London blog 3- 4 strange facts you can think about while visiting

 This is it. The Finale of my London blogs. I thought to keep this one fun and  simple: cool things about the several British landmarks you can keep in mind while you visit them or simply think of when you pass them by. This blog will include bizarre facts about famous places, each incredibly shocking. So without further ado, let’s jump into some fascinating history!

1.A girl buried under the Gherkin

Wikipedia

I’m sure many of you recognise this building, though many of you might not know the name. This building is the Gherkin, a commercial skyscraper in London’s financial district. Did you know a dead Roman girl was found buried underneath it? It’s true! During land clearance in 1995, archaeologists found the remains of a dead girl. On further investigation, it turned out that the corpse was around 1600 years old, dating back to around the time of the end of Roman colonisation of England. In fact, a headstone was even erected in her honour outside the building in 2007! How shocking, it is, to find the old history still lurking beneath its new modern clothes!

2. Polar bears in the River Thames

Wandle News

No, you aren’t going crazy. Long ago, in 1200s London, polar bears found near the Thames weren’t shocking at all! Londoners considered it quite ordinary for them to swim and come out to fish near the Tower of London. In fact King Henry the third kept an extensive collection of pets in the Menagerie ( a place within the walls of the Tower of London) such as monkeys, elephants, lions and tigers, even giving them there own set of room where visitors when allowed and entertained!

3.Stink pipes

MSN

What are the strange this? You might wonder. Are they lampposts? Quite odd aren’t they? They don’t even have lamps attached onto them. 

That’s because they aren’t lamppost’s at all but rather ‘stink posts’. Confused. Let me explain. In the late 1800s, around the time of the Industrial Revolution, the population of London had increased drastically, more than the city could accommodate so waste levels skyrocketed. As the city was still lacking an efficient sewage system, all of this waste accumulated in the River Thames, causing a phenomenon known as the Great Stink. Now, you have to note that scientific progress was at an all time low in this era. I mean they made baby bottles out of arsenic! So, when this stink appeared they thought it to be doing of a ghost and sprayed their houses with weird concoctions to ward off the ‘ghosts’. When the British Parliament finally came to their senses, however, they passed a bill to facilitate the building of an efficient sewage system  and commissioned the renowned architect Joseph Bazalgette for the same, who then invented these stink pipes to dispose of the highly inflammable methane, hydrogen sulphide and ammonia gases that built up in sewage pipes. Fascinating right?

4.Fake houses

Wikipedia

On one of London's grandest streets, you might not notice among the impressive white  buildings, the two equally impressive structures loacated at 23-24 Leinster Gardens. They may look like any old grand 1800's apartment buildings, but the truth is that behind their grand exteriors there are no, well, anything! Did you know that in the 1860's, during the construction of the Metropolitan line running between Bayswater and Paddington, a tunnel needed to be opened for the facilitation of what it was at the time, the world's first underground rail service ( the London Underground). In order for the visual harmony of the posh Leinster Gardens to be restored, these 'dummy houses' seen today were built which I feel really do pull the entire place together.

Did you find theses facts mind-boggling? I sure did the first time I found out about them. Now, that I have given you a rundown of, well a decent chunk of things in London, the only thing left for you to do is do some of your own research and hop on a plane to a great vacation.

Enjoy!