London Excursion: Runnymede a Let Down
 

Runnymede had long attracted my attention so one nice and very hot summer day during the heat wave summer of a few years ago i headed off to Windsor to visit the Castle and then hike thru Windsor Great Park to Runnymede

It seemed fairly straightforward but proved not to be. after trekking thru a deer park and heading east i lost scent of Runnymede

And only after trekking thru a rather weedy meadow did i finally find myself at Runnymede - historic site of the 1215 signing of the Magna Carta by good King John.

I came in thru the back way, having to traipse thru a bit of jungle but if you came by the very busy highway along the Thames you would have no problem finding it

Yet what was here did not fulfill my expectations of some bombastic memorial, etc.

There were a few memorials to other causes and the Magna Carta Memorial, actually erected by the American Bar Association in the form of a classical dome covering a marker

There is also the JFK Memorial dedicated in 1965 by HM QE2 and Jackie Kennedy

and an Air Forces Memorial dedicated to Allied Air Force members who were killed - some 20,000 names + are engraved

Described as a water meadow, the Runnymede site is further diminished by the busy road that fronts it

Hard to get to by public transportation - though there was a bus stop below on the road i'd say skip this place unless you're driving out this way



Runnymede - Wikipedia
This article is about the historic water-meadow where Magna Carta was signed; for the district council named after that place, see Runnymede (district). ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runnymede

Wityhout being funny - what did you expect? It was signed in a field. It is still a field.

Incidentally where the JFK memorial is is actual American territory - we gave you an acre of the site after his death.

Thanks, C_W. That was really very sweet of you. I hope we keep it mowed.

The only mowed part is i think the American acre

Yes i had some vague idea of a more romantic meadow setting along the thames

But the main highway took that all away

seems very few people come here

in U.S. such a historic site would have tons of visitors - not saying that would make it any better

But i think they could use a Runnymede Experience or some such kitsch

I grew up not far away. Runnymede used to be partly a true meadow with wild flowers and long grass, a truly magical place. True the bit with the JFK memorial and the weird American Bar memorial is boring, always was - they kept the grass short there for visiting Americans - we only ever met Americans there never English or other Europeans.

The Commonwealth Air Forces memorial is, to me, a truly moving place. I have visited it many times, with my father who served in the RAF and who would look for the names of his fallen friends, and with my sons, just to show them how many died, and and do not have graves. It is a beautiful and peaceful place.
It is not, however, Runnymede but Cooper's Hill, Englefield Green.

You should have continued our hike through the Great Park and visited the pagoda, Saville Gardens and Virginia Water with it's mock ruins whilst you were there.

I am glad, then, that I saw it in about 1970, when, as I recall, it was a lovely place that we came upon by accident. Unless memory fails, it was at that time a meadow like place fronted by a two lane road. But it was a very dry summer.

Agree that Runnymede, while a place of great historic import, is not a whole lot to look at. They met and forced him to sign the Magna Carta in a handy meadow - then left. If you're driving near Windsor it;s worth a 15 minute stop - not a lot more.

The Magna Carta was actually signed on an island in the river, not in that meadow. The river followed a different course then as well.

If we're going to have a Magna Carta Experience, perhaps PalenQ would like to play King John, and CW, Flanner and I can be barons telling him where he's wrong and making him sign on the dotted line. Meanwhile the more epicurean Fodorites could advise on where to find the best lampreys for him to surfeit on, and where there's a proper laundry service so that he needn't lose all his belongings in The Wash.

:D

Given how history gets reconstructed these days, any Magna Carta interpretation centre would probably end up "proving" 90 days' detention without trial was in the original draft and that habeas corpus is an elitist invention, designed to deny justice to anyone who doesn't speak Latin.

We'll just have our water meadows(easily accessible via the Thames Path, BTW), thanks. If we want self-important bombast, Washington's only a few hours and a couple of quid away.

Pal,

one of the copies of the Magna Carta was just sold for millions and donated to the National Archives on permanent loan.

And if you come here to view it you won't have to worry about trooping through the mud, the grass, cut or otherwise, etc.

I doubt you'll run into your buddy George, either, since we all know he has trouble reading.

Britain is lousy with copies of Magna Carta (did she die in vain?).

The best version is exhibited next to some Beatle lyrics written on a paper napkin.

Brits need to be more visionaries... 'that vision thing'

I can visualize a Six Flags Over Runneymede theme park here - perhaps the Lego folks just a few miles away in Windsor could take part

six flags? England has so many heraldic banners it would be hard to chose only six

flanneur can have the hotel concession - audere the security - annhig legal affairs

My memory fades but along with the embassy I think it is the only part of the USA in the UK.

