Start to walk up Philpot Lane from Eastcheap, stopping at Blacklock, second premises on the right.
Look at the Blackrock and let your eye rove upwards and to the right.
There are your mice!
To find out more about the Mice please join my Fake Facts and Fiction walk.
In 1515 it was decided to rank the livery companies in order of importance and their position depended on their wealth. Companies incorporated after this were numbered chronologically.
This order of precedence is manifest in events such as the Lord Mayor’s show, the annual procession to welcome in the new mayor.
Aylmer (Elmer in modern terms) was a bishop in Surrey in the 1400s. He lived just outside Croydon in an area now bearing a corrupted version of his name: “Elmers End”.
This very much a draft as he had a connection with St Olav’s in the City, more details to follow.
1632-1723
We all know Wren as an architect but at the age of just 25 he was appointed professor of astronomy at Gresham College.
He studied mathematics, mechanics, medicine, meteorology and microscopy. He was a member of parliament who served three terms in the House of Commons and, despite being born a sickly child in the 1600s lived to the age of 90.
It is, however, as an architect that we best know him. in 1669, three years after the Great Fire, King Charles II appointed him Surveyor of Works and charged him with rebuilding the City.
Rebuild it, he did. Aside from other buildings, he rebuilt 52 City of London churches including St Paul’s cathedral.
He was assisted by architect and polymath Robert Hooke and worked alongside architect Nicholas Hawksmoor.
He laid the groundwork for the formation of the Royal Society of which he was later president.
1635-1703.
Hooke was a scientist engaged in a number of disciplines. He formulated Hooke’s Law relating to elastic properties of materials.
Hooke became curator of experiments for the Royal Society in 1662.
Three years later, in 1665, he was appointed Professor of Geometry at Gresham College.
Hooke was a pioneer in the development of the microscope and also wrote papers on gravity which are respected to this day.
As an architect he was chief assistant to Christopher Wren when rebuilding the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666.
Like Wren, Hooke was an astronomer and determined to prove that the earth rotated around the sun. This led to a failed experiment involving the star Gamma Draconis.
Sundry and various references to the City and Docklands. mainly Youtube.
Tom Bolton: The Black Ditch (lost river)
Jago Hazzard: The most underappreciated place in London?
Jago Hazzard: Abandoned stations Around Tower Hill