Best Street Food Finds in London [video]

John Turner’s Old Found Photos [video]

CNN posted a video about old found photos –

After sitting in a suitcase in an attic for almost 30 years, the newly-discovered photographs of amateur photographer John Turner offer a glimpse into life in pre and post-war Britain.

View the video HERE.

Ceremony of Quit Rents – Strange 800 Year-old English Tradition

According to Historic-UK.com –

A rather unusual and decidedly British ceremony takes place each year in late October. The City of London pays rent to the Crown for two pieces of land, even though it no longer knows their exact locations! For the first piece of land, somewhere in Shropshire, the City pays two knives, one blunt and one sharp. For the second piece of land, 6 giant horseshoes and 61 nails are handed over.

Continue reading HERE.

1928 Penny Farthing Bike Race [silent video]

Queen Elizabeth II Has A “Stunt Double” [video]

Trimming The World’s Largest Hedge

Express reports from 2015 –

… welcome to the largest hedge of its kind in the world – a monster yew that takes gardening staff at a country estate two whole weeks to trim. At 40ft tall and 15ft wide, groundsmen at the Bathurst Estate in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, say the 300-year-old yew hedge is the largest of its kind in the world and costs £6,000 a year to maintain. It takes a specialist two-man team at the estate two weeks – with no weekend break – to give the hedge it’s annual trim.

Continue reading HERE.

 

90 Years Of Wedded Bliss

BBC reported in October 2016 –

A man who was one half of what is believed to be the longest-married couple in the UK has died aged 110. Karam Chand, of Bradford, died on Friday after 90 years of marriage to his wife Kartari. The pair, who tied the knot in India in 1925 during the British Raj and moved to England 40 years later, have eight children and 27 grandchildren.

Continue reading HERE.

A little more background info is available HERE.

Restoring The First Recording Of Computer Generated Music

Sound and Vision Blog reports –

In 1951, a BBC outside broadcast unit in Manchester used a portable acetate disc cutter to capture three melodies played by a primeval computer. This gigantic computer filled much of the ground floor of Alan Turing’s Computing Machine Laboratory. Today, all that remains of the recording session is a 12-inch single-sided acetate disc, cut by the BBC’s technician while the computer played.

Continue reading and listen to the recording HERE.

The Screaming Skyscraper

Independent reported –

In Estonia they quite intentionally have a 230ft organ that’s played mellifluously by the sea. In Manchester they have a skyscraper that accidentally shrieks pure sonic fear into your soul whenever there’s a strong wind. Yes, as if blighting our skylines weren’t bad enough, the UK’s vertiginous glass skyscrapers are now screaming at us.

Continue reading HERE.

Biscuit From The Titanic To Be Auctioned Next Week

The Guardian reports –

What could be the world’s most valuable biscuit, which survived the sinking of the Titanic more than a century ago, is to be sold at auction. The Spillers and Bakers pilot biscuit – a type of cracker made from flour and water – survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 in which about 1,500 people died. It was part of a survival kit stored within one of the ill-fated ocean liner’s lifeboats and was kept as a souvenir. The biscuit will go under the hammer at Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, on 24 October and is estimated to fetch between £8,000 and £10,000.

Continue reading HERE.

 

Squirrel Runs Up £300 Tab Drinking At Club

According to The Telegraph –

“He must have flung himself on the handle and drank some as he was staggering around all over the place and moving a bit slowly. “I’ve never seen a drunk squirrel before. He was sozzled”

Continue reading HERE.

 

Ten Illegal Things To Do In London [video]