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Acting up - why Parliament relies on goats

By: Mark Mason

The curious tale of the parchment from Newport Pagnell

It's comforting to know that in these days of tweeting MPs and office-hours sittings, Parliament still has a few of its quaint old traditions in place. Perhaps the quaintest of all is the custom of printing each new Act passed by MPs and Lords on parchment. These are then rolled up and stored in the Parliamentary Archives, housed in the Victoria Tower (the one at the far end of the building from the Clock Tower, aka Big Ben).

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How beer shaped the Eurostar

By: Mark Mason

London new and old - a 19th century brewery influences your 21st century journey

The reason London continues to be such a great city, the reason it still captures people's imagination, is the way it marries the new and the old. A perfect example of this is the story of how the Eurostar boarding lounge at St Pancras station owes its layout to Victorian beer barrels...

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Six Degrees of Celebration

By: Mark Mason

The joys of a trivia chain

Fancy a game of the Six Degrees of Celebration? One of the most beautiful things about trivia, I think, is the way it works along tangents. One fact reminds you of another, which reminds you of another, and so on until within a few short steps you're on a completely different subject. That's why conversations with another trivialist are always such fun. One of you mentions, say, that Carlsberg Special Brew was invented for Winston Churchill ...

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The bells, the bells...

By: Mark Mason

A lesson learned on Cheapside

Had a splendid time on Sunday's Central Line walk. A great group of people, who made the journey through part of the red line's City section a real pleasure to lead. And as with all the best walks the flow of information wasn't in just one direction ...

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A Walk the Lines walk

By: Mark Mason

Sunday April 8th - Central Line from Bank to Chancery Lane

Fancy a stroll along a Tube line? At street level, that is. The idea comes from my book ‘Walk the Lines', in which I walked the whole London Underground system overground. Some very kind people have told me how much they liked the book, and one or two have even responded favourably to the notion of me leading a stroll along a short section of one of the lines. So here goes - we're off and walking.

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London Bus

A London double decker bus can lean further from the vertical without falling over than a human can. What a great way of learning about centres of gravity. The reason a Routemaster can lean so far is that there's a great long strip of pig-iron welded to its base, keeping you top-deckers safe as you go round corners. If you want reassuring photographic evidence, click here