And Did Those Feet

The Castle Baynard Ward Walk We began with an introduction to the City of London and its 'democratic' (not) system.  Castle Baynard has an ex Lord Mayor as its Alderman (but that must be true of at least 50% of them).  He is public school educated but not Oxbridge and is a Tax expert who began with Arthur Anderson. We discussed the weird change in the area of the Ward in the reforms of 2003.  It was roughly from St Paul's south to the River until 2003 when they added an enormous (more than doubled the size of the ward) area outside the Wall in the Fleet Street area.  It is almost cut in half by an inroad of Farringdon Within Ward.  The shape is called the Tuning Fork. The explanation I don't know but the reform must have been based on equalising the wards in terms of 'population' or 'electors' or amenities and facilities. This is my sketch map.  The yellow is the new boundary, the blue/green is the historic one. You will see that Queenhithe has tak...

Attended LAMAS lecture on the excavations at the Curtain Theatre. Very interesting lecture which was very well presented. But, I had a lot of questions at the end of it. I asked the question, 'if you did not know this was the Curtain, what would make you think it was a Theatre.' There is a lot of documentary evidence to say the Curtain is here abouts but the archaeology seemed to me to be less than totally convincing. For example, the speaker talked about the stage, the galleries and showed a very schematic image of the rectangular theatre, with post-holes showing where the gallery is. But we were shown no archaeological photos which demonstrated these 'facts' they seemed to be self-evident. The two side gallery was evidenced by what looked like one post-hole. The stage was said to be a stage but didn't hear any evidence to show what it is identified as a stage. One range of foundations seemed to continue beyond the building outlines in the schematics a...

The pub's in No man Land are 'Jack Straws Castle which is sadly closed down and turned into luxury apartments, although Spaniard's Inn is nearby and still open. In Chalk Farm is the Red Bull. I cannot find any pub with that name in the area, the closest is the Bull and Gate in Kentish Town. However, Sheila Hancock says Pinter never went to the pub. So maybe its a fruitless search. No Man's Land (play) - Wikipedia

Here is a good list of Music Jane Austen would have heard/sung/played. Jane Austen Music

This is the place to find the Complete Shakespeare Walk taking place this year on 23 and 24th April 2016 The Complete Walk / Shakespeare's Globe

Google Wolf Hall locations and mostly you will get a list of the film locations. As a tourist it is easy to go on a tour of the film locations - much harder to find the real locations -despite the fact that most of them are Tourist Attractions or in the heart of London. Baffling. Fans of TV drama Wolf Hall can now follow a map around the filming locations including in Bath, Bristol and Somerset | Western Daily Press

Interesting article on the Wold Hall, in Wiltshre The REAL Wolf Hall Manor in Burbage, Wiltshire | Daily Mail Online

The North Doors of St Edwards are certainly amazing, and everywhere described as the Hobbit Doors, but as far as I can tell the 'evidence' is simply that Tolkein knew the Church and must therefore have been inspired by the Doors. But then the references cited in , for example, Stow-on-the-Wold, The Cotswolds #travelthursday | Adventures of a London Kiwi : does not describe a door with two trees beside it - it describes and invisible door with a badge on it which has various insignia including two trees: 'The two greatest craftsmen of the Second Age, the elf-lord Celebrimbor and the Dwarf Narvi, built the Doors. They were made like a flush door, the jambs invisible to the eye, and matched so perfectly with the mountain rock that, when closed, the Doors could not be seen. The slabs were made by Narvi out of grey material stronger than stone and inlayed by Celebrimbor with Ithildin, which can only be seen in starlight and moonlight; when visible, the fine silver-li...

This is an ambitions web  site - which provides a list of writer's houses, book shops, libraries, events and literary tours. Covers a host of countries. I checked London and Dorchester and it is quite impressive in its coverage. However, the funcionality is a bit limited  not sure you could not get all that information by googling. Dorchester - Literary Tourist