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donbrowndotlondon

Just after the PM’s statement the official Civil

Just after the PM’s statement the official Civil Service Twitter account tweeted this.
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Now deleted unfortunately, and I suspect the Civil Service social media team has a vacancy, but this is a great way to go.
#london #covid_19 #pandemic #borisjohnson #primeminister #dominiccummings #civilservice #britishgovernment

The weather vane on top of St Mary the Virgin pari

The weather vane on top of St Mary the Virgin parish church in Fen Ditton, Cambridge - a rowing eight (with cox) because this is close to the start of the university rowing ‘bumps’ on the River Cam.
(The river is too narrow for boats to race alongside each other, so the college eights start in a long line with each chasing the boat in front - if you catch it you’ve ‘bumped’ and start the next day one place up).
#cambridge #fenditton #cambridgeuniversity #rowing #bumps #cubc #rivercam #cam

Blue plaque to the scientist Rosalind Franklin, wh

Blue plaque to the scientist Rosalind Franklin, whose work was instrumental in the discovery of the structure of DNA. It’s in Drayton Gardens, just off the Fulham Road.
It’s possible she would have shared the Nobel Prize with Watson and Crick has she not died early in 1958 - the Nobel Committee does not award prizes posthumously.
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#london #blueplaque #blueplaques #englishheritage #fulham #fulhamroad #rosalindfranklin #science #dna #nobelprize #watsonandcrick

Want to know more about Bletchley Park, the cracki

Want to know more about Bletchley Park, the cracking of the 'Enigma' cyphers, and Alan Turing and the other WW2 codebreakers?

Next Thursday (21st) at 11am I'm doing a 'dress rehearsal' for a talk on Bletchley via Zoom. If you'd like to 'attend' drop me an email at don@donbrown.london and I'll send you a link.

I've promised to do a proper paid-for talk for an American company later in the month, and this will be my run through. Needless to say, I haven't written the talk yet, let alone found any photos or put the presentation together. Setting a practice for next Thursday and inviting people along is my way of giving myself a deadline that I have to stick to.

All welcome!
The blurb for the actual, paid-for talk is as follows:

The Bletchley Park story is one of brilliant minds, laser-like dedication, incredible organisation and truly history-changing results. This is the place where the encrypted messages of Japan, Italy and Nazi Germany were decoded, shortening WW2 by up to two years and so saving millions of lives.

Without Bletchley, the Battle of the Atlantic may never have been won, casualties in the Blitz would have been far higher, and D-Day might never have happened. It is also the site of the world’s first digital computer, and thus heralded our information age.

We will hear about the history of Bletchley Park and its forerunners, learn how Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman, Bill Tutte and others broke the German’s ‘Enigma’ and ‘Lorenz’ systems, and examine the years of work that went into making D-Day a success.

We’ll also examine Winston Churchill’s role in this secret world of espionage, why it took more than 30 years for Bletchley’s story to be revealed (and how the site and its building were almost lost forever), and some of the truths and fictions of the Benedict Cumberbatch movie ‘The Imitation Game”. Bletchley Park is one of the key historical sites of WW2 and what happened here is utterly fascinating, and still little-known. Join your expert guide (er, that's me) to discover more.

The Ramsay Room at Southwick House, near Portsmout

The Ramsay Room at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, the advance HQ of the allied forces prior to the Normandy landings.
Admiral Bertram Ramsay was the logistical genius behind the Dunkirk evacuation, the invasions of North Africa (Operation Torch) and of Sicily (Operation Husky) and of D-Day.

#ww2 #wwii #wwiihistory #southwick #southwickhouse #dday #bertramramsay #ramsayroom #ww2history

From four years ago, Cavagrande in Sicily (nearish

From four years ago, Cavagrande in Sicily (nearish to Siracusa). You descend a path for 20 mins to the bottom of the river valley where there are a succession of clear, cool pools. An absolutely beautiful and magical spot.
#sicily #sicilia #cavagrande #cavagrandedelcassibile #siracusa #wildswimming #cassibile

Crepuscular rays, as the declining sun shines thro

Crepuscular rays, as the declining sun shines through clouds - an early evening treat in south London.
#london #sunshine #clouds #crepuscularrays #evening #southlondon

My computer is so old that it can’t do the virtu

My computer is so old that it can’t do the virtual backgrounds in Zoom properly - I got this curios inversion.
#zoom #zoommeeting #surrealism #portrait

