I almost can’t believe that this is my eighth Christmas quiz. When I started my blog way back in 2017 I wasn’t sure I could maintain a weekly publication, but here I am now writing blog number 379!
Happy Christmas and thank you so much for subscribing.
Here are the questions. They are all based on blogs published during 2024 and the answers are at the end of today’s edition.
1. What animals are waddling around Fleet Street this Christmas?
2. Where can you find this friar carrying a pig in a wheelbarrow …
3. What was in this box on display at the Ashmolean Museum and mysteriously marked NOT TO BE OPENED EXCEPT IN THE PRESENCE OF TWO SENIOR OFFICERS OF THE ROYAL MINT …
4. Where am I ‘driving’ the train …
5. Where is the origin of the mysterious green glow …
6. This exotic Indian Bean Tree can be found on what 19th century estate …
7. What’s wrong with this signage in Gresham Street …
8. What famous store at the junction of Queen Victoria Street and Poultry did this clock once adorn …
9. This is Wesley’s Chapel on City Road, home of Methodism …
A very famous lady got married here, had her children baptised here, and donated these altar rails …
Who was she?
10. In St Botolph without Aldersgate is this memorial window commemorating the life of Matthew Webb. What was he famous for?
11. Is the symbol of the City of London a dragon or a gryphon …
12. On Watling Street, what ancient trade is this man practising …
13. At the Guildhall Art Gallery, who is the subject of this terrific sculpture of a thoughtful, gentle man, created by someone who knew him very well personally …
14. This font cover in All Hallows by the Tower is by one of the most famous sculptors and wood carvers of all time. Who was he (a clue, his initials were GG) …
15. This memorial on the Embankment commemorates a famous Brigade consisting of four regiments, a mixture of British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers. What was the Brigade commonly known as …
16. In this church you will find Wren’s finest dome based on his original design for St Paul’s …
There’s also an old fashioned telephone …
What’s the name of the church and what’s the significance of the telephone?
17. This is one of the Guildhall Art Gallery’s most famous paintings. It’s called La Ghirlandata, who is it by …
18. There are six churches in the City that include the name Mary in their title but only one of them contains a fabulous plaster fan-vaulted ceiling that is more reminiscent of a cathedral. It’s is the only parish church in England known to have one, which ‘Mary’ is it ?
This is the nave …
This is the south side aisle …
19. This man is Percivall Pott (1714-1788) as painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds …
And here’s his tombstone outside St Mary Aldermary …
Why is his name familiar to most medical professionals?
20. An easy one to finish. He was often known as ‘The Bastard’ and he started the construction of this building in 1066 ….
Who was he?
The answers:
1. Penguins – see their images here
2. The Blackfriar Pub – see more here
3. It contained trial coins for the reign of King Edward VIII that were never issued because of his abdication. You can view them here.
4. I’m on the Docklands Light Railway on my way to Trinity Buoy Wharf.
5. The Barbican Conservatory …
6. The Peabody Estate Whitecross Street.
7. The Apostrophe is in the wrong place – surely it should be before the ‘S’?
8. Mappin & Webb. The old building in 1994 just before demolition …
It’s replacement …
I make no comment!
9. Baroness Margaret Thatcher. You can see more of the chapel and the surrounding area here.
10. He was the first man to successfully swim the English Channel. His first attempt was on 12 August 1875 but poor weather and sea conditions forced him to abandon his attempt. Twelve days later, he set off again and, despite several jellyfish stings and strong currents, he completed the swim, which was calculated at 40 miles, in 21 hours and 40 minutes …
Tragically, he drowned in 1883 while attempting to cross the Whirlpool Rapids below Niagara Falls. A memorial in his home town of Daley, Shropshire, reads: “Nothing great is easy.”
11. It’s a dragon. See examples of both here.
12. He is a Cordwainer. Here on Watling Street you are in the Ward of Cordwainer which in medieval times was the centre of shoe-making in the City of London. The finest leather from Cordoba in Spain was used which gave rise to the name of the Ward’s craftsmen.
13. It’s a sculpture of Terry Thomas, a major star in the 1950s and 60s best known for playing disreputable members of the upper classes especially ‘cads’, ‘toffs’ and ‘bounders’ …
The sculptor was Ronald Moody (1900-1984).
14. Grinling Gibbons of course.
15. The Imperial Camel Corps Brigade.
16. The church is St Stephen Walbrook and the phone was the original Samaritans ‘hotline’. Read more about the church here and the Samaritans here.
17. It’s by the Pre-Raphaelite artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti who described it as “my very best picture”.
18. It’s St Mary Aldermary in Bow Lane.
19. Today, over 300 years since his birth, he is known as one of the founders of orthopaedics and occupational health. His name lives on in a number of conditions that he identified, such as Pott’s disease of the spine and Pott’s Puffy Tumour. The one that initially intrigued me, however, was Pott’s Fracture and how it came to get its name. It was literally by accident! Read all about it and this very likeable man here.
20. William the the Conqueror. Read more about him and other famous monarchs with City connections here.
Happy New Year! Thank you again for subscribing.
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