Stephen Liddell's Blog

Dear readers and friends, today I am moving house after 4 dropped out buyers and 2 of my own hoped for home purchases falling through.

After 42 years I am leaving the area I have lived just outside of London to very rural Rutland, the County of Good Taste!

I’m sure I shall expand on it all later but I’m short of time and it may take a few days or more before I get the internet back from when you read this.

In the meantime, take a look at some of the tours I have created in the local area (in addition to the usual London tours).

East Midlands (Lincoln, Nottingham, Rutland, Stamford, Cambridge etc)

One of the things people most associate with Newcastle after its engineering and sometimes chilly climate is its pubs and nightlife. When I created my first pub tour here, as with London, it became obvious there were just too many interesting old pubs to fit into one tour.

In the U.K. Newcastle is often depicted in police or murder tv shows, even the funky High Level Bridge I wrote about a few days ago has been in modern detective dramas such as Vera.

Perhaps the most famous film set in Newcastle is not just the most famous British gangster film but undoubtedly one of the top films of all time. Get Carter.

Get Carter is about a London gangster who revisits the city of his childhood when his brother meets a sticky end. In his own indomitable style, Carter has run ins with and eliminates those he thinks were responsible for his death along with a few other ‘innocents’ along the way before its rather famous and for the first time viewer, shocking ending.

I decided to create another pub tour that visits many of the locations that are seen in the film which includes some of the pubs too and lots of history. Kill two birds with one stone, nice and efficient… Carter would appreciate it, especially the killing part.

The top takes us to 4 great old pubs in Newcastle and around the Quayside and through the maze of alleys and Chares near the castle that most people get to see unless of course they are being chased by gangsters, perhaps I should add that as an additional option!

Then we cross over the River Tyne across a certain bridge I wrote about a few days ago. It featured in Get Carter in a number of very different scenes.

We finish off in Gateshead, in the film most famous for that epic scene in the multi-storey carpark. Sadly for tourists, the car park is now no-more but perhaps my tourists might live a longer life for that being the case.

You can find more about the tour below:

https://www.viator.com/tours/Newcastle-upon-Tyne/Get-Carter-Newcastle-Quayside-and-Gateshead-Pub-Tour/d23189-8607P106

Where does Get Carter rank in your favourite Michael Caine films? It’s a tough one as there are so many good ones. I particularly like Get Carter, Zulu, The Man Who Would Be King and also his recent film, One Voice about The British Schindler Sir Nicholas Winton and the Kindertransport

I read about this exhibition a few months ago, primarily as I was trying to find any excuse to visit the Fitzrovia Chapel. Having previously tried to visit earlier in the week, I managed to find time on Sunday after multiple drenchings on a walking tour and various other ordeals that one only seems to get in London.

Nevertheless despite wanting to get home, I made a detour, watched a military parade and eventually found myself at Goodge Street station on the lookout for the Fitzrovia Chapel which is rather well hidden. I found it easily myself but one or two others weren’t quite sure where to go.

DAVID BOWIE – A LONDON DAY is curated by journalist, author, cultural historian and Bowie fan, Dylan Jones.

In late 1992, David Bowie was preparing for the release of his 18th studio album Black Tie White Noise. Photographer Kevin Davies was commissioned to photograph Bowie for a series of images which would be used to promote the album. The session took place at a studio space in Clerkenwell on Sunday 13th December 1992, with a selection of images subsequently approved by Bowie for press use, after which Davies placed the original rolls of film, contact sheets and prints in storage where they stayed for almost 30 years.

In 2020, Davies uncovered the boxes to reveal perfectly preserved film negatives of 400+ images from that single day with Bowie, the details of which had been eclipsed by the indistinguishable memory of a luminous presence. The original collection of 450 images captured a then 45-year-old David Bowie styled for Black Tie White Noise, plus a series shot late in the day when Davies asked to capture Bowie “just as you are.”

