Southwark
For the first seven days of our trip, we stayed at the Marlin Waterloo Hotel. It is in a part of London called South Bank, which is actually in the Borough of Lambeth. However we spent most of our sightseeing time that week in Southwark (pronounced SUTH-uck).
Borough Market
On our first day in London, we walked from the hotel to the Borough Market, where we intended to buy some fruits and vegetables. The Borough Market is an enormous labyrinth of booths selling fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, and prepared foods of every description. We were impressed with the size and scope of the place—it makes Seattle's Pike Place Market look like a hot dog stand! The Borough Market has been there for over 800 years.
Borough Market stalls
Lots of fish
Cooking paella in giant pans
Paxman Musical Instruments
While I was looking at maps to prepare for our trip, I noticed a location marked "Paxman Musical Instruments." I was curious about it, so I learned that it is one of the premier makers of french horns.
I contacted them and they were happy to discuss horn making and show us their shop. This was a really unusual opportunity, so on Monday, October 7, we walked a few minutes from the Bermonds Locke hotel to the Paxman showroom. Our host was a young horn player and horn expert named Samuel. He spent some time demonstrating the horns and describing the various models. We spent some time discussing the acoustics of horns.
We went back to the shop and we met two horn makers. One had been making horns for 44 years. They use some prefabricated components, and all components must be carefully assembled and adjusted by hand. They said it takes between 16 and 60 hours to build a horn, depending on the complexity of the design. Highly informative!
Horn expert Samuel at the Paxman showroom in Southwark