Tuesday 5th July an Old Flames v

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A Gang of Four visit to Vintners Hall organised by the Old Flames and the Mithraeum on 23rd November 2017

Map of our walk, see	Opposite Blackfriars Station	The Black Friar Pub	St Andrews Hill, Ireland Yard to the right
The Cockpit 1860	The corner of St Andrews Hill/Carter Lane	The YHA hostel on Carter Lane was St Pauls Choir School in Victorian times	Wardrobe Place entrance
Wardrobe Place off Carter Lane was the site of the King’s Wardrobe, which refers to the storage of the Monarch’s fine robes and armaments, but was also a parallel Treasury for the King. At times it rivalled the actual Treasury for power and wealth.	My Location log. The camera had trouble finding GPS because of the high buildings and it extrapolates where there are the gaps	A Victorian Portico on Addle Hill from one of the first Telephone Exchanges.	"Vinyl Bar", Knightrider Street
"The Centre Page" pub at the corner of Peters Hill and Knightrider Street	On Peters Hill	A Paddington Bear Pop-up	On Peters Hill
Michael and "The Swan Marker"	The Barge Master and Swan Marker by by Vivien Mallock		An HSBC Office near Guildhall
The Vintners’ Company, together with the Crown and the Dyers’ Company, owns swans on the Thames and during July take part in ‘Swan Upping’, the ceremonial marking of cygnets between Sunbury and Abingdon. After the unveiling of this statue, the Company processed from the church with their path being swept by the Company’s Wine Porter. The Vintners are the only Livery Company still to sweep the path of their procession. Wardens and members of the Vintners’ wear traditional uniforms and carry posies. The Swan Marker is in charge of the Vintners’ Swan Uppers, but also wears the uniform of Barge Master, dating back to the time when the Company owned a ceremonial barge on the Thames. For more information visit:
Five Kings House on the corner of Southwark Bridge Road	68 and a half Upper Thames Street doorway	The Old Flames assemble in the lobby.	The Perruquier's Room
Vintners Hall Reception in what was the courtyard now roofed over	A six bottle a day man at 90, the painting of course	The main stairs 1673	Downstairs to the Loo
"Downstairs"	A stuffed Cygnet table Centrepiece used at some dinners	Drawing Room	William III, Mary is on the other side of the fireplace
Paper Flowers	Charles II	Through the Glass darkly	A Seal Press
Looking down the stairs	Depicting the Five Kings meal. Some glass from the pre Great Fire building was used	The Livery Hall	The ceiling decoration with praise for alcohol replaced in 1932
The Livery Hall again	The Late Princess Royal	Our Ex-Guardsman Guide tells his tales
Chandeliers	Detail of the carved wooden panels	Anteroom	The Perruquier's Room again
The Court Room (taken with my new lens)	Solarium	A Lord Mayor and Past Master	An ornate 18th century Brandy Keg
The Distillers Company were having a dinner in the Hall that evening, hence this tablecloth etc	Distillers Company banner	Distillers Company gown	Model of a Vintry Ward Schoolboy in coade stone
Old Painted Screen of St Martin their patron saint	Claret the cat who slept in the Silver Case and caused mayhem at a dinner when scared out by the pipers	Some of the Silver	The faces on the panels got older as you circle the room by Grindling Gibbons
Antique English Glasses	The case where the Lord Mayors Sword hangs when he dines here	Lamp with swans	Record of the "Five Kings" when the Company (wine trade) lent money to kings and paid Charles II debts from his exile, so that his creditors let him return to England
Longcase Clock	Stop!	All traffic had to stop for a fast official motorcade with 5 outriders as our walk continued	Looking along Watling Street
"Ye Old Watling" pub corner Bow Lane/Watling Street is...	...a Nicholson's Sausage and Chop House where we had lunch	Serious Helen and Steve	Pretend pianist?
A Cordwainer by Alma Boyes He makes shoes, a Cobbler repairs them. Leather for shoes at the time came from Cordoba in Spain, which gave rise to the name for those who worked the Spanish leather.	Bow Lane	"Forgotten Streams" by Cristina Iglesias a representation of the old river Walbrook which is a sewer now, way below ground	HSBC HQ building
By St Pauls	Bloomberg HQ is in two parts left and right of the Bloomberg Arcade.	Bloomberg Arcade	I had trouble finding the Mithraeum as I thought it was off Watling Street
Along Walbrook.	Bloomberg's European HQ	Cannon Street Station	The Exhibition Space in the Mithraeum on Walbrook that we visited wih...... "The barely perceivable vibrations of everything" by Isabel Nolan
Our Guide demonstrates how the sculpture is a horse. "Blind to the Rays of the Returning Sun"	Some of the Roman Artefacts found in Walbrook mud in moving the temple		Down through the ages
The Head of Mithras with traditional cap	The Story is readable when expanded (click)	The "Tauroctony" see left	The Temple of Mithras's remains. The blacked out presentation did not photo!
Michael and Steve	Out into the Exhibition area, the mural was a tapestry (Arras?)	Umbrellas in an office reception area	The back of Bloombergs
The London Mithraeum, also known as the Temple of Mithras, Walbrook, is a Roman mithraeum that was discovered during building construction in 1954. The temple was relocated to permit continued construction and became perhaps the most famous 20th-century Roman discovery in London. It has now been put back close to the original position, now below the Bloomberg HQ and is a permanent exhibition with added exhibits of interest; see:
	St Stephen Walbrook, a 12th century round church	One house remains	A restored vent from the Walbrook sewer puzzling a tourist
Bucklersbury House	St Pauls from Watling Street	Another view	The "Young Lovers" by George Ehrlich.
The Rising Sun Carter Lane	Christmas is coming		The sun is setting. Then we took a rapid train ride home from Blackfriars station