London oddities and curiosities talk for Bognor Regis Probus

Her talk, illustrated with slides, began in Hyde Park, where she told us of two things we were unlikely to have noticed, an animal cemetery and a riding school.

She moved on to talk about the Albert Memorial, difficult not to have noticed, but perhaps not fully appreciated. The memorial is dominated by the statue of Prince Albert, but has many other sculptures, including four representing agriculture, commerce, engineering and manufacture. An elaborate frieze around the central part of the memorial shows 169 figures, the great and good of the Victorian age, including Sir George Gilbert Scott, the Memorial’s architect, whom Queen Victoria herself ordered should be included.

In the 18th century Samuel Johnson was famous for his essays and dictionary. His house, now a museum, in Gough Square behind Fleet St, is worth a visit. Look out for a bronze statue of a cat sitting on top of a dictionary.

Continuing east the Royal Exchange, now a luxury shopping and dining centre, retains a sculpture as a reminder of its association with Sir Thomas Gresham, a gilded copper grasshopper weather vane.

Leadenhall Market, no longer a fish and poultry market, shows traces of its former use if you look carefully.

Cornhill has some architectural curiosities if you look up. An office block built in Victorian times next to St Peter’s church has three fiendish looking devils looking down from on high. One in particular looks as though it is about to pounce and is said to be an act of revenge by the architect against the vicar of St Peter’s who had objected to the first plans for the new building. St Peter’s has been a site of worship since Roman times and preserves a legend about an English king Lucius founding a church there in 179 AD.

Between 1854 and 1941 the London Necropolis Railway transported corpses out of London to Brookwood in Surrey for burial. The gates to the railway can be seen below Westminster Bridge House on Westminster Bridge Road.

Marble Arch was moved to the top of Park Lane to provide a grand entrance to Hyde Park from the north. Unfortunately a later generation of planners decided to turn Park Lane into a dual carriageway and Marble Arch is now marooned on a traffic island. It does contain a tiny police station. As does Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner and Trafalgar Square, the latter with just enough room to hang a coat!

Future Speakers:

April 17 - Camping Deluxe: Billy Butlin’s holiday villages by the sea. Kathryn Ferry.

May 15t - Secret Intelligence. From Room 40 to Bletchley Park. Mark Lubienski.

Meetings monthly include lunch at the Beachcroft Hotel, Felpham. For information about membership contact Guy Ashby on 01243 584082.