We are treating ourselves to a night in central London before heading to Wimbledon ... and totally, utterly recommend The Rookery hotel, which is just behind Smithfield Market (whoever knew that this would become a trendy area ... I walked round these parts, during my first employed year as an academic, taking pictures of places that figured in Gissing novels, and back then, some of them hadn't changed much ...). The hotel even has a cat ... and our room has the most spectacular copper shower/bath backing (plus great antique furniture, paintings, and a general air of being laid back and special). By the time we were settled and rested, it was, being the shortest day, getting dark ... but we walked round the area, full of little corners and alleys and old pubs;
this is right by St Bartholomew's church, where, to my shock, I've never been - founded as St B's priory in 1123!! (and the image below a testimony to the new iPhone's ability to take photos - with no flash - in the near dark);
and then there's Smithfield market itself - London's main meat market - which will probably be wildly full of Christmas turkeys in the morning. And which seems to be painted in suffragette colors, strangely ...
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