Seven noses of Soho

Seven Noses of Soho
Source: www.peterberthoud.co.uk

Invader

Catherine and Peter

Jane found a rolling fool by Dr. Cream

The final nose and infinite wealth

The nose hunter gang

Luck was again on our side today we found a very interesting walk to discover the Seven noses of Soho. The noses are life size and glued to buildings around Soho in full view but really hard to find unless you know where to look. They where placed by sculptor Rick Buckley in the 90’s and to this day seven survive.

We arrive at Covent Garden and meet our guide Peter Berthoud. He looks like a taller version of Tony Robinson so I take that as a good omen.  With a few other adventurers we set off down a street we had just walked through and get to practice on an ear. Harry finds it, Jane finds it, everyone else sees it and then I finally see it. We had been through this street many times and without Peter we would never have known it was there. The rules of the game are Peter takes us to the location each of us has to find it on our own without telling the others. Hmm, I am a bit slow at this game.

The first nose location is reached and Harry finds it first. Drat, he is rewarded with the lolly bag from Peter. It goes on and on with Harry and Jane finding the noses and me coming a poor last. This is unfortunate as we have a bet on whoever finds the most noses gets to choose where we go for dinner.

Peter is an amazing guide as we wind our way through the streets of Soho he shares all kinds of fascinating facts and interesting stories with us. This is really getting into the nitty gritty of London and I love it.

We travel through little lanes, streets bustling with cars and red buses, under houses, through a pub and more. Hear stories from every different aspect of London life from secret nightclubs to seeing the water pump where John Snow solved the cholera epidemic. It would take a book to share everything we learnt and saw. A few tidbits I just have to share:

The term mews nowadays means a paved yard behind large city houses. In the 17^th and 18^th century this was often where horses where kept. But before that the original meaning of mews was where birds like falcons where kept. Umpteen years ago one of the kings decide to move his horses into the falcon mews and  hence the adaptation of the meaning.

Phoenix Garden is a little oasis amongst the buildings of SOHO. It was a bomb site and in the 80’s locals asked the council is they could turn it into a garden. The council agreed and to this day still survives. The land must be worth millions.

Not only did we find noses but invader had been at work as well. He is an artist that puts up tiles in the pattern of space invader. They are all over the world, rumor is there are some in Sydney and Melbourne. I will be on the lookout when I go home.

We even saw where Jacob Von Hogflume the inventor of time travel lived in 2189.

Peter adapts the tour as he learns more about us to include everyone’s interests, he even showed me a Captain Cook statute, my first one in London.

Finally we arrive at the last nose, thankfully this one was easy and now as the legend says we will attain infinite wealth.