Tonight marks the 70th anniversary of one of the iconic moments of modern London’s history. At 6:08pm on the icy, wintery night of 29 December 1940 sirens began to wail across the city as Adolf Hitler began his most concerted effort to annihilate London. This anniversary marks the height of the blitz and a murderous ‘second great fire of London‘ that engulfed the city of London yet saw the spirit of it’s people triumph, symbolised in the miraculous survival of St Paul’s Cathedral amidst the carnage. It also gave us, in my opinion, the greatest ever photo of London.

By Christmas 1940 Britain stood alone in it’s struggle against Adolf Hitler’s fascist Germany. The defeat of mainland Europe and the non- aggression pact between the USSR  and Germany had left Britain isolated and desperately fending off a Nazi invasion. The Luftwaffe had started to try to bomb Britain into submission on 7 September 1940 and bombs continued to fall every night until 10 May 1941.

As soon as the sirens sounded at 6.08pm incendiary bombs began to fall like rain igniting in the darkness of the blacked out city. By 7pm 10,000 fire bombs had fallen. They created small fires that quickly joined together and grew in size fed by the 5,000 books stored in the city’s narrow  streets (the City was the home of the publishing industry at this time).

It quickly became obvious that this air raid was on a different scale to anything London had seen before. Over 200,000 people squeezed into the underground as the fires raged above. The City of London was ablaze and in the centre of this bonfire of death and destruction was St Paul’s Cathedral.

At about 7.15 Churchill ordered that St Paul’s must be saved at all costs.  London firemen worked to keep the fire away from the Cathedral whilst the volunteer firewatchers of the St Paul’s Watch fought the flames on its roof to keep fires from spreading.

By now St Paul’s was completely surrounded by fire. To the north, south, east and west buildings were ablaze and in the midst of all of this chaos a shell was found resting on the St Paul’s wooden beams. Yet even in this furnace further volunteers arrived at the Cathedral to help fight the fires.

Yet it got worse. Not only did a wind blow up fanning the flames starting a fire storm but the Thames was at low tide making it difficult to get the water needed to fight the fire. Thousands of years of history, thousands of homes, the square mile,  were all being destroyed as fire grew stronger. The footage of the scenes is utterly terrifying with fire fighters not knowing when buildings might collapse around them.

Then at 11.50 the bombing stopped. London was saved by the weather. Bad weather made it impossible for the next wave of German bombers to cross the channel and saved London. However 24,000 incendiary devices and 120,000 tonnes of high explosives had exploded in a concentrated area destroying the square mile and 163 people lay dead including 14 firemen. Yet despite all of the horror surrounding St Paul’s, it had, by some miracle, survived.

Which brings us to London’s greatest photo. The photographer, Herbert Mason, was on top of the Daily Mail’s building working as a fire warden rather than a photographer, but carrying his camera. Looking at the destruction around him, he was gazing through the smoke when a gap appeared for a few moments and St Paul’s appeared through the smoke and fire. One click and a propaganda coup of the highest order was taken to show the neutral Americans that the blitz spirit was alive and defying the fascists.

How St Paul’s survived against all odds is quite unbelievable. I love this photo because it is a symbol of hope and defiance, feeding the belief that right that good can overcome evil and that is why it is the greatest photo of London ever taken.

happy Christmas, Simon

St Paul’s Cathedral

Can you imagine the London skyline without the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral? Well St Paul’s should not have a dome, it should have a spire, the dome should not be there. Yes this majestic, iconic cathedral should look very different because the ‘Warrant Design’, which was agreed to be built by its commissioners in 1675, is radically different from the cathedral we know today. The reason for the dome? A wilful genius determined to overcome his ‘incompetent’ bosses.

The ground of St Paul’s has been sacred since the Romans founded London. They built a temple dedicated to Diana there and the first St Paul’s was constructed in 604 in the same place. St Paul’s number one was burnt down in 962 after being ransacked by the Vikings. It was rebuilt within the year.

In 1087 the second St Paul’s was burnt down and the Normans began to build a new church from Caen stone, matching the stone of the Tower of London. St Paul’s number three was to become one of the largest buildings in England, far larger than the current cathedral, and had one of the highest spires in the world. However it fell into disrepair and when the spire was hit by lightening in 1561 it was never replaced. The Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed the Norman St Paul’s and although it may have been possible to rebuild it it was decided to start afresh.

