A tour of the medicinal garden at the Royal College of Physicians

21st June 2014 saw a group of us visiting this intriguing but little publicised medicinal garden in central London.

The guide in full flowThe college itself dates back to 1518 but the garden to only 1965 – the same year that the college’s current modernist building was completed on a World War Two bombsite amid the Georgian terraces. Given the starkly contrasting architecture, the garden provides a natural link with the shrub-lined greenery of Regent’s Park opposite.

We discovered that the medicinal garden is home to around 1,100 different species, all of which are used now or have been used in the past medicinally or are named after a physician – Fuchsia after Dr Fuchs, Dahlia after Dr Dahl. The aim of the garden and the arrangement of plants is clearly educational, but it is also a surprisingly attractive and calm haven of peace edging a busy road.

Brugmansia suaveolens - Angel's TrumpetsOur guide, retired physician and garden fellow Henry Oakeley, succeeded in impressing on us that most plants are at best unpalatably bitter-tasting if not downright poisonous – an evolutionary mechanism to ensure their survival – whilst the plants we cultivate for food are but a tiny minority.

The symbol of the Physicians - taking a pulseThe sap of some plants, such as Spurge, causes a nasty skin reaction, and we were shown one north American plant whose caustic sap was a cautionary blood-red. Fascinatingly though, it is sometimes the most poisonous plants which we have to thank for some of the most potent medicines – such as Yew and the Madagascar Periwinkle for treating cancer and Monkshood for rheumatic pain relief.

If we were left with a less benign view of the plants in our own gardens, I think we may also now accord them greater respect.

Susan B.    21 June 2014       Photos by Sue Ullersperger

"The Missing Belly Button" at UCLH, Euston Road, London NW1

Theatre Lights Five Star Review:

In his latest appearance at UCLH Euston, local thespian "Rambling" Cliff Hendon gave another outstanding performance as the Sleeping Prince, in Rattigit’s well-known play “The Missing Belly Button”.

Centre stage for the whole three-hour performance, Rambling Cliff was enthralling to see. Parts of him that are seldom if ever exposed were viewed through a 30 cm abdominal incision. At the close at least 50 steel staples were used to draw the curtains.

I am pleased to be able to tell you that the missing belly button was reinstated. Everything is fine now, and all the hernias were repaired. Additionally we hope that Commander Carol US Navy (retired) will be able to remove all the metal work on 6 June 2014

 Walking the Lower Lea - Sunday 18th May, 2014

I had pre-walked this route in 2012, with Pam and had wondered whether to offer it to the Group, as it is a bit of a strange one, I thought. It includes some nice places, some historic places, some interesting places and some horrible places. It also includes some frustrating places. (for the previous article, click here)

Thirteen people had said they were coming, and twelve did, and all in good time to leave Stratford Station at 10am. I'd have liked to have started the walk as last time at Pudding Mill Lane, but the DLR was not running. They are building a Crossrail system, so we had to walk further.

Pumping station workers cottages in Abbey LaneJust to give a bit of interest to Stratford itself, we visited the Martyrs Monument at St. John's Church in the Broadway. These were eleven men and two women who were burned together for their Protestant beliefs in 1556 during the Marian persecutions. I also decided to do a bit of a dog-leg along the course of Channelsea River and back along part of the Greenway, which is really Bazalgette's Northern Outfall Sewer. Of course you don't actually walk along the sewer, just along a route under which it runs – a route designed by Bazalgette following "The Big Stink" of 1858 as a promenade for the people, which it still is. We wasted time by standing on the Greenwich Meridian and working out what the time was (in GMT) by using one of us as a gnomen and standing on “May”. Luckily it was a sunny day so the time was about right. If it is cloudy there is no time at all.

The 40m Strand East Tower Olympic Torch in swanky Danes Yard – once the premises of a chemical factory - Great Black-backed Gulls and House Martins provided a bit of interest to some as we walked along Three Mills River towards the back of the House Mill at Bromley-by-Bow. We passed the Prescott Channel, built 1930-35 as part of a flood relief scheme. What I didn't mention – because we were a little later than I'd intended 'cos I kept talking – was that rubble from the demolished Euston Arch was used in 1962 to improve the channel. What I did point out was that a new lock was built between 2007-9. It was ten months behind schedule, so not able to be used as was planned to bring materials in by water for the creation of the Olympic Park.

