FORTNUM AND MASONS (n.) Ancient purveyor of vittles to the wealthy and creator of the hard-boiled egg in sausage meat, coated in fried breadcrumbs which hath as a London-based purveyor for reasons unknown doth name it ‘Scotch egg’.
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
We challenge our contributors to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and we don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat they will face the same questions ranging from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out what Londoners think about their city. The questions are the same but the answers vary wildly.
I am a London blogger and former journalist – now working in comms. First generation ‘Sarf’ Londoner born to Irish parents. I have fond memories of hanging out on the South Bank as a child in the ’80s when there was nothing much except booksellers and ‘Cardboard City’ and spotting weird-looking ‘dinosaurs’ in Crystal Palace Park (every Londoner should visit at least once!). These days, I love cocktail bars, street art, galleries, museums, photography and history. I launched Memoirs of a Metro Girl, my London culture and history blog in 2012, but my blogging productivity (and leisure time) has taken a hit thanks to parenting a toddler and renovating our flat in the past 2 years.
Somerset House runs a historical highlights tour where you get to see inside some of the building’s spaces usually off limits to the public, like the ‘deadhouse’ underneath the courtyard and the Miles staircase.
Bonnington Square in Vauxhall is a special neighbourhood. A square of Victorian terraces built for railway workers, it has two community gardens, a deli café and a friendly vibe. It has a fascinating history, having escaped demolition and was rescued by squatters in the 1980s, who eventually set up a cooperative and bought the houses from the council.
The housing market is depressing. There are many reasons why, but I think short-term holiday-letting sites like AirBnB should be restricted. There’s a shortage of rental properties and so many properties are being let for high rates to tourists instead. So many Londoners can’t afford to live in their own city and for those fortunate enough to buy, are having to move further and further out. The thought of potentially being priced out of London one day fills me with dread.
St. Pancras station and the adjoining Renaissance Hotel. Stunning inside and out. Can’t resist the starry grand staircase and the clock tower.
Architecturally, the Walkie-Talkie (despite enjoying the view from inside). It’s too top-heavy and completely ruins the view of the London skyline from Shad Thames looking through Tower Bridge.
The top of Gipsy Hill has a great view of St Paul’s and the City skyline.
Dulwich Picture Gallery. It’s a lovely building designed by Sir John Soane and was the first public art gallery in London. They have great exhibitions, as well as their permanent collection and I love the gift shop.
The best documentary was The Secret History of Our Streets on BBC in 2012. The best book (this is a hard one as there are so many!) is Lost London by Philip Davies, full of photos of London buildings which no longer exist.
SushiSamba in the Salesforce (aka Heron) Tower. Bit pricey, but worth it for the views, the cocktails and the fusion menu are pretty special.
I would start the morning off with a fry-up in a proper neighbourhood café, head to the river, the City or Spitalfields with my camera to get some photos before the crowds arrive, lunch at a street food market like Vinegar Yard or Borough Market, afternoon at a Tate or V&A exhibition, then dinner at SushiSamba followed by late-night cocktails at one of my favourite bars (admittedly 3 meals out, cocktails and an exhibition would be an expensive day!).
It is the glory of London that it is always ending and beginning anew, and that a visitor, with a good eye and indefatigable feet, will find in her travels all the Londons she has ever met in the pages of books, one atop the other, like the strata of the Earth.
Anna Quindlen (b.1953), Imagined London: A Tour of the World’s Greatest Fictional City
On 3 December 1976 London witnessed proof that pigs really can fly when Algie, a inflatable pig, broke free from his moorings near Battersea Power Station. Algie was being photographed for a forthcoming Pink Floyd Animals album cover. Curiously being near the flight path the Civil Aviation Authority issued a warning that a flying pig had been set loose, the ensuring publicity didn’t do any harm either for Pink Floyd.
