Trip to the Ukranian Club in London Yesterday

Buckingham Palace

I travelled by train to Charing Cross yesterday, sadly missing the Hastings Half Marathon (blog), but with the realisation that the war in Ukraine is becoming a bigger and more significant conflict the longer the Russian invading military force doesn't win an overall victory... But, back to my visit, and I walked the route from Charing Cross station/Trafalgar Square, and back, first of all crossing the Square to The Mall, and then up to Buckingham Palace (website), the official residence of the monarch since 1837.

Buckingham Palace was originally bought in 1761 by George III for his wife Queen Charlotte. However the palace was not lived in by any monarch until Queen Victoria moved there in July 1837, shortly after the death of William IV and her accession to the throne. George IV and William IV had instigated alterations and its enlargement, with further work carried out and enlargement in the 1840s after Victoria had married Albert. More historic details can be read at the Royal Residences website.

I passed the northern side of the Palace and continued up Constitution Hill to Hyde Park Corner, and across to Hyde Park, where I immediately walked westwards on entering the park. I passed Hyde Park Barracks, also known as Knightsbridge Barracks. This was where another sad result of military conflict occurred in 1982, when an IRA bomb was detonated with the resulting deaths of 4 members of the Household Cavalry, more wounded, and civilians injured too, and the deaths of 7 horses.

Soon after, I reached the Albert Memorial, commissioned by Queen Victoria after the death of Albert in 1861, and unveiled in 1872 (Royal Parks website) a year after...

... the Royal Albert Hall was opened by Queen Victoria in 1871 (history on website). I continued westwards just inside the park until I left at the south western corner below Kensington Palace. Then I walking along pavements for the rest of the way, first, westwards to Kensington High Street, soon turning right into Kensington Church Street and up to Notting Hill Gate. I then turned left onto Holland Park Avenue until I reached...

... the statue of St Volodymyr (also known as St Vladimir, the Grand Prince of Kyiv, or Vladimir the Great), which stands on a corner of Holland Park Avenue in West London, close by Holland Park tube station, and the Ukrainian Club (website), which I visited, and the Ukrainian Institute. St Volodymyr was a major player bringing the Russian peoples together in the 10th and 11th centuries. He had been a 'pagan' who converted to Christianity for 2 reasons, it appears. He believed that a single deity would help the unification of the Rus' tribes rather than having many pagan deities, as in Christian Byzantium (Constantinople), and he was only allowed to marry the sister of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II if he converted to Christianity (Encyclopedia of Ukraine). 

Anyway, he ensured the unification of, and the conversion of the Rus' people to Christianity, and was canonized in the 13th century. The statue above has become a symbol of the Ukrainian defiance of the Russian imperialist assault on Ukraine, as you can see from the photograph above, taken yesterday.

Also, in Trafalgar Square yesterday, though you wouldn't know about it from the mainstream media, there was a large rally in support of Ukraine, as advertised on the Ukrainian London website, and as can be seen in this video recorded yesterday.

A sad irony is that St Volodymyr is also the patron saint of Russia...