Interesting London locations on a Brompton

Last Sunday I joined Ross and a few others for the seventh installment of the ‘Quite Interesting Ride’ series. The gentleman that is Ross puts on some wonderful Sunday rides, and they are without doubt my favourites - despite the fact that he occasionally strays into south London rather than my more familiar north London. These rides are better than any London guided tour you could go on, and I really do think that he could make a living from them. 

The star on the dressing room door has been been the G-Line and Brompton Electric of late, so I decided to take my Orange Titanium with me as I have wanted to give it a little more love this year. Before going to the meeting point I did a couple of laps of Hyde park, taking in the views and trying not to stop too many times to take photos. As I did so, I made a few mental notes of what I could do to this very bicycle to make it ready for the Brompton World Championships in early September. 

At the meeting point there were a few new faces and several familiar ones. It was lovely to see Samantha again and her ever present positivity. 

48 Upper Grosvenor Street

This location is where in 1963 there was a vulgar scandal involving the Duchess of Argyll. The Duke applied for a divorce after the much wealthier Duchess halted funds to pay for the upkeep of his country pad. He claimed that the Duchess was at it like knives with no less than 88 men. During the subsequent hearing, photos were presented showing the Duchess wearing nothing but a string of pearls in the middle of a bit of how’s your father. (Sorry description is getting a bit like Kenneth Williams in a ‘Carry On’ film)! The divorce was granted, and the poor Duchess had to pay the Duke’s substantial legal costs. My goodness!

19 Motcomb Street

The Pantechnicon is a beautiful Grade II listed building in posh Belgravia. Build in the 1830s and originally a warehouse it is now a fancy food and retail establishment. 

24 Chapel Street and Horse & Groom Pub, Groom Place

Number 24 was home to Brian Epstein, the manager of The Beatles from 1965 until his death there on 27th August 1967 at only 32 years old. Surely there should be a blue plaque outside this house?!

The pub, but a step away from Epstein’s home was a location where the Beatles had lots of meetings with him.  

46 Lower Belgrave Street and Plumbers Arms 

Lady Lucan ran out of her posh Belgravia house on 7th November 1974, bloodstained and obviously shocked, into the pub down the Plumbers Arms pub. She appealed for help saying that her husband Lord Lucan had murdered their nanny. Lord Lucan absconded and was never found. A little bit like Elvis Presley, there were numerous supposed sightings over the years, but he was not captured and it was only a few years ago that he was officially declared deceased. 

55 Broadway

Designed my Charles Holden, who was also the designer of University of London’s Senate House, 55 Broadway is a particularly fine art deco building that now has a Grade I listing. There are a number of sculptures by Sir Jacob Epsein, but the one titled ‘day’ caused quite a stir in its day. The nakedness and full-frontal penis on day was controversial enough but the fact that when it rained it appeared as if the figure in said statue was pissing down on people coming in and out of the building proved too much. Sir Jacob, reluctantly agreed to remove 38mm from the penis which reduced the heightened surge of those who did not like it. 

Simpson’s-in-the-Strand

I have some rather fond memories of paying a visit to this lovely establishment when their breakfast - especially bubble and squeak - was the place to go. I had many a happy early morning session there with my late parents but back then the prices did not seem as high as they do now. The main entrance has lots of evidence that chess was important here and when it opened it was an important part of chess in general. 

Star Yard

This is one of the few remaining examples of a pissoir in London. A pissoir is a public urinal where gentleman who were of a certain age or caught short could take a would be able to relieve themselves with some degree of dignity. This example has a Grade II listing and is the only type left in London. If memory serves me there is another one, the more circular tent type, in Regency Place but I might have made that up. A shame in many ways that there are not more of them as many people can be seen going anywhere!

39 Furnival Street 

Behind the metal door was once the Kingsway Telephone exchange with a labyrinth of top-secret government tunnels hidden beneath its depths. It was so secret, journalists, broadcasters or nosy members of the public where not allowed to utter that it even existed.

Bridwell Palace 

In Tudor England this was once Henry VIII’s residence when he was early into his reign. He lived there with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon and in their time, it stood on the banks of the River Fleet. It later belonged to Henry’s son Edward who gifted it to the City of London who later turned it into a prison, workrooms and a hospital. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. 

St Paul’s Cathedral

The Great Fire of London also consumed the original St Paul’s. On the central window is a phoenix sculpture with the words resurgum chiselled underneath. Sir Christopher Wren instructed some of his builders to collect stones from the remains of the old cathedral. One of them had ‘resurgum’ which means rise again and this was used as part of the phoenix sculpture. 

The Eagle pub

A pub that was a popular music hall and frequented by Charles Dickens. (Everywhere seems to have claimed Dickens was a visitor, to the extent I fancy he might have walked past my front door at some point! The pub was certainly a lively establishment and one where ne’er-do-wells would have patronised. The nursery rhyme ‘Up and down the City Road. In and out the Eagle. That’s the way the money goes. Pop! Goes the weasel’ almost certainly alludes to the fact one could pawn items to gain funds for dubious intentions!

St Pancras New Church

I will not go into huge detail here, as I have a blog post from August 2024 that explains it all. Click here for that blog post

There is always so much to see in London, with much of it new. Many thanks to Ross for leading the ride. Let's hope that there will be another installment, sooner rather than later. 

Until next time, stay safe out there people.