"I'm a Jolly-'er Majesty's Jolly-an' sailor too" (c) HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast was launched on St Patrick's Day, 17 March, 1938 by the Prime Minister's wife, Mrs Anne Chamberlain, and was finally commissioned into the Royal Navy on 5 August 1939.
One of the most powerful large light cruisers ever built, HMS Belfast is now the only surviving vessel of her type to have seen active service during World War II. Serving Britain for 32 years, she played an important role in both World War II and the Korean War, as well as performing peacekeeping duties throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Saved from destruction in 1971, HMS Belfast is now part of the Imperial War Museum and is the first ship to be preserved for the nation since Nelson’s Victory. The vessel has been moored on the River Thames since 1971.
Last HMS Belfast celebrates the 75th anniversary of its launch last weekend.

"In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan..."(c)

In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.
Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), A Christmas Carol

“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest."(c)

"If you're going underground, why bother about geography? It's not so important. Connections are the thing." (c)

On 9 January 2013, London Underground celebrates 150 years since the first underground journey took place between Paddington and Farringdon on the Metropolitan Railway.
"One of the classics of 20th century design is the London Underground map designed in 1931 by unemployed electrical draftsman Harry Beck. Instead of a geographically accurate map, he produced a purely representational diagram with no surface detail except the stations and a stylised River Thames. With its out-of-scale distances it was initially rejected by the Underground's publicity department as "too revolutionary", but a year later they changed their minds and a free pocket edition was published in 1933.
Harry Beck's design – originally sketched out in a school exercise book before being converted into final artwork – has undergone constant adjustment to accomodate new lines and stations and to add clarity improvements.
 Its success was assured to a great degree by the fact that the tube-travelling public took to it straightaway, appreciating its clarity and the way it gave an illusion of order to the otherwise chaotic city of London.
As the London Underground developed, so Harry Beck continued to develop the map.
Beck  produced his last design for the London Undergound map in 1964. That his original design has been handed down so faithfully is due both to public recognition and to continuous and skillful nurturing by Tim Demuth of London Transport's publicity department (their corporate morons of political correctness have introduced the stupid name of 'Transport for London'). There are now fourteen tube lines instead of the original eight, and the map is managed on an Apple Mac. Its digitisation makes it easier for Demuth to make revisions in a manner consistent with the diagram's iconic purity.
The Underground map is an important marketing asset for London Transport. It's a nice earner, not only as a map but also in souvenir form on a large range of goods from aprons to keyrings to soap. The map is so celebrated that there are many excellent websites devoted to it. The obvious thing to do is therefore to round off with reference to a few of the best."(c)
(www.patricktaylor.com)

“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 "