MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS HEVER CASTLE...

After a very stressful July (career issues and trying to fit too much in) which led to me feeling on the edge of a nervous breakdown, behaving out of character, having four separate meltdowns and doing too much drinking on an empty stomach, it was decided that my actual birthday would be a quiet one, with a relaxing day at home followed by local-ish pizza in Romford.  

One of my meltdowns involved a lump of a man having a go at me in Westfield Stratford, so I threatened to stick his walking stick up his arse and turn him into a human kebab.  If I've offended anyone recently then, quite frankly, BALLS!  Self-love (no, I don't mean masturbation!) and taking care of my mental health has recently become very important to me and I'm putting my needs first.   I'm not a bad person- just one with shattered nerves. 

But the following day I put into action what would have been my birthday day out, and visited Hever Castle in Kent.  It was an easy train ride from London Bridge followed by a short wander down country roads which had no pavements.  Although the roads were quiet I found this very unpleasant, but I remembered my country code and just got on with it.

Here is my first view of the castle...

The striking Topiary Walk to the castle contains many yew hedges trimmed into weird shapes...

Approaching...

From more of a distance, taken on the Rhododendron Walk...

Including the Astor Wing, which is in the Tudor Village (added after 1903) to the left.  It is available for private hire...

I first became interested in visiting the castle after seeing it repeatedly on television history programmes.  I saw the splash of blood red on the front of the building and was intrigued (and very excited) when a bit of googling gave me its name and a location that's not too difficult for me to get to.

I expected the castle to look like this PDF below but, apparently, the Boston ivy on the front only turns red during autumn time.  Aha!  There's my excuse to come back sorted!

Hever Castle has a history dating back more than 700 years.  The original medieval defensive castle was built here in 1270 and, in the 15th and 16th centuries, was the home of one of the most powerful families in the country- the Bullens.  Hever's most famous occupant was Anne Boleyn.  Her family name was Bullen, but there were no set spellings in Tudor times and few people could read and write, so she chose to sign herself Boleyn, probably from the more sophisticated sounding French pronunciation.  

Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's 4th wife, was granted Hever Castle as part of her divorce settlement, then the house was in the Waldegrave family for over 158 years; longer than any other owner of the castle.

The Astor family were the owners from 1903.  William Waldorf Astor was the great-grandson of Johann Jakob Astor, a German emigre and founder of the Astor empire- when he died, in 1848, he was the richest man in America- and was responsible for restoring the castle.

It's interesting that, like Eltham Palace, it's new money which stopped the castle from falling into decline.  Since 1983, the whole property has been in the ownership of private company Broadland Properties Ltd.  It is not part of English Heritage and is independently run.

You walk into this courtyard, which I found delightful...

Here you can see the Boston ivy beginning to change colour...

The Inner Hall was the Great Kitchen during Tudor times...

Fireplace and a nosey SuperDean...

Balcony and ceiling.  These photos aren't great as flash photography wasn't allowed.

The Drawing Room, created by William Waldorf Astor.  The Astors were renowned for their hospitality and it's in here that their guests would have been served drinks before dinner.

The Dining Hall, which was the Great Hall during the Bullen's time...

Henry VIII was worried about assassination so, to ensure his safety when visiting other houses, he brought his personal locksmith to fit a special door lock to his bedchamber.  This lock is now on one of the Dining Hall doors.

I had to play with this in Photoshop as it was quite dark in this room and the photo did not come out well...

This PDF might be a bit more explanatory...

The Entrance Hall...

The Library...

From the window you can see Anne Boleyn's Orchard.  It was a boiling day and the recent hot, arid weather had dried everything out to a shade of yellow...

The Morning Room.  I'm sure they're not, but these chairs looked positively unstable!

The Catholic Waldegrave family incorporated a 'priest hole' into this room. It sits to the left of this photo and is now a china cabinet.  One ghostly Hever tale suggests that a priest died in here and that his unhappy spirit still lingers.

Anne Boleyn's Bedroom (or so it is traditionally thought to be).  She may have shared it with her sister, Mary.

Here is the bedhead with 'Part of Anne Boleyn's bed from Hever 1520' carved on it.  It doesn't seem to date before 1600 and was probably a made-up piece, following a revival of interest in Anne during Victorian times.

This lovely stained glass window was inside the corridor...

The Book of Hours Room displays two prayer books, which belonged to Anne.  Again, the lack of a flash has made for a mediocre photograph...

This tapestry is on the wall...

The Queens' Chamber displays portraits of all of Henry VIII's six wives, as well as this one of the man himself, over the fireplace...

The Staircase Gallery was created by Thomas Bullen in 1506, over the Entrance Hall, to give access between the two wings of the house...

I took this view out over the ivy courtyard from this room...

King Henry's Bedchamber.  It's actually impossible to know which room he slept in when he visited the castle.  However, this is one of the largest bedchambers in the castle.

