Monday 9 October 2006

London's Elephants - No 10 in a series



Another week, another elephant (or two). First, this elephant spotting comes to you courtesy of the excellent Kitten Heels, for which much thanks. Location is the old Elephant & Castle pub in Vauxhall. I had forgotten it - last time I was there it was a dive, now it is a Starbucks and I have to confess for once that's an improvement.

Keep reading for another of my favourite London trivia. The Russian word for station is Vokzal (or вокзал in cyrillic - thanks Julia!) One of the reasons given for this is that at the start of the railway revolution, the Russians sent a delegation over to England to see what it was all about. Unfortunately, They didn't speak a word of English. They were shown Vauxhall station (one of the earliest ones) and went away assuming that the word for station was Vauxhall. Isn't that beautiful?