Turn Right at the Fountain: Fifty-Three Walking Tours Through Europe's Most Enchanting Cities
89
Turn Right at the Fountain: Fifty-Three Walking Tours Through Europe's Most Enchanting Cities
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Overview
Originally published in 1961 and written by George W. Oakes, chief travel writer for the New York Times, this beloved walking guide has sold more than 100,000 copies in several editions. Now completely revised and updated by Alexandra Chapman, this latest edition features intimate walks through twenty-one of Europe's most celebrated cities, including an all-new chapter on Budapest, the Paris of the Danube. With this book as a guide, stroll through the winding cobblestone streets of Florence, gaze at the breath-takingly beautiful lawns of Cambridge, and explore the dark mysteries of Prague's architectural gems.
Each walk is comfortably planned to take no more than a leisurely morning or afternoon, highlighting the not-to-be-missed museums, churches, and monuments as well as less conspicuous but equally charming sites. These tours offer explicit directions keyed to thirty-two easy-to-follow maps, concise descriptions of sights along the routes, and brief historical notes about buildings and other places of interest. From Amsterdam to Segovia, these expertly designed walking tours unveil the immense cultural treasures that these magical cities hold-treasures best enjoyed on foot.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781250123541 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Holt, Henry & Company, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 05/01/2024 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 89 |
| File size: | 13 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Turn Right at the Fountain
Fifty-Three Walking Tours Through Europe's Most Enchanting Cities
By George W. Oakes, Alexandra Chapman
Henry Holt and Company
Copyright © 1996 Estate of George W. OakesAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-250-12354-1
CHAPTER 1
London
"The City" — West
The Temple to Guildhall
The City of London, consisting of one square mile, is the oldest and original part of the present great metropolis. Because of its great age, you should approach it gradually, and with an awareness of due respect. You will get a better feel for this ancient community — believed to have been founded by the Romans shortly after they invaded Britain in A.D. 43 — if you start your walk at the City's western limits.
Although small in area (677 acres) the City teems during the working week with over 400,000 office workers, who pour into this commercial, financial, and legal hub of Britain from all parts of London and its suburbs.
If the City has lost a good deal of its former worldwide influence on trade and finance, it is still very much an international business center. True to its tradition, it continues to be governed by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation. The City is in many ways a distinct community, as you will observe during your stroll. Even its policemen wear a special badge to set them apart from ordinary "bobbies."
Begin your walk at Lincoln's Inn Fields, one of London's largest squares (a couple of blocks from Holborn Station on the Central and Piccadilly underground lines). Designed in 1618 by the great architect and landscape gardener, Inigo Jones, Lincoln's Inn Fields counts John Milton and Nell Gwyn among the famous historical figures who lived there. Today, most of the old houses are solicitors' offices. The attractive gardens and wide lawns under the lofty old plane trees, formerly frequented by office workers, have become a meeting place for the unemployed and the homeless.
On the north side of the square, at No. 13, is a little-known but intensely interesting house, the Soane Museum (open Tuesday–Saturday, 10:00–5:00, except April; lecture tour on Saturday at 2:30). Sir John Soane was the distinguished architect of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century who designed the Bank of England. His house is unusual because he provided in his will that the building and its furniture, as well as his art collection, should remain forever exactly as they had been during his lifetime. It is fascinating to see how mirrors have been used to give the impression of greater space. Sir John also had an extraordinary method of hanging pictures on shutters — be sure to see the amusing Hogarth paintings, The Rake's Progress and The Election.
At the east end of the square stands Lincoln's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court, whose records date from 1424 (open Monday–Friday, 9:00–5:00). The Inns of Court — Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, the Middle Temple, and the Inner Temple — dating from the reign of Edward I, make up a university of the law, exceeded only in age by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, with which they have a centuries-old association. Go through the entrance into the delightful gardens with lawns as well manicured as putting greens, and ask at the old red-brick gatehouse for permission to see the fine Tudor Old Hall, built in 1492 and noted for its linenfold paneling and splendid roof. The vaulting under the Inigo Jones chapel nearby is most attractive.
