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.
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.
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.
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 reminding me of so many sights I missed this week in London--as it rained every day I was there. I did pick up one interesting fact from one of the several Uber drivers I relied upon to keep my tootsies dry. We fell to talking about the different categories of taxis in London, and I mentioned how much I admired the Black Taxi drivers command of (via the Knowledge) the many ins and outs of London Streets. He laughed and said that's no longer meaningful because these day all taxis use Google maps or the like! ARGH, another romanticized belief wrecked for me by technology. :( Jeff
ReplyDeleteWell, he's half right. The black cabs (turning circle of 25 feet) can get to all kinds of places that Google doesn't know about- wee short cuts etc. Black cabs can use bus lanes but Ubers can't. There's been a bit of a stooshie between the Ubers and the Black Cabs over the years!!
ReplyDeleteAhh, thanks, Caro, for bringing back the romance!! Jeff
DeleteFrom AA: I love London and visit any chance I get. Re number of visitors, I guess it depends on what year they started counting. NYC was a newborn in 1620, when Shakespeare had already come a gone.
ReplyDeleteBTW: I have a picture David took of me with the feet on either side of the "line." When did they discover that it was no longer correct?
great post frind djpunjab
ReplyDelete