Achtung, eine Deutsche Kirche!

Already it is my last day for this week! I really hope I can come back to do more work later in the holiday. For a start I'd be able to see more cool quirky places in London, such as St Boniface german church near Aldgate. The church, called so after the fantastically named Saint Wynfred Boniface, holds an important if unusual role in London as it is the central meeting point for the capital's catholic German community. This was a particularly interesting visit as it involved a tour of the church for the exploratory's Senior 'BEE' members, a large group of elder, expert enthusiasts. Immediately they bombarded the German parish priest Chris a multitude of questions about the church and we discovered that it was once a riding school rebuilt into a church, which then collapsed and was replaced by another building, which was ironically destroyed in the blitz. The current building is surprisingly nice for something that was built in the sixties. Chris stood up to the scrutiny well, cracking a few good jokes along the way, and proving that Germans do of course have a sense of humor! The BEE's left with a valuable insight into the unseen history of London's different ethnic communities. We then went for some obligatory tea and biscuits at the whitechapel gallery meeting room. Despite me nearly dropping the tray, we had a good chat and found out plenty about where the BEEs would like to visit later in the year, all the while enjoying the rather strange art exhibits of a collection of unwanted tea mugs and an elaborate water dispenser. (These are actual art installations by the way, not some kind of misfiring joke by me!) At the end of the day there was some time to enjoy a walk around the city and look at some of the many new skyscrapers going up in our ever changing city. Sadly that was the end of the day, and for the time being, my stay with the building exploratory. I must say it has been a fantastic experience and I am very grateful to Lizzie, Amiee and Nicole for putting up with me! I also hope I have managed to contribute some work towards some of the great projects going on at the Building Exploratory, it's probably the first time i've found 'work' so fun!

Bye for now!
Tom

 Chris and his challenging congregation (with me looking a bIt out of place in the background!)