Now return to the gatehouse and step through the archway into Chancery Lane. To the left, about fifty yards along on the opposite side of the street, are the fascinating Silver Vaults, which provide a unique experience for the tourist and shopper. Next to the Bank of England, the silver vaults and strong rooms in this safe-deposit building are considered the most secure in Britain. The entrance is on a street called Southampton Buildings, just to the right off Chancery Lane. You go down about thirty-five feet belowground to the building's subbasement, built in London blue rock under the Holborn, an ancient stream that ran from the village of Holborn to the Thames. Behind a three -ton steel door you will find thirty-five small shops along long corridors. Here you can browse for old silver, fine antiques, porcelain, and so forth. Londoners who are connoisseurs of old silver usually look here first for what they want. (Vaults are open Monday–Friday, 9:00–5:00.)
When you leave the silver vaults and return to Chancery Lane, turn left. A few hundred yards farther, beyond Lincoln's Inn, on the left side of the street you will come to the Public Record Office (open Monday–Friday, 1:00–5:00), the repository of Britain's historic documents. Among the outstanding exhibits here are two volumes of William the Conqueror's Domesday Book, an original copy of the Magna Carta, a letter from George Washington to his "great and good friend" George III (1795), and Nelson's logbook kept during the Battle of Trafalgar. If you enjoy looking at historic documents, you will find the Public Record Office a mine of information about Britain from its earliest days to the present.
At the end of Chancery Lane, turn right into Fleet Street, which used to be the heart of London's newspaper world. For economic reasons, London's daily papers have gone into "exile" to Canary Wharf, part of the Docklands urban renewal project. In a moment you will pass Temple Bar, which, since the twelfth century, has marked the western boundary of the City. Formerly, tolls were collected from all those passing the Bar.
Today, before entering the City, the Sovereign still goes through the formality of requesting permission to do so from the Lord Mayor, who signifies his approval by surrendering the City sword, point downward. When the sword is returned, the Lord Mayor bears it before Her Majesty as a symbol that he will protect her during her visit.
A few steps farther on are the Law Courts or, properly speaking, the Royal Courts of Justice. You can attend court to see the wigged judges and barristers in session Monday to Friday, 10:30 to 1:00 and 2:00 to 4:00.
Fleet Street, named for the stream that formerly flowed alongside (the water is now carried in a sewer), was at one time a Roman road. The spired church to the west, in the middle of the Strand, is Sir Christopher Wren's beautiful St. Clement Danes. Almost completely destroyed by bombing during World War II, the building has been extraordinarily well restored and is now the headquarters church of the RAF. In the section designated as a memorial to all airmen who lost their lives in the war, there is a special shrine consecrated to the U.S. Air Force. Take the Strand to the corner of Lancaster Place and to your right is Somerset House, built by William Chambers in the eighteenth century. On the first floor are the Courtauld Institute Galleries, housing an exceptional collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. (Open weekdays, 10:00–6:00; Sundays, 2:00–6:00; closed holidays.)
Return to the other side of Fleet Street and stop in for coffee and a bun at the tiny 250-year-old shop of Twining Bros., the tea merchants. Inside, the walls are covered with prints of old London.
A few yards farther on is the Wren gatehouse to the Middle Temple. The Middle and Inner Temples are so named because they occupy property that once belonged to the order of Knights Templars, founded in 1118, during the Crusades. The Templars were a religious military order, dedicated to assisting pilgrims to the Holy Land. In Jerusalem, they made their headquarters near the church on the site of Solomon's Temple, from which they derived their name.
It is not clear just when during the Middle Ages the lawyers occupied the Temple as tenants of the Knights, but it was prior to 1381, the year Wat Tyler led his unsuccessful revolt against serfdom.
Walk under the archway into ancient Middle Temple Lane. The overhanging seventeenth-century building above the footway is one of the few surviving examples of London housing before the Great Fire of 1666. Just down the sloping lane on the right is Middle Temple Hall, one of England's magnificent Elizabethan halls, built about 1570 (open Monday–Friday, 10:00–12:00 and 3:00–4:30). Severely bombed during World War II, it has been remarkably restored with much of its original material. You will marvel at the famous double-hammerbeam, black-oak roof. The 29-foot-long table in the hall was made from a single oak tree from Windsor Forest. The tree was a gift of Queen Elizabeth I and was floated down the Thames. Below the dais is the "cupboard," a serving table made from timber of the Golden Hind and given to the inn by Sir Francis Drake, a member of the Templars. Twelfth Night was staged here in 1601 by the theatrical company in which Shakespeare was a partner. It is interesting to recall that five members of the Middle Temple signed the Declaration of Independence.
