In Search of Alice Ayres

Have you seen Closer?  If not I've not got time to tell you what it's about, but it has Natalie Portman in it :o)¬¬ (that's me drawling at the thought of her).  Anyway, in the film there is a park where Portman's and Jude Law's characters go just after they first meet at the start of the film.  This park, I noticed, was in the City of London just(ish) north of the river from where I work.  It's called Postmans Park, and one of the interesting things about this park (aside from the fact that Natalie Portman once stood within it's boundaries) is that there are tiles along one of it's walls that commemorate people who have died whilst saving the lives of others.  One of these tiles is for a girl called Alice Ayres (also the name of Portman's character in the film) who died while saving 3 children from a burning house in "Union Street Borough", which is pretty much the street that my office is (although it's the opposite end to the Borough end).  I thought that this was too much of a coincidence to, so I decided to go on an expedition into The City and find this park and the plaque for Alice Ayres.

 

It was a nice day, and as my dad was off drinking with "The Man from CTU" (he's not really from CTU, it being a fictitious American organisation and all, I think he's in the Navy at the moment but still counter te rr or is m intelligency type stuff) I didn't need to be home in any rush I decided to find Alice Ayres.  I walked past the Tate Modern, over the Millennium Bridge and around St Paul's before picking up signs for "Postmans Park".  The park was sandwiched between several buildings, making it relatively un-sunny and cool.  I found the plaque amongst all of the others, apparently she died in 1886.  I think I knew that already, but it was nice to be there, and nice to think that so long after her death people still remember her for what she did.  Also it's always nice to explore the City.