Virtual tour of London: the Strand

Let’s all go down the Strand (have a banana!) And let’s do it virtually with old photos, paintings, Google Earth street views, lots of stories and a few laughs on the way. You can even bring a banana.

The road called the Strand beside the River Thames is barely a mile long yet has so much to tell about the city.

It housed the riverside palaces of the Savoy, Somerset House and the Duke of Buckingham.

There’s an Egyptian obelisk on the embankment built to house a huge sewer. Close by is Benjamin Franklin’s house, then there’s the bustle of Trafalgar square and the idyllic gardens of Temple where there’s a 900 year old Crusader church and close by, the Royal Courts of Justice.

We’ll learn some weird and curious things too …

Like why were windows boarded up 250 years ago? Did Benjamin Franklin really want the turkey to be the bird symbol of the USA? Is there a streetlight powered by sewer smell? Or a pub split in half? How does a bridge clean itself? Why do the lions of Trafalgar Square have the paws of a cat? And then there’s Frank Sinatra singing to taxi drivers who told him to keep the day job. And what's all this about having bananas?

Intrigued? Join us for all this and more.

Details:

Zoom (you will be emailed the Zoom link on the morning of the tour)

75 minutes

Please note, start time is UK time and tour may be cancelled if too few sign ups. (You will get a full refund).

For more of our reviews please see www.letsdiscoverlondon.com