Westminster Abbey, Parliament, St James Park - Jolly Spiffing London Walk

pip pip tally ho jules guides here in which i wander around london and tell you fascinating facts don't forget to hit the subscribe button and to share and like tell all your friends um if you like these videos so today we're in st james park but we're gonna wander around there around past westminster abbey and the houses of parliament and everything um so james park was actually laid out by king henry viii um as a kind of deer park and then james the first he used to keep elephants crocodiles camels and over there in that street over there called bird cage walk he had a whole aviary full of all these birds that's why it's called bird cage walk but it was king charles ii my favorite king who opened it up to the public and then he added this canal here which he used to go swimming in he used to catch ducks as well down at the end they'd have a little pool where they could catch the ducks and they'd roast them for dindins i've seen a deal of gaiety throughout my noisy life with all my grand accomplishments i never could get away i've got an emergency nuts always handy to carry an emergency nut for the squirrel okay all right okay careful no careful all right mate bloom an egg cheeky if you're here at the right time you can see them feeding the pelicans because back in 1664 the russian ambassador gave a gift of some pelicans to king charles ii and ever since they've had pelicans here they're the descendants of those original ones i think well the cia funnily enough when you're about to join british intelligence like mi6 or something this is the bridge you have to walk across in order to be initiated they kind of meet so if you see a bloke dressed like this with a pipe and a monocle but walking across and saying uh do you have a match i'm sure i prefer to use a lighter then you know they're probably being initiated into m56 the most excellent is the prfg game a noise one of my subscribers kindly sent me a wonderful book with old maps of london and things in it and in it it's got a brilliant painting facing this direction that's facing north and on the left you can see buckingham house which which then became buckingham palace later but on the right hand side of the map you can see your horse guards and even a bit of white hall but anything north of piccadilly you can hardly see any houses it's it's all fields have you ever read the three musketeers simon yes really yeah it's probably my favorite book and there's actually five books there's three musketeers 20 years after the con de brasilon louis de la valia and it finishes with the man in the iron mask now everyone knows cardinal riccilier from the first book but then in the subsequent books they've got cardinal mezaran he's replaced i like him because he's called jules mazeran now anyway this cardinal mazarin guy he fell out with a poet around 1661 called charles evremon and everyone got exiled and came to london to seek favor from king charles ii but this put the king in a really awkward position because he really liked this poet he was really popular but he wanted to find a way of helping him without upsetting the french so he said i know i'm going to make him governor of dark island and of course this charles evermore he had no idea what duck island was and it was actually that island over there to be the governor of it means nothing and he just carried on thinking well that's a pretty cool title but the french knew clearly what it was and they said they said that's fine he can be the governor of duck island no problem he also gave him a pension of 300 pounds a year which is quite a lot in those days well so he just stayed here and became governor of that island and scrounged off the king well yeah he did actually get invited to go back to france but he decided to stay here because cardinal masarahan's niece hortense mancini she came to london in 1670 and set up a salon for love making gambling and erudite conversation and of course why wouldn't he love hanging out there because the king used to hang out there too and in fact king charles was very impressed with this new drink called champagne which uh this charles elves introduced him to except in those days it wasn't really champagne it was kind of this flat thing because they hadn't uh perfected this secondary fermentation process that which you need to make champagne because apparently you couldn't do that in the bottle in france because french glass wasn't strong enough but the english glass was strong enough and this english guy called christopher merritt at the royal society here explained just how you should do it and so champagne was invented in england we got their first day and swimming in champaign for champagne charlie is my name champagne charlie is my name good in 1837 the orthological society they donated a load of birds to the park and i think they also built that little swiss type chalet there for the bird keeper to stay in yeah there's a documentary i saw on youtube i think it was from the 70s or early 80s yeah it's about the bird keeper and you see him grabbing a swan out of the lake you see him feeding the pelicans and incubating eggs in that little chalet and it's great it's great check it out it's about 50 minutes long yeah now we're not talking about that over that that's sort of a number 10 downing street sort of just over there and this is churchill's war rooms which you can go and visit if you like i go in there in my london pass video um you can even see churchill's pajamas in there and all sorts of stuff it's it's it's really good in there excellent worth the visit and the foreign office or is it home office i get them all mixed up but we're not going that way we're heading this way this is bird cage walk where the king used to have all his birds in cages actually you see these things people keep asking me what these are it's just because of westminster it's just a w for westminster westminster and then this one i think is two c's main means city council that's how i write my w's all right yeah you're a bit of a w good for any game at night my boys good for any game at night my boys for sham now this used to be the london transport offices built in 1929 above st james park station the thing's nice about it is these epstein and gill sculptures around it epstein