The exhibition features 20 photographs from across the day with selected images presented as diptychs and triptychs to explore a meditation on the photographic archive. This exhibition takes Bowie as its subject, but it is equally a representation of the afterlife of analogue photography. It explores the intersection of the archive and creative remembrance. The collection is built around a number of Bowie’s own selects taken from his mark-ups on Davies’ original contact sheets and reveals a timeless, almost age-less David Bowie in the prime of his life.

Kevin Davies said – “In the anxiety of COVID 19 lockdown I found comfort in retracing my career through stored away negative boxes. I finally had the opportunity to do something I had wanted to do for such a long time; rediscovering past jobs in their totality. For me, this exhibition is a chance to show the photographic process beyond a commission.”

Curator Dylan Jones said – “This is a fascinating body of work as it’s a visual narrative that takes place over the course of a single session on a single day. Not only does it show David Bowie’s extraordinary attention to detail, but it also shows Kevin Davies’ ability to shape and catalogue that narrative. I love these pictures.”

I must admit I likely only visited to see inside the chapel but that’s the thing about the place, it makes for unique and calm setting and a really good venue for small exhibitions or events.

The exhibition only runs until the 20th of March so if you are a fan of David Bowie, ornate hospital chapels or like myself a bit of both then do check it out.

The Middlesex Hospital started life in the 1740’s and set up base in two terraced houses that were leased from the local landowner, Mr Goodge who is now remembered forever by the nearby tube station Goodge Street.

The houses were soon later converted to accommodate 15 beds. The Middlesex was founded as a charity for the ‘sick and lame of Soho’ but included the slums of Seven Dials around St Giles-in-the-Fields in its care. For six centuries, London only had two hospitals: St Bartholomew’s and St Thomas’. In 1719, the Westminster was founded, followed in succession by Guy’s, St George’s, The London and in August 1745, The Middlesex, so called because this part of London was part of the county of Middlesex.

Before the chapel was built, the Middlesex Hospital had little non-clinical or non-administrative space. Wood-panelled boardrooms hosted chaplaincy services, but there was no space specifically designed with peace, quiet and reflection in mind. Initial funds were raised through donations, and architect John Loughborough Pearson was engaged by the hospital board to design the small building in the heart of the hospital complex. Pearson had been awarded RIBA’s Gold Medal in 1880, and his designs included St Augustine’s Church in Kilburn, Truro Cathedral, Westminster Hall, Bristol Cathedral, and additions to St Margaret’s Church in the grounds of Westminster Abbey.

Construction began on the chapel’s red brick exterior in 1891, when Pearson was already nearing the end of his life. His son and apprentice, Frank, took over after his father’s death, writing to the board of hospital governors to tell them of his father’s death, and his own wish to complete the project. The finished chapel is a combination of both their designs, and reflects the influences of Gothic European architecture in the work of both men. The first service in the chapel was held on Christmas Day 1891, with an official opening ceremony by the Bishop of London taking place in June 1892.

The chapel took more than 25 years to complete. It includes 17 types of marble used in its finished design. In its early life, it housed candlesticks, effigies, pews and altar cloths — all purchases which were made possible through fundraising by the medical community.

The chapel hosted regular services throughout the week, led by the Middlesex’s resident chaplain. Sermons were broadcast throughout the wards over hospital radio so that those too sick to visit could be a part of the chapel’s activity. On two occasions, the BBC broadcasted from the chapel as part of a series of national hospital radio shows.

The chapel served as a place of solace, reflection and rest for staff and patients and their families. It was always open between services, and groups of different faiths (and none) from within the hospital gathered in the tiny building throughout the working week. Marriages between medical staff, or between very ill patients and their partners, took place here, as well as concerts, memorials, seasonable celebrations and choir rehearsals.