The design of the new church was given to Christopher Wren who was already overseeing the design of over fifty other churches in the city. Yes most of the churches in the City of London are designed by Christopher Wren which must have kept him pretty busy. However St Paul’s was to be one of the more testing. There were five general plans before a final agreement was reached. Wren favoured his second plan (the Great Model can still be seen in the church today) which was approved by the King but then rejected by the Commission. Wren is said to have cried rather loudly when he got the bad news! It was rejected because it looked far too catholic and because of the lack of a space for mass. At a time when one of the building blocks of the British identity was Protestantism and the Great Fire of London was being blamed on catholic spies (completely untrue) the Church of England were determined to make sure one of their prize symbols looked like an Anglican church.

However Wren was a rather smart man and got the King to give him permission to make “ornamental changes” to the final submitted design. He then proceeded to build a church far more in tune with his own wishes. Many of these changes were made over the course of the next thirty years as the church was constructed, hidden away from prying eyes. The church was finally finished in 1711- with a Dome.

If you visit the cathedral, take a friend because you need to try out the Whispering Gallery. The gallery runs around the inside of the dome and is 99 feet above the cathedral floor. If you whisper against the wall your friend will need to place an ear to the wall at another point around the gallery. A quiet whisper will be heard by your friend.

Of course, as this is London, not all stories of St Paul’s are going to be quite so quaint. Yes there are stories with a little blood on the carpet, or in this case, on the courtyard.  Four of the gunpowder plotters were executed in St Paul’s Churchyard. Another nice one is that the Suffragettes planted a bomb under the Bishop’s throne in the quire in 1913 in their crusade for the vote.

Many major services have also been held at St. Paul’s. These include the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Winston Churchill and the wedding of Charles and Diana.

Finally St Paul’s is also the highest point in the City of London so once you’ve visited the Whispering Gallery carry on up those stairs and see the magnificent view of London from the top of the dome.

Don’t forget the pictures on the site are available on my calendar so you can explain them to your friends!

nice week,

The Tower of London is a statement. It is a statement of intimidation, threat and terror turned into a fist made of foreign stone. The stone was imported all the way from Caen, France by an invader intent on facing down their new subjects and making sure everybody understood that they were here to stay.

For the Londoners it was a strange alien structure on the edge of their city. All English castles were made of wood at that time and so the dark psychological impact of the stone tower looking down on them must have been immense.

The Norman victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 had been followed by a murderous journey of rape and pillage through the South of England to London where some treacherous Saxon nobles had opened the gates to let them in. The people of London resisted fiercely but were overwhelmed and then subjugated.

The White Tower was the first part of the tower complex we know today to be completed. It was built in 1077 by forced labour and became the symbol of unpopular invaders as Londoners saw it as an affront to their freedom.

Yet from such unsavoury beginnings the Tower of London would become one of the great symbols of British sovereignty. To say its history is colourful –a very rich red colour a lot of the time – would be an understatement as successive Kings and Queens added new buildings, a moat and legends. Over 900 years the Tower of London has been a mint, a zoo, a royal palace, a prison, a place of execution, home of public records, an armoury and it still houses the crown jewels.

It has been the venue of so many of the iconic moments of British history. A young red headed princess being rowed up the Thames, through Traitors Gate and into the tower not knowing whether she would leave alive. The trembling girl would become Elizabeth I.

A convicted man walking to Tower Hill for execution at the whim of the King or because of some treacherous act. Over 130 men and women visited Tower Hill to have their head surgically removed from their bodies by axe. Anne Boleyn and Sir Walter Raleigh still wonder the tower in search of their heads so keep an eye out for them if you visit.

The most notorious deed has to be the murder of two young princes, Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York in the bloody tower. Most people believe this was ordered by their guardian, the Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, but some say Henry Tudor, later Henry VII was the culprit. As a photographer the only thing I can say for certain is that the problem with taking pictures here is that usually you can’t see the bloody tower behind the bloody trees!

