Gothic

LONDON

This tour would take you through two neighborhoods that used to be the country side of medieval Londres: Westminster, where palaces and mausoleums for the The House of Plantagenet got built; and Southwark, the village on the other side of the now gone London Bridge with religious buildings along side pubs and inns (hotels). The area is characterized by: Gothic architecture, small winding streets, and little churches. The Normans (French Vikings) brought to Britain the French language and feudalism (a form of government based on land ownership and military service). On top you had the Barons (who came from William the Conqueror’s 170 tenants-in-chief), and they created the Lords by giving land to local Anglo-Saxon elites. These lords had fiefs (plots of land) who were given to vassals after a homage (a ceremony where someone pledged reverence and submission to his feudal lord). The vassal depending on the size of the fief could split it among vassals and be a knight, or farm his land through peasants (farm slaves that could not leave the village). If you didn't want to own land or animals you could be in the clergy system. England got divided into dioceses (counties) with a cathedral as its headquarters and a bishop as its manager; these dioceses had parishes under them (local churches) with pastors offering ecclesiastic services like baptisms, marriages, funerals, exorcisms etc. The hippie members of the clergy lived in monasteries (that were basically lgbtq+ communes) and often times gave health and educational services to the peasants. The Great Schism of 1054 (which separated western and eastern Christianity) inspired a wave of construction of new cathedrals and churches — and the Hundred Years War (1337–1453) between France and England inspired the construction of castles and fortifications in both sides of the English Chanel; giving us a new style of architecture away from the Romans: the Gothic style. Which is characterized by: pointed arches, colorful stained glass windows, golden surfaces and tall bell towers. Nuns and monks produced beautiful manuscripts, tapestries and retables (altar pieces) in the new style influenced by: flat Chinese compositions, gold Byzantine mosaics, Islamic calligraphy and Celtic/viking knot art. This is the time when freemasonry (the “decendants” of the builders of the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem) reached England with the Knights Templar; and they brought: the myth of Atlantis, alchemy (basically chemistry mix with astrology) and sacred geometry (numerology, the golden ratio, mandalas, and root rectangles) to the city. The first wave of the Black Death killed an approximately one to two thirds of the population in the 1340s; and by the end of the century the cousins Richard II and Henry IV fought for the throne, putting an end to the french speaking Viking kings of Engleterre. The tour suggests visiting parishes plus the Southwark cathedral in the morning; lunch at a tower plus exploring the Westminster Complex in the afternoon; and back at Southwark to visit a prison plus dinner at a pub.

Stops:

1 St Etheldreda’s Church

2 Gothic Churches Walking Tour with coffee break

3 Southwark Cathedral

4 Westmimster Abbey

5 Tower Cafe

6 Palace of Westmimster

7 Clink Prison

8 Bermondsey Beer bar