london times

Londontown. This post has been a long time coming but hey, hey, what can you do? So what did I take away from a week spent in one of the world's leading financial and cultural capitals? Mainly, that a week isn't enough to scratch the surface of what London has to offer. Most days were spent walking around the endless winding streets and gazing in awe at the buildings older than the country of Canada itself. The city, original settled by Romans some 2,000 years ago, has been through several rebuilds, starting with the Roman settlement being burned to the ground by the Iceni tribe. The Romans heavily planned rebuild peaked at 60,000 people around 200 AD. Roman rule collapsed in the early 5th Century and London was abandoned. Anglo Saxons, who had a settlement west of the Old London City moved within the Roman walls to shield themselves from the constant attack from the Vikings. By 1300 AD, London had grown to 100,000 people but in time over-population and disease became rampant, not to mention much of the city was destroyed by the Great Fire Of London in 1666, which took ten years to rebuild. Onward and upward.. London became the world's largest city from 1831-1925 despite losing over 20,000 lives in two major cholera epidemics in 1848 and 1866. 

London's "Tube" rail network is celebrating it's 150th anniversary this year. It has 270 stations and over 250 miles of track which ranks it the fourth largest transit system in the world (behind Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing). The area it covers is quite extensive and puts Toronto's subway to absolute shame. Toronto's transit cover 69 subway stations despite being the third most trafficked system in North America (behind New York and Mexico City). I suppose subway stations are a product of their time since Toronto's definitely shows that it was born in the 1950-70s, and London's, at least the core of the city, was built 100+ years ago. The entryways have lavish gates and fencing, and channels of underground hallways to connect to whichever of the 11 different lines you intend to board. Despite the map looking like a plate of multicoloured spaghetti, it was surprisingly easy to navigate with excellant signage everywhere. The cars themselves weren't the tallest… not so much a problem for me but if you were any taller that 6'2" you could develop a neck problem. I also never thought I'd every say this about any city's transit: I preferred the buses. As it turns out the double-decker bus isn't a novelty. Virtually every bus there is a DD, and not only that, all of them were hybrid. It shows some foresight among the London Transit Authority to replace a fleet of some 8,000 old buses with hybrids. It, obviously, had to be of astronomical cost but good for themselves, the riders, the city and the environment for years to come. The buses really have a major presence on the road, and since I saw two gas stations the entire week it seems that transit is the way to get around. It is also a good way to check out some of the city without a dude in the front telling you irrelevant stories in a jovial voice. 

I didn't see Buckingham Palace, or Picadilly Circus other than in passing. Oh, and I missed out on the museums. It happens, though I did see the outside of some of them (that counts right?). A walk along the Thames from the London Bridge to the Tower Bridge was pretty awesome, with a little jettison to the Borough Market at closing time (they still close up as fast as closing time as here). The London Bridge itself, which the song about it falling down is the extent of my knowledge on the subject, was pretty cool since there is apparently a new London Bridge and an old one which in fact fell down. There had been early bridges during Roman rule, one of which was destroyed by a tornado in 1091 then the rebuild was destroyed by a fire in 1136. They weren't joking around the third time as Henry II commissioned a new stone bridge which was 26 feet wide and about 800 feet long and by 1358 has over 138 shops along it. They had a major fire on the Northwest side in 1633 but ironically it saved the bridge from being completely devastated by the Great Fire of London. The were over 200 buildings on the bridge some reaching over seven stories high, but unfortunately by the end of the 18th century the bridge became decrepit and highly congested, sometimes taking over 60 mins to cross during peak hours. The London Bridge of the 19th century was better built for transportation, and by 1896 became the busiest point in London, but still one of the most congested. Surveyors found that the bridge was sinking an inch every 8 years and soon enough the bridge had to be replaced. In an interesting twist, this incarnation of the London Bridge was put up for sale and in 1968 the bridge was sold to an American. Missiourian entrepreneur Robert C. McCulloch purchased the bridge for almost two and a half million dollars. He believed he was buying the more famous tower bridge but, piece by piece, the bridge was sent over to Lake Havasu City, Arizona and rebuilt. The Modern London Bridge was built between 1967 and 1972, but the pillars of the previous bridge still exist and sit just east of the new one.