Many present-day visitors have spent time here before, whether as a medical professional, family member or patient and the memories they share contain moving descriptions of chapel life in the past. Doctors or nurses visiting to find quiet after a difficult shift; porters sitting quietly in the candlelight reflecting on a day’s work; mothers taking their first trip out of the ward with their new-borns; or families and friends returning to the chapel time after time while caring for their loved ones. This tiny chapel provided a space for the population of the Middlesex Hospital to attend to their interior lives — their needs, hopes, griefs and celebrations were routinely observed beneath its starry ceiling.

After centuries of healthcare, wholesale reforms with the creation of the NHS after WW2, healthcare on the site was wound down towards the end of the twentieth century and the whole site was demolished.

Well the whole site apart from the wonderful old chapel which I have wanted to visit for a decade or more but it’s been impossible due to demolition and re-construction efforts that of course were compounded by Covid.

Now surrounded by fancy new though in my opinion rather soulless developments even by the standard of the day, the Fitzrovia Chapel is back and now set to also be host to a number of artistic and cultural events.

As you can see it has been beautifully and lovingly restored.

As I had so long wanted to visit I decided to attend the very first exhibition last Sunday on Mothers Days. More about that on thursday.

One of my favourite films of the last few years is The Gentlemen. I watched it several times during Covid in an empty cinema and when I could, I went out to visit one or two of the locations I wasn’t familiar with.

It’s a hilarious, stylish and sometimes very violent London gangster film by Guy Ritchie

So I was thrilled to learn that 5 years later Guy Ritchie was working on an 8 part mini series of the same name albeit with different characters and story,

Ritchie said there were themes and storylines which were “worth exploring” further following the film. 

Critics have broadly welcomed the series, although some say Ritchie relies too much on his usual style.

Empire said Ritchie “simply remixes his hit singles” for the series, with “more gangsters, more heists, infinitely more dialogue”.

But the Radio Times said that, in spite of its shortcomings, the series ultimately is “an absolute boat-load of fun”.

The 2019 film starred Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant – but none of them have returned to the franchise to appear in the TV series.

Instead, Theo James takes the lead opposite supporting characters played by Vinnie Jones, Ray Winstone, Joely Richardson and Max Beesley.

The series sees Eddie Halstead (played by James) inherit his wealthy father’s country estate following his death, much to the fury of Eddie’s pompous and drug-addicted elder brother Freddy.

Eddie initially considers selling the house to a rich but mysterious buyer – played by Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito (though I’ve never seen any of his shows before) – but decides against it when he finds the estate is partly being used to grow cannabis for an extremely successful underground drug empire.

Speaking at the premiere on Tuesday, Ritchie said adapting the film into a TV series “actually turned out to be easier than I anticipated”.

“You feel that this could run and run,” he continued, “the characters take on their own life, all you have to do is establish a character and create their own voice, and then couple that with an actor and we’re off to the races.”

The Gentlemen focuses on the criminal underworld and other familiar Guy Ritchie themes.

“The fascinating conceit was what attracted me,” James said at the premiere, “the melding of the aristocracy and the underworld, and how those things collide in the bombastic way. 

“Britain is so defined by class, and we love it and hate for various reasons, but defining it in the melee of this was really fascinating for me.”

One of the show’s toughest and most assured characters is Susie Glass – played by Kaya Scodelario – who is running the cannabis farm under the estate’s grounds.

“I very rarely get to portray women that are already at the top of the game when you meet them,” the actress said, “it’s always a young woman finding her way in life.

“But what I loved about Susie is she’s a boss, she’s good at her job, she can run things, she knows exactly what she’s doing.”

Esposito plays the wealthy investor who has his eye on the estate – Stanley Johnston. “With a T,” he repeatedly says – perhaps to differentiate the character from the real-life Boris Johnson’s father. 

The political references appear to be deliberate – another character is named Toni Blair.

Esposito said his character “is someone who is graceful, patient, cordial, and the British are that way”. 

“So this seems to be a perfect collision of this aristocratic culture and nature, but also not only criminality and non-humanity. And for me, that tells a bigger picture of our world.”

