Underground London - Roman Amphitheatre

I watched the 2014 video Secrets of Underground London and it showed a couple of places new to me. One was the London Silver Vaults.

The second place new to me is London's Roman amphitheatre. This is now underground although of course when it was used in Roman times, it was above ground.

London's Roman Amphitheatre is situated below the Guildhall Art Gallery. This is next to the Guildhall itself. I'd never been to the Guildhall. It is located in the City of London, and has been the powerhouse of the City for a thousand years. Originally London was solely the City, on the north bank of the Thames. Later known as the Square Mile, the City became the capital of Roman Britain in AD 100.

The Guildhall is home of the City of London Corporation. Today there is the Great Hall, Library, Art Gallery, City of London Heritage Gallery and the London's Roman Amphitheatre. The Guildhall with the art gallery on the right -

In 1988, Museum of London archaeologists made an astonishing discovery that changed the face of Roman London. The capital's only Roman amphitheatre was located in Guildhall Yard, during an archaeological dig taking place in preparation for the new Art Gallery building project.

The amphitheatre was used as a Roman sports arena.

In 2002, the amphitheatre site was opened to the public. It is located below the Art Gallery.
The surviving remains include a stretch of the stone entrance tunnel, east gate, and arena walls. They are protected in a controlled environment, 8 m below the modern pavement, in which they can dry out slowly without damage to the ancient stonework.

Viewing window in the Art Gallery to look down onto the amphitheatre -

London's Roman amphitheatre was a venue for wild animal fights, public executions and gladiatorial combats. There are light projections to represent some of the sportsmen and gladiators -

Looking down at ancient remains (drainage system) with a reflection of the light display -

I didn't realise until later that in the Guildhall yard is an 80 m wide curved line of dark stone that follows the edge of the amphitheatre itself. Photo taken from Historic UK -

Read more about the amphitheatre :

City of London Amphitheatre

Historic UK

Underground London - London silver vaults

I watched the 2014 video Secrets of Underground London and it showed a couple of places new to me. One was the London Silver Vaults. I had previously thought they were just shops, whereas in fact they are a series of  underground vaults, 2 floors down from road level.

They are located below Chancery Lane, which runs off Holborn in the City of London. The London Silver Vaults are the largest retail selection of fine antique and contemporary silver in the world.

Photography is not allowed in the entrance or in the corridors, only in the vaults. From the entrance you go down 2 floors and then through a series of thick, heavy vault doors. Needless to say there are security cameras everywhere.

After a few twists and turns around the corridors you arrive at the first corridor of vaults. There are some 30 shops in over 70 vaults. The items date from the 1600s to the present day.

Many of the shops had display cases outside, which were packed with all kinds of silver ornaments, jewellery and household items. They were all highly polished!

The vaults first opened in 1876 as a safe deposit for the wealthy and as a secure storage for London silver dealers during the 2nd World War. Today they are occupied by independent retailers.

The London Silver Vaults webpage.

Artificial indoor caving in East London

Whilst on a bus I went past a place called Flip Out and saw an advert for caving. So I later googled it and found Flip Out is a nationwide "trampoline, adventure and inflatable" parks. The branch in London E6, at East Ham, near Barking, has "London’s first 100 meter Indoor Caving and Potholing Experience (Seeing is believing)". I couldn't find any more on their website, Flip Out London (E6).

However I did find an article on Boxedoff, "London’s first indoor caving experience set to open in East Ham in spring". [2019??]  The part relevant to caving says "Plans to open London’s first indoor caving experience in East Ham have been announced.

The 100 metre indoor potholing experience will form part of the new Flip Out London E6 trampoline park, which is set to open on the site of the former Granada theatre on Barking Road in the spring.

The indoor caving experience will give adventurers the chance to explore a network of twists and turns in the deepest darkest corners of the underground cavern, which will be located at the new Flip Out trampoline arena.

As part of the indoor caving experience, explorers of all ages will be challenged to choose the right path in order to reach the end of the cave."

Underground London - Mail Rail

Ride Mail Rail

"Journey back in time through the original tunnels and station platforms of London's 100-year-old postal railway. Take a ride on Mail Rail and experience 15 minutes of immersive underground exploration."

The Mail Rail ride goes through the original tunnels that were used by Royal Mail for moving mail around London.

