London June 2017 Day 10 – An afternoon in the British Museum

In the morning we went to Belmont Hall in Harrow again for the Open Door Coffee Morning to enjoy tea, homemade scones and great conversation with lovely people. On our way there by (overground) Metropolitan Line tube we could see black smoke going up from Grenfell Tower which had burnt the night before leaving 71 people dead.

In the afternoon the LCM summer school group made an excursion to the British Museum to see items which had to do with the contents of the Bible. Our guide was Clive Anderson, one of the authors of the book “Through the British Museum with the Bible”.

Clive had many impressive stories to tell, but the one which particularly stuck in my mind was that of Livia Drusilla (58 BC – 29 AD), wife of Emperor Augustus and mother, grandmother etc. of other Roman Emperors – and fashion icon of her time, even after her death.

It was interesting to hear that Livia was indirectly mentioned in the Bible, though her name never appears there. Both Apostles Peter (1 Peter 3:3) and Paul (1 Timothy 2:9) are telling Christian women to dress modestly and not to wear plaited (or “broided”) hair. The reason for this was that Livia used to wear a very elaborate hairstyle formed of many plaits, and women of the time were trying to copy this hairstyle. This in itself certainly wouldn’t have been much of an issue in the Christian community, if not Emperor Claudius, her grandson, had elevated Livia to the state of a goddess after her death, so that copying her fashion style could be seen as a form of worship. At this point it became tricky for the Christian women, of course.

To read more about that day in summer school, please visit the LCM blog.

London June 2017 Day 9 – Summer School and Hyde Park

We spent the morning at summer school. To read more about this, please visit the LCM blog.

In the afternoon we went to Hyde Park where Hermann fed the squirrels with peanuts while I took a window shopping tour in Oxford Street and Bond Street.

London June 2017 Day 8 – First day of LCM Summer School

In the morning we went to Villiers Street, because the day before someone at Belmont Hall told us there was a Herman ze German shop, so I wanted to take a photo of Hermann in front of it ;)

It was too early for lunch as we had just had breakfast, so we didn’t go in. It’s on our list for next time we will be in London.

By lunch time we took the tube to London Bridge Station.

From there we walked to the London City Mission HQ on Tower Bridge Road where we attended the first day of summer school. We had decided not to take part in all the lessons and excursions, as some of it was the same as the year before. However, it was lovely to meet some of the LCM staff again. Please visit the LCM blog to read more about this day!

Afterwards we walked to Tower Hill Station to return to Walthamstow.

London June 2017 Day 7 – Tottenham and Belmont Hall Harrow

The weather was beautiful, so we decided not to take a long tube ride but go just two stations from Walthamstow Central to Tottenham Hale. Close to the station is Hale Village, an estate which looks rather new and very clean.

Dogs are welcome there obviously :)

From there we took a foot path along the River Lea (or Lee, obviously both names are used). We had thought it would be rather quiet on a Sunday morning, but of course this is London, too, so it wasn’t. Many people (and animals) were already active along the river.

We followed the river to Markfield Recreation Ground where we left it to reach Seven Sisters Station to return “home” to Walthamstow.

In the later afternoon we went to Harrow for the evening service at Belmont Hall. After the service we were invited to stay for a little birthday party as one of them had turned 60.