Ritchie’s credits include Aladdin and The Covenant, but he is best known for films which focus on themes of violence, gangsters and drugs but with a uniquely British twist.

Films such as Snatch, RockNRolla and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels were hugely successful at the box office in the late nineties and early noughties.

I used to attend lots of film premieres in London when I did more writing and am fortunate to know quite a few people in the business in London and Hollywood. However I haven’t been to one for yonks until by Excluded friend Sharon invited me.

Many of the 3.8 million Excluded the British government left to die with no help or support during Covid worked in the entertainment industries and it was really nice of my friend to invite me as her plus one to this special red carpet event.

We’d never met in real life before so un the hours before the big event, I gave her a great tour of London and areas around Covent Garden. Despite our dapper outfits and formal shoes, we chalked up 10 miles and I still have the cuts on my feet to prove it.

It was great to be back at a red carpet event with all the lights and fans and media everywhere. We were allocated front row gallery tickets and whilst others were standing in lines for an hour or two, we went in even after some of the stars in the show.

There was a little goodies bag for us too and I’d only ever been in the theatre once and that in Covid for a little peek inside when no-one was around so it was great to see the main auditorium before the Compare brought out Guy Ritchie and dignitaries from Netflix all of whom promised this was going to be entertaining Great British drama.

We were treated to the first 1 hour episode along with various entertainment media outlets and a lot of the cast and crew. Being such a big fan of the original The Gentlemen I was both excited and a little nervous as I didn’t want the new programme to sully the reputation of the film.

I needn’t have worried as it was brilliant and my friend Sharon who hadn’t ever seen the film laughed even more than I did.

The advantage of a series over a film is there can be more character development and more intricate story-telling though perhaps intricate is the wrong word to use here as anyone who has watched a Guy Ritchie gangster film might know.

It did make me laugh and there are some outrageous scenes. If anything there was less violence than I expected at least for the first 90% of the episode but then as is the way with Guy Ritchie films, that sense that everything is about to imminently explode just builds and everything racks up a notch just when you least expect it or at least in a way one might not expect.

I can’t wait to watch the entire series in the next few days. The first episode was great and so was the Premiere event and of course meeting my friend Sharon. It was also really neat to see Ray Winstone in the flesh who its fair to say having just celebrated his 75th birthday is the Granddaddy of London gangsters! I’m currently enjoying him in the first role I saw him in back in the early 80’s as Will Scarlet in Robin of Sherwood… he was a tough mofo back then too!

https://stephenliddell.co.uk/2020/02/26/the-life-and-grave-of-little-john-of-robin-hood-fame/

The Gentlemen drops onto Netflix today on Thursday 7th March 2024. I would like to put some of my favourite quotes up but most would be wholly inappropriate!

There are so many good bridges in Newcastle, it’s almost a city defined by its bridges and certainly its most famous one is a symbol of the city.

I wrote last year on another pioneering bridge across the Tyne in the link below but my favourite bridge here is actually the one I;m writing about today. The High Level Bridge.

The Newcastle-Gateshead Swing Bridge

Designed by Robert Stephenson, the bridge was to combine rail and road traffic and was the first in the world to do so.

The Newcastle & Berwick Railway secured the Act to build its line in 1845. It stipulated that the company should construct a combined road and rail bridge across the River Tyne between Newcastle and Gateshead, to be completed within four years.

The bridge was designed by Robert Stephenson and detailed drawings were made under the supervision of Thomas E Harrison. To avoid excessive width, and thereby expense, it was decided to carry the railway above, rather than beside, the roadway. The roadway itself was designed to be 20ft (6m) wide with a 61/2ft (2m) footway on either side. The combined width allowed three standard gauge tracks to run across the top rail level of the bridge. The overall length of the bridge was to be 1338ft (408m).

