Last London post.
1 May 2006 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatHere are the last pictures of our visit to London – you can breath a sigh of relief. They are of some lesser known monuments of significance to my history loving daughter. There are things we did not take pictures of – which separated us from the run of the mill tourist so to speak – there were no photos of black cabs, red buses, letter boxes or phone boxes – all of which we saw being snapped over and over again by lots of people – most of them Japanese it seemed.
One of D-d’s heros is Dr. John Snow – and as a nurse I have to agree with her. He is the founding father of epidemiology – the study of how diseases are spread. He analysed the fatalities in the London cholera outbreak of 1854, and realized that almost everyone lived in the same area. His investigations led him to realize that they got their water from the pump at Broad Street, in Soho – and that the hot weather meant that the people were drinking the water cold, rather than using it to make tea.
He concluded the pump was the source, and the disease must be water-borne – but had trouble convincing anyone else. The local brewery workers had all escaped the disease – but they drank the beer, never water; one lady died who lived miles away – but her daughter brought her water from that same pump because she thought it tasted better than the water where she lived. So sure was he of his findings that he went and personally removed the handle from the pump, so no water could be drawn from it. The outbreak came to a rapid end and Snow was proved to be right.
We found the very spot on which the pump had stood – the street had been renamed, but we did a bit of detective work – so here is D-d beside the plaque commemorating John snow and the Broad Street pump.
The other photos here were all taken very near the Tower of London. D-d has spent a lot of time researching James Duke of Monmouth for her history course. He was a bastard son of Charles 2nd who was persuaded to be the figurehead for an attempted revolution. D-d thinks he was not terribly clever. The revolution failed, and Monmouth was beheaded. He famously asked the Axeman to be sure to make it a clean cut – but sadly the axeman was new, and nervous, and it took him many tries to remove poor Monmouth’s head from his body. I like to think that Monmouth knew nothing after the first blow – the rest just shocked the on-lookers.
The spot on which he was executed is today marked with a nice memorial to him, and others who were executed on the same spot – outside the Tower, in public, because they were commoners not royalty. Here is the plaque, the one with Monmouth’s name on it, and D-d who wanted her pilgrimage to this spot recorded.
In the background of the picture of D-d is a memorial that I personally found very moving. It is just outside Trinity House, and it is to all the members of the UK Merchant Navy who gave their lives in the First World War.
Every one of those small black squares you can see has many names of seamen, listed by vessel – about 12,000 names in all. The memorial continues onto a high wall enclosing a garden, just behind the plants in the left of my picture, with the names of those who lost their lives at sea in British merchant and fishing vessels during the Second World War – there are about 24,000 of those.
It is a sombre, but beautiful memorial to those whose names do not appear on the war memorials across the country because they were not in the fighting services – but died trying to keep their country (or in some cases their adopted country) provided with food, and other supplies.
In other news, the weather turned out better than expected – it stayed fine for D-d and her friends to have the birthday picnic – although she was not up to eating much – the reason for which was in my last, friends-locked, post. (Don’t worry Dorothy if you are reading this – just a lesson well learnt!)
I spent a happy hour or more replanting my hanging baskets and some of the pots, with lots of plants some of which I even knew names for!!
One of D-d’s heros is Dr. John Snow – and as a nurse I have to agree with her. He is the founding father of epidemiology – the study of how diseases are spread. He analysed the fatalities in the London cholera outbreak of 1854, and realized that almost everyone lived in the same area. His investigations led him to realize that they got their water from the pump at Broad Street, in Soho – and that the hot weather meant that the people were drinking the water cold, rather than using it to make tea.
He concluded the pump was the source, and the disease must be water-borne – but had trouble convincing anyone else. The local brewery workers had all escaped the disease – but they drank the beer, never water; one lady died who lived miles away – but her daughter brought her water from that same pump because she thought it tasted better than the water where she lived. So sure was he of his findings that he went and personally removed the handle from the pump, so no water could be drawn from it. The outbreak came to a rapid end and Snow was proved to be right.
We found the very spot on which the pump had stood – the street had been renamed, but we did a bit of detective work – so here is D-d beside the plaque commemorating John snow and the Broad Street pump.
