This time we went by train to Victoria, then to the Coach Station and from there to Portsmouth stopping en route at Guildford University.   On arrival we had lunch at Ship Leopard Hotel, then spent the rest of the time at HMS Warrior and Monitor.

Victoria Coach Station with yellow ringed sign

Two red icons on Pimlico Road

Crosby Hall, Cheyne Walk Crest - Meritum pertinacia fortitudo et fidelitas & stag-fish

Crosby Hall is  the most important surviving secular domestic medieval building in London, Sir John Crosby’s great hall has on several occasions been snatched from the brink of demolition, which after a 400-year gap, it is being incorporated back into a private house.

Built in Bishopsgate between 1466 and 1475 for rich City merchant Sir John Crosby, it was later purchased by Sir Thomas More and now is located at the site of More’s Chelsea garden.

King Richard III and Sir Walter Raleigh both used it as their temporary home and it later was the head office of The Honourable East India Company. But eventually it was reduced to warehouses before scheduled for demolition in 1908.

Realising its importance as the most precious medieval survivor in the Square Mile the entire building was moved brick by brick to Chelsea and after much soul searching into what should become of its use it was leased to the British Federation of University Women who promptly built an Arts and Crafts residential block at right angles to the building’s Great Hall.

In 1988 the freehold was bought by Christopher Moran an enthusiastic – and rich – lover of all things Tudor who had already spent 20 years thinking about the Hall. Seven years were than consumed obtaining the relevant planning permissions and if you think your kitchen extension was a nightmare have a thought for Christopher Moran who has since 1995 employed up to 100 specialist builders with the help of dozens of Tudor scholars on his project creating an 85 room house, built exactly as Tudor craftsmen would have done over 500 years ago.

For the £50 million it is estimated to cost he gets a courtyard garden designed by the Marchioness of Salisbury based on her own garden at Hatfield House surrounding a Tudor fountain to the goddess Diana, that itself took more than three years to create. Facing the River are solid oak doors weighing 3 tonnes, The College of Arms have devised for him a coat of arms to surmount the doors. The lost art of double-struck pointing has been mastered in order to ensure that the new brickwork looks exactly as it would have done when Sir John Crosby moved in and a house – well fit for a king.

Low tide and something flew past... must be traffic lights - see picture below right

Old and new

Junk shop and lots of property for sale

I was too slow to get the front of the blue building which was more impressive than it looks here

Travel Lodge

Fine Crane

Wandsworth Town Hall

A rather fuzzy wing

Accidental reflection for Steve

The Wandle Trail for MAC

We arrived at The Hard which was the place that we had alighted on our previous trip just outside the Dockyard.

We had an undistinguished lunch at the Ship Leopard

The Ship Leopard

The Ship Leopard

HMS Warrior - parking risky the tide came in during our visit

Perhaps an Amazon would have been better, the toga does not work for me.

The Warrior was one of the last ships to carry a figurehead

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Sea-green paint

Much loved Harley Davidson

The Warrior from the stern

Golden serpent

Patriotic graffiti

Brisk wind

Gun ports

More gun ports

Masts and funnels

Tarred ropes

An anchor

Ropes

Gun and tracks

Gun

Up the mast

110 pound gun

Funnel

Cannon

Shells & Shot

Cutlasses

Hammock

Mess tins

Kitchen

Tools for tamping and cleaning the guns

Capstan

P, S and the canons and hammocks

Original floor

Muskets and cannon balls

Collection of pistols

Cannon

Cutlasses

Captains drawing room

Captain's Table

Captain's Table

Cabin

Another cabin

In with the boilers

Carpenter's Shop

Sail mending area

Victorian Post Box

HMS Monitor M33 was at Gallipoli and also served in the second world war

Plan and elevation M33

From the dry dock

Shell Room

Hammocks

Willow submarine

With byplane

Bedroom

Office

Loo with pump

Washing basin & brown soap

Kitchen

Stove

Anti-aircraft Gun

We bought some sandwiches and drink for the journey home and waited a short time for the coach which was on time.   There was no air conditioning so we had the sauna experience.   We arrived at Victoria Coach Station at 18.50;  stepped straight on to the St Albans train and were home by 20.00