Today’s a milestone. We’ve just passed the halfway mark toward a year’s worth of Today in London History podcast. Accordingly, this one – whipped up for June 24th – is a potpourri. A potpourri with a rare, one-off ingredient.
London calling.
London Walks connecting.
London Walks here with your daily London fix.
Story time. History time.
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We turn the corner today.
Another way of putting that, halfway there. Well, we will be halfway there when we get to the middle of this podcast.
The project started on December 26th. Started on a whim. Said to myself, “you know what, I feel like doing a Today in London History podcast.” Had no idea how far down that road I’d go. Didn’t take long before I’d set myself a goal. “Let’s see if you can do it for a year, David. One for each day of the year.”
Had no idea whether I’d make it. Still don’t. But I’m a lot closer now than I was back in December. And I suspect – no way of knowing for sure until I’ve been over the ground – that it’ll be like going some place and then coming home. The coming home always seems to be quicker than the going out.
Anyway, it was a quixotic, eccentric, slightly flaky undertaking. Each one takes me several hours to research, write, record, clean up, publish. So it’s a fair old time commitment. But I’m enjoying it. And I’ve made some really pleasing finds. Well, they’ve been pleasing to me. And I hope people who listen to the podcast have had the same reaction. As for the listenership – well, we’re coming up to 200,000 listens now. For 600 plus podcasts – we started podcasting when Covid blew into town – anyway for 600 plus podcasts 200,000 listens is pretty modest. London Walks itself has always been for the discriminating few rather than the masses. About 250,000 people a year would go on a London Walk – that’s counting private walks as well as the 100+ a week public walks we did – so when you consider that London was getting 30 million visitors a year, well, one out of every 120 visitors was going on a London Walk. And actually it was probably more like one out of every 200 visitors because homies – Londoners – are a big chunk of our market.
But anyway, all of that’s fine by us. We were never after bog-standard tourists – we wanted – and we got – and we get – the top end of the market. Switched-on, bright, interested, fun, discerning independents. Travellers as opposed to tourists.
Anyway, because this one – the June 24th Today in London History podcast – is a kind of milestone, I thought I’d make it a potpourri, have it make lots of connections, make sure at least one of the ingredients is flaky.
So here we go. First of all a connection. Yesterday’s podcast was about looking at Waterloo Bridge and seeing four bridges. One of those bridges was the temporary one, the kind of bridge army engineers build. The bridge that played an important role in World War II. Well, as luck would have it, poking around some more an hour or so after the Waterloo Bridge podcast went to air, I made another find, made a discovery. Got a face and a name I can tie onto that bridge, like a label on an item in a shop. And this is so satisfying – it even fits our date. Some things were just meant to be. Anyway, here you go. On June 24, 1947 Sir Donald Bailey appeared before the Royal Commission on Awards at – wait for it – Somerset House to claim an award for his invention of the Bailey Bridge. So my line, “you look at Waterloo Bridge you see one Bridge, I look at it I see four bridges” – that line’s going have to be modified. Modified to: I look at it I see five bridges: today’s Waterloo Bridge, the Ladies Bridge, the Rennie bridge, the temporary, army engineer’s bridge and the Bailey Bridge. Just as Waterloo Bridge and the Ladies Bridge are one and the same bridge, so are the army engineer’s bridge and the Bailey Bridge. But the thing is, that Awards Day at Somerset House Sir Donald Bailey brought along a model of his famous bridge. Right now I’m looking at a photograph of him next to the model. So in my mind’s eye I see the big one, the army engineer’s one, there over the Thames and then subsequently over the Rhine in Germany. But I also now see the model, the Bailey Bridge. Sir Donald Bailey certainly deserved his award. The Bailey Bridge, as the caption put it, was one of the engineering devices which helped the Allied Nations to win the war. The caption ends with a bit of impressive name-dropping: Viscount Montgomery’s – General Montgomery’s – appreciation of the bridge was referred to. Turns out that over 2,000 Bailey Bridges were erected in northwest Europe in the final year of the war.
Moving on. Moving back. Let’s go to June 24, 1717. To a London tavern called the Goose and Gridiron. There’s a meeting there. In the language of the day, four operative Lodges of Masons meet and organise a Grand Lodge. They appoint one Anthony Sayer, Gentleman, Grand Master. And that’s the beginning of modern Freemasonry.
Bailey Bridges – freemasonry – I don’t know whether Sir Donald Bailey was a freemason but I’m beginning to see some June 24th dots that are connectable. It’s all about building.
As is our final item. Our wonderfully flaky ingredient. I’m going to bill this one as the world’s most preposterous invention. And what I wouldn’t give to know if it’s still in existence somewhere. Anyway, fasten your seat belts, here we go.
Say hello to the Eureka machine. Billed as one of the sights of the season, it was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly on June 24th, 1845. It was a machine for composing Hexameter Latin Verses.
But let’s hear it from the exhibitors. This is word for word. I’m not making this up. You couldn’t make this up.