The other photos here were all taken very near the Tower of London. D-d has spent a lot of time researching James Duke of Monmouth for her history course. He was a bastard son of Charles 2nd who was persuaded to be the figurehead for an attempted revolution. D-d thinks he was not terribly clever. The revolution failed, and Monmouth was beheaded. He famously asked the Axeman to be sure to make it a clean cut – but sadly the axeman was new, and nervous, and it took him many tries to remove poor Monmouth’s head from his body. I like to think that Monmouth knew nothing after the first blow – the rest just shocked the on-lookers.
The spot on which he was executed is today marked with a nice memorial to him, and others who were executed on the same spot – outside the Tower, in public, because they were commoners not royalty. Here is the plaque, the one with Monmouth’s name on it, and D-d who wanted her pilgrimage to this spot recorded.
In the background of the picture of D-d is a memorial that I personally found very moving. It is just outside Trinity House, and it is to all the members of the UK Merchant Navy who gave their lives in the First World War.
Every one of those small black squares you can see has many names of seamen, listed by vessel – about 12,000 names in all. The memorial continues onto a high wall enclosing a garden, just behind the plants in the left of my picture, with the names of those who lost their lives at sea in British merchant and fishing vessels during the Second World War – there are about 24,000 of those.
It is a sombre, but beautiful memorial to those whose names do not appear on the war memorials across the country because they were not in the fighting services – but died trying to keep their country (or in some cases their adopted country) provided with food, and other supplies.
In other news, the weather turned out better than expected – it stayed fine for D-d and her friends to have the birthday picnic – although she was not up to eating much – the reason for which was in my last, friends-locked, post. (Don’t worry Dorothy if you are reading this – just a lesson well learnt!)
I spent a happy hour or more replanting my hanging baskets and some of the pots, with lots of plants some of which I even knew names for!!
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no subject
Date: 01/05/2006 09:44 pm (UTC)I've enjoyed looking at the photos because they reminded me of all the pleasure I had visiting your lovely country.
no subject
Date: 01/05/2006 09:45 pm (UTC)Much appreciated.
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Date: 01/05/2006 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 01/05/2006 10:02 pm (UTC)It's funny, London is only about 20 miles away and no one ever goes there unless they have to. They have a major international city on their doorstep and it might as well be on another planet.
It amazes me.
no subject
Date: 01/05/2006 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 01/05/2006 10:59 pm (UTC)Snow was indeed a superlative figure who saved many, many lives. It seems astonishing now just how hard he had to fight to prove his point.
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Date: 01/05/2006 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 02/05/2006 09:15 pm (UTC)Being a total Anglophile who managed to get to London TWICE without seeing any of the seroius historical sites, I'm loving these so much.
The mention of Monmouth brought to mind one of my favorite English authors, Elizabeth Goudge, who told the story of Monmouth's mother, Lucy Walters, in The Child From The Sea (1970). It's been years since I read it, but if memory serves, it was a fascinating (and sympathetic) take on a fairly obscure historical personage. I liked it a lot! (But then, I'm a romantic at heart.)
no subject
Date: 02/05/2006 09:34 pm (UTC)The historical bits of London are the best bits for my history-mad daughter, and I like those bits best as well. If you make it again any time the Royal Palaces are wonderful, and all the museums and art galleries are free now, so paying for The Tower etc. is not too bad, because you can balance it with The National Gallery or whatever!
D-d is a real expert on Monmouth - about whose existence and rebellion I had just about forgotten anything I knew until she started researching him. I think she is right when she calls him 'poor Monmouth' - a bit stupid and easily led, so losing his own head, and bringing about the execution of many others. I found the memorial for her - she hadn't realised it existed, and so I was really pleased with myself!
no subject
Date: 02/05/2006 10:31 pm (UTC)Alas, phones boxes and letter boxes are nearly a thing of the past. Indeed, pay phones are disappearing rapidly as everyone over the age of six seems to have a cell phone (except me).
Thanks for sharing.
no subject
Date: 02/05/2006 10:45 pm (UTC)Me too - museums are excellent, but being there is best.
You're right about the phone boxes - I haven't used one for ages.
no subject
Date: 03/05/2006 01:55 am (UTC)