“Radio tried everything, and it all worked."(c)

Broadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London.
The building includes the BBC Radio Theatre, from where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience. The radio stations BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Radio 4 Extra are also broadcast from studios within the building.
As part of a long-term consolidation of the BBC's property portfolio, additional services including BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 6 Music and the BBC World Service will move into Broadcasting House following an extensive renovation of the building. The move also includes that of BBC News and BBC World News from Television Centre into a newly constructed newsroom.
onstruction of Broadcasting House began in 1932, and the building opened to the BBC's offices and radio operations on 14 May 1934, eight years after the corporation's establishment. George Val Myer designed the building in collaboration with the BBC's civil engineer, M T Tudsbery. The original interiors were the work of Raymond McGrath, an Australian-Irish architect.
The original building also showcases a number of works of art, most prominently the statues of Prospero and Ariel (from Shakespeare's The Tempest) by Eric Gill. Their choice was fitting since Prospero was a magician and scholar, and Ariel, a spirit of the air, in which radio waves travel.

“News is only the first rough draft of history.”(c)

Bush House is a building between Aldwych and The Strand in Central London at the southern end of Kingsway.
The BBC World Service broadcast from Bush House for 70 years (Winter 1941 - Summer 2012) until the final BBC broadcast from Bush House, the 1200 BST English bulletin on 12 July 2012.
The building was commissioned, designed and originally owned by American individuals and companies. Irving T. Bush gained approval for his plans for the building in 1919, which was planned as a major new trade centre and designed by American architect Harvey Wiley Corbett. The construction was undertaken by John Mowlem & Co.
The building's opening ceremony was performed by Lord Balfour, Lord President of the Council, on 4 July 1925. It included the unveiling of two statues at the entrance made by American artist Malvina Hoffman. The statues symbolise Anglo-American friendship and the building bears the inscription ‘To the friendship of English speaking peoples’. Built from Portland stone, Bush House was in 1929 declared the "most expensive building in the world",[3] having cost around £2,000,000 ($10,000,000).
Author and journalist George Orwell worked in Bush House between 1941 and 1943 and the building is said to have given him the idea, when writing 1984, both for the nightmarish Room 101 and the almost equally awful canteen at the Ministry of Truth.

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water "

“At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year." ~ (c. 1515-1580)(c)

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”(c)

"To cherish peace and goodwill is to have the real spirit of Christmas" (c)

"The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax." (c)

"London Mayor Boris Johnson has urged people not to "sneer" at the coffee chain Starbucks over its decision to pay £20m in corporation tax.
The company, which has come under considerable criticism for paying nothing over the past three years, announced the move earlier this month." (c)

"I resign, the evening seemed to say" (c)

"One might fancy that day, the London day, was just beginning. Like a woman who had slipped off her print dress and white apron to array herself in blue and pearls, the day changed, put offstuff, took gauze, changed to evening, and with the same sigh of exhilaration that a woman breathes, tumbling petticoats on the floor, it too shed dust, heat, colour; the traffic thinned; motor cars, tinkling, darting, succeeded the lumber of vans; and here and there among the thick foliage of the squares an intense light hung. I resign, the evening seemed to say, as it paled and faded above the battlements and prominences, moulded, pointed, of hotel, flat, and block of shops, I fade, she was beginning, I disappear, but London would have none of it, and rushed her bayonets into the sky, pinioned her, constrained her to partnership in her revelry."

