Trip London 201709 A

One afternoon in September, I fancied visiting London.
I got on a train to Victoria Station.

(📷🔎 many photos; might take a short while loading.)

I got an Oyster card from a tourist information centre.
Walked around the station.
Saw a mini version of the clock tower.

 Part of the exterior of the station.

Victoria Station viewing from the bus stop.

This red building was named one of the most ugliest building in UK.

Little Ben.

This picture show how "little"

100 Victoria Street. Interesting appearance from this angle.
This building is at the bend of Victoria Street near the Victoria Station.

This map show where I left my foot prints :)  🔎


Wandering a little bit around the Victoria Station,
I saw this. Westminster Cathedral.

The tower is 273 feet tall.
The Viewing Gallery of the Tower is 200 ft above street level.
If you pay GBP 5,  you can get there by elevator and get a 360° views across London.
I didn't.

Sorry that the photos were taken from a simple smart phone camera.
Please forgive the distortion of the lens.  

Cathedral Architect: John Francis Bentley.
But the mosiac interior was not done by the time he passed away.
Unconvetional design modelled on a Byzantine basilica. Thanks to sculptor, marble merchant and explorer William Brindley, there are 126 marble varieties insides, from around the world.

Baptistry: the place for baptismal ceremony.

 Ceilings ... glittering. Lots of mosiac everywhere. Modern art/craft.

Lots of chapels around.

Wall decoration of the chapels use
modern art/ modern deco of this century. And... many are glittering.

They said the fish scales designs was to match the fisherman job of the disciple, St.Andrew, the patron of Scotland.

Lots of marble and mosiac.

Holy Souls Chapel inside Westminster Cathedral.

Just a quick tour as it was unplanned detour.

 I put the rest of the day trip on another entry.

First I need to find the bus stop 🚏

2015.06 Church of St.Saviour 1866

The Parish Church of St. Saviour & St. Peter.  An unplanned visit.
St.Saviour's Church on South Sreet was completed in 1866. 
 Architect/Designer: George Edmund Street, 
who also designed the London Law Courts in the Strand & the Diocese of Oxford. 

This church has many mosaic art on the wall telling Christian stories. 

 Stain glass windows and three organs are something to notice,too. 

Nice arches and wooden roof. 

 And it has a statue of Mary in a dark brown material which look like a big piece of chocolate. 

The church has ten bells in the tower, added in 1875. Still functional.

The church was damaged during the War and was restored in the 90s. 

The church is often used for various music and arts events by various organisations.

Organ recital occasionally took place during lunch hour during weekday. 

 

  A guy who works there said
 they do not have Sunday school as most churchgoers are senior citizens. 

This country now has fewer and fewer schools run by Christian churches due to political (over)-correctness. What a pity! (Hong Kong has been lucky in this matter) 

This church do Mass daily. More often than many other churches.

 It is under Church of English but with heavy Catholic basis. 
The version of English translation Bible it is using now is the Jerusalem Bible.
 Although there are a few copies of other versions in the church library 
 at the end of its South Aisle, including King James Bible (Collins) I am like a tourist. 

The pew sheet/leaflet of last week Mass seems simpler 
than other similar churches I visited before. 

Post cards are available.

P.S. (Some words have special meaning in Christian culture) 
 
Mass is the specific event where Christianity is preached to church-goers, ceremonies to be held, like the communion, to repeat the symbolic body & blood with bread/biscuit & wine/grape juice , hymns to be sung....etc.  

I have previously check the word "pew" which means the long bench in church.
Pew Sheet means the piece of information for people to read on the pew during the Mass.
  
These words are yet to be looked up from dictionary:
Denomination 
Antiphon 
Collect 
Offertory gifts 
Postlude

Sights: church: All Soul

A small church with relatively simple structure. Brown & cream in colour.  I went in to have a look on a Sunday.

Wooden roof top with beams.
Columns/Pillars (blocking views of those sit on the sides)

Foundation stone was laid  in 1881 & ready in 1882. The project was founded by Lady Victoria Wellesley. Style: copy a church in Lombardy of Italy in Lombardo-Byzantine simple basilica form.

Design architect Parr & Strong of London.

Church height 51 ft.
Bell tower/clock tower 83 feet. Original five bells were replaced with a lighter tenor bell in note C.

Decorations inside has  Byzantine  influence. Floral & geometric shapes, blues & whites,  Greek lettering.

Stained glasses. No organ.

West wall has wheel window & a symbol of an eye set in a triangle above West door. Hm....

Land : granted by William Duke of Devonshire.

Image of interior was from the official postcard.

Modern Christian songs with modern musical instruments are used.