Piquant Photos: Dec 2011: Temple Station to Temple Church

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Dec 2011: Temple Station to Temple Church

I decided to do a London walkabout, go check out Temple Church. But the trip to the church itself was full of interesting sights, so this is a photo diary of the walk from Temple Underground Station to Temple Church.

Temple station has seen quite a lot of custom from me, the KCL Department of War Studies is next door, so have popped in there for many moons to attend classes and meet the professors. To get there, you have to usually change from Westminster Tube Station. And you have to stand on the end of the platform.

And you look up to see great big dirty beams

Why don't they clean up the roof eh?

The beams are absolutely rubbish.

And the lights are dirty.

Even the bloody rail lines are filthy.

Then I jumped into the tube, District Line. The next station is Temple.

Coming out of Temple Station into Temple Place.

Walking a few meters up Temple Place. This is the British American Tobacco HQ Building and it has these two huge statues in front. These Grecian statues are quite impressive, eh?

Walking on from the BAT Building

This is Two Temple Place, Previously known as Astor House. And yes, this is connected to the Waldorf Astoria. It was built in 1895 by William Waldorf Astor.

See this little patch of green? It was originally a dock, the Thames came up to the house before the Victoria Embankment was constructed. There were houses on both sides of the dock with warehouses and inn’s around it. The Victoria Embankment was constructed in 1870.

The building is constructed out of Portland Stone. Its a lovely colour, has weathered very nicely indeed. When they were digging the foundations of the house, they found the lower jawbone of a whale, which the previous house owner used as a gateway to his house. It was left buried inside the foundations..

The architect of the house was John Loughborough Pearson, one of the most celebrated architects of his time, he worked on the Westminster Abbey and Westminster Hall.

It has a exhibition on…

Hmm, what’s with the bull dog?

The board in front of the house.

The work which has gone into making the house brilliant is shown by the intricate carvings on the outside. Lovely pieces. Check out the faces.

The Victoria Embankment.

I turn the corner and this vista opens up.

That is not the Temple Church, but the Middle Temple Hall, more on this later on.

A small passage way opens up, with this extraordinary gap between the brick buildings. That’s a Law office on the left and Blackstone house on the right.

On the left, the Astor House continues its lovely facade

The lion looks like its very dissipated and simpering down at you.

The rounded shape reminds one of a castle. Perhaps a staircase inside? The inside of the house is considered to be a jewel in architectural and historical terms.

The back end of the building is a bit more severe but still good.

Looking back at the Astor House. Amazing structure. I regretfully turn away.

Hmm, these are the true corner stones. Interestingly enough, the second from top has these iron rods embedded inside it. I wonder what was the purpose of this?

Two views of the staircase leading up to Essex Street. Very highly corroded, it has iron corners to avoid more erosion. I wonder how old this is? But I turn right.

I am now deep in Lawyer territory. What you can see on the right is Middle Temple. Its one of the 4 Inns of Court, whose members are called as Barristers.

On the left, bottom of Blackstone House, is this lovely looking entrance, on the left is a plaque which presumably lists all the barristers. This is something that is common across all the offices I saw.