A Small Sniff of Spring (14 March)
Chilly it may still be, but the skies are brightening up and there was some lovely sunshine to be had today at 12°C.
Trinity Square Gardens, EC3
Trinity Square EC3 is opposite the Tower of London and is the location of Trinity House (designed by Samuel Wyatt, 1796) and the former Port of London Authority. Trinity Square Gardens (1797; restored 2003) has a beautiful memorial to the 24,000 merchant seamen lost in two word wars “Who have no grave but the sea”. There is a memorial pavilion to WWI (by Sir Edward Lutyens) and the memorial garden to WWII (by Sir Edward Maufe).
These are the Names... Trinity Square Gardens
Huge plaques bear the names of the ships and the men, the writing raised from the surface, tactile and alive, running on and on in huge saddening lists. Every so often there is a poppy or a small wooden cross left by a loved one next to a name. They are stuck on with blu-tac and flutter poignantly in the faltering spring breeze. Some are faded and have slipped down from the name to which they were affixed. The plaques are separated by beautiful relief sculptures on sea-faring themes and the space is simple, calm and reflective. Really beautifully done. Opposite, the Tower looms and the Thames glitters.
There is something startling about the fact that that these gardens and the plush surrounding buildings cross two of London’s boroughs. The plush buildings are in the City of London, while the park itself is in Tower Hamlets. Here are two very contrasting boroughs (and the City really does contrast with everything around it) and you slip softly from one to another.
