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 was born in New Zealand and brought up on a farm. My Yorkshire born dad was a NZ policeman who was sent to Samoa during WWII and my mum posted as a nurse there. Dad had to line up for an injection and I’m the prick as the result! In my 20s in an ambulance service in NZ, I found out I could get a British passport so ventured to London to the London Ambulance Service and posted to Chelsea then Battersea. I came back when dad was dying but wish I’d stayed. On retirement I wrote an autobiography (privately published). My dream to own an London cab.
What’s your secret London tip?
Make good use of the London cabs. They work out cheaper as you will save the crowds, the queues, the walking, the weather, and have more time available – plus the banter and the knowledge they have.
What’s your secret London place?
Barnes SW13
What’s your biggest gripe about London?
Doggy doo
What’s your favourite building?
Harrods
What’s your most hated building?
County Hall
What’s the best view in London?
Outside Lambeth Palace looking east
What’s your personal London landmark?
Barnes Bridge
What’s London’s best film, book or documentary?
Paddington Bear
What’s your favourite restaurant?
The Bluebird, Kings Road Chelsea
How would you spend your ideal day off in London?
Boat trip to Hampton Court
On 1 May 1421 London’s first public lavatory, paid for by Richard Whittington opened, ‘Whittington’s Longhouse’, as it was known, contained two long rows each of sixty-four seats, one side for men, and the other for women
Journalists known as running patterers went to executions to record the executed’s last words, they then printed and sold exaggerated versions
10 Hyde Park Place is London’s smallest house: 3’6″ wide constructed in 1805, it has only ever had one tenant
Constitution Hill’s name is nothing to do with the constitution – it’s because it’s where Charles II took his daily constitutional
When Soviet spy Guy Burgess lived at 38 Chester Square, Lower Belgravia he cunningly decorated his flat in red, white and blue
Hitchcock’s first film The Lodger – 1926 had him making a cameo on the Tube now the Underground’s Film Office handles over 200 requests a month
Gordon’s Wine Bar reputed to be the oldest in London, in the same building that was home to Samuel Pepys in 1680 and is owned by the Gordons family since 1890
The Surbiton Club in 1891 requested members playing billiards partaking of snuff to ‘leave no nasal excreta’ on the baize
The total length of the London Underground network is 250 miles; Tube trains travelled 76.4 million kilometres last year
When the south portico of the British Museum was built the colour of the limestone didn’t match, builders used French limestone not English
There is a 19th century time capsule under Cleopatra’s Needle containing money, a rail guide and portraits of ‘pretty English ladies’
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