That particular chunk of London wall is tucked behind the Grange City Hotel on Coopers Row, just between Tower Hill tube station and the side entrance to Fenchurch Street train station... Have a feeling you might have found it last time, it's quite near Crosswall and has a fairly big metal plaque on the wall outside? Another example I like is the Zeppelin Building on Farringdon Road, as the original on that site was destroyed by a zeppelin air raid bomb during the First World War... they have the name drilled in to look like it's made out of bullet holes. It's not like many people remember that air raids happened that early, or that they did so much damage. Talking about the past/present connection, I just saw in the paper that this map (http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/map.php) has been put online of Early Modern London. It's tagged and zoom-able and, I think, the earliest example of a printed map of the area. But Google-ized..! It's getting more fashionable to hark back in London now though: in the past few years, I've seen them re-instate the medieval Frost Fairs they used to hold when the Thames froze over, and even hold a commemorative sheep drive over the Millenium Bridge (the sheep were not impressed).
Well, yep, I'm looking at US history from an outsider's viewpoint, but I find it hard not to view history anywhere as being more geographical than cultural... Mesa Verde may not be considered your history, but it is American history. Also, I wanted to see it because I'd read Willa Cather's 'The Professor's House' for my degree, and Mesa Verde/rediscovering Mesa Verde later all felt tied up in my head as one long history after I read that. It's an odd example, I'll admit, just one that stayed with me. I was in New England on my latest trip though, and most everything there seems preserved as long as possible, so I'm probably not best placed to comment on continuity of history right now! I like the extreme contrasts of history you can see in the States though: that you can see what the glaciers did to the landscape at Yosemite on one hand, and then find a retro diner on Route 66 on another. History usually survives if there's a tourist trade for it :o)
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yati
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Date: 2007-11-16 01:35 am (UTC)Another example I like is the Zeppelin Building on Farringdon Road, as the original on that site was destroyed by a zeppelin air raid bomb during the First World War... they have the name drilled in to look like it's made out of bullet holes. It's not like many people remember that air raids happened that early, or that they did so much damage.
Talking about the past/present connection, I just saw in the paper that this map (http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/map.php) has been put online of Early Modern London. It's tagged and zoom-able and, I think, the earliest example of a printed map of the area. But Google-ized..!
It's getting more fashionable to hark back in London now though: in the past few years, I've seen them re-instate the medieval Frost Fairs they used to hold when the Thames froze over, and even hold a commemorative sheep drive over the Millenium Bridge (the sheep were not impressed).
Well, yep, I'm looking at US history from an outsider's viewpoint, but I find it hard not to view history anywhere as being more geographical than cultural... Mesa Verde may not be considered your history, but it is American history. Also, I wanted to see it because I'd read Willa Cather's 'The Professor's House' for my degree, and Mesa Verde/rediscovering Mesa Verde later all felt tied up in my head as one long history after I read that. It's an odd example, I'll admit, just one that stayed with me.
I was in New England on my latest trip though, and most everything there seems preserved as long as possible, so I'm probably not best placed to comment on continuity of history right now! I like the extreme contrasts of history you can see in the States though: that you can see what the glaciers did to the landscape at Yosemite on one hand, and then find a retro diner on Route 66 on another. History usually survives if there's a tourist trade for it :o)