First Day in London

Very quickly about the internet. It seems the problem may have been mainly in Heathrow airport and at "Yo-Yotel" (about which more later - I have never been in a dorm room as small), as I found a place in Kennsington where the internet works, although it costs £10 in hour. (got to use the "£" sign - will it come through in America?). I have an hour before Vespers at Brompton Oratory so I will give quick impressions, and try to say more afterwards.

First, I took the tour bus, "Original London Sightseeing Tours." It was OK. What I spent most of my time on, however, were the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey - especially the Abbey. They are to me the most striking buildings in London, because of the neo-Gothic and Gothic styles, respectively. The Houses of Parliament are much bigger, with Big Ben being especially impressive and huge and high - and I got to hear the "Bong . . .Bong . ." striking of the hours.

The Abbey of course is much older, the current building dating back to the 1300's. There is something very touching about this and you can feel it in the stone. It is NOT as big as I expected, but I have been in much bigger churches (e.g. Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC). Nonetheless it is impressive - especially the Lady chapel with the fan-vaulting.)

I took the tour of it and then stayed for Evensong which was at 5 PM. It was NOT James O'Donnell and the men and boys of the Westminster Abbey choir as they were "on holiday," but a visiting choir from the Anglican Cathedral in Sydney, Australia. A big disappointment as they were good, but they just weren't Westminster - but they were quite competent, shining at certain moments. I liked the organist especially, both because he had a very good sense of the Abbey's organ - using its stops to achieve some subtle registrations, and the fact that he could accompany them from the organ which is on top of the rood screen which is the facade to the "quire" area from where the choir sings. It is quite a distance from one to the other.

The visiting choir, as with the Westminster Abbey choir, was probably no more than 30 voices so the vergers invited us to sit in the quire area with the choir. That is, me and the approximately 60 other motley tourists - some of them even wearing stretch pants! Anyway, the people behaved themselves - partly because they had some notion of wanting to worship, partly because the vergers would have cracked them over the head and ejected them. Those guys can be pretty tough. I saw two people with cameras busted - as pictures are not allowed inside.

Just in case it isn't clear, this used to be a Benedictine Monastery, so about 100 monks would celebrate the Divine Office within the quire area throughout the day which is an enclosure in front of the sanctuary with the altar. Most catholic parish churches haven't ever had such a place, even before Vatican II, so it is hard to imagine. Though not really part of "the nave," for practical purposes one could think of it as being at the "front of the nave" before the altar rail - so the stretch pants on overweight middle-aged bodies weren't quite so offensive. But well . . . anyway.

I saw the chapter house were the monks used to meet and some old murals from the time which were only uncovered in the 19th century. It had a good acoustic, so I could imagine no problems being heard during a medieval chapter meeting.

I want to compare and contrast my experiences here and at the Brompton Oratory (and the buildings), but I need to be going soon and should experience Vespers first - as I must be at Brompton in about 10 minutes. It is just down the road.