Trust Trip to the City of London - April 2019 - TrustNews Mar 19
On 12 April, 24 members and friends made their way through narrow cobbled lanes to Middle Temple just off Fleet Street where we were given a fascinating guided tour of the history and development of the Inner and Middle Temples. Originally established by the Knights Templar, the order of crusading monks founded to protect pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem in the 12th century, the area was based round the Temple church consecrated in 1185 by the patriarch of Jerusalem and designed to recall the holiest place in the Crusaders’ world: the circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Eventually the Knights Templar fell out of favour and the area was leased to two colleges of lawyers, whose rights were enshrined in perpetuity by a Royal Charter in 1608. Our tour encompassed Middle Temple's Elizabethan Hall with its magnificent double hammer-beam roof and many of the courtyards and gardens which provide such a peaceful oasis between the pounding traffic of Fleet Street and the Embankment.
We then went across Fleet Street and through various narrow alleyways to Doctor Johnson's House in Gough Square. This is a sturdy, plain, early Georgian house and presents the life and work of the great lexicographer - perhaps in more detail than we had time to absorb!
Our final visit was to 2 Temple Place just off the Embankment where William Waldorf Astor spared no expense when he commissioned John Loughborough Pearson to design a lavish estate office in neo Gothic style during the 1890s. The interiors are a riot of gilding, marble, carved mahogany and stained glass and once again we had a knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide who greatly enhanced our enjoyment and told us many anecdotes about Astor and his collections. 2 Temple Place were also holding an exhibition to mark the bicentenary of John Ruskin which was so well attended that it is clear that the great Victorian is well and truly back in fashion.
We spent a whole day in a very small area of the City of London - perhaps 15 minutes walk from one side to the other - and saw an extraordinary variety of buildings with widely differing histories and with the added bonus that for most of the time we were in a pedestrianised environment.