This is Holborn
and it's called Holborn because in old English about 1000 years ago
"Hol" referred to a hollow which meant a kind of valley and "burne" was a stream
so it was referring to the valley in which the river Fleet used to run
where Holborn viaduct is
don't let anybody tell you it's "Ho-born" because it's clealy HOL- BORN as in HOLE
Andy Warhol
As in "holes"
not to be confused with Sherbourne Lane
which is over in the city of London
and that's a remnant from the old days when it was called "Shite Burn Lane"
because there were loads of cess-pits there
and obviously the puritanical people after the reformation decided they didn't want name like
"Shite Burn" on their street signs
so they had to change it to Sherbourne but that street still exists
and there are some other even ruder ones but I'm not going to tell you what those are
in case children are watching
oh by the way, you see this thing over here. This is where the trams used to come down
There used to be trams up until about the 1950s and you can still see the tram stations over here
over here in the middle of the street where it is very embarrassing and everyone is looking at us
you can actually see the entrance to the old tram stations
there's stairs going down and this is where you would have gone down to catch your tram
which could have got you from Islington to Waterloo in 10 minutes!
Fat chance these days!
On the south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields is the Oryal College of Surgeons
and next to it is one of my favouite weird museums in London which is the Hunterian museum
and John Hunter was a doctor in the army
and he was a pioneer of treating gun shot wounds and VD
So if you go inside here
they've got all sorts of really weird stuff like bones of people with syphilis
and the elephant man's skull and stuff like that
inside is the skeleton of an Irish giant called Charles Byrne
and it's really sad because he was quite famous in the 1800s
and when he fell ill he John Hunter kept lurking around his death bed
and he was like "oh no, I definitely don't want to end up in his museum of fascinating freaks
so he paid a fisherman to conceal him in an iron box
and bury him at sea
but unfortunately the craftly old John Hunter
paid the fisherman even more, about £500 to go and fish him out.
and donate him to the museum
then they boiled his corpse in a giant vat
so they've got his skeleton in the museum and it's really sad. I feel sorry for him
He didn't want to be stuck in a museum
How would you like it?
If someone boiled your bones
Legend has it that this is the shop on which Charles Dickens based his story
The Old Curiosity Shop, but I don't think that's really the case
It is pretty old though, it's about 500 years old and all the
the wood is made out of old ship's timbers
It's a pity
it's all closed. There is some stuff in there. It's a kind of shoe boutique these days
I like this house because this used to be where Nell Gwynn lived
who was the mistress of King Charles ii
she was an actress and she worked in Covent Garden and one day she was on her way back
and her coach was besieged by an angry mob
and they were all shouting abuse at her because they thought she was the King's French mistress
who was, of course , a catholic, so they didn't like catholics at the time
so she leant out of her window and said
Pray thee, good people, be civil. I am the PROTESTANT WHORE
so they knew that she was the other mistress
Another thing that happened in this house .
king charles was around there one day
and his illegitimate son was playing with Nell Gwynn
and he scuttled off and Nell Gwynn shouted to her son "come here you little bastard"
and the king said " Why did you call him that name?"
and she said well you haven't given him a proper title so that's the only thing i can call him
so after that he had to make him into the Duke of St Albans
a title which still exists today for his family
This is Lincoln's inn fields
Now when you become a lawyer in Britain you get
put into one of these lawyers' inns. It's a bit like in
harry potter where the magic hat chooses which house you're going to be in
either in Grays Inn, Temple Inn, Middle Temple or Lincoln's Inn
and this is one of them and this is the oldest one I think
it's from the 15th century. A few famous people went thereas well
John Donne, who said, "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee"
he went there and
Tony Blair, Maggie Thatcher, William Pitt the Younger
Pitt the even younger
Pitt the embryo
Pitt the glint in the milkman's eye
I think they're shooting some BBC drama in there or something at the moment
So if you look on top of the building
they've got these several chimneys
and in the old days it was regarded as a sign of great wealth and prosperity if you had
more than one chimney because it showed you were able to heat more than one room
we only had one chimney in our house
how many chimneys did you have, Gav?
No idea
you just totally are not able to....
as soon as that camera goes off you're hilarious
as soon as it's on you cannot say a word
I know how to keep you quiet now
Lawyers are a bit like clergymen,they like
settling themselves in cloisters and
places with courtyards in the middle which is why they've got this beautiful garden in the middle here
This garden is very boringly
as if you caredexactly the same dimensions as the great pyramid at Giza
You've got this look on your face
Cue me getting splatted by a car
That's the John Soane museum
He was the son of a bricklayer and really became one of Britain's best known architects
I think he designed the bank of England
He became a really eccentric collector .
after his wife died he just lived amongst all these weird sarcophoguses and bones
and ancient artifacts
it's a really interesting museum , you should try and visit it if you can
I tried but they confiscated my camera and phone
It's like trying to get into fort knox
tucked away behind Holborn station in this funny little alleyway is one of my favourite bars
and if you're into drinking lots of vodka, like I'm sure you are,
then this is the place to come
anything you can recommend?
You have to have a mad bitch
Vodka, gingerbread liquor and tabasco. Best thing in the world
they have 50 different types of vodka here
Semi sweet rip pear vodka
horse-radish, sweet plum vodka, marzipan infused with aniseed and spices.
Call me picky but I think I'm going to have a Zwieck
One pint of that
Special guest appearance today by my friend Gavan
are you going to film me ordering the food?
Yes I am
Weido!
This is what he always has and Ialways have the same thing too
I always have Bigos which is hunters stew
are they the ones called pierogi?
and then they have the potato pancake things that come like a hundred on a plate. Great for sharing
It's cheap, it's good, it's lovely
That's alright, I like the look of that
On the wall this is traditional Polish folk art
That kind of paper cut out thing
shall i film you putting in your pin number and then put in on the internet?
Then they too can see how little money I have
If you've enjoyed my video
or if indeed anybody cares about anything I have to say or do ever
then please subscribe to my channel
It will make me fee good and it's totally free
Cheers