How about this - London has two flags. Above, the flag is that of the City of London - the famed 'Square Mile'. The flag below represents Greater London.
How could I not give our Capital its' own page? Don't expect all the pictures to be of well known landmarks though...........
Notes about the City of London (the so-called Square Mile):
I'm not going to incorporate a page that covers the City as a whole, otherwise these notes would have gone there. I prefer to split London into 'walkable areas' relevant to my poor old aching legs and feet!
However, this is just a small comment on the London Wards, which most people will not have heard of, but which bear a lot of relevance to how the City of London is governed. Let's start with a map to show the areas we are talking about!
The Wards are fascinating. They’ve been in place for a thousand years, created before the Norman conquest. They collectively represent one of the oldest forms of democracy and local governance.
Every Ward elects its own Alderman, 25 in total. Their fiefdoms are small. Very small. Some Wards would not be wide enough to span the Thames. This being the City, their electorates are also tiny. A few Wards have residential populations that would be outnumbered by a passing tour group. Hence, some businesses also get a vote. Even so, turnouts are negligible and many representatives are elected without contest. The minimally elected 25 Aldermen (one of whom is also Lord or Lady Mayor) come together in a Court of Aldermen to oversee much of the City’s administration (along with the Court of Councilmen, also elected on a Ward-by-Ward basis).
Other officers of the Wards are the Beadles, Wardmotes, Clubs, Ward Constables and other appurtenances of the Ward system. While Ward boundaries have changed numerous times (particularly in recent decades), their number and their names have barely altered since the Norman Conquest.
Some further information about specific wards will appear in these pages almost randomly, but certainly where I manage to capture a marker for a Ward boundary.
How to see the best of London from the River Thames....................
Alternatively, you can take a flight from the Battersea Heliport, right down the Thames to Greenwich and back
Local Recipes
London Cheesecake
The London Cheesecake is a pastry confection that contains no cheese. It was described by Will Self in The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Prawn Cracker as "...not cake at all but rather a square of puff pastry...while so far as I could tell there wasn't any cheese incorporated into this sweetmeat, which instead was garnished with some coconut or mallow shavings."
100g butter
100g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
1 egg, beaten
pack of puff pastry (yes, buy it - life's too short!)
6 teaspoons raspberry jam
200g icing sugar
2 tablespoons water
50g sweet shredded coconut
glace cherries
cut pastry into 8 rectangles. Line baking sheet and place 4 rectangles on it.
Cream together butter and sugar and beat in egg. Fold in ground almonds.
Brush rectangles with jam. Cover each one with the frangipane mixture and smooth over.
Add pastry lids on top and press lightly. Bake for 20 minutes at 200 degrees C. Leave to cool.
Make icing with icing sugar and water and spread over top. Leave to set firmly, then cut each rectangle in half.
Place a glace cherry on each one and sprinkle with coconut strands.
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Tottenham Cake
Tottenham cake is a simple traybake with a pink icing, originally created by Quaker Henry Chalkley in the late 1800s to be an affordable treat for local children. Its distinctive pink color came from mulberries grown at the Tottenham Friends Meeting House. Back then, they sold for just a penny per square. Later, in 1901, they were handed out for free to celebrate Tottenham Hotspur Football Club's first-ever FA Cup win.
150g butter
150g caster sugar
150g self-raising flour
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
125g icing sugar
15ml water
pink colouring
dessicated coconut
Grease and line an 8" square cake tin.
Cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla then beat in eggs one at a time. Add flour and mix well.
Pour into cake tin and level top. Bake for 25 minutes at 180 degrees C. Allow to cool in tin
Make pink icing and spread over top. Sprinkle with coconut and leave to set before cutting into squares
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