So here is the Eastern part of my tour:

Above is the smallest police station in the world! Or at least it used to be. Unfortunately it is now a storage cupboard which is not quite as glamourous, however it used to have a direct line to Scotland Yard and room to fit two prisoners in if they made any arrests during political demonstrations taking place in Trafalgar Square.

Tucked away on The Strand, opposite the Royal Courts of Justice, is Twinings. This small little shop holds the world record for being the oldest shop, run by the same family, selling the same product, and they have been there for over 300 years since 1703!

My favourite of all of Sir Christopher Wrens Churches is the Church of St Brides. When the pastry chef William Rich was searching for inspiration for his daughters wedding cake he saw the spire of this church and made the worlds First Ever Tiered Wedding Cake.

Tower Bridge, especially at night is one of my favourite parts of the tour, not for the history or any kind of amazing facts, just because it just looks great! It IS the most famous bridge in the world, it was opened in 1894 and used to take 90 men to lift when it first opened. It is now opened electrically and takes about 90 seconds to fully open, it doesn’t open anywhere near as much as it used to, it used to open 400 times a month, now its about 400 times a year. You can find out when it is going to open by clicking on the following link: Tower Bridge Opening Times

The Tower of London, built to intimidate and impress! Started around 1070 by William the Conqueror, it has been many things in its time, the easiest way to remember what it has been is MOZART: Mint Observatory Zoo Arsenal Royal Treasury. When it was used as a Zoo the French gave us an Elephant and when our winters were much colder the Thames used to freeze over, they would send the Elephant onto the river to test the thickness so that they could have festivals on the ice!

As you cross over Southwark Bridge on your right you can see three sites of interest, the Tate Modern, the Millenium Bridge and Shakespeare’s Globe. Just beyond Bankside where the Globe is situated today you will find the original location of the Globe. Shakespeare performed his plays at the Globe Theatre because it had good acoustics, it was a round wooden building with a thatched roof. But it was in the performing of one of his plays, Henry VIII, that they a cannon they were using misfired and hit the roof. Luckily noone died, however the theatre was destroyed, and when the theatre was rebuilt they built it out of stone, when Shakespeare came back to rehearse his next play the same acoustics were not there, so he never performed there again. When Oliver Cromwell and the puritans banned everything from Theatre to Christmas they came and knocked down The Globe and it wasn’t until 1997 that the ideas of a man named Sam Wanamaker were realised and Shakespeares Globe was built on Bankside (See pic above). If you have ever seen the British SitCom ‘My Family’, the lady that plays Susan Harper is Zoe Wanamaker, the Daughter of the man responsible for the new Shakespeares Globe.

Not really on the East part of the tour at all, but needed to be put into this blog one way or another, so here it is, Big Ben! Big Ben actually refers to the 13.5 tonne bell inside the tower, and not actually the tower itself. First hung in 1859, it is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. The minute hand travels 225 miles a year!!!

And that pretty much concludes the most interesting parts of my East bound tour. If you like it, please show some love by commenting.

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