Thursday, January 20, 2011

Winter ice - 15 January 2011

The early winter snows have melted and the temperatures have been quite balmy, not conducive conditions for the annual Ice Festival at Canary Wharf, but how were the organisers to know? En-route to view the ice sculptures we got off the Jubilee line at London Bridge and visited the Old Operating Theatre. This is a fascinating relic from the past of medical history. The theatre is the oldest surviving theatre in Europe, and exists in the roof space of St Thomas Church. The theatre was entered from the women's ward in Guys hospital, and was built into the garret of the church next door. It was ideal as the trauma sounds didn't carry into the ward, in the days before anaesthesia. Today it is entered via a narrow spiral staircase. The original theatre has been restored, alongside the herb garret.

After an interesting walk around a part of London which is probably not known to many tourists, we continued on the see the results of this year's Ice Festival. The theme was 'Love London' and we thought the best entry was the pedestrian crossing representing the safety of London, inspired by the iconic image Beatles crossing Abbey Road.

Another excellent entry was inspired by the London Underground map, linking various iconic images in London.

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