Dirty Dicks

Dirty Dicks pub, Bishopsgate, EC2
City of London

Dirty Dicks:
The Ultimate Love Story or The Utter Madness?

Nathaniel Bentley, a successful ironmonger from Leadenhall Street was about to marry the love of his life, when all of a sudden she died the night before the big day.

Heartbroken, Nathaniel locked the room where his wedding feast was set up, leaving the food on the tables to rot. He never washed nor changed his clothes since. After the death of his cats, they were left laying around the house untill they turned into mummies! He became a local legend and an ispiration for Dickens' Miss Havisham (Great Expectations ).

Later on, the items from Nathaniel's house were bought by a pub landlord who turned this eccentric story into a profitable business. Renaming the pub "Dirty Dicks" and displaying the decaying items (including the dead cats) around its rooms, he made it into the one of the most grotesque, yet most popular public houses in London.

Girl With A Flower

Redchurch Street, E2
East London

Half a Mini

Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington, SW7

photo by Ziggy

Banksy?

Warwick Road pavement,W14

Life Is A Laugh

Brian Griffiths - Life Is A Laugh
July 2007 - May 2008
Gloucester Road Underground Station
More info: www.tfl.gov.uk

photo by Ziggy (aged 7)

Elfin Oak

Elfin Oak is a 900-year-old tree stump situated just outside Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens. The tree was transferred from Richmond Park to its present address in 1928.

Although difficult to notice at first, as it stands within an iron cage (to prevent vandalism), the tree is decorated by a unusual bunch of creatures, work of illustrator Ivor Innes, who together with his wife Elsie, published the book "The Elfin Oak of Kensington Gardens" in 1930.

1996 is the year of the last restoration which happened thanks to the late comedy genius Spike Milligan.

Find out more about Elfin Oak at Wikipedia.

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