In the Temple buildings hereabout lived Dr. Johnson, Charles Lamb, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir William Blackstone, and William Makepeace Thackeray. Just below Middle Temple Hall are the delightful gardens where, during term time, barristers often stroll, wearing their traditional gowns. It was in these gardens, it is said, that the red and white roses which gave their names to the Wars of the Roses were plucked. As you wander along these old walks and through the ancient arches, you will sense the historic atmosphere of the Temple. There, during hundreds of years, the English legal system developed.
Go through the archway from Middle Temple Lane into the Inner Temple's Pump Court. On your right is Inner Temple Hall, recently rebuilt in Georgian style, and just beyond, toward the river, is Inner Temple Gardens.
Turn left to visit Temple Church, the finest of only four round churches that remain in England. It dates from the twelfth century and was built in the style of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem (open daily, except Monday and Thursday, 10:00–1:00 and 2:00–5:00). Oliver Goldsmith is buried in the adjacent cemetery. Go through the archway from Temple Church to King's Bench Walk with its fine seventeenth-century houses.
Turn into Inner Temple Lane and you will come to Fleet Street through a gate below a timbered building with large bow windows. Look sharply for the entrance to No. 17 so you can visit Prince Henry's Room. This is an interesting example of a seventeenth-century, timber-constructed city house. The large paneled room on the first floor, with its Jacobean plastered ceiling, gives you a good idea of the ornate interior decoration of the period (open daily, 1:45–5:00.
As you return to Fleet Street, cross over at Fetter Lane and turn right a few yards to No. 145, the entrance to the well-known restaurant, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, established in 1667. It is pleasant to have lunch in this small old tavern with sawdust on the floor, which is believed to have been a favorite of Dr. Samuel Johnson's (a reservation is advisable). It still has a great deal of atmosphere, although frequented largely by tourists. Just down Wine Office Court (a few yards from the tavern) is Dr. Johnson's house, built in the seventeenth century, at 17 Gough Square, where you can visit the old garret in which he compiled his famous dictionary. Several mementos of the great lexicographer are on view, including two first editions of the dictionary, published in 1755. (The house is open daily, 11:00–5:30, except from October through April when it closes at 5:00.)
Cross Fleet Street again and just beyond Salisbury Court is the entrance to St. Bride's Church, one of Sir Christopher Wren's famous City churches, largely rebuilt after World War II. Fortunately, the lovely steeple, the City's tallest, survived the bombing attacks.
In a moment you will be at busy Ludgate Circus. Cross the circus, and a little farther along on Ludgate Hill, turn left and enter Old Bailey. Before you, on the right, you will find the noted Old Bailey Criminal Court, built on the site of Newgate Gaol, which was used as a prison as early as the eleventh century. Here, among countless others, William Penn and Daniel Defoe were jailed. You can attend sessions in the Public Gallery (open Monday–Friday, 10:00–1:00 and 2:00–4:00).
Cross Newgate Street and walk along Giltspur Street past "Bart's" (St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London's oldest) to West Smithfield, once the scene of medieval tournaments and now known for the adjacent Smithfield Central Markets, which cover ten acres and deal mainly in dressed meat, poultry, and dairy produce. It is the largest market of its kind in the world, where 350,000 tons of foodstuffs are sold yearly. The best time to visit the busy markets is between 5:00 and 9:00 A.M., so perhaps you will want to return on another occasion. Right now may be the moment to explore some of the colorful market pubs hereabout.
