Works of Art

The Tate Britain is a repository of British art covering the last 500 years: a history lesson in brush-strokes. We were particularly interested in two of the greatest British artists, Constable and Turner. Constable is known for his “photographic” paintings of English rural life, portraying the area where he grew up around Flatford and Dedham many times. We will visit this area near Colchester later in our trip. The Tate holds the world’s largest collection of Turners, who was known for his prolific work and a painting style in his later work, best described as impressionist, though the term was not applied during his lifetime.

Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral was a reminder of the long tradition in which we, as Christians share. We are links in a chain which in this building extends back almost 350 years, and in this place, many hundreds of years before that. And we were reminded of that today, a significant day: the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London in 1666. Of course, St Paul’s would never have been built if it were not for this devastation.

To mark the anniversary, a long line of dominos, (large white breeze blocks), had been set up marking the route of the fire from its source in Pudding Lane to the Cathedral. About an hour after the end of Evensong the dominos were toppled, finally passing up and down the stairs at the front of the Cathedral then terminating at a large structure built in a public square, the base of which was set on fire when the last block fell. Ultimately the whole structure collapsed accompanied by much cheering from the crowd – including us!