This weekend, we had nominated Benjamin Franklin House as the new museum to visit for our Explore London project. A London Walks guide had once pointed it out as an interesting place to visit. Benjamin Franklin (one of the founding fathers of America, signer of the Declaration of Independance, flier of kites in electrical storms... you know the one) lived in London for 16 years between 1757 and 1775. His house in Craven street is still there and is decorated and furnished as it would have been when he lived there. When you visit the house you are given a guided tour by Polly Hewson, the daughter of Ben Franklin's landlady (or at least a tour by a staff member dressed up as Polly).

Unfortunately, when we arrived, the museum staff told us that the audio visual elements of the guided tour were not working. We could still do the tour but we would miss out on the extras. We were given the option of rescheduling, which we decided was the best course of action. We live in London after all, it wouldn't be hard to come back and do it at another time. This means, the Benjamin Franklin House part of this entry stops here. It's a post for another day.

Instead, I thought I'd write about fanlights. The same London Walks Guide who pointed out Benjamin Franklin House, also pointed out the fanlights on Craven street. A fanlight is a small window set above the door. They are often decorated with tracery (iron ribs holding the glass in). They are often semi-circular with tracery radiating outwards, like a fan (I guess that's where the name comes from).

On Craven street, the fanlights are all unique in appearance (mostly). The London Walks Guide mentioned that in the olden days, fanlights were used to identify houses (before house numbers were invented.) When inviting people over for a dinner party, you would use the design of your fanlight to decorate the invitation. Even at night it would be quite easy to find the house using the fanlight. Especially as a lantern was often placed just behind the window. It would be a beacon lighting your way.


Then they started to number houses. Definitely not as pretty as a fanlight.


(Before I write up these trivia tidbits on fushmush, I like to research and verify the information. However, I have not found any information on the web about fanlights being used to identify houses. My googleFU was not up to the challenge. So, I was unable to verify the authenticity of the story and I just have to trust the London Walks Guide. Any fushies out there know if this story is true?)

On Wednesday evening, Andrew and I were lucky enough to go and see the opera, Monkey: Journey to the West. The opera is based on a famous Chinese story, Journey to the West, written in the 16th century. The 100-chapter story has been condensed a bit (luckily): Monkey is born (from an egg on a mountain top), achieves immortality and then causes a ruckus in Heaven at the heavenly peach party. As punishment for his mischief, Buddha says he must accompany Tripitaka (the boy priest), as he travels to India to get the heavenly scriptures. He is joined by the Pigsy, Sandy and the Dragon Horse Prince on the journey. They face many obstacles along the way but emerge triumphant.

It's an opera but not a traditional opera with fat women and period costumes. It's brand spanking new, created by Damon Albarn (Blur / Gorillaz), Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz) and Chen Shi-zheng. It has animated sequences, funky costumes and the choreography is amazing. It includes martial arts, acrobatics and circus tricks. There are girls with diablos, soldiers that ride unicycles, spider woman doing tricks on ribbons hanging from the ceiling. In the final scene a group of 12 girls spin plates on long thing poles while doing rolls and the splits. They finish with a pyramid, including the spinning plates of course. (Because 1 girl spinning plates isn't impressive enough. You really need 12 girls to make it impressive.)

Of course, most of us know of the story of Monkey from the television show, Monkey Magic, which used to be on the ABC of an afternoon. I can remember playing "Monkey" in the backyard. Alice was Monkey (as the oldest), Annie was Tripitaka, Edward got to pick whether he was Sandy or Pigsy. I was stuck with the leftovers. Patrick was still in nappies. Andrew also played Monkey too, although Simon always got be Monkey.

If the opera makes it to Australia you MUST go and see it!


(Unfortunately, the venue was less than impressive. The opera was performed on a custom stage at the O2. When we got there we discovered that our seats were at the very edge of the tent. About 5m to the right of the END of the stage. To see the action on the stage we would have to sit at a 90 degree angle to our seats. Luckily, it wasn't sold out and when the lights went down we were able to relocate. If we hadn't been able to do that I might have written a different review to the one above. My review probably would have read, "I'm sure it was a great show but we didn't see much of it!" Why do they even bother to sell seats like that? And they weren't cheap either!)

The other day, as I was sorting through my photos I realised that I never posted about our second attempt at the Monopoly Pub Crawl. The aim of the Monopoly pub crawl is to have a drink in pubs that are on the streets, avenues, roads and stations on the Monopoly Board. Sensibly enough, you're only supposed to drink half pints at each pub but with 22 properties and 4 stations on the board it still makes the crawl a big challenge.

Andrew and I first attempted the Monopoly Pub Crawl in November 2006, only a few months after we moved to London (I actually blogged about it in my first year of NaBloPoMo). It was a event to say goodbye to Tash (I can't believe you've been home that long Tash!). This time round our Monopoly Pub Crawl attempt was to celebrate my birthday and as a touristy thing for visiting Bel and Dan to do. Notice how I use the word attempt. Both times we've only done half of the crawl. The first attempt, we did the second half and on the most recent attempt we did the first half (plus a couple of extras).

As the event organiser, I decided the crawl should have a fancy dress element (of course!). I asked people to dress up using the Monopoly Board as inspiration. And, people who love to dress up (and people married to people who love to dress up) were happy (encouraged) to play along.


We had Natalie as Chance, Ali as Angel Islington, Gemma as a gaolbird and Bel and Dan as Mr Moneybags. Andrew dressed up as the Policeman (Do Not Pass Go! Do Not Collect $200) and I dressed up as Second Prize in a Beauty Contest (one of the Chance cards). Thanks for making an effort guys!