The bridge was a tied arch (or bow-string) bridge with the main structural elements made of either cast or wrought iron. It had in total six spans each 125ft (38m) in length, the cast iron bows supporting the railway while wrought iron ties supported the road deck below. To enable a level line for the railway across the deep and wide Tyne valley, the roadway was built at 96ft (29m) and the railway 120ft (37m) above high water on the river. Contracts for the production of the ironwork were let to local firm Hawkes, Crawshay & Co of Newcastle.

The bridge sits on five masonry piers, 50ft (15m) thick and 16ft (5m) wide. Although the River Tyne at the point the bridge is constructed was no more than 3ft (1m) deep at low water, its bed consisted of some 30ft (9m) of silt before underlying bedrock could be reached.

A recent invention, the ‘Nasmyth Steam Pile Driver’, was used for the first time in bridge building, enabling the piles for the bridge foundations to be driven down to the bedrock quickly and efficiently. Rush & Lawton of York were contracted to build the five main masonry piers and the land arches on each side carrying the approaches; 50,000 tons of stone was quarried near Newcastle, mainly at Heddon on the Wall.

To assist in the construction work a wooden viaduct was built immediately to the east of the permanent one. This temporary structure was opened to railway traffic on 29 August 1848, just a year before the High Level Bridge itself was opened by Queen Victoria on 28 September 1849. The public roadway over the bridge was not completed and opened until some six months later.

In 1906 King Edward VII opened the King Edward railway bridge nearby, which provided a shorter route into Newcastle station.

Today the High Level Bridge is used as a turning loop on the East Coast Mainline whilst road traffic is restricted to mostly buses and taxis.

It’s rather fortunate the bridge is here as it survived a number of fires in Victorian times including the Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead (you know a fire is great if it is on two sides of a major river).

The bridge underwent major structural repairs in the first decade of the 21st century after various cracks were found and now it is good for hopefully another 150 years.

I like this bridge because it is chunky and substantial. It’s very Victorian but also very urban and rather nitty-gritty in a way not many bridges in Britain are.

High above the river you get some incredible views, including of the other bridges nearby but I also like the High Level Bridge just because I do. It’s rather more forboding at nighttime so it’s easy to see why it is less used after dark though I myself have never shied away from doing so. It’s normally very quiet though when you spy someone else either coming towards you or trailing you then it makes the crossing a little bit more exciting.

I have spent the last few days creating a few new tours in Newcastle, two of which are historic pub themed tours. Whilst deciding upon which pubs to visit I was reminded of a fascinating if I think tragic story behind the landlord of the Duke of Wellington Pub in High Bridge.

William Campbell was the landlord of the Duke of Wellington pub in Newcastle upon Tyne, and reputedly the heaviest man in Britain at the time.

Born in Glasgow in 1856, Campbell was one of seven children in a family who were all of average proportions, but his parents will have realised they had a whopper on their hands when he’d reached four stone at the age of nine months. He had ballooned to eighteen stone when he was ten years old, and had to quit his job as a printer in his teens when he’d reached forty stone.

Inspired by a freak show that visited Glasgow, Campbell decided to exhibit his vast body for money. He billed himself as ‘The Biggest Man In Britain’, ‘Her Majesty’s Largest Subject’ or ‘The Heaviest Man In The World’, depending on how the fancy took him. But he was generally known as ‘The Scottish Giant’, and became famous throughout Britain, which he toured extensively.

The Duke of Wellington public house on High Bridge in Newcastle was owned by the brewers Bartleman & Crighton and had been raided by the police for illegal gambling, coming within a whisker of losing its licence. The brewery decided to change the tone of their business by hiring a celebrity to run the pub, and celebrities didn’t come any bigger than William Campbell.

The licensing records state that he became landlord of the Duke of Wellington on November 11th 1877, although it was run by his wife Polly, who he’d married two years previously. Campbell was kept busy with a theatrical agency which he operated from the pub, and the upstairs rooms were used as accommodation for performers at the nearby Theatre Royal. There were musicians playing in the bar each evening and Campbell held private audiences with his admirers every Monday lunchtime, when he wasn’t out on the road.

