London

As you already know I am staying in London, Wimbledon to be more specific, for a week with a group of students from the EOI. They are attending an English course in the morning and visiting London in the afternoons.

Those who know me well know that I'm madly in love with London probably because when I was 17 I spent three months on my own in Wimbledon studying English at Wimbledon School of English.
The experience was just great. Imagine, a teenager in London! I got to go to the Tennis Championship, to all the attractions in London, to the famous nightclub Ministry of Sound. It was absolutely fantastic.

Now, listen to some people talking about how they feel about London.

 Have YOU been to London?

How do YOU feel about London?

Lord Mayor's Show

Last Saturday 8th November Londoners celebrated Lord Mayor's Show.



Lord Mayor's Show begins with the ancient and justified caution of King John. He tried to win London’s support by allowing it to choose its own Mayor, but he insisted that immediately after election the Mayor must leave the safety of the City of London, travel upriver to distant Westminster and swear loyalty to the Crown.

Over the centuries this inconvenient journey became one of London's favourite rituals. It moved from river barges to horseback and then into the magnificentState Coach, and around it grew a rowdy and joyful mediæval festival that became known as the Lord Mayor's Show.

The ancient pageant is now bigger than ever. It is a London institution and hasn’t missed a year since Wellington’s funeral blocked the whole city in 1852. The modern procession is over three and a half miles long and fills the whole space between Bank and Aldwych from 11am until about 2.30pm, cheered by a crowd of around half a million people and watched live on the BBC by millions more.

There are fewer sword fights these days but the floats are grander than ever and it's a great day out for every generation. 

Source: www.lordmayorsshow.london

London Underground turns 150

As the capital marks 150 years since the first section of the London Underground opened, Metro Newspaper round up ten of the best facts about the Tube.

10 – In 2011/2012 a record 1.171billion passenger journeys took place on the Tube, 64 million more than the previous year.

9 – East Finchley to Morden via Bank is the longest continuous tunnel on the network at 17.25 miles (27.8km).

8 – The Tube’s logo, the roundel, a red circle crossed by a horizontal blue bar, first appeared in 1908.

7 – Each Tube train travels an average of 114,500 miles (184,269km) per year.

6 – There are 4,134 carriages, 426 escalators and 164 lifts on the London Underground.

5 – The average speed of a Tube train is 33km/h, but speeds of up to 50mph can be reached on the Victoria line and 60mph on the Metropolitan.

4 – The Jubilee line is the deepest on the entire network at 32m (105ft) below sea level – 68.8m (221ft) below ground level.

3 – Waterloo is the busiest station on the Tube with 57,000 people passing through during the three-hour morning peak; 82million per year.

2 – There are 270 stations on the London Underground, 260 of which are managed by 19,000 staff.

1 – The network extends to 249 miles (402km), just 45 per cent of which is in tunnel.

If you want to know more about the London Underground you can go to the BBC website to watch another video or you can visit the Transport for London website or the London Transport Museum page.