This Week In London’s History
Random London Fact Of The Week
A bit of tube geekery this week. Despite the fact that Hampstead is the deepest tube station below ground level (reaching 192 feet below the street), it is built on a hill and so not actually the absolute deepest station in London – an accolade that currently goes to Westminster underground station, whose Jubilee Line platforms reside 105 feet below sea level.
(If you’re curious, Amersham is the highest London Underground station above sea level, at 482 feet.)
London’s Weather This Week
Well last week was a cracker, although we did predict that traditional April showers would hit before the end of the month. And it seems that the ‘proper’ forecasters agree with us – despite unseasonably strong sunshine in-between the clouds this week, it is likely to rain a bit as well. Fortunately it’s still going to be quite warm, regardless of the likelihood of some wetness.
One Thing You Must Do In London This Week
In case you hadn’t realised, today is St George’s Day. And to help Londoners celebrate England’s national day (on the date of the death of its patron saint), Ken has organised a couple of interesting events for us.
First-up there’s a whole load of English stuff being shown on a big screen in Trafalgar Square. The programme runs from 12:30pm to 9pm and includes various BFI-selected ‘classic comedy clips’ and films, followed at 6:45pm by the Spamalot-cast-led ‘Coconut Orchestra world record attempt’, about which we’ve already been quite snooty thankyouverymuch. Fortunately this particular nonsense should only last about half an hour, and is due to be followed by some much more entertaining nonsense in the form of a screening of Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
If all of that silliness is not quite your cup of Earl Grey, you might be more interested in some slightly more cultured entertainment at the Globe Theatre at Bankside at 8pm and 9pm this evening:
The Globe will be projecting onto the theatre a series of silent film adaptations of Shakespeare’s works dating back to 1899. Films will be accompanied by live music from composer Laura Rossi and the Fourth Dimension string quartet. Each film showing lasts approximately 45 minutes.
Full details of both these events can be found on the Mayor of London website.
The picture is ‘St George and the Dragon’ by Paolo Uccello, from around 1470.