A-Z Of London | Vital Football

A-Z Of London

herringthorpe

herringthorpe

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Seeing how an inch of snow has brought our capital city to a grinding halt let's see what we know about London

A ALL England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club - in Wimbledon. A private members club best known for hosting Wimbledon. Founded in 1868 originally as a croquet club - not sure if it's still used for this.
 
C - Cleopatra's Needle is one of a pair of obelisks that were relocated from the ruins of the Caesareum of Alexandria in the 19th century. Inscribed by Thutmose III and later Ramesses II of the Egyptian New Kingdom, the obelisk was moved to Alexandria in 12 BC, where it remained for nearly two millennia.
The obelisk was presented to the United Kingdom in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and Sudan, Muhammad Ali, in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801. It was subsequently erected on the Victoria Embankment in Westminster in 1878.
 
D Deptford - importantant ship-building town in the days of Henry VIII. Now part of the London borough of Lewisham. The Dog and Bell pub is good, and although you can walk to the New Den from there, not many Millwall fans seem to go in to the pub on matchdays.
Also known for the "Deptford Fun City " record company in the late 1970's, which released singles by Squeeze, Alternative TV , etc.
 
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G - Golborne Road Market. Just up the road from the more famous Portobello Road Market. I still have a leather jacket I bought there when I lived nearby.
 
H HIGHGATE Cemetery - quite a few famous people are buried here including Charles Dickens' parents, Stella Gibbons who wrote 'cold comfort farm', Robert Liston who made his name in anaesthetics, actor Patrick Wymark, author George Elliot, entertainer Max Wall and Karl Marx.
 
Been to Highgate cemetery a couple of times... alternative "H" , for a "double", HIGH HOLBORN - street with highest point in the old City of London (22m above sea level). Features the Grade II listed Sam Smith's pub the "Cittie of Yorke", which Dylan Thomas wrote a poem about.
 
mikemiller said:
Been to Highgate cemetery a couple of times... alternative "H" , for a "double", HIGH HOLBORN - street with highest point in the old City of London (22m above sea level). Features the Grade II listed Sam Smith's pub the "Cittie of Yorke", which Dylan Thomas wrote a poem about.
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Used to work near there. Just by The Old Curiosity Shop on Portsmouth Street. Used to walk through Lincoln's Inn Fields and pop into Sir John Soane's Museum.
 
...which brings us to...

I INNS of Court - professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four - Inner Temple and Middle Temple (near Temple tube station) and Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn (near Chancery Lane tube station). The Patent Office, which I have visted a few times, is fairly near the latter two.
 
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J - The Jewel Tower. A 14th-century surviving element of the Palace of Westminster built between 1365 and 1366 to house the personal treasure of King Edward III. The original tower was a three-storey, crenellated stone building which occupied a secluded part of the palace and was protected by a moat linked to the River Thames. The tower continued to be used for storing the monarch's treasure and personal possessions until 1512, when a fire in the palace caused King Henry VIII to relocate his court to the nearby Palace of Whitehall.
At the end of the 16th century the House of Lords began to use the tower to store its parliamentary records, building a house alongside it for the use of the parliamentary clerk, and extensive improvements followed in 1621. The tower continued as the Lords' records office through the 18th century and several renovations were carried out to improve its fire-proofing and comfort, creating the present appearance of the tower. It was one of only four buildings to survive the burning of Parliament in 1834, after which the records were moved to the Victoria Tower, built for the purpose of storing archives, and part of the new neo-Gothic Palace of Westminster.
In 1869 the Jewel Tower was taken over by the newly formed Standard Weights and Measures Department, which used it for storing and testing official weights and measures until 1938. In 1948 the building was placed into the care of the Ministry of Works, which repaired the damage inflicted to the tower during the Second World War and restored the building extensively, clearing the surrounding area and opening the tower to tourists. Today the Jewel Tower is managed by English Heritage.
 
K KING'S CROSS - North side of main the London shopping area and terminus for LNER trains. The station features on the Monopoly game board, next to The Angel, Islington (I have walked betwen the two sites in a few minutes). Been to the station many times.
 
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L - LADIES BRIDGE - which is actually Waterloo Bridge. The river boat pilots always refer to it as Ladies Bridge because so many women were employed on its re - construction beginning in 1939 when it was in a dilapidated state but considered necessary, particularly for the use of the army.
 
M - Monument tube station on District and Circle lines opened 1884. Named after The Monument to the Great Fire of London, more commonly known simply as the Monument, a fluted Doric column situated near the northern end of London Bridge. Commemorating the Great Fire of London, it stands at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, 202 feet (62 m) in height and 202 feet west of the spot in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire started on 2 September 1666. Constructed between 1671 and 1677, it was built on the site of St Margaret, New Fish Street, the first church to be destroyed by the Great Fire. It is Grade I-listed. Another monument, the Golden Boy of Pye Corner, marks the point near Smithfield where the fire was stopped.
 
sixpence said:
L - LADIES BRIDGE - which is actually Waterloo Bridge. The river boat pilots always refer to it as Ladies Bridge because so many women were employed on its re - construction beginning in 1939 when it was in a dilapidated state but considered necessary, particularly for the use of the army.
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Didn't know that either!
 
N NEWGATE Prison - built in the 12th century and in the 1700's hangings took place here and later on executioners were trained at Newgate (not sure how they trained. . . !) and Oscar Wilde was held here for a short time too.
 
P - Piccadilly Circus was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly.
The Circus - from the Latin for circle - now connects Piccadilly, Regent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, the Haymarket, Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square) and Glasshouse Street. The Circus is particularly known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain and statue of Anteros (which is popularly, though mistakenly, believed to be of Eros).
 
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