Monday, January 21, 2008

Postman's Park & The Courts of Justice

Sunday was another grey day, although, thankfully not a rainy one - at least not here. However, we made our trek into London for church. It was after church that I made yet another discovery - London is full of little surprises. The church looks out onto a small park - Postman's Park, to be precise. In the park is a small little canopy that has several tiles on the wall, each detailing people who died to save someone else. Some are quite touching, such as the young boy who saved his sister from burning to death, only to die of burns himself.

After church, we headed to the Temple area. 2008 is the 400th anniversary of the grant of the land to the Inner Temple and Middle Temple institutions by King James I, so they were having an open house. To further clarify, the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple are each one of the four Inns of Court which are responsible for the selection, training, and regulation of barristers in England and Wales. The highlight for me was primarily Temple Church, which was constructed by the Knights Templar and consecrated in 1185. This is one of the few buildings in London which predates the Great Fire of 1666.



Wandering out behind the church and the Inns of Court, we came across a policeman, who were kind enough to allow us to take their picture with Dalton and Maggie. We came down through Kings Bench Walk, which has been the setting for various period pieces, including Oliver Twist, and then, as it was getting late, headed home.

1 comment:

AmyJ said...

I am reading a book called punk munk, which is about modern monastacism (I think I spelled that wrong). Anyway, in the book, it talks about the original building where Wesley started his first church still standing in London. (The guy writing the book rented the basement space for a prayer-room and Christian meeting place). The actual church started by Wesley moved a little and is still meeting in a newer building a block or two away. Anyway, you can still visit the birthplace of methodism right there in London. Pretty cool.