was the guy who did oscar wilde's grave and a whole bunch of other things that a lot of people didn't like at the time but you see these sculptures around here i think these ones on the lower level are night and day and the ones on the top level are the north south east and west winds blowing or something but we're going this way queen anne's gate good for any game at night my boys who come and join me on a screen this whole area is really beautiful if you walk past at night because they've got these authentic old gas lamps sometimes they malfunction and they come on the wrong time of day this one's obviously uh i don't think you should be on right now but uh but they're really beautiful and if you come at night time walk through the park you feel like you're in oliver twist or something these keystones above the windows here these are these are made out of a special type of stone it's called coad stone there was this formula that was created by a family who had a factory down near waterloo and they created this process of making this excellent stone which was resilient to the london weather anyway when they died their formula died with them and it was only recently that they rediscovered how it was done when you say resilient do you mean how do you mean by that kind of impervious i think they don't decay or something they don't they're more weather resistant you know um obviously you've got a million blue plaques down here and of course a statue of queen anne which was supposed to be on the church of saint mary lestrand but then she died when they were just about to put it up and then they said oh you know what let's just put her here instead which is a bit mean queen anne isn't she 1700s yeah 1702 to 1714 so wouldn't you have blocked the windows originally yeah i don't know when they blocked those out actually so what about that plaque usually these are kind of boundary markers representing the the edge of the parish but i don't think there was a parish around here which began with c i think it's a property marker for christ hospital which is like a old english public school they must own this house or something which was also where roger moore lived in the persuaders because they're so old they've got these things outside with like little hoops those were for putting lamps in i suppose they would have burnt torches back in those days but it's nice to see someone has actually used them here but they put electric ones in it'll be nice if they put some uh you know hanging baskets well yeah some people do but i just think it would be nice to have a real flame there but uh i expect it's not allowed there's a great pub there isn't it look at that i think i saw that in the sweeney probably i've always loved these steps here cockpit steps they're called there's actually a painting by an engraving or something by hogarth it's called the cockpit it features lots of characters who were famous at the time i don't know who they were they're gambling on cop fights and stuff but anyway apparently the cockpit was right here so when you look at that picture by uh by hogarth you know that was right here it ain't here no more though [Music] the way i gained my titles by a hobby which i've got of never letting others pay however long see this house here behind me number 26. this is where the king's falconer used to live in the 1700s he was the in fact the only person who was allowed to drive down a birdcage walk back in the 1950s because of the amount of coal where everyone was burning there was so much soot on all the buildings after the second world war they decided to scrub up some of these buildings and actually famously they decided to clean 10 downing streets and they found that actually the bricks are yellow on 10 downing street but they all looked at it and they thought wait a minute that just doesn't look very prime ministerial it doesn't look cool they didn't like it so they decided to paint it black in order to make it look more like the prime minister's house and the same goes for this one it doesn't actually have black it's like a garish pink underneath it i think i think they might be yellow bricks like that like that one there yeah um it doesn't come off whoever drinks at my expense are treated all the same from dukes and lords to cabin down i make them drink champagne this was built in 1911. it's like a multi-purpose methodist hall wesleyan methodists but this is where the first united nations general assembly was held in 1946 suffragettes had meetings here in 1914 but most importantly when england held the world cup in 1966 this is where they uh displayed the the jewels roommate trophy and it got this was the one where they stole it but then it was found by a dog called pickles you know in a bush in south london it caused good old pickles though just as well really because we haven't won it since have we so but have released we won it for once and right opposites is westminster abbey or is it the original abbey was built by um king siebert who was an anglo-saxon king in year 620 his tomb is still in there by the way he's very he's the oldest tomb in westminster abbey but anyway there was then these fishermen who were fishing over in the river thames and uh this bloke called out to them and said oh mate can you give me a lift to the other side so he took him over and he said yeah my name's peter and i'm a fisherman as well and i've come here down from heaven to dedicate this church which is going to bear my name so its actual name is the collegiate church of saint pizza [Music] later in 1050 edward the confessor rebuilt it and back then it was called westminster abbey because it was west it was a minster which is a church and it was west of the city of london but the current church dates from 12 45 so it's still pretty ancient cheers julia say a prayer for me [Applause] [Music] this is excellent they've got the tombs of edward the confessor queen elizabeth the first henry vii loads of different monarchs in fact all the monarchs have been crowned here since william the conqueror in 1066 apart from edward v who died in the bloody tower and then with the eightfold abdicated john dryden chaucer charles dickens as well this is the coronation chair where all the monarchs have been crowned since thirteen hundred they've even got britain's oldest door dating from 10 50.

