It’s colder and grayer, but we made it here in one piece despite some drama on the way when a bus caught fire outside the terminal at LAX, reminding me of the Glasgow airport incident with the Jeep Cherokee. In this instance it was a great thing for us, as we zipped through check-in and security faster than I have ever done before.Â
London has roots deep into the ground. The buildings feel as though they have grown from the fertile remains of previous cultures, dating back to the prehistoric settlement taken and expanded on by the Romans. I feel as though there is a depth to the city that we humans forget, living on the surface and forgetting so quickly the events of past generations.
I’m pretty tired, so I’ll leave posting more, but the layered depth is what really is striking me about the city right now, the palimpsest of the inhabitation. Tomorrow we’ll visit the British museum in search of archaeology.Â
Early on in our time in London, I would walk sometimes from my workplace in Finsbury Square along the Clerkenwell Road to Laurence in Holborn. Clerkenwell was the 12th century clerk’s well, and there was a charterhouse nearby. But the road itself, long and straight, was more ancient. It was the road the Romans took from London to Colchester and may well have already been in use by their time. I would imagine myself walking over layers of the centuries: Mediaeval friars, Roman legions and Ancient Britons…
Later when I worked nearer London Wall, in amongst the high rise towers of the banks and the Barbican apartments was the temple of Mithras. So strange to find a remnant of the mystery religion there.