Week 5

Dear Readers,

It's crazy to think that we will be submitting our final report less than two weeks from today! This week we're finishing up our site visits and interviews so we have plenty of time to put our findings together.

At the beginning of the week, we conducted a few final interviews and drafted our preliminary findings, conclusions, and recommendations. We also visited St. Martin Ludgate, a beautiful Wren church on Ludgate Hill. This church is of particular interest to American tourists because William Penn, the father of the founder of Pennsylvania, was married there.

Today, we visited two more city churches: St. Olave Hart Street and St. Mary at Hill. St. Olave Hart Street is one of the only remaining medieval buildings in the city of London. The church is best known for its gateway leading into the gardens. The gateway, which is lined with skulls, was mentioned by Charles Dickens in The Uncommercial Travel.  In this work, he also coined the church's nickname, St. Ghastly Grim. Unlike St. Olave Hart Street, St. Mary at Hill is one of the more modern city churches because it was severely damaged by a fire in 1988. Despite the damage that was done by the fire, some of the original artifacts still remain.

 The gateway at St. Olave Hart Street. 

Inside St. Olave Hart Street.

 Inside St. Mary at Hill.

Last but not least, we had the opportunity to visit St. Paul's Cathedral this afternoon. We learned about what the cathedral has done over the past two decades to improve access for the disabled community and went on a guided tour. 

 A staircase leading up to the Saint Paul's Cathedral Library, designed by Christopher Wren.

The view from the Gold Galleries on top of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Tomorrow, we will be visiting St. Andrew by the Wardrobe and Westminster Abbey, so stay tuned!

The AAiC IQP Team

End of Week 4

Hi all,

Happy Friday! As I said in the previous post, the team had the opportunity to visit Norwich Cathedral yesterday. Norwich Cathedral is a Norman Cathedral that was founded in 1096 by the Bishop Herbert de Losinga. Because it is almost 1,000 years old, the cathedral is filled with artwork, artifacts, and architecture from many different time periods. Rather than describing what's inside the cathedral, we thought it would be best to post a series of pictures below.

 The outside of the cathedral (including the spire!)

Facing east. 

 A work of modern art in the cathedral.

 The cathedral altar.

 The font by the main altar.

 Light passing through the colored glass windows.

The East Window.

 One of the cathedral chapels.

 1600s graffiti found outside of one of the chapels.

The stained glass window in the Friends of Norwich Cathedral Chapel.

Group picture!

We hoped you enjoyed our photos! Have a great weekend!

The AAiC IQP Team 

Weeks 3 and 4

Dear readers,

We hope you all had a relaxing long weekend! Over the past 2 weeks, we have been very busy with church visits, interviews, and trips outside of the city of London.

Last Monday, we conducted two interviews and visited the Victoria and Albert Museum for a second time. There, we met with our sponsor and advisors to update them on our progress and gained more insight into the technologies and provisions available for people with various disabilities.

On Tuesday, we visited St. Lawrence Jewry near Guildhall. St. Lawrence Jewry was very different from the other London churches because it is open every day, offers interpretive literature for various items within the church, and has an app that is associated with the Guildhall.

The sword rest and organ at St. Lawrence Jewry. 

Later in the week, we began to categorize and sort responses to our interview questions, sent our survey to two different organizations for distribution to their members, and made sure our checklists were up to date. Because we were unable to walk around St. Anne and St. Agnes the first time we visited, we went back to take pictures and obtain more information on Thursday. St. Anne and St. Agnes was a parish church until 2013, when it became a concert hall and rehearsal space for a musical charity organization. Use by the musical community has allowed this church and its rich history to be preserved.

The altar at St. Anne and St. Agnes. 

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to travel to Cambridge and Duxford to see some churches outside of London. When we arrived in Cambridge, we visited Great St. Mary’s Church and King’s College Chapel, which are two large churches that receive thousands of visitors each year. We were particularly excited to visit Great St. Mary’s because they received a grant to implement touch screens with interpretive literature into the church. In addition to these two large churches, we visited Michaelhouse and All Saints Church. Michaelhouse was completely different from any of the churches we have visited because it is both a church and a cafe. All Saints Church, on the other hand, is a Churches Conservation Trust that has not been recently updated or converted. It does not receive nearly as much footfall as Michaelhouse, Great St. Mary’s, or King’s College Chapel, but had stained glass windows and stenciled wall art that were worth seeing. Following our church visits in Cambridge, we drove out to Duxford to see St. Peter’s and St. John’s churches. St. Peter’s is the parish church in Duxford, while St. John’s is a medieval church that has not been updated. Both of these churches were small compared to the churches we have seen in London, and not as well conserved because they are located in the countryside. However, they are still a part of the rich religious heritage of the UK.

 Inside Great St. Mary's Church, Cambridge. 

The altar inside St. John's, Duxford. 

Today, we took a train out to Norwich to conduct a few interviews and visit Norwich Cathedral. Details and pictures from the Norwich trip will follow tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Cheers!

The AAiC IQP Team