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The statue of a seated Charles Darwin overlooks the main entrance foyer at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London while above hangs the skeletal remains of a giant blue whale (25 meters in length!). This is Hintze Hall and it is the first room you enter when you come into the museum. Talk about a grand entrance. If you want to know why I was there zoom in on the right side and you'll soon see why. A visit to the NHM is always enjoyable, even if it's just to wander the halls and have a cup of coffee. After all, it's free to all.
Waterhouse Pond near Bushy Park. The pond had frozen over but the trees still stubbornly retained some colour.
This pond was created in 1536.
The building shown here is a pump house, it was used to provide water to the fountains in Hampton Court nearby. Later it became a mess facility for workmen.
Hey, look! It's Mr. Doolittle from My Fair Lady.
Actually, no one I spoke to outside of Buckingham Palace (including police officers) knew who these people were. Other than they dress up in their Sunday finest, harness a couple of nags to their sulky, and clop on by the Queen's house -- during the "changing of the guard."
I've included a few more shots to give you some insight into this ritualistic and historical event that takes place regularly at Buckingham Palace in London, England.
Would I do this again? Watch the "changing of the guard?" Wait, and wait, and wait in crowds of people to watch a bunch of guys do something that I believe has lost its lustre over the years, and certainly -- it's intended meaning? NOPE! Especially in February without a warm jacket.
Enough said.
~~Sheree~~
The entrance to the Crown Jewels inside The Tower of London, they have been on display in The Tower of London since 1661 but been on the grounds since 1303.
The jewels include the largest top-quality cut diamond in the world (530 carats), the Cullinan I (Great Star of Africa), which sits on top of the Queen's Sceptre.
The oldest piece in the collection is the silver gilt medieval coronation spoon, displayed alongside the ampulla. It was probably made for Henry II or Richard I in the 12th century and is the only piece of royal goldsmith’s work to have survived.
golondon.about.com/od/thingstodoinlondon/ss/toweroflondon...
Step into the vibrant, paint-scented world of the Leake Street Arches near Waterloo, and you might just find art that looks back at you. 🎨
This captivating video showcases a stunning monochrome mural by the talented street artist Abraham.O. Using digital animation, this powerful portrait is brought to life with a subtle, mesmerizing blink, creating a surreal "living graffiti" effect. The piece, conveying a sense of shyness or curiosity, is a perfect example of the incredible, ever-changing artwork found in London's largest legal graffiti tunnel.
This is a celebration of where physical street art meets digital animation, creating a whole new way to experience urban art.
Obviously i made this video myself so please dont go there and expect to see his painting move..
Over sized boots of iron or copper (often soldered in place on the floor) received the prisoner's bare feet as he lay helplessly bound and gagged in a chair. The boots were slowly filled with boiling water or oil, or even molten lead, to consume the feet and legs. One variant—applied in Ireland to the martyr Dermot O'Hurley—consisted of lightweight metal boots that were filled with cool water and heated with the feet inside over a fire until the water boiled aggressively.
Over sized boots of iron or copper (often soldered in place on the floor) received the prisoner's bare feet as he lay helplessly bound and gagged in a chair. The boots were slowly filled with boiling water or oil, or even molten lead, to consume the feet and legs. One variant—applied in Ireland to the martyr Dermot O'Hurley—consisted of lightweight metal boots that were filled with cool water and heated with the feet inside over a fire until the water boiled aggressively.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_%28torture%29
Photo used with permission here:
www.isaw.co.uk/chastity-belt-iron-boot-the-clink-prison-m...
One so called 'gentle' punishment reserved for women was the "triles (?) by fire". This involved walking blindfolded and barefoot given seven red-hot ploughshares (?), or lifting and carrying a red-hot bar of iron. She was accorded innocent if afterwords there were no signs of damage to her hands or feet. A variation was picking a stone from a cauldron of boiling water. Otherwise a woman could be "gently" mutilated by branding on the cheek, forehead or the breast with a red-hot iron, or having her nose split or cut off or hands chopped off. For the most serious offenses a woman could be "gently" torn asunder by horses pulling on ropes attached to both arms and legs. Beheading was viewed as an honorable punishment and hence not applied to women.
Photo used here with permission:
getit2cheap.com/qa-where-can-i-buy-cheap-travel-tickets-f...
Clink Prison
the prison that gave its name to all others
The Gaoler's forge
Medieval prisons were not very secure by modern standards. This was because the prisoners were kept chained and shackled. Their legs and wrists were held by manacles which were hammered or clenched closed. If a prisoner was to be released, the irons had to be hammered open again.