House Mill tea-roomIn the reeds by the muddy tidal waters which was once the pound for the waters that powered the mills, a Reed Warbler was singing and the “peep” of a Kingfisher was heard. We discussed Excise duties because of the once-gin-factory and now (ex Big Brother) studios on our left before we entered the House Mill, on our right.

After teas and coffees and that in the tea-rooms of House Mill, David, our guide, began the tour. This building is Grade 1 listed building, mostly of wooden construction but with a brick frontage. It is amazing that it survives at all, having suffered the ravages of age (as the saying goes) bombs and fires. But there have been mills here since at least the 13^th century, and there are plans to bring some of the water-wheels back into use – even perhaps to provide electricity from the water-power.

After and hour or so tour, we left the mills and walked with Bow Creek on our left and the Lea Navigation channel on our right towards Bow Locks. There have been controls for the water here since Edward 1^st time around 1300.The present lock system to allow access and egress between the tidal Bow Creek and hence the Thames and the Lea Navigation was originally built in1850 and rebuilt much as now in the 1930s.

There is a bridge to enable the towpath to cross the locks which was also built in the1930's; it is an early example of using reinforced concrete to create an elegant design. After crossing that, we had to cross the River Lea itself, which here is known as Bow Creek. This was to gain access to the Essex side of the river, where a new pedestrian and cycle path has been built to help complete the total route of the Lea from its source in Luton to the Thames. This path – somewhat sadly, I think – called the Fat Walk (because it is wide), was prepared for the Olympics at Stratford: a grand ecologically friendly way for people to travel to Stratford, which would include the Grade 2 listed gasworks nearby. The plans (still available as a pdf file on the web) show happy people on their way between the great ornamental iron works, built on what was originally the site of a gunpowder factory. This is the factory that built the rockets used against the new Americans and give the title to “The Star Spangled Banner” - stars, you see, rockets! Well, the gasworks remain un-peopled, and the Fat Walk almost so – and I determined to show the group why. It's an easy stroll along the broad pathway – best done in the daylight with company for fear of muggers, because although near a host of office buildings is separated from them by an insurmountable fence. Across Bow Creek, strange industrial riverside industries still separate the people of Poplar from their hidden river.

Cody Dock - a history and an obstructionBut first we had to get to the Fat Walk from Bow Locks. After the railway bridge that carries the Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness line there are two bridges side-by-side that you walk beneath just before the locks. One - which is a pedestrian bridge that gave workers access to the gas-works - even has a ramp leading up to it, but also has a gate which is locked. The other is a road bridge and could easily have the Olympic-planned stairs up to it, but it never happened. So instead you exit from the canal towpath just where the Limehouse Cut starts, up to the A12 Blackwall Tunnel approach road, back-track along Gillender Street, and cross the security-gated road bridge leading to what had been the gas works. It looks private and always was; now, though (secretly) you can get onto the Fat Walk. A half-mile stroll alongside the creek, past the only exit which leads into the industrial complex, and up to a metal fence barricade. The other side of the dock entrance here is the rest of the Fat Walk, leading towards Canning Town. But there is no way to it; there is no bridge across the dock entrance. Another negative Olympic Legacy; another plan and promise that never happened.

We were really lucky, though, because if we hadn't been spotted by someone working inside the Cody Dock complex and he hadn't mistaken us for the following hundred-person (or so it looked) walking group, we would have had to return to the cut-through I just mentioned and our group wouldn't have been given nearly such a good potted history of the area and the Cody Dock community project as Simon gave us. Into the luck was thrown the fact that we were invited to walk through the dock, and out of an otherwise locked gate which saved us a considerable Olympic detour. (for the Gasworks Dock Project, click here)

I had said that the worst was yet to come, and we encountered that as we walked past Star Lane DLR and down Stephenson Street to the Canning Town Flyover. At the flyover we walked under, accompanied by such a smell of pot that we could almost have flown under. There is a friendly sign at the entrance to the underpass which says Bow Creek Ecological Park, and that at least is true and exists, and it is there that we paused for a break amongst the flowers and in the sunshine. There was a definite smell of burgers in the air; Fat Boy's Diner was beckoning.

Fat Boys American Diner at Lea MouthCrossing the River Lea again into Middlesex by the Blue Bridge footbridge, we entered East India Dock. What remains of the first of the London Docks to close (in 1967) is now a haven for birds, with nesting Terns screaming around their territories and Sheld Ducks flying over. East India Dock Basin was opened in early 1800s, promoted by the Honourable East India Company. It was relatively small dock, but could handle East Indiamen of 1000 tons and up to 250 ships at one time,carrying typically tea, spices, indigo, silk and Persian carpets.

