Captain's Log

Horizon 22, The Monument And St Paul's Cathedral

Today’s walk would be a fairly short one. Its main purpose would be to link three places that have rather high and spectacular viewing points. These would be Horizon 22 in the City, The Monument and the top of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. Horizon 22 is the highest viewing platform in the UK (254m) and is situated at the top of a tower in the middle of the City. Just south from there is The Monument, a 61.6m pillar with a viewing platform at the top, that was built to commemorate the Great Fire of London. St Paul’s Cathedral really doesn’t need any introduction. A wonderfully designed cathedral, built by Sir Christopher Wren, that arose from the ashes of the Great Fire of London. As part of that visit I’d climb to the very top of the dome (85m). I’d definitely be heading high today, which was probably a wise decision to make the walk short. Also included in the route would be Liverpool Street Station, a hub that I used for commuting in the 1980s. I intended to follow a section of my old commuting route from the railway station to the Bank of England. I was interested to see how much I’d still recognise. I’d also drop in on an intriguing sculpture that I’d briefly seen when I’d walked past the Bloomsberg offices a few days ago. 

Paternoster Square

It was a full agenda and I set off from my base in Blackfriars around 9 am. It was a fine morning with a definite chill to the air. The good weather would only last until I entered Horizon 22 though and so I enjoyed it while I could. St Paul’s Cathedral was going to be my last place to visit, but I decided to take a preview at the start of the walk. I’m not sure which is my favourite view of St Paul’s: the south side from Millennium Bridge or the west side from Fleet Street/Ludgate Hill.  I approached its west side, which was very impressive, with the steps leading up to the Great West Door, the two towers and the dome beyond. I made my way across the pavement precinct to Temple Bar. This was the last surviving historic gateway to the city of London. It was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672. It marked the boundary between the City of London and City of Westminster. The paved square on the other side was Paternoster Square. I actually spent the very first day of my working career in a high rise office block here. The building had been developed in a brutalist/modernist design and I do remember thinking that it was odd that a high rise office block like this could be built next door to the architectural wonder of St Paul’s Cathedral. I was wide eyed and new to London though and just accepted everything. I wasn’t surprised to find that it had been pulled down and the area redeveloped with lower buildings. Apart from St Paul’s Cathedral, I couldn’t recognise any buildings around here. There was a rather odd sculpture on one side of the square. It consisted of a selection of wild animals riding on an elongated push-scooter. Another sculpture of a woman's body with a hare’s head, and a man’s body with a dog’s head, held an information board about the project.  It was all very bizarre. The sculptures were part of a Social project called ‘Go Wildlife Go’; it aimed to raise awareness, funds and support for endangered animals across the world. I noted a dark feathered pigeon watching me closely from a nearby perch. He had a white feather on the top of his head that made him look like a Mohican. He looked too mean and tough to be endangered.

Threadneedle And Bishopsgate

The view from the southwest corner of the Bank Of England was exceptional. There was a statue of the Duke of Wellington astride his horse, with an immediate backdrop of the Corinthian columns and pediment of the Royal Exchange, and overlooked by the enormous glass towers of the City. It was some view. I’d never been to the back of the Bank of England and so I skirted around its perimeter. There wasn’t much to see and I arrived back at Threadneedle Street and made my way towards Horizon 22. It was still 30 minutes before opening and so I headed along Bishopgate to have a look at Liverpool Street Station. Renovations on the station started whilst I worked down here and hadn’t finished by the time I left (construction was completed in 1992). This was the first time I’d returned to the station and seen it during my commutes. They’d made an impressive job of it as far as I could see. It’s certainly better than the station that serviced my commute. Just outside, I found an odd sculpture that consisted of mirrored spheres that were connected by shiny tubes. It looked a bit like a molecular model. It was Yayoi Kusama’s Infinite Accumulation. Presumably it derived its name from the way surrounding images were reflected from sphere to sphere. I started on my old commuting route, along Old Broad Street towards the Natwest Tower. 

Natwest Tower

I used to pass beneath the huge monolith of the Natwest Tower everyday on my commute. Construction was completed in 1981. At the time, I'd looked up at the giant and thought that there was no doubt in my mind, it would retain the status of being the highest tower in the UK for the rest of my lifetime. Little did I know that it would become a minnow compared to the other buildings that would surround it. A little later, in the viewing gallery at Horizon 22,  I would look down on to the top of the Natwest Tower. I still have a soft spot for it though. Tomorrow, I would visit the Science Museum, and in the Mathematics Hall I would find a scale model of the tower (presumably provided by the architects). The associated note with the model said: ‘The 42 storeys of the National Westminster Tower hang over visitors’ heads as they enter. Instead of columns, the floors sit on three huge slabs embedded in the central core, appearing to float. This was only possible by painstaking mathematical analysis. The problem was so complicated the engineers initially ran out of computer space to solve the equations.'
I doubt that they would run out of computer space nowadays.

