General Chat

St Paul's in the palm of the hand.

You have to be a contortionist to beable to see this crossing Vauxhall bridge on the up-side of the river you may notice, outside the parapet a number of gigantic stone sculpters one of these below foot leveland only visable by leaning (carefully )
over the Parapet is seen to be a female figure with an outstretched hand bearing on it a miniature of St Pauls Cathedral to those who earn their living on the river this is known as "Little St Paul's on the water "

The Panyer Boy

Cheapside was formely a general market.dominated by the mediaevil houses.of the Gold Smiths.

The streets on each side were each names. Bread Street, Milk Street. Wood Street etc.A reminder of of the Bread market.can be seen on the Wall of Panyer Alley .
It is a stone one and errected in 1688 showing a naked boy known as " Panyer Boy " sitting on a basket this used to be situated in the Panyer Alley. In mediaevil times bakers boys use to stand there with their baskets. The inscription reads.
When ye have sought the city round
Yet still this is the higest ground"

Rita

The First Doodlebug (flying Bomb) to fall on london came down on the railway over Grove Road only 61 metres north of Mile End Station, on 13th June 1944. Several house were damaged along with the bridge and railway track, and six people were killed. A Blue Plaque marks the spot.

Susanna Wesley (1699 - 1742) was born at No 71 Spital Yard off Spital Square the 25th child of Dr. Annesley. She gave birth to 19 children, two of whom, John and Charles, grew up to be the founders of Methodism.

Abe Saperstein, founder of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team was born in Flower and Dean Street (now Lolesworth Close) Spitalfields in 1900.

In 1666 many homeless Londoners camped out here after The Great Fire. Later that century, an influx of Huguenots feeing religious persecution in their home country , settled in the area, mainly as silk weavers. "Spitalfields silk' became famous and was exported all over the world.
The Huguenots were so poor they could only afford the food the market traders threw away, such as the tails of cows and oxen, which they boiled up to create "The First Oxtail Soup.

Tobacco Dock, Wapping

Something of an oddity, this one. Redeveloped as part of the massive investment in London's old docks areas during the 1980s, £70 million was spent on turning the smallish Tobacco Dock into a split-level complex of shops, bars and restaurants. However it never really took off and by the mid-90s many of the traders were leaving and by the turn of the millennium it was as good as deserted. However it's still well-kept and looked after, and open to the public Monday to Saturday.

During the week there is a steady stream of workers from the nearby News International offices and the ever-present building sites, but on a Saturday it is truly deserted. Despite the fact that many of the shops have been empty for years, the fact that the place is clean, tidy, and free of grafitti and vandalism makes it seem like they only left a week or two ago. It can be a very odd feeling walking around here on a Saturday, as if you've wandered into a shopping mall the day after all humans vanished from the planet!


At the north entrance to Tobacco Dock, close to the road now known simply as The Highway, stand two bronze statues: one is of a bear reared up on its hind legs, the other is off a young boy standing in front of a tiger. The plaques accompanying these statues read as follows:

Over a hundred years ago on what was then called Ratcliffe Highway near to this spot stood Jamrach's Emporium. This unique shop sold not only the most varied collection of curiosities but also traded in wild animals such as alligators, tigers, elephants, monkeys and birds. Jamrach's was known to seafarers throughout the world who, when their ship docked in London, would bring tigers,parrots,snakes,bears,monkeys,elephants and reptiles from distant lands in the knowledge that Mr Jamrach would be a willing purchaser, and his store soon became The Largest Pet Shop In The World. The animals were housed in iron cages and were well looked after until they were bought by zoological institutes and naturalist collectors.

In the early years of the nineteenth century a full grown Bengal tiger, having just arrived at Jamrach's Emporium, burst open his wooden transit box and quietly trotted down the road. Everybody scattered except an eight year old boy, who, having never seen such a large cat, went up to it with the intent of stroking his nose. A tap of the great soft paw stunned the boy and, picking him up by his hacket, the tiger walked down a side alley. Mr Jamrach, having discovered the empty box, came running up and, thrusting his bare hands into the tiger's throat, forced the beast to let his captive go. The little boy was unscathed and the subdued tiger was led back to his cage.

