London 2.0

As alluded to in an earlier post, I am now back in London after an enjoyable trip through Wales. I have also now met up with my Dad, as well as my brother and the rest of the F1 in Schools contingent.

Whilst the F1 group are off doing their own planned activities, I have been charged with introducing some of the London sights to Dad before we start to explore new areas of the city again and have currently made second trips to the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and through Westminster, which has worked out well as I’ve picked up places I missed the first time round (I can’t believe how close I’d gotten to Trafalgar Square without seeing it).

Above is a monument within the walls of the Tower of London, recognising those who were executed within grounds of the Tower of London itself (most were usually done externally on Tower Hill). The monument alone names Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard, Jane Boleyn, and Lady Jane Grey. All figures of the Tudor period.

   

Off to see the Abbey and Buckingham Palace again tomorrow, and will hopefully venture out to a West End show in the evening.

This morning we had the pleasure to accept an invitation for breakfast at the Australian High Commission here in London. Held in Australia House on Strand. The breakfast was very nice, and was held amongst officials and representatives of the High Commission, providing the opportunity for the F1 in Schools teams to introduce themselves and the competition.

We learnt a cool piece of trivia whilst we were there, the main atrium within Australia House was used as the interior setting for Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter!

The marble floors and chandeliers are original to Australia House

I will endeavour to include some pictures of some of the latest adventures as soon as I can get access to them.

Westminster and TARDIS – Part 1

As today was the last day in London before leaving for Cardiff (returning to London again in about a week), I decided to make a quick trip out to the apparent tourist Mecca of Westminster, home to the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. As there are quite a few images to show, I’ve split the post up into 2 parts.

 

Coming out of the tube station at Westminster, you are greeted straight away with a great view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Similar to the Tower of London, I think there is quite a bit of restoration work going on at Westminster, they were even rebuilding the entrances and exits to the Green Park tube station near Buckingham Palace to make it more user friendly.

Literally just around the corner from Big Ben and co. was Westminster Abbey, again, like the Tower of London, a place that has hundreds of years of history centred around it. Home to almost every royal coronation since William the Conquer and the resting place of numerous kings and queens, as well as important historical figures.

Walking around the Abbey halls you encounter countless tombs and dedications made to well known figures in history. Poets corner in particular contains at the very least a remembrance display to almost every important author from British history; Charles Dickens, George Eliot, T. S. Eliot,John Keats, Rudyard Kipling, William Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth and the three Bronte Sisters inclusive.

Most of the visitors seemed sucked in to visiting and searching out the famous names of Poets corner, but I was most looking forward to seeking out what happened to be a very quiet and overlooked part of the Abbey where the dedications to scientists appeared.

The monument dedicated to Isaac Newton was very spectacular and takes quiet a prominent place in the main nave, however there are quite a few other notable scientists who make appearances within the Abbey, notably; James Prescott Joule, Paul Dirac, Alfred Russel Wallace, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell and the Aussie inventor of penicillin extraction Howard Florey. But the person I had been most looking forward to finding, was surprisingly hard to discover, Charles Darwin himself. Once I had found this monument, I realised why.

 
Charles Darwin at Westminster Abbey

Originally uploaded by @dino – not my own image

There lay the dedication to someone who made arguably one of the greatest contributions to science, and his grave displays just his name, date of birth and date of death. No mention or reference to his life’s work or accomplishments, as most others in the Abbey received (Dirac’s even had this equation inscribed on his). Surprisingly, this effected me quite a lot. I can understand the reasons why no reference to his work was made, the grave of the man who sparked evolutionary theory laying in probably the most important religious buildings in Europe, after the Vatican, but I really feel he deserves the respect of making reference to his life accomplishments, rather than appearing to ignore it. It sort of soured my visit to the abbey…

Westminster and TARDIS – Part 1

As today was the last day in London before leaving for Cardiff (returning to London again in about a week), I decided to make a quick trip out to the apparent tourist Mecca of Westminster, home to the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. As there are quite a few images to show, I’ve split the post up into 2 parts.

