11 May 2016 - Crystal Palace Caravan Site, London

Today marked our sixth day venturing into the city as sightseers and the last day of our week-long Oyster card. We had checked the weather forecast carefully; this suggested we should make the most of the clear rain-free morning doing outdoor exploration and then shelter indoors when the rain set in again after lunch. But like all forecasts, they are closer to horoscopes than scientific facts but then these people are not gods and we should be glad that the science of meteorology is these days more accurate than it was a thousand years ago!

We woke to heavy misty fog, the television tower even more invisible than the last couple of days. We set off with coats and umbrellas yet again, fingers crossed that this was what London forecasters called “clear” – as in not raining. 

We found our way through by combination of bus and underground to East Aldgate, researched the night before as being the closest station to the nuptial location of my great grandparents.  Johann Jurgen Hinrick Bitjemann (aka Bettjeman) and Catherine Adeline Wilhemine Wellbrock wed in St Georges German Church in Shoreditch on 4 November 1877, and today I was intent in tracking down that place of celebration.

St George’s German Lutheran Church still exists, in Alie Street, Aldgate just to the east of the city centre. Founded in 1762 and used as a place of worship until 1995, it was the fifth Lutheran Church to be built in London and today is the oldest surviving German Lutheran church in the United Kingdom.  Today it serves as an office for the Historic Chapels Trust and the church is still available for hire for secular events.

St George's German Lutheran Church

Earlier today we had no idea if the church even still existed, that we would find it or if it existed whether we could explore it. In the pouring rain we stood outside the large wooden doors, little evidence of its name apart from the old signage high above the pavement. All around tall modern skyscrapers have risen accommodating industries and activities totally unrelated to German religious activity. There was no suggestion that anyone ever came here although Chris noted a light somewhere in the interior. I rang the bell and was asked what I wanted. I explained that my great grandparents had married here in 1877 and I was curious about the church; was it still open to the public? The door was soon opened by a secular historical custodian who has worked here for the past thirteen years although only part time. Any attendance by these curator types or anyone else for that matter, is intermittent and we were canny enough to have coincided with their presence. Our host invited us in most welcomingly given that we had obviously come from so far, turned the lights on and indicated that we should take our time to look around, which we duly did. We picked up a history information booklet, paid the asked £5 and spent some time listening to him recount the history of the Church and congregation of the centuries.

The founder of the Church was Dietrich Beckman, one of the many sugar boilers who lived and set up very successful industries in the area in the late 1700s. Then the street was called “Little Ayliffe Street, and the area was called “Goodman’s Fields”. At its height, there were an estimated 16,000 German Lutherans in Whitechapel and the area was sometimes referred to as Little Germany. St Georges Church is the last remaining physical evidence of this major wave of immigration into East London.

Johann and Catherine’s presence in the area is still unexplained, however there is evidence of relatives having settled in the area, and for now, I believe they came this way as a setting off point for their new life on the goldfields on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island in the respectable state of marriage.

Emerging from the church into the rain, now heavier than it had been on arrival, we decided not to attempt any pilgrimage to their place of residence in High Street. No 254 is nowadays part of a Furniture Store, so we would have learned little.

So we returned to the subway and caught a network of underground trains back to Trafalgar Square, then made our way through to the National Portrait Gallery, another of the galleries on our to-do list, yet to be conquered.

Wet day in Trafalgar Square

Founded in 1856 to house portraits of the good, great and not so great, it is situated more or less behind the National Gallery. In the rain and amongst the construction work all about, it was hard to detect how impressive the building is. Today it provided a refuge from the rain and a home to many fine art works we enjoyed very much. Our guide book is rather scathing of this gallery suggesting it is “an overstuffed shrine to famous Brits rather than a museum offering any insight into the history of portraiture”. Perhaps there is some truth in this, but I would suggest that even if one were not an appreciator of art, the descriptions throughout the gallery make for a brilliant history lesson. We certainly enjoyed the gallery on many levels, and in saying that I mean the physical floors of the gallery and the various understanding of the work and stories pertaining to each subject portrayed. Those celebrated in the gallery are royals, aristocrats, warmongers and imperialists, scientists, artists and industrialists, entertainers, writers, poets, sportsmen, politicians and anyone who has warranted a line in the media, be it in the antiquated reports of centuries old news sheets or those of more modern times. Again I cannot boast that we saw it all, because again it was all too much, too exhausting and warrants dozens of visits to give it full credit. Perhaps we will find time to return later whilst in England and fill in some of the gaps, but for now there are no promises about that.

On exit we found the day a little clearer and made our way via the same variety of public transport as the morning, back to Brixton where Chris bought himself a new cap, and then back on the bus to camp.

We have yet to decide what we will do tomorrow, our last full day in London. It will depend on the weather and our energy levels after breakfast.