The A-Z of Curious London

The Waterlily House is also a listed building and dates back to 1852. It is Kew’s hottest and most humid environment, housing tropical, ornamental aquatic plants and climbers. There are Nymphaea waterlilies, a giant Victoria cruziana, sacred lotus, papyrus, gourds, loofah, as well as economically important plants including rice, bananas, taro, sugar cane and lemon grass.

In 1876, Kew was given 70,000 rubber tree seeds from the Amazon. Only 2,800 germinated, but from them, seedlings sent to Malaysia flourished, starting the massive rubber industry. There are also African oil palms, from which the oil can be pressed from the flesh to make soap and can

There are coffee bushes, jade vines, the Madagascar periwinkle and the coco de mer, which is the world’s largest seed and looks rather like a human bottom, weighing up to 30kg. The seed is native to the Seychelles and comes from a fan palm that grows only on the tiny island of Praslin.

tree. The unluckiest tree in the collection must be a Corsican Pine, because early in the twentieth century, a light aircraft crashed into it and took out the top of the tree. Since then it has been struck by lightning on several occasions, the last of which was in 1992, and scars on the trunk serve as a reminder.

Word of the Trafalgar Tavern spread, and more and more politicians visited. Until 1883, the whitebait dinner was an established annual tradition and barges brought ministers from Westminster. Charles Dickens based his wedding breakfast scene from Our Mutual Friend on the Hawke Room of the Trafalgar.

However, writing about the same event, the Reynolds’ Weekly newspaper of 29 July 1866 declared that despite the attempts of the police and troops to prevent them, ‘the people have triumphed, in so far as they have vindicated their right to meet, speak, resolve, and exhort in Hyde Park.’

The story goes that the ghost is that of Arabella Stuart, a cousin of James I, who was imprisoned and then possibly murdered in that bedroom. Several women who slept there since have reported waking in terror in the middle of the night feeling they were being strangled, so just in case, we made it a house rule not to give unaccompanied female guests the Lennox room.

Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, escaped from her room in the Tower of London after being held captive in her private chambers. She ran down the hallway screaming for help and mercy, but was dragged back to her rooms. She was told that her husband had left for Oatland Palace in Surrey, where he would stay until after her execution, which was to be the next day. Well, it was never a good bet to marry King Henry VIII, although he had showered her with jewels and genuinely cared for his ‘Rose without a Thorn’, until he discovered she had been unfaithful to him with Thomas Culpepper, who was also beheaded. Catherine’s ghost has been seen running down the hallway screaming in terror.

Lady Jane and her husband, Lord Dudley, were tried and sentenced to death for treason. The sentence was not immediately carried out and the Queen seemed to want to spare their lives. Unfortunately, owing to the general dislike of her marriage to Philip of Spain, Sir Thomas Wyatt raised a rebellion along with the Duke of Suffolk and his brothers. After it had been controlled, Queen Mary was persuaded that it was unsafe to spare the lives of Lady Jane and her husband any longer.

Lady Jane Grey, the granddaughter of King Henry VIII’s younger sister, Mary and Louis XII of France, also suffered a sad fate at the Tower. After Edward VI died in 1553, Lady Jane became Queen of England. She was only sixteen years of age; a clever girl who not only excelled in needlework and music, but could also speak Latin, Greek, French and Italian. Jane was not happy when she heard the news that she was to be crowned, and for a time refused to accept the position. Eventu