A correspondent from the medical journal The Lancet visited Campbell at the Duke of Wellington and recorded his measurements. He stood six feet three inches tall, his waist was 85 inches and a single thigh had a circumference of 74 inches; it was said he weighed over 52 stone. He claimed to drink little alcohol, but the correspondent noted he smoked like a chimney. Needless to say, he had very limited mobility.

Campbell returned from London for an appearance at Newcastle’s Westgate Hall in February 1878, it took six strapping men to lift him from the train onto the platform at the Central Station. He failed to turn up for an appearance at the Mechanics Hall in Jarrow the following week, cabmen at the station had refused to take him there for fear of wrecking the suspension in their carriages.

He left Newcastle again for a series of engagements in London and France and came back to Newcastle with a bad cold. His condition worsened and he took to his bed for ten days upstairs at the Duke of Wellington, where he died on May 26th, 1878. He was twenty-two years old.

The location of his death presented serious problems for the undertakers, the combined weight of Campbell and his coffin weighed around a tonne. The window and a large part of the wall from his second-floor bedroom was removed so that he could be lowered by block and tackle onto a rolley. This bizarre spectacle was watched by a huge crowd and the Illustrated Police News published an engraving of it which you can see below.

Thousands of people lined the streets as the funeral procession made its way to Jesmond Cemetery, where a block and tackle was deployed again to lower him into the ground.

Sadly despite his eventful life not being that long ago, his grave was lost in the 1970s when a road next to the cemetery was widened. However you can still see evidence of William Campbell – The Biggest Man in Britain by looking at the brickwork which was replaced on the exterior of the Duke of Wellington after the Scottish Giant was removed from the building.

Looking at the engraving and the photo above, it’s clear that the streets and yard in front of the Duke of Wellington are largely unchanged since Victorian times.

Normally I create a pub tour on my own Ye Olde England Tours website but for various reasons, this one is up first on Viator/Trip Advisor so if you fancy a really great private pub tour in Newcastle then just clock below.

https://www.viator.com/tours/Newcastle-upon-Tyne/Newcastle-Pub-Tour/d23189-8607P105

Two weeks ago my car had its annual MOT inspection. The garage I have been using for 20 years had moved during Covid and me being a loyal type and the mechanic being amazing, I decided it was worth going to his new premises about 15 miles away.

When I arrived at the garage I realised that nearby was an old lane, at least I hoped there was. I had looked at a map about 5 years ago and apparently the lane is now the boundary between the counties of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. In fact it is called Old Shire Lane.

As interesting as that is, the same lane at one point used to be the boundary between the old kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex. You might remember from other posts, after the Romans England especially reverted to a number of smaller kingdoms, partially inspired by the pre-roman Tribes.

Over the centuries, these smaller kingdoms each had their moment in the sun before gradually power coelesced and England grew to have a national consciousness and identity.

I wanted to see if I could find this lane about a mile away on foot and see if I could see any evidence of, well anything. There was an additional problem of there being weeks of heavy rain and in fact it had rained heavily for about 26 hours up until breakfast time on my little venture.

I found where I thought I should be but evidently had picked the worse possible day for it and was wearing only normal jeans and trainer shoes whilst others in wellington boots were deterred.

The Kingdom of Mercia largely met its end as a result of ongoing struggles against the Vikings and it’s possible that for a time this lane was the boundary between Wessex and Danelaw.

Having traced my family tree back over 2,000 years and knowing my ‘foreign’ 33% comes from Danish Vikings around the 6th century, I wasn’t going to be deterred by a bit of water. However there was a distinct lack of long boats available and to be honest, there were any villages to pilfer or young damsels to carry off.

Despite at one point almost walking into a hidden stream, after a few minutes of wading through floods I had found what I was looking for.

