A Journey of Discovery

As a born and bred Londoner I am bound to say that my natal city is the greatest in the world. I fully realise how subjective this statement is, I doubt there is a person alive (or dead) who has managed to visit every city on the planet in order to make comparisons, and I am a particularly impoverished international traveller. However, I stand by what I say simply because London has everything I want and still has the power to surprise and excite me after half a century of living in the bosom of the Great Wen. I also feel as I grow older that the city feels more organic, and that I am part of it, whether this is the premature onset of senility or something more profound I do not know, but I love the idea that all that has passed here is just waiting to be resurrected by an inquisitive mind and that the knowledge to be gained will make me even more of a Londoner than I already am. This particular adventure started in the London section of Foyle's bookshop on the Charing Cross Road on a balmy August Saturday in 2010, I picked up a book call London Plaques by Derek Sumeray and John Sheppard and, as I leafed through the information packed pages it felt like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle was falling into place. I instantly purchased the book and repaired to the Angel public house on nearby St Giles High Street for a pint and a perusal. Like most Londoners I was aware of the blue plaques celebrating the lives and achievements of the capital's finest citizens, now I had in my hands a guide to all of these, and more; Plaques erected by organizations as diverse as the Dead Comics Society and the London Hellenic Society; and not only people, there are plaques commemorating places long gone, especially in the City of London, and these in particular have the power to bring the past alive; some1,800 plaques in total. I decided there and then that I would attempt to visit and photograph them all. My first two forays into the field were made using detailed itineraries compiled from the book planned to include all the plaques in any given area, but I found this approach strangely unrewarding so now I leave the book at home, using it only as a reference tool and just wander the streets photographing the plaques as I find them; using this method it will obviously take more time to visit all of the plaques on offer, but I am not in such a great hurry and, as the good doctor said: when a man is tired of London.......

Friday, 19 November 2010

Guy Penrose GIBSON, VC

32 Aberdeen Place, NW8 (English Heritage)

Wing Commander Gibson, already a highly decorated airman, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership of 617 "The Dambusters" squadron which succeeded in destroying the Eder and Moehne dams on the Ruhr on May 16th 1943 using "bouncing bombs" developed by Sir Barnes Wallis. Eight of the 19 Lancaster Bombers deployed on the raid did not return to England, although Wing Commander Gibson did, only to be killed the following year on a bombing raid to Germany, he was 26. Gibson lived in this mid-terrace Victorian house for a short period in 1943 and perhaps even visited the Crockers Folly public house, just a few yards along the road for a pint or two. Sadly now closed down and in a sorry state of repair this lavish Victorian watering hole is named after Frank Crocker. The story goes that Crocker had the pub built because eh thought that the Great Central Railway terminus was to be constructed nearby, it wasn't and Crocker, bankrupt and in despair flung himself to his death from the upper storey of his "folly". It's a colourful tale, but untrue, Crocker died of natural causes in 1904. The pub is on the market for £4.5 million, at that price it is unlikely to resurface as a back-street boozer and will probably go the same way as many of London's iconic hostelries and be converted into flats. Wing Commander Gibson's Victoria Cross is on display at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, at least some things are sacred.
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