Now which part of USA would you like to give to the UK?

We already own a suprisingly large amount of America - we are the biggest investor in the USA by miles.

The US Embassy is most certainly not a part of the USA - you don't own it. It's the only major embassy of yours you don't own. You rent it at a peppercorn rent from Gerald Grosvenor - Duke of Westminster.

The Duke has told you that he will let you have the embassy for nothing if you return the lands seized from his family in 1776. The lands in question? New York.

Now which part of USA would you like to give to the UK?

Boston Harbor?

No a theme park may be 'too American'

So how about a Magna Carta re-enactment - King john et all in original garb in the meadow in a dramatic re-creation of the events

not using character PatLondon suggested by aspiring young actors

hourly seances throughout the day - it would be best inside of a big dome to use the most advance pyrotechnical effects

Could bring a lot of pounds into the ailing British economy

Richard Branson will take a stake and publicize it

Could have hot-air Virgin balloon rides overhead

and Virgin planes en route to heathrow could give a special salute

think of the possibilities for this current run of the mill meadow

Now we are getting confused between 1) where the law of the land exists and 2) ownership by citizens. Americn law runs in the enmbassy wven though it is rented.

I think American law runs in the centre of Runymede but hey I could be wrong.

On a seperate point I would think the Duke could go for reparations following the war (the war is over?)

Maybe we could move the Embassy from Berkeley Square to Runnymede?

Unfortunately, US Embassies aren't desirable neighbours, which is why people living round the current one are trying to get them to move. Nothing personal, BTW: just security demands that are incompatible with a residential area.

So stories keep on appearing about the embassy trying to move elsewhere. Chances of anywhere else getting planning permission (though it might have been a way of using the Greenwich Dome) must be zero. But expect the debate to rumble on.

Runnymede's in the Green Belt (and probably an SSSI, and a conservation area). Nothing can get built there, unless you can squeeze the embassy into a conservatory.

Which must be possible with modern nanotechnology. Now there's a job for Bill Gates, who's coming up for retirement, the papers said today.

A Solomon-like suggestion, PalQ. This would avoid the unpleasantness about our refusing to pay congestion fees.

and Red Ken calling the American Ambassador a 'chiseling little crook' or some such bluster

tony Blair would have allowed us to build the Embassy anywhere - even on the grounds of buckingham palace i think.

The old eyesore of the Battersea Power Plant could be a swell Embassy site as well

Runnymede is owned by the National Trust.

they can be bought - they have their price

Watch this space - there are moves afoot to move the yanks to Chelsea Barracks as the Guards have been moved out to Woolwich (Thanks for that BTW - it's just what we needed. more pissed beligerent blokes).

Most of the security is already in place and the neighbours are used to the disruption of a high security building.

Blair most certainly wouldn't have intervened in the planning system to get the Americans a new embassy.

Sending our troops into a pointless and bloody war to keep some bunch of foreigners happy is one thing (we've been doing it for centuries, and look how many people we sent to their deaths just to keep the Belgians happy). But no politician crosses the National Trust and lives to tell the tale.

Mind you, flanner, there's probably a subterranean wave of voters waiting to applaud anyone who sticks it to the Duke of Westminster.

<You should have continued our hike through the Great Park and visited the pagoda, Saville Gardens and Virginia Water with it's mock ruins whilst you were there.>

hetismij

thanks for reminding me of that - was on my list but forgot about it so recently in London i took the train out to Virginia Water station and then walked down, Station Rd perhaps, thru what could be one of the richest areas in England - palatial houses gated off in a sylvan setting. Really neat

Then to Virginia Water - a large artifical lake built by King George III or some king of that era

visiting the Cascades and seeing the 'ruins' which were roped off for renovation and restoration

then walked to Saville Gardens but didn't care to pay the $15 for a winter visit but many were

and then did a very long walk down thru lower Great Windsor Park on the Long Walk, thru the deer park with several herds of grazing deer, i think indeed the path is called The Long Walk, beelining to the castle gloriously crowning a hill

It was a Monday and sunny and about 60 degrees - mums and prams were everywhere by Virginia Water - joggers, mountain bikers, etc. Seemed like spring.

Then took train from Windsor Riverside back to Waterloo.

Thanks for reminding me - was a great if rather long walk - several miles all told

but it would be a more manageable walk if you take the train to Victoria Water station and then just walk to the Virginia Water, Totem Pole and Saville Gardens area and back - or else it's a long long walk down to Windsor town.

Oh! I am so glad you did that walk. It was always a favourite Sunday walk for us.
Yes, there is some serious money lurking in homes around that area none of it was ours though :)