Thursday Thirteen

Today, something a little different, I am going to give you some little-known and strange facts about my home town London, England.

1) The shortest distance between two stations on the underground system is between Covent Garden and Leicester Square - it measures 300 yards, but it is also one of the busiest stretches on the whole network, mainly because tourists don't realise how close the two places are so they have no idea that they can actually walk it in quicker time than taking the tube!

2) Prehistoric remains that have been dug up in London include elephants and hippos (Trafalgar Square), Lions (Charing Cross), Crocodiles (Islington) and Sharks (Brentford)

3) Jack The Ripper was left-handed.

4) Buckingham Palace was built on the site of a notorious brothel

5) London taxi-drivers are permitted to urinate in public, provided that a member of the police force acts a witness.


6) In December 1980 a journalist Duncan Campbell made an unusual and illegal journey across London from Bethnal Green in East London to Westminster. He descended down a mysterious access shaft near Bethnal Green tube station into a well-lit tunnel. He found an extensive network of well-maintained tunnels and passageways beneath the city centre streets. He didn't need a map as the tunnels were even signposted! His route took him to telephone exchanges at St. Pauls, Holborn, Covent Garden, Leicester Square and The Post Office Tower. A tunnel is also supposed to run from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Palace, the entrance is rumoured to be the strange extractor fan just by the Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA).



7) The foundations for Chelsea Football Club are made out of the excavations dug up during the construction of the Metropolitan tube line.

8) Some of London's old street bollards are actually made out of old cannons with a cannon ball welded to the end.


9) The little mock-tudor hut in Soho Square stands over one of London's biggest World War 2 air-raid shelters.


10) There are 13 towns /cities in the US called London

11) Houndsditch in East London got it's name as it used to be a dumping ground for dead dogs, literally a ditch full of Hounds.

12) The Number 11 bus is the unofficial sightseeing bus. For £2 a tourist can see the Bank of England, St Pauls, Millenium Bridge, Tate Modern, Fleet Street, Royal Courts of Justice, Aldwych, Somerset House, The Strand, Charing Cross, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Downing Street, Houses of Parliament, views across St James Park to Buckingham Palace, Sloane Square and the Kings Road! Sure beats the £15 charged by the 'official' tourist sightseeing buses!


13) Noel Coward said of London "I don't know what London's coming to - the higher the buildings the lower the morals!"

I was going to tell you about the origins of the streets called Grape Street and Grub Street (almost every UK town has one) but I'm not sure I can bring myself to type out the original name! Look it up on Wikipedia - it's amazing how our language evolves and changes.

As for me...I have had my firat non-sick day for ages - for the past few days I did one vomit per day, i have been vomit free since yesterday lunchtime now! I think, and hope, that I am now getting on OK with the Zantac! Hooray!