if you don't include the one they put in my bathroom that is yeah it actually so it remains part of this benedictine monastery up until 1539 king henry viii decided to come along and knock down all the all the monasteries and everything but he spared this one because i think he quite liked it now you've heard of robbing peter to pay paul well the idea was to use all the riches confiscated from these monasteries to replenish these other churches but this one apparently they got a bit big for their boots and they said oh can we have a little bit more money please for our church and then i think it was king edward the sixth he was saying no sorry i'll tell you what you've been you're really getting on my nerves now and so i'm going to take the money from your your funds and i'm going to give them to st paul's cathedral over in the city thereby robbing peter to pay paul as if you cared and pink charlie is my name champagne charlie is my name good for any game at night my boy there used to be a sanctuary here where basically you're allowed if you were a criminal they would let you come and stay here and not be arrested as long as your crimes weren't against the church or against the king sanctuary sanctuary sanctuary sanctuary but then they knocked that all down and now it's replaced with this uh building designed by sir george gilbert scott he must have been the father or grandfather of giles gilbert scott the guy who did the telephone boxes anyway he did a lovely building there which i think has just got loads of offices and stuff in it and this memorial to uh kids from westminster school who died in the indian and russian wars of 1854 to 1859. were you aware of those wars yes i was i'm an expert actually [Laughter] because westminster school is through there and loads of famous people went there actually christopher wren went there andrew lloyd webber was famous who went there uh shane mcgowan yes shane mcgowan did go there he was expelled i think for taking drugs or something unfortunately it's closed it's called dean's yard but hopefully by the time you come to london you should be able to take a lovely walk through there it's all very beautiful just opposite over here you see that's the middlesex guild hall and that is the supreme court if you keep appealing you go to the crown court the high court i think i think the supreme court is the one who has the ultimate say no more chances see what i like about it that street over there is called tots hill street 250 years ago they had hot hill prison the prison was demolished in 1776 but they've salvaged one part of it and they put it into the wall over here look so walter ali was held there just before he got his head chopped off but this gateway here would have had many prisoners come through it including sir walter raleigh here are several sorts of work for the poor of this parish saint margaret's westminster as also the county according to law and for such as will beg and live idle in this city and liberty anno 1655 i'm touching history maybe sir walter raleigh touched it as he went through norm and stanley fletcher you have been found guilty of eating too many potatoes this is saint margaret's church and i know you're thinking oh not another church it reminds me of when i used to go to rome my cousins used to show me around and there would just be and this church is this and this church there was just so many churches originally edward the confessor had one built here in 1064 but this one dates from the 16th century so it's still pretty old and again annoyingly we can't get in there shall i should i climb over and no but normally you can go in here and that window there i think it's the one on the other side actually the east window which we can't go and look at annoyingly so i'll have to show you a photo was donated by the parents of catherine of aragon it was given as a present to king henry vii because henry's seventh son henry viii was marrying catherine of aragon it's 500 years old that window but anyway they're depicted on this window which was donated by ferdinand and isabella of spain winston churchill was married in here and samuel pete's as well unfortunately everything is closed everything's covered in scaffolding so i'm going to be cutting to a lot of footage that i took before they closed it all off in the house of parliament officially it's the palace of westminster is actually a royal palace edward the confessor moved the royal court here in 1050 and it stayed there until a fire in 1500 causing them to move it to whitehall pallets which incidentally also burned down in 1698 so they've got a lot of fires taking place but they rebuilt westminster and yes you guessed it there was another fire in 1834 when they rebuilt it which is the one that you can see now yes i don't play with matches kids you see over there there's like a um taxi light when a member of parliament wants to take a taxi the lamp will light up and a taxi driver will come past here and he'll make himself available to them but this part here survived the fires all the various fires um and that's what the great oh that's westminster hall which was built in 1097 and that is where british democracy was born the first true english parliament with elected representatives took place in westminster hall in 1265 it was a fellow called simon de montfort i thought the beggar that's henry de montfort no simon was like this uh rebel leader who didn't like all the power that the king had but his son was the blind beggar of bethenny green who you know from my bethnal green video a tudor song claims that his son henry de montfort went blind at the battle of eve sherman went on to go begging with a white dog but in reality he died at the battle of egypt with his father for a great many years this was a law court um right up until the 19th century i think there was a lot of legal cases were heard here some very high profile ones i might add um william wallace you know as in braveheart mel gibson he was sentenced in there and uh king charles the first who had his head chopped off guy fawkes and berlin sir thomas moore you don't stand much