Christopher Winn - I Never Knew That About London

Contents

About the Book

Discover hundreds of fascinating facts about London in this enthralling miscellany.

Travelling through the villages and districts that make up the worlds most dynamic metropolis, bestselling author Christopher Winn takes us on a captivating journey around London to unearth the hideen gems of legends, firsts, inventions, adventures and birthplaces that shape the citys compelling, and at times, turbulent past.

Brimming with stories and snippets providing a spellbinding insight into what has shaped our capital, this beautifully illustrated gem of a book is guaranteed to infom and amuse in equal measure, and will have you exclaiming again and again: Well, I never knew that!

About the Author

Christopher Winns first book was the bestselling I Never Knew That About England. Volumes on Ireland, Scotland, Wales, London, the English, Irish and Scottish followed and he has recently published books on the Lake District, Yorkshire and the River Thames alongside an illustrated edition of I Never Knew That About England. A freelance writer and collector of trivia for over 20 years, he has worked with Terry Wogan and Jonathan Ross and sets quiz questions for television as well as for the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. He is married to artist Mai Osawa, who illustrates all the books in the series.

Also by Christopher Winn:

I Never Knew That About England

I Never Knew That About Ireland

I Never Knew That About Scotland

This book is for Ryoji and Akiko.

Preface

LONDON IS WHATEVER you want it to be.

It is one of the greatest cities on earth. It stands on the Prime Meridian and draws in the best from East and West. It sits at the centre of Time and the world sets its watch by Londons Big Ben.

London is built on commerce and trades with the world. It gave the world modern banking, the stock exchange and insurance and it remains the worlds financial hub. London is home to the Mother of Parliaments and has given sanctuary to ideas, to freedom of speech and thought, to religions and refugees from across the globe. London has the best theatre, the greatest concentration of museums, opera and art; a musical and literary heritage second to none. London has the first underwater tunnels, the first and biggest underground transport system, the first international exchange, the highest Ferris wheel, the biggest dome, the loftiest church. London has over 2,000 years of history. It has survived pestilence, fire and war. It has Roman walls, Norman towers, Tudor palaces, Renaissance splendour, Georgian loveliness, Victorian grandeur, breath-taking modern wonders.

There is pomp and ceremony and spectacle, and yet London is also intimate with quiet corners, crooked cobbled streets, winding alleyways and sunny squares. It is the most liveable-in of all cities with more green spaces than any comparable metropolis, and gardens everywhere.

London is its people and its characters who meet here from every corner of the planet. London cannot be tamed. All you can do is revel in its richness and enjoy the adventure.

I Never Knew That About London is like the city itself, packed, vibrant, disorganised, rambling, diverse, infuriating and endlessly fascinating. Treat this book as a fun companion, one who loves London and can tell you just some of its secrets, and you will soon discover, as Wordsworth did, that Earth has not anything to show more fair

Londons River

I NEVER KNEW That About London follows the River Thames, that meandering silver thread of liquid history that runs through the heart of the city and gives it meaning and continuity.

The book begins where London began, on the north bank of the Thames where the Romans built their bridge, then follows the river to the east, to the west and to the south.

Villages merge. Boroughs change their names. Post codes are indistinct. The river is the one constant. It links the many diverse communities that line its banks and bestows a unique quality on them. The river makes London breathe and feel the breeze. It gave life to London and may one day take it away again.

Tower of London

City of London

EC3 S OUTH

M ONUMENT L ONDON B RIDGE B ILLINGSGATE F ENCHURCH S TREET

The Monument the tallest isolated stone column in the world.

The Monument

Monumental

THE MONUMENT RISES above Fish Hill, close to where the Roman bridge came ashore and where London began. The view from the top is awe-inspiring. All around, a forest of spires and towers and turrets thrust upwards, striving for the light, a perfect metaphor for the struggle between God and Mammon. The godly spires more than hold their own, even as the towers of commerce grow ever higher and bolder.

The writer James Boswell came here in 1762 to climb the 311 steps to what was then the highest viewpoint in London. Half-way up he suffered a panic attack, but he persevered and made it to the top, where he found it horrid to be so monstrous a way up in the air, so far above London and all its spires. After a rash of suicides the viewing platform was caged in 1842.

The Monument commemorates the Great Fire of London and is THE TALLEST ISOLATED STONE COLUMN IN THE WORLD , 202 ft (62 m) high. It stands 202 ft (62 m) away from where the Great Fire started, at a bakers shop in Pudding Lane, on 2 September 1666. The fire raged for five days and destroyed four-fifths of the City, including St Pauls Cathedral and 87 churches.

S IR C HRISTOPHER W REN , as well as designing the new St Pauls Cathedral also designed the Monument along with his friend Robert Hooke. Wren wanted to crown it with a statue of Charles II, but the king declined, pointing out, I didnt start the fire. So a flaming urn of gilt bronze was put there instead. The two architects used the hollow centre of the column to suspend a pendulum for scientific experiments, but the vibrations from the heavy traffic on Fish Hill made the conditions unsuitable.