The Waldegrave Room...

After Protestant Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, this small chapel (or oratory) was built, hidden behind panelling so that Sir Edward Waldegrave could practice his faith in secret.

Another view from a window, this time overlooking the Tudor Garden...

The Long Gallery runs the entire width (98 ft) of the building.  It was created in 1506 by Thomas Bullen, who put a ceiling over the Great Hall below.  The Great Hall had previously been open to the rafters.

The Astor Suite is dedicated to more recent history.  The Astors restored, added to and enhanced the existing rooms, using their vast wealth to do so.  They were also responsible for modernising the castle; adding plumbing and electricity, although light switches and pipes are carefully concealed.

These bedrooms were created in 1968 for the three daughters of the house.  They each chose their own decor and the rooms were affectionately known by the family as the 'Dog Kennels'.

These stairs were a little precarious and I had to concentrate hard not to trip as I was wearing (sensible yet blingy) mules!

The Gatehouse is the oldest part of the castle.  These throne-like chairs illustrate how, during the 13th century, the Lord of the Manor would have used the room for meetings and dispensing justice when it was used as a Council Chamber.

There were also instruments of torture in this room, but instead I took a photo of the garderobe, which emptied directly into the moat...

I had a chortle with another visitor at this self-explanatory picture!

Back outside, there are koi carp in the moat...

We tackled the maze...and won!  Here's the SuperDean at the centre...

I've always loved weeping willow trees...

Half Moon Pond...

This water maze spouts unexpected jets of water at you when you tread on certain stepping stones.  It was actually very refreshing to get a soaking on this scorcher of a day.

Cascade...

An urn at the beginning of the Long Border...

View from one urn to another...

Walking down the Long Border...

I thought this topiary tree was delightful...

The Italian Garden was crying out for rain!

The Rose Garden...

The Lake and Boathouse.  It was too hot to complete a full circuit of the lake.

The Lake...

Loggia and Piazza...

The Sunken Garden...

The corresponding urn...to the one I saw earlier...

Another urn; this one was overlooking the section of lake that had the Water Maze at the other side...

There was a good shop with a section which housed an exhibition of miniature model houses, so we took a look at that and then left.

We took a shortcut back to the station, via a rustic path which ran beside a field.  I managed to get a splinter in my toe and had to climb over a stile, and a two tier stile at that, rather like the one in the PDF below.  I said, 'I don't do stiles- I'm a city girl!'  But I was brought up in a rural area so it's not something I'm unfamiliar with, and I just got on with it.

Oh well, I only had the sheep in the neighbouring field to laugh at me making my cumbersome way over said stile!

This is called Laughing Flock, and is by an artist called Scott Gustafson.

Hever Castle, I will return- if only to see the Boston ivy when it's red, and take a full walk around the lake.

TTFN

The Miss Elaineous

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MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS THE OLYMPIC STADIUM...

Okay, I don't believe it's called the Olympic Stadium anymore and is, in fact the London Stadium now.  But to me, who lives three miles away, this will ALWAYS be the Olympic Stadium.

I've taken a wander around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park before and have been up the Orbit twice (and down the slide once) and also went to Beach East a few years back.  This was a makeshift beach with a fairground, cocktail bars and a fake 'sea'.  It was fun!  I've never been inside the stadium, though.

The 2012 Olympic opening ceremony was the only one I've ever watched with interest and was fantastic.  I did, however: 1) Play hooky and go and watch The Only Way Is Essex, and 2) Fall asleep, during the boring countries parade bit.

West Ham football club now occupy the stadium and I don't think they should.  Not only is their former ground, the Boleyn Ground, SACRED, but I don't think that ANY football team should have gained residence at the Olympic Stadium.  Instead, it should have been kept for special events; be it sporting, music-related or whatever.

My SuperDean's annual housing association fair, named Swanfest (for Swan Housing) took place here at the weekend, so I tagged along.

Here is the view walking up to the stadium...

The Orbit...

We got a free tour of the stadium and here is the home dressing room.  The SuperDean is to the left of the photo...

There are two plunge baths and they are used for physio...

West Ham showers...

This is the original warm up track.  This airless part of the building smelt funny- somewhere between old socks, decay, rubber and farts.  Maybe it's to do with whatever materials they used in the building of this area.

SuperDean 'warming up'.  What a poser!

Dean took this photo of me winning gold.  I pointed out that whatever I'm winning it for, it's not for wearing lipstick- he could have told me to put some on as I look half dead...

The tunnel onto the pitch.  This is not a good photo as the bright light is shoving everything into silhouette...

Standing by the pitch...

This is a corner of one of the (quite small) press rooms, along with a Dean-shaped hand...

We were lucky and had the stadium to ourselves.

Sharing is overrated, y'know...

I walked right to the top and took this.  It looked like I was just below a glass section possibly reserved for commentators...

