LONDON CHURCHES WALK

LONDON FOOTSTEPS
Walking tours of the City of London by David Williams

Tel: 01702 710232 Mobile: 07831 857382

e-mail: david@londonfootsteps.co.uk www.londonfootsteps.co.uk

CITY CHURCHES WALK

Wednesday, 19th April 2006

Meet at 11 am outside the main entrance

at Fenchurch Street Station

This walk offers a chance to go inside some of the 37 City churches which are remarkable legacies of London’s amazing history.

The interior of many churches, including those re-built at the Great Fire of 1666 or restored after the bombing in World War Two, are spectacular. The architectural genius of Sir Christopher Wren, the man who gave us St Paul’s Cathedral, has survived in the churches which share the streets, lanes and passageways of the City with the modern office blocks of Lord Norman Foster and Lord Richard Rogers.

Among the churches to be visited are St Mary Aldermary, with its recently restored fan-vaulted ceiling, St Stephens Walbrook, one of the finest parish churches in England and St Mary Abchurch, which retains much of original character and atmosphere of a 17th Wren designed church.

THERE ARE STILL PLACES
AVAILABLE ON THIS WALK

Call now to confirm your place.

The walk will be led by David Williams, a registered

City of London guide

and Associate Member of the Institute of Tourist Guiding

AUSSIES SHOULD SPARE A MOMENT TO SAY G'DAY TO LONDON SEA-FARER.

If any Aussies out there wonder how it all began for you then come on a LONDON FOOTSTEPS walk and you'll find out. I'll introduce you to Admiral Arthur Phillip - because if it wasn't for him you wouldn't be around.

The Admiral Phillip statue in Watling Street is there to celebrate the life of a man who took the first convicts to Australia in 1787. There were 11 ships on this perilous voyage with a total of 778 convicts. Those poor souls, some women, some children just 12 and 13 years old, many of them guilty of petty crimes - all herded below decks in what must have been a hellish eight month voyage.

One of them may have been George Jones who was caught after stealing two pewter pots in the Cock Inn, Bow Lane on December 23rd 1786. For this first offence he was sentenced to seven years transportation by an Old Bailey jury. The value of the pots was just three shillings.

Admiral Phillip sailed into Sydney Cove - naming it after the British Home Secretary at the time - and unbloaded his human cargo who were expected to fend for themselves. They weren't farmers; they had no agricultural skills - so they nearly starved.

By the time Arthur Phillip left Sydney two years later, the convict colony had survived and was beginning to trade and farm. The rest, as they say, is history. So Phillip continued his nautical career - and the founder of New SOuth Wales is remembered by a statue which stands in the shadow of St. Paul's Cathedral.

It's worth a visit, especially from those thousands of Aussies who come to Britain every year. Here's a man who deserves a bit of respect - even if the whole Australian adventure started with a group of criminals.