London Calling

Here’s a bit of a flaneur around London.

The Royal Albert Hall in its original form had a terrible echo. Modern acoustics fixed it in such a way that the cheapest seats in the house get the best auditory experience.

Two ply toilet paper was invented in London.

London is also the smallest city in the world, yes I’m being devious here as the city of London is a distinct within Greater London. It has its own Police Force. This created some problems during the Jack the Ripper case. Famously this fact was used in the book A Certain Justice by PD James where a body is found in chambers and the body straddles the boundary between the jurisdiction of the city of London and the Metropolitan Police. As in horse racing its where the head is that counts. Unlike track running where it’s the chest that counts.

Only 5 people died in the great fire of London although it flattened 80% of the city. However, the great smog of London 1952 killed thousands with 100,000 suffering life changing after effects or sequela. This prompted the worlds very first clean air act.

Black cab drivers do a thing called the knowledge. It’s a brutal exam to pass, memorizing 300 routes and over 20,000 landmarks.

All the venomous animals were euthanised at London zoo during the second world war in case the zoo was bombed and the wee critters escaped. The blitz of 1940 created an inferno over a larger area than the great fire of London could ever have dreamed of.

Jimmy Hendrix lived and died in London. The house he died in was next door to the house that Handel died in.

London is the third most visited in the face of the planet after Bangkok and Paris. I thought New York would have been up there.

As you guys probably know Big Ben is the bell inside the tower. The tower is the Elizabeth tower and its on the north end of the palace of Westminster.

Winne the Poo was a real bear, she lived at London Zoo between 1914 and 1934. A certain author Mr Milne and his son Christopher used to visit.

One third of Londoners today were not born in Great Britain.

London has so many trees its officially a forest.

The London underground covers 270 miles. The iconic map was designed in 1933. He got paid £250 for doing it.

Our intrepid explorer found the tunnel that goes underneath the Thames, it goes back to the 1800s and is 1350 feet in length. It was rumoured to be the first tunnel successfully constructed under a ‘navigable river’.

During the height of Empire London was the capital of a land mass that was 22% of the Earth’s surface.

The prime meridian line, or Greenwich meantime is no longer where it should be, its not zero any more due to the movement of the earths crust it’s a bit to the east and is believed to be marked by a council bin. At least you have some chance of photographing that.

Thank you for our intrepid explorer for the pictures I was failing to meet a deadline.
 

Caro Ramsay