Another American Abroad

Did you know that Benjamin Franklin lived in London for nearly 16 years? I didn't until I visited the lodging house where he stayed between 1757 and 1775.

36 Craven Street, London

During his time in London he was mediating the unrest between Britain and the American colonies. Obviously it didn't end well and he high-tailed it back to America just before the American Revolution.

The lodging house where he stayed is said to be the world's only remaining Benjamin Franklin residence. His wife Deborah never joined him in London while he lived here. She feared traveling across the Atlantic ocean. Sadly, she died in 1774 while Benjamin was in England.

Photo owned by "Benjamin Franklin House"

The house was rescued from dereliction and has been brought back to life with its original features restored. Historical tours are given by an actress in period costume portraying the landlady's daughter. "Polly" takes the tour group through various rooms of the house and re-enacts what might have taken place there, tea in the parlor, scientific experiments in another room, visiting around the fireplace. We climbed up and down the same narrow, well-worn, wooden staircase that Franklin would have walked on.

The house is situated near the Thames River and it is said that Franklin would go there for a swim.

An interesting side story is the discovery of the "Craven Street Bones". When the house was being renovated in 1998, human and animal bones were uncovered under the basement floor. The location would have been the garden in Franklin's day. It turns out the bones are remnants of the anatomy school run from the house by the son-in-law of Franklin's landlady. Some of the bones have dissection marks showing how they were used for teaching purposes.

I learned quite a bit about Benjamin Franklin from touring the house, particularly that he was an American living abroad in England... just like me!

Lunchtime Concert

There are plenty of touristy things to do in London. Sometimes it's nice to do a non-touristy activity that provides a glimpse of the typical local culture.

A lunchtime concert at a church in a nearby town showcased a very talented professional viola player. There was no entry fee and a light lunch was provided before the concert. How can I pass up free food and a free concert?

On offer were triangle-shaped sandwiches with what I think was pimiento cheese filling, ham sandwiches, cheese and crackers, fruit, welsh cakes, and orange juice. It's very common here to drink orange juice for lunch. Of course coffee and tea were provided as well. We ate on cute little plates and drank from stemmed glasses. The food was laid out in the back of the church and we sat in the pews to eat. There was a ledge on the back of the benches just wide enough to set your dishes on. It seemed strange to me to be eating in the 150-year-old church.

A lady came around with a tray offering jam-tops, homemade tea-bread, and apple-blackberry pie. These cute-sounding English sweets made the experience of being there feel so authentic.

It was an older crowd except for the young Rector who had recently transferred to the church. He was friendly and came by to talk to me, I think our mutual non-gray heads stood out in the crowd. He detected my American accent but I'm glad my Catholic religion didn't come up as we were in a Church of England congregation and I didn't want to risk losing my before-mentioned head. Okay, so the Catholic/Protestant dispute was centuries ago, but it's fresh in my mind as I have been learning about it in my English Experience history group.

Sitting in the church, I wanted to take pictures of the scene because this blog posting was already forming in my head. But it would have felt intrusive to do so. I didn't want to impose a touristy feel on what was an ordinary occasion for the locals.

I did find a website with some photos of the church:  Christ Church, Esher, Surrey

Photo by Jacqueline Banerjee

I enjoyed the concert and I did make a donation to the "retiring collection" as I left. I'm not entirely a mooching freeloader!

Lucky Day

Today I won a raffle prize, Chris won some meat, and he won a bet on a soccer match. Coincidentally, today was St. Patrick's Day. Could it be the luck of the Irish?

Fulham beat Tottenham so Chris's pub buddy must take us out to dinner.

While at the pub watching the game, Chris entered the pub's weekly Sunday meat raffle drawing. First number called was Chris's. He got to select his choice of meat that was laid out on a table. He chose some delicious pork steaks. It was a lucky thing too because I had nothing planned for dinner and was thinking of ordering pizza. Instead, Chris grilled the pork and made dinner, lucky me!

Chris got to draw the next number and as luck would have it, he drew the number of his pub buddy. Sounds rigged. Actually, the whole idea of a "meat raffle" sounds odd to me, but who's to say?

Meanwhile, I attended a FUNdraiser Concert at my church. As you can see, we lead a balanced lifestyle, one of us at the pub, one of us at church. Various types of music were performed by youngsters and not-so-youngsters of the parish. The money raised will help send some lucky youth parishioners on Lourdes pilgrimages and also support a local Hospice. A worthy cause, I thought, so I offered my support and tried my luck by buying some raffle tickets. I won a prize of wine, chocolate, gift wrappings, and a book of daily teachings:

My winnings

Some of the numbers performed at the church concert were Irish songs, appropriately, for St. Patrick's Day. It's a Catholic church so there are several Irish parishioners. I felt lucky to be able to hear Irish music on St. Patrick's Day performed by actual Irish people with the audience joining in the singing because they knew the songs.

I'm heading to bed now on this memorable St. Patrick's Day before my luck runs out.

Happy Saint Paddy's!