The “Dolphin” lamp standards have been burning gas for over 125 years Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the great Victorian engineer, has a very modest memorial. It is embedded in a mausoleum-like…
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gems
The Water Museum at Somerset House where people can leave their bottled memories
by Vic Keegan
written by Vic Keegan
Phials containing water untouched in 129,000 years LONDON owes its existence to water. Without the Thames there would have been no point in building it. In olden days Westminster –…
Trafalgar Square today with King Charles l looking down Whitehall towards his place of execution Nothing is quite what it seems in Trafalgar Square. It is umbilically tied to Nelson’s…
Me (left) sampling Forty Hall – Chateau Tooting (centre) – and Olding Manor, right A highlight of my sojourn among English and Welsh vineyards last…
The Tate and Lyle refinery at Silvertown It started as one of my walks from Trafalgar Square without crossing a road. Taking up where I left off last time at…
Westminster Palace Hotel (left) and Royal Acquarium (right) Imperial Theatre Few London scenes have changed…
Parliament Square – where William Caxton, Sir Walter Raleigh (and lots of others) are buried
by Vic Keegan
written by Vic Keegan
Where to begin? From where you are looking the weather-beaten lawn on the left (above) conceals hundreds of bodies including William Caxton, whose printing works were nearby, Wenceslaus Hollar,…
Spot the difference – National Gallery . . . Carlton House When old buildings in London were pulled down, the bricks and…
The office block that links the birth of the gas industry with cricket’s LBW rule and the best claret in England
by Vic Keegan
written by Vic Keegan
In a city that takes pride in burying its history, the nondescript office building at 100 Pall Mall, sandwiched between the Reform and RAC clubs, takes some beating. On…
The next couple of days – it closes Sunday – afford a rare opportunity to see the innards of Battersea Power Station before it is converted into an £8bn complex…
To watch a play in the same space – the hall of Gray’s Inn – where it was first staged in 1566, and which has hardly ever been produced since,…
Tail end of the queue to present grapes The scene could be a British B movie. A warehouse in South London. A chill October morning. Cars arrive. Packages are taken…
100 Union Street Southwark I glimpsed this urban oasis from a train coming from London Bridge (on top of the arches, above) and was soon wandering down Union Street beyond…
All Hallows – looking less hallowed in the shadow of the upwardly mobile “Walkie Talkie” building Walking in the crypt of All Hallows, the oldest church in the City close…
55 Pall Mall now . . . and then I HAVE occasionally wondered why 52 Pall Mall looks so different to its neighbours. The answer is…