Birth of the Post Office (London) Railway - later called Mail Rail :
London's streets were so congested by 1909 that mail travelled at less than 7 mph. Construction of a new electric underground railway began in 1914. Tunnels were 20 m below ground and linked major sorting offices directly with mainline stations. Driverless mail cars ran up to 30 mph on a 2 ft (0.6 m) gauge railway. After wartime delays the railway opened in 1927 and ran until 2003. It was later opened as a tourist attraction.

The Mail Rail is located across the road to the Postal Museum, by the Mount Pleasant sorting office, WC1. This is in the borough of Camden.

From the ticket desk and shop you go downstairs to the railway. You are not allowed to take any bags on the train, but there are lockers available. Waiting for the miniature train -

And off we go -

At the first station platform we are told about the workers and than have a theatrical experience where a film of the workers and the story of the railway is played on the walls. I visited in Dec and the theme was Christmas related.

  

A junction with another tunnel -

 There are quite a few straws growing from the ceiling but it was difficult to take a photo from the moving train -

The 15 minute ride goes around in a loop. Back at the start -

Watching the next train depart -

You then walk around a large exhibition area. This is designed in a fun, interactive way, with lots of working models with buttons and levers to press and pull, and you can dress up in old railway workers clothes.
This is a map of the line, from Paddington to Whitechapel in the east -

Original train -

The train with postal bags -

A sorting office on a train carriage, the floor moves and you can play a game of putting letters into the relevant pigeon holes as fast as possible -

It was a fun and interesting visit.

Tickets are £16 online, or £17 at the desk. You can also have an audio tour. The ticket includes entry to the Postal Museum which is across the road. This is full of many exhibits and interactive displays and well worth a visit -

See more on Mail Rail page. And the London Postal Railway on Wikipedia.

*****

UPDATE :

Gibraltar, St Michael's Cave

The Rock of Gibraltar is a large block of Jurassic limestone rising up to 426 m out of the sea. There are lots of small caves. St Michael's is the best known, it is well decorated and opened to the public as a show cave. I first went there in 1967.

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory, located off the south coast of Spain -

The Rock, with Spain in the background -

St Michael's Cave is located in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve. In 2019 I went to St Michael's as part of a tour and we only had 20 minutes at the cave which wasn't long enough. The small parking area is right below the stairs that lead up to the cave.

A few steps down into the main chamber, Cathedral Cave. This has seating for 400 people and is used as an auditorium for different types of shows and concerts. In 1967 I saw a son et lumiere here.

The show cave is basically this large chamber with a couple of short loop passages off. The whole cave is absolutely full of formations and is really beautiful.

Outside are a lot of Barbary Apes, including this one sitting in the exit, hoping someone will have some food -

See more on St Michael's Cave . And my blog on the Gibraltar Barbary Apes.

Caves of Drach, Majorca, Spain

Majorca is the largest of the Balearic Islands and lies off the southeast coast of Spain, in the Mediterranean. Much of the island is limestone and there are several caves open to tourists.

In 1968 I visited the Caves of Arta on the east side of the island. And more recently I went to the Caves of Drach, which are south of Arta.

Driving across the island from Palma, there is no obvious sign of limestone. The Caves of Drach are located on the outskirts of Porto Cristo and are the most famous of Majorca's cave. Cuevas del Drach or Dragon Caves were first explored by Martel.

I was on a group tour so our tickets had already been bought for us. I was horrified to see the large number of people waiting to go on the 11 am tour, including a school group. So it was just one long line of people through the cave.

Quite a few stairs lead down into the cave. The cave is really stunning, packed full of formations absolutely everywhere. Huge numbers of straws and thin stalactites.

The lighting was well done, thankfully without coloured lights. The cave was quite warm, probably due to the huge  number of visitors.

Guides were scattered throughout to keep an eye on people and to keep them moving.

Looking down into the lake -

We came to a huge seating area and it took ages for everyone to come in and sit down. Then 3 boats came towards us from across the lake, with musicians in one boat playing classical music. It was really atmospheric. This lasted for about 10 minutes.

You then have a chance to go for a ride on the boat but as there were so many people I didn't bother and made my way out. There were less people in this section as many were still in the concert hall.

Back at the entrance I had a chance to see the ticket office. Normal entry is €16, and €11 on a group tour.

We then went into Porto Cristo and I had time to visit a tiny cave marked on my map. Black Cave is a sea cave, once used as a store for fishermen. It is located at the end of the beach -

Next to it is another tiny cave -

See more on the Caves of Drach and also the official website.