London - Day 3 - FOLLOW OUR TRIPS

London - Day 3

7/9/2026

July 8 & 9

Emily it was such a surprise and pleasure to see Rao.

We had a wonderful day in London. Weather is on the warmer side but better than rain and wind.

After a visit to the Shell Max House we had a lovely visit by a special woman who took us to an area near the river that we have not been to before.

The Shell Mex House is an Art Deco building which today is known as 80 Strand but back in the day it was called the Shell Mex House which was completed between 1931 and 1932. It was the joint marketing company formed by Shell and British Petroleum.  Before then the site was occupied by Hotel Celil which opened in 1896 and was once considered the largest hotel in Europe with 800 rooms.

We saw the last Sewer Gas Lamp which survived with pieces of Victorian engineering. The gas lamp burns continuously and was designed to vent and burn foul gases from the city’s sewers. This engineering was key to transforming London’s system after the “Great Stink” of 1858.

We walked along the Embankment Gardens which was created between 1870 and 1875. The gardens occupy land reclaimed from the Thames during construction of the Embankment and London’s modern sewer system.

If you turn around from facing the gardens you will see the back of the Savoy Hotel.

If we were to go back in time to September 10, 1963, a famous photo was taken in the afternoon following a lunch party hosted by the Variety Club of Great Britain. Featured in the photo are four lads of Liverpool who were known in England, but we not yet known in the United States. The photo includes John, Paul, George and Ringo along with Billy Kramer, front man of Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, another Brian Epstein managed group and Susan Maughan, a popular English singer known for her hit Bobby’s Girl.

We saw the York Water Gate.  Work is being done on the gate. It survives from seventeenth-century London It was completed around 1626 and was originally the riverside entrance to the York House, the grand residence of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

We also enjoyed a view from of The Time Capsule which was sealed in 1878 beneath Cleopatra’s Needle. We also learned that the needle is one of a pair of two and the second one is in New York City in Central Park just behind the Metropolitan Museum.

Today was a day to smell the roses. Sometimes when one explores there is a lot to learn in one small area and this was the case today.  We thank our special tour guide.