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| A general view of St. Paul's Cathedral |
Leaving the Viaduct Tavern, I then set off on the last leg of my walk in the City of London, starting at the Central Criminal Court - better known as the Old Bailey - a Grade II* Listed Portland stone building, dated 1900-1907, by Edward Mountford – the architect who was responsible for Sheffield Town Hall a few years earlier.
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| The Central Criminal Court |
It is designed in the Edwardian Baroque style, for which he was well known, with bold rustication on the ground floor and on the upper level window surrounds. I only stopped to take a couple of photos of the elaborate main entrance, with sculptures by F.W. Pomeroy – who also carved the frieze sculptures at Sheffield Town Hall - and then crossed Old Bailey to the Grade II Listed Britannia House.
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| Sculptures by F.W. Pomeroy |
This is another Edwardian Baroque style building, constructed in Portland stone and completed in 1912 to the design of Arthur Usher, for the London Chatham and Dover Railway. It also has two large allegorical sculptures above the main entrance, by an unknown artist, which the Historic England description describes as being in the Pomeroy style.
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| Sculptures at Britannia House |
I then made my way down Old Bailey to the junction with Ludgate Hill, which rises to form a local high point formed by a Quaternary wind blown deposit – the Langley Silt Member - upon which St. Paul’s Cathedral is built.
Continuing up Ludgate Hall, I came within sight of the west front of St. Paul’s Cathedral, only to discover that my camera battery, the last of the three that I carry with me, was about to run out. At 5 ‘o’clock in the afternoon, after nearly 7 hours of walking, I had achieved all of my objectives for the day but I wanted to take a few general record photos.
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| The west front of St. Paul's Cathedral |
After taking a couple of photos of the pediment frieze sculpture by Francis Bird (1706), which depicts the conversion of St. Paul, I started to head off towards Paternoster Square, where I hoped to get some good views of the north elevation of the cathedral.
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| A detail of the pediment frieze at St. Paul's Cathedral. |
I was distracted when I encountered Juxon House, a modern Portland stone commercial building (2003), which I remember reading about at the time in the Stone Specialist trade magazine, but I did not know exactly where it was.
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| An Angel Head by Emily Young |
It is quite an unremarkable building, except for the Corinthian capitals by Tim Crawley to the door entrances and the five Angel Heads by Emily Young, which are set on Portland stone columns that have a plinth and collar of grey granite.
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| The statue of Queen Anne |
Briefly returning to the forecourt of the cathedral, I had a quick look at the statue of Queen Anne, which according to the Historic England description is an 1886 replica of an original statue that was also made by Francis Bird in 1712.
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| The Temple Bar |
Passing through the Grade I Listed Temple Bar, originally built in 1672 as the west gate to the City of London before being demolished and rebuilt here in 1878, I took a few photographs of the various features in Paternoster Square and a couple of the cathedral before my camera battery died.
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| A view of St. Paul's cathedral from Paternoster Square |
Although I still had my Samsung Galaxy phone with me to take photos of the Grade II Listed dark Shap granite bollards and a couple of general photos of the cathedral, I finally decided to call it a day and head back to Wimbledon – having had an extremely enjoyable day out.
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| A bollard made of dark Shap granite |
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