Some Monopoly Pub Crawl tips:

• Start the day with a good breakfast. We started out at Borough Market this year. I had a very yummy breakfast wrap. It was scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and tomato wrapped in Lebanese bread. It.... was... good. I'm still dreaming about it (must make it at home one time.)
  
  
• Print out several copies of the route. As the crawl progresses, make sure that the the most sober person is leading the way (this obviously may change through the course of the day.)
  
  
• Skip Old Kent Road. It's out in the sticks and not very exciting.
  
  
• Try and stick to the same drink the whole way through. This means, you have to pick a drink which you think you can consume 13 pints of. I picked Cider this time. Girly drinks are too sweet, Beer is too filling.
  
  
• As the day progresses you might want to order a pint of water with your half pint of alcohol.
  
  
• Know when to quit. The day is supposed to be fun. When it's evident that people have had a little too much fun it's probably time to head home. Several pubs at the end of the crawl have asked to be removed from the published Monopoly Pub Crawl route. I can imagine that these pubs have probably seen some very messy nights serving pub crawlers.
  
  

We started at pub no 2. at around 11am and finished at pub no. 14 at 10pm. That's a solid 11 hours drinking in 13 different pubs. Ugh! So, over the course of 2 days (2 years apart) we've managed to finish the Monopoly Pub Crawl (except Old Kent Rd of course. Skip it!) Do I get a t-shirt?


More photos on Facebook

Andrew and I spent a rainy Sunday afternoon at the Museum of London with what seemed like the entire under-5 population of London. We spent a lot of our time at the museum avoiding pushchairs (strollers) and children throwing spectacular tantrums (we saw one great old-fashioned face down fists banging the floor one). It was great CAT (Child Aversion Therapy). The Museum of London focuses on the history of London. There are exhibitions on pre-roman times, Londinium (Roman times), Medieval London and Tudor and early Stuart London. There is also an exhibition on the Great Fire of London.

Fire Marks
After the Great Fire of 1666, an enterprising individual, Nicholas Barbon, invented Fire Insurance. These insurance companies not only insured your house, but had their own private fire brigades. When you were insured by a company, you placed what was known as a Fire Mark on your house. This was a badge which showed that you were insured. The idea was, that if your house caught on fire, the fire brigade of your company would come and put it out. Apparently, if a house caught on fire, the fire brigades from several companies would turn up to see who it belonged to. If the house wasn't insured by them, they would just leave and let it burn.


Trade Tokens
At the time of the great fire, businesses such as pubs and coffee houses used trade tokens instead of small change. These trade tokens show businesses that were forced to relocate after their premises burnt down in the fire. The trade tokens show the symbol and the address of the business.

Picture of a Turk and the writing: ROBERT HAYES AT YE COFFE HOVS HIS HALF PENY / HOVSE IN PANIER ALLEY		Picture of a Turk and the writing: ROBERT HAYES AT YE COFFE HOVS In Barbican formerly in Pannyer Ally

Other

Roman Face Pots, these are known as Face Pots because of the faces that are moulded into them. They are found in Roman Cemeteries or places of religious importance. They don't know what they were used for. They are kind of cute though.	Mitten, This mitten was knitted in the 1500s which makes it one very old mitten.	Keys

Although it was an interesting enough way to pass a rainy afternoon, I wouldn't recommend the Museum of London to tourists who have limited time in London. There is so much else to see in London (The Tower of London, The British Museum, The National Portrait Gallery). However, it is the only museum that focuses on London itself. It's also free! (Their website is also very impressive. They have a searchable catalogue of their entire collection on the website. This made it really easy for me to identify the pieces in our photos.)

We needed some grown up time after our visit, so we stopped off at a pub for Sunday roast and a couple of beers. The perfect way to banish the thoughts of tantruming toddlers and cranky kiddies.

After visiting Churchill's backup bunker in Neasden, we thought it was time to visit the Cabinet War Rooms. The Cabinet War Rooms are located underneath a government building in town between Downing St and Parliament House. The site was constructed as a safe haven for the Cabinet during air raids. (Although, Churchill liked to watch the air raids from the roof of the building above.) Was it a safe haven? We'll never know as it never suffered from a direct hit. The Germans didn't know it was there.

The Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum is a fascinating place to visit. Andrew and I spent a whole afternoon there.

The Map Room
The Map Room was the control hub for the Cabinet War Rooms. It was manned continuously for a period of 6 years. On the day after VJ Day, August 16th, staff in the map room tidied their desks and then turned out the lights (for the very first time!). It still looks the same as it did on that last day. It's a snapshot of history.


In the Map Room they would chart the progress of the Allied Army, Navy and Airforce using a giant map at the end of the room. They would use pins to mark the current position. This map is now covered with tens of thousands of tiny little holes.


The Transatlantic Telephone Room
The transatlantic telephone room contained a hotline allowing Churchill and the American President to discuss and plan Allied strategy. Originally the room was a broom cupboard.

The room was top-secret and most staff at the war rooms did not know what was inside. The engaged signal on the door though led them to believe that the room contained the only flushing toilet in the war rooms. (The War Rooms only had chemical toilet facilities, which were apparently quite smelly.)


Churchill Museum

Combined with the War Rooms, the Churchill museum is all about Churchill's life. The main focus of the museum is the war years but it also covers his childhood and his early career. Churchill's life spanned such an important time in history. Born in 1874, he lived through two world wars. He was born in a time when telephones were new and modern cars not yet invented. He lived to see the invention of the nuclear bomb and space travel. The man's political career was impressive too. First elected to parliament when he was 25, he was Prime Minister twice, once when he was 65 and then when he was 77. A Grandfather!

Churchill won the Nobel prize for Literature and it's easy to see why. The man had a way with words.

"we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."







More photos on Flickr