The world's largest container of UNESCO sites - Tower of London 488; Maritime Greenwich 795
What and Why
London is one of the two world alpha++ cities, the other being New York, and is often hyperboled as the world's most powerful, most desirable, most influential, most visited, most expensive, most innovative, most sustainable, most investment friendly, most popular for work, and the most vegetarian-friendly city in the world according to Wikipedia. Clearly I do not buy this and hence I used the word hyperbole. Within the context of this blog, however this is the most important city as it houses the largest number of UNESCO WHS within, as a matter of fact four altogether.
London of course has much to offer as a tourist city, but geographically London is a very complicated city to define its boundary. Within our understanding of London, it actually includes the City of London (which is a mere 3 km2), and the City of Westminster which both hold city status, and officially there are only 69 cities in the United Kingdom (UK). In a way, that is not surprising as the country of UK contains four or more 'countries' within: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and various crown dependencies like Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man.
Toponymy
The etymology of London is just as uncertain, as there are different stories to attest to. The more accepted one is that it derives from Old Celt Lowonidonjon, with a Proto-Indo-European root meaning sink, literally a place that sinks or floods.
See
Let me describe my ventures into the four UNESCO WHS in two blogs, starting from the East.
Greenwich
Other than the known fact that Greenwich is notable for its giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian or Prime Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), it is celebrated for its maritime history. During the seafaring heydays it was very important to identify the location of the ships through its position along the longitude. The measurements of longitude became the main obsession for maritime studies in Greenwich. In fact it was its maritime involvement that brought us the GMT, when the British Empire grew into an advanced naval power. British mariners kept at least one clock on GMT in order to calculate their longitude from the meridian, which was by convention considered to have longitude zero degree. This convention was internationally adopted in 1884 CE.
The Greenwich Royal Observatory is where to be to see the Prime Meridian. Greenwich, pronounced /ˈɡrɛnɪtʃ/ means the green settlement in Old English.
Almost everyone who steps foot with try to take a picture of being in both 'East and West' of the world.
The observatory is now more a museum and houses quite an impressive display of astronomical and navigation equipment, but clearly the only thing people care is about that artificial line on the ground.
Greenwich definitely has more to offer than the Prime Meridian, in fact it is easily one of the most beautiful part of London and is definitely worth a long visit, especially the Greenwich Park area.
The National Maritime Museum is located in the Greenwich Park and is a very beautiful with all the Victorian and Edwardian constructions, especially the museum itself. One will easily recognise the park and its buildings, which also forms part of the University of Greenwich, as it was prominently featured in the recent Thor: The Dark World movie.
Many exhibits about British in the sea and his glorious admiralty era, with the famous tea-trade boat Cutty Sark near the river bank. I did not find time to visit the clipper.
Tower of London
The Tower of London was founded towards the mid-11th century CE as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The central White Tower was built by William I (né William Normandy) in 1078 CE and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new ruling regime.
The castle is made up of three 'wards', or enclosures. Technically there are 13 'towers' in the Tower of London. The innermost ward contains the main White Tower and is the earliest phase of the castle. Further construction on the site took place in later dynasties. The fortress played a prominent role in English history and perhaps history of England itself. It was besieged several times, and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has also served variously as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the Royal Mint, a public record office, prison, royal residence and the Crown Jewels of England over the past millennium.
The White Tower.
The dungeon of the Tower complex, which was often the strongest structure in a mediaeval castle, and this apparently follows a Norman architecture, a bit similar to those blogged in Palermo. As the strongest and innermost castle in the complex, this is the residence for the king. The building was not white when its as constructed and was only ordered to be whitewashed in 1240 CE by Henry III (né Henry Plantagenet).
By the way there is a traitor gate just outside the tower along the river bank where prisoners, mostly political criminals, are ferried into the tower's prison. To most prisoners this is a one-way ticket: hardly anyone came out alive after all sorts of tortures inside the tower.
Eat and Drink
One thing that I do not take pride as a British is that it is very difficult to identify British food. I am sure there is a tradition, but food like fish-and-chips, shepherd's pie, Sunday roast, bangers-and-mash are not that distinctive that can be called 'uniquely British', and they are not that great really. To defend, challenge yourself by naming a famous 'British' restaurant near you.
Whenever I go to the UK, the first thing that I eat perhaps would be pub-food, and my favourite pub-cum-restaurant would be JD Wetherspoon, which is franchised all over the country. Usually I just take a big roast or breakfast plus everyone's pint. This is as British as I can get.
Getting There and Around
There is an underground station called the Greenwich and Tower Hill respectively, reaching the site right in front of the entrance. The entry fee to Greenwich Observatory and London Tower is GBP £25 and £16 respectively.
UNESCO Inscriptions
The massive White Tower is a typical example of Norman military architecture, whose influence was felt throughout the kingdom. It was built on the Thames by William the Conqueror to protect London and assert his power. The Tower of London – an imposing fortress with many layers of history, which has become one of the symbols of royalty – was built around the White Tower.
The ensemble of buildings at Greenwich, an outlying district of London, and the park in which they are set, symbolize English artistic and scientific endeavour in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Queen's House (by Inigo Jones) was the first Palladian building in England, while the complex that was until recently the Royal Naval College was designed by Christopher Wren. The park, laid out on the basis of an original design by André Le Nôtre, contains the Old Royal Observatory, the work of Wren and the scientist Robert Hooke.
References
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