Until the nineteenth century, prisoners were expected to pay for their own imprisonment. They had, after all, brought it upon themselves. Gaolers, or keepers, were poorly paid and were often given the job instead of a pension. The supplemented their income by exacting various payments from the prisoners or their families.
Engraving caption: A debtor being shackled and stripped of his belongings. Circa 1756 Source: Guildhall Library
Charges were made for the 'accommodation' food and drink, fuel and clothing that they used while imprisoned. They even had to pay for their shackles. Just think of the contrast of this by today's standards. In Medieval times rich prisoners could pay, even bribe the gaoler to fit lighter shackles, or if the price was right, none at all!
In 1374 the Bishop of Winchester's household paid for an iron 'gyve' (fetter) and a year later two clerks escaped from the Bishop's Palace dispide their fetters. A feat that all prisoners of the clink wished they could achieve!
Just imagine that you are unfortunate enough to have been put here, in the Bishop's very own private prison for misdeeds whilst in his Liberty of the Clink.
Photo used here with permission:
Children were regarded as miniature adults and hence often sentenced to prison. There are innumerable cases of women with children at the breast being sentenced to prison and terrible tales of the sufferings of mother and children under cruel keepers. Their cause was thus hopeless from the start of their lives.
In 1580 Jane Gouldwar was imprisoned within the Clink with 5 children, it was believed she was also pregnant. Records show them entering the prison, but never leaving.
Photo used with permission here:
getit2cheap.com/qa-is-it-as-cheap-to-travel-in-mexico-as-...
The simplest explanation of the word "Clink" suggests it derived from the iron fetters and manacles routinely used to restrain prisoners, whose mournful clinking and clanking would have been heard at all hours from the streets around the prison. But the Middle English "clinc" and "clenchen" had the sense of confining or making fast with nails or rivets, hence the "clinking iron" used to fasten chains to prisoners' hands and feet. This word is rlated to the very ancient "clincig", to be shrunken with heat or cold.
It is therefore possible that the name referred to the clenching fast of the prisoners' hands and feet in the prison stocks, and by extension to the stocks themselves. A pillory and cage with stocks stood from very ancient times where Bankend met Clink Street, and may have been known locally as the Clink, the name later being transferred to the prison built nearby. This might also explain the otherwise curious application of the word "Clink" to several lock-ups and stocks found in Cornwall.
Yet another theory has it that the word came from the Latin "linquo" meaning to quit or more vulgarly to kick the bucket. The phrase "haec linquamis" could easily have elided into "hic clinc", meaning "gone for a Burton" and there into "Clinc".
Nine hundred years ago the Thames was much wider that is now and its southern bank was marshy ground called 'hoops'.
The busy warehouses and wharves of Roman Southwark had long gone, replaced with farmland and parks belonging to a string of wealthy monasteries that stood on the south bank.
Today, the only remaining monastic buildings is St. Savior's Church, now Southwark Cathedral, which was once the Augustinian priory of St. Mary Overie.
The bear gardens and bull-bating ring were popular attractions, crowds flocking to see those unfortunate animals pitted against mastiff dogs. Edward Alleyn, actor, brothel-keeper and joint founder of Dulwich College, was appointed by James I to the office of "cheefe master, overseer and ruler of our bares, bulls and mastiffe dogges". His "Bawds' Rents" later formed part of the College's income and many fine furnishings and valuable paintings from the Bankside brothels found their way there.
Photo used with permission here:
www.citybeatnews.com/posts/how-confident-is-your-west-los...
(SIGN OVER THE INSIDE DOOR)
YOU ARE ENTERING THE ORIGINAL SITE OF THE CLINK
THE PRISON THAT GAVE ITS NAME TO ALL OTHERS
After the Statute of Acton Burnell (1283 AD) allowed creditors to imprison their debtors till they were repaid, the Clink found itself with another source of human misery to exploit.
Henceforth it was known as the debtors prison until the end of it's days, witnessing the humiliation of countless men and women at the hands of sadistic creditors and jailers.
Photo used with permission here:
www.alliancecreditors.com/help-with-debtor-trace-and-debt...
The stocks took various forms. At their simplest they were merely linked to planks of wood, but very painful because victems were unable either to stand or sit.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clink
First female prison, 1247
First male prison, 1306
State Prison during the English Civil War
Burn down in the Gordon Riots, 1780
but...
reopened in 1988 on this site,
the second of the Clink Prison's locations in the
Bishop of Winchester's Liberty
otherwise known as...
the Liberty of the Clink
The Clink Prison
London Bridge
1988-2002
Bankside's first historic attraction