Following Biddy’s Steps

Following Biddy’s steps took us to several spots in London in 2013.

I was hunting details for a novel about Oswald and Biddy Chambers.

We began the morning in Clapham Common, looking for the beautiful building where the Chambers couple lived.

The Bible Training College

I had the address of the Bible Training College, Oswald, and Biddy ran, so visiting it only involved checking Google maps.

I also had a photo, so I knew what I sought.

#45 Clapham Common North hid behind a wall of thick cedar trees, but was easily recognized.

Particularly since a British Heritage Blue Plaque marked the spot.

I stared at the steps that Oswald, Biddy, Kathleen, and hundreds of students climbed daily from 1911 to 1915.

Then I climbed them myself. Standing in Biddy’s steps on the front porch, I surveyed what she saw every time she walked outside.

The building looked across the road toward sprawling Clapham Common, but even 100 years ago, the thicket blocked the street.

How often had she paused there, just as I did?

I paid close attention to the surroundings as we walked through Clapham Common (London’s largest park) and the streets around Clapham Common Tube station, where Biddy would have traveled.

It’s been there for more than 100 years.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

From Clapham Common we walked to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

We know Biddy and Oswald visited the cathedral from time to time, and Oswald proposed there.

They stood before a painting that, in 2013, hung just north of the altar.

“The Light of the World” by Holman Hunt has been there since 1908.

Such a curious feeling to realize that, within the Chambers story, I stood in Biddy’s footsteps, facing her future.

She also returned to the cathedral on November 15, 1919, to remember Oswald on the second anniversary of his death.

The neighborhood around the cathedral held poignant memories for Biddy.

The WWII London Blitz changed her life when bombs fell nearby.

But I didn’t know that then.

St. Martin in the Fields

From St. Paul’s, we walked to St. Martin-in-the-Fields, facing the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square.

Biddy often walked there from her post-World War I home to hear Oswald’s brother, Franklin, play the organ.

We’ve always visited during a concert–held daily at noon– and we sat in the pews to hear one that stormy day in 2013.

Biddy loved to visit the National Gallery — and so do I.

Biddy’s steps we missed

In 2013, I didn’t know I’d be writing Biddy’s biography, Mrs. Oswald Chambers.

Had I known, I would have visited Woolwich and Muswell Hill–places where she lived during her long life.

Fortunately, other research techniques have enabled me to walk in Biddy’s steps down those streets through the wonders of the Internet.

But I’d love to go back with a more focused itinerary another time!

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