THE GREAT STINK ..... A LONDON TALE OF POO AND WEE !!!!! ..........

I have lived 20 to 30 minutes away from London all of my life and have visited many of the iconic buildings over the years but it always amazes me how many more places there are to visit and how I shall, more than likely, never see them all !!

Last week we went on The Great Stink Tour !! 

We started our tour at Clifford's Inn Passage. By the 19th Century, this lane was a dark and claustrophobic little haunt .....

..... exactly the sort of place where a Londoner, having made merry in the surrounding multitude of taverns and gin palaces, would drunkenly stagger for a pee. Back then, of course, London's sanitary arrangements left a lot to be desired and folk relieved themselves wherever they could !! The walls of these passageways were usually private property, the owners of which, did not take too kindly to having their cherished brickwork eroded away by copious amounts of steaming urine so, they bolted urine deflectors to the wall which deterred potential wee'er's, as the urine would end up on their feet and would also be directed into the gutter !

Through Clifford Passage and onto Fleet Street ..... number 17 being one of the few surviving buildings in the City of London dating from before The Great Fire of London of 1666. It's a good example of a house where the upper levels protrude over the pavement so that human waste thrown from the upper windows would hopefully miss the passers-by !!

We then got the boat to Greenwich, past the Cutty Sark where we picked up the coach to Crossness Pumping Station. 

Two hundred years ago, London was in a mess, with raw sewage flowing into the Thames and thousands dying of cholera. 

In 1858, the ' Great Stink ' from the river got so bad that Parliament had to close, making it imperative that something was done.

Enter Joseph Bazelgette who supervised the building of the great Victorian sewage network for London. All of the waste was sent to two pumping stations, one of which was Crossness. 

Hard hats had to be worn ..... that's me in mine !! 

The Victorians loved all of their buildings to be ornate, including their pumping stations .....

' VOILA ' 

It is SO beautiful !! ..... and it's just a pumping station !!

Some has been left as they found it .....

..... and some has been renovated. 

They built Crossness Pumping Station as a cathedral of industrialisation ..... ornate cast iron decoration around a central octagon.

There was a museum of toilet ephemera including all the different ways that people ' cleaned up ' after themselves before toilet paper arrived, including a communal sponge on a stick, left in vinegar until the next person needed it, oyster and mussel shells { the mind boggles !! } and rope !!

Thank goodness for soft toilet paper !!!!! 

image 1: via youtube, image 2: via goodreads, image 3: via huffington post, 

All other images via ME

BY INVITATION ..... AUTUMN FASHION ..... OUR ' TAKE EVERYWHERE, CAN'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT ' !! .....

Our By Invitation subject this month is all about Autumn fashion and the one thing that we take everywhere and can't leave home without .....

I'm not really a jewellery lover but, I do love silver bangles and, in particular, silver cuffs.

The above are my favourites ..... two silver cuffs from Afghanistan and .....

..... my silver cross which, I think, was a Bible hinge and you'll never guess where it came from ? I bought it when I was about 18 from the shop called Chelsea Girl { now called River Island } at the end of the 1960's and, I wear it and the bracelets everyday when I go out. The cross cost me £1.99 !!!! It's solid silver and, I've seen them for sale for over £100 !!  Over 40 years of wearing it, pretty much, everyday. I think that I have got my money's worth, don't you ? ..... Good old Chelsea Girl !!

I do vary the bracelets from time to time . My husband bought me most of them including the one above ..... I then saw it on a catwalk image on Pinterest !!!! ..... my bracelet is famous !!!! ... ish !!

I guess that I'm cheating a bit as, I do wear them in Spring, Summer and Winter too but, they are really the only things that I take everywhere !!

" Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles "

{ Sarah Phillips }

If you would like to see what other people can't do without this Autumn, pop over to Marsha where you'll find all the links.

image 1: via daniel pardini, images 2 & 3: via envers du decor, image 4: via margadirube, images 5, 6 & 7: via me

Trouble at t'mill !!!!!

My MacBook is at the Apple hospital ....... I have had it for over three years without any problems but it just has a little bit of trouble and will be back with me before you can say ' World Wide Web '

So sorry for lack of comments and posts ..... Hope you're missing me !!

