London Blog by Bobby of Barry House Hotel


London: An insiders's view Brought to you by Bobby of the Barry House Hotel

Think of the Beatles and most people immediately think of Liverpool in the North West of England. But they also spent a lot of time in London. St John's Wood is the home of the famous Abbey Road studios and of course the pedestrian crossing which features on their album cover. The black and white crossings with yellow flashing lights are commonly called zebra crossings in Britain. Drivers are obliged to stop at these crossings to allow pedestrians across.	The Beatles Abbey Road £9.99 at Amazon.co.uk
Take a stroll down Pall Mall and you will come across some of London's Gentlemen's Clubs, exclusive clubs which had their heyday in the 18th and 19th centuries, but continue with many of their traditions and strict rules to today. The Atheneum, pictured below is one of the grander buildings standing on the corner of Pall Mall opposite the Institute of Directors, a former club, but one which seems to have modernised somewhat.
The Chelsea Flower Show runs at the end of May each year. The world famous show, held in grounds of the Royal Chelsea Hospital, attracts hundreds of visitors over the four days and the tickets which have already sold out through official channels are quite lucrative. Those lucky enough to get tickets will be able to see flowers and show gardens from over 600 exhibitors.
Most visitors to London say that the best way to see the city is on foot. To make life easier there are a number of walks that you could follow. The picture is of one of the paving stones which marks out the route of the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk, you will also find other routes marked out like the Jubilee Walkway. London's Royal Parks also offer nature trails and suggested walks and you can even join a walking tour of London. One of the most famous of these walks is the Jack the Ripper walking tour where your guide will lead you to many of the sites associated with the Victorian criminal. But remember to pack a comfortable pair of shoes!
Another of London's interesting new buildings is City Hall, the offices of the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority. It is near Tower Bridge and where David Blaine hung in his perspex box during his stunt in London last year. The top of the building is called London's Living Room, but unfortunately it isn't normally open to the public, but you can go and visit the building and even sit in on sessions of the London Assembly. (Pictures courtesy of www.mykreeve.net)
London's latest skyscraper opened in Summer 2003 commonly referred to as the gherkin, the Swiss Re building stands out because of its unique design. The City is not really renowned for tall buildings, but that is set to change as a number of new skyscrapers have been planned for London. The trend began with the building of Canary Wharf in 1991, which became the tallest building in Europe. And after the lean period of the mid nineties a further two towers have been added to the complex. Now one of the most ambitious projects, London Bridge Tower has been approved.
The Simpson's seem to have left their mark on London! I am sure Homer would have felt at home on this road. The episode in which the cartoon family visited London actually featured the voice of Prime Minister Tony Blair, well why not it makes for much better TV than the Party Political Broadcasts. These are 5 minute long slots that the major political parties have around election time or at other appropriate times.

London's bendy busses were introduced in 203 as part of Mayor Ken Livingston's push to get more people using buses. There have been a lot of voices protesting against these buses, saying that they are too big for London's streets, but personally I like them. They are certainly more comfortable and user friendly. It is actually quite difficult climbing up and down the stairs on a moving bus.

Yesterday morning while walking up Park Lane I saw the Air Ambulance arrive to land in Hyde Park. There was an accident between a truck and a car on Park Lane. I'm not really one to stick around to see what happened, but I do hope the people involved are OK. Anyway the bright red helicopter which is sponsored by Richard Branson's Virgin Company was quite a sight for a Wednesday morning. The service is based at the Royal London Hospital in the East End of London, but can reach almost any part of London within minutes.

Did you know? Greater London is the largest city in Europe with a population of 7.2 million people and is the smallest of the English Regions: 1,584 sq km, just 1.2% of the land area of England. You can find these and many more statistics at the www.statistics.gov.uk web site. Some more statistics about London... Open space accounts for 30% of the London area, with London containing 143 registered parks and gardens. There are over 100 theatres in London, including 50 in the West End. London has 3,800 pubs, 233 nightclubs and 6,128 licensed restaurants with menus from more than 70 countries and regions. London has over 30,000 shops, with over 3,000 being in Central London and has 26 street markets. So plenty to keep anyone happy!

I took one of the new Virgin "tilting" trains from Euston Station to Preston in the North West of England the other day. While looking out of the window somewhere near Crewe I saw the previous attempt to introduce a tilting train to Britain, the Advanced Passenger Train (APT). This was a prototype train developed about 20 years ago in Britain, but never saw commercial service, Not surprisingly, when I got back I found a web site about the train and a campaign to preserve it. Well how does the new train size up? I must say I didn't really notice the tilting around corners, but I did notice the lack of cabin space. Is it me or are all new things getting smaller, take new houses - you never see the nice high ceilings of the Victorian era in new houses. Overall the journey was good and the train almost plane-like, and it was on time!
Number 10 Downing Street, apparently the most famous front door in the world, but otherwise a fairly normal looking front door. However, the door does lead into a rather large house which is actually three interconnecting houses which have a long history. Number 10 is very much a working building and is not open to the public, with the Prime Minister's quarters at the top of the building. However, the current Prime Minister, Tony Blair actually lives in number 11, which has slightly larger living quarters to accommodate his family. It is my impression that in many other countries Number 10 would probably have been re-built into a larger, grander, building, or the Prime Minister or President would have moved to something larger and grander looking. But in the UK, much importance is given to history and there is a general reluctance to destroy an old building. So a walk around Westminster and Whitehall, the centre of Government, is one of very contrasting views. Great historical buildings appear on the side of the road where thousands walk past daily, standing alongside more modern structures, including the London Eye.
The British phone box, or booth if you prefer, one piece of tradition that has been saved from extinction. Several years ago these bright red boxes started to disappear to be replaced by so-called modern glass and steel booths. But I am glad to say that due to a change in policy at BT, they have made a come back in central London and now live happily alongside newer phone boxes.
Well I was lucky enough to go away for a few days, its been a while since I had a break. I managed to fit in a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. It is a nice old fashioned town and I am not surprised that it is a favourite among tourists. Even in February it was quite busy. The main attraction there are five houses associated with the great bard which are looked after by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust including Shakespeare's birthplace itself (pictured) and Anne Hathaway's cottage. The town itself is littered with statues and monuments not to mention the souvenir shops, but there are some other attractions including the Butterfly Farm which is great to wonder around as long as you don't mind the flutter of butterfly wings and the the odd butterfly hitching a lift on your shoulder.
In the UK we have a novel approach to car registration numbers which results in peaks in new car purchases in March and in September when the new registrations are released. So in March 2004 we start to see cars with "04" in the middle of the registration to show that they are new, and in September we see "54" numbers appearing. The rest of the registration is made up of two letters before the year and three letters after. If you want to choose the letters on your car registration plate you can pay the DVLA for the privilege!