"Female Artist Erects Enormous Blue Cock in Trafalgar Square"

On Sunday, we went on a bike excursion/tour to see more of London than we could by foot. Plus, we knew it would be a blast! We were blessed with weather that held off for us (ignore the stormy skies below; those were from the day before), and a tour guide who was absolutely charming. He gave us all kinds of tidbits of history, political science, and more. An aspiring (and actual) actor, he supplements his income with these tours, and his delivery and comedic sense were brilliant.

I'll try to incorporate some of his spiel as we go along.

I couldn't resist! Wedding photos for a Japanese couple next to the Thames!

Not yet out of breath, we had ridden along the Thames walkway for about 10 minutes at that point.

 Here is David, our tour guide, with Jeremy.

Famed Big Ben is NOT the tower, but the bell. The tower is called Elizabeth Tower. Big Ben cracked the very first time it was struck, so it has a "clang" rather than a sonorous tone...rather like a cymbal. Named Big Ben after its maker Ben somebody-or-other, you might be amused to find out that the same maker also cast the Liberty Bell! 

Here is what it sounds like:

If you can see the bridge leading towards the Elizabeth Tower, it's green. The pavilion (not in the photo) leading to the House of Commons is similarly green. The adjacent pavilion leading to the House of Lords is red, while the bridge crossing the Thames going towards the House of Lords is...surprise, surprise...red.

Here it is: the giant blue cockerel. The joke is (apart from its inherent silliness, which is in my view sublime) that Trafalgar Square has many pedestals on which are statues of dead white males. This pedestal had been empty for ages, awaiting the perfect candidate for statuage. Which is a word I just made up. Anyway, the powers that be decided to open the podium for artists, with a competition every 18 months. The German artist who won most recently provided a proposal that said something along these lines: "I propose to install a cockerel, which is a strongly male symbol and therefore in keeping with the very masculine theme of Trafalgar Square. Further, underlining its inherent masculinity, I intend to paint said cockerel blue, since blue is a traditionally male color." The powers that be bought it, with the result that the tabloids had a field day (as noted in my version of one of the headlines). For a while there was a bit of a fuss and the desire to remove the statue. However, a sense of humor prevailed, and the big blue cock gets to stand over the square for another 6 months.

This is the meat market, an often overlooked jewel. Looks very Victorian, yes? Actually, no. This structure survived the Fire of London in the 1600s!

 Complete with cute Ashley, iconic phone booths, and a wandering Jeremy

The outside of the meat market. They also performed treason executions here. Oh...side note on drawing and quartering: the various bits and bobs left (arms and legs) were sent to the four corners of the kingdom as a warning to other potential treasoners...

A pub that I thought was sweet: the Fat Friar

Love,

Alexandra