Portland stone
Friday 10 September 2010
I had somehow forgotten how many older London buildings are built of the lovely Portland stone. Yesterday was a day for visiting Sir Christopher Wren’s churches, each of them built of Portland stone by the barge load. Lucy and I started with St Paul’s Cathedral where, for the first time, I climbed to the top of the dome. My legs are sore still—this was a climb equivalent to three very tall lighthouse towers stacked one on top of another. I am sad that I have no photos of the interior of St Paul’s—cameras are forbidden there, so the sanctity of the place is not degraded nor the quiet meditations of the visitors intruded upon.
An entrance to a handsome Portland stone building designed in 1935 by Edwin Lutyens, beside the alley off Fleet Street leading to St Bride’s Church. How many architects have bars named after them?