Thank you so much for this informative description of the history of the area. Particularly interesting to me as I spent the first 10 years of my life (between 1951 and 1961) growing up with my parents in a mews apartment in Cockspur Court, on the south side of Cockspur Street - a strange place to grow up ....
Great video. I gained many new insights into a city I lived in for almost 2 decades. I also appreciate the added info about the meaning of old English words and place names, with context from foreign languages.
surprised you didn’t mention the pedestrianisation of the roads north and west of Trafalgar Square in the early 1990s where we’d all assemble to get our buses and taxis home after drinking or clubbing in the 1970s and 1980s . There’d be fights multiple vendors selling burgers (the smell of onions). It felt like a seedy spill over if the 19th century. Does anyone remember how different Trafalgar Square was only 30-40 years ago? It’s now extremely safe and fully gentrified.
Excellent. I love examining old maps and photographs, and comparing them with current layouts to see what has changed and what vestiges remain, so your channel is a most welcome discovery! You've also answered a point that had not occurred to me - the reason for the relatively recent disappearance of pigeons from Trafalgar Square. Many thanks from Oxford.🙂
So very interesting and informative! Wonderful content, excellent presentation. The overlay of maps gave a true sense of landmarks that did not survive. (new subscriber, Virginia)
Glad you mentioned the fossils dug up in Trafalgar Square, as they were displayed in the Natural History Museum, until the 1980's. These animal bodies were probably washed up on the strand line of the beach from the Thames, and the river has not moved much since then. The bones that I remember seeing in the Natural History Museum, were the jaw of a Hippopotamus and the skull of a Polar Bear, showing how much the climate has changed in the pass. Interesting to note birds of prey in the square, with the Royal Mews being used at one time to house the king's falcons.
Great video I’ve worked in Whitehall for more years than I would care to admit on here so have been around this area for many years now (indeed, earlier today). I still struggle with the idea it was once countryside, it just seems inconceivable from my vantage point of today. Walking up Charing Cross Road towards Oxford St the other day I wondered what the topography of the land would be if you took the city away, wouldn’t suprised if its about a 100ft elevation from the river by the time you reach Oxford St.
You may well be interested in John Rogers' books and his TH-cam videos in which he walks around London and other places. He has a keen interest in all the hidden rivers and streams that have long since been covered over - the River Fleet is the most well known, but there were very many others, now part of the city's sewers.
@@philroberts7238 yes I have both of John’s books, and also Ian Sinclair’s about walking the M25 and the London Overground, all fascinating stuff. As a photographer I’m always looking at John’s work for inspiration, and some of his Essex walks have followed my own footsteps.
I hate the new screens at Piccadilly Circus. I always remembered the Guinness Time clock but was surprised to see the building it was on was demolished in 1973.
4:20 what was the White Star Line offices. Where the announcement of Titanic's sinking was made in April 1912, and the crowds gathered outside. Much photographed.
I don't live in London but like to walk its streets when i visit...dont think ive ever walked around Haymarket though. Thanks for sharing your walk. Out of curiosity what time of the day did you shoot the video as Trafalgar Square was deserted and I've never been when theres so few people around Also does anyone know why Greenwich was chosen as the prime meridian when Trafalgar Square was considered the centre of London youd think theyd choose the latter over the former?
The Prime Meridian running through Greenwich was established there as The Royal Observatory which was the base point from which all accurate British maps of the time were measured was on the site. Greenwich was also the traditional home of the Royal Navy, who had an understandable major interest in accurate mapping. The Greenwich meridian was not the only one originally. Different countries, such as France, based their mapping on a 'Prime Meridian' suited to their own needs and national pride. With the increasing internationalisation and globalisation of world trade and travel, this was obviously not very satisfactory or, indeed, convenient and eventually the Greenwich Meridian was chosen as the global baseline in the 1880s - though France took several decades before they swallowed their pride and joined the party. The line was originally defined in terms of astronomical observations but has now been moved just over 100 metres to the West because satellite navigation systems take account of gravitational variations - the earth is neither a sphere nor uniform.
@@jasminejones7389 Are you imagining it being tilted into position like a flagpole? It was built. Put up piece by piece, like a building. It took 4 years, and they used scaffolding and a crane. The statue was lifted onto the top. (It was made from 2 pieces of stone. So I guess it was lifted up in 2 pieces.)
Thank you, as ever an interesting history of part of London It could be argued that King George III died battling his mental health issues and King Charles I died as a result of battling Oliver Cromwell
Nope. It was begun in 1840 and completed in 1843. The bronze reliefs on the pedestal were installed between 1849 and 1854 and the lions were added in 1867.
2:27 So that theater has missed two rebuilds, the 1920 one, and the more resent 2020 rebuild. Still with Covid there might be a delay, and the bulldozers could still arrive any day. Leave it too late and the building will be too young to knock down and rebuild in 2120.