Virginia Woolf 

" There I shall find ears attentive to my tale of sorrow"(c) The Coal Hole

The Coal Hole occupies a corner of the Savoy Building.  The theme of stone, dark wood and leaded light windows , carries on into the street level bar. The ceiling is very high with heavy black beams. Hanging banners suggest something medieval, but no, it was decorated in 1904.
The cellar bar is open in the evenings and has its own entrance in the Strand. It was in the basement of the pub's former incarnation that the Wolf Club was founded, by actor and lush Edmund Kean.
" There I shall find ears attentive  to my tale of sorrow, hands open to relieve and closed  for my defence. Not to fatigue my hearers longer  with prolix rhetoric, I conclude with my sincere hope  and prayer for the successful increase of honorable  members to this (as yet) imperfect society; and  that every brother may feel health, prosperity, and  happiness will ever be the wish of its founder, and  study to promote, as far as his duty in this club  extends."  Edmund Kean
Supposedly a place where hen-pecked husbands could enjoy a sing-song, its real role was less innocent, and involved heavy drinking and loose women.

"That you are a very proud member, of the pearly society".(c) Costermongers’ Harvest Festival.

When i die and go to 'eaven, it will be much betta there,
 Our good lord will meet me, and say, "come in, pull up a chair.
 You spent your time and energy, collecting money for the poor,
 To give to them all the little fings, they never 'ad before.
 You covered your clothes wiv buttons, so that all could see,
 That you are a very proud member, of the pearly society.
 And now your tired and weary, and your body's past it's best,
 I faut i'd bring you up wiv me, to 'ave a well earned rest.

The End of September has traditionally welcomed a dazzlingly colourful event – the London Pearly Kings and Queens Costermongers’ Harvest Festival. The procession, which included maypole and Morris dancers, historical figures look-alikes, as well as live music from marching bands, was a fabulous spectacle to watch.
The event featured donkeys and carts, in homage to the Pearlies’ origins from the costermongers of the late nineteenth century. They are declared their London pride by shouting along to ‘Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner’ – before embarking on a parade around the City of London from The Guildhall to a special Harvest Festival service at St Mary-le-Bow Church.

"Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning." The Cross Keys Pub

The Cross Keys is located in between the King’s Road and Cheyne Walk. It is 300 years old and the developers who own it were appealing to overturn the council’s decision to forbid planning permission, which would allow the pub to be converted into a home.
But it will have to be a pub now!  Developers appeal was dismissed.

"I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts" (c) The Golden Lion Pub

"I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts" (c) The Golden Lion Pub
The Golden Lion, 25 King Street, SW1.
 Given that so many pubs claim to have served her, actress/model Nell Gwynne must have been what ye olde News Of Ye Worlde might have called a binge-drinking hen. Nowadays, she’d no doubt tank up on Timothy Taylor’s Landlord or London Pride with Gordon’s gin chasers at this long-standing bow-fronted tavern. Its current incarnation dates from 1900, but punters have been drinking here since 1762: Napoleon III did, as did luvvie lushes Lillie Langtry and Oscar Wilde in the Theatre Bar, named after the next-door St James’s Theatre demolished in 1957. The drama continues, however, as a ghost of a barmaid murdered by a former landlady reputedly  stalks The Golden Lion’s staircase.(c)

"We are losing our national treasures it is slowly — but definitely" (c) The Cross Keys Pub

Founded in 1708 The Original Cross Keys preceded its neighbour, the original Chelsea porcelain factory.
This Chelsea landmark close to the river, names many of Chelsea's famous residents among its regulars. Well known visitors from the past who've supped a pint here include poets Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Dylan Thomas. There's a continuing artistic theme thanks to co-owner and sculptor Rudy Weller, who created The Horses of Helios & The Three Graces, prominently positioned in Piccadilly Circus. He's also the man responsible for the 'Three Synchronised Divers' leaping from the roof of the Criterion Building above. For The Cross Keys he's created a "magical kingdom" throughout the four rooms: the bar, the conservatory restaurant, gallery and a room at the top. The decor and relief sculptures are inspired by the pub's name. It's a common one among pubs and comes from a Christian sign, symbolizing the keys which Jesus gave to St Peter, so that he could enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
 SAVE THE CROSS KEYS PUB-CHELSEA'S OLDEST !
Another piece of Chelsea history is under severe threat. As usual it's us, the residents, who have to  fight tooth and nail to protect something we love and cherish as an old friend.

