The Temple Church lies between Fleet Street and the River Thames in The City of London and was built in the late 12th century by the Knights Templar. I visited this cosmic place in March 2004 to see a concert of Schnittke's Requiem (more photos here). The lighting at night gives the place a very dark gothic feel, especially when photographed with long exposures on an analogue film camera with tripod. This sombre air is only aided and abetted by the dead bodies lying petrified on the floor, which makes for a strange scene with living people milling about chatting oblivious of the tombs at their feet. Devoid of people, with those pillars it reminds me of some alien spacecraft that H. R. Giger did the interior decor for. Heaven only knows what caused the panorama algorithm to turn the floor blood red in this composite image - it certainly wasn't intentional...!
![Musical instruments in The Chancel after the concert ]](./TEM23A-ChancelInstruments.jpg "Musical instruments in The Chancel after the concert, March 2004 [132KB JPEG]")
© copyright Malcolm Smith 2011-06-21 - last updated 2011-06-21