BY INVITATION ….. WHAT ARE WE AFRAID OF ? ……….

By Invitation is back after the Summer break.

Our subject for September is ' What are we afraid of ? '

Considering the plight of the thousands of refugees fleeing their homes in desperate need and who are trying to find some kind of reasonable life , putting themselves and their families through all sorts of dangers and fears, fleeing conflict and abuse, it seems rather pitiful to start spouting on that September spiders give me the heebie-jeebies 

BUT

I am committed to our By Invitation series so here's my take on it ….. 

FEAR of FLYING ? ….. almost certainly the safest form of transport. The average flier has about a 1 in 14 million chance of dying ….. those are good odds !!

You should fear driving ….. you are about 2,500 times more likely to die on the road than in a plane !

FEAR of NUCLEAR POWER ? ….. nuclear power has killed fewer than 15,000 people in it's history …..

You should fear coal power ….. according to one study, 100,000 people a year in India alone are killed from air pollution !!!

Are you fearful that you are swallowing spiders while you sleep ? You are almost definitely swallowing zero spiders while you sleep ….. spiders aren't likely to want to enter a black hole emitting warm air { if you'll pardon the expression !! }

Although it seems that hitchhiking encounters end in disaster, fears are exaggerated. 

Do you have a fear of bacteria ? 

We seem to be cleaning and scrubbing everything in sight and not all bacteria is harmful. Less than 1% of bacteria carries disease and quite a bit of it is actually good for you.

Despite some claims, spontaneous combustion is almost definitely not real !! The ' almost ' only exists as it's very hard to prove that it has never happened. 

Even if spontaneous combustion were some real phenomenon, you still shouldn't be afraid of it. There is only one case reported per year so the likelihood of you going up in flames without warning is virtually zero.

A FEAR of SHARKS ? ….. 

There have been between 4 and 13 confirmed shark deaths worldwide, per year since 2005 …..

You should actually be fearful of :

Icicles

hot dogs

obesity

lightening

texting

hippos

volcanoes

shopping on black friday

falling out of bed

as the above kill more people than sharks !!!!

Now, just what are you all afraid of ?

To see what other members of the By Invitation group are afraid of, Marsha has all the links.

image 1: via valentinakallias, image 2: via willyvanrooy, image 3: via pinterest, image 4:  via piccsycooling, image 5: via blogs.ft, image 6: via modelkj6.rssing, image 7: via pick pocket design, image 8: via vogue, image 9: via moon siren, image 10: via sir lounge, image 11: via elephant journal

DOWN A LEAFY, HERTFORDSHIRE LANE ……….

You know that moment when you first saw Venice, or when you turned that corner in Florence and saw The Duomo and when you saw the Brighton Pavilion for the first time ?

Well, down a leafy Hertfordshire lane, not a ten minute drive from our home is one of those moments, albeit on a slightly smaller scale …….. and, I've only just realised that it's there !!!!

Set in eighty acres of beautiful gardens and free for anyone who wants to visit is this most amazing Jain Dharma Temple.

The temple was completed in 2005. Made of sandstone and marble, hand carved in India by over two hundred masons, it is surrounded by formal gardens.

Jainism is an ancient religion from India that teaches that the way to Nirvana is to live lives of peace and harmlessness.

Photography wasn't allowed inside the temple but I took the two above before I realised !!

We were given the history and taken to the large house where I managed to get the obligatory chandelier photograph !! Someone said that George Harrison had bought the house but I couldn't find any information about that although, it would fit, wouldn't it ?

….. we were shown the modern buildings comprising of three large halls for wedding receptions, plays and concerts and a nursery. There is also a state of the art children's playground. 

We were then invited back to the main house where they preceded to serve us samosas, rice, tea, cakes and biscuits all homemade and served to us by the ladies wearing their beautiful saris !! I don't think that they usually do that ….. we were very fortunate that day. Everyone was so welcoming, friendly and kind … . it didn't cost a penny { although most people made a donation } and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

I can't believe that I didn't know it was there !!

image 1: via geograph, images 2 - 11 : via me, image 12: via pinterest, image 13: via walking times