The Tower of London is guarded by the Beefeaters or the Yeoman Wardens – not the Yeoman of the Guard as Gilbert and Sullivan called them in their operetta. The Beefeaters are retired soldiers and it is likely they were originally paid in beef or meat – thus the name. Moira Cameron became the first female Yeoman Warder in July 2007.

Finally there are always ravens kept at the tower as legends say that whilst they are here the kingdom will never fall. There are nine at the moment, the newest of which is called Gundulf after the architect of the White Tower. Of course, in keeping with the history of the Tower not all the ravens are good. George the raven was dismissed in 1986 due to his penchant of eating TV aerials. He did not have his head cut off but was sent to Wales. If that wasn’t bad enough it was later discovered he was in fact a she, Georgina, and she gave birth to Gwyllum, one of todays ravens. It seems inevitable we should come across Wales because the legend of the ravens and the tower probably has its roots in the legends of Bran the Blessed a giant and king of Britain in Welsh mythology.

nice week, Simon

Today I’m enjoying a glass of red outside of Gordon’s wine bar, close to Charing Cross Station. It’s a lovely peaceful spot right in the heart of London, one of my favourite bars. It’s also the perfect spot for a little time travel back to a harsher Victorian world.

Once upon a time a ten year old boy slaved away in Warrens boot blacking factory just around the corner from here in Hungerford Stairs. It must have been like hell on earth, yet these experiences were to fuel some of the greatest literature of all time and inspire important social reform. The boys name was Charles Dickens. Dickens had found himself plunged into poverty when his father, John Dickens, was sent to Marshallsea Prison in 1824 for a debt of £40 and 10 shillings and Charles finished up working in the factory for three years.

The boot blacking factory was on the river bank, in fact, 150 years ago I could have been dipping my toes in the Thames sitting here at Gordon’s. Don’t believe me, look over the wall into Thames Embankment Gardens and spot the arch very close by. The arch is called York Watergate, dates from 1626 and used to be the exit onto the river from the gardens of York House. I must be sitting about 50 metres inland from the river at the moment.

Yes the Thames used to be much wider river. The reason the Thames is far narrower today? Well there are a number of descriptions I could use but its basically all down to shit- yes one of the stars of this story is human excrement.

London used to be a truly filthy city. The sanitation system hadn’t really changed from the 15^th century with sewage flowing through rivers and streams such as the Kilbourne, Westbourne, the Ranelagh, the Fleet, the Shoreditch, the Effa, the Falcoln Brook and the Earl into the Thames. By the middle of the 19^th century there were cess pools beneath 200,000 homes the contents of which would be forced up through the floorboards of smaller houses. This was not helped when flush toilets were introduced making the street drains full of sewage  and it was even worse when the river flooded – the river was described at the time as a brownish colour.

As many of the poor drunk from the river London suffered from recurring epidemics of cholera from the 1840s. In 1853 – 1854 more than 10,000 Londoners were killed by the disease. Unfortunately scientists never linked the cholera with the polluted Thames as they believed cholera passed through an air borne miasma rather than water.

The situation got worse and worse as the years passed and nothing was done until the long hot summer of 1858. The increasing sewage and evaporation from the heat helped slow the flow of the wide river and the result is what the Times called ‘the great stink of London’.  However the real difference in 1858 was that the ‘stink’ reached Parliament. Suddenly political paralysis and inertia was replaced with action and the Chancellor of Exchequer Benjamin Disraeli put aside £3 million – a truly massive sum at that time- to solve the problem.

Step up one of the heroes of London’s history, Joseph Bazalgette. Bazalgette was a brilliant engineer who oversaw the construction of over 165 miles of main sewers and 1,100 miles of local sewers by 1875 narrowing the Thames and saving thousands of lives in the process. And if that wasn’t enough he future proofed the sewers to the extent that we still use them today.

Bazalgette’s vision was demonstrated in the diameter of the sewers. He constructed wide egg-shaped, brick-walled sewer tunnels and then calculated size the tunnels needed to be to be able to handle London’s waste. However in his calculations he used the densest population, gave each person a most generous allowance of sewage production and then doubled this size. As he put it ‘Well, we’re only going to do this once and there’s always the unforeseen.’  Given the massive rises in population and the blocks of flats built in the 1960’s it is amazing that the sewage system he built is still being used today and it is only now that major upgrades are being planned.

