Walking the Walls of Londinium

Just a note to those who don't already know a lot about the London program . . . as part of our assigned duties we are asked to complete a number of walks around the city. For our first walk we followed the basic boundary line for the walls of the old Roman city of Londinium. Even in Medieval times this area contained most of the city of London.

Throughout the walk I noticed the stark contrast between the old, like six hundred plus years, and the modern elements of the area. We began the walk at Tower Hill, an interesting place to start because we immediately saw part of the old Roman wall and, of course, the Tower of London.

For instance, in this picture you can see the Tower of London with a nice modern building just next door.Everywhere you look in this area you could find a mix of old and new. In this picture you can just catch a glimpse of a glass building behind the older buildings.

I love this image of the older houses, all connected and huddled together, beneath the towering buildings around them.

The church in this picture is St. Olave's, one of the few churches in London to escape the fire of 1666, it is interesting to note that the famous "Mother Goose" is buried in this church. As you can see, life goes on. In the background you can see newer buildings as well as cranes working hard to add on to the city.

The Great Gherkin towering over some flats.

Ruins among the city.

The wall under a walkway.

I love that there is a lot of history preserved in London. In many US cities the mentality is something like: "If it's old tear it down and put something new in," but it was great to see both the old and the new mixed together in the old city of Londinium.