It's the Anniversary of the Great Fire of London so here's a reminder of one of its legacies . . . In the centre of London there are many monuments. There is one monument, however, which is called Monument (it even has an underground station named after it). It stands amid many tall buildings today, but once stood high above other buildings as befits its name.
Sir Christopher Wren did quite well out of the Great Fire of London for he was commissioned to design many of the replacement buildings. And so, perhaps appropriately, it fell to him to design the Monument that still stands today near the spot where, in Pudding Lane, the great conflagration began. If you laid the Monument (311 steps high) down its top would lay at the exact spot the fire began.
You might imagine that such an historic edifice would have remained largely unaltered but, in these Health and Safety conscious times, its viewing platform is now surrounded by a comprehensive fence, creating the sensation of climbing 311 steps to experience life as a budgerigar . . .
But look again.
There, 350 years late (the Great Fire was in 1666) is the Fire Extinguisher that would have made all the difference.
Quite why there is a fire extinguisher on top of a stone monument remains a mystery though perhaps of all the places in London this is the one where you'd have to say, "You can't be too careful about these things . . ."
Sir Christopher Wren did quite well out of the Great Fire of London for he was commissioned to design many of the replacement buildings. And so, perhaps appropriately, it fell to him to design the Monument that still stands today near the spot where, in Pudding Lane, the great conflagration began. If you laid the Monument (311 steps high) down its top would lay at the exact spot the fire began.
You might imagine that such an historic edifice would have remained largely unaltered but, in these Health and Safety conscious times, its viewing platform is now surrounded by a comprehensive fence, creating the sensation of climbing 311 steps to experience life as a budgerigar . . .
There, 350 years late (the Great Fire was in 1666) is the Fire Extinguisher that would have made all the difference.
Quite why there is a fire extinguisher on top of a stone monument remains a mystery though perhaps of all the places in London this is the one where you'd have to say, "You can't be too careful about these things . . ."
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