twenty2yards

So how do you begin to describe London? A city that goes more than a thousand years into history, has seen tragedies and renewal, hosted events of great proportions, been home to the first parliament of the modern era, been the colonial capital of the world and still continues to be a financial nerve center and a cosmopolitan menagerie in a Europe growing increasingly wary of external cultures.

A city of spiral staircases. That is what I would call it based on my experiences over a rapid weekend tourist tour of some of London’s major sights. To get a view of London city, you have to embrace the spirals. And it is not just a simple of matter of a few steps to get from one floor to another. To get a real bird eye view of London, you can circle around on the London eye or you can take, in my opinion, the slightly more romantic option of climbing 300 stairs of spiral case and reach the roofs of some of the city’s oldest standing structures.

Right at the center of London stands the St.Paul’s Catherdral. It is believed that a shrine to St.Paul, who was the most influential of early Christian missionaries, has stood at the sight since the early AD years. The current structure, modeled on the great basilica of the Vatican, was constructed in the 17^th century, after the Great Fire of London destroyed the then existing building. Located on Ludgate Hill, considered to be the highest point in terms of altitude in London, the cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, one of the principal architects behind the reconstruction of London post the great fire of 1666. The cathedral was to be the showpiece of the reconstruction efforts and was completed within Wren’s lifetime, achieving consecration in 1708.

Ludgate Hill is not the only aspect that provides height to St.Paul’s Cathedral. The church has three levels that you can choose to climb to capture a view from the heights. And here is where the spiral staircases come in. Take 259 spiral steps and reach the Whispering Gallery that runs inside the dome of the church. At 99 feet above the ground, you can soak in a grand view of the cathedral underneath or whisper something into a hole in the wall for your partner to hear from another hole many feet away.

The first spiral staircase leading up to the Whispering Gallery

A view of the Cathedral below from the Whispering Gallery

If that is not good enough, you can take another 119 narrower spiral steps to reach the Stone Gallery, which forms an outer perimeter of the dome. From here you a get 360 degree windy view of the city. Even on a cloudy day marked with incessant London drizzle, the great sights such as Big Ben, the London Eye, Tate Gallery, the Shard and Tower Bridge are easily visible. I had the privilege of standing at the gallery on a particularly typical cloudy and windy London day and had trouble holding on to my SLR camera as I tried to click away.

The steps leading up to the Stone Gallery

Millennium Bridge and Tate as seen from the Stone Gallery

At the Stone Gallery

And if vertigo has not struck you by then, soldier on and take another 128 steps on a narrow steel spiral staircase within the deepest interiors of the cathedral to reach the Golden Gallery. Located on the peak of the dome at 85 meters above the ground, the gallery has radius of just about 4 feet and finds it difficult to accommodate two people side by side. On a windy afternoon, managing your footing in that space can be quite tricky. The view of London from there though is worth the effort!

The steel spiral that leads to the Golden Gallery - highest point of the Cathedral

The Tower Bridge and the river Thames as seen from the Golden Gallery

At a slight distance from St.Paul’s Catherdral lies the next set of spirals. The great fire of London in 1666 destroyed virtually the entire town and presented a massive challenge towards reconstruction. 3 years after the fire, as a new London city came up, it was decided to ‘preserve the memory of this dreadful visitation’ in some manner. Christopher Wren was the architect again coming up with a design of a single stone column that stood at a height (62m) which was the exact distance from the spot where the fire had originally started. Built into the core of this structure, simply called ‘The Monument’, were 313 narrow spiral stairs that take you to a caged viewing platform at the top which offers panoramic views of London. On my climb, I came across young kids, old couples and young men and women all making their way slowly up the half lit staircase in an orderly fashion and it made me wonder why we can’t ever get the Archaeological Survey of India to open up the climb to Qutub Minar in Delhi again.

The Monument now stands in the middle of a busy office district

The sculpture at the top of the Monument depicts the concept of fire

And finally the spiral that contains 313 steps

Climbing up the monument is considered quite a feat and upon your descent, at the exit, a staffer hands you a mock certificate that states that the holder has climbed the steps to the top!

The spirals continue in many pockets of the Tower of London as well, the oldest structure in the city whose foundations were laid by the first English king, William the Conqueror in the 11^th century. The Tower was notorious through the ages for being a place of banishment and in certain unfortunate instances, even the site of executions (The most famous one being of the second wife of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn).

London’s modern architects don’t seem to have forgotten the old inspiration. I made acquaintance with a spiral that leads to the cafeteria on my very first day in the office building. The stairs do give your head a dizzy tour and can pose a challenge for those challenged by the heights, but when you are exploring history that is four centuries old or trying to grab a bite of food in the middle of a busy office day, I think it is probably pointless to crib and more sensible to adopt a stoic English pose and just climb on.

Not to be outdone, the architects at my temporary office also added a touch of whirl

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