Pictures have a way of speaking more eloquently than I........So,they are..............
Tour of London and environs in the 1920's by Burton Holmes. London, Westminster Abbey, Whitehall, Houses of Parliament, Thames River, street urchins, St Stephens tower, Big Ben, Cleopatra's Needle, Sphinx, Somerset House, St Pauls Cathedral, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, horse guard, parade, we want 5000 sign, war offices, Downing Street.
St James Park, Admiralty, Scott monument, Selfridges, Astor estate office, tourist buses, Temple Bar, Fleet Street, Cheshire Cheese, traffic, Bank of England, policeman, man with pipe, Mansion House
Tower of London, moat, soldiers drilling, Tower Bridge, horse drawn carts, Monument on Fish Street hill, Guildhall, bust of John Milton, St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, Burton Holmes in bell tower, foggy London, St Paul's Cathedral.
Windsor Castle, Eton students, tall hats and tails, Hampton Court, Washington Inn, Duke of Connaught, officers, stadium crowd, Sir Thomas Lipton, laughing girls, baseball game, royals, King Edward shakes players hand, umpire.
Many of these impressive buildings escaped the WWW2 bombings, and are still here for us to admire.
Up until 1976 all London cab drivers were required by law to carry a bale of hay. All London taxis are "Hackney Carriages" registered and traditionally this meant they were horse-drawn. Regulations stated that no horses should go hungry and therefore insisted that all horse-drawn carriages that were registered as "Hackney Carriages" should carry a bale of hay. Though the law was not enforced taxi drivers were technically breaking the law by not carrying hay!
Fab, Sophie. Love it.....did you also know that the original term for 'em was, Hackney Cabriolet ? Where the word 'cab' comes from.
Another weird and wonderful bit of dross...............The Law has yet to be changsd, stating that a policeman (you'll love this, Sophie, considering your admiration for Plod), if asked, MUST protect a member of the public from prying eyes, by removing his [the policeman's] cloak and shielding said member of the public whilst he, or she, urinates.....bring back the Bow Street Runners is what I say (or make the present day Old Bill wear cloaks again....they would certainly have their work cut out on a Saturday night in London's West End, haha !)
Didn't know that was the origin of 'cab'. Didn't know about the 'pigs' having to shield you either lol
Here are two more...
All English Men over 14 are meant to carry out 2 hours of longbow practice each week and supervised by the local clergy. This law dates from the middle ages when there was no regular British army and local gentry were ordered to train a quota of knights, archers, infantry, etc.
Londoners are not allowed to keep a pigsty in the front of their homes. Your OK if you have one in your back garden ;)
A turning off Elephant & Castle, Newington Butts, was so named as it was a place Englsh archers practiced....It was, of course, fields then.
I said to a pal of mine once. "It was all fields around here when I was a child", about a certain part of a suburb. He was sensative enough to say, "It was fields EVERYWHERE when you were a child"....Nice pals, eh ?
Keep them coming.......
Also, don't be modest about your artistic talents....ok ?
A bit held up at work for the moment so came back to scout about and saw your comment.
I mean that about your art.....Hey, just realised, you can read that last sentence in more than one way....Both apply to you, anyhow, so it's ok.
You dare !!!!!!!!...I'll find ya an' drag you out for public scrutiny, ok !
Have you had, or thought about, an exhibition, however small or large ?.....A local gallery, for instance, if not much bigger a venue ?
Keep me posted, I'm really interested, your talent should be there to be admired by others......(and if you can make some cash, wweeeeeelllllllll...............Why not ?).