The earth bank is the old border that I’d think would be about 1,300 years of age without doing any research on it whatsoever.

Half a mile or so down an increasingly muddy lane and I came across these two Sarsen stones, miniature versions of their bigger brothers you might find at Stonehenge or hundreds of other British stone circles.

Look at the stone above, it even has a line carved through it, a border. I was very impressed that my memory was so good and that it had been worth getting so thoroughly wet and muddy.

I made a bit of a detour in the woods on the way back, figuring that as I am going to get really wet anyway, it would wash any mud off me. Turns out that idea only worked on my jeans not my shoes.

Anyway I did find a few things that I later checked out. These woods and others the 15 miles or so to High Wycombe were once a hotbed of furniture making do to specific species of tress that grow here (not pictured above). Most of what is thought as traditional farmhouse furniture in the U.K. and Britain originated here.

If you look amongst the leaves and trees you can see some earth banks. These are the remains of enclosures that date back about 800-900 years of age.

I would have stayed longer but only had an hour and wasn’t really sure how I’d get back to the garage and car which incidentally passed its inspection with flying colours.

Two hours later when I got home, you can see how deep the water was that I waded through. Even got my bits wet!!

There is always something historic to see in the U.K. almost around every corner, you just have to know your history and what you’re looking at. Rather like a doctor or engineer doesn’t have to know everything before they see something new and interpret a problem or solution, it’s the same if you know your history really well.

Other people sit in the waiting room reading magazines or having a hot drink whilst their cars are repaired, me I go off on a wild goose-chase through floods to find post-Roman ruins!

It’s long been the habit for monarchs around the world to receive some of the most incredible gifts. You only have to go to Windsor Castle to see some of the things our Royal Family have received over the centuries and apparently there are entire stores of more humdrum or precious objects.

But what to get the king or queen that has everything? This must have been on the mind of King Louis IX of France who decided to give a unique present to King Henry VIII of England in 1255, an elephant!

Louis IX himself had received it from his former captor, the Sultan of Egypt which is a reminder that not all royal gifts are likely given with genuine love.

Upon seeing it, famed medieval Chronicler Matthew Paris drew a picture of it, noting that it was 10 years old and 10 feet tall. It was housed at the Tower of London in a pen built to measure 40 feet long and 20 feet wide.

The elephant upstaged the previous animal occupant of the Tower, a polar bear given to Henry by the King of Norway. A special rope was made to allow the bear to swim and fish in the Thames. What happened to the bear is unknown. The same goes with the herd of buffalo sent to King Henry III’s brother Richard of Cornwall. Matthew reports their arrival in 1252, describing their horns and fondness for water, but afterwards they are forgotten. Did they become a fixture of London life, perish due to their conditions are perhaps eaten by a ravenous escaped Polar Bear? We may never know.

In 1241, Richard was welcomed in the Italian city of Cremona by a band playing on top of an elephant. Matthew drew a picture of it based on Richard’s account, but that animal reflected the images Matthew saw in bestiaries. Now he joined enormous crowds to see the elephant in the Tower, which sadly survived only two years, dying on Valentine’s Day in 1257.

Eighteen months later, King Henry III had its bones moved from the Tower yard to Westminster Abbey. As he was then reconstructing the abbey to become a royal mausoleum, he felt the elephant, which was marveled for its gentleness and fidelity, deserved its own resting place within the walls. Like all relics in the abbey, the bones disappeared during the Tudor era.

Not many people are aware that amongst it’s long and distinguished history, the Tower of London was at one stage the first home of London zoo but if you ever visit then you can see some modern sculptures that remember even if sadly many of them did not live long lives in captivity.

Most people are familiar with the London Underground map. It’s one of the most used, recognised and perhaps even loved designs ever used in travel.

That famous old map doesn’t really tell the whole story though. Aside from the countless commuter lines and intercity lines which most foreign visitors would never use and so are largely omitted from the London Underground map are a network of lines known as the London Overground.

