Along London's Royal Route

Somerset House was in the global news this week because of a fire. We saw it in "Along London's Royal Route".

I would like to look at reviving the medieval route by which newly-crowned monarchs used to make a procession. Now that we have King Charles III this route is very significant because the last time it was used for a coronation procession was for Charles II.

This is the most natural route across London, from the Tower of London in the east to Buckingham Palace, which wasn't there the last time it was used, in the west. Newly crowned kings and queens, before the days of Buckingham Palace, used to make a procession from the Tower of London to Westminster. King Charles II was the last king to have made the procession along this route, in 1660.

The route is congruent to Paris' Historical Axis, defined by the Louvre, Place Concorde and Napoleon's arches but, unlike that axis, the Royal Route does not form a geometric straight line, although it does include what is considered as the geographical center of London. The curvature of the Thames River makes it impossible for this to be a geometric straight line.

The Royal Route begins at the Tower of London because it was originally a royal palace, built by the Normans. The Crown Jewels have been displayed there since 1669 but it is far older than that.

These are the three photos of the Tower of London on the travel photo blog of Europe. Each photo can be enlarged by clicking on it.

http://markmeekphotos.blogspot.com/2006/09/tower-of-london.html

These are some of the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Jewels_of_the_United_Kingdom#/media/File:Crown_Jewels.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Jewels_of_the_United_Kingdom#/media/File:British_Coronation_Swords.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Jewels_of_the_United_Kingdom#/media/File:Coronet_of_Frederick,_Prince_of_Wales.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Jewels_of_the_United_Kingdom#/media/File:Imperial_State_Crown.png

Notice how the twin towers at the entrance to the Tower of London have clearly influence those of St. James Palace, Hampton Court Palace and, St. John's at Cambridge.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3879/3734/1600/dc_250884.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_James%27s_Palace#/media/File:St_Jamess_Palace.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_Court_Palace#/media/File:Hampton_Court.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John%27s_College,_Cambridge#/media/File:St_Johns_main_gate.jpg

Adjacent Tower Bridge was built as a late Nineteenth Century complement to the Tower of London.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3879/3734/1600/dc_250883.jpg

Proceeding westward along the Royal Route, there were extensive walls around what was then London. This can be seen by the -gate names in the area, Bishopsgate, Aldersgate and, Ludgate. This is also the area of the Great Fire of 1666.

Along the route, we come to what is known as the London Stone. Unlike the Crown Jewels, it has no intrinsic value in itself. It is a simple block of limestone. But this stone, which is not the same thing as the Coronation Stone, is better known and has more legends woven around it down through the centuries than any of the Crown Jewels. The London Stone literally represents and stands for London. Kings have touched the London Stone with their swords to initiate their rule. Countless promises and contracts have been taken on it. People have come from all over the world to see it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stone#/media/File:The_London_Stone.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stone#/media/File:St_Swithins_London_Stone_church_1831.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stone#/media/File:ONL_(1887)_1.541_-_London_Stone.jpg

The London Stone has been in use since ancient times, for about two thousand years, that is what makes it special. It was likely a boundary stone, used as a reference point for boundaries and distances, in Roman times. From there, it just took on a life of it's own. People have attributed all kinds of magical or prophetic powers to it but, at any rate, it is today a vital symbol of London and this makes this block of limestone probably more valuable than any single crown in the Crown Jewels.

Fleet Street, along our Royal Route, is a very ancient route in London. It used to be the center of news publishing in Britain. The famous street known as The Strand is a westward extension of Fleet Street. The dome in the images is that of St. Paul's Cathedral.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Street#/media/File:Londres_-_Fleet_Street.JPG

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5702391

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3168079

A well-known church along Fleet Street is St. Dunstan in the West. It is actually an early Nineteenth-Century rebuilding of a much older church.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1222887

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1222900

London used to have it's western limit at a place called the Temple Bar. On the other side of that was Westminster. The Temple Bar is an arch that does not stand on Fleet Street any more, having been a hindrance to modern traffic, but being such an important London monument, was reassembled at Paternoster Square, immediately north of St. Paul's Cathedral.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Bar,_London#/media/File:PaternosterSquare-TempleBar.jpg

This is how the Temple Bar looked when it was on the road.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Bar,_London#/media/File:Temple_Bar_ILN_1870.jpg

