London General Tips by bzh

Favorite Thing: Covent Garden is one of my favourite places in London. Have a walk round the market at the week-end, browsing the shops. Watch the show on the street. And when you need a break, stop at a coffee shop in the South Hall, where a space is set aside in the lower gallery for musicians to play classical music for some spare change.


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Favorite Thing: I love having a walk on the South bank of the Thames when I can. It is less crowded than the centre, has quite a few nice shops and cafes and provides a fantastic unobstructed view onto the river the the North bank and the traditional London skyline.


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Favorite Thing: Waterloo Bridge, crosses river Thames to link Waterloo Road to Aldwych. It was built during World War II by female workers, the male workforce being on the war front. The stone used for the bridge is a light grey self washing stone. When it rains (not an unusual occurrence in London), the water reacts with the stone and washes away grime and dirt. As a result, the exposed part of the bridge is always clean and light grey while the underside is dirty and black.


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Favorite Thing: The real name of the new bridge that, with Peter's Hill, links St Paul's to Tate Modern is the Millenium Bridge because it was built for the Millenium celebrations. However, in the mind of Londoners, it is doomed to be remembered as the Wobbly Bridge. This is all due to a well-known physics problem.

The bridge was meant to be revolutionary in terms of construction. It is a suspended bridge. Nothing exceptional there. However, the suspension cables are not suspending the bridge from above, as is normally done, but from the sides. This gives the bridge a low and very slender profile. And it was the first bridge to be built on the Thames for decades. Perfect for a great PR campaign and a pompous opening.

What really happened was rather unexpected.

Fondest Memory: The bridge had a natural swinging phase of approximately one second, which is very close to the natural human step. It was therefore asked whether the army regiment phenomenon would apply.

Any person walking on a bridge makes it swing, albeit very slightly. But when an infantry regiment, walking in step, crosses a bridge, the effect is magnified and the bridge starts swinging violently, until it breaks. This is why infantry regiments always break step before stepping on a bridge.

Thus, the question was asked whether this would apply here. The answer was that, because the bridge would never have army regiments crossing it in step, there was no problem. This was counting without the human body's built in behaviour.

The bridge was open, with the due amount of newpapers and famous people doing speeches with the word 'Millenium' in it. Then, they started crossing it. Obviously, being members of the public, they were all walking at their own step. However, the natural phase of the bridge being 1 second, close to the human step, an interesting phenomenon occured. The bodies of the people crossing the bridge automatically reacted to the swing and, to make the walk more comfortable, automatically synchronised with the bridge. Thus everybody, unexpectedly and without realising it, started walking in phase with the bridge and with each other, like an infantry regiment. And the bridge started to swing and swing, making people physically sick.

No need to say that the bridge was closed just after being officially opened. Newpapers threw the expected amount of verbal fire and satire to everbody responsible, deploring the state of a country where such gross mistakes could be made at the expense of the taxpayer, and so on. Everything newpapers would do on such an occasion. Some expensive works were done to stiffen the bridge and significantly shorten its natural swing phase. It re-opened in 2002, with no PR campaign, having missed the Millenium celebrations.

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Favorite Thing: Born 1632, died 1723.

Christopher Wren attended Wadham College, Oxford. He then became Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London and subsequently Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford.

His uncle, the Bishop of Ely, asked him to design a new chapel for Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1663. This lead to other commisions and to a six months stay in Paris in 1665, where he studied architecture. His great opportunity came the year after, in 1666, when the Great Fire destroyed most of London. Wren prepared a mastery plan for the reconstruction of the city that was never executed. However, it gave him the opportunity to design many new buildings, the most famous of all being St Paul's Cathedral. Wren worked on all sorts of buildings but is particularly famous for the 50 odd churches he designed between 1670 and 1711, many of them still standing today. Hence the expression "A Wren church", commonly found in guides to London when referring to one of his creations.

Christopher Wren was knighted in 1675 and died in 1723. He was buried in the crypt of St Paul's.

For more information on Sir Christopher Wren and his buildings:
http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Sir_Christopher_Wren.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0852781.html


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Favorite Thing: Little Venice, as is known the area along the canals west of Edgware Road, is a surprising oasis of tranquility in the midst of the big city. The quiet water reflects the bright colours of the long boats, while the people who live on them seem oblivious of the bustle a few streets away.


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Favorite Thing: Camden lock is one of those places London wouldn't be the same without. Depending on the day of the week, it can be the quietest and most relaxing place or the most busy mess ever. From there, following the canal, you can walk all the way to Little Venice.


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Favorite Thing: One of my favourite monuments in London, because it is low key and very tastefully done, is the fountain commemorating the Canadian soldiers who fought alongside British soldiers during the two World Wars. It is located at the South end of Green Park, next to Buckingham Palace. The fountain itself is formed by two triangular planes in which water flows slowly. Both planes are imprinted with life like Maple leaves and are surrounded by real Maple trees. In autumn, the real leaves mix with the fake ones to add a natural touch to the monument.


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Favorite Thing: Regent's Park, North of Marylebone Road and East of Baker Street is where people who live or work in this area would go to relax in summer. It has a small lake with rowing boats for hire. Part of the lake area is off limit to visitors and acts as a bird sanctuary which makes Regent's Park host to a large population of swans, ducks and other waterfowl. North of the boating lake is a large open area that is regularly used for impromptu games of football (soccer) or softball. At the North end of the park is the London zoo. Other miscellaneous features include an open air theatre, tennis courts and a few colleges.


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Fondest Memory: Even in the most unexpected places, you can witness the most amazing sight. It is usually a matter of being there at the right moment. This is exactly what happened to me that day on Greenwich hill, not far from the observatory. The cloud layer was just right, not too thick but still there to play with the setting sun's light. And I had a camera handy.

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