At the eastern end of the market, turn left on Lindsey Street, and walk through Charterhouse Square to visit Charterhouse, originally a fourteenth-century priory but later, in 1611, a hospital accommodated eighty poor brethren and forty poor students. From this foundation grew the well-known public school of the same name, but the school was moved, almost a hundred years ago, to Surrey, and now the old brick and timbered buildings are the residence of only a few elderly bachelors and widowers. Ask the porter at the gate to show you the original monastery gates and the outlines of the monks' cells, as well as the Great Hall dating from the sixteenth century and the splendid Elizabethan Great Chamber above the library. (Open Wednesday at 2:15, May–July.)
Return to West Smithfield, and at the beginning of Little Britain you will find on the left the Norman Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, London's oldest parish church. It is well worth visiting as an interesting example of a London church erected before the Great Fire of 1666. Also, you will enjoy its charming, although tiny, cloisters and shaded churchyard with ancient tombstones. Benjamin Franklin worked as a printer in what is now the Lady Chapel, a site that has had a checkered history through the centuries, being first a chapel, then a private house, a printing works, a public house, a dance hall, a factory, and in the 1890s restored to its original state.
Now walk to the corner of Aldergate Street and the Roman Wall to the Museum of London, which houses Saxon and Roman antiquities (from the former Guildhall Museum) as well as relics documenting the history of the City of London. (Open Tuesday–Saturday, 10:00–6:00; Sunday, 12:00–6:00; closed Mondays and holidays.)
Continue on Aldergate Street and turn right on Beech Street to visit the Barbican Centre (entrance on Silk Street). A modern cultural center, it includes a concert hall — home of the London Philharmonic — two theaters, and art exhibits. (Open 9:00 A.M.–11:00 P.M., Monday–Saturday; 12:00–11:00 P.M., Sunday and holidays.
Retrace your steps and stroll down Little Britain and King Edward Street, and turn left at Angel Street, opposite London's main post office. Turn left again and walk a half-block to Gresham Street. Turn right, and a block farther along will bring you to Foster Lane and the Goldsmiths' Hall. You can see this palatial hall — one of the leading City livery companies, where lovely gold plate and antique silver are exhibited on special occasions — if you write in advance to the Clerk of the Goldsmiths' Company, Cheapside, London E.C. 2 (the hall is closed in August and September).
These City livery companies, of which eighty-one still exist, have a membership of about ten thousand. Their members, who include leading professional men and businessmen in the City, maintain the age-old traditions and customs of the companies. Originally medieval craft guilds, the livery companies became closely associated with the municipal affairs of the City. The liverymen of the companies nominate the candidate for Lord Mayor. Aside from their role in the governing of the City, the companies are concerned with charitable and philanthropic activities and are associated with thirty famous schools. Several are responsible for important technical training schools and colleges. For example, the Goldsmiths, one of the wealthiest and oldest (founded in 1327), established a school at London University. The company also still conducts the London Assay Office for hallmarking gold and silver plate.
Leaving Goldsmiths' Hall, walk down Foster Lane to Cheapside.
Cross the busy thoroughfare and enter the churchyard of Wren's masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, the architectural and spiritual glory of the City. Stroll around the gardens on your way to the front of the cathedral and look up at the huge dome outlined against the sky. This is a peaceful oasis in the City, with flower beds and birds singing in the shrubbery. St. Paul's was built between 1675 and 1710 and is the largest cathedral in Britain. You will want to make a leisurely visit, either now or at another time, to see the cathedral proper, the crypt with the tombs of Nelson and Wellington, and, if you are energetic, the whispering gallery and the stone gallery, which commands a superb view of London. (Open daily, 9:00–4:30.)
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Turn Right at the Fountain by George W. Oakes, Alexandra Chapman. Copyright © 1996 Estate of George W. Oakes. Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Copyright Notice,
Dedication,
Acknowledgments,
Introduction to the 1996 Edition,
Foreword to the 1965 Edition,
PART ONE: Britain,
1. London,
2. Oxford,
3. Cambridge,
4. Edinburgh,
PART TWO: The Continent,
5. Copenhagen,
6. Amsterdam,
7. Bruges,
8. Brussels,
9. Paris,
10. Rome,
11. Florence,
12. Venice,
13. Vienna,
14. Prague,
15. Budapest,
16. Munich,
17. Geneva,
18. Barcelona,
19. Madrid,
20. Toledo,
21. Segovia,
Index,
About the Authors,
Copyright,