7.Do you agree that it takes time and patience to discover the best things in a city? Do you know interesting stories about London?

In a large, bustling city there is usually very little time to stop and just look at things. If you are a worker, most of your time is spent struggling on the Underground or waiting in a bus queue which gets longer and longer. Or if you are a tourist, you probably see the city through the eyes of a guide. You are so busy taking photographs of the usual sights that you miss many things that are just waiting quietly to be discovered. Things which have no signs, no flashing lights, no queues or guides; just things which you must take the effort to find.

So, it definitely takes time and patience to discover the best things in a city.

Speaking about London, there are also very many fascinating things, hidden in each corner of the city, that you could miss or just never know anything about their existence. London history is rather rich and interesting, and there are a lot of unbelievable stories about the most popular places of London.

Not far from Trafalgar Square is Piccadilly, a very well-known London name, but do you know its origin? Names, such as St.Martin`s in the Fields, Moorgate and Plough show their agricultural or country origin, but it is said that Piccadilly was named after Robert Barker, who lived near where Piccadilly is now, towards the end of the 16^th century. Here he manufactured shirt frills of “pikadillis”, which earned his house the nickname of “Piccadilly Hall”, and now we use “Piccadilly” to describe the surrounding area.

The statue of “Eros” in the centre of Piccadilly Circus, also has an interesting history. In fact, the figure is not Eros at all. It was originally erected in 1893 as a memorial in honour of the 7^th Earl of Shaftesbury who had greatly helped the poor people in the local area. It was designed by a young artist called Alfred Gilbert who sculpted a naked, winged archer to represent the Christian goodness and kindness of Lord Shaftesbury. Many people were so shocked at the naked memorial of the Earl that Gilbert, who lost his reputation and a fair amount of money, went to live abroad and only returned on a few occasions. One of these was in 1932 when he eventually received a knighthood for his masterpiece, which is now one of the most famous statues in London, although it is wrongly called Eros, the Greek God of Love.

There are many stories connected with buildings in London, such as the church in Smith Square, built near the Houses of Parliament in 1721-28. It was designed with four sturdy towers so that if it ever sank into the swampy ground, it would at least sink in a dignified manner – evenly and upright.

In a world where we are so often pulling down so many buildings and putting up new ones, it can be very interesting and satisfying to discover different aspects of one`s environment. But it definitely takes time and patience, to discover the best things. They won`t come to you – you have to go and find them.