Sparky And Stock Exchange

Just after the Natwest tower, I came to a fork in the road to Throgmorton Street. There hadn't been many things to make me laugh on my long commutes into London, but Throgmorton Street made me smile. I remembered the Sparky comic's Throgmorton character from my childhood. The comic strip was based around the staff in the Sparky editorial office. Throgmorton was a pipe smoking office manager with a comb-over. I thought it was a great name when I was a kid. I wondered if the Sparky offices were based in Fleet Street, which might explain the character’s name, but research found them to be situated in Dundee. 

A little further down Old Broad Street I came to a tall glass-walled tower that looked exactly like it did in the 1980s. This used to be the site of the London Stock Exchange. While I worked in London, the Stock Exchange went from the traditional floor trading to electronic screen based trading. This was driven by the 1986 ‘Big Bang’ deregulation. This made the physical trading floor redundant. The Stock Exchange remained in the same building until 2004 when it moved to a building in Paternoster Square, where I’d visited earlier this morning. 

I reached Threadneedle Street again and headed back towards Horizon 22, arriving just in time for its opening. See Horizon 22 for my account of the visit to this  spectacular viewing gallery. 

Puddings And Monuments

I’d had incredible views of London in the Horizon 22 viewing gallery. I’d watched rain clouds approach and hit the building. It'd started raining more heavily and I’d descended back to earth. I delayed entering the rain by walking through the arcade walkway that goes under the Horizon 22 tower, to Crosby Square. This turned out to be a very small area and was surrounded by towers. When I looked skywards, I had the impression I was looking up a vertical tunnel. I went back through the arcade walkway to Bishopgate and started heading south. 

I soon passed The Lookout, another free viewing gallery, 204m high. I’d have to visit that one the next time I visited London. It did make me wonder why these towers had these free viewing areas at the top. It seems they are part of public accessibility requirements imposed by the City of London Corporation for new developments. It sounds like a good idea to me. I passed the entry to Leadenhall Market (see A London High for details of my visit a few days ago). For some reason Bishopgate turned into Gracechurch Street and this continued to lead me southwards until it branched away to the southwest. I continued straight on and within a short time I walked along Fish Street Hill to the 61.6m high column of the Monument. See The Monument for the account of my exciting ascent of the column and circumnavigation of its top. The column commemorates the Great Fire of London of 1666. 61.6m to the west of the monument was Pudding Lane where the fire started in a bakery. 

It was quite an experience climbing the Monument and walking around its rather narrow viewing ledge (although it was perfectly safe). In some ways I felt more of a sense of exposure on the top of The Monument than I did at the top of Horizon 22. It was time to make my way towards St Paul's Cathedral. 

Lost Rivers And A Cathedral

I headed back up Fish Street Hill and then walked westwards along Canon Street. The rain was quite heavy now. At Cannon Street station I crossed the road and went towards the Bloomsberg building on the other side. There was a sculpture near the office called Forgotten Streams. It’s a sculpture by Cristina Iglesias and I’d come across its other section on the other side of the Bloomsberg building, earlier in the week. It felt like the pavements had been ripped away, revealing what looked like a tangle of roots in the earth. Water trickled across the area as if it was a beck. Norman Foster who designed the Bloomberg Building described the sculptures as  ‘...green-patinated bronze layers of matted foliage resembling fetid swamps.’ That was probably a little unkind, but I can see where he was coming from. It was a more intriguing look than a beautiful one. As the title of the work suggests, the sculptures represent the rivers and streams that have been lost in London. The river Walbrook was built over by the Victorians and the Bloomberg building was roughly on its former route. The sculptures represent the river reappearing. I walked through the arcade under the building to the similar sculpture on the other side. At least they didn’t have to provide much additional water to the sculpture on such a rainy day. 

I crossed the road and walked along Watling Street. This was a historic route that ran from Dover, through London to Wroxeter. I must admit, I’d never heard of Wroxeter before and had to look it up. The place is next to the River Servern, just short of Shrewsbury, and was the fourth largest city in Roman Britain. This London section was now a narrow street and looking along the straight canyon of buildings, I could see the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. It didn’t take me long to reach the cathedral’s perimeter and I made my way around its northern side to its entrance on the west. See St Paul’s Cathedral for my enlightening and exciting visit where I also included a climb to the very top of the dome. 

Reflections

Today’s  walk was a great way to link up visits to Horizon 22, The Monument and St Paul’s Cathedral. Each one of these venues was well worth a visit in itself. I appreciate walking along busy streets, flanked by high towers, won't be everybody’s cup of tea, but personally I find the views that they offer are amazing. The extension I did to Liverpool Street Railway Station was for my own personal reminiscences and could easily be excluded from the walk. I would recommend going to the base of the Natwest Tower (Tower 42) and the old Stock Exchange since they are impressive  and interesting buildings.