Busy weekend

I have had such a great busy weekend. Yesterday morning I checked out Covent Garden market and I bought a small painting depicting London taxis and double-decker buses.

Then I did a tour of Somerset House with friends, the Mulvaneys, and that was interesting. 

Somerset House is mentioned in some Agatha Christie novels (like the Body in the Library). It has also been used in several films, such as The Duchess, and even briefly in James Bond 'Goldfinger'.

The tour guide was telling us about the Old Palace that used to exist on the site which was built in 1540 and was demolished in the late 1700s. This was originally the site where Jane Seymour's (Henry VIII's 3rd wife) brother had a property amongst the Old Palace. After this the Palace was taken over by King James 1st who gave it to his wife Anne of Denmark. Then it was the ownership of Charles 1st and his wife Henrietta Marie who made some changes to the Palace by adding a courtyard and a Chapel in her name.

Not much remains of the Old Palace (oven a few small fragments). Somerset House as it exists today was built in 1801. Originally the entrance archway was only accessible by boat because it had water underneath it (abit like Venice) but then an embankment was built. 

Most of the tour was of the exterior but underneath there is the Dead House, an underground chamber which has 4 grave headstones. No bodies are buried there though.

At the end of the tour there was a video with a 3D reconstruction on what the Palace used to look like.

There was also a painting by Canaletto depicting a view of the Thames river from Somerset House (below).

 

Afterwards I went to a rooftop bar where there was an amazing view over St Paul's Cathedral and various London attractions such as the London Eye. 

 

Last night I had the enjoyment of seeing the musical 'Annie' with a friend of mine, Naomi Evans, at the Piccadilly Theatre. It was awesome.

Today I caught up with some friends, Tim and Matthew, at a pub then we walked to St Luke's Church, Chelsea, to witness the ordination of a good friend of mine, Jamie Mulvaney, who was becoming a priest today.

The service was really good and it was nice to catch up with him and meet some of his English friends. I felt privileged to be able to come and watch him being ordained into priesthood. 

Afterwards we went out for drinks at the pub to celebrate.