Bazalgette’s sewer system also saved thousands of lives as cholera was practically eradicated as the water supplies became clean. The construction of the sewers also saw the tidal mud banks of the Thames rolled back. Now when we walk along Albert, Victoria or Chelsea Embankments we think we’re on the natural line of the river. Well the reason these embankments exist is because there are two of Bazalgette’s massive sewage tunnels underneath them. So next time you’re walking along the river save a thought for the man that created your walk. You can find a bust of Joseph ‘he put the river in chains’ Bazalgette just under the bridge by Embankment tube station sporting a splendid moustache that should surely make him a pin-up for Movember. It really seems an inadequate memorial to a man that so radically changed London and saved so many lives- albeit accidentally.

Anyway I’m going home to watch Dickens for the twenty first century- the Wire.

Nice evening, Simon

Trafalgar Square was part of a massive redesign of London by John Nash which had the intention of helping Regency London outshine Napoleonic Paris. At that time Britain and France were constantly at war, political rivals and, it should be remembered, anti- Frenchness was one of the building blocks of the British identity.

The Square itself was originally part of a concept developed from 1812 by the architect John Nash who wanted to create a cultural space for the public. It was named Trafalgar Square in 1830 and it has changed dramatically over the years. The National Gallery was added in 1838, Nelsons column in 1843 and the fountains in 1845. The four magnificent lions at the base of the column were not added until 1868 and it has to be said the Square would seem naked without them now. Originally the lions were commissioned in 1858 and were supposed to be 25 feet high. They became a national joke with lots of press coverage as they were delivered behind schedule with the original cost of £3,000 rising to £17,000 upon completion.

There are four plinths in the square with one constantly changing with different artist’s adding new installations every so often. The other three plinths have General Sir Charles James Napier, Major General Sir Henry Havelock and King George IV standing on top of them. How these three have survived to 2010 is beyond me. It truly shows the lack of imagination of our modern political classes that they remain in London’s show piece square, representing modern Britain to the world.

Given London’s, England’s, Britain’s history are these three really the best we can come up with? Why not Shakespeare, Dickens, Turner, Pankhurst, Wilberforce, Bazalgette, Brunel, Blake, Darwin or Newton?

One of the most interesting historical insights in Trafalgar Square is found on southern freeze at the bottom of Nelson’s Column. If you look closely you’ll find a black sailor in the crew on the freeze. You can also find two black sailors in the large fresco of the battle by Daniel Maclise found at the Royal Gallery of the Houses of Parliament.

When people refer to the ‘British’ Royal Navy it doesn’t quite reflect the complex reality of the British fleet at that time. The British Royal Navy was multi-cultural and multi-national. Of the 18,000 sailors that fought in that day about 1,400 were foreign representing 25 different nations and around 350 were black. There were even Frenchmen in the fleet, probably having escaped the French Revolution.

The lower ranks of the crew could be promoted in a remarkably meritocratic way given the society of the day regardless of colour or nationality- although they couldn’t become officers. Escaped slaves were encouraged to join and were offered freedom and bounty working as equals in the crew, which was pretty much unique at the time. They, like the rest of the crew, would get a share of the bounty of captured ships so would profit if their ships were successful, basically performance related pay.

Trafalgar however finished up as a major disappointment for the crews. After the elation of winning the battle and capturing over twenty enemy ships worth £1.5 million the crews were expecting a life changing windfall of prize money. Sadly for them a massive ‘storm of the century’ was gathering on the horizon. The storm lasted well over a week, hitting Force 10 and stretched from Trafalgar to the English Channel. Only four of the smaller prize ships valued at  £123,000 made it back to the British port at Gibraltar to be divided amongst the 18,000 who had fought in the battle. Common sailors received just £1-17 shilling and 8p which in 1807 was just over one months salary. However public pressure forced the government to add a further £300,000 to the prize fund giving the common sailor about £7 each in prize money. Still a lot less than what they had been expecting.

nice week, Simon

Standing in Trafalgar Square I am very tempted to para- phrase Nelson and say ‘England expects every man will carry his umbrella or get very wet.’ It is, needless to say, raining, and given the commonly held assumption that it rains a lot in London many of you wont be very surprised. Talking about the weather is of course a national pastime and, for many, the umbrella is part of our national costume. Yet before we get carried away with stereotypes it should be remembered it does rains more in Rome than in London!

