Tweezers Alley
THIS NARROW, WHOLLY UNREMARKABLE STREET runs between Milford Lane and Arundel Street and crosses the end of Water Street, just north of Temple Gardens on the Embankment. Dating from the 13th century, it’s named after the blacksmith’s forge that used to be there. The City of London still rents the street from the Crown. The […]
The oldest statue
THE STATUE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH I on the outside of the church of St Dunstan in the West, Fleet Street, is the oldest outdoor statue in London. Carved in 1586, it’s also the only existing statue of Elizabeth to have been created during her lifetime. Photo: Sudeep Johnson
London’s oldest building
IS THE MITHRAEUM, or Temple of Mithras, constructed around 240 AD. It was discovered during excavations in 1954 beneath the European headquarters of Bloomberg, in the City of London. It’s free to visit, and although all that remains are the low walls, a display recreates the structure using light and smoke.
The houses that aren’t there
LEINSTER GARDENS, off Bayswater Road, is a routine elegant mid-Victorian terraced street. Walk down it and, as you pass numbers 23-24 on the left, glance up at the windows: you’ll see they’re painted black. That’s because these houses were demolished in the 1860s to make way for the Metropolitan Railway, which runs perpendicular to the […]
Measuring up
BEFORE METRIC MEASUREMENTS became commonplace, many goods in the UK were sold by the foot or the yard. But how long was a foot? Or a yard? In the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square, just behind one of the fountains, you’ll find the official brass plaque displaying the Imperial Standards of Length, created by the […]
Driving on the right
THERE’S ONLY ONE ROAD where it’s mandatory to drive on the right in the UK, and that’s the road that leads to the Savoy Hotel. This is so the patron’s chauffeur could jump out and open his passenger’s door, without the passenger having to wait for him to walk all the way around the car.
The original phone box
THE ICONIC RED K2 phone box at the entrance to the Royal Academy isn’t just any old phone box. For one thing, it’s made of wood. It also has the distinction of being the original prototype, designed by the architect Giles Gilbert Scott – architect of St Pancras Station – in 1924.
Sewage-powered lighting
THE GAS LAMP at the back of the Savoy Hotel is the last remaining example of the Victorian Webb Patent Sewer Lamp. Until the 1950s, it was powered largely by methane generated from the lavatories in the Savoy. So all that rich food does serve a purpose after all.
London’s smallest house
NUMBER 10 Hyde Park Place, now demolished, was the smallest house in London. It hid the entrance to a cemetery behind which held the grave of Laurence Sterne, author of Tristram Shandy. Shortly after his death his corpse was stolen by bodysnatchers, and was recognised on the dissection table by a surgeon in a teaching session. […]
Celebrity graveyard
ST PANCRAS CHURCHYARD has an interesting history. It was here that the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley met his future wife, Mary Wollstonecraft (author of Frankenstein), when she was placing flowers on her mother’s grave. But the most noticeable oddity is the group of gravestones clustered around the remains of a tree. These were moved here by […]
Camden Ladies
THE LADIES LAVATORY in Camden Town was the first public convenience for women in the UK. It was installed on the instruction of the playwright George Bernard Shaw, when he was a Camden Councillor.