My Excellent European Adventure 60th Anniversary - Chapter 2: A Brief Idiosyncratic Tour of London

 

L to R: Bill, Tom, Judy, Chris, Kay, Hank, Susan

We were in London for two or three days.  I could show you pictures of me or our group in front of all the obligatory tourist attractions we visited – Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard; Westminster Abbey; Regents and Hyde Parks; St. Paul’s Cathedral; Big Ben; Trafalgar Square; the Tower of London; the British Museum; the National Gallery; etc. – but you’ve seen those places a hundred times or more.

OK, just one of those photos for the record:

L to R: me, Kay, Hank, Bill, Judy, Susan, Annie

Now with that out of the way, I want to take you to three places on a less typical tour of London.  It includes one famous London address that was surprisingly accessible, plus a couple of places you've probably never seen or heard of, but with unique histories and more interest to me on a personal level.

First up on this tour is the famous place:  10 Downing Street.

I include this place because we were able to walk right off Whitehall into the narrow, dead-end street and stand maybe 20 feet away from the front door.  As you can see, there were no barricades, no metal detectors, no iron fences, no police in tactical gear . . . just one Bobby off to the side chatting with a civilian on a bicycle.  Things were different sixty years ago.

The next stop on this unconventional tour is John Wesley’s Chapel.  Being Methodists, we thought it would be appropriate to see an early location where our denomination began.  The building’s foundation stone was laid in April, 1777, and the chapel formally opened on November 1, 1778.  

When the chapel was built, Wesley was 74 years old and Methodism, which by most accounts originated in 1739, was becoming an established denomination.  The building is a classic example of Georgian architecture, but modest in size and decoration – it’s not a cathedral, it’s a simple and elegant space for worship and community.  It was a solemn moment for all of us.

Finally, the least famous place on this tour is one that only I had on my “must see” list and only I visited:  Hawkes & Co. at No. 1 Savile Row – a venerable bespoke men’s tailor firm founded in 1771 catering to numerous explorers, the British Army, the Royal Navy, and the British royal family.

Hawkes & Co. had already been in business for over 140 years when it purchased this building in 1912.  The building was originally built in 1732 as a townhouse for the Fairfax family.   Ownership eventually passed to the Royal Geographic Society in 1871, from which Hawkes purchased the building 41 years later.  

To give you a sense of how embedded Hawkes & Co. was in the British culture, the firm was David Livingstone’s outfitter when Stanley "found" him in Africa in 1871.  When Livingstone died in what is now Zambia in 1873, his remains (minus his heart which was buried in the village where he died) were returned from Africa to London in 1874, and he laid in state at the Geographic Society building (at No. 1) before burial at Westminster Abbey.  

You’re probably wondering why Hawkes & Co. was on my list.  Perhaps it was due to Sean Connery’s patronage of the firm in the early 60s when, as James Bond, he was the epitome of British ruling class style.  Savile Row was the epicenter of bespoke men’s wear in the early 20th century, and Hawkes was the preeminent firm in that universe, both in terms of location (at No. 1) and reputation.  So a visit to Hawkes was, for me, an opportunity to step into and experience the rarified air of a world far above my station in life, even if only for a few minutes.  

In 8th and 9th grade I had worked after school as an errand boy for a men’s store in Lawton, but Hawkes occupied a much higher place in the celestial hierarchy of men's clothing shops, so it was scary and exhilarating to walk through that door.  Nevertheless, as unusual a customer as I was, I was treated courteously by the staff.  I told them where I was from, and why I was there.  As evidence of my visit, I bought a necktie – a souvenir, yes, and the only item I could afford to buy to justify my presence there, but a souvenir with an impeccable pedigree.

BTW, two years after my visit, the Beatles’ Apple Corps music company moved into No. 3 Savile Row, the building next door to Hawkes & Co.  And on January 30, 1969, the Beatles played their last public concert on the roof of No. 3.  (I’ll share more about the off-stage presence of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Mamas & Papas on this trip in later chapters.)