London Social & Cultural Meetups

Temple Bar has only been in its current location since 2004: the gorgeous gate between St Paul's Cathedral and Paternoster Square. It usually stands open and you can stroll on through whenever you wish.

The Temple Bar Trust invented a new-ish tradition around closing and opening the gates of Temple Bar. I absolutely love that! I totally get why they would - who could resist a bit of pomp and circumstance! Not I.

These ceremonies take place a few times a year, always at 11am (if present, the pikemen march up sooner). The biggest of these will be in May 2027 whereas the others are smaller. We thoroughly enjoyed the September ceremony dedicated to Samual Pepys, I want to see another one!

We need to stand on the side of the cathedral to see what's going on. I can't be sure if this one will, but some of the ceremonies involve the Company of Pikemen. Please join me in finding out!

I would like a £2 attendance fee but please note that the ceremony itself is relatively short. For afterwards, I will show you a very interesting café nearby where you can sit in church pews, normal seats or if available a sofa for food and hot drinks. I won't be able to stay long for that because I'll need to go back to work but hope you'll bear each other company. If you came to the London Model lunch time talk with me some months ago, you'll know the Host Café.

The aim of the Temple Bar Trust is to promote architecture in the City of London to a wider public audience through a regular programme of talks and tours.

The room above the gate was only reopened in 2024, and the location (the gate, and charter house) serves as a Livery Hall for the Architects Company. They decided to create a bit of that lovely pomp & ceremony, so in 2024 the large wooden gates were formally closed and reopened to admit the Duke and Mayor. Perhaps what inspired this was a historic royal ritual: when a reigning British monarch wished to cross the boundary from Westminster into the City of London, their procession halted at Temple Bar. That was back when temple bar was located where Fleet Street meets the Strand as demarkation between the two cities.

Let's meet outside the Paul sandwich shop (right of the gate, see photo), in time for getting into the right spot around 10.30am. Let me know if you have any question! Looking forward to seeing you there.

What better way to spend a Friday evening during early darkness and likely miserable weather than taking in the painterly delights of joyous Parisian scenes, and go for a cosy drink afterwards!

Renoir & Love:
Renoir’s ultimate celebration of life and love, ‘Dance at the Moulin de la Galette’ is on display for the first time in the UK. Renoir is known for joyful social scenes, he loved painting lively gatherings of friends, dancers, and diners enjoying leisure time in Paris.

The National Gallery are offering 'Pay what you wish' entry to the Renoir & Love exhibition on some Friday evenings from late October onwards. Many slots on 23rd are already sold out so I suggest 18:15 on Fri 13 November. If this sells out by the time you book, try to go for a slot one earlier or later - we'll catch up inside the exhibition.

I think this is an excellent way to see this exhibition because I certainly don't have pockets deep enough for the £25 standard ticket at weekend prices.

You need to pay at least £1, they suggest £10 (Plus attendance fee of £3 applies to go towards Meetup costs).
>>> Please book your own ticket as soon as you can:
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/renoir-and-love/renoir-and-love-pay-what-you-wish

These Friday evenings are going to be very busy and we don’t want to miss our slot, so I’d like us to gather by 6pm near the entrance for ticket holders, the Getty Entrance: “The Getty entrance is close to Charing Cross Road. There are six steps or a lift to the right just inside the doors. The Getty entrance is for paid exhibition ticket holders.” – this is the ground level entrance, not the main portico with its steps, closer to Charing Cross Rd than the other entrances.

Seeing as it’s Friday night, let’s go for a drink afterwards to socialise. The Horse and Guardsman pub on Whitehall has been good to us in terms of finding a table, we’ll try it (they do hot drinks and food too). There are other pubs in the area if it doesn’t come through.

The Late Open event at the British Museum on Friday 4 December is themed around the Bayeux Tapestry. There are all kinds of activities and entry is free (£3 attendance fee applies). Because of this, I doubt that this includes entrance to the exhibition which has been extremely popular and sold out for months.

But late open events are fun, so let's go!

I will add more info about the evening. In the meantime: please book your free entrance ticket because these slots will get booked up fast. I chose the 17:50 time slot because many people are likely to go for 6pm. We have a better chance to all get tickets and go in as a group with this earlier time. However, the British Museum operates a bag check and queueing can take some time. Please try to get there as soon as you can.

Please book an entrance ticket (the £0 option is further down. £3 attendance fee applies to go towards the Meetup fee):
https://ticketing.britishmuseum.org/21397/27198?queueittoken=e_prod1~ts_1790416504~ce_true~rt_safetynet~h_bf2fd346682026362ee62226278ad3fbde577e7ef8a8aec5e3b09d6ff455fee4

Let me know in the comments when you got a ticket.

More info here:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/events/bayeux-late-reimagining-bayeux-tapestry?utm_campaign=PEV%2025.09.26%20September%20newsletter&utm_content=Find%20out%20more%20button%20-%20Bayeux%20Late&utm_term=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Adestra