To those in London, UK

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Leaving Saturday for a week in your city.

Found a good internet list of hundreds of attractions of all types in the city and weeded out more than possible to see, but...

...anything suggestions for something that combines:

1) Mechanics

2) Aesthetics

3) Genuine wood joinery in the English style

4) Ability to actually SEE the mechanics and or joinery

ScottMP

Hey Mike

I think a Pub would fill all of the above

Have a Great Time

Scott

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Mad Dog

Say hello to Ritchie Blackmore for me...........................

he'll be in London Town the same time - try to catch him Mike. Have some greasy fish and chips and a pint of Watney's for me ....eh? Mad Dog

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Aidan (UK)

Quick reply

Just seen this. I’m working so this is a quick reply.

Mechanics

Kew Bridge Steam Museum, in Brentford, West London. I’ve been told it’s good but I haven’t been there. They redesigned & rebuilt some HP steam boilers for the college I attended many years ago, and were building small wood-fired steam generator sets for the third world, so they have (or had) resident expertise. I don’t know if they have the live steam on everyday, you’ll have to check the web-sites. Big beam engines salvaged from redundant Cornish tin mines or redundant sewage pumping engines.

http://www.kbsm.org/

Science Museum in South Kensington. I haven’t been in years, lots of up-close technical exhibits, with hands-on areas for kids, big & small. The Natural History Museum (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/) is next door, so you can visit the dinosaurs if you get bored with technology.

Also Victoria and Albert Museum (museum of decorative arts) nearby, (http://www.vam.ac.uk/). There’s probably some historic joinery in there, but I don’t know.

Joinery, no idea at present. I’ll think about it. Hampton Court is all that comes to mind for the hammer-beam roof in the banqueting hall. You could probably get a riverbus there from central London.

The Tower is worth a visit if you haven’t been before. It’s full of tourists and fat, overfed pigeons defecating on the tourists, but the amount of medieval history crammed into a small space is worth it, if you’re interested in that sort of thing. Get on one of the tours guided by one of the Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters), retired army SNCOs with a record of 25 years undetected crime, almost a tourist attraction in themselves.

London Eye (http://www.londoneye.com) , near Waterloo is supposed to be good for a high-level view of the city, you can avoid the queues by pre-booking, I’m told.

I’d use the Underground/Tube, if you can avoid the rush hour nightmare. If you can follow a wiring schematic, you can find your way around the map. Expect some security alerts following Madrid, e.g., London Bridge Station shut due to a security alert (usually means someone forgot their shopping bag). In Central London use the black cabs (Licenced drivers, metered fares), avoid mini-cabs (unlicenced drivers, some unroadworthy cars, liable to charge what they think they can get out of you).

If you find those Mamoli gaskets here, you’re a better man than I.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Thanks Aiden!

A couple of those weren't on my list. Thanks for looking for the Mamoli gaskets--will take the part number just in case I find...

Had planned on using the tube. No problem reading schematics

Was amazed at the number of museums in London. Will probably go to the British Museum but could probably get lost in there for days. Have been to Egypt and seen the Sphynx--now I get to see its beard!

Haven't been there before and will probably "do" some of the standard attractions, but I generally enjoy the more offbeat and less busy places when I travel.

BillW@honeywell

Maybe Aiden can pinpoint these...

Bath...Roman ruins that show how hypocaust radiant heating worked plus Roman plumbing systems that still work to this day. This is the place Rich Trethewey visited on TV.

Rainhill? Aiden can correct me if I'm wrong. This is where the British have preserved and operate one of the largest collections of steam locomotives in the world. I think the locomotive used as the "Hogswart Express" in the Harry Potter movies is stored there and occasionally operates with its restored train. I've never been there, but its high on my priority list.

Aidan (UK)

More

"I generally enjoy the more offbeat and less busy places when I travel". Understand, I'm embarrassed I can't provide any better suggestions than the usual tourist guides.

I posted your query on a UK-based house website I frequent. Some suggestions are coming up there.
http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/cgi-bin/discuss/forum.pl?read=21151

I've been meaning to take the boys to the British Museum to see the Elgin/Parthenon marbles before they're shamed into giving them back to the Greeks. The refurbished Reading Room looks spectacular. Some of the stone was specified to be Portland stone, to match the original. The supplier got something very similar from a French quarry, apparently from the same geological seam as the Portland quarries. Someone spotted the difference. He didn't get paid for it.

Bath is about 125 miles from London. The lead-lined Roman baths were re-discovered in the 19th Century, still holding water and flooding the buildings built on the rubbish with which they’d been filled.

If that’s too far, there’s the remains of a Roman villa at St. Albans, about 20 miles north of central London, with the hypocaust floors & a mosaic. Re-discovered whilst someone was digging a pipe trench through the mosaic with an excavator.
http://www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk/trust.htm

In the same area there’s the de Havilland museum at Hatfield, where the Mosquito was first built. The only combination of joinery and mechanics I can think of, it had an immensely strong plywood and balsa fuselage (minimizing the use of strategic metals) with two Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. A few of them failed in flight due to wartime construction, lack of maintenance and abuse. The last airworthy one disintegrated in flight about 4 years back. This is probably a very small museum for the Mosquito enthusiast.
http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/mus/uk/dehav/mosqmus.htm

There’s the Imperial War Museum at Lambeth (near central London, south of the river), appropriately housed in the former asylum called Bedlam. They have an exhibition about the D-Day landing on at present.
http://www.iwm.org.uk/lambeth/index.htm

There’s also the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, Oxfordshire about 60 miles north, where they keep the historic aircraft. They fly a few of them, sometimes at illegally low levels, according to Germaine Greer who writes regularly about it in her column in one of the National papers.
http://www.iwm.org.uk/duxford/index.htm

The IWM also operate HMS Belfast, a WW2 cruiser moored on the Thames.
http://www.iwm.org.uk/belfast/index.htm

Rainhill I don't know. There's a railway museum at York, but it's a long way to go.
http://www.nrm.org.uk

Most of the National Museums are free, but they welcome contributions.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Had to look up Ritchie Blackmore.

"Deep Purple"

Memories for sure, but a touch early for me.

Exchange rate is kind of bad and on budget as always so will probably have fish, chips and ale 'till I want to puke!

Hotel offers daily "hearty English breakfast" as part of package. Will try a kipper with an open mind...

ScottMP

Ask them to

COOK your breakfast... LOL.

Yes, both sides of the toast,if you don't mind.

Scott

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Mad Dog

C'mon Mike......The kippers are excellent

you'll love 'em with a pint of Watneys. Have a great trip. If you see any terrorists on the plane, bash their bloody heads in for me....eh? I know A Marine will always take care of bin iss. God Bless - have a blast. Mad Dog

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