Abbey Road was pretty awesome. A heavily trafficked road where people don't seem to mind risking their lives to recreate the Beatles famous "Abbey Road" album cover. While risking life and limb to get a shot I was amazed at all the graffiti on the wall, and noted a couple of them were pretty recent. As it happens, there is so much traffic and graffiti at the studio that they have to repaint the white wall every couple months so all of them are recent. And that thing is covered. Not only did the Beatles record all their album there, it also recorded every Floyd album from their 1967 Syd Barrett led debut "The Piper At the Gates Of Dawn" to 1975's "Wish You Were Here," as well as albums by Connie Francis, The Shadows, The Buzzcocks, The Alan Parsons Project, Rush, Duran Duran, Radiohead, Oasis, Bush and U2. Pretty cool spot in an unassuming building (pretty plain for such a historic place). Abbey Road Studios almost got demolished in 2010 to make way for luxury condos but the studio was saved, and was declared as a historic site by the British government, halting any proposed alterations to the building. You can check out the camera thats pointed on the famous crosswalk 24/7 HERE.

Ghosts. Pubs. Ghosts in pubs. I wanted to check out a ghost tour, since given London's ridiculously long history if there is going to be spirits anywhere it would be there. I found a couple good ones on the googles only to find out that there wasn't another tour planned until the evening of the day I left. So that was bollocks, as the kids say over there. Fortunately, the googles also steered me to some other ghost walks centred around pubs that where near to where I was staying for the week. The first one wasn't the most interesting, something about the owner of the business who often looked upon his patrons from on a rocking chair from the second floor and had been seen many times since his death. The pathway to get to the pub was much more interesting and spooky than the pub itself. The next spot was Charterhouse Square where it said that it was once a plague pit where 50,000 victims of the 'Black Death' are said to be buried. Some of them would have still been alive while thrown into the pit of the decaying bodies and people who walked to square at night have long report that they heard anguished screams as they relive their final agonies. In the nearby Charterhouse School, kids were dared to go to the square at midnight and put their ear to the ground to listen for the spirits howling underneath the grass. Not to mention the spirit of a monk that roams the grounds of the Charthouse, London's only surviving Tudor townhouse. 

"At night when the surrounding streets fall silent, a shadowy monk is said to drift aimlessly about the cobblestone courtyards, parts of which survive from the days as a monastery. He shares his weary vigils with the headless spectre of the Duke of Norfolf that comes striding down the main staircase, on which he was arrested, his head tucked neatly under his arm." 

Ya. Anyways the last pub was pretty neat. The Sutton Arms is tucked away (as most pubs seemed to be) in a narrow street and has a beautiful bow-window frontage has a small but warm interior and is haunted by a red hair old gentleman in old fashioned dress named Charley. He has been sitting alone in the corner of the pub on many occasions and even appeared suddenly to a couple girls while they were having a lunchtime drink. He appeared, smiled, then disappeared. In 1997, a friend of the landlord who was staying upstairs in one of the rooms above the pub was looking in a mirror and saw a reflection of a red haired man smiling at her. She turned around and no one was there. Dun dun dun. I was hoping the bartender would humour me when I asked of the ghost and she was quick to mention "Charley" by name. She said she had never come in contact with him but knew people who had. She said the basement was really creepy and I asked if I could see it… She said yes, then mentioned it to her husband/bar manager who now lived upstairs and he said no chance. As I drank a delicious glass of lager, crying in my beer, she suddenly came up and said 'alright let's go downstairs'. It was freezing, but pretty run of the mill stuff, cobwebs, wind tunnels, just hundreds of years old. She did show me two old lithographs that were in the basement and always said they creeped her out. It one of those pictures that the eyes follow you no matter where you go. I don't like them. They are creepy but naturally, I had to take a picture despite being weirded out. The woman just look furious. As for the one with the gentleman with no face and a killer moustache I just wonder why a bike like that would even exist. I mean, how unpractical is that? Here's some pictures from there basement of a 200+ year old pub:

Anyways, thats about all I guess. Beatles, walking, rain, double decker bussing and warmish beer. Pretty much what you would expect from London, but wow, you could spend years in that place and discover new things every day. So many curvy narrow roads clearly built for horses, completely devoid of city planning, and just an absolute zoo, I can't say I've visited a city that rivals it other than New York City (no disrespect to other faves San Francisco, Chicago, Portland and Boston) and look forward to exploring it more one of these days!

Feel free to check out my lovely tour guide's photo's here.