Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Random Stroll through London leading inter alia to Wonder Drug and Rude Clock

Monday was a crisp bright and free day so we walked out of the hotel and along the Marylebone Road towards Paddington Green in search of a canal boat where coffee was served.

Everywhere we went we saw Boris Bikes

Tucked underneath the Edgeware Road to the left is a treelined avenue running alongside the Regent canal

Blue plaques are displayed all over London - allegedly there is even one for the silly walks sketch.

I had never been here in all my time living and growing up in London! Evidently there are many hidden waterways to explore --->see here

Time for elevenses.

Browning's island
We then decided to walk along the canal towards Paddington to visit the FLEMING MUSEUM THAT WAS PROMINENTLY MARKED ON MY MAP.

We emerged from the Paddington waterfront into Praed Street  expecting to find the Fleming Museum indicated by queues of Japanese tourists.

There is some encouraging stone work but no obvious entrance.

Here is a plaque too.

We are unhindered in our wandering around St Mary's Hospital (a scruffy old hospital).

Fleming is under Bed management obviously.

Many corridors and alleys later the signage becomes more racy.

Unmanned reception!



And here is the lab where Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin in 1928.  It took World War 2 to find the resources to produce the drug. Photography forbidden!  Read about it here ----->Sir Alexander Fleming
I have never mastered the bus system in London - for some reason there appears to be no coherent bus map published and tourists tend to use the underground system as it's simple to follow the map with all its coloured lines.  So we hopped on a bus direction Oxford Circus.

Here is the view of Oxford Street from the top deck of a "doubledecker" - marvellous really!
Moving on, we walked down Carnaby Street.  Verdict: Disapointing and over touristy.

Avoid like the plague.

Rather nice - worth a visit for organic English spelt flat breads -->here

Building a new railway across London.

We are going to see this musical next visit.

The British Museum

A rather rude and vulgar clock in the art deco style

Greek students discussing their Elgin Marbles.

This sort of thing causes much confusion to immature English schoolboys snigger snigger
We had tickets for a concert at the Alber Hall.  In fact this was the main reason for spending the weekend in London.
Pre concert Italian cuisine: I order the platter to share starter

Bryan Ferry in concert in the Albert Hall - shame about the terrible acoustics.

6 comments:

  1. How confused had the schoolboys been if they'd seen the current Shunga exhibition...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cool walking tour. Having never been to London (or anywhere in Europe) I always appreciate the pictures and your candid descriptions.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Fleming Discovered Penicillin" - but wasn't it (as it usually, boringly is) a bit more complicated than that? Glad you had a good day in London though!

    ReplyDelete

Site Meter