Our first night catching up with them we went to dinner at a small pub on Tooley St (where we first lived when we came over here) . Can't remember what it's called NOW, but it used to be called 'The Elusive Camel' when we were living near it. The food was great, and it was sensational to catch up with both Sam and Adam, even though we were still well and truly under the weather from our bout of the 'flu.
From here we went for a quick walk under Tower Bridge and along Shad Thames, and got some nice photos of Tower Bridge from here (we were running a little early....)
Adam and Sam at Shad Thames with Tower Bridge in background
Tower Bridge at night
From here we walked over Tower Bridge and headed towards Tower Hill Tube station for the start of the 'Jack the Ripper' walk - the best part about this is that it was with a gentleman called Donald Rumbelow, and he is pretty much the world's leading authority on Jack the Ripper. He has been consulted on most documentaries that have been made regarding the murders, and he gave Johnny Depp a personal tour around the area for his movie 'From Hell' which he said was about 95% fiction....
The sign where you meet for the commencement of the Jack the Ripper tour
Whilst on the tour, we walked around the London East End, and Donald showed us to the scene of about 4 of the 5 confirmed Jack the Ripper murder sites (there is conjecture about a couple of other murders and whether they were actually Ripper murders or not....). His commentary was sensational for making you visualise exactly what had happened and where, and when we were standing in Mitre Square (the scene of one of the murders), it was very easy to imagine that you were actually back in Victorian times and standing at the scene.
*Damo speaking* I must admit that I didn't know THAT much about the Jack the Ripper murders other than that they were brutal, but this tour was great. I'd definitely recommend that anyone coming to London try and include this into their itinerary if possible - it was great. *end Damo speaking*
We were absolutely engrossed in the tour for the full 2 hours, and at the end of it, it finishes up near where Nikki used to work near Spitalfields markets. There is a pub there called the '10 Bells', which is a pub that has been proven to be a common link of all the victims, and it is still in operation today. We decided that we'd go for a couple of drinks there after the tour.
Outside 'The Ten Bells'
On the wall inside 'The Ten Bells'
The stairs down to the bathroom of 'The Ten Bells'
Adam, Damo and Sam inside 'The Ten Bells'
We didn't quite see this, but it felt like it was close.....
After we'd had a couple of drinks here we decided we were going to go to 'Dirty Dick's' pub for a drink - it was not far from where we were, and apparently the story goes thus:
Nathaniel Bentley was an ironmonger who had a shop in Leadenhall Street. On the eve of his wedding, tragedy struck. His bride-to-be died. So distraught was Nathaniel that he locked up the room in which he had prepared the wedding feast, never to enter it again. A broken man, he neither washed or changed his clothes. When his cats died he just left them. It is thought that Dickens used this tale as the inspiration for Miss Haversham in Great Expectations. The English love an eccentric and his notoriety meant his business flourished. When Nathaniel retired in 1804, the landlord of the Old Port Wine Shop in Bishopsgate bought the contents lock, stock and dead cats. He put them on display at his pub and renamed it 'Dirty Dick's'. In 1870 the pub was rebuilt from ground level, the wine vaults are part of the original building. The 'dirty' contents were carefully relocated in the new pub. Sadly it was decided in the mid nineteen-eighties that a clean up was in order and the dirty artefacts were cleared away.
Unfortunately it was closed, so we'll have to revisit it another time.
We ended up going to Soho and looking for a pub, but they were definitely in short supply on a Sunday night, so we ended up finding some joint and only managed a beer or two and that was it.
We caught up with Sam and Adam again the next night where we attempted to go to Harry Ramsden's World Famous Fish and Chips (We'd never heard of them either....), but unfortunately the location that we were going to go to had shut down (and only recently as we'd been near there just before christmas and it was still open).
We decided we'd just go to Leicester Square and have something to eat there. We ended up at a place called 'Burger Shack'. It was actually slightly classier than the name would suggest. We chatted with Sam and Adam, and then said our farewells and wished them the best for the remainder of their trip - they were off to New York next!
We went to Camden Town markets on Sunday. They were great. Unfortunately we were a bit broke at the moment, so we'll have to go back there once we get paid. It's a very eclectic mix of things there, even though you can tell that they were probably better a number of years ago, there is still the odd cool thing there, but unfortunately they are priced accordingly.
Apart from all this, we've still been recovering from the flu and haven't been up for much else. We're off out to dinner tonight at Olivia and Paula's place (Paula is Stevie Lee's cousin - Damo worked with Stevie Lee at uSwitch), so that should be nice, and then on Saturday Night we're off out to dinner with Adrian and Rachel (once again, Damo worked with Adrian at uSwitch) which should be nice.
We hope all is well with everyone, and we've been missing family and friends a lot at the moment.
Feel free to drop us an email - sorry if we haven't emailed. We know we're slack..... :-)
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