The display of Peta Bridle’s dry point etchings in Southwark Cathedral includes an interesting view of Spur Yard before its recent regeneration for a modern hotel. Spur Yard is one of many old inn yard turnings off Borough High Street. Now it is the entrance to a Premier Inn which may be equally handy for […]
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An opera based on TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral is being staged at the Queen Elizabeth Hall this month. Murder in the Cathedral, or Assassinio nella cattedrale, was first performed at La Scala Milan in 1958. In December 2006 there was a performance in the Basilica of St Nicholas in Bari. St Thomas Becket […]
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Southwark Cathedral was a lit by candlelight on Friday evening for an ‘after hours’ viewing of the Lenten art work. Pilgrimage by Michelle Rumney features candles, strings of hundreds of people measured for the artwork and the route of the road from Southwark to Canterbury traced on huge sheets. Today’s pilgrim road is the one […]
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The first signs of spring are appearing along the Pilgrims’ Way. There is a burst of blossom outside St George the Martyr in Borough High Street, the first church on the route from Southwark Cathedral to Canterbury, to tempt us on pilgrimage.
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This year’s Lent art installation at Southwark Cathedral has a Pilgrimage theme for Thomas Becket’s 850th anniversary year. Michelle Rumney has traced the route of the London to Canterbury Pilgrims’ Way on large sheets hanging each side of the high altar. Above and joined together are the strings of 850 people who were measured top […]
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The Museum of London has the country’s largest collection of pilgrim badges and to mark this Becket2020 anniversary year it has put some on display. The varied pewter badges were the souvenir to be brought back to the capital from Canterbury by pilgrims. Hundreds of these souvenirs have been recovered from London excavations and mudlarking […]
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There are signs of spring at Lesnes Abbey. The cafe was being cleaned today ready to reopen next week. Some daffodils are already appearing although the big show is a few weeks away. And there is new signage and information boards.
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Setting out on the Pilgrims’ Way you will find a St Valentine connection at both Winchester and London’s Southwark. On the edge of Winchester the path passes through the remains of Hyde Abbey where one of the attractions was the head of St Valentine. The relic was given in 1041 by Jumièges Abbey in Normandy […]
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Southwark Cathedral is having an open evening this Spring for visitors to learn about the Pilgrims’ Way. This year is the 800th anniversary of St Thomas Becket’s murder and the 850th of his ‘translation’, or his body being moved, to the famous shrine upstairs in Canterbury Cathedral. It was this shrine which drew thousands to […]
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One of the pleasures of walking along the Pilgrims’ Way between Farnham and St Catherine’s village, outside Guildford, is the ‘midway’ stop at Compton. The walker’s pause here is often to visit the wonderful Watts Gallery Tea Shop with its jumble of china next to the path. But Compton also has a church with a […]
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