This statue is now on the spot where the Temple Bar once stood as a gateway. I believe it marks the boundary between what was London and Westminster. On the London side was Fleet Street, on the Westminster side was The Strand.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Bar,_London#/media/File:Temple_Bar_Marker,_London_1.jpg

Near, but not on, the Royal Route are a few buildings that I would like to mention. The Guildhall could be referred to as London's town hall, with the Great Hall where meetings can be held. Mansion House is where the Lord Mayor of London lives. The Royal Exchange is traditionally where a spokesman for the king would make announcements to the people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildhall,_London#/media/File:Guildhall,_Londres,_Inglaterra,_2014-08-11,_DD_139.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildhall,_London#/media/File:Guildhall,_City_of_London_-_Diliff.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansion_House,_London#/media/File:Mansion_House_London.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansion_House,_London#/media/File:Egyptian_Hall_Mansion_House_edited.jpg

The building on the right in the following image is the Royal Exchange, where royal announcements were made to the people, the stone building across the street is the Bank of England.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2199395

The Temple area of London, along the Royal Route, is so-named for Temple Church. This church was the church of the Knights Templar in England, and was built at the time of the Crusades. The Knights Templar were an extremely powerful and influential order of knights that were formed to protect and assist pilgrims to the Holy Land. We saw the Knights Templar in the posting on this blog, "Symbolism Theory Of The Vatican And Hagia Sophia". The original part of the church is circular.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Church#/media/File:Temple_Church,_Temple,_London_EC4_(2).jpeg

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3168117

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1223099

The reason that it is cylindrical is because of the Dome of the Rock, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which the Crusaders considered as Solomon's Temple, hence the name of the church and the section of London.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock#/media/File:Dome_of_the_Rock,_1546.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock#/media/File:Jerusalem-2013(2)-Temple_Mount-Dome_of_the_Rock_(SE_exposure).jpg

Look how the inside of the round part of Temple Church resembles the inside of the Dome of the Rock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Church#/media/File:Temple_Church_edited.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock#/media/File:Inside_the_Dome_of_the_Rock.jpg

We can also see this cylindrical imitation of the Dome of the Rock in the Mosta Rotunda, that we saw in the posting on this blog, "Malta And Jerusalem".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunda_of_Mosta#/media/File:Domen_i_Mosta.jpg

In 1215, King John met with the barons in the Temple Church, and it led to the signing of the Magna Carta, which was definitely the beginning of modern democracy. The Knights Templar ended in 1307, and the church became the property of the Knights Hospitaller, which we saw in "Malta And Jerusalem". All of this was, of course, long before then-Catholic England went with the Reformation.

The Temple area is England's legal center. The Royal Courts of Justice opened in 1882. Another famous courthouse, affectionately called "The Old Bailey" for the street where it is located, is nearby.

Remember the British practice of giving nicknames to prominent buildings, some of which are less-than-complimentary. Venerable old buildings tend to get treated with respect, but modern buildings sometimes don't. In our visit to "Glasgow", we saw the new concert hall that is nicknamed "The Armadillo", because it is built in sections.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4300018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Courts_of_Justice#/media/File:Royal_Courts_of_Justice_(42160910002).jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Courts_of_Justice#/media/File:Royal_Courts_of_Justice_(6201094569).jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bailey#/media/File:Oldbaileylondon-900.jpg

Legal professionals, called lawyers in North America, are divided here into either solicitors or barristers. A barrister must belong to one of four of what are called "Inns of Court". The four are equal and all have their headquarters in the Temple area of London.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inns_of_Court#/media/File:London-Inns-of-Court.JPG

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4139068

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1266694

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3827089

Moving west beyond where the Temple Bar once stood, we enter Westminster where the street is now named The Strand. There are two churches that are on "islands" in The Strand, "St. Clement Danes" and "St. Mary Le Strand". Both of these extremely old churches are actually on "islands", in the middle of the road.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Clement_Danes#/media/File:St_Clement_Danes,_Strand_(geograph_5590980).jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary_le_Strand#/media/File:1236753-St_Mary_le_Strand.JPG

