L is for London » E

God save the Queen!

Hogs Back Books — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 19:12:21 +0000

Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria are the two longest reigning monarchs but Lady Jane Grey reigned for just 9 days.

Jellied eels

Hogs Back Books — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:23:23 +0000

Jellied eels are enjoyed by Pearly Kings in London’s East End. King Henry I wouldn’t have been keen. He died from indigestion in 1135 after eating an eel.

Jellied eels are a traditional dish from the East End of London. It’s sold by street vendors, although it can more usually be found in ‘pie and mash’ shops. It is commonly eaten with another East End delicacy ‘pie, mash and liquor’ – which used to be made with eel fat. Beef or lard is more common nowadays.

The eel was a readily available food resource for the capital, with eel fisheries in the Thames until pollution killed them off – they are back again now, in the cleaner river.

Eye pod

Hogs Back Books — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:13:23 +0000

The Eye is tallest and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the UK, visited by over 3.5 million people each year. The London Eye has 32 pods and each pod represents one of the London boroughs.

Eye eye

Hogs Back Books — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:12:18 +0000

Views from the Eye stretch for 25 miles on a clear day to include views of Windsor Castle and Tunbridge Wells. It takes roughly half an hour to make one complete revolution.

The big wheel

Hogs Back Books — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:10:57 +0000

London Eye (Millennium Wheel) stands 135 metres (443 feet) high on the South Bank of the River Thames between Westminster and Hungerford Bridges. When erected in 1999, it was the tallest Ferris wheel in the world.

Eros

Hogs Back Books — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:37:05 +0000

The statue of Eros was the first in the world to be cast in aluminium. The statue is generally believed to depict Eros but was intended to be an image of his twin brother, Anteros.

The sculptor Alfred Gilbert had already sculpted a statue of Anteros and, when commissioned for the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, chose to reproduce the same subject, who, as “The God of Selfless Love” was deemed to represent the philanthropic Earl of Shaftesbury suitably.