Freak shows of any variety were a mainstay in the entertainment of London society in Georgian times (1700s), the odder and more extreme the better.
In 1781 George Byrne left his home in Northern Ireland to join ‘the circus’. Continue reading “The Irish Giant at the Hunterian Museum”
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to this rather unorthodox museum and highly recommend a visit if interested in the subject matter. While it is not without its controversy the museum is not in the slightest macabre, disrespectful, commercialised, freakish, sensationalist or tacky (adjectives often used in referring to it). Continue reading “The Hunterian Museum”
Greenwich Market operates from Tuesday to Sunday and has about 120 stalls selling arts & crafts, antiques & collectables, clothing, curiosities, vintage items, some fresh produce and takeaway food (with a few tables) – something to suit everyone. Don’t overlook the shops around the periphery of the market – mainly arts and crafts in nature, as well. Continue reading “Greenwich Market”
Wandering around the exterior of the Old Royal Naval College (a naval hospital until 1873 and now the University of Greenwich) and a look at the grandness of the buildings in a setting next to none will leave the visitor with little doubt that this was no ordinary hospital for convalescing seamen in the late 1700s. Enter some of the buildings and most notably the Chapel or the Painted Hall (dining room) and you will be in no doubt. These buildings were built in the days when Britain ruled the waves – the days of Rule Britannia, when the navy was the premier service and money was no object (though I will come back to that latter comment about money). Continue reading “Old Royal Naval College Chapel – Not All That It Seems”
While this review is to draw your attention to the former Greenwich Palace commemorated by an easily missed stone plaque I will also outline, in a very summary form, the royal connection with Greenwich. Continue reading “Greenwich Palace (Placentia) and the Royals”
One of the most mementos events to take place in the history of London started in Thomas Farriner’s bakery in Pudding Lane on the morning of 2 September 1666. What occurred on this day and the three days following was to very literally change the face of London. The event to which I refer was, of course, the Great Fire of London. Continue reading “The Monument to the Great Fire – The Monument”
Having moved around a bit (always a problem with magic train platforms, I guess) Platform 9 ¾ appears to have settled down now, albeit slightly out of place, at a spot to the right of Platform 9 on the New Western Departures Concourse at Kings Cross Station. Continue reading “Platform 9 ¾ – Kings Cross Station”
On the death of his long time wife, Eleanor of Castile, at Harby in Nottinghamshire, close to the city of Lincoln, in 1290, King Edward I, commonly known as Edward Longshanks due to his tall statue for the time, was grief stricken and distraught and spoke of his “Queen of Good Memory” as he referred to her thus: “whom living we dearly cherished, and whom dead we cannot cease to love”. Continue reading “Eleanor’s Cross at Charing”
If one were the try and draw the limits of “London” on a map and somehow managed to establish a geographic centre today, by tomorrow it would have moved.
While the geographical centre of London cannot be defined what is generally agreed upon are various points from which distances from London were and are measured including the Marble Arch, St Paul’s Cathedral, Hicks Hall in Clerkenwell and the doors of St Mary-le-Bow church among others. Continue reading “Centre of Empire and London”
Between Paternoster Square and St Paul’s Cathedral, behind a fence, you will find this water pump inscribed thus:
“Erected by St Faith’s Parish 1819” Continue reading “St Faith’s Water Pump”
The Rambling Wombat 