If you google ‘London moats’, you’ll probably alight on a link which will take you to ‘London’s Top 10 Moats: A Spotter’s Guide’. We had no idea there were so many and could only think of the ‘obvious’ one surrounding the Tower of London, even if it’s waterless these days. According to the guide, a defensive ditch has surrounded the Tower since its origins in the eleventh century. The moat, which contained water from the thirteenth century until the 1840s, helps to protect the roughly cuboid ‘White Tower’ keep, which gives the Tower of London its name. Built by William the Conqueror in 1078, the White Tower was resented as a symbol of oppression inflicted on London by the new ruling elite.
Yesterday saw the press launch for the new US embassy in London which is situated on the south bank of the River Thames in the re-developed – albeit unattractively – part of the city near to Battersea Power Station. During the ‘celebrations’, architect James Timberlake, of Philadelphia-based firm Kieran Timberlake, described the new building as ‘the embodiment of peace and security’. The Daily Mailreported a spokesperson saying the glass structure ‘gives form to the core democratic values of transparency’. The lobby looks a bit ‘imperial’ to us, but we’re probably mistaken.
This post was published at Zero Hedge on Dec 15, 2017.
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