London Mystery History Walk

Today a group of Med Secs

went to London for a History Mystery walk lead by Juliet, (former - dammit) Team Leader, currently a Walk Leader and soon to be a Book Club Leader.
At this point only the bits I remember will get a mention as London is still new to me in parts and it gets to be a blur. So; Drury Lane, Covent Garden, Somerset House, (where it was the last day of the ice-skating, a very pretty sight.) We went into bowels of the building here and saw an exhition of photos of the band Joy Division. In most of the spots that we stopped to 'hear' the history read from the book, there was a ghost or two resident. Dan Leno was the most appealing in that he is/was the most appalling! Click on the link and see his story. We ended up on the embankment before Cleopatra's needle, a fine erection of great historic note. Bit worried that I might be infringing copyright by adding the last link, so if anyone know that I am, do let me know. The last spot on the walk was the York watergate where the Thames used to come up to. It is 150m from the bank of the river now.

Once off the walk we visited the National Gallery to see the artist Ben Johnson work on his huge painting of London and to see how it is put together. It is the effort of a team and involves drawing, CAD, stencils and air brushing. He has been working on it since last year and anyone could pop in to chat and watch. Today was the last day, and a small area in the bottom right corner was yet to be completed.
Lunch in Wagamama followed. Great food and a lot of fun considering the restraint shown by some on the alcohol front....sigh.
Last culture stop was the incredible Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. We all enjoyed this and it is well worth a visit.
The trains were a bit of a bore in that we could not get directly from Victoria to home, so the return journey was a long one.
And now here is a picture of me losing my head!