please empty your brain below
I think that your link for "the world's first tube railway" is wrong. Should it be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Subway instead?
I see that you've also got a link to the Tower Subway. However I think that "the world's first tube railway" and the Tower Subway are two different tunnels and that the former wasn't converted to the latter.
Regards
dg writes: Agreed, and fixed, thanks.
There are also family photos of me posing - in my fashionable denim suit - in front of the then very new dolphin statue next to the Tower Hotel! I was ten in 1973. And I have particular memories of birthday treat dinners in the Carvery at the Tower Hotel - regarded by us as the heights of sophistication. In particular my eleventh birthday when the TV football pundits (Jackie Charlton, Paddy Crerand and the like) who'd assembled for the 1974 world cup coverage were dining there. I got lots of autographs. One of those occasions that was so memorable that I can remember exactly what I was wearing!
To quote David Whitehead and Henning Klattenhoff's "London: The Architecture Guide" (my favourite book on the subject): "This Early Norman Chapel is an absolute delight. On the first floor of the south-east corner of the White Tower, seemingly hewn out of a single large chunk of tawny stone, it is heavy and very plain with almost no decoration and consists simply of a short four-bay, barrel-vaulted nave with galleried aisles and a semi-circular apse. Its weight conveys an unchanging permanence, while at the same time exuding a luminosity and sense of the otherworldly".
Definitely one of the best religious spaces is the Capital. But due to the Tower's entrance fee and the prospect of throngs of tourists, it possibly remains relatively unknown to actual Londoners.
dg writes: I quite agree, Richard. I was fortunate enough to reach the Chapel very early in the day and got the whole space to myself - quite magical.
I seem to recall being given a slice of birthday cake on one of the raised walkways.
Thoroughly enjoying your walk around Tower Hamlets. Keep up the good work.
dg writes: ah yes, 121 years, sorry.
(this is why I've never written a book)
There are two possible errors in the history depicted;
1) The Roman scene shows a bridge across the Thames. There was a river crossing but many people argue no evidence has been found to prove this was a bridge.
2) A scene from the 1980s depicts the then Prime Minister as a witch riding a broomstick above London.
Sorry but I think that I've misled you. I think that the City and South London Railway is considered to be the first tube railway, not the Tower Subway. Although the Tower Subway predates the C&SLR and initially contained a railway, I don't think that it's considered to be a "tube" railway.
Hence although your link to the Tower Subway is correct, I think that the link text might be better changed from "the world's first tube railway" to simply "the Tower Subway".
Regards
Zin92, what makes you say it is not considered to be a tube railway?
As I understand it, C&SLR was constructed much later, but using a similar tunnelling system, and was originally proopsed to use a similar cable traction system, but switched to electric locomotives.
The dolphin and girl is by David Wynne, who also did the dolphin and boy sculpture, by the river upstream in Chelsea.
No diversion at Katharine Docks to see the first (rejected) monolith from the 2001 film? http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2012/07/07/the-2001-monolith-is-on-display-by-tower-bridge/
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