“The rate of composition is about one verse per minute, or sixty in an hour. Each verse remains stationary and visible a sufficient time for a copy of it to be taken: after which the machine gives an audible notice that the Line is about to be decomposed. Each letter of the verse is then slowly and separately removed into its former alphabetical arrangement; on which the machine stops until another verse be required. Or, by withdrawing the stop, it may be made to go on continually, producing in one day and night, or 24 hours, about 1440 Latin verses; or, in a whole week (Sundays included) about 10,000.
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During the composition of each line, a cylinder in the interior of the machine performs the National Anthem.
As soon as the verse is complete, a short pause of silence ensues.
Silence indeed. I’m almost at a loss for words here. Except to say – and this is a recurrent theme in this podcast series – London has a huge appetite for novelty. Or, citing Dr Johnson once again, “when a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford (including a machine for composing hexameter Latin verses.
And I hope it’s ok if I briefly toot the London Walks horn here. You find out stuff from London Walks that you’re not going to find out anywhere else.
Finally, a few days ago I wove a new strand into this podcast. Said we’d work into the weave, from time to time, a good London tip. Here’s one for today. If you’re at Green Park Underground Station and you want to change from the Jubilee Line to the Piccadilly Line – or vice versa – don’t follow the signs. That’s a long walk. Takes forever. Instead, just take the escalator up from whichever line you’re changing the Jubilee or the Piccadilly, walk round the corner, it’s right there, and take the escalator down to the line you’re changing to. It’s much faster. Save you a lot of walking and a good few minutes. There, you see, you’re getting savvy, you’re getting street smart, you’re becoming a Londoner.
And for a Today in London recommendation… well, since I mentioned Green Park Tube Stop, howzabout a visit to the Royal Academy. The Summer Exhibition just got underway a couple of days ago.
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You’ve been listening to the Today in London History podcast. Emanating from www.walks.com – home of London Walks, London’s signature walking tour company. London’s local, time-honoured, fiercely independent, family-owned, just the right size walking tour company. And as long as we’re at it, London’s multi-award-winning walking tour company. Indeed, London’s only award-winning walking tour company.
And here’s the secret: London Walks is essentially run as a guides’ cooperative.
That’s the key to everything. It’s the reason we’re able to attract and keep the best guides in London. You can get schlubbers to do this for £20 a walk. But you can’t get world-class guides – let alone accomplished, distinguished professionals.
It’s not rocket science: you get what you pay for. And just as surely, you also get what you don’t pay for.
Back in 1968 when we got started we quickly came to a fork in the road. We had to answer a blockbuster question: Do we want to make the most money? Or do we want to be the best walking tour company in the world? You want to make the most money you go the schlubbers route. You want to be the best walking tour company in the world you do what you have to do to attract and keep elite, all-star guides. Bears repeating: the way we’re structured – a guides’ cooperative – is the key to the whole thing. It’s the reason for all those awards, it’s the reason we’ve got a lively, loyal, discerning following – quality attracts quality – it’s the reason we’re able – uniquely – to front our walks with accomplished professionals:
barristers, doctors, geologists, museum curators, archaeologists, historians, criminal defence lawyers, Royal Shakespeare Company actors, Guide of the Year Award winners… well, you get the idea. As that travel writer famously put it, “if this were a golf tournament, every name on the Leader Board would be a London Walks guide.”
And as we put it: London Walks Guides make the new familiar and the familiar new.
And on that agreeable note…come then, let us go forward together on some great London Walks. Good Londoning one and all. See ya tomorrow.
You’ve been listening to the Today in London History podcast. Emanating from www.walks.com – home of London Walks, London’s signature walking tour company. London’s local, time-honoured, fiercely independent, family-owned, just the right size walking tour company. And as long as we’re at it, London’s multi-award-winning walking tour company. Indeed, London’s only award-winning walking tour company.
And here’s the secret: London Walks is essentially run as a guides’ cooperative.
That’s the key to everything. It’s the reason we’re able to attract and keep the best guides in London. You can get schlubbers to do this for £20 a walk. But you can’t get world-class guides – let alone accomplished professionals.
It’s not rocket science: you get what you pay for. And just as surely, you also get what you don’t pay for.
Back in 1968 when we got started we quickly came to a fork in the road. We had to answer a blockbuster question: Do we want to make the most money? Or do we want to be the best walking tour company in the world? You want to make the most money you go the schlubbers route. You want to be the best walking tour company in the world you do what you have to do to attract and keep elite, all-star guides. Bears repeating: the way we’re structured – a guides’ cooperative – is the key to the whole thing. It’s the reason for all those awards, it’s the reason we’ve got a lively, loyal, discerning following – quality attracts quality – it’s the reason we’re able – uniquely – to front our walks with accomplished professionals:
barristers, doctors, geologists, museum curators, archaeologists, historians, criminal defence lawyers, Royal Shakespeare Company actors, Guide of the Year Award winners… well, you get the idea. As that travel writer famously put it, “if this were a golf tournament, every name on the Leader Board would be a London Walks guide.”
And as we put it: London Walks Guides make the new familiar and the familiar new.
And on that agreeable note…come then, let us go forward together on some great London Walks. Good luck and good Londoning. See ya tomorrow.