 

Coming out of the tube station at Westminster, you are greeted straight away with a great view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Similar to the Tower of London, I think there is quite a bit of restoration work going on at Westminster, they were even rebuilding the entrances and exits to the Green Park tube station near Buckingham Palace to make it more user friendly.

Literally just around the corner from Big Ben and co. was Westminster Abbey, again, like the Tower of London, a place that has hundreds of years of history centred around it. Home to almost every royal coronation since William the Conquer and the resting place of numerous kings and queens, as well as important historical figures.

Walking around the Abbey halls you encounter countless tombs and dedications made to well known figures in history. Poets corner in particular contains at the very least a remembrance display to almost every important author from British history; Charles Dickens, George Eliot, T. S. Eliot,John Keats, Rudyard Kipling, William Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth and the three Bronte Sisters inclusive.

Most of the visitors seemed sucked in to visiting and searching out the famous names of Poets corner, but I was most looking forward to seeking out what happened to be a very quiet and overlooked part of the Abbey where the dedications to scientists appeared.

The monument dedicated to Isaac Newton was very spectacular and takes quiet a prominent place in the main nave, however there are quite a few other notable scientists who make appearances within the Abbey, notably; James Prescott Joule, Paul Dirac, Alfred Russel Wallace, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell and the Aussie inventor of penicillin extraction Howard Florey. But the person I had been most looking forward to finding, was surprisingly hard to discover, Charles Darwin himself. Once I had found this monument, I realised why.

 
Charles Darwin at Westminster Abbey

Originally uploaded by @dino – not my own image

There lay the dedication to someone who made arguably one of the greatest contributions to science, and his grave displays just his name, date of birth and date of death. No mention or reference to his life’s work or accomplishments, as most others in the Abbey received (Dirac’s even had this equation inscribed on his). Surprisingly, this effected me quite a lot. I can understand the reasons why no reference to his work was made, the grave of the man who sparked evolutionary theory laying in probably the most important religious buildings in Europe, after the Vatican, but I really feel he deserves the respect of making reference to his life accomplishments, rather than appearing to ignore it. It sort of soured my visit to the abbey…

First sights of London

Well, time for my first proper London update.

For my first venture out into London, I headed down to the Tower of London, which was only a short trip by bus, almost literally just down the road from my accommodation.

In celebration of 500 years since Henry VIII ascension to the British throne, there was a large Tudor theme running in the various museums, with the White Tower hosting a large display of artefacts from Henry’s reign. This included amour, weapons as well as providing background to his life and his effect on British history.

It is interesting to note that whilst there are displays dedicated to Henry VIII taking the throne 500 years ago, that the tower itself first began approaching twice that time span.

 

The White Tower, inside hosted the Henry VII display. Of particular interest we 3 complete pieces of armour worn by Henry VIII at different points in his life. It made for an interesting comparison between his size when in his mid 20s, where he was still bulky, but much slimmer when compared to the armour worn in his 40s.

 

Tudor style architecture within the walls of the Tower of London. Which still operate as working accommodation for the  Tower managers.

With London having won hosting rights for the 2012 Olympics, the trust responsible for the tower have organised for parts of the White tower to be restored in time for a surge of international tourists and media attention. They are currently going wall-by-wall with one side covered by scaffolding and protective sheets (as well as a massive Henry VIII poster).

 

The tower is home to the amazing collection of the Crown Jewels and other treasures. I don’t think you’ll so much gold and precious stones in one place anywhere else in the world! Everything had been made at such a massive scale, but also so intricately detailed.

One of the Ravens kept at the Tower of London due to superstition that the tower, and the united kingdom would collapse if they ever left the tower.

 

The defensive walls, which you can walk along, offer good views of the famous tower bridge.

 

All up, it made for a very interesting day. Whilst by today’s standards, the Tower of London is a relatively small structure, there is so much history and interesting things to see, that you would need to visit across at least two days to take it all in. It is a place that has played an important role through British history, from the time the first tower was built, through to today, it was very exciting to visit a place with so much history surrounding it.

What…

We lost the Ashes?! Call the trip off…! I don’t think I’ll be able to faces the Poms. Things were looking so promising until Ponting got out

I blame Harry Potter…