I travelled into London early to buy some walking shorts for our trip to Greece in October. I looked through the selection in Cotswolds in Piccadilly. Nervously choose a pair and tried them on. Once I purchased them I stuffed them in my pocket and met up with Harry at Piccadilly Circus, where he stood waiting for me on the steps of Eros.
We had a pleasant walk guided by The Hidden London Walks book. The tour began at Eros pointing out that the statue was the first monument made of aluminium and dedicated to Lord Shaftesbury. We continued along Piccadilly past the Royal Academy.
We wove in and out of the streets of Mayfair, with me listening to the stories that Harry read out from the book. Apparently many of the Cambridge spy ring spent a lot of time in the area. This may have been because the headquarters of MI5 once occupied a building at the start of Curzon Street.
Two of the most interesting facts we discovered on our journey really surprised me. We visited Curzon Square where Harry Nilsson used to own a flat. In the apartment in 1974 Mama Cass died supposedly eating a sandwich, although the post mortem put it down to a heart attack. 4 years later Keith Moon died in the very same bed from a drug overdose.
The other fact that caught my eye on the trip was the story of the lamp post in South Audley Street. Apparently the Russians used this lamp post to signal to agents an operation was active by marking it with a chalk mark in the figure 8. Inside the trap door of the post they would insert a message. To my surprise the door still opened but unfortunately there was no message on the day we passed by.
On the journey we also popped into the gardens outside my old primary school where I recounted the story of selling my place in the queue and having been outdone because another boy had a better car than my father.
We also passed a disused underground station in Down Street and a very extravagant club in Berkley Square.
Stories of Roosevelt and the ownership of the now defunct American Embassy came to light while we sat in Grovesnor Square. Harry recommended the mini-series John Adams which we have subsequently watched.
Towards the end of the tour we popped into St George’s Church Hanover square, home to some celebrity weddings over its long history since the 18th century. At one end stands a stained glass window, One of the clergymen told me it was imported from the low countries and dates back to the 16th Century.
all in all a thoroughly enjoyable walk that I have suggested Maggi follow. As yet she has not had the opportunity to fulfil.