London – Odds N’ Ends

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In London I saw this loop adjacent to the window and I assumed it was ornamentation to hold the cord for the blinds but my friend who lives in London said it was a safety feature. If you have to jump out the window you can hold this or put a rope through it and it is tested to hold someone’s body weight. Note – may not hold up in the US where people are a bit larger (just kidding).

Beer for dogs! Not sure I get the concept but it apparently is good for their bones, as well.


They were running an advertising campaign in London for Diet Coke where you’d buy a bottle and it would have someone’s name on it. I never found a Carl, unfortunately, but according to their official site it does exist as one of the top 150 most popular names in the UK.

At Harrod’s they had this gigantic red cinnamon bear which kind of scared me a bit as a totemic icon. I could see this on Easter Island.

My knowledge of Roman London was too low and I started reading up more after seeing this plaque near the Leadenhall Market. The history is fascinating especially how the city kept getting sacked over and over again after the Romans left and the Norman invasion.

Cross posted at LITGM

4 thoughts on “London – Odds N’ Ends”

  1. The most striking plaque I’ve seen in London was the one commemorating the location of the Embassy of the Republic of Texas.

  2. And a long tale hangs thereby from that brief decade! Sam Houston was flirting with the British and the French in order to pressure the United States into annexing Texas. (Many details of this in my own book – http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Heart-Celia-Hayes/dp/0934955875/ref=la_B002BM1QHG_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1370529209&sr=1-5

    There was a book that I found in the CSUN library about the landmarks of Roman London which postulated that London was occupied more or less continiously, and that many pecular place names could be traced back through various languages and versions of English to Latin names for particular sites within the city. (Can’t recall the name of the book or the author, though.) Cat Street was where the great mechanical wheel which lifted or dropped the chain across the river was situated, and that the name Botolph was derived from the Latin for customs house. Interesting book, wish I could remember more.

  3. Do they expect you to keep your rope with you at all times?

    For me, I would prefer metal fire escapes.

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