Well I Never…Knew That About London

Weather terrible.  Cold and damp.  My purple lilac has been destroyed by the torrents of rain.  Sophie-G. sitting her IGCSEs.  I drive back and forth to the school donning out  encouraging phrases: don’t forget to breath (!); don’t just sit there at the end read through it all and the eternal, make sure you show the workings out in the margins.  In between I read, continuing my research.

London is like an onion.  Layer after layer of history and interesting facts.  When we were house hunting I asked why all the fireplaces were blocked up or not in use and I was informed that it is illegal to light a fire at home in London and that all the chimneys are defunct.  No one could tell me exactly why but I suppose it has something to do with the fear of the return to the days of smog.  Since the great fire of London in 1666 which raged for three days and destroyed over 13,000 dwellings, 87 churchs and St. Paul’s Cathedral,  thatched roofs were consequently banned and the only thatched roof to be found in London today, for which a special permit was obtained, is that of the recently constructed replica of Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, The Globe on the South Bank. 

Perhaps it is because I have lived a quiet life for the past sixteen years in this small farming community that I find myself so engrossed and fascinated by the rich historical facts and idiosyncracies of my next home.   I recently read this about London which has crushed any lofty ideals I may have formed during my absence over the years:

“There is a lingering idea among tourists that London is a place of Victorian propriety, full of well-mannered, uptight ladies and gentlemen.  Apart from a very brief 19th century flirtation with moral rectitude, the character of the city has always been base – drunkenness for its own sake is still very much a London pastime, as is fighting.  This wildness and cruelty was at it apogee in the eighteenth century, when a man could be hanged for stealing spoons.”

That’s a relief.  Moral rectitude has never been my forte.

 Another fascinating fact.  Do you know where the word “tip” originates from?  If you go to the Twinings Tea Museum in The Strand you will find out. 

“The  most remarkable exhibit is a plain wooden box bearing the initials T.I.P. – short for “To Insure Promptness”.  Patrons of coffee houses (where tea was first served) would drop a few pennies into these boxes to encourage swifter service”.

Mr. Jules likes that last one as he can add it to his interesting facts about the UK knowledge base alongside the origins of the term POSH.