Here’s a few places where history has left a mark, some unexpected. We all know the Great Fire started at The Monument but do you know how far it got? And what’s the connection between Texas and London’s last duel?
Texas Embassy
After Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, the new country sent a Charge d'Affaires to the Court of St James’s. This, the closest embassy to the palace, was in offices rented from Berry Bros. London’s last duel is said to have been in this alleyway.
Pickering Place SW1
Tube: Green Park
Berry Bros & Rudd
Set up as a grocers in 1698, the large scales to weigh coffee were also used to measure customers. Its ledgers record the weights of poet Lord Byron, Admiral Horatio Nelson, his mistress Lady Hamilton and Queen Victoria's father.
3 St James's Street SW1
Tel: +44 (0)870 900 4300
Tube: Green Park
www.bbr.com
The Golden Boy
Of Pye Corner
The Golden Boy marks the extent of the Great Fire of London in 1666. The fire, which started at The Monument, a mile away, ‘was ascribed to the sin of gluttony... and the boy was made prodigiously fat to enforce the moral.’ The statue once had wings.
Giltspur Street EC1
Tube: St Paul’s
Centre of London
On a busy traffic island below Trafalgar Square is a statue of King Charles I (looking towards the place he was beheaded). It’s on a site once occupied by Queen Eleanor's Cross (a replica of which is now in front of Charing Cross station) and is the place from which all distances to London are measured.
Trafalgar Square WC2
Tube: Charing Cross
Crossbones Graveyard
Some 15,000 bodies were buried here before the 1850s, many of them prostitutes. Known as ‘Winchester Geese’ (as they were only allowed to work in the diocese of the Bishop of Winchester), these women could not be buried in consecrated ground. The spot is still dedicated to the ‘Outcast Dead’.
Redcross Way SE1
Tube: Borough
Imperial Measures
Sitting on the steps below the National Gallery to eat their sandwiches, many tourists unknowingly rest their feet on the standard Imperial measures of length, set into the granite paving in brass. Here’s where you can check the length of a perch, a pole, a chain or a yard.
Trafalgar Square WC2
Tube: Charing Cross
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Bits Of History
The Nazi Dog
This tiny gravestone at the top of the Duke Of York steps may be the only Nazi memorial in London. The Nazi Embassy stood here until the start of World War II and this is the grave of the ambassador’s pet Alsatian dog, Giro - ‘Ein treuer Begleiter’ (a true friend) - who was accidentally electrocuted in 1934.
7-9 Carlton Gardens SW1
Tube: Charing Cross
The London Stone
This mysterious stone has been mentioned by Shakespeare, William Blake and Dickens, and may predate the Roman era. Once built into the wall of St Swithin’s church - destroyed in World War II - it’s now in the wall of a sports store, it may move again soon as the building is due for demolition.
109 Cannon Street EC4
Tube: Cannon Street