"London’s such a big place when you’ve nowhere to go."(c)

Mr. and Mrs. Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform. In fact, that was how he came to have such an unusual name for a bear, for Paddington was the name of the station.

"I like royal blues and peacock green and scarlets and saffron yellow – even the names of them sound good" (c)

"The world's a fine place for those who go out to take it." (c)

Soames Forsyte walked out of his green-painted front door three days after the dinner at Swithin's, and looking back from across the Square, confirmed his impression that the house wanted painting.
 Soames was an 'amateur' of pictures, and had a little-room in No. 62, Montpellier Square, full of canvases, stacked against the wall, which he had no room to hang. He brought them home with him on his way back from the City, generally after dark, and would enter this room on Sunday afternoons, to spend hours turning the pictures to the light, examining the marks on their backs, and occasionally making notes.
They were nearly all landscapes with figures in the foreground, a sign of some mysterious revolt against London, its tall houses, its interminable streets, where his life and the lives of his breed and class were passed.
John Galsworthy. "The Forsyte Saga"

"The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words." (c)

"Our England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.

For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,
You will find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all ;
The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dungpits and the tanks:
The rollers, carts and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks.                                 

And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and 'prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise;
For, except when seeds are  planted and we shout to scare the birds,
The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words."
Rudyard Kipling
The Chelsea Flower Show has been held in the grounds of the Chelsea Hospital every year since 1913, apart from gaps during the two World Wars. It used to be Britain’s largest flower show (it has now been overtaken by Hampton Court), but is still the most prestigious. It is the flower show most associated with the royal family, who attend the opening day every year.
take a look around - Chelsea Flower Show 2012.

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” (c)

Avondale Park was laid out in in the 1890s by Kensington Borough Council on the former site of the main refuse dump and cesspool. The park opened to the public in 1892 and among the original facilities were a playground, shelter, entrance lodge and bandstand, the latter demolished in 1966. A grey granite drinking fountain was presented by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association. In recent years a nature area has been created and there are ornamental bedding displays in some areas including around the Lodge.

"And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death" (c)

Kensal Green Cemetery opened in 1833 and was the frst commercial cemetery in London. The need for large cemeteries in London was stimulated by the increase in population and the inadequate space provided by existing cemeteries and churchyards.
Campaigners for burial reform and public opinion considered the best solution would be “detached cemeteries for the metropolis”, and in 1832 Parliament passed a bill that incorporated the General Cemetery Company “for the Interment of the Dead”.
 The General Cemetery  Company had purchased  land for the cemetery in  1831 and promoted a  competition for the design of  a new Cemetery at  Kensal Green.
 The brief  included two chapels with  catacombs, entrance  gateway with lodges and a  landscaped layout for  monuments. There were 46  entrants, and the winner  was Henry Edward Kendall  (1776- 1875) for his designs for buildings in the Gothic style which can be seen in his perspective drawing in the RIBA Architectural Library.

"How can a heart expression find? How should another know your mind?" (c)

Freemasons’ Hall is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and the principal meeting place for Masonic Lodges in London. Grand Lodge has been in Great Queen Street since 1775, the present Hall being the third building on the site.
Built between 1927–1932 as a memorial to the Freemasons who died in the First World War, it is one of the finest Art Deco buildings in England, and is now Grade II* listed internally and externally. In addition to the Grand Temple (seating 1700) there are 21 Lodge Rooms, a Library and Museum, Board and Committee Rooms and administrative offices. The building is fully open to the public.

