Book of London Lists
Why did London Underground once employ a one-legged man to ride up and down the escalator’s at Earl’s Court tube station? What are the names of the eight ravens in the Tower of London. Which revolutionary leader worked in a London hotel? And did you know that there is a Roman bikini and a pair of Queen Victoria’s knickers in the Museum of London?
All this and much, much more is contained within ‘The Book of Lists’*. There are 120 of them, including unusual pub names, fictional Londoners, inmates of Bedlam, highwaymen, whores, gangsters, riots and ghosts, all listed and - where possible - explained. And the East End has more than its share, with curious street names including Uamvar Street and Cyclops Mews (E14), Puma Court and Frying Pan Alley (E1), and Kitkat Terrace in Bow.
There are unusual pub names, explained. The Prospect of Whitby, in Wapping, was called the Devil’s Tavern back in the early 16th century, but in the 18th century it was the mooring point for a coal boat called the Prospect, which hailed from the Yorkshire town of Whitby. The Widow’s Son, in Bromley by Bow, was another which assumed a new name. Legend has it the hostelry was once a cottage owned by the mother of a sailor, who failed to return from a voyage one Good Friday. Each year, on that day, the mother would hang a hot cross bun from the ceiling of the pub in memory. The legend continues to this day, with the tavern being dubbed ‘The Bun House’ (interestingly there is another so named in Peckham, south east London.
Once upon a time the tallest buildings in London were in the City and the West End (for decades the Post Office/Telecom/BT Tower wore the crown). But over the last ten years, the shift of financial muscle east to Canary Wharf has been made concrete in a trio of new buildings. Now, the three tallest towers all sit on the Isle of Dogs. In first place 1 Canada Square (known to most people as ‘Canary Wharf’) at 771ft. Second equal are 8 and 25 Canada Square, both 655ft tall. Equally, there are the local buildings that might have been. In the midst of World War 2, architect WFC Holden came up with the idea of encasing Tower Bridge in glass, thus containing hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space … the plans got no further than the drawing board. Some notable buildings have gone of course - among them the grand (but never successful) Columbia Market in Bethnal Green.
The Tower of London should more accurately be called the ‘Towers’. There are 22 of them, and we learn the stories behind the names of the Bloody Tower, the Cradle, Brick and Constable towers and the rest. For centuries the Tower was used as England’s most secure gaol (right up to World War 2), but some prisoners did manage to escape. The Tower’s very first prisoner was also its first escapee (Ranulf Flambard in the late 11th century). Sir John Oldcastle, a leader of John Wyclif’s religious movement, followed in 1413. Jesuit priest John Gerard escaped from this torturers in 1597, and Jacobit Lord Nithsdale was sprung by his wife in 1716. The couple lived out the next 30 years, undisturbed, in Italy.
At the north entrance to Tobacco Dock in Wapping, a small statue commemorates a very Victorian incident. A small boy confronts a tiger, a memorial to the day when a full-grown Bengal tiger escaped from Jamrach’s animal emporium and strolled down the Commercial Road. Everyone fled except an eight-year-old boy who, oblivious to the danger, went up to stroke the beast’s nose. A giant paw stunned the lad and the tiger dragged the boy off into an alley. Mr Jamrach himself thrust his bare hands into the tiger’s throat and released the boy, who was returned unscathed to his mother.
People figure too of course. There are the Americans who were born in London. East Enders among them included US politician William Penn, union leader Samuel Gompers and founder of the Harlem Globetrotters Abe Saperstein. And fiction plays a large part - step forward George Raft in 1934 movie ‘Limehouse Blues’, which draws heavily on the myths of London’s Chinatown. Alternative tube maps, disused underground stations, film stars born in London, album covers shot in the city … the lists go on and on. And the names of those ravens? You’ll just have to buy the book.
* ‘The Book of Lists’ by Nick Rennison, published by Canongate, hardcover £9.99, ISBN 1841956767, www.canongate.net