First Excursion - St. Paul's

Today was our first official class and we went to St. Paul's. I was almost late for this very first class because I took a detour into the discount bookstore, and ended up staying there for an hour and a half. I managed to escape with only four purchases, however, which is quite an accomplishment. We took a bus to St. Paul's and this was the first time that I have been on a bus in London. It was quite an experience! Next time I will be sure that I am in a seat before the bus starts moving! The view from the top while going over Waterloo Bridge was amazing though, and the driving isn't as bad when you're seated.

When we arrived at St. Paul's I took some pictures on my camera, and then we all took pictures as a group. We split up into two groups, one to tour the cathedral and one to tour the library. My group toured the cathedral first. I was particularly excited to find the plaque for Sir Alexander Fleming. We walked around looking at all of the crypts and statues, and ended up in a small exhibit on the main floor. The women volunteers running the exhibit explained that it was the Angola London Mozambique Association (ALMA). This group connects churches in London with churches in Angola and Mozambique, and they work together to increase education in areas that need it most. The woman who spoke to us was clearly passionate about the work they do, and gave us lots of information about the program. One of the projects that the group has partnered on is "Swords into Ploughshares." The group offers a deal which encourages people to hand in their weapons in exchange for bicycles, gardening tools, etc. The weapons are then made into works of art. Two of these are on display at The British Museum, The Tree of Life and The Throne of Weapons. The artwork is beautiful, and especially moving when you know the history behind it. More information can be found on ALMA at www.almalink.org.

We wandered back up to the font and met Joe Wisdom who took us on our tour of the library. I was particularly excited for this, as I wasn't sure what to expect. We climbed the stairs and entered a room where we saw a bust of George Crookshanks, who illustrated Charles Dickens's works, and whose remains are located in the cathedral. We moved behind the scenes in the cathedral and ended up on a balcony which offered a spectacular view. Mr. Wisdom said that although this was the view of the cathedral that is shown on the BBC it is not his favorite due to the modern electrical equipment that can be seen. We entered another room and saw pulpits that are no longer in use in the cathedral. The Victorian era pulpit was particularly extravagant, and I could not picture it in use in St. Paul's. Mr. Wisdom said that pulpit fashions change with the times just like any other fashion. We went into the model room, which contains the model that Christopher Wren created, but was not allowed to build because it looked too much like the Vatican.

At this point we entered the library itself, and it was incredible! It smelled just like I imagined it would! Mr. Wisdom talked about cataloging, and how most of the data they have is imported from the OCLC. The disadvantage of this is that each database entry is copy specific, and the information will be inaccurate for their particular copy. This was new information to me, because I didn't realize before that database entries were specific to a particular copy. Librarians are still working on databases, and he said that it is very important to never destroy a catalog, even if the items are in a database. We ended the tour by looking at a 12th century psalter, which literally gave me goosebumps.

After the library we walked up to the Whispering Gallery and were amazed that we could hear one another from across the dome. We walked to the Stone Gallery and took pictures of the awesome views of the city, which was a perfect end to our tour. For more information about St. Paul's click here.

Picture credit.