of a chance if you're facing trial in there i mean let's face it although that said when the peddlers uh union went in there with myself and uh the other members of our fraternity we actually did really well we won our case i was in the house of commons i'm in hansard yeah we won our case oh look and and there's oliver cromwell who we talked about in my christmas video like he's standing there and he's he's looking straight across at his nemesis king charles the first whose head he had chopped off now cromwell died in 1658 and was buried in westminster abbey but when king charles ii came back to the throne they exhumed his body um and they hang it in hanged it in chains at tyburn gallows and they chopped off his head and stuck it on the top of westminster hall there and it stayed there for about 20 years eventually i think the wind just blew it down and they went and buried it somewhere in cambridge at his old college you can see photos of it online it's really grim i love these old bits look this bit is uh still quite preserved from before the fire there was this big fire in 1834 which just destroyed the old palace of westminster this survived it this is the jewel tower king edward iii kept his jewels here normally when it's open you can go and visit this used to have fish and stuff this is like a little moat down here i used to have nice fishies and stuff so i'm no expert on this area but i can't walk bars here without mentioning houses of parliament i mean that over there is it old palace yard is that i think that's the bit where they used to do the executions so um so walter riley had his head chopped off right there it's pity it's hard to tell with all the scaffolding you can't really tell with all the scaffolding amazing this tower here is called victoria tower every law that has ever been passed in england is written on vellum parchment and is stored inside that tower can you believe it amazing not anymore really not anymore that's what i heard oh no as of last year [Music] not a massive fan myself i mean what's this supposed to be two edges [Laughter] i prefer this one on the other side emmeline pankhurst famous suffragette it's a wonderful view inside these gardens here but my favorite thing about it is this rodan sculpture here it's called the burgers of calais a burger is like an important citizen so there was this siege in calais in 1347 during the hundred years war and in order to spare the lives of the inhabitants of calais king edward iii said i'll tell you what why don't you send out six of your most important citizens with nooses around their necks and keys to the city and then i'll i'll spare the other inhabitants but i'm going to kill this lot and so these lot were sent out looking pretty glum as you can see but then his wife managed to talk him out of it they really do look pretty glum don't they look very unhappy i'm not surprised really from coffee and from supper rooms from poplar to pell mel the girls on seeing me disclaim oh what a champagne swell look that's a part of the old original wall of the benedictine monastery that's nice isn't it so we're heading this away and causing so much to be drunk they'd never make champagne at the end of lord north street in smith square is the church of saint john the evangelist built in 1728 and they call it queen anne's footstool because they say that she was asked how she wanted the church to be built and apparently she just kicks over her footstool and it landed with the legs up in the air and she said i'll just make it look like that so i built it with these four little things that actually i think those four towers support the walls because this is all built on all really marshy sort of riverbank really the whole area that um westminster abbey and everything is built on is it was originally a little island they called it thorny island so this area um isn't all that solid but um but i did recently have someone write to me about uh you know these pineapples i said in the last video i said oh these are the pineapples on top of the church if you want to know all about them you can watch my last video but look here they've also got the pineapples on top of the church and it says here so someone was saying no they're not pineapples they're pine cones right which i i agree pine cones do also actually signify certain things but uh but according to this sign outside here you can see the four towers or legs of the stool adorned with pineapples it said so that's good enough for me in our mutual friend charles dickens describes this church as resembling some petrified monster frightful and gigantic on its back with its legs in the air but as you walk around this square that you can see these beautiful examples of more 18th century houses and moreover if you want to look characterful you can learn to ride a penny farthing here because this is where he brings you when you come to do the penny farthing see my other video all about learning to ride a penny filing they'll bring you down here and you'll go in circles around here as you learn to ride it champagne charlie is my name good for any game at night might have to be a bit careful we don't film through someone's window here because you feel a bit bad but on the walls down here you can still see evidence that over here you see evidence of where there's a sign for the bomb shelters in the second world war it says public shelters under pavements in this street look there's another one there look public shelters in vaults under pavements that's excellent come down cowley street just because it's a beautiful street like with these lovely old houses look at this tremendous this is where lord wreath used to live the guy who founded the bbc just above his door they've got a little fire insurance plaque look however i can report to you that this isn't actually an authentic well an original position for fire insurance pack because i was talking to the person who lives there and they said that they bought it in a in a sale and then they put it there above the door i do like it though it's great and look points points for the stone street sign there 1722.