Admiralty Arch is a large office building in London which incorporates an archway providing road and pedestrian access between The Mall, which extends to the southwest, and Trafalgar Square to the northeast. It was designed by Sir Aston Webb, constructed by John Mowlem & Co and completed in 1912. It adjoins the Old Admiralty Building, hence the name.

The building was commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of his mother Queen Victoria, although he did not live to see its completion. A Latin inscription along the top reads:

: ANNO : DECIMO : EDWARDI : SEPTIMI : REGIS :
: VICTORIÆ : REGINÆ : CIVES : GRATISSIMI : MDCCCCX :

(In the tenth year of King Edward VII, to Queen Victoria, from most grateful citizens, 1910)

A famous feature of Admiralty Arch is its "nose". On the inside wall of the northernmost arch there is a small protrusion the size and shape of a human nose. There is little or no public information as to why it is there. The nose is at a height of about seven feet, and sits at waist high for anyone riding through the arch on a horse. Tradition holds that the nose is there in honour of the Duke of Wellington, who was known for having a particularly large nose. Royal soldiers would rub Wellington's nose for good luck as they rode through the arch.

Bunhill (originally Bone Hill )
was a non-conformists burial ground enclosed in 1665 at the time of The Great Plague . The last burial took place in 1854 no less than 100'000 bodies have been interred here.
The most notable were John Bunyan. Daniel Defoe.William Blake and Wesleys mother.

The most interesting monument however is that of Dame Mary Page. who died in 1728 at the age of 55 .
She had the most painful and distresing ailment which necessitated frequent drawing off water . The inscription reads. " In 67 months, she was tapped 66 times, had taken away 240 gallons of water without ever repining at her case or fearing the operation.

rita

Great thread!
Please add more as I love to read little known facts. Or, they could be well known and I'm thick:)

Deb

London's Mini House.


A little way along the Bayswater Road from Marble Arch squeezed between two larger buildings is a mini House.
it may have been occupied by a servant. from one of the neighbours, It dates back from 1806 and consists of
two thirty -foot passages one above the other and not more than four feet wide.
There is no gas or electricity, bathroom or lavatory ,and when an author occupied it for a time while writing a book, he was only just able to squeeze past his bed. His portable heater had to be placed exactly helfway between the walls to avoid scorching them,

rita

Lombard Street is named after the Lombardy Merchants who came here in the 12th and 13th centuries to collect taxes for the Pope, then became bankers in place of the Jews ousted by Edward 1 in 1290.

Leadenhall Market on the site of 1st - Century Londinium's basilica, which covered an area bigger than Trafalgar Square and was the biggest basilica north of the Alps. It takes its name from a lead-roofed house that belonged to the Neville family who lived here in the 14th centuary.

Well I never knew this about GREENWICH.
In 1836 London's First Railway, the London to Greenwich Railway, was buit through Deptford on a viaduct of 878 arches, 3 miles long, that was one of the wonders of the world at the time.

The London to Greenwich was the first railway Company to issue season tickets in 1843.

In 1911 Rachel McMillan and her sister opended the first nursery school in Britian, at Evelyn House in Deptford.

Britian's first permanent Building Society, The Woolwich was formed in the upstairs room of a Woowich pub around 1844, and first registered in 1847.

River Underground.

The Westbourne River after passing through the Serpentine goes underground and leaves the park at Albert Square. This is the place where the bridge over Oxford Road became Knightbridge and gave the name to the locality. In its course the River had to cross the Metropolitan Railway st Sloane Square Station , and this was affected by channelling it through a huge square iron conduit fifteen feet above the platform and track.
The tube is the original one installed when the station was built a century ago yet. when the station builldings and parmanet way was damaged by a bomb most severly. the tube remained
intact not even springing a leak.


rita

No your not thick Deb. London has so many interesting facts about it that people even some who live in London no nothing about.
I did a tour of London a few years back crossed all the bridges and visited all the place I had known and read about when I was a child.I was born just outside London and thought I knew it well. but I found out things I never knew. there are places in Lodnon I still visit and write the fact down as I go.

