Story #305. LONDON ON FOOT. Royal Borough of Westminster.

280. LONDON ON FOOT. Greenwich. London is both ancient and modern. It can be uncomfortable.

278. LONDON ON FOOT. Whitechapel. I did not stop in for a chat the vegan hair salon. Life is full of regrets.

277. LONDON ON FOOT. Royal Borough of Greenwich.

275. LONDON ON FOOT. Deptford. A district in the SE Borough of Lewisham. Deptford is what New Yorkers call “the hood”. I don’t generally buy that kind of talk, but I took a sociology course in college so who’s to say.

208. LONDON ON FOOT. Whitechapel. One always fears nonstandard roots when visiting London, so a warning sign is appreciated. For more, see the safety bulletin: http://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/lampcolumns.htm

207. LONDON ON FOOT. Charing Cross Station. Charing Cross is the center of London, the point from which distances from London are measured. The Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross (midground), is one of twelve crosses erected by King Edward 1 (also known as ‘Edward Longshanks’ and ‘The Hammer of the Scots’) in memory of his wife, Eleanor Castile. She “was better educated than most medieval queens and exerted a strong cultural influence on the nation. She was a keen patron of literature, and encouraged the use of tapestries, carpets and tableware in the Spanish style, as well as innovative garden designs. She was also a successful businesswoman, endowed with her own fortune.” She was born in 1241.

206. LONDON ON FOOT. Cask Conditioned Ales in Greenwich. The Thames is on the other side of the modern building on the left.

205. LONDON ON FOOT. Whitechapel.

204. LONDON ON FOOT. Greenwich. Alleyways.

203. LONDON ON FOOT. City of Westminster.

202. LONDON ON FOOT. Gatwick airport. Opened as an “Aerodrome” in the 1920’s, privately owned, and is like a museum for 1970’s design. Far more fun than Heathrow.

201. LONDON ON FOOT. Royal Borough of Greenwich.

200. LONDON ON FOOT. Deptford, London Borough of Lewisham. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, an icon of English poetry, was penned in 1750.

199. LONDON ON FOOT. Whitechapel.

198. LONDON ON FOOT. Lewisham.

196. LONDON ON FOOT. Whitechapel. An interesting street layout, but the best part is the pun: “cote” is the French word for “side”. Look both ways is good advice for a North American in London. Suffering the same situation, Winston Churchill was run down on 5th Avenue on a visit to New York in 1931: Used to traffic that keeps to the left, Churchill looked to his right, saw no one coming and kept walking. A car driven by an unemployed mechanic named Mario Contasino, dragged Churchill several yards and flung him into the street. Apparently what saved him was the heavy overcoat he was wearing. He was in town to give a lecture called “The Pathway of the English-Speaking Peoples” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and to visit his buddy Bernard Baruch.

195. LONDON ON FOOT. “This postcode is within the Spitalfields and Banglatown electoral division, which is in the constituency of Bethnal Green.” Spitalfields, Banglatown, Bethnal Green. It is not surprising that the English are the best at commanding the English language. I recently read the autobiography of Anthony Trollope, which was perfect to have in mind as I walked and listened to the nuances of London speech. A day trip to Birmingham was a fine reminder of the Brummie.

194. LONDON ON FOOT. Lewisham. Mary Ann Gardens. If the splendor of the English language interests you, read George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language.”

193. LONDON ON FOOT. England is unimaginable without trains, in this case the Docklands Light Railway in the East End. In New York the subway is referred to as the train, but in London its the underground or the tube (pronounced ‘chube’).