Phantom of the Opera night

 

2/18/2025 Tuesday 

We got up early and headed out at 730 to the Tower of London to watch their opening/unlocking ceremony with the Beefeaters that are in charge of the tower.  I found the story of the Beefeaters to be one of the most interesting things about the Tower of London. Started in 1485 by Henry VII, a Beefeater is now the Yeomen Warders of His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary, and are the ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London.   Not just anybody can be in this position. They need to have at least 22 years of service in His Majesty’s Armed Forces, have been awarded the ‘Long Service and Good Conduct’ medal, be passionate about history and enthusiastic when talking to visitors about the Tower, have a good memory and last but not least, live inside the Tower of London with their families.   All the ones I ran across, had a great sense of humor and were very knowledgeable, and they all looked like they were having fun.

After watching the ceremony, we high tailed it to the  Crown Jewels so we could be the first in line.  We couldn’t take pictures in there, but the jewels were of course beautiful.  It was so empty that I could take the little moving walkway 4x past the jewels.   Afterwards, we were on our own to explore the Tower of London.  Since it had been a castle, a prison, a mint, a zoo, a weapons store house and a garrison for troops, there were many things to see. 

In 1861 when visiting the Tower of London, Queen Victoria was so moved by the story of Anne Boleyn, that she had a memorial placed at the spot of her execution.(pictured above) There has been a memorial there ever since with this most recent one added in 2007.

I thought this modern art soldier looked funny in this picture. 

This was called traitors gate and was where prisoners were brought in to the tower.  The Thames River was a small distance away, but back in the day, it came right up to the gate.  

Next on our very busy schedule was a foodie tour of London's East End and a walk thru Spitalfields market with tastings of favourite British fare.  As a background, the east end of London was outside the city limits, so as immigrants came to the area, this is where the occupied first.  For purposes of this tour, we start with the French Huguenots circa 1685-1700, they moved out then the Irish moved in early to mid 19th century, then the Jews in the late 19th century, then the Bangladeshis in large numbers in the 1970s, then of course the hipsters starting around 2010.   Our guide walked us through the neighborhoods, described everything and had us try 1) classic fish n chips 2) three kinds of curry 3) a bagel with a kind of beef similar to corned beef on it, then 4) crumble custard desert and finally 5) some different cheeses.   It was tons of fun learning about the area and all the food was great.  Our guide was an out of work actor, and did a great job keeping us fed and entertained.  Here are some sights from the East End. 

This is the entrance to a huge market called Spitalfields Market.  It is a 31 acre site that used to be a fruit and veggie market.  Now it is an everything market.  It gets its name because it is on the site of an old hospital, so over time, they just dropped the hos.

This bar/hotel was supposedly where Jack the Ripper hung out in the day. 

Lots of street art.  

I took no pictures of the food - oops - just of the colorful neighborhood. 

This evening was all about me!  I went to see an incredible showing of the Phantom of the Opera.  The costumes were wonderful and the acting was terrific.  It was at His Majesty’s Theatre, where it has been since it started 38 years ago in 1986.  The only difference was that it was called Her Majesty’s Theatre then.  I paid extra to get box seats, where I overlooked the orchestra and at times was only 6 feet or so from the performers.  I even had my own red coat service, named Johnny, who took care of anything I wanted or needed - including using the Royal Box’s sitting room/rest room area when I needed it.  I assumed it was the same rest room that Princess Diana used, because she came to see the show weekly when she was in town during the 80’s!  Johnny also works directly with Andrew Lloyd Webber and told me a few different things about the future and past of Phantom as well as about other theatre’s he owns, etc.  I wish I could imprint the whole experience in my brain, including waiting at the stage door to see the actors!  I would say that this was the very top experience in my travels over the past few years!  What a night!

The above picture is how the stage was set as we arrived, below is how it looked at the start of the 2nd 1/2 of the play 

Above are the seats I had, below is looking out into the rest of the theatre.  It had 4 levels.  

If you look on the left had side of the above picture, look across and you can see what the box seats look like.  I was in the lowest level one, even with the stage!  Below is of course the famous chandelier!

I could look right down into the pit!   And while we couldn’t take any pictures, I snuck this one during the curtain call! 

I was a fan girl and went to the stage door. This actor played Meg Giry.

Carlotta! She had a fabulous wardrobe the whole play! 

This one was Christine Daae.  BTW, the lady in the picture was a wonderful woman who was celebrating a birthday and her daughter got all the actors to come over to us. 

This young man played an excellent Raoul de Chagny.  

Last but not least, here was the Phantom!  Very dapper!  

I can’t emphasize how special of an evening this was for me.  I loved it all!