untitled Bizarre Places - London’s Top 10 Bizarre Places Guest Post by David Long, Author of Bizarre London From the time of Boudicca to the Boris Bike, in a sprawling metropolis covering 600 square miles – a city where eight million Londoners speak 300 different languages – it’s only right to expect places which are unexplained, unusual or just plain odd. Here are 10 of our favourites: London Hydraulic Power Company For more than 100 years the turbines here sent pressurised water through 200 miles of pipes all over London to power hotel lifts, theatre curtains and even dockyard cranes. Kensal Green Cemetery This Victorian cemetery with its huge elaborate tombs and beautiful landscaping is the final resting place of Thackeray, Trollope, Brunel and the great showman Blondin. Fortnum & Mason Far from the Highlands, the so-called Scotch Egg was actually invented in 1738 by upmarket grocers Fortnum & Mason. Burlington Arcade Opened in 1819, Burlington Arcade is one of London’s oldest shopping centres.
London’s Pet Plaques And Memorials London’s second most-famous Boris, possibly, is Boris the cat, whose memorial can be found in Kentish Town on Anglers Lane (perhaps he’s looking for fish). London’s most famous pet statue commemorates Hodge, pet cat of Samuel Johnson. Find it in Gough Square near the lexicographer’s museum-house. This little-known cat statue stands in a children’s playground in Old Gloucester Street, round the corner from Great Ormond Street. These two dog memorials hide in a niche within the central courtyard of the V&A. Giro was the pet terrier of German ambassador Leopold von Hoesch and, as such, is often labelled as a ‘Nazi dog’ (in truth, Giro’s political leanings were not recorded). Hogarth’s pug Trump stands beside his painterly master on Chiswick High Street. The Golden Heart pub in Spitalfields has a number of peculiar decorations on its Commercial Street frontage. A pet cemetery in the grounds of Marlborough House. A pet cemetery on the northern edge of Hyde Park.