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| Guy was a Philanthropist |
Back into more or less the centre of London for this weeks' walk which kicked off at London Bridge
I didn't find this walk had quite such a strong narrative as the previous ones - but I did learn that if we plan to meet at one of two WH Smiths I' ll pick the wrong one!
First stop were the various buildings of
Guy's Hospital - we learned that the person the hospital was named (
Thomas Guy) for made his money from the so called South Sea Bubble and had money for philanthropy
Another nearby example of Philanthropy is from the Guinness family who provided housing for the less well off in the form of the
Guinness Trust Buildings .
(Oddly considering where their fortune was made they were quite strict about drinking.)
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| More welcoming than some |
Much of the area was historically used for production of leather goods and the associated finishing - the
London Leather Hide and Wool Exchange.
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| Traders and crafts-people |
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| RW Autos- You can see the Horse connection |
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| A horse still adorns |
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| Watching the graves |
The area also has buildings that are associated with times passed - like the RW Autos garage which was formerly used as stables .
it was all too easy to overlook a wall disguised to look more interesting here's part of the 'Trompe-l'œil' - (see the cat?)
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| Not really a window |
Another industry for the areas was grave robbing and we saw a building (now of course a coffee shop) that had had the specific purpose of stopping bodies being purloined for 'research' it is appropriately enough called the
Watch House .
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| A popular business for a while |
Nearby the grave yard seemed to be devoid of bodies being unearthed!
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| White Space/White Cube |
A bit further on and we visited The White Cube (where I saw
Gilbert and George's work a few months back) -on show currently is work from
Beatriz Milhazes and the main thing is Rio Azul Tapestry.
The current White Cube gallery was previously the distribution centre for The Radio Times and is part of the revolution in Art 'spaces' - it feels like a calm oasis in many ways.
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All about the Hipsters
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The area is certainly well Hipster friendly - coffee shops with bearded men of a certain age are all over the place.
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| A sign that 'Dotmaster' has been around |
And there's a variety of art from
Dotmaster (Rude Kids) stencilled graffiti to community projects like the (slightly ironically titled) The Shared-
created by locals with the help of Austin Amery.
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| Zandra's Place |
And it was unveiled by
Zandra Rhodes who was a guiding light behind the nearby Fashion Museum and also has a workshop and an apartment.
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| Not the Shard but 'the Shared' |
We finished at an example of Ragged School, another example of what the 'working classes' used to help them become better educated
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