On 3 December 1976 an estimated 3 million people applied for the 11,000 available tickets for Abba’s Albert Hall concerts
During the Jack the Ripper investigation the police paid £100 for two tracker bloodhounds but they got lost and needed the police to find them
Bevis Marks Synagogue in the City of London, is the only European synagogue which has held regular services continuously for over 300 years
In 1829 with London running out of space to bury its dead architect Thomas Wilson proposed a 94 storey pyramid on Primrose Hill to house 5 million corpses
The last execution to take place at the Tower of London was that of German spy Josef Jacobs, shot by firing squad in 1942
In 1747 William Hogarth painted ‘The Stage Coach’ at the former Angel Inn, 1 Islington High Street, rebuilt and now occupied by Co-op Bank
Soho is named after a medeival hunting cry (‘So-Ho’). No unlike Tally-Ho today. Until the late seventeeth century the area was open fields
Charlton means ‘homestead belonging to the churls’. Churls were the lowest rank of freeman during medieval times
In 1878 over 640 died when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collided with the Bywell Castle in the River Thames
John Spilsbury invented the world’s first jigsaw puzzle at his print shop in Russell Court (near Street), Drury Lane, Covent Garden in 1766
Bow Street police light changed from blue to white as colour upset Queen Victoria when visiting Royal Opera House, Albert had died in Blue Room, Windsor
Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.
For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.
Standing in the shadow of the East London Mosque in a modest Grand II listed premises on Whitechapel Road is Britain’s oldest manufacturer. As the mosque calls out for worshippers to attend their daily prayers this small factory continues to produce the bells used to call Christians to their place of worship, just as it has done since 1583.
The Church Bell Foundry to give it its formal name was established even earlier in 1570, although a firm link predates even this to 1420 when a Richard Chamberlain was known as a “bell-founder of Aldgate”.
When most heavy industry has left London this remarkable factory is still a family-owned and run company. Having produced some of the world’s great bells including Big Ben, America’s Liberty Bell and bells for what was at the time Russia’s new capital St. Petersburg and even today over 80 per cent of production is making church bells and associated accessories.
The premises date from 1670, just four years after the Great Fire of London, although this eastern end of the City was untouched by the conflagration. It is built on the site of an inn called the Artichoke whose cellars survive and are still used by the foundry today.
The building’s entrance is through a replica bell frame of the company most famous bell, needing 10.5 tons of molten copper mixed with 3 tons of tin “Big Ben” is still the largest bell ever made in London.
Originally the order for the 16-ton bell was given to another bell foundry; Warners of Cripplegate at their Norton factory near Stockton-on-Tees who cast the new bell in August 1856. It was transported by rail and sea to London, and on arrival at the Port of London, it was placed on a carriage and pulled across Westminster Bridge by 16 white horses. The bell was hung in New Palace Yard and it was tested each day until 17th October 1857 when a 4 foot crack appeared, but no-one would accept the blame. Theories included the composition of the bell’s metal or its dimensions. Warners blamed Edmund Denison, an abrasive lawyer who had designed the clock’s mechanism for insisting on increasing the hammer’s weight from 355kg to 660kg. Warners asked too high a price to break up and recast the bell so George Mears at the Whitechapel Foundry was appointed.
The bell was melted down and recast successfully by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry on 10th April 1858, and when finished it took 16 horses the best part of a day to haul the gigantic bell from Whitechapel to Parliament Square.
There are two theories about the origins of the name “Big Ben”: Around the time the clock was due to be completed, the prize fighter and publican Ben Caunt went 60 rounds with the best bare-knuckle boxer in the country, Nat Langham. The bout was declared a draw but it made both men national heroes. Ben Caunt was a huge man and one story has it that the great bell was named after him. The other story attributes the name to Benjamin Hall, the chief commissioner of works, who was addressing the House on the subject of a name for the new bell tower when, to great laughter, someone shouted “Call it Big Ben!”, but no record is to be found in Hansard of this remark.
When the time came to install the bell although this bell was 2.5 tonnes lighter than the first, its dimensions meant it was too large to fit up the Clock Tower’s shaft vertically so Big Ben was turned on its side and winched up. It took 30 hours to winch the bell to the belfry in October 1858. The four quarter bells, which chime on the quarter hour, were already in place.
Big Ben rang out on 11 July 1859 but its success was short-lived. In September 1859, the new bell also cracked and Big Ben was silent for four years. During this time, the hour was struck on the fourth quarter bell.
In 1863, a solution was found to Big Ben’s silence by Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal. Big Ben was turned by a quarter turn so the hammer struck a different spot; the hammer was replaced by a lighter version; and a small square was cut into the bell to prevent the crack from spreading.
The total cost of making the clock and bells and installing them in the Clock Tower reached £22,000.
CabbieBlog 