From the docks and our first view of the Thames with O2 looming just across the river, we entered Orchard Place, passing a taxi with a tree sprouting from its roof, and made our way to Trinity Buoy Wharf – our destination.

The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company used to be here, at Lea Mouth, where the first all-iron warship, HMS Warrior, was launched in 1860. With the construction of East India Docks in 1803 the residents of Orchard Place were cut off from the rest of Poplar and hence the World. This led to considerable problems in finding marriage partners, so that all of the children were related. In 1930, out of 160 children registered at the school, 100 were Lammins.

The Group at Trinity Buoy WharfTrinity Buoy Wharf was the Trinity House depot for buoy repairs, repairs to lightships and training of lighthouse keepers. London's only lighthouse is here, and Michael Faraday experimented in the workshops.

The first thing we did when we arrived, of course was to dine in the diner. This is a very American affair, run by Sicilians. I had burger, fries and a milk shake; others had similar. Following the diner, some of us – if not all – visited the lighthouse. It's a free visit, and includes the singing bowls that give rise to the Perpetual Music Player which broadcasts from here. This is a musical-sound producing system that began at the Millennium and is programmed to continue until the next one.

Obligatory Group photographs completed, we walked back along Orchard Place to the nearest DLR. It's a long-old article, ennit?

Paul Ferris, May 2014

Distance 5.5 miles. Paul, Amina, Dave, Fozi, Fred, Jacky, Jinan, Jill V. Lynne, Marilyn, Pam, Tina.

 Visit to Broadcasting House – 10 May 2014

Jacky's arrangement for an EFOG visit to Broadcasting House in London attracted 14 members.

We met in the Media Café, which is the BBC's public café for the Radio Theatre audience. This is a bit strange, because you have to go through airport-style security before entering this part of the building. Nothing really unexpected about that, but the security system consists of being asked to take everything out of your pockets, placing them in the usual plastic box, and that being passed through an X-ray scanner. My confusion arises from the fact that there is no body-scan or search, so anything left in the pockets, for example, goes undetected.

More appropriate for a PC or a DR perhaps? Mis-directions to a WC..The Media Café overlooks the central newsroom, so that while waiting you can view the news-teams and presenters live, while screens show a live relay as seen on your television screen. Before the actual tour, the girls tried to make use of the Tardis, as an inappropriately positioned sign directed them that way!

Eleanor does the weather and Jill reads the newsThe tour was begun by an introduction to the BBC and its programmes, and the layout of Broadcasting House. We were told about the News Room, and observed the coats slung across the backs of the chairs which appear slightly out-of-focus when you see a news broadcast on the television. We went on to watch a news and weather forecast being broadcast, with Jill V. acting as one of the presenters and Marilyn's sister Eleanor acting as the weather presenter. Jill did a good job, reading from an auto-cue. Eleanor had a much more difficult job, standing in front of the blank screen and trying to keep her dialogue and hands in sync. with the weather patterns being presented to her on another screen. No auto-cue for Eleanor, hence her description off the top of her head that rain was falling over the Scottish Highlands because it was high ground. That's pretty good, really – particularly as no rain was falling over the SE of England because “it is drier here.”

Infamous characters on a famous sofa?We taken to the studio where such programmes as The One Show are made, and some of us sat down on a big green sofa where we had photos taken, then out of this newer building to enter the foyer of the original 1930s Grade II* listed Broadcasting House. The Art Deco foyer remains almost the same as it was in the 1930's.

Towards the end of the tour we were invited to take part in a radio play in the Radio Drama Studio, complete with sound-effects provided by the tour guides. The EFOG Radio Drama - "What the Butler said"?Most of the actors were EFOG members, reading from a script before their individual microphones. The plot was that a car-full of people, including Fred and Sara, had broken down and made their way to a large country-house. The door was opened by a butler, and they were offered accommodation and a meal. When asked what the meal would consist of, the butler replied “You!”, followed of course by evil laughter. Well I hope it was evil laughter: I was the butler!

Some of us afterwards went to an Italian restaurant chosen by Jacky for an evening meal before returning home.

Thanks to Jacky for organising another interesting and enjoyable visit to London.

Jacky, Amina, Eleanor, Fozi, Fred, Jill V., Jinan, Marilyn, Maz, Paul, Peter, Sara, Susan B., Val.

Paul Ferris, 14th May 2014