Trafalgar Square is one of the great cultural open spaces of London and is the venue for major celebrations, cultural activities and political demonstrations. It is named after one of the most important battles in world history with the centre-piece paying homage to the commander of the British fleet, Horatio Nelson.

The Battle of Trafalgar was fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of France and Spain on 21 October 1805. The British victory confirmed that the British Royal Navy ruled the waves and consequently changed the world. Britain, confronted by a hostile Napoleon in continental Europe, concentrated its foreign policy on expanding it’s empire and global trade links. Defeat at Trafalgar would have meant an attempted invasion of Britain by Napoleon, the end of the British Empire and no raw materials to power the British industrial revolution. This was an important battle and a British defeat would have led to a very different world over the past two hundred years.

The battle was won with the help of the genius of Nelson. The prevailing tactical orthodoxy of the time meant that the opposing fleets would approach each other in a single line so that they could engage in parallel lines. Nelson broke this orthodoxy by sailing his fleet perpendicularly into the French and Spanish lines. The result was that although initially the British came under massive enemy fire without being able to reply, once the enemy line had been broken it was the British Royal Navy that were able to inflict a decisive defeat on the French and Spanish fleets.

There are many stories about Nelson deeds but my favourite comes after his death and the fact that his body was returned to England in a vat of brandy to keep it preserved before being put on public display at St Paul’s Cathedral. Not a bad way to travel to a state funeral…

To be continued on Wednesday, nice week, Simon

Turning your head from Boudicca you find yourself facing the mother of all Parliaments – the Palace of Westminster. A palace has stood on this spot since before the Normans arrived as Edward the Confessor had built a royal palace here in about 1045. It remained a royal residence until 1547.

The current building was completed in 1860 after the previous palace was burnt to the ground in 1834. The fire at Westminster was one of the most painted events in the 19th century with the likes of Turner and Constable committing their genius to canvas as thousands of others gathered to watch the entertainment. The cause of the fire was hot air. Rather surprisingly the source of the hot air wasn’t the MPs or even the lords but the overloaded furnaces that fed the floor heating system.

With the old palace burnt to the ground the first debate was where to build the new home of democracy. Wellington bellowed “You mustn’t relocate it so the London mob can surround it”. A winning argument as a politician’s popularity can be such a fragile thing that Parliament was reconstructed defensively secure on the same spot on the banks of the Thames.

The new building was designed by Charles Barry, with decoration by French architect Augustus Pugin, in a Perpendicular Gothic style to match Westminster Abbey. Gazing up, Big Ben towers high above. Of course what you see isn’t, in fact, Big Ben. Big Ben is actually only the bell in St Stephens Tower but over the years it’s become the popular name for the bell, St Stephens Tower and the clock.

The tower is 205 feet high, has 334 steps and was completed in 1859. Big Ben always looks so serene and state-like but controversy was never far away whilst it was being built. Originally Barry had a ‘friends agreement’ with Benjamin Vulliamy to design the clock. However Edward Dent, another clock maker, appealed and it was decided to have an open competition to design it. The competition set ground-breaking standards for the Victorian era as the clock had to be accurate to one second a day. The result was the largest, most accurate, mechanical public clock in the world designed by Edmund Denison and made by Edward and Frederick Dent. If you remove one old copper penny from the stack on the timing devise it speeds the clock up by 0.4 seconds a day, so it’s pretty accurate. The big hand on the clock face moves every two seconds as it has a two second pendulum and the warm glow behind the clock face at night is caused by low energy high efficiency light bulbs. Big Ben is a green clock.