Little Ben in the foreground and the golden statue

Little Ben in the foreground and the golden statue of Anna Pavlova on top of Victoria Palace theatre in the background, on a summer day last year.
#london #victoria #victoriastreet #littleben #victoriapalace #victoriapalacetheatre #annapavlova #clock #statue #nofilter

This time last year I was in Taormina in Sicily, i

This time last year I was in Taormina in Sicily, in the ancient theatre (built by the Greeks, redone by the Romans).
It is a spectacular setting overlooking the bay and (slope starting on the right) Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano.
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#italy #sicily #sicilia #taormina #grecoroman #grecoromanarchitecture #teatrogreco #roman #taorminasicily #etna #mountetna

The London Eye at sunset. Originally granted just

The London Eye at sunset.
Originally granted just a five year licence, it’s still there after twenty, and would ordinarily have over 2 million visitors a year.
It would be nice to be on it again.
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#london #londoneye #officiallondoneye #milleniumwheel #sunset #londonsunset #marksbarfieldarchitects

For fans of wacky Victorian gothic, this is one of

For fans of wacky Victorian gothic, this is one of the properties on the Shaftesbury Estate, Battersea.

Built in the mud-1870s by the wonderfully named ‘Artizans, Labourers and General Dwelling Company’ a housing co-operative founded by William Austin, the housing was constructed as decent dwellings for the working classes.
The estate has no pubs, Victorian philanthropists reckoning that drink was a scourge.
#london #housing #socialhousing #socialhousingarchitecture #victorianarchitecture #victoriangothic #shaftesburyestate #battersea #brick

Double #rainbow in south London. (In fact, the bot

Double #rainbow in south London.
(In fact, the bottom arch might have been a double itself - definitely two lots of blue, indigo and violet, which might make this a triple).
#london #doublerainbow #clapham #battersea #claphamcommon #triplerainbow

‘Single Form (Memorial)' a bronze by Barbara Hep

‘Single Form (Memorial)' a bronze by Barbara Hepworth, from 1961-62 in Battersea Park.

This was done as a memorial to her friend, the UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. A larger version stands outside the UN HQ in New York.
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#london #sculpture #barbarahepworth #damebarbarahepworth #battersea #batterseapark #daghammarskjöld #bronze #bronzesculpture

Some of the Frank Gehry buildings are Battersea Po

Some of the Frank Gehry buildings are Battersea Power Station are starting to emerge.
#london #architecture #frankgehry #gehry #battersea #batterseapowerstation #starchitecture #redevelopment #nineelms

For @londonundergroundofficial geeks only... What

For @londonundergroundofficial geeks only...
What is wrong with this tube line map?
Taken on one of @ltmuseum #hiddenlondon tours, this is from the ‘abandoned’ parts of Charing X station.
Originally the Jubilee Line terminated here (hence the board), but the extension went through Westminster and under the river to Waterloo, leaving part of the tunnel and the Charing Cross platforms ‘disconnected’.
The platforms are now used for filming (#JamesBond, #Paddington, #MissionImpossible have all used it).
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#london #londontube #charingcross #jubileeline #londonunderground #tubemap #londontransport #londontransportmuseum

Looking up to the crossing in Canterbury Cathedral

Looking up to the crossing in Canterbury Cathedral.
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#canterbury #cathedral #canterburycathedral #gothicarchitecture #perpendiculargothic

The towers above the west entrance at @westminster

The towers above the west entrance at @westminsterabbeylondon photographed from Deans Yard.
The towers were added to the medieval Abbey in 1745, the architect being Nicholas Hawksmoor. Christopher Wren had surveyed the building with a view to adding a single central tower rising above the crossing, but didn’t consider the structure strong enough to support his vision.
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#london #westminsterabbey #nicholashawksmoor #hawksmoor #deansyard #westminster #architecture #abbey #church

Brenda’s back garden. . . #london #buckinghampal

Brenda’s back garden.
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#london #buckinghampalace #buckinghampalacegardens #summer #queenelizabeth #elizabethii

The Bath Abbey door seemed to be popular, so here

The Bath Abbey door seemed to be popular, so here are a few more entrance ways, including Dean’s Yard #westminsterabbey , the #citadel in #horseguardsparade, #abbeyroadstudios , #southseacastle , #toweroflondon , #tatebritain , #chartwell , #chelseahospital

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Lindow Man
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