C. S. Lewis Tour--London

The final two days of our C. S. Lewis Tour of Ireland & England were spent in London. Upon our arrival we enjoyed a panoramic tour of the city that included Westminster Abbey. A number of our tour participants chose to tour the inside of the Abbey where they were able to view the new C. S. Lewis plaque in Poets' Corner.

Though London was not one of Lewis' favorite places to visit, there are a number of locations associated with him. One which I have noted in my new book, In the Footsteps of C. S. Lewis, is Endsleigh Palace Hospital (25 Gordon Street, London) where Lewis recovered from his wounds received during the First World War....

Not too far away from this location is King's College, part of the University of London, located on the Strand, just off the River Thames. This is the location where Lewis gave the annual commemoration oration entitled The Inner Ring on 14 December 1944....

C. S. Lewis occasionally attended theatrical events in London. One of his favorites was a performance of the opera, Das Rheingold, on 2 May 1933 at St. Martin's Theatre, Covent Garden. The theatre is best known today for its continual performances of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap of which I saw a performance in this location in 1982. This is the world's longest running play, having opened in 1952. The play transferred from the nearby Ambassador Playhouse in 1974....

The theatre is well worth a visit, not only for its connection to C. S. Lewis, and the opportunity to see this long-running play, but also to view the beautiful interior....

Another well-known London site with Lewis connections is Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was here that Lewis met T. S. Eliot for the first time, in January 1959, at a meeting of scholars invited to work on the revision of the Psalter for The Book of Common Prayer. To learn more about touring Lambeth Palace you may click here: Lambeth Palace Tours.

I believe The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square is one of those must-see locations for every visitor to London. C. S. Lewis visited here on 28 August 1922. He enjoyed the work of Botticelli and thought the Italian Rooms were "nothing like so boring as the English"! You can learn more about this museum here: The National Gallery.

Of course one of the London locations that Lewis visited the most was the British Broadcasting Corporation when Lewis was delivering his live talks over BBC Radio during the Second World War. Tours are not currently available of Broadcasting House where Lewis gave his radio talks but one can still walk by and view the outside. Broadcasting House is located on Portland Place in Marylebone, London, directly across the street from All Souls Church, Langham Place where Rev. John Stott was the rector for many years....

One other church connected to Lewis which you may wish to visit while in London is St. Jude on the Hill. It was here in April 1945 that Lewis preached one of his six published sermons entitled "The Grand Miracle". This sermon was later published in God in the Dock and formed a sort of first attempt at what became one of the chapters in Lewis' book, Miracles. St. Jude on the Hill is located at Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. This church is situated in an area of London known as Golders Green; in fact, that is the name of the closest Tube stop. Readers of Lewis may remember that one of Lewis' characters in his book, The Great Divorce, was Sarah Smith from Golders Green. In Lewis' time, Golders Green was a somewhat poor neighborhood but today it is a wealthy residential suburb of London. You can learn more about the church here: St. Jude on the Hill.

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Will Vaus

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