"One doesn't recognize the really important moments in one's life until it's too late." (c)

 58 Sheffield Terrace, London W8, you will see a Blue Plaque marking the home she lived in (Sheffield Terrace is the only house in which Christie had a room designated for writing).
It was the house that she was attached.
The attraction of Sheffild Terrace, as she explained, was spaciousness.
 "The layout was perfect, including the room for Max's library, with space for large tables to take papers and pottery, as well as a chimney designed by him. <...> and has an Assyrian brick with cuneiform writing over the mantelpiece, so the room was clearly labelled as an archeologist's private den."
The left-hand room at the top was  to be her workroom and sitting room. There would be no telephone, but it would have a grand piano, a large table, a sofa, an upright chair for typing and easy chair  and there was to be nothing else.
However, it was a house that suffered on the war. She wrote in 1940 - " Sheffild Terrace was hit a few days after we left! Front door and steps blown up - roof and chimney - windows and etc."
Her novel Taken on the Flood (1948) describes the bombing of the house which might have been derived from this experience.

" But I confess that I should feel a bit afraid of asking Sunday who he really is."(c)

 G K Chesterton (1874–1936) was born on 29th May, 1874.  An English writer. His prolific and diverse output includes philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction.
 When he was about five, the family moved to Warwick Gardens. As old-fashioned London houses go, 11 Warwick Gardens is small. On the ground floor, a back and front room were for the Chestertons drawing-room and dining-room with a folding door between, the only other sitting-room being a small study built out over the garden. A long, narrow, green strip, which must have been a good deal longer before a row of garages was built at the back, was Gilbert's playground. His bedroom was a long room at the top of a not very high house. For what is in most London houses the drawing-room floor is in this house filled by two bedrooms and there is only one floor above it.
Best known today for his ‘Father Brown’ books, the first of which was published in 1911, Chesterton’s literary output was prodigious, covering virtually every topic of contemporary political, philosophical and social concern. He was also notoriously absent-minded and once, whilst on a lecture tour, reputedly telegraphed his wife, ‘Am in Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?’ to which she would reply, "Home."

"Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends." (c)

In times gone by, the ground where Buckingham Street now stands was the riverbed of the mighty Thames and more recently (well, between 1237 and 1672) was in the grounds of the magnificent York House.

 It is one of the most interesting thoroughfares in London, a short street of late seventeenth- and early eighteens-century houses that runs up from the Embankment towards the Strand and a little to the east of Charing Cross Station.
The houses are modest and one or two have been rebuilt but this short street can lay claim to having housed more celebrities that any other comparable street in London.
When London's first great speculative builder - the first modern developer - Nicolas Barbon (1640-1698) bought the land at the end of the seventeenth century he immediately began building the sort of houses that would appeal to the fashionable. Most were complete by 1675.
Number 10 was once the home of David Hume (1711-1776), the brilliant   Scottish philosopher and the father of the Enlightenment. Later on the house was lived in by the famous post impressionist painter Henry Rousseau  (1844-1910).
Diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) lived both at number 12 and at number 14.
Number 12 was later occupied by Queen's Lord Treasure Robert Harley (1661-1724), who invited Jonathan Swift (1644-1718) and William Penn (1667-1745) (of Pennsylvania fame) to dine with him.
Two painters lived in the house at different times - William Etty (1787-1849) and Clarkson Stanfield (1778-1829).
The scientist Humphrey Davy (1778-1829)  carried out some of his most important experiments in the cellar!
Peg Woffington (1720-1760), a celebrated beauty and one of the greatest  eighteenth-century actresses, lived at number 9.
The Russian Peter the Great (1672-1725) stayed at number 15, while Henry Fielding (1707-1754), the creator of  Ton Jones, lived here too, as did - a century later - Charles Dickens (1812-1870) ( and his David Copperfield lodging here).
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) lived at number 21.
Most bizarrely of all, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) stayed in a house in the street - exactly which one is disputed - for a short period during 1791.
 Wherein centuries of eminent people had also lived: Queen Mary I, Francis Bacon, the Shah of Persia.

"“The trouble is that people seem to expect happiness in life. I can't imagine why; but they do."(c)

 Nancy Mitford was born on 28 November 1904 in London, at 1 Graham Street (now Graham Place) in Belgravia, London, the eldest of six daughters of Lord Redesdale.