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Showing posts from February, 2013

The Shriving of Miss Esme Stamp...

Serialized by Patrick George Callaghan                                                    Part Six The journey from Primrose Hill had not been without a great deal of apprehension and aside from Constance’s concern over her daughter’s visit to Bayswater, to which Charles had given her every assurance of behaved conduct, she waved the car away with the overbearing worries of a fussy hen. Soon Charles and Esme were easing themselves along the Bayswater road – a busy arboreal road edged on one side by the grandeur of Hyde Park and high black oaks, and where rich green grassy acres ran down to blue glittering waters. The striking gothic beauty of many Georgian villas rose up along its north side, while Charles chatted with gentleness; fully aware of the importance of his passenger’s nervousness and mounting excitement. A fading Costa man waved some pots and pans from a painfully dry looking hand cart; for profit or protest – Esme was not sure. Then Charles slid the hush

The Gulls of Wardown...

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This late Victorian bridge due for possible demolition in the picturesque Wardown Park in Luton Bedfordshire UK now hosts hundreds of Seagulls that have made it their home for the time being...

Interesting People From The Past...

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Codebreaker – Alan Turing’s life and legacy Location First Floor Suggested duration 30 mins Opening Dates Thu 21 Jun 2012 – Sun 30 Jun 2013 Cost Free More things about Communications and Computing , Physics and Maths Codebreaker is an exhibition developed by the Science Museum to celebrate the centenary of the birth of this pioneering British figure. Alan Turing is most widely known for his critical involvement in the codebreaking at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. But Alan Turing was not just a codebreaker. This British mathematician was also a philosopher and computing pioneer who grappled with the fundamental problems of life itself. His ideas have helped shape the modern world, including early computer programming and even the seeds of artificial intelligence. This exhibition tells the story of Turing and his most important ideas. At the heart of the exhibition is the Pilot ACE computer, bui

Enid Stamp Taylor - Actress...

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Enid Stamp Taylor was born on Sunday the 12 th of June 1904 in the agreeable, late Victorian, seaside town of Whitley Bay in the North East corner of England. She was the only daughter of Army Major George Stamp Taylor and his wife Agnes. Some years later they had a son and named him Robin Geoffrey. But tragically, he died at the very young age of only ten years whilst away from home and at boarding school. Regretfully, the distraught parents separated in 1918, and Enid and her mother moved to London in order to stay with friends. It was here, that Enid’s interest in the stage began to blossom. She had reluctantly entered a beauty contest and then won the first prize of a part in the chorus line of a top West End show. The quality of her voice and exacting diction soon led her to stage training under Rosina Filippi, and in 1923 she toured in the ‘The Lady of the Rose’. During the thirties and forties, along with her agent Al Parker, she successfully built

St. Pancras Railway Station, North London...

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On the upper level, above the Arcade concourse, stands a bronze statue of the former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman , gazing in apparent wonder at the Barlow roof. Designed by British sculptor Martin Jennings, the statue commemorates the poet's successful campaign to save the station from demolition in the 1960s. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] The 2-metre (6 ft 7 in)-high statue stands on a flat disc of Cumbrian slate inscribed with lines from Betjeman's poem Cornish Cliffs : And in the shadowless unclouded glare / Deep blue above us fades to whiteness where / A misty sea-line meets the wash of air. —John Betjeman, Cornish Cliffs,  [ 30 ]