Dean took this lovely panoramic shot with his phone and I was so impressed that I pinched it for this blog...

I have made a promise to myself to return to the park and give the London Aquatics Centre a go as the pools look fabulous.

TTFN.

The Miss Elaineous

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MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS POSTMAN'S PARK...

I stumbled across the existence of Postman's Park- so called because of its popularity as a lunchtime garden with postal workers from the old General Post Office, which was in the vicinity- by accident on the Internet.  The article mentioned that it's raised a few feet above street level due to its former occupation as the churchyards of: St Leonard, Foster Lane; St Botulph, Aldersgate and the graveyard of Christchurch, Newgate Street.

Of course, the mention of DEAD BODIES would arouse the interest of the macabre and gothic Miss Elaineous!

Here is a photo of the map at the entrance to the garden, explaining its history...

This map gives you some idea of the relationships the former graveyards bore to each other vicinity-wise.  The park is bordered by a street named Little Britain, which of course made me think of the TV comedy programme and raised a smile.

Only St Botulph's Aldersgate remains as a working church.  Unusually, because of its location in a commercial area with few local residents, services are held on a Tuesday, rather than the more traditional Sunday.

Here is the entrance the the church.  It's a rather insignificant looking door...

Historically, there was a severe lack of burial spaces in London.  This meant that graves would often be reused, and the difficulty of digging without disturbing existing graves led to bodies simply being stacked on top of each other and covered over with earth.  Serious outbreaks of cholera in the early and mid 19th century had led to bodies being stacked in heaps as they awaited burial, and even for relatively new graves to be exhumed to make way for new burials.  Gravediggers throughout London were required to shred bodies so that they could be crammed into any available resting space.

Public health at the time centred around the (now obsolete) 'miasma theory' which dictated that 'bad air' caused disease.  By this time the differing number of parishioners in each parish meant that the ground level of St Botulph's churchyard was 6 feet above that of the Christchurch burial ground and 4 feet above that of St Leonard.

In the wake of public concern, the Burials Act of 1851 meant that the seven large cemeteries that had recently opened around London became the metropolis's main burial grounds.  in 1858, it was decided to convert the churchyard of St Botulph into a park, with the Churchwardens announcing:-

The Churchwardens of the above parish hereby give notice that they intend to plant, pave, or cover over the churchyard and burial-ground. Persons having relatives interred in the said churchyard or burial-ground will be permitted (under certain regulations) to remove and inter the remains of such relatives in any burial-ground or cemetery, without the city. Persons also, to the memory of whose relatives any tomb, monument, or inscription may have been erected therein, may (under the like regulations) cause such tomb or grave-stones to be removed and taken away; but such removal, in either case, must be at the expense of the persons causing the same to be done. Applications for either of the above purposes must be made, in writing, on or before Monday, the 20th day of December, 1858. (Source:- Wikipedia).

The burial ground was cleared and levelled and the remaining gravestones stacked against the wall...

My discovery of the existence of this park coincided with me being in the area as I had Othello at Sheakespeare's Globe to attend, and I always use the convenient St Paul's Tube station and cross the river via the Millennium Bridge.

It was a scorching day when I popped into the park and also lunchtime, so I couldn't get too close to a lot of things as the park abounded with people.

As I walked in, I passed this Grade II listed drinking fountain at the entrance.

Just inside is this lovely, peaceful fountain...

Looking back towards my entrance point...

View straight through to the other side (of the park- I don't mean holding a seance and contacting the dead!)

The centre of the park...

I liked this section of garden but don't know what the memorial/ decorative plinth is for...

The description wasn't very legible on what I assume to be a tomb...

Ditto.  I had this recorded in my notes as, 'a lump of something'!

The view out of the park and onto the City...

The Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice was the brainchild of George Frederic Watts, a painter and sculptor who was an advocate for the idea of art as a means of force for social change.

This memorial was all about commemorating ordinary people- who might otherwise be forgotten- who had died saving the lives of others.

I couldn't get too close to photograph it as people were in abundance on this lovely, sunny lunchtime...

Work commenced in 1899 and this is what the individual plaques look like.  This one is dedicated to Alice Ayres, a maid who lost her young life saving the three children in her care.

This is a PDF as I wasn't able to sift amongst the people eating their lunch and photograph it myself.

Postman's Park featured in the 2004 film Closer as part of a key plot element.  It is revealed that the character Alice Ayres (played by Natalie Portman) has fabricated her identity based on Ayres' tablet on the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice.  I think I will have to check the film, based on the 1997 play Closer, by Patrick Marber, out.

The plaques are on the side of St Botulph's, and are awards for the presentation of the gardens...

This old fashioned police call box was just outside the park.  It's good that elements of history have been retained around the City...

I took this photo purely because I thought the Bull and Mouth Inn sounded like an interesting name for a pub.  It's a shame it's not still there!

TTFN from The Miss Elaineous.

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