Today I am grateful for the Globe Theatre and the Churchill War Rooms.
The Globe stands a few hundred yards from its original site. The original Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare’s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend and grandson Sir Matthew Brend, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed by an Ordinance issued on 6 September 1642. The rebuilding of the iconic building stems from the founding of the Shakespeare’s Globe Trust by the pioneering American actor and director Sam Wanamaker.
The present Globe was opened by Her Majesty The Queen in June 1997. We were lucky enough to see a rehearsal for the upcoming season of Othello.
Shakespeare, during his 52 years on earth, enriched the English language in ways so profound it’s almost impossible to fully gauge his impact. Without him, our vocabulary would be just too different. He gave us uniquely vivid ways in which to express hope and despair, sorrow and rage, love and lust. Even if you’ve never read one of his sonnets or seen a play – even if you’ve never so much as watched a movie adaptation – you’re likely to have quoted him unwittingly. It’s almost impossible to avoid. All information sourced from Wikipedia.
After touring the Globe we spent the afternoon in the Churchill War Rooms. The war rooms are beneath the streets of Westminster in an underground labyrinth and are where Winston Churchill and his inner circle directed the Second World War.
It was another wonderful day filled with literature and history.
After visiting the War Rooms Lucy and I continued on for about another hour. Prince Louis was christened on Monday afternoon and Lucy and I hoped for a glimpse of some of the Royals. We stood at the edge of a driveway entering Clarence House where William and Kate were having afternoon tea following the Christening. We were rewarded with a view of the car William and Kate and Louis left in. William was driving.
Tuesday was another day inspired by a wonderful writer and one of my favorites – J K Rowling. We went to The Making of Harry Potter The Warner Bros Studio Tour in London. We all felt like we had stepped into the magical world of Harry Potter.
And we drank Butterbeer
And ate Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans and Chocolate Frogs.
And a wonderful thought from J K Rowling to finish on
Until next time
