|
I'm sure you don't really want me to rattle on about the general history of London except to say that prior to the Romans arrival there was absolutely nothing there. They settled on an area between two hills, Corn hill and Lud hill, where the river had a shallow rocky bed ideal for anchoring their boats, and where it was possible to ford the river. The Romans instantly set up a trading town that grew so quickly that only a few years later it was the talk of Rome.
Not all Brits liked the idea of Roman rule and in particular a young woman called Boudicca who's family had been raped and killed by the Romans. She raised a mighty army and marched on the new Londinium as the Romans called it. With ruthless thoroughness she massacred all of it's inhabitants and burned the entire city to the ground. The Romans responded by re-building the city and building a wall around the 1 sq mile that it covered. That was London. Today that very same area is known as The City and if you look very hard you will still find parts of the Roman walls amongst the banks and insurance companies. And have a look in any hole, road works or building sites, within The City about 4 meters below the surface you will see a thin red line of burnt debris in the soil that is all that's left of Boudicca's sacking of Londinium.
We started in Trafalgar which was named Trafalgar in 1820. Originally this area was due to honour King Charles I but as work went on to clear the are emphasis began to move to Nelson. The idea of a column was partly due to the success of another column, the Duke of York on Carlton House steps which went up in 1814. Nelson's column went up in 1842, 37 years after the great man's death in Trafalgar on HMS Victory. If you look very closely at the statue of Nelson he does not have a patch over his eye!
And here's another thing! By the side of King Charles statue in the Square there is a brass plate in the floor. It is from this point that all distances to London are measured. Amazing.
Next Marble Arch designed by John Nash (who's idea it was to make Trafalgar Square). It was a monument to the victories of Trafalgar and Waterloo, 1805 and 1815 respectively. It was supposed to stand as a gateway to Buckingham Palace through which only Royals could enter. It should also have had a statue of George IV on top of it but that was moved to Trafalgar Sq. Unfortunately the position it should have stood on would not take the weight because the River Tyburn runs underneath so it was placed in an area known as Tyburn the infamous site of multiple gallows. The highway man Jack Sheppard drew an estimated crowd of 200,000 on the 16th of November 1724. After the restoration of Charles II the long dead bodies of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw were dug up and hung at Tyburn.
The Royal Watermen are known to have been around at the time of the Magna Carta as they carried King John to Runnymede in 1215 so it's safe to say that they were here before that but no on actually knows. They are, and were, a kind of Royal water taxi service. Traditionally they carried the royal crown from Hampton Court (then the royal palace) to the State opening of Parliament and even today Bob Couch 'Her Majesty's Bargemaster', and an altogether top chap, carries the crown, in the royal coach, from the Tower of London to Buckingham Palace. A job for steady hands.
|
|
