Holborn Facts and Folklore

Dear Fans ... it's me El Moano.

I thought I'd give you a rest from one of my rants. Who said hooray?!

This is a small pocket book of information about Holborn.

Firstly, Red Lion Square. Folklore says that the head of Sir Walter Raleigh was buried here after it was taken down from the Temple Bar in Fleet Street. He lost his head when he fell out with James I.

Secondly, a piece of Victorian history. If you walk down the bottom of Bed Row where it meets Brownlow Street you will find a large hand pump for fresh water. How could the poor scullery maid have handled this and then walked to the other end of Bed Row with two buckets at least five times a day? She really was the poor skivvy.

If you care to stroll across High Holborn - pass through Little Turn Stile and turn left at Lincoln Inn Square - you will come to The Soames Museum. It is a wonderland of curios from everywhere - showing how they would have lived in the 1780s or about that. It really is a one person collection of its time.

When leaving the museum, go across the square to Portsmouth Street to The Old Curiosity Shop made famous by Charles Dickens. It is a strange building. How it still stands is a mystery. Then go a short way to Carey Street (the expression 'to be in Carey Street' meant that you were on the way to debtors prison). Anyway, in this street is a pub called The Seven Stars which is at least 3 hundred years old. It's a strange fact that it never had an inside loo til the 1970s.

Well that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed our little stroll.

El Moano