On Saturday afternoon the London Goth Meetup once again trod the streets of the capital discovering some more arcane aspects of its history. The Forgotten Genius in question was not Mr McHenry, our guide and informant, but 17th-century scientist and savant Robert Hooke. Our journey took us round the eastern and northern areas of the City, through narrow lanes and past towering 
glass and steel monuments to capitalism, and this rather appealing doorway at St Helen's Bishopsgate:
My friend Mr Marc M and his Merry Men were once involved with producing a documentary for the BBC about Robert Hooke. Robert, appropriately enough, impersonated Hooke himself, though all he had to do was sit in a periwig at a desk scratching away at paperwork. Apparently, if you stop the video and look very carefully at the notes, you'll find written in delicate Carolean copperplate, words to the effect 'Isaac Newton stole my ideas, the bastard'.
It looks like it was an interesting walk. Unfortunately I was stuck with a book in the British Library, and didn't get out of there until it was too late to join you. I like the doorway (It's weird: I've been outside that church, and I can't recall seeing that doorway. Strange.), and now I realise I've been at your other photo too, although I approached it from the other direction.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not at the Bring&Buy sale (as I guess you might be working), have a nice Christmas and New Year's, and I'll see you in 2010!
Oh, and belated Happy birthday!
Thank you, Lena! There's nothing too bad about being stuck with a book in the BL, it sounds ideal to me.
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