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Hi Archaic
I hope you'll be able to visit our beautiful city one day.
Have you read '84 Charing Cross Road'?
Hi, Stephen. I was in London & Henley-On-Thames about 10 yrs ago, it was wonderful.
I spent a lot of time in the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and I did some antique shopping out on Edgeware Rd & in Camden Town, but toured no Ripper sites, I'm afraid.
I was with my older sister and all she wanted to do was shop for clothes & stupid souvenirs and drink endless cups of coffee, which I thought was a total waste of time, so I refused & went off my own to places like the Egyptian Gallery at the British Museum and had a grand time!
I hope to get back to England fairly soon.
The book you mentioned, "84 Charing Cross" I believe is about antique book sellers, but I don't know much more than that... Do you think I should read it?
The book you mentioned, "84 Charing Cross" I believe is about antique book sellers, but I don't know much more than that... Do you think I should read it?
Most definitely, Archaic. It's an astonishing little book which is completely factual and historical yet strangely magical. I know 'books' and this is a really special one. There's also a very good movie of it with Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft but you need to read the book first.
Heh - neither of you need to worry. It's not coming down. It can't - there's a train line on top of it from Fenchurch Street station! I managed to get in there through some exploring, detective work and permission.
Stan, Barney's Seafood moved out of there some time ago - a year, at least. It's been unoccupied since then.
PHILIP
I knew about the railway, of course. But, well, you know, sometimes old archways get replaced. Anyway, that spot near the end of the concrete platform is about exactly where I visualized Frances was found.
This is pretty cool, Phil.
"What our ancestors would really be thinking, if they were alive today, is: "Why is it so dark in here?"" From Pyramids by Sir Terry Pratchett, a British National Treasure.
Many thanks for posting the Swallow Gardens picture Philip! Apart from the ones that Colin Roberts took this is the only other I've seen of what is clearly a very dark and sinister archway.
I took some friends around the east end in May (on a Wednesday), and as can be seen here, there was no van parked outside, which you would have expected to see on a working day, had there still been a business trading there.
It's got me thinking now, about whether or not the current owners/tenants of the Pinchin Street archway could be persuaded to grant access for a minute or two...?
I'm off down to London next Friday for the very purpose of taking some new arty shots of all the streets and buildings, so you never know!
There's a business in the Pinchin Street arch these days. Its entrance is through the big, high metal gates on Backchurch Lane but I've never seen them open. It appears to be an office of some kind now.
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