Many of these lines were individual run, dilapidated and parts of some had even fallen into disuse before they were all brought together. They don’t really go where tourists go and indeed, some Londoners can go years without ever using them.

For those in the know however they are a secret wonder that whisk you between various parts of London that are hard to otherwise reach and even today they are largely overlooked in favour of the Underground.

Apart from them being a relatively new branding, one of the reasons the London Overground aren’t so well known or used is they have long been only tentatively and then half-heartedly shown on Transport For London Maps and when they were, they were all shown in one orange colour as if they were all one confusing single line.

Imagine if all the London Underground lines were just one colour to show they were one single system, how intimidating and crazy that would be.

After a long awaited consultation exercise it has been decided that these orange and officially nameless lines are to no longer be orange and officially nameless. In fact as of last week, they all received names and colours on the map.

The new names were chosen with the input of “stakeholders, customers, historians, industry experts and communities”. As always. the choices will, of course, divide Londoners. Some will call the names politically correct or rather tenuously linked and a few others actually had well loved local names that were swept away when they were all brought under the London Overground branding though still used by travellers.

The first line is the one I travel the most and one that already had the label of being the Harlequin line for traditional local reasons. It is now to be known as The Lioness line (Euston to Watford Junction): Named after the Euro-winning/World Cup finalist England women’s football team. The line passes through Wembley and will be shown by yellow parallel lines.

I don’t actually know anyone who thinks this is a good name for a permanent and existing train line. Most would stick with the Harlequin line or more excitingly something Harry Potter related given the famous films and tourist attraction are at the end of the line in Watford. Would you go on the overground line to Watford? Possibly not but would you go on the Hogwarts Express, probably definitely. Or even the Hornets Line, the nickname of Watford FC.

Oh well, what do I know. I’ve only lived here for 42 years and use the transport system about 360 days a year,

The Mildmay line (Stratford to Richmond/Clapham Junction): Named after a small charitable hospital in Shoreditch that has cared for Londoners over many years both in Victorian times for diseases such as Cholera and more recently becoming the first HIV/AIDS hospital in Europe in the 1980s. It will be shown with blue parallel lines.

The above seems a little obscure to me, what next the Liz Truss tramline?

A much better name in my opinion is The Windrush line (Highbury & Islington to Clapham Junction/New Cross/Crystal Palace/West Croydon): Fairly obviously, named for the famous ship and the generation who came to Britain on it in 1948.

This line “runs through areas with strong ties to Caribbean communities today, such as Dalston Junction, Peckham Rye and West Croydon”. It will be given red parallel lines on the map.

Another one that I like is The Weaver line (Liverpool Street to Cheshunt/Enfield Town/Chingford): Runs through areas such as Liverpool Street, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green and Hackney noted for their history of textile production. (And passes alongside Weavers Fields.) This line will be maroon parallel lines on the map.

I much prefer this name to the Lioness Lion. The Suffragette line (Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside): What was formerly nicknamed the Goblin will henceforth be named after those who struggled for women’s votes. We’re told that it celebrates the working class population of the East End who fought in the movement, and it includes Barking, “home of the longest surviving Suffragette Annie Huggett, who died at 103”. This line will have green parallel lines.

The Liberty line (Romford to Upminster): The tiny stump of Overground on the upper-right of the tube map is perhaps the most vague name choice. We’re told that freedom is a “defining feature of London and references the historical independence of the people of Havering, through which it runs. Nice name but a piece of track that hardly anyone uses. It will be shown with grey parallel lines.

Breaking up the Overground into separate lines, it’s hoped, will help with navigation. Currently, passengers have to decipher a web of orange, which includes 112 stations. This rebranding helps breaks it down into manageable chunks.

It does make the map a bit more useful now all the Overground lines are not in one Orange colour though it also means the official London Underground map is now even more psychedelic than ever.