Next on The Strand is King's College. This was established in 1829 as a religious answer to the secular University College, although both were component colleges of the University of London. There are other campuses of King's College but the one on The Strand is the main campus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_College_London#/media/File:KCL_King%27s_Building_3_Final.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_College_London#/media/File:King%27s_College_London_Chapel_2,_London_-_Diliff.jpg

This side of King's College is facing away from The Strand.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_College_London#/media/File:Strand102.jpg

Next to King's College, and partially occupied by it, is Somerset House. This structure has been so many things in it's history that it is difficult to keep track of. It started as a home of the nobility, but became a royal palace. Elizabeth I lived there before she was queen. It is the only building that I know of that was once a royal palace but has been decommissioned. Run by the government, it has hosted many government and military offices. Organizations like the Royal Society have occupied the building. Since the beginning of movies, a lot of filming has been done there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strand,_London#/media/File:SomersetHousebyAnonpublAckermann%26Co1836.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_House#/media/File:Somerset_House,_Strand.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_House#/media/File:Somerset_House_Strand_London.jpg

The river was once closer to King's College and Somerset House, on the south side of The Strand, but land has been reclaimed from it. That project of reclaiming land from the river is the Victoria Embankment, where the gardens are located, between those two structures and the river.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Embankment_Gardens#/media/File:Victoria_Embankment_Gardens.jpg

The Eleanor Cross is a memorial to the wife of Edward I, who died in 1290. This is not the original cross but a Nineteenth-Century replica of it. Compare this with the Albert Memorial that we saw in the visit to "London".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_cross#/media/File:Old_Charing_Cross.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_cross#/media/File:Charing_Cross_railway_station.jpg

The original Eleanor Cross stood where the equestrian statue of Charles I now stands. This place is known as Charing Cross, and is considered as the geographic center of London. One of the most important transportation centers of London, Charing Cross Station, is nearby.

Charles I is looking down Whitehall, to the Banqueting House where he was executed, beyond that is Big Ben. The statue was actually made while he was king, but was hidden during the Protectorate. Oliver Cromwell ruled as Protector, although not as king, after the execution of Charles I, until the monarchy was restored and Charles II, son of Charles I, was installed as king. Charles II would be the last king to make the procession along this royal route.

This is Charles I, at Charing Cross which is considered as the geographical center of London. Do you remember the posting on this blog, "Hampton Court Palace And The King James Bible"? Charles I was the son of James I, for whom the King James Bible was named because he commissioned it.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1318959

Back when this used to be the processional route of newly-crowned monarchs, the route would then turn down Whitehall, toward Westminster. But that was last done in 1660, when Whitehall Palace was still there and long before the building of Buckingham Palace. So now the route would continue westward from Charing Cross, where the equestrian statue of Charles I is located, and go through the Admiralty Arch,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_Arch#/media/File:Arco_del_Almirantazgo,_Londres,_Inglaterra,_2014-08-11,_DD_186.JPG

along The Mall,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mall,_London#/media/File:The_Mall_London.jpg

to Buckingham Palace,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Palace#/media/File:Buckingham_Palace_from_gardens,_London,_UK_-_Diliff_(cropped).jpg

Has anyone ever noticed the Anglican Church symbolism in the Admiralty Arch, even though it was built as a memorial to Queen Victoria?

The lateral arc of the Admiralty Arch resembles the form of the Colonnades in St. Peter's Square. The Anglican Church was one of the Protestant churches that formed after the Reformation, but it was an attempt at compromise between the remaining Catholics in England and the Puritans who wanted to completely abolish anything to do with Catholicism.

The Anglican Church retained quite a bit of the Catholic liturgy, but was led by the British monarch and no longer by the pope. Even today, the Anglican Church is described as having a "high church" (Catholic) side, and a "low church" (Puritan) side. The Puritans who were not pleased with this arrangement left for Massachusetts, and that is where America's Pilgrims and Puritans came from.

Is that why the lateral arc in the Admiralty Arch curves, in a way similar to the Colonnades around St. Peter's Square, but leads to the British monarch, rather than to the pope? I cannot see this documented anywhere.

Also of the three arches in the Admiralty Arch, the one in the middle is gated and reserved for royalty to pass through. This is symbolic of the Anglican Church in the middle, trying to be a compromise between Catholics on one side and Puritans on the other. There were extensive Anglican churches when America was a colony. When America declared independence, it was separated from the rest of the Anglicans, and renamed the Episcopal Church.