The way you pronounce Pall Mall is how I learned to say it growing up in Australia and when older I encountered other people who pronounced it 'paul maul'. Never liked that.
Westminster gentrification and soul destroying changes from market traders and soho characters gone. It’s all about money and ‘clean up’ soulless. The park benches have all gone so no sitting and passing the time of day.
Great, well made and interesting video. I love to spend hours pouring over old maps and comparing them. So this was a real treat, more please.
Thank you very much!
Love it. Make more
Some fascinating maps - thanks so much!
Glad you like them!
Excellent video, maps are interesting & fascinating, great historical info, keep up the good work. 👍
Glad you enjoyed it!
I love videos like this - this was really well presented and eloquently delivered
Thanks so much!
Thank you for making this video - it was absolutely fascinating and packed with so much interesting information.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much for this informative description of the history of the area. Particularly interesting to me as I spent the first 10 years of my life (between 1951 and 1961) growing up with my parents in a mews apartment in Cockspur Court, on the south side of Cockspur Street - a strange place to grow up ....
really excellent thank you :)
Glad you liked it!
Great video. I gained many new insights into a city I lived in for almost 2 decades. I also appreciate the added info about the meaning of old English words and place names, with context from foreign languages.
Glad it was helpful
Wonderful stuff. My G-Grandfather was baptised in St Martins-in-the-Fields, in 1852. He married my G-Grandmother there in 1872.
Fascinating! Thank-you.
surprised you didn’t mention the pedestrianisation of the roads north and west of Trafalgar Square in the early 1990s where we’d all assemble to get our buses and taxis home after drinking or clubbing in the 1970s and 1980s . There’d be fights multiple vendors selling burgers (the smell of onions). It felt like a seedy spill over if the 19th century. Does anyone remember how different Trafalgar Square was only 30-40 years ago? It’s now extremely safe and fully gentrified.
Very informative ! Well done !
Glad it was helpful!
Nice work. Brings back memories of living there in the 80s/90s.
Glad to hear that!
Excellent. I love examining old maps and photographs, and comparing them with current layouts to see what has changed and what vestiges remain, so your channel is a most welcome discovery! You've also answered a point that had not occurred to me - the reason for the relatively recent disappearance of pigeons from Trafalgar Square. Many thanks from Oxford.🙂
good interesting vid.. look forward to more
So very interesting and informative! Wonderful content, excellent presentation. The overlay of maps gave a true sense of landmarks that did not survive. (new subscriber, Virginia)
Many thanks!
Excellent!
Thank you! Cheers!
Glad you mentioned the fossils dug up in Trafalgar Square, as they were displayed in the Natural History Museum, until the 1980's. These animal bodies were probably washed up on the strand line of the beach from the Thames, and the river has not moved much since then.
The bones that I remember seeing in the Natural History Museum, were the jaw of a Hippopotamus and the skull of a Polar Bear, showing how much the climate has changed in the pass.
Interesting to note birds of prey in the square, with the Royal Mews being used at one time to house the king's falcons.
Very informative guided walk of central London through time and space. Thank you for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very interesting, thank you. Greetings from Montréa.
Great documentary, walked there yesterday and today, good to have some history to go with it, thank you
Glad you found it useful!
I enjoyed this video very much.
"Lions have a long history here"
And just to the left of that snapshot, until the 1950s, was Lyons Corner House!
The Lyon’s Corner house was there into the 60s or at least ‘63 when I left school just around the corner.
The girl at the till would ask you: “Is that tea or coffee?” She couldn’t tell the difference. By the time you’d tasted it, you couldn’t either.
Thanks!
No problem!
Great video I’ve worked in Whitehall for more years than I would care to admit on here so have been around this area for many years now (indeed, earlier today). I still struggle with the idea it was once countryside, it just seems inconceivable from my vantage point of today. Walking up Charing Cross Road towards Oxford St the other day I wondered what the topography of the land would be if you took the city away, wouldn’t suprised if its about a 100ft elevation from the river by the time you reach Oxford St.
Certain a small street flowed under Strand slightly further east - hence Ivybridge Lane. And streams flow downhill.
You may well be interested in John Rogers' books and his TH-cam videos in which he walks around London and other places. He has a keen interest in all the hidden rivers and streams that have long since been covered over - the River Fleet is the most well known, but there were very many others, now part of the city's sewers.
@@philroberts7238 yes I have both of John’s books, and also Ian Sinclair’s about walking the M25 and the London Overground, all fascinating stuff. As a photographer I’m always looking at John’s work for inspiration, and some of his Essex walks have followed my own footsteps.
The was brilliant :), really enjoyed it
tremendous video - both calming and informative
I hate the new screens at Piccadilly Circus. I always remembered the Guinness Time clock but was surprised to see the building it was on was demolished in 1973.
