STRAND (n.) Throughfare doth devoid both of its definite article and with the water at its edge
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
The London Grill: Gavin Marriott
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
London in Quotations: J. S. F.
London is a corporation by prescription, known by several names.
J. S. F., The Citizen’s Pocket Chronicle; Containing a Digested View of the History, Antiquity, and Temporal Government of the City of London
London Trivia: Peter Pan flys in
On 1 May 1912 a statue of Peter Pan blowing his pipe on a stump of a tree, with fairies and mice and squirrels all around, appeared as if by magic on this morning in Kensington Gardens. Sir James Barrie had commissioned the work in secret and had it erected in the wee small hours.
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’
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.
Previously Posted: Wish you were here
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.
Wish you were here (08.05.09)
If you go on holiday to London don’t, I repeat, don’t buy me a souvenir as a memento of your visit. The poor tourists who come to these shores face a bewildering array of souvenir crap to purchase.
But it doesn’t end with the legitimate shops which proliferate on our capital, walk across Westminster Bridge and you are confronted by the delights of figures made from bent wire, a busker playing the bagpipes or whistles to imitate birdsong, being sold in full view of the police outside Parliament.
Do you want a T-shirt with the worn joke on the front “my Dad went to London and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”? Well, if you received that, thank your lucky stars. You could receive a cardboard policeman’s helmet, or how about a Union Jack umbrella. If you really want to stand out in the crowd try wearing a fur top hat in red, white and blue.
If this is not to your taste, go upmarket to the Buckingham Palace gift shop there are expensive reproductions of the Queen’s china, just like she uses at 4.00 every day for afternoon tea.
There is something to be said for receiving a tea towel, naff, but useful, if only to mop up after the cat, and admittedly some Buckingham Palace gifts are tasteful, even if of dubious practicable value. They at least have the virtue of giving one a warm Regal glow, when partaking of one’s afternoon tea.
But who would treasure a gift of this rubbish. Forget receiving a postcard of Big Ben; send them a 20 year old picture of a spotty punk rocker.
These shops are so revered by the middle classes; they even had a competition instigated by The Institute of Architects to design a replacement souvenir shop when Hungerford Bridge was being improved.
But London isn’t the worst, not by a long shot, I recently went to Italy, and coaches have to pay over £100 just to park for a few hours in these tourist traps. At Pisa (of leaning tower fame) you run the gauntlet of dozens and I mean dozens of Africans selling fake designer goods, and the authorities had the temerity to put up a sign that read “it is illegal to purchase fake goods; offenders are subject to a €1,000 fine. Maybe London isn’t so bad after all, anyone want a die cast model of a taxi, going cheap.
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