marks our hotel, just opposite the train stations.
Look at upper left corner for St Pancras Old Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

St Pancras Old Church<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Some shrine has been here for centuries, perhaps as early as the 4th c, just after its namesake was martyred in Rome by the emperor Diocletian. A few centuries later, Augustine brought St Pancras’s relics to England and founded at least one church in his honor. The London church, originally a Norman building on perhaps Saxon foundation, has burned down, been rebuilt and reconstructed several times over the centuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its graveyard was the final resting place for many Londoners, until the authorities decided in the late 19th c that the land was needed for a new railway, now connected to St Pancras and King\u2019s Cross stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old St Pancras Churchyard<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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The railway covers the former churchyard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds (thousands?) of remains were dug up and reburied in a mass grave somewhere. The official in charge of the project appointed his underling, the future poet and novelist Thomas Hardy, to carry out the dismal task. Hardy repurposed some of the headstones, arranging several score in concentric circles. He or a contemporary planted an ash tree in the center, which over the last ~150 years has grown over and through the stones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update 28 December 2022: Saddened to learn that the Hardy Tree, having been weakened by a storm, has fallen. See the story at The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Hardy Tree, grown up and through the excavated tombstones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other arrangements of stones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From The Levelled Churchyard, by Thomas Hardy<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"O passenger, pray list and catch\nOur sighs and piteous groans,\nHalf stifled in this jumbled patch\nOf wrenched memorial stones!\n\n\"We late-lamented, resting here,\nAre mixed to human jam,\nAnd each to each exclaims in fear,\n'I know not which I am!'\n...\n\"Where we are huddled none can trace,\nAnd if our names remain,\nThey pave some path or p-ing place\nWhere we have never lain!\" <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Mary Wollstonecraft<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Not every grave was disturbed. Among the famous people still buried here is feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft, who in 1792 wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women<\/em>.  She died shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Mary Godwin Shelly, author of Frankenstein<\/em>. Admirers leave pencils and pens on top of her stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Despite its setting by London’s busiest rail stations and Euston Road, the city’s most congested street, St Pancras churchyard is a quiet, green place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Have no idea what this tree is or why it\u2019s trying to prize open a tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
St Pancras New Church<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Saint Pancras New Church, front<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve been driven many times past the caryatids on the front porch of this fine early 19th-century church on Euston Road, one of the busiest streets in London. According to the kind attendant inside, when new mansions and grand apartments were built in nearby Bloomsbury, the old church would not suffice, so this elegant, very Protestant edifice was called for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Organ, St Pancras New Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Caryatids also feature at the rear of the church:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Saint Pancras New Church caryatids back porch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
We also visited the British Museum for tea and strolled down to Cornelissen\u2019s, provider of paints and pigments since the days of Turner. I bought a small jar of neutral raw umber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Cornelissen\u2019s has everything.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our first full day in London, we explored the neighborhood around St Pancras and King\u2019s Cross stations. We stayed at a nearby hotel, The Megaro, because we would be taking the train north in a few days. St Pancras Old Church Some shrine has been here for centuries, perhaps as early as the 4th c,… Continue reading London 20 April<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[44,60,45,48,81,43,53],"class_list":["post-1567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-london-4-22","tag-architecture","tag-churches-cathedrals-gb","tag-gardens","tag-history","tag-hotels-and-vacation-rentals","tag-medieval","tag-trains-gb","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1567"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2372,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions\/2372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radegunde.com\/notebook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}