Liberal Arts Blog — UK (Part Seven) London I — From Romans (43 AD) To The Normans (1066) To The Beheading Of Charles I (1649) To Churchill And The Blitz (1940)
Liberal Arts Blog — Sunday is the Joy of Humor, Food, Travel, Practical Life Tips, and Miscellaneous Day
Today’s Topic: UK (Part Seven) London I — from Romans (43 AD) to the Normans (1066) to the beheading of Charles I (1649) to Churchill and the Blitz (1940)
Last time (3/9), Wales — from the Roman invasion to the Normal Conquest to devolution, from Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, and Dylan Thomas to Aneuran Bevin. Two weeks ago (3/2), Scotland — from the lochs and firths, the Shetlands and the Orkneys to five historic battles to the “Royal Mile” and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Before that, on 2/23 we covered the Dublin of James Joyce and Leopold Bloom, Trinity College, the Ha’penny, Samuel Beckett, and O’Connell bridges, and St. Stephen’s Green, On 2/16 we investigated northern Ireland including Belfast, the “Peace Walls,” the “Giant’s Causway” and Finn McCool.On 2/9, the central west (Galway, Mayo, Sligo) featured the Aran jumper, Boycott, and Yeats. On 2/2 the southwest (Cork, Kerry, and Clare) and the stories of Daniel O’Connell (the emancipator of Catholics) and Michael Collins (independence leader who fought in the Easter Rebellion and was assassinated in an ambush at age 31 in 1922).
Today, the city that was the largest in the world from 1831 to 1925 and inspired the likes of Charles Dickens, William Blake, and Ralph McTell.
Are you from London? Have you been lived, worked, studied there? What is your favorite little corner of London?
What do you know about London that the rest of us might not but would delight to learn?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
SO IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE JUST ONE SITE NOT TO MISS? HOW ABOUT THREE? SEVEN? IN ORDER?
1. Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Churchill’s War Rooms, Imperial War Museum, Tower Bridge.
2. Take the boat tour from Westminster to Greenwich.
3. Art galleries: National Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain.
TWO BACK TO BACK CATASTROPHES — THE GREAT PLAGUE OF 1665 AND THE GREAT FIRE OF 1666 (24 year old Isaac Newton was forced to leave town and go to his family farm and invent calculus)
1. The plague is estimated to have killed 100,000 Londoners (about 20% of the population).
2. The great fire destroyed 80% of the property but only resulted in six deaths.
3. By contrast the London Blitz of 1940–41 killed about 30,000 and later V1 and V2 bombings of 1944 to 1945 killed another 5–10,000.
NB: Christopher Wren (1632–1723) rebuilt 50 churches in London after the fire — most notably St. Paul’s.
DEMOGRAPHICS — from 1 million in 1801 to 8 million in 1930 to 8.8 million in 2021
1. White 53.8%, white British 36.8%, Asian British 20.8%, Black British 13.5%, Mixed 5.7% (wikipedia)
2. The ethnic mix has changed dramatically since 1961 (see above)
THE THAMES (215 miles long) — from the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire to the Thames Estuary at South-end on Sea where it flows into the North Sea
1. Longest river entirely in England. Second longest in the UK — after the River Severn (220 miles).
2. The Thames Barrier (completed in 1982) is the second largest flood barrier in the world and protects London from flooding.
3. Provides two thirds of London’s drinking water.
NB: The Thames Path is a trail along the river’s entire length and is the longest riverside walk in Europe. Have you walked it?
WILLIAM BLAKE’S “LONDON” (1794)
1. I wander thro’ each charter’d street, near where the charter’d Thames does flow and mark in every face I meet marks of weakness, marks of woe.”
2. “In every cry of every Man, in every Infants cry of fear, in every voice, in every ban, the mind-forged manacles I hear.”
3. “How the Chimney-sweepers cry, every blackning Church appalls, and the hapless Soldiers sigh runs in blood down Palace walls.”
NB: “But most thro’ midnight streets I hear, how the youthful Harlots curse blasts the new-born Infants tear and blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.”
To be continued.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Thames
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_in_World_War_II
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Anything miscellaneous to share? Best trip you ever took in your life? Practical life tips? Random facts? Jokes?
Or, what is the best cartoon you have seen lately? or in the last 10 years? or the last 50?
Or what is your favorite holiday food? Main course? Dessert?
Fondest food memories? Favorite foods to eat or prepare?
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your mind a memory that might otherwise disappear. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