They are intrusive and vulgar.
Very informative the area keeps changing just like victoria st where i used to work london ever forward
An entree _is_ an appetizer
Great video. It seems it all started going downhill when Cromwell removed the original Charing Cross.
Really great video. No wonder I was confused about the tube station name. I left the uk in 1979, the year the named changed.
Big London Underground changes that year!
4:20 what was the White Star Line offices. Where the announcement of Titanic's sinking was made in April 1912, and the crowds gathered outside. Much photographed.
Interesting. Thanks!
hoping you'll mention the drive-through bank!
How empty the streets were. It may have been filmed very early and perhaps on a Sunday morning but still a big contrast to today.
Small point, rookie error, It's St. Martin-in-the-Fields (the s goes at the very end). I heard 2 different pronunciations 😀
I don't live in London but like to walk its streets when i visit...dont think ive ever walked around Haymarket though. Thanks for sharing your walk. Out of curiosity what time of the day did you shoot the video as Trafalgar Square was deserted and I've never been when theres so few people around
Also does anyone know why Greenwich was chosen as the prime meridian when Trafalgar Square was considered the centre of London youd think theyd choose the latter over the former?
It was a very early morning in October (last year) with the sun just rising
The Prime Meridian running through Greenwich was established there as The Royal Observatory which was the base point from which all accurate British maps of the time were measured was on the site. Greenwich was also the traditional home of the Royal Navy, who had an understandable major interest in accurate mapping. The Greenwich meridian was not the only one originally. Different countries, such as France, based their mapping on a 'Prime Meridian' suited to their own needs and national pride. With the increasing internationalisation and globalisation of world trade and travel, this was obviously not very satisfactory or, indeed, convenient and eventually the Greenwich Meridian was chosen as the global baseline in the 1880s - though France took several decades before they swallowed their pride and joined the party. The line was originally defined in terms of astronomical observations but has now been moved just over 100 metres to the West because satellite navigation systems take account of gravitational variations - the earth is neither a sphere nor uniform.
I have always wondered... how the hell did Nelson's column get planted? Any ideas?
Good foundations!
@@TheUndergroundMap well obviously.. what I want to know is how did they place it into the foundations and keep it upright and straight.
@@jasminejones7389
Are you imagining it being tilted into position like a flagpole?
It was built. Put up piece by piece, like a building. It took 4 years, and they used scaffolding and a crane. The statue was lifted onto the top. (It was made from 2 pieces of stone. So I guess it was lifted up in 2 pieces.)
Re: George III's statue:
Personally, i've always taken it as the artist paying tribute to the hellish battle that is mental illness.
Thank you, as ever an interesting history of part of London
It could be argued that King George III died battling his mental health issues and King Charles I died as a result of battling Oliver Cromwell
And I suppose it can be argued that Charles I died of his injuries in a head-chopping-off sort of way
@@TheUndergroundMap That too 😀
1848 Nelson’s Column was built
Nope. It was begun in 1840 and completed in 1843. The bronze reliefs on the pedestal were installed between 1849 and 1854 and the lions were added in 1867.
Never seen Trafalgar Square so empty, fountains not going, hardly any pigeons. no-one climbing on the lions, .room on the pavements.
It was early morning
The horse statue myth was busted on QI many years ago.
An episode I didn’t see!
Trafalgar Square is the end of the Trafalgar Way.
2:27 So that theater has missed two rebuilds, the 1920 one, and the more resent 2020 rebuild. Still with Covid there might be a delay, and the bulldozers could still arrive any day. Leave it too late and the building will be too young to knock down and rebuild in 2120.
I live in Trafalgar Square with 4 lions to guard me, fountains and statues all over the place and the 'Metropole' staring me right in the face.
Why travel when you can see the world in your armchair thanks to TH-cam video videos like this.
Wow! Sorry, I posted too soon. This history video is more than exceptional. I’ve seen nothing like it. It’s superb!
Thanks so much! There are more in the pipeline :)
The way you pronounce Pall Mall is how I learned to say it growing up in Australia and when older I encountered other people who pronounced it 'paul maul'. Never liked that.
I can be a bit pretentious as regards pronunciation- it can be either but the video way was closer to the pronunciation of the game
Soulless really???... I think it looks neater and more slick. It doesn't have to be bill boards to be cool you know.
But it wasn’t billboards. It was flashing neon signs of all variety, all shapes and sizes, all made by different designers
13:28 Cromwell was such an arsehole.
Westminster gentrification and soul destroying changes from market traders and soho characters gone. It’s all about money and ‘clean up’ soulless. The park benches have all gone so no sitting and passing the time of day.
The bird population of London has plummeted 80%. No starlings hardly any black birds and about 6 pigeons
Pollution mostly now
Its a crime how Londinium has evolved. 😢
I doubt that you would want to live there when it was Londinium.
Why?