Pleased to hear you are enjoying this thread. so am l.

rita

West Dulwich

Victorian and Edwardian railway suburb bordering Dulwich, Tulse Hill and West Norwood. Although some believe that the locality is an estate agents’ invention, West Dilwysh was first recorded in 1344. Hesitant growth began here after the opening of Dulwich station in 1863 (it did not become West Dulwich until 1926). The railway company laid out Thurlow Park, Rosendale and Turney Roads to provide access to the station, although these were at first unsurfaced. Building frontages were advertised but take-up was slow. Rosendale Road’s eventual width and grandeur was supposedly the consequence of a plan to make it part of a grand processional route to the Crystal Palace. A speculator attempted to profit from this by laying out Tritton Road in its path, hoping to be bought out, but his bluff was called and the scheme was abandoned. All Saints church was built in 1891. A spectacular structure for such a modest suburb, it is deservedly grade I listed. The first houses in West Dulwich were very select, but properties became progressively more affordable as development spread westward. The main phase of construction came in the years before the First World War, although gaps were still being filled in the 1930s. The area suffered badly in the Second World War. West Dulwich Congregational church, which stood on Chancellor Road (now Grove), was wiped out by a direct bomb strike in 1940. All Saints was damaged but subsequently restored. Five V1 rockets fell on West Dulwich in 1944, prompting a post-war reconstruction programme that included the creation of the Rosendale Road estate. The unlucky All Saints church was gutted by a fire in 1999 and has had to be restored all over again. Turney special school and Rosendale primary school occupy neighbouring sites at the northern end of the locality.

Pop funsters the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band first came together at 164A Rosendale Road, in 1962.

The Japanese artist Yoshio Markino lodged in Martell Road in 1901 while working for a tombstone maker at West Norwood cemetery.

The Annual Quill

In 1598 there was pubished one of the most important books on London.ever written. John Stow a tailor had studied old records and visited all parts of the city producing his "Survey of London "in his 71st year. It is a most accurate and comprehensive source of information on mediaeval London before the Great fire. Stow was buried in the church on St Andrew undershaft, Leadenhall Street and his monument represents a bust ,showing him writing in a book with a quill pen,with other books nearby ."The Quill is a real one and is replaced with a new pen by the Lord Mayor at an annual memorial service .
A copy of Stow's works is awarded for the best essay on London.


rita

Can we have some more please, I am loving this thread

Cougar

he Perpetual Lamp.

A short distance up Caning Lane from the Embankment Gardens is a gas street lamp which is always to be found alight . It does not , as is often suposed burn sewer gas. The unusually stocky standard is hollow and connects with the sewer below.. The lamp (burning normal gas) helps to create a current of air, sucking up gases and dispersing them in the amposphere. This example remains as a curiosity all its fellows have vanished.

rita

The City Compter

Temporary lock-ups were usual before the founding of the police force. In the City there were several for debtors, known as "compters " and one still survives in the re--built Mitre Court, Wood Street. just off Cheapside. It now functions as the under-ground wine cellar of a nearby shop, and the original chains, fetters, and studded doors are still in position , below ground, Offenders picked up by the watch, were kept here overnight by the Sherriffs and appeared at the Lord Mayor's Court in the morning.

rita

Dutch ships which land their cargoes in the City of London, a rare event in the last few years, are never charged harbour fees.

This dates back to the plague year of 1665 when London was virtually cut off from the rest of the world.

No other country would land its cargoes but the Dutch kept trading with London in supplies of food and other goods vital to the survival of the city which has shown its gratitude ever since by waiving all charges to the Dutch.

In the late 1950's The Duke of Westminster
agreed to allow the Americans to demolish the whole of the west side of Grosvenor Square to builld its Embassy. They asked the Duke how much they would have to pay for the freehold of the land.

The Grosvenor family never sell the freehold.

The Americans were incensed and petitioned Parliament to force the Duke to sell. The Grosvenor family were leaned on but stood firm.

The Duke offered a comprise. He told them that if they were to return to the Grosvenor family all the lands stolen by the United States
after the American War of Independence then he would allow the Americans to buy their site on the west side of Grosvenor Square.

This would have meant the Americans returning most of Maine and New York .

They settled for a 999 year lease and the embassy in London is the only American embassy built on land not owned by the United States.