Last Day In London
And now for my last day in London! At this point in the trip I already saw literally every major thing I wanted to see, as in things that could take up a lot of time like museums, tours, plays, etc. But there were still some things that I wanted to take a look at, and so the final day was a rush to see them!
The first thing we did was go around Camden, originally to try to get into the British Museum, but the line was way too long and it wasn't really worth going. So, we walked around a little bit around the area and saw some pretty interesting things! (And I also had a killer carbonara).
First off, is something that only really interests nerds like me: The Broad Street Pump. This water pump (or at least the original, the one on site is a replica) was used by a physician named John Snow (yeah, really) in 1854 to discover the actual cause of Cholera.
By looking at how many people had access to the pump's water, and comparing it with where active Cholera cases were found, he deduced that the pump was what let the disease spread, and thus discovered that its actual cause is unclean water!
For more detail on this story, you can check out this episode of Map Men, or if you want to go into more detail Extra Credits's video series.
Anyways! The site of this now includes a replica of a pump, and also a pub which is named in honour of him (which is kind of ironic since he didn't drink alcohol, but whatever).
After that it took me a while to decide what I wanted to look at next, but then I saw something very interesting in the skyline surprisingly nearby: the gargantuan BT Tower.
At a height of 189 metres, the BT Tower was the tallest structure in the United Kingdom between 1964–1980, and still remains somewhat of a monolith as there are no buildings as tall as it in the surrounding area.
We didn't go in, but it just felt monumental to look at it. Inside, however, there is a revolving restaurant, and the tower remains an important point for telecommunications in the city and the entire country! Also for years it was deemed a national secret, seriously.
Next up my dad wanted to go to Abbey Road, and so we did! On our way there we went through Waterloo station which had dedicated spots for buskers, which was cool, and I actually recognized one from the video of Jay Foreman's Tube Station song!
Anyways, Abbey Road was interesting to be in, as it's hard to think of a single street, let alone a singular crossing that is as well-known as this one. I wondered if it's the most crossed street in the world, but I don't have any idea if that's even possible to know.
We also went to the Abbey Road Gift Shop right next door, which I am only bringing up since outside of it they have walls that show a timeline of things that happened in or relating to the studio. And also on the way to it there are some very clever signs.
And for the last thing we visited, we went to the City of London, where I specifically wanted to look for the dragons that divide it from the rest of the city!
Specifically there are thirteen dragons, and I wanted to see the two originals which are on the western end right next to the river, and the unique thirteenth dragon which is up the street from them! And so we did!
That was the last thing we saw that day, and by extension the trip in general. I do wanna mention some other miscellaneous stuff we saw on the way, though.
The British Museum and Broad Street Pump are located in the London Borough of Camden, however around the museum specifically there are still street signs from the older Borough of Holborn, which ceased to exist in 1965 when Greater London was defined.
And also, while walking through the City of London there were plaques of things everywhere, including memorials of famous writers, and commemorations of visits from monarchs, which were very interesting to see! This just goes to show one of my favourite attributes of London, the fact that the city is so dense in history.
