London Calling

As I have done previously in September, I took a week of to kick around London. First off was a visit to Greenwich to check out the prime meridan. Yup, it's still there.

As is the FB and other measurement artefacts.

I'm not sure how reliable this claim is as I suspect that the shop of the National Maritime Museum is closer...

...and that's only considering shops in Greenwich. I wonder if there is a shop somewhere which the Greenwich meridian bisects. And that's without going into the detail of where exactly the meridian is in the first place.

My prime meridian theme happily continued whilst staying with relatives north of London in Stanstead Abbotts. My aunt had spotted a bollard a km or so from their house and took me to see it.

This bollard was erected in 1984 during the centenary of the prime meridian. Golly, is it really that young? Now how can I find out where the rest are? Or is it simply a case of walking up the prime meridian on an OS map? Ummm, that sounds like a retirement challenge.

There is a brillaint bit in this website which says "At Greenwich, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and the Astronomer Royal, Arnold Wolfendale, planted a tree on either side of the Line at the Observatory, before joining a crowd of 7,000 children taking part in a wide range of events in the park outside. Neither tree has survived."

Re: the last sentence. I wonder if there was any connection...?

Later in the week I visited the Transport for London Museum at Covent Garden. I'd been looking forward to seeing the Mind the Map exhibition for many months. It was lovely to see a few old favourites, especially after reading the book on Harry Beck, and some new ideas.

Before.

And after.

Harry Beck experimenting with the electric circuit and his tube map design.

Remember the time they removed the 'clutter' of the Thames? I'm pleased it has reappeared on Tube maps.

I loved this one. An alphabet of tube maps.

All in a lovely relaxing week. Am already scheming my next expedition...