Saturday of our trip away saw us heading back into London as we were meeting friends for a meal in the evening. We met them near Liverpool Street Station, and Waterstones Broadgate is situated nearby (there’s a Waterstones on the station concourse too, but that one doesn’t open at weekends). It’s located in a modern shopping centre called 100 Liverpool Street. It opened in 2022.
Below is an image of the sculpture Kindertransport – The Arrival by Frank Meisler which stands outside Liverpool Street Station. It commemorates the 10,000 Jewish orphans who arrived at Liverpool Street Station between 1938 and 1939, having fled the Nazis.
Our first stop of the day was to the Museum of the Home in Shoreditch. The building was formerly almshouses, built for widows of ironmongers by Sir Robert Geffrye, a merchant who made significant wealth from the slave trade. The museum was originally called the Geffrye Museum, but his name was dropped in 2021. The photo top left below is of a painting by J H Lynch and the subject is ‘Tina’. My parents had a copy of this on the wall of their dining room for many years!
After leaving the museum we walked to Arnold Circus in Bethnal Green. This park sits at the centre of the Boundary Estate, one of the first social housing estates which was built on the site of one of London’s most notorious slums, known as the Old Nichol Rookery.
Our final visit before meeting our friends was to have a quick walk around the City. Below, clockwise from top left are [1] The Lloyd’s Building, [2] The ‘Gherkin’, with St Andrew Undershaft church in the foreground and [3 & 4] two entrances to Leadenhall Market.
The photograph of the rear of the Museum of the Home above is copyright Cmglee and used with permission under the creative commons license.
Janet's Adventures in Waterstones 