Actors in the church, Preachers in the park

A church with theatrical connections:
St. Paul's Covent Garden church - better known as The Actor's Church

It is the parish church of the Drury Lane Theater (do you know the muffin man?), the Royal Opera House and other theaters in the Covent Garden area.

Looking for Frankenstein or Scarlett O'Hara? There are memorial plaques to Boris Karloff and Viven Leigh inside! Apparently, the JMW Turner - who painted so many of the works of art we looked at in week 1 - was baptized there.

My favorite part of the Actor's Church, however, was the little garden courtyard - very peaceful and relaxing.


I loved the saying on the bottom of one of the memorial benches: "Promise me you won't forget me. If I thought you would, I'd never leave.


A park with preachers on their "soapbox" - Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner


For what its worth - none of them actually had soapboxes. A little bit disappointing. "Get off your footstool" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.


Most of the speeches were on some sort of religious topic - the man in the purple suit coat was a Christian and the man in the tan jacket was an atheist. Quite a contrast right next to each other.



After you've been shouted at and verbally accosted, some young gentlemen were there to give out "Free Hugs."



Leaving Hyde Park and Speakers' Corner, we got a little distracted by a 27 feet tall horse head and the Marble Arch (the original gate entrance to Buckingham Palace) before threatening rain clouds chased us home.



(Note: The little girl is feeding the pigeons which are in mid-flight in the pic.)