The original bell was 16.5 tonnes, made in Norton Stockton-on-Tees and was too big to go to London on the train as trains couldn’t pass by it to go in the opposite direction. It arrived safe and sound at Westminster to wait at the base the tower which had yet to be completed. Perfect until Dennison visited and decided he wanted a bigger sound. Very rock n’roll. Dennison doubled the hammer size to over half a tonne and disaster struck. A big crack appeared. So bell number one was taken to Mears of Whitechapel to be recast. The new 13.5 tonne bell was elevated up to the tower in one lift taking 32 hours of continuous winding by 8 men working in shifts. Three months later the new Big Ben developed a quarter of an inch deep crack. Luckily this wasn’t too serious and could be filled in. The crack exists to this day and means that although Big Ben hits ‘e’ below middle ‘c’ it is slightly flat. Although I’m sure you could tell the difference anyway without my help.

There also used to be a ‘prison room’ in St Stephens Tower for those that misbehaved at the Palace of Westminster. Charles Bradlaugh MP had to spend a night there once. An MP couldn’t take his place (women couldn’t even vote then) in the House of Commons until he had sworn allegiance to king or queen on the bible.  As an atheist Bradlaw refused to swear on bible and then interrupted proceedings until they locked him up in the prison room. This led to a change in the law so that now MPs can swear on any religious item or a non-religious item. The last person to be placed in the cell was the leader of the Suffragette Movement Emmeline Pankhurst in 1902.

Finally no-one is sure exactly who Big Ben is named after. It appears to be a choice between MP Sir Benjamin Hall who was a rather large man or the boxer Benjamin Caunt who had just won an epic 60 round fight to become a local hero. Either way I am now out for the count so until the next time, discover London.

Boudicca on Westminster Bridge by Thomas Thorneycroft, unveiled in 1902

Who’s that lady?

That’s no lady, that’s Queen Boudicca!

Crossing Westminster Bridge you come to the magnificant statue of Queen Boudicca by Thomas Thornycroft (Calendar- July). Boudicca was an ancient tribal queen who led a rebellion against the Romans riding into battle on her chariot, spear in hand, long red hair flowing behind her, pretty much naked except for her blue body paint. Its quite intimidating crossing the road as she charges you down, she’s signalling left whilst her horses go both right and left… I’ll let you add the punch line.

When the Romans first arrived in England they met fierce resistance but a surge of new troops supported by an elephant brigade broke initial resistance. Surprisingly Boudicca’s tribe, the Iceni, based in Norfolk and ruled by Boudicca’s husband Prasutagus, appeared to get on well with the Romans trading and voluntarily allying themselves to them. However with a rebellion in North Wales, the Romans began to disarm friendly tribes and when Prasutagus died they seized his lands.

With land and property confiscated Boudicca was flogged and her daughters raped. In AD60 she began to reap her revenge leading an uprising of local tribes against their oppressors. First Colchester, a major Roman city was sacked and destroyed. Next was London. The Romans fled the city before Boudicca’s troops arrived and any inhabitants left behind were slaughtered as the city was burnt to the ground. Archaeology shows a thick red layer dating from AD60, the first great fire of London as the city was decimated. The next on the list was St Albans with a total of 70,000/ 80,000 people estimated to have been killed in the three cities.

Boudicca met her match at the Battle of Wailing Street, somewhere in the West Midlands. Boudicca’s army numbered 230,000, dwarfing the 10,000 Roman troops. However the Romans were professionals and chose a narrow-field for the battle which suited their numbers and tactics to perfection. Boudicca’s army was routed, trapped by their own families who had followed behind the fighting men making retreat impossible.

Nobody knows what happened to Boudicca after the battle, it is said that she fled south. However legend has it that she is buried under platform 7, 8,10 or 13 at Kings Cross Station depending on the whim of the writer. I, being a man of many whims, prefer to plump for the new platform at St Pancras as thats where I go to take the train to Brighton when I go to visit my family! Always nice to imagine Boudicca charging down the tracks in her chariot before me.

I’m sitting on a Dutch barge, the Tamesis, on the Thames on a bright cold Autumn day looking at Parliament and Westminster Bridge as the sun slowly sets. I think it’s fair to say the great British summertime is well and truly over.

I love days like this, the London streets may not be paved with gold but the Thames is certainly glittering in the autumn sun. The Thames is having one of its blue days but I still can’t see any of the 122 varieties of fish swimming around down there. It may be blue but it’s never going to be clear.

It is spectacular and it’s easy to see why the view at Westminster has inspired Wordsworth, Caneletto and Monet amongst others. Monet’s series of paintings of Parliament remind me why you can never get bored walking along the South Bank. Every time you visit it ‘s slightly different. The light, time, season and weather change it day by day and month by month. It really is a great place for photography with so many iconic buildings and the Thames thundering along down the centre.

Each building, each street, each area has its own special stories. This is where the inspiration for the calendar and blog came from. There are so many fascinating stories out there about London, so many players that have entered and exited London’s stage as the world keeps spinning regardless. The only constants are the Thames and some of the streets whose footprints have been there since London was born. It’s that wonderful concept of building to the ‘building line’ that has meant many of the streets in the City of London follow the same route they followed a 1,ooo years ago. There is so much to discover, experience and trace back in time.

And of course we are all actors on London’s stage. We all have our own unique experiences of London, our own memories of living here, of day trips, of weekends, of friends, of lovers or you may simply have a desire to come here. Stephen Walter drew a great map of London which includes his own experiences and stories. A wonderful idea although I can reassure you I wont be putting any stories of my kisses on this blog.

Each month the calendar has an idea for something for you, your family or your friends to do as well as a photo of a London icon. Go on a London walk, join a cultural meet-up group, read a London based book or sip on a nice pint whilst enjoying a great view of London like the one of Westminster Bridge I’m enjoying. Discover London, hopefully the calendar and blog can help you!

London is a city of destiny. There was only one place, one precise location, where London could be and that is exactly where we find it today. It was London’s geography that made it the perfect lightning rod for history to strike and, when the time was right, geography and history collided and the lightning struck. Destiny.

Central to everything is, of course, the River Thames. Our story begins about 450,000 years ago when Britain was still part of mainland Europe and the Thames was a tributary of the Rhine. It was then that a glacier dammed the Thames in Hertfordshire and shifted the river to its current route helping create the English Channel. This shift also added the miraculous layers of gravel on top of London’s clay base. The gravel terraces allow London to drain whilst the clay has provided the bricks from which much of the city has been built. No gravel, no drainage and London would probably have remained a swampy backwater with more mosquitoes than people.

Which brings us to our lightning strike. The year is 43AD, the lightning, the Romans. London was a very different place. To begin with it wasn’t there! In fact there is very little evidence of settled human habitation. As the Roman invaders rowed up the Thames they would have encountered a very different river to the one we know today. The Thames was one thousand metres wide at high tide in places, three hundred metres wide at low tide. The Romans needed to find a position they could defend and, given Roman technology, the place they chose to land and build their fort, and later Londinium, was absolutely perfect for them.

Militarily, the geography was defensively strong. It offered height. The camp was built on two hills: Ludgate Hill (crowned by St Pauls today) and Cornhill. To the south was the River Thames and to the west was the Fleet River. The Fleet was, and is, a big river. It always brings a smile to my face when I cross New Bridge Road or Farringdon Road to think that the Fleet still flows beneath my feet, it has simply become part of our sewage system. To the north was marshland, now called Moorfields and to the east there was a stream. Finally another river, the Walbrook, ran through the area to supply fresh water and carry sewage out of the fort. Basically this was the perfect place for a fort in 43AD.

Yet this is still only part of the story. The Romans crossed the seas in galleys with deep hulls. Londinium offered one of the very few natural quays on the Thames where their galleys could dock to bring supplies and trade. It also possessed a gravel shoreline, remember the glacier, that allowed piers to be sunk for bridges and docks and was also the exact location where the Thames flood tide weakened. This was vital as the Romans didn’t have the technology to build bridges across a powerful tidal river and meant the very first London Bridge could be constructed in 50AD. There was even more good news as Londinium was connected to the transport superhighways of the time- the rivers- as the Thames flowed into the sea directly opposite the Rhine making trade with the rest of the Roman Empire easy. How the Romans must have celebrated!

In fact, if the Romans had dreamed the perfect location they couldn’t have come up with anywhere better than Londonium. It was as if their gods had created the setting for the city especially for them and it was from this point that London’s future has, like the Thames, flowed. Destiny. Which, of course, only really leaves us with one question…