Westminster Abbey

First thing's first. Mark your calendars everyone, The Littlest Detective in Paris is out next week. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, babysitters, ratcats, henchmen and all those who want to know what will happen now that Clemmy is living in Paris. What will this mean for her search for the truth about her mother? You will have to wait and see . . .

Now, back to London...

Clemmy noticed they were now driving towards Westminster Abbey



Westminster Abbey is a church – a big beautiful building close to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Many exciting things have happened here, including the coronation of Kings and Queens, since King Harold’s in January 1066. Poor old King Harold was only King for a few months, but the Abbey has lasted a lot longer, hasn’t it?

The Abbey hasn’t always looked the way it does today, however – there have been lots of little changes and adjustments over the hundreds of years since it was first built. But where did it all start? Well, can you believe the church is actually situated on what was once an island? It was called Thorney Island and was owned, way back in 960AD by twelve Benedictine monks. These priests got a lot of support from the monarch of the time, King Edgar, who had granted them the island land in reward for their services. That’s why there is a special link between Westminster Abbey and the Royals to this day.

Today’s church has been around since 1245, the time of Henry III. In 1301, a special Coronation Chair was built inside, by order of Kind Edward I. Can you believe that there used to be something quite unique inside that chair? It was the Stone of Destiny, a Scottish emblem taken from the North Country by the English royalty, and has been used in coronations including our present Queen Elizabeth’s. But it isn’t there now - in 1996 it was returned to Scotland with a military escort! But Charles or Prince William shouldn’t worry - it will be temporarily returned to the Abbey for the next coronation, whenever that is.

In 1560, Queen Elizabeth I made the Abbey into a collegiate church (which means someone who is not a member of the church, such as a priest, is not in charge). Since then, the church has been used for funerals and burials of royals and important people in British History, including Princess Diana.

And the building of the Abbey continued for two hundred more years. The West Towers, which you can see in the picture, were not completed until 1745. That took almost 800 years to finish – about as long as homework feels sometimes!

Sometimes, people are confused by another church nearby. This one, just down the road from the Abby, is a Catholic church and is called Westminster Cathedral (see below). It’s pretty stunning too, but tourists often overlook it for the more popular Abbey.



This part of Westminster has so many buildings to look at - Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, The Houses of Parliament, and the famous Big Ben. Pop across the River Thames and you can visit the London Eye or the The London Aquarium. St James's Park is also not too far from the Abbey, so if the weather is nice and sunny, a relaxing day in the park is a great way to finish off a day out in Westminster.

Finally, credit must go to http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history, for a lot of the information contained in today’s blog.

See you next time.

Kensington Gardens

Her favourite part of any scooter journey was whizzing along the Broad Walk of Kensington Gardens, and she was having so much fun, pushing her scooter faster and faster that she didn’t notice that she was being followed.


And who wouldn’t want to zoom along that downhill slope at top speed on a scooter, bike or roller blades?

Kensington Gardens is one of the many Royal Parks around London but this was part of Hyde Park right up until 1689, when the King and Queen, William III and Mary II came into power. The King liked this small part of London because the air was clean, therefore making it a better place to live, because he suffered from asthma. The Royals bought a building called Nottingham House and renamed it Kensington Palace, and it became their main home. The Queen started to create a palace garden in the Dutch style to help her husband feel at home, as he was born in Holland.

Queen Anne, Mary’s sister, was crowned Queen in 1702 and she wanted to make the gardens bigger and so took 30 acres away from Hyde Park. Queen Anne told her designers to make a garden that seemed more English. She also built the Orangery, which was meant to serve as a greenhouse for exotic plants, but was also used for entertainment. Today, it is still a restaurant. The gardens got even bigger when Queen Caroline took yet another 300 acres from Hyde Park in 1728. The new design focused on the palace itself and the Round Pound (see below), where all angles provide different views of the palace.



Back then, the gardens were only open on Saturday and you had to be properly dressed just to enter. Clemmy’s favourite path, the Broad Walk, became a very fashionable place indeed; there would be no scooter rides here. Sadly when the Queen Victoria took up residence in Buckingham Palace, the Gardens became a forgotten place and there was nowhere near enough work carried out on them compared with years gone by.However, it was because of her that we have one of the most eye catching structures in Kensington Gardens, the Albert Memorial, which you can see below. It was built in the memory of Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert, who died in 1861 at the age of 42 from typhoid. The structure was dedicated to the Prince, his interests, and all of the achievements of the Victorian times. There are marble figures on each corner of the structure to represent Europe, Asia, Africa and America. For more information on the memorial click here


The Kensington Gardens is a great place to visit. There is so much to see, ranging from the Palace, to swans in the Round Pound, and even a statue of the legendary Robin Hood. For the young ones there is also a park, in memorial to Diana Princess of Wales. And of course you can whizz along the Broad Walk on your scooter. Just remember wear a helmet and check to see if there are any mysterious Slakistanians following you.

And finally, many thanks to www.royalparks.org.uk, who provided much of the information in this blog entry.

Hello and welcome to the official blog of The Littlest Detective

This website will take you through many of the places that Clemmy Bird visits and mentions, and tell you a little about them.

Let’s start with Littlest Detective in London. So many amazing places are featured in the book, but how much do you know about Clemmy’s London?

Here’s some a taster of what’s to come.

We discover that something called New Scotland Yard has information about Natasha Commonov being in boarding school in Slakistan, but what do you know about New Scotland Yard? And if there is a New Scotland Yard, what happened to the old one?

Clemmy loves to whiz along the Broadwalk of Kensington Gardens on her scooter, but what else is there to do in Kensington Gardens? And what’s it connection with Hyde Park?

Natasha plots to tie her poor, pathetic henchman Hench to the hands of Big Ben, but did you know that Big Ben is actually the name of the bell, and not the clock tower itself? And do you know who it’s named after?

Horatio Bird takes his daughter to a restaurant nearby the Globe Theatre. What other famous places are there by the Globe? And did you know that the first theatre burnt down in two hours because the thatched roof was accidentally set on fire during a performance in 1613 and that this is a modern copy. But how modern is it?

This website will be armed with everything:

• History and interesting facts about all the locations in the book
• Great photos to show you what these places look like
• Things to do in London so you can take your own Littlest Detective tour (and how to get there)
• Your reviews of the book, to show that we really do take what you tell us seriously!
• And then we move to Paris with Clemmy and the gang and tell you all about the great locations in that book.
  

Suzy Brownlee will also answer any questions you might have about the story - unless of course they have to do with future story lines and what happened to Clemmy’s mum. Sorry if you are dying to know – all will be revealed soon enough. Feel free to email us with your questions at littlest.detective@googlemail.com

We also welcome comments from blog followers and casual readers of the site - it gives us direction regarding the kind of content kids (and possibly adults) are after.

So once again, we welcome you to the Official Blog of the Littlest Detective, and ask you to check back next week for the next instalment.