Thorney - Keegan, Vic

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Résumé :
Thorney is a forgotten island in central London, formed by the (now underground) River Tyburn, which rolls down from the Hampstead hills to converge with the Thames. Most of today's Parliament Square plus where the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey stand today makes up Thorney Island, It contains the densest concentration of 'history in Britain and probably Europe as well, including the Abbey, the two Houses of Parliament, Westminster Hall, all of the law courts (until 1834) and for 500 years until 1518, the Royal Palace (predecessor to Buckingham Palace). It housed the palace of King Canute, whose father Sven Forkbeard, ruled England for less than five weeks (shorter even than Liz Truss). It was the scene of the biggest robbery in British history - in 1303 - for which all the monks of Westminster Abbey were arrested. It had an actual school for pickpockets, the source for Fagin's Den in Oliver Twist. Want to find out more? Read on! Thorney: London's Forgotten Island is the third book in the Lost London Series by Vic Keegan....

Sommaire:
Years ago, when working for the Guardian, I would occasionally take a short cut along a thoroughfare in Westminster called Old Pye Street. On the side of the road on the corner of St Ann's Lane there was a tiny building that was home to an outfit called The Thorney Island Society (and Friends of St James's and the Green Park). I presumed it to be a pleasantly eccentric organisation as I knew of no islands nearby apart from the one I was standing on formed by England, Scotland and Wales. It was only after retirement that I stopped to read what it was all about. It turned out there was, and indeed still is, an island in the centre of London. Formed, it is